Editing Red Scare (section)

==First Red Scare (1917–1920){{Anchor|First Red Scare}}==
{{Main|First Red Scare}}
[[File:1919 Political Cartoon (14759129762) (cropped).jpg|left|thumb|A political cartoon from 1919 depicting the October Revolution's impact on the [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Paris peace talks]]]]

The first Red Scare in the United States accompanied the [[Russian Revolution]] (specifically the [[October Revolution]]) and the [[Revolutions of 1917–1923]]. Citizens of the United States in the years of World War I (1914–1918) were intensely patriotic; anarchist and left-wing social agitation aggravated national, social, and political tensions.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}} Political scientist and former  [[Communist Party USA]] member [[Murray Levin]] wrote that the Red Scare was "a nationwide anti-radical hysteria provoked by a mounting fear and anxiety that a Bolshevik revolution in America was imminent—a revolution that would change Church, home, marriage, civility, and the American way of Life".<ref>{{Cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=cnKFAAAAMAAJ |title=Political Hysteria in America: The Democratic Capacity for Repression |last= Levin |first= Murray B. |publisher= Basic Books |year= 1971 |isbn= 0-465-05898-1 |page= 29 |oclc= 257349}}</ref> News media exacerbated such fears, channeling them into [[xenophobia|anti-foreign sentiment]] due to the lively debate among recent immigrants from Europe regarding various forms of [[anarchism]] as possible solutions to widespread poverty. The [[Industrial Workers of the World]] (IWW), also known as the Wobblies, backed several [[Strike action|labor strike]]s in 1916 and 1917. These strikes covered a wide range of industries including steel working, shipbuilding, coal mining, copper mining, and others necessary for wartime activities.

After World War I ended (November 1918), the number of strikes increased to record levels in 1919, with more than 3,600 separate strikes by a wide range of workers, e.g. steel workers, railroad shop workers, and the Boston police department.<ref>{{Cite web |url= https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/labour_movements_trade_unions_and_strikes_usa |title= Labour Movements, Trade Unions and Strikes (USA) {{!}} ''International Encyclopedia of the First World War'' |website= encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net |access-date= 2022-12-06 |quote= The strike surge of 1919 featured unprecedented levels of industrial conflict. Acting as the capstone to the long strike wave of 1915–1922, it involved nearly one out of every four workers — over 4,160,000 in total, 20 percent of the labor force — walking out in more than 3,630 work stoppages, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. |archive-date= 2022-11-06 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20221106091304/https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/labour_movements_trade_unions_and_strikes_usa |url-status= live }}</ref> The press portrayed these worker strikes as "radical threats to American society" inspired by "left-wing, foreign ''agents provocateurs''". The IWW and those sympathetic to workers claimed that the press "misrepresented legitimate labor strikes" as "crimes against society", "conspiracies against the government", and "plots to establish communism".<ref>''Political Hysteria in America: The Democratic Capacity for Repression'' (1971), p. 31</ref> Opponents of labor viewed strikes as an extension of the radical, anarchist foundations of the IWW, which contends that all workers should be united as a [[social class]] and that [[capitalism]] and the [[wage system]] should be abolished.<ref>{{cite web |title=Industrial Workers of the World: Constitution Preamble |url= https://www.iww.org/resources/constitution/ |website= www.iww.org |access-date= 28 October 2022 |language=en |date=2021}}</ref>

In June 1917, as a response to World War I, Congress passed the [[Espionage Act of 1917|Espionage Act]] to prevent any information relating to national defense from being used to harm the United States or to aid her enemies. The [[Wilson administration]] used this act to make anything "urging treason" a "nonmailable matter". Due to the Espionage Act and the then Postmaster General [[Albert S. Burleson]], 74 separate newspapers were not being mailed.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1045/espionage-act-of-1917 |title= Espionage Act of 1917 |last= May 2019) |first= Deborah Fisher in |website= www.mtsu.edu |language= en |access-date=2019-10-31}}</ref>
[[File:Come unto me, ye opprest.jpg|thumb|left|205px|A "European [[Anarchist]]" attempts to destroy the [[Statue of Liberty]] in this 1919 political cartoon.]]
[[File:Palmer Bombing.jpg|thumb|right|A bomb blast badly damaged the residence of Attorney General [[Alexander Mitchell Palmer|Mitchell Palmer]] in the spring of 1919.]]
In April 1919, authorities discovered a plot for mailing 36 bombs to prominent members of the U.S. political and economic [[The Establishment|establishment]]: [[J. P. Morgan Jr.]], [[John D. Rockefeller]], [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] Justice [[Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.|Oliver Wendell Holmes]], [[United States Attorney General|U.S. Attorney General]] [[Alexander Mitchell Palmer]], and immigration officials. On June 2, 1919, in eight cities, [[1919 United States anarchist bombings|eight bombs exploded simultaneously]]. One target was the [[Washington, D.C.]], house of U.S. Attorney General Palmer, where the explosion killed the bomber, who (evidence indicated) was an [[Italian-American]] radical from [[Philadelphia| Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]]. Afterwards, Palmer ordered the U.S. Justice Department to launch the [[Palmer Raids]] (1919–21).<ref name="Cole" /> He deported 249 Russian immigrants on the "[[Soviet Ark]]", formed the General Intelligence Unit – a precursor to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) – within the Department of Justice, and used federal agents to jail more than  5,000 citizens and to search homes without respecting their constitutional rights.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ushistory.org/us/47a.asp |title=The Red Scare [ushistory.org] |website=www.ushistory.org |access-date=2019-10-31 |archive-date=2019-11-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191101100209/http://www.ushistory.org/us/47a.asp |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1918, before the bombings, [[President of the United States|President]] [[Woodrow Wilson]] had pressured Congress to legislate the anti-anarchist [[Sedition Act of 1918]] to protect wartime morale by deporting putatively undesirable political people. Law professor [[David D. Cole]] reports that President Wilson's "federal government consistently targeted alien radicals, deporting them... for their speech or associations, making little effort to distinguish terrorists from ideological [[dissident]]s".<ref name="Cole">{{Cite journal |last=Cole |first= David D. |author-link=David D. Cole |year=2003 |title=Enemy Aliens |url= https://elsamun2006.com.sapo.pt/enemy%20aliens.pdf |url-status= dead |journal= Stanford Law Review |volume= 54 |issue= 5 |pages= 953–1004 |doi= 10.2307/1229690 |issn=0038-9765 |jstor=1229690 |oclc=95029839 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110815151549/http://elsamun2006.com.sapo.pt/enemy%20aliens.pdf |archive-date= August 15, 2011}}</ref> President Wilson used the Sedition Act of 1918 to limit the exercise of free speech by criminalizing language deemed disloyal to the United States government.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |url= https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1063/red-scare |title= Red Scare |last= Cowley |first= Marcie K. |website= www.mtsu.edu |language= en |access-date= 2019-10-31 |archive-date= 2019-10-16 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20191016105350/https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1063/red-scare |url-status= live }}</ref>

Initially, the press praised the raids; ''[[The Washington Post]]'' stated: "There is no time to waste on hairsplitting over [the] infringement of liberty", and ''[[The New York Times]]'' wrote that the injuries inflicted upon the arrested were "souvenirs of the new attitude of aggressiveness which had been assumed by the Federal agents against Reds and suspected-Reds".<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/treasureofgreata0000unse |url-access= registration |title= A Treasury of Great American Scandals |last= Farquhar |first= Michael |publisher= Penguin Books |year=2003 |isbn=0-14-200192-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/treasureofgreata0000unse/page/199 199] |oclc=51810711}}</ref> In the event, twelve publicly prominent lawyers characterized the Palmer Raids as unconstitutional. The critics included future Supreme Court Justice [[Felix Frankfurter]], who published ''Report Upon the Illegal Practices of the United States Department of Justice'', documenting systematic violations of the [[Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourth]], [[Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fifth]], [[Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Sixth]], and [[Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Eighth Amendments]] to the [[Constitution of the United States|U.S. Constitution]] via Palmer-authorized "illegal acts" and "wanton violence".<ref>{{cite book |title=To the American People: Report Upon the Illegal Practices of the United States Department of Justice |publisher=The League |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1qmIAAAAMAAJ |access-date=6 April 2025}}</ref> Defensively, Palmer then warned that a government-deposing left-wing [[revolution]] would begin on 1 May 1920—[[International Workers' Day|May Day]], the International Workers' Day. When it failed to happen, he was ridiculed and lost much credibility. Strengthening the legal criticism of Palmer was that fewer than 600 deportations were substantiated with evidence, out of the thousands of resident aliens arrested and deported. In July 1920, Palmer's once-promising Democratic Party [[1920 United States presidential election|bid]] for the U.S. presidency failed.<ref>{{Cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=lC0aOAAACAAJ&q=War,+Peace,+and+all+that+Jazz |title= War, Peace, and All That Jazz |last= Hakim |first= Joy |publisher= Oxford University Press |year= 1995 |isbn= 0-19-509514-6 |location= New York, New York |pages= 34–36}}</ref> [[Wall Street]] was [[Wall Street bombing|bombed]] on September 16, 1920, near [[Federal Hall National Memorial]] and the [[23 Wall Street|JP Morgan Bank]]. Although both anarchists and communists were suspected as being responsible for the bombing, ultimately no individuals were indicted for the bombing, in which 38 died and 141 were injured.<ref>{{Cite book |url= https://archive.org/details/daywallstreetexp0000gage |url-access= registration |quote= The Day Wall Street Exploded. |title= The Day Wall Street Exploded: A Story of America in its First Age of Terror |last= Gage |first= Beverly |publisher= Oxford University Press |year= 2009 |isbn= 978-0-19-514824-4 |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/daywallstreetexp0000gage/page/160 160]–161 |oclc=149137353}}</ref>

In 1919–20, several states enacted "[[criminal syndicalism]]" laws outlawing advocacy of violence in effecting and securing [[social change]]. The restrictions included limitations on [[free speech]].<ref>{{Cite book |url= https://archive.org/details/americanpageant00bail |url-access= registration |quote= The American Pageant. |title= The American Pageant |last1= Kennedy |first1= David M. |last2= Lizabeth Cohen |last3= Thomas A. Bailey |publisher= Houghton Mifflin Company |year= 2001 |isbn= 978-0-669-39728-4 |oclc=48675667}}</ref>  <!---moved the following from "second red scare where it seemed out of place. If verified, it can go back there. See talk page.--->Passage of these laws, in turn, provoked aggressive police investigation of the accused persons, their jailing, and deportation for being ''suspected'' of being either communist or left-wing. Regardless of ideological gradation, the Red Scare did not distinguish between [[communism]], [[anarchism]], [[socialism]], or [[social democracy]].<ref>{{Cite book |url= https://archive.org/details/introductiontogo0000dick_h4r6 |title= An Introduction to Government and Politics, Seventh Edition |last= O. Dickerson |first= Mark |publisher= Nelson |year= 2006 |isbn= 0-17-641676-5 |location= Toronto}}</ref> This aggressive crackdown on certain ideologies resulted in many Supreme Court cases over free speech. In the 1919 case of ''[[Schenk v. United States]]'', the Supreme Court, introducing the [[Clear and present danger|clear-and-present-danger]] test, effectively deemed the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918 constitutional.<ref>{{Cite web
|url= https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1063/red-scare
|title= Red Scare
|last= Cowley
|first= Marcie K.
|website= www.mtsu.edu
|access-date= 2022-12-06
|quote= Convictions under the Espionage Act and the Sedition Act were upheld in several Supreme Court cases in 1919, including ''Schenck v. United States'', in which Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. first outlined his clear and present danger test [...].
|archive-date= 2022-12-03
|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20221203200905/https://mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1063/red-scare
|url-status= live
}}</ref>

{{Anchor|Second Red Scare}}

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