The transition from war to peace was tumultuous. A postwar
economic boom coexisted with rapid increases in consumer prices.
Labor unions that had refrained from striking during the war
engaged in several major job actions. During the summer of 1919,
race riots occurred, reflecting apprehension over the emergence
of a "New Negro" who had seen military service or gone north to
work in war industry.
Reaction to these events merged with a widespread national fear
of a new international revolutionary movement. In 1917, the
Bolsheviks had seized power in Russia; after the war, they
attempted revolutions in Germany and Hungary. By 1919, it seemed
they had come to America. Excited by the Bolshevik example,
large numbers of militants split from the Socialist Party to
found what would become the Communist Party of the United
States. In April 1919, the postal service intercepted nearly 40
bombs addressed to prominent citizens. Attorney General A.
Mitchell Palmer’s residence in Washington was bombed. Palmer, in
turn, authorized federal roundups of radicals and deported many
who were not citizens. Major strikes were often blamed on
radicals and depicted as the opening shots of a revolution.
Palmer's dire warnings fueled a "Red Scare" that subsided by
mid-1920. Even a murderous bombing in Wall Street in September
failed to reawaken it. From 1919 on, however, a current of
militant hostility toward revolutionary communism would simmer
not far beneath the surface of American life.
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