THE

RED SCARE 1917-1920

SUBTITE

Issue #

The
Red
Scare
1917-1920

TYPE TAGLINE HERE

What is the Red Scare?

by

Rebekah Jimenez

IN THIS ISSUE
"Red Scare" is the promotion of fear of a
potential rise of communism or radical
leftism.
Events in Russia in 1917, during WW1,
triggered the start of the Red Scare. It led
to the 1917 October Revolution when the
Communist Bolsheviks took power in

Russia under their leader Vladimir Lenin.

The Espionage and Sedition Acts passed in 1917 banned many forms of speech. By 1920 several states passed laws
banning the use of violence to cause social change, giving police unspoken authority to harass any such suspects
Violence and destruction was experienced at home with the Black Tom explosion, the fire at the Roebling Steel foundry
in Trenton, the Kingsland Explosion and the Hercules Powder Company fire. In April 1919, 36 booby trap dynamite-filled
bombs were mailed to politicians and appointees, including the Attorney General of the United States, as well as justice
officials, newspaper editors and businessmen, including John D. Rockefeller. Among all the bombs addressed to high-level
officials, one bomb was addressed to the home of a Department of Justice Bureau of Investigation (BOI) field agent once
tasked with investigating the Galleanists, Rayme Weston Finch, who in 1918 had arrested two prominent Galleanists while
leading a police raid on the offices of their publication Cronaca Sovversiva.
The mail bombs were wrapped in brown paper with similar address and advertising labels. Inside, wrapped in bright green
paper and stamped "Gimbel Brothers-Novelty Samples.", was a cardboard box containing a six-inch by three-inch block of
hollowed wood about one inch in thickness, packed with a stick of dynamite. A small vial of sulfuric acid was fastened to
the wood block, along with three fulminate-of-mercury blasting caps. Opening one end of the box (the end marked
"open") released a coil spring that caused the acid to drip from its vial onto the blasting caps; the acid ate through the
caps, igniting them and detonating the dynamite.

What is the Red Scare?

The events that happened in the first red scare

Page 1

Causes of the Red Scare

The main causes of the red scare.

Page 2

Causes of the First

Red Scare
by

Rebekah Jimenez

The following are some main causes of the red scare.

WW1 ended on November 11, 1918 but the Red Scare was fueled in
1919 by a year of
rapid inflation, rising prices, high unemployment, race riots and civil
unrest in
America with demonstrations and a series of crippling strikes.
The 'New Immigrants' from southern and eastern Europe were
accused of bringing
radical socialist and communist ideas into America and blamed for
the
strikes,
violence and civil unrest. This view was given credibility by the
Dillingham Commission Report that had concluded that the 'New
Immigrants' from countries such as Italy, Poland, Croatia and Greece, were "inferior, uneducated and posed a
serious threat to American society".
1919 saw a massive wave of strikes in America in what was called the 'Red Summer'. The American public seldom
distinguished between anarchists, socialists and communists, 'Reds' or 'Bolshies'. Americans began to associate
all Socialists and Communists with being unpatriotic
By the end of 1919 there had been more than 3,600 strikes, involving over 4 million workers protesting against
high inflation levels, unemployment and wage cuts.
The 1919 Seattle General Strike of 1919 began as a shipyard strike but was joined by all the other Seattle unions
and became a General Strike (February 6, 1919 to February 11, 1919). The general strike was a frequent tactic
used in Europe by Communists and other radical groups. Many Americans believed that Communists were behind
the General Strike were conspiring to start a a worker's revolution in America. The Red Scare engulfed the nation
A series of violent demonstrations, the May Day Riots of 1919, began when Socialist leader Charles Ruthenberg
organized a May Day parade of local trade unionists, socialists and communists in Cleveland, Ohio to protest the
jailing of Eugene V. Debs.
The Boston Police Strike broke out on September 9, 1919 in which 75% of Boston police officers went on strike.
There was looting and rioting in the city of Boston and the National Guard were called in. The police strikers were
referred to as "Agents of Lenin".
The 1919 Great Steel strike, involving 350,000 steelworkers, was a national strike that lasted from September 21,
1919 January 8, 1920 . The owners of the Steel Companies instilled fear in the nation by equating the strikers
with communists, turning public opinion turned against unions.
On Thursday, September 16, 1920 the Wall Street bombing brought terror and carnage to the streets of New York
when bomb exploded outside the J. P. Morgan bank building, the largest and most powerful financial institution in
the world. Mario Buda is alleged to be the man most likely responsible for the bombing. Buda was a member of a
group of Italian anarchists, the followers of Luigi Galleani, who included Sacco and Vanzetti.