Discrimination of Immigrants in 1920s America :: American America History

Discrimination of Immigrants in 1920s AmericaBeginning in the early nineteenth century there were massive wavesof immigration. These new immigants were generally from Italy, Russia, andIreland. There was a mixed reaction to these incomming foreigners. Whilethey provided industries with a cheap source of labor, Americans were bothafraid of, and hostile towards these new groups. They differed from thetypical American in language, customs, and religion. Many individualsand industries alike played upon Americas fears of immigration to furthertheir own goals. Leuchtenburg follows this common theme from thebeginning of World War I up untill the election of 1928.If there was one man who singlely used Americas fear ofimmigrants to advance his own political goals it was Attorney GeneralPalmer. The rise of Communism in Russia created a fear of its fan outacross Europe, and to America. Palmer tied this fear to that ofimmigration. He denounced labor unions, the Socialist party, and theCommuni st party in America, as being infultrated with radicals who soughtto overturn Americas political, economic, and social institutions.Palmer exasperate this fear in Americans and then presented himself asthe countrys savior, combatting the evils of Communism. He mainlycentered his attack on Russian immigrants. During the infamous Palmerraids thousands of aliens were deported and even more were arrested on teensy-weensy or no evidence. Their civil liberties were violated, they were nottold the reasons for their arrests, denied counsel, and not given fairtrials. What followed was an investigation of Palmer led by Louis Postwhich overturned many of Palmers actions. Palmers cretability wasshattered afterward in a last minute attempt to gain the 1920 presidencialnomination, he made predictions about a May Day radical uprising, thenation perpared itself, just on May 1st 1920 all was peaceful. While theraids had stopped, the hostilities towards immagrants still remainedprevelent.Immigrant s were used by organized industries as a source of cheaplabor. But as labor unions began to form and push for better pay, shorterhours, and improved working conditions industries saw that it was not aseasy to exploit these immigrants as it had been before. Like Palmer, theytied the Americans hostilities towards immigrants to the new emergingfear of radicalism. When workers struck, industry leaders turned publicopinion agains them by labling the strikes as attemps at radical uprising.As a result, workers were often left over(p) with no other choice than to acceptthe terms of industry management. The fight for prohabition was aided byAmericas antagonism for immigrants.Protestants and old-stock Americans attempted to link alchol