Americans in 1919 were living in a country that had proven itself to be a world leader, but whose populace were becoming a disillusioned and leaderless lot. At first, the fault may have been in President Wilson’s obsession with the peace treaty. He was so involved in the negotiations that he failed to properly implement postwar demilitarization or draw up plans for reconstruction.
Then, after he had suffered a stroke — probably due to stress and his strenuous national speaking tour — all of America found itself in a political holding pattern. Even President Wilson’s closest advisors grew concerned when it became apparent that Mrs. Wilson was merely keeping them at bay while she hoped her husband would recuperate.
Americans tried to find their own way. Some attempted to go back to the old traditions of isolationism, only to find that the country was now firmly enmeshed in Europe’s modern economy and politics. Others, especially the country’s capitalists, relished the country’s new power and looked forward to international opportunities. To them, everything looked fresh and exciting.
The excitement of change had occurred even before the war. A new middle class had grown up alongside swelling industry, and many Americans had moved away from their farms and out of small towns into cities. By 1919, more than half of America’s population lived in the hustle and bustle of industrial cities.
The war brought further changes: Many old traditions died out, to be replaced by a modern culture that preferred not to look back. Some historians believed that the industrial revolution and the war changed the country more during this decade than it had over the whole of the previous century.
Postwar Unemployment and Union Losses
After the armistice, the president went to Europe to sort out a peace treaty with unsatisfactory results. Meanwhile, his military leaders, who had no model for demobilizing the large group of soldiers in Europe, decided to send them home one unit at a time. Yet American troops still returned in masses to replace women and minority groups in the workforce. They were the lucky ones. With the cancellation of war contracts for factories, many soldiers came home to unemployment and inflation.
The war had been a boon to employment and organized labor. Many factories had retooled to produce profitable items for use in the war effort, and American industry had supplied European countries with necessary materials and products. Later, as workers left the factories in droves to enlist, unemployment fell sharply. By 1917, companies were eagerly offering better working conditions, higher wages, and shorter workdays in order to compete for workers. Employment concessions led to union recognition for all but the most militant unions. Just before and during the war, industry often agreed to mediation and conciliation in order to keep the workers happy. This assured strong production and high profits. Wartime industrial managers were also willing to train workers and to offer them shorter days and more pay; they even set up classes to Americanize immigrants in order to make them more efficient in the workplace. As soon as the war ended, industrialists attempted to return to prewar management ideals.
However, the country would never tolerate the reintroduction of the kind of Victorian working conditions experienced before. America’s labor force fought valiantly to keep every improvement they had gained during the war years. Samuel Gompers, leader of the American Federation of Labor at that time, gave industry a warning, "There must be cooperation. We shall never go back to the old condition."
Even when the cancellation of war contracts put hundreds of thousands out of work, labor unions refused to give in to industry’s backward slide and massive strikes broke out across the country. As the decade wore on, these strikes became more bitter and violent, with labor demanding that concessions obtained during the war should be kept and management accusing the unions of anarchy. In February 1919, sixty thousand workers in Seattle failed to report for work, closing the city’s businesses and schools. When it became evident that they had nothing to gain, the workers returned to their jobs.
But the strikers’ publicity counted for something and other workers followed their example. In September, the entire steel industry shut down when all the steel workers struck. Administrators at U.S. Steel claimed that the strike was the result of Bolshevik or Communist infiltrations among workers. When the National Guard was called in to break up the protests, the strike ended with few gains for the steel workers. That same month, Calvin Coolidge, Governor of Massachussetts, called out the National Guard to end the Boston Police strike, accusing the strikers of being under the influence of Bolsheviks. This incident launched Coolidge’s national political career. He became vice president in 1921, and later president in 1923, following the death of President Harding.
Strikes continued to break out from the East Coast to the West, each becoming more violent than the last. In November 1919, the United Mine Workers struck, closing the coal mines and reducing the nation’s coal supply. Bombs addressed to antiradical leaders began to go off across the country. In one case, a housekeeper’s hands were blown off when she picked up a package at her employer’s door. Many other bombs were intercepted by the post office. Americans who feared for their safety began to cry out for laws to deport all radicals, and the country’s lawmakers began formulating various deportation bills, although none was ever passed. As the violence escalated, the unions began to back away from their original demands. Fewer strikes were organized, and, as 1919 drew to a close, the violence had started to die down.
The workers returned to work with few, if any, new benefits. The shorter workday would finally become standard only when war contract cuts had placed employers in a position where they must choose between massive layoffs or shorter workdays. Anxious not to lay off workers, they cut their hours and subsequently their overtime pay. The country’s workforce became discouraged and defeated.
