POSTWAR UNREST
The transition from war to peace was tumultuous . A postwar eco- nomic boom coexisted with rapid increases in consumer prices . La- bor unions that had refrained from striking during the war engaged in several major job actions . During the summer of 1919, several race riots oc- curred, reflecting apprehension over the emergence of a “New Negro” who had seen military service or gone north to work in the 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 Commu- nist Party of the United States . In April 1919, the postal service inter- cepted nearly 40 bombs addressed to prominent citizens . Attorney Gen- eral A . Mitchell Palmer’s residence in Washington was bombed . Palmer,
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in turn, authorized federal roundups of radicals and deported many who were not citizens . 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 re- awaken it . From 1919 on, however, a current of militant hostility toward revolutionary communism would simmer not far beneath the surface of American life .