104 ChaPter 2
After the war, the Red Scare was an even more important ploy in the
attack on workers, who sought higher wages and working conditions and had
staged 3600 strikes involving 4 million workers in 1919. Labor was under
attack all over, and nowhere more so than in Seattle, Washington. In January
1919 about 35,000 shipyard workers went on strike, and weeks later over
60,000 workers in Seattle struck in other industries, all seeking higher wages
because they had not received any raises during the war. The government
labeled the strikers—men and women with a legitimate grievance using legal
means of protest—as Reds and Wobblies and called out 1500 police to con-
front them. The strikers, realizing that they could not stand up to the orga-
nized violence of the state, caved and the strike ended without achieving its
goals. The mayor took credit for saving the city from communism in the
Seattle General Strike, proclaimed a great victory for loyal Americans, and
became a well-paid lecturer about the evils of radical politics. Class struggle
and conflict did not end, however. On November 11, 1919 – the first anniver-
sary of Armistice Day—Wobblies and members of the American Legion [an
organization of military veterans] had a gunfight after one of the veterans ran
into the IWW hall, where a Wobblie shot him and another Legionnaire. The
Wobblie, Wesley Everest, allegedly shot two more men before he was caught
and, with 11 other IWW members, charged with murder, of which 8 were
convicted. Everest himself never stood trial, however. A mob stormed the jail
where he was held during a “coincidental” power outage, castrated him, and
took him to a bridge where they hanged him. For loyal Americans, this was
simply the treatment that radicals deserved.
This mythic fear of Communism and revolution caught fire and Americans
were looking for domestic enemies everywhere in what became known as
the Red Scare. Palmer expected “100 percent Americanism” and deported
over 6000 foreigners in the U.S. accused of being Communists, arresting
many others, often without warrants, and detaining them for extremely long
periods, often without any charges or hearings. Most were eventually
released, but the warning was clear—one had to fully support the govern-
ment or perhaps suffer great consequences. By 1920-1921, the Red Scare
had dissipated as it became very clear that the Bolsheviks were in no position,
with all their own problems in Europe, to export a revolution and that com-
munists, socialists and anarchists in the U.S. were far too weak to cause much
trouble, let alone take over the country. Still, the Red Scare gave rise to a