strikes that spread across the country in 1919 by
characterising the strikers and their leaders as
Bolsheviks. Acts of terrorism in the cities were
blamed on the ‘radicals’ and communists. Anti-
labour hysteria swept the country. Aliens were
arrested as suspected communists though few
were actually deported. The most celebrated case
of prosecution of suspected radicals arousing
worldwide interest was the arrest and conviction
in 1920 of two anarchists, Nicola Sacco and
Bartolomeo Vanzetti, for robbery and murder.
Liberals insisted that their trial was a travesty of
justice and called for their release. They were exe-
cuted all the same in 1927.
Intolerance and hysteria extended to other
minorities: black people were vulnerable as well as
Jews and Catholics. The racial prejudice by whites
and competition for work in the cities exploded
in racial riots in some twenty cities in 1919.
Before the Great War the great majority of the
black population had lived in the south. During
the war half a million African Americans sought
an escape from poverty by migrating to the indus-
trial cities of the north. Wilson’s efforts to estab-
lish democracy and self-determination in Europe
stood in glaring contrast to intolerance and dis-
crimination at home. In the south the Ku Klux
Klan greatly expanded its violent activities.
One of the most extraordinary aspects of
American government in the era of financial and
industrial ‘freedoms’ of the 1920s was the inva-
sion of people’s privacy and right to lead the life
they chose through the enactment of Prohibition.
Congress had passed the law in 1919 over
Wilson’s veto. The law could never be properly
enforced as ordinary citizens constantly broke it
by surreptitiously consuming liquor. On the now
illegal manufacture and transportation of alco-
holic drinks gangster empires flourished. The
most notorious, Al Capone’s, in Chicago, with its
aura of violence and series of street murders
undertaken by rival gangs, became as much a
symbol of America in the 1920s as jazz and the
stolid respectability of President John Calvin
Coolidge, who had succeeded to the presidency
in August 1923 following the death of Harding.
Related to the attitude of intolerance was the
change in immigration laws. They, too, exhibited
a racial aspect of discrimination. Immigration
from eastern Asia was cut off. Quotas for immi-
grants were now established, which favoured the
British, Germans, Irish and Scandinavians as
against the ‘new immigrants’ from central and
southern Europe. The era of virtually free entry
to the US from Europe was over. Something
special which the US stood for – a haven from
persecution – was ended.
American soldiers returned from Europe
believing they had won the war for the Allies, and
their president sailed home believing he had put
the world on the road to peace and prosperity.
Dreams turned sour. The American people now
wanted to get on with their own lives, to own a
home, a Model-T Ford and a refrigerator. The
Hollywood dream industry started on its phenom-
enal growth. In the inter-war years more and more
Americans questioned why the US had involved
itself at all in the war. The overwhelming feeling
was that the American continent was far enough
away from the storm centres of Europe and Asia to
enjoy geographical security. There was thus no
reason why Americans should again sacrifice their
lives for other nations. They needed no large
army. Their security could be guaranteed by a
navy powerful enough to meet any challenge.
International naval disarmament was wel-
comed as it would allow less to be spent on the
US navy. President Harding bowed to the public
revolt on armaments expenditure. Secretary of
State Hughes was successful in hosting a naval
disarmament conference in Washington. The
British, too, were anxious to turn their backs
on the war and reduce armaments expenditure.
The outcome of the conference was a treaty in
which Britain and the US agreed to limit their
battleship strength to 500,000 tons each and
Japan to 300,000 tons. It was said that the
Washington Conference between November
1921 and February 1922 sank more ships than all
the naval battles of the war put together. As there
were no American or British naval bases anywhere
close to Japan, and American and British naval
defences spanned the Atlantic and Mediterranean
too, the apparent Japanese inferiority was not so
real. At that same conference, in further treaties,
the Americans hoped to ensure that China would
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BRITAIN, FRANCE AND THE US FROM WAR TO PEACE 141
