Imigration and discrimination in the 20`s
...a fear of its spread across Europe, and to America. Palmer tied this fear to that of immigration. He denounced labor unions, the Socialist party, and the Communist party in America, as being infultrated with radicals who sought to overturn America's political, economic, and social institutions. Palmer exasperated this fear in Americans and then presented himself as the country's savior, combatting the evils of Communism. He mainly centered his attack on Russian immigrants. During the infamous Palmer raids thousands of aliens were deported and even more were arrested on little or no evidence. Their civil liberties were violated, they were not told the reasons for their arrests, denied counsel, and not given fair trials. What followed was an investigation of Palmer led by Louis Post which overturned many of Palmer's actions. Palmer's cretability was shattered after in a last minute attempt to gain the 1920 presidencial nomination, he made predictions about a May Day radical uprising, the nation perpared itself, but on May 1st 1920 all was peaceful. While the raids had stopped, the hostilities towards immagrants still remained prevelent. Immigrants were used by organized industries as a source of cheap labor. But as labor unions began to form and push for better pay, shorter hours, and improved working conditions industries saw that it was not as easy to exploit these immigrants as it had been before. Like Palmer, they tied the American's hostilities towards immigrants to the newly emerging fear of radicalism. When workers struck, industry leaders turned public opinion agains them by labling the strikes as attemps at radical uprising. As a result, workers were often left with no other c...