Red Scare Essay Research Paper Analysis of

Red Scare Essay, Research Paper

Analysis of the Red Scare

"The tumult and the shouting dies, The captains and the kings depart."

-Kipling, The Recessional

Mr. Kipling was wrong. War does not always end with the last cry on the battlefield. World War I certainly did not. After the war formally ended on November 18, 1918, there was an ideological war still going on in the US. An ideological war which prompted mass paranoia and caused, among many other things, what would be known as the Red Scare, which began in 1919 and ended in 1921. Red Scare was the label given to the actions of legislation, the race riots, and the hatred and persecution of "subversives" and conscientious objectors during that period of time. It is this hysteria which would find itself repeated several decades later in history when Senator Joeseph

R. Macarthy accused high government officials and high standing

military officers of being communist. Undoubtedly the most important

topic of an investigation into a historical occurrence is its

inception. What caused the Red Scare.

At the heart of the Red Scare was the conscription law of May

18, 1917, which was put in place during World War I for the armed

forces to be able to conscript more Americans. This law caused many

problems for the conscientious objector to WWI, because for one to

claim that status, one had to be a member of a "well-recognized"

religious organization which forbade their members to participation in

war. did Quaker relief work in Europe. 500 suffered court-martial, and out As a result of such unyeilding legislation, 20,000 conscientious

objectors were inducted into the armed forces. Out of these 20,000,

16,000 changed their minds when they reached military camps, 1300 went

to non-combat units, 1200 gained furloughs to do farm work, and 100

of these, 450 went to prison. However, these numbers are small in

comparison with the 170,000 draft dodgers and 2,810,296 men who were

inducted into the armed forces. Nevertheless, the conscientious

objectors were targeted in the Red Scare after the war. They were

condemned as cowards, pro-German socialists, although that was not

everything. They were also accused of spreading propaganda throughout

the United States. Very few conscientious objectors stood up for

themselves. Roderick Siedenberg, who was a conscientious objector,

wrote that "to steal, rape, or murder" are standard peacetime causes

for imprisonment, but in time of war "too firm a belief in the words

of Christ", and "too ardent a faith in the brotherhood of man" are

more acceptable.

Some organizations such as the National Civil Liberties

Bureau, which would later be renamed the American Civil Liberties

Union, took up the task of standing up for the rights of conscientious

objectors. Before the war, the NCLB-ACLU opposed American involvement,

and afterward defended the rights of the objectors. Later, the ACLU

would gain a reputation for helping people with liberal cases who were

too poor to pay for their own representation in court.

After the real war ended in 1918, the ideological war, which

was gaining speed at home, turned against conscientious objectors and

other radical minorities such as Wobblies, who were members of the

Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and Socialists as well. These

Wobblies and Socialists were damned as being subversives who were

trying to overthrow the United States government.

Wobblies, in particular, were persecuted against for speaking

out against the capitalist system. Although most of what they said was

only to attract attention to their cause, their rhetoric was taken

seriously by the government and its officials. From the very beginning

of the Red Scare, the Wobblies were the subject of attack by the

government, because they were a symbol of radicalism. The government

put in place legislation, not only against the Wobblies, but also

against Socialists and Communists, due to the fact that the government

did not distinguish one of its enemies from another. One such action

taken by the government prevented Wobblies who were not yet citizens

from naturalization, even if they quit their organization. In 1917,

the US government made a law which gave the Secretary of Labor the

power to arrest or deport any alien "advocating or teaching"

destruction of property or the "overthrow of government by force."

Words such as "advocating" and the vague language used in the law

allowed the government to use deportation as a cure for the

anti-government views of its enemies, namely the Wobblies, Communists,

and Socialists.

After all the unfair legislation passed by the government, the

scene was set for a disaster. All that was left was for someone to

take advantage of the anti-radical legislation, and the bomb would

s

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