In this 8th installment of the bicentennial series, we’ll cover the period from 1913 – 1929. The Great War was about to get under way, though the U.S. would stay out of it for a few years. We’ll also go through Indiana’s Centennial, Prohibition, D.C. Stephenson and the Klan during the Roaring Twenties.
The Presidents during this period: Woodrow Wilson (1913 – 1921), Warren G. Harding (1921 – 1923), and Calvin Coolidge (1923 – 1929). The Governors during this period: Samuel Ralston (1913 – 1917), James Goodrich (1917 – 1921), Warren McCray (1921-1924), Emmet Branch (1924-1925), and Edward Jackson (1925 – 1929).
8.1: The National Scene
Woodrow Wilson (1913 – 1921) Wilson was definitely the beneficiary of the rift in the Republican Party caused by Teddy Roosevelt and his Progressives bolting when it became clear that Taft was going to get the nomination. Democrats took control of the Congress, and Wilson was the first southerner (he was governor of New Jersey but had been raised in Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina) since before the Civil War. Prior to being governor, Wilson had been an academic — having a PhD in political science. Wilson was a scholar of government, and embraced progressive principles. Generally speaking, he believed government had the power and the duty to take action to improve the lives of its citizens. In some ways, we take this idea for granted these days. In other ways, we seem to believe that it’s a patronizing and untrue concept. I think we have the luxury of these inconsistent views because of the policies implemented by Roosevelt and Wilson and the progressive lawmakers of the early 20th century. We are no longer exposed to many of the brutal conditions left unaddressed by the theories of government that preceded the progressives.
Wilson took office shortly after the 16th Amendment was passed, and his administration oversaw introduction of the income tax. His administration also passed a good deal of progressive legislation, including the Federal Reserve Act, Federal Trade Commission Act, the Clayton Antitrust Act, and the Federal Farm Loan Act. The Wilson administration also passed the Smith–Lever Act of 1914 which created the modern system of agricultural extension agents sponsored by the state agricultural colleges (for Indiana, this would be the Purdue extension offices.) The agents taught new techniques to farmers.
Wilson believed that monopoly needed to be checked, in part by lowering tariffs and by reforming the banking system. He was able to get through legislation lowering the tariffs, but its economic effects were soon overwhelmed by the effects of World War I which started in 1914 in Europe.
The Wilson administration implemented increased segregation in federal offices. “By the end of 1913 many departments, including the Navy, had workspaces segregated by screens, and restrooms, cafeterias were segregated, although no executive order had been issued.” Wilson suggested that segregation removed “friction” from the races.
The U.S. had a fraught relationship to Mexico during the Wilson administration. Wilson refused to recognize the Huerta military junta that came to power through assassination. Huerta arrested military personnel in the port of Vera Cruz, and Wilson sent the navy to occupy the city. General warfare was averted through negotiations. Huerta was thrown out of power, but those events led to Pancho Villa invading Columbus, New Mexico where he burned the town and seized supplies. This, in turn, led to John “Black Jack” Pershing invading Mexico in an ultimately unsuccessful bid to capture Villa. Another invasion took place in Haiti. After the Haitian dictator was murdered — and due to some concerns about German activity in the country — the Wilson administration sent the marines, and the occupation would last for the next 20 years.
In 1914, the Ludlow Massacre took place. This was an attack by the Colorado National Guard and mining interests on 1,200 striking miners and their families in Ludlow, Colorado. John D. Rockefeller was partial owner of the mine and largely blamed for the incident. “The massacre, the culmination of a bloody widespread strike against Colorado coal mines, resulted in the violent deaths of between 19 and 26 people; reported death tolls vary but include two women and eleven children, asphyxiated and burned to death under a single tent.” Rockefeller apparently declined President Wilson’s offer of mediation. In retaliation for the massacre, miners attacked dozens of mines over the next 10 days. “The entire strike would cost between 69 and 199 lives. Thomas G. Andrews described it as the ‘deadliest strike in the history of the United States.’” The subsequent Congressional investigation of the affair led to child labor laws and the eight-hour work day.
During the period leading up to the First World War, an anarchist movement was intertwined with the labor movement. One anarchist, Leon Czolgosz had assassinated President McKinley. Often they were motivated by (among other things like, perhaps, delusions of grandeur) a perception (frequently real) that there was injustice in American society that allowed the wealthy to enrich themselves by exploiting the poor. Some sought to “replace the privilege and authority of the State” with the “free and spontaneous organization of labor.” One prominent anarchist was Luigi Galleani. He managed to keep his own hands relatively clean, but he was an advocate of what they called, “propaganda of the deed,” which was a euphemism for violence. Galleani was an effective speaker. Said one contemporary, “You heard Galleani speak, and you were ready to shoot the first policeman you saw.” Galleanists are believed to have been involved in bombings from 1914 through the 1920s.
The 1919 anarchist bombings were undertaken by Galleanists, targeting, among others, John D. Rockefeller and the Attorney General, A. Mitchell Palmer. A flyer with the bombs read:
War, Class war, and you were the first to wage it under the cover of the powerful institutions you call order, in the darkness of your laws. There will have to be bloodshed; we will not dodge; there will have to be murder: we will kill, because it is necessary; there will have to be destruction; we will destroy to rid the world of your tyrannical institutions.
In response, Palmer initiated what came to be known as the Palmer Raids, characterized by large scale arrests and warrantless seizures and was part of the “Red Scare”.
But, I’m probably getting ahead of myself. That took place in Wilson’s second term. For present purposes, it’s enough to note that anarchism was a political movement both at home and abroad; and the “propaganda of the deed” was in vogue. Gavril Princip who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand and lit the fuse that would detonate the powder keg of Europe may or may not have been an anarchist. He is mostly described as a Serbian Nationalist. But, there are parallels either way with those who perceive themselves as part of an underclass challenging power through violence. When Princip assassinated Ferdinand as part of a bid for Serbia to gain independence from the Austro-Hungarian empire, international relations were so snarled up that this led pretty quickly to Germany invading France and Russia.
(As a little boy, I asked my grandpa why they fought the World Wars. “Well,” he said, “the first one, they just kind of wanted to fight, and the second one I think they were fighting over a girl.” Now, obviously the explanation for the second World War was bunch of hooey, but the explanation for the first one is unnervingly accurate.)
I guess I don’t know how deep into the weeds to get here in terms of the causes of World War I. But, I’ll just go with this: The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand caused the Austro-Hungarian Empire to threaten war with Serbia. Serbia was allied with Russia which was, in turn, allied with France. The Austrians were allied with the Germans. The Germans were stuck between Russia and France, and the Germans had a war plan premised on knocking either Russia or France out of a fight quickly so it could avoid fighting on two fronts. One of the best ways into France was through neutral Belgium. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Russia began mobilizing its troops. Germany invaded Belgium on its way to France — reasoning that Russia would take longer to mobilize its troops, and, therefore, Germany could hope to knock out France in time to wheel its army back around again and deal with Russia. Violation of Belgian neutrality brought Great Britain into the war. The initial weeks of the war were very fluid, but eventually the battle lines hardened, and the conflict turned into a relentless meat grinder, characterized by trench warfare where huge numbers of lives were thrown away in an effort to claw out a few extra yards of territory.
Wilson’s initial response to the war was neutrality. However, Germany could not match Britain’s navy with conventional ships. When Britain disrespected America’s neutrality with respect to merchant ships, it could do so by blocking them with British warships and turning them around. Americans weren’t necessarily happy about that, but it was no reason to go to war. Germany, on the other hand, was often fighting its naval battles with submarines. This led to sinkings that killed Americans and made the policy of neutrality more difficult to maintain.
Next: The election of 1916 and the U.S. enters the war.
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