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Difficulty: HardSocial and Political Controversies of the 1920s

"Like a prairie-fire, the blaze of revolution was sweeping over every American institution of law and order a year ago. It was eating its way into the homes of the American workmen, its sharp tongues of revolutionary heat were licking the altars of the churches, leaping into the belfries of the school houses, crawling into the sacred corners of American homes, seeking to replace the marriage vows with libertine laws, burning up the foundations of society."
— A. Mitchell Palmer, "The Case Against the 'Reds,'" 1920

The political climate described in the excerpt most directly contributed to which of the following developments during the 1920s?

  1. A
    The establishment of federal labor boards to guarantee minimum wages and protect workers' rights to collective bargaining.
  2. B
    The creation of federal loyalty review boards and congressional investigations into communist subversion in the film industry.
  3. The growth of public and congressional support for restrictive immigration quotas targeting Southern and Eastern Europe.Answer
  4. D
    The complete withdrawal of the United States from international trade and diplomatic treaties to achieve absolute isolationism.

Answer

The correct answer states that the political climate of the Red Scare directly contributed to the growth of public and congressional support for restrictive immigration quotas targeting Southern and Eastern Europe.
The correct option is correct because the political anxieties of the First Red Scare (1919–1920) associated foreign-born populations, particularly from Southern and Eastern Europe, with subversion and radical political ideas. This panic fueled nativist sentiments, leading to a political consensus that resulted in the passage of the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 and the National Origins Act of 1924.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the historical context of the stimulus.
The source is written by Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer in 1920, placing it at the peak of the First Red Scare, which was fueled by the Bolshevik Revolution and domestic postwar labor strikes.
Understanding the fears of radicalism, anarchy, and subversion is necessary to link this political climate to subsequent policy outcomes.
2
Connect the anti-radical fears of the First Red Scare to the broader social movements of the 1920s.
Nativists successfully linked political radicalism and foreign subversion directly to immigrants arriving from Southern and Eastern Europe.
This connection explains how the ideological panic of 1919-1920 translated into concrete legislative action targeting specific immigrant groups.
3
Identify the legislative consequence of this nativist political climate.
Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 and the National Origins Act of 1924, establishing strict quotas that favored Northern and Western European immigrants while severely limiting those from Southern and Eastern Europe.
This direct causal chain demonstrates the impact of the Red Scare on 1920s immigration policy.

Key Concept

First Red Scare and Nativism in the 1920s
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Topics

Social and Political Controversies of the 1920s

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