Like a prairie-fire, the blaze of revolution was sweeP-
ing over every American institution of law and order a
It was eating its way into the homes of the
year
^go.
American workman, its sharp tongues of revolutionary
heat were licking the alta¡s of the churches, leaping into
the belfry of the school bell, crawling into the sacred corners ofAmerican homes, seeking to replâce marriage vows
with libertine laws, burning up the foundations of sociery.
SOCIAL AND CULTURAL
ISSUES OF THE, 1920S
Viewpoint 164
The Department of Justice Is DefendingAmerica
frorn Cornmunist Subuersion (1920)
A. Mitchell P¿Imer (1872-1936)
TNTRoDUCTI oN A. Mitchell Palmer was appointed attornel general of the tlnited Søtes by Presidznt
rYoodrow \Yibon in 1919 and serued until 1921.
A pmon who harbored presidential ambitiorc of his
own, he w¿ts one of the hading fgares of Americø's fr*
"Red Scare." The nccessful Bohhniþ rruolution in Russin
in 1917 seemed poised to spread to other nations þllowing Vorld War
I.
The
fear (and, for some, the hope)
in 1919 with
of cornmunist reuolution in Arnerica grew
the
formation of fiao comrnunist parties in the United
Søtes and the esøblishrnent of the Comìntmt (Com'
munist Intemational) in Russia ø promote uorl/ reuo'
year 1919 was abo one of social unrest in
Americø as the nation stuglzd with hiþ rates of inJÌntion anà unemployment. Arnoicans aho end'ured
thousands of striÞa and a waue of uiolent bomb scares
and explosions-actions rnany bkmed on cornmunist
lution,
The
radìcab (one bomb damaged Palmni
hou^se).
In 1919 the Palmer-led Deparnnent of Justice
launched a nationwide racþdoun against "suspicious"
þreigners. In a series of well-publicized a'ctions, ofrces
ofkbor unions and radical organizations were raided
and suspected radicab and anarchism apprehended.
Sorne were charged with breaking laws originølþ
passed to
lirnit opposition to WorA War I. Many of
the
foui7" immigrants captured were ultimateþ deported.
These actioru, which became hnown as "Palmer raids,"
were criticized by some for disregørd'ing cìuil libetties.
In the þllowing uiewpoint, tahen fom a February
t 920 article, Palmer justifes his actions aç necetsa'ry to
defend America
fom
subuersion
forrt within.
Palmer refuse to maþe "nice
distinctions" between criminal uioktions and radical
ideas? How does he respond to charges that his depor'
tations of suspicious immigrants were unjust? Why
might he include extended quotationt of the Commu-
On what grounds
does
nist Manifesto in his ørticle?
Excerpted from 4.. Mitchell Palmer, "The Cæe Against the'Reds"" Forum,February
1920.
Robbery, not war, is the ideal of communism. This
has been demonsuated in Russia, Germany, and in America.
As a foe, the anarchist is fearless of his own life, for his
creed is a fanaticism that admits no respect of any other
creed. Obviously it is the creed of any criminal mind,
which reasons always from motives impossible to clean
thought. Crime is the degenerate factor in society.
Upon these two basic certainties, first that the "Reds"
were criminal aliens, and secondly that the American
Government must prevent crime, it was decided that
there could be no nice distinctions drawn between the
theoretical ideals ofthe radicals and their actual violations
of our nadonal laws. A¡ assassin may have brilliant intellectuality, he may be able to excuse his murder or robbery
with fine oratory, but any theory which excuses crime is
not wanted in America. This is no place for the criminal
to flourish, nor will he do so, so long as the rights of common citizenship can be exerted to Prevent him.
OUR GOVERNMENT IN JEOPARDY
Iç has always been plain to me that when American citizens unite upon any national issue, they are generally
right, but
it
clear to them.
is sometimes difficult to make the
issue
If the Department of Justice could succeed
in attracting the attention of our optimistic citizens to the
issue of internal revolution in this country, we felt sure
there would be no revolution. The Government was in
jeopardy. My private information of what was being
done by the organization known âs the Communist
Party of America, with headquarters in Chicago, of
what was being done by the Communist Internationale
under their manifesto planned at Moscow last March
tl919l by Trotzky [Leon Trotsky], Lenine [Vladimir
Lenin] and others, addressed "To the Prolecariats of All
Countries," of what strides the Communist Labor Parry
was making, removed all doubt. In this conclusion we
did not ignore the definite standards of personal liberry,
of free speech, which is the very temperament and heart
of the people. The evidence was examined with the utmost care, with a personal leaning toward freedom of
thought and word on all questions.
The whole mass of evidence, accumulated from all
parts of the country, was scrupulously scanued, not
merely for the written or spoken differences of viewpoint
as to the Government of the United States, but, in spite
oFthese things, to see if the hosdle declarations might not
B5
I
Pørt 3: Prosperity, Depression, and War (1920-1945)
be sincere in their announced motive to improve our social order'. The¡e was no hope of such a thing. . . .
My information showed that communism in this
country was an orgânization of thousands of aliens, who
were direct allies of Trotzþ. Aliens of the sarne misshapen
ca.ste of mind and indecencies of character, and it showed
that they were rnaking the sarne glittering promises of lawlessness, of criminal aLrtocracy to Ame¡icans, that they had
made to the Russian peasants. How the Department of
Justice discovered upwards of 60,000 of rhese organized
agitators of the Trotzþ doctrine in the United States, is
the confidential information upon which the Government
is now sweeping the nation clean of such alien filth. . . .
\íILL
DEPORTATIONS CHECK
BOLSHEVI.SM?
Behind, and underneath, my own dete¡mination to drive
f¡om our midst the agents of Bolshevism with increasing
vigor and with greater speed, until there are no more of
them left among us, so long as I have the responsible
dury of that task, I have discovered the hysterical methods
of these revolutionary humans with increasing amazement
and suspicion. In the confused information that sometimes reaches the people, they are compelled to ask ques-
tions which involve the reasons for my acts against the
"Reds." I have been asked, for instance, to what ext€nt deportation will check radicalism in this country. \Mhy not
ask what will become of the United States Government if
these alien radicals are permitted to carry olrt the principles of the Communist Party as embodied in its so-called
laws, aims and regulations?
There wouldn't be any such thing left. In place of the
States Government we should have the horror and
ter¡orism ofbolsheviki tyranîy such as is destroying Russia now. Every scrap of radical literature demands the
overthrow of our existing government. AII of it demands
obedience to the instincts of criminal minds, that is, to
the lower appetites, material and moral. The whole purpose of communism appeârs to be a mass formation of
United
the criminals of the world to overthrow the decencies of
privâte life, to usurp properry that they have not earned,
to disrupt the present order oflife regardless ofhealth, sex
or religious rights. By a lite¡atu¡e that promises the wildest dreams of such low aspirations, that can occur to only
the criminal minds, communism distorts our social law.
The chief appeal communism makes is to "The
If they can lure the wage-earner to join rheir
own gang of thieves, if they can show him that he will
be ¡ich ifhe steals, so far they have succeeded in betraying
him to their own criminal course.
Read this manifesto issued in Chicago:
'lf'orker."
THE COMMUNIST PARTY MANIFESTO
The world is on the verge of a new era. Europe is
in revolt. The masses of Asia are stirring uneasily.
B6
Capitalism is in collapse. The workers of the wolld
are seeing a new light zurcl securing new courage.
Out of the night of war is coming a new clay.
The spectre of communism haunts the world
of capitalism. Comrnunisrn, the hope of
the
workers to end misery and oppression.
The rvorkels of Russia smashed dre front of ir.rternational Capitalism ancl Impcli:ilisrn. They broke
the cl.rair.rs of the tellible w¿u; and in the midst of
agonyJ starvation and the attacks of the Capitalists
of the wo¡ld, they are cleating a new social orcler.
The class war rages fìercely ir.r all nations. Eve¡ylvhe¡e the wo¡ke¡s are in a desperate struggle
against their capitalist masters. The call to action
has come. The wolke¡s must answer the call!
The Cornmunist Party of Arnerica is the
party of the working ciass. The Communist
Party proposes to encl Capitalism ancl organize a
-fhe
workers' indust¡ial republic.
wolkers must
control industry and dispose of the plocluct of induscry. The Communist Par'ry is a parry realizing
the lirnitation of all existing workers' organizations and proposes to develop the revolutionary
movement necessâry to f¡ee the workers from
the oppression of Capitalism. The Communist
Party insists that the problems of the American
worker are identical with the problems of the
workers of the world.
These are the revolutionary tenets of Trotzþ and the
Communist Internationale. Their manifesto furrher embraces the various organizations in this country of men and
women obsessed with cliscontent, having disorganized relations to American society. These include the I.1W.W.'s [In-
ternâtional \Øorkers of the World], the most radical
socialists, the misguided anarchists, the agitators who op,
pose the limitations of unionism, the moral perverts and
the hysterical neurâsthenic women who abound in communism. The phraseology of their manifesto is pracrically the
same wording as was used by the Bolshevifts for their Inter-
national Communist Congress. . . .
There is no legislation at presenr which can reach an
Ame¡ican citizen who is discontented wirh our system of
American Government, nor ìs it necessery. The dangerous
fact to us is that the Communist Parry of America is actually affiliated and adheres to the teaching program and
tactics of the 3d Inte¡nationale. Consider what this
means. The first congress of the Communist Nationale
held March 6, 1919, in Moscow, subscribed to by
Trotzþ and Lenine, adopted the following:
No alien, aduocating the ouerthrow of
öcisting law and order in his country shall
escdPe llrrest and ProTr'tPt deportation.
OPPOSING V]E\øPOINTS
IN AMERICAN HISTORY
Socìøl and Cuhural Issaes ofthe 1920s
This makes necessary the disarming of the bourgeoisie at the proper time, the arming of the laborer, and the formation of a communist army
as the protectors of the rules of the proletariat
and the inviolability of the social süucture.
comrnunist and ønarchist agitaton. The
has been inferred by the "Reds" that the United
States Government, by arresting and deporting them, is
returning to the autocracy of Czardom, adopting the system that created the severity of Siberian banishment. My
reply to such charges is, that in our determination to
maintain our government we are treating our alien enemies with extreme consideration. To deny them the privilege of remaining in a country which they have openly
deplored as an unenlightened community, unfit for
those who prefer the privileges of Bolshevism, should be
no hardship. It strikes me âs an ocld folm of reasoning
that these Russian Bolsheviks who extol the Bolshevik
rule, should be so unwilling to return to Russia. The
nationality of most of the alien "Reds" is Russian and
German. The¡e is almost no other nationality represented
among them.
It has been impossible in so short a sPace to review
the entire menâce of the internal revolution in this country as I know it, but this may serve to arouse the American
citizen to its realiry, its danger, and the great need ofunited effort to stâmp it out, under our feet, if needs be. It is
being done. The Department of Justice will pursue the
attack of these 'Reds" upon the Government of the United
States with vigilance, and no alien, advocating the over-
throw of existing law and order in this country, shall
escape a¡rest and prompt deportation.
It
is my belief that while they have stirred discontent
have caused irritating strikes, and
while they have infected our social ideas with the disease
of their own minds and their unclean morals, we can get
rid of them! and not until we have done so shall we have
removed the menace of Bolshevism for good.
in our midst, while they
Vìct,point
16I':
The Department of Justice Is Violating
Constitutional Freedoms
(1
920)
National Popular Government League
IN'f RoDUCTI oN From 1919 to
ment engaged
l92I
the
fedzral gouern'
in a series ofcontrouersial dctions lgainst
suspected radicals
and anarchists' One krge burst
of
such actiuity ocruned in January 1920 tuhen the U-5.
Department of Justice, und¿r the leadership ofAttornqt
General
A. Mitchell Palmer and his assistant J' Edgar
Hooaer, launched surprise raids on meetingt of saspected
VOL.2: FROM RECONSTRUCTION TO THE
enforce-
many of whom were dzøined for n ontbs and"/or sub'
sequentþ deported by federdl immigration oficiah.
\Øhen we realize that each member of the Communist Parry of America pledges himself to the principles
above set forth, deportation of men and women bound
to such a theoqy is a very mild reformatory sentence. . . .
It
kw
ment actions uere generd.lb Petformed Øithout arrest
waffa.nt' The main targets were þreign irnrnigrants,
Manl Americarc
questioned the uctics of these "Palmer
raids." Among them were members of the National
Popuhr Gouernment League (NPGL), a grnup of
prominent liberal kwyers ¿nd other¡ including Felix
Franhfurtn (afuture Suprene Court jøtice), Zechariah
Chafee þ. (Haruard. hw profrssor and author), ønd
Roscoe Pound (dzan of Hanard Law School). The
league inuestigated røids and in May 1920 released
a stinging report, excerPte¿ here, acauíng the U.S.
gouernrnent of wholzsah aioktions of ciuil libetties,
Do the members of the Nationøl Popuhr Goaemment
League tahe a stand here on radicalism? What do they
fnd
most disrurbing about tbe gouernmenti actirns?
\Yhat parts of the Consilntion do they argue are being
uiol¿ted?
TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE:
For more than six months we, the undersigned lawit is to uphold the Constitution
yers, whose sworn dury
and Laws of the United States, have seen with growing
apprehension the continued violation of that Constitution and breaking of those Laws by the Department of
Justice of the United States government.
Under the guise of a campaign for the suppression
of radical activities, the office of the Attorney General'
acting by its local agents throughout the count{F, and giving express instructions from \Øashington, has committed
continual illegal acts. \Øholesale arrests both ofaliens and
citizens have been made without wartant or any process of
law; men and women have been jailed and held incommu'
nicado withott access of friends or counsel; homes have
been entered without search-warrant and property seized
and removed; other property has been wantonly destroyed; workingmen and workingwomen suspected of
radical views have been shamefully abused and maltreated. Agents of the Department of Jusdce have been
introduced into radical organizations for the PurPose
of informing upon their members or inciting them to
activities; these agents have even been instructed from
\Øashington to at¡ange meetings upon certain dates for
the express object of facilitating wholesale raids and
ârrests. In support of these illegal acts, and to create sen-
timent in its favor, the Department of Justice has
also
constituted itself a propaganda bureau, and has sent to
newspapers and magazines of this country quantities of
material designed to excite public opinion against radic¿ls,
From the National Populu Government League, Rcrort U?ofl tbe llhgøl Pmcticu of
th¿ [,/¡ited Søtes Depatnncnt of Jwticc. Vashington' DC: National Popular
Gove¡nmen¡ læaguc, 1920.
PRESENT
87
Part 3: Prosperìt!, Depressìon, and War (1920-1945)
all at the expense of the government and ourside the scope
of the Attorney General's duties.
ILLEGAL ACTS
tùØe
make no argument in favor of any radical doctrine
as
such, whether Socialist, Communist or Anarchist. No one
of us belongs to any of these schools of thought. Nor do
we now raise any question as to the Constitutional protection of free speech and a free press. \Øe are concerned
solely with bringing to th€ attention of the American peo-
ple the utterly illegal acrc which have been commimed by
those charged with the highest duty of enforcing the
l¿v/5-¿ç15 which have caused widespread suffering and
unrest, have struck at the foundarion of American free
institutions, and have brought the name of our country
into disrepute.
These acts may be grouped under the following
heads:
(1) Crael and Unusual
Punisbments,
The Eighth Amendment to the United States Consti'
tution provides:
not be required nor excessive
fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishExcessive bail shall
ments inflicted.
Punishments of the utmost cruelty, and heretofore
unthinkable in America, have become usual. Great numbers of persons arrested, both aliens and citizens, have
been threatened, beaten with blackjacks, struck with
fists, jailed under abominable conditions, or actually
tortured. . . .
(2) Anests without tVartønh,
tense of any search warrant, have seized and removed
properry belonging to them for use by the Department
of Justice. In many of these raids property which could
noc be removed or was not useful to the Department,
was intentionally smashed and destroyed. . . .
(4) Prouocatiue Agentc,
lVe do not question the right of the Department of
Justice to use its agents in the Bureau of Investigation
to ascertain when the law is being violated. But the
American people has never tolerated the use of undercover provocative agents
of
"agents provocateufs," such
familiar in old Russia or Spain. Such agents
have been introduced by the Departmenr of Justice into
as have been
the radical movements, have reached positions of influence therein, have occupied themselves with informing
upon or instigating acts which might be declared crimi-
nal, and at the express direction of \Øashington have
brought about meetings of radicals in order to make possible wholesale arrests at such meetings. . . .
(5)
Compelling Persons
to be tX/itnesses
against
Themselues,
The Fifth Amendment provides
as follows:
No
in any criminal
person . . . shall be compelled
to be a witness against himself, nor be
deprived of life, liberry, or propertyì without
câse
due process of law,
It has been the practice of the Department of Justice
and its agents, after making illegal arrests without warrant, to question the accused person and to force admissions from him by terrorism, which admissions were
subsequently to be used against him in deportation
The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution provides:
proceedings. . . .
The right of the people to be secu¡e in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall nor be
violated, and no \Øarrants shall issue, but upon
probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be
searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
(6) Propaganda by the Deparnnent of Justice
The legal functions of the Attorney General are: to
advise the Government on quesrions of law, and to prosecute persons who have violated federal starures. For the
Attorney General to go into the field of propaganda
against radicals is a deliberate misuse of his office and a
Many hundreds of citizens and aliens alikc have been
arrested in wholesale raids, without warrants or pretense
of warrants. They have then either been released, or
have been detained in police stations or jails for indefinite
lengths of time while warrants were being applied for.
This practice of making mass raids and mass arrests without warrant has resulted directly from the instructions,
both written and oral, issued by the Deparrment of Justice at rVashington.
(3)
..
.
Unreøsonable Seørches and Seizurec
The Fourth,A.mendment has been quoted above.
In countless cases agenrs of the Department ofJustice
have entered the homes, offices, or garhering places of
88
persons suspected of radical affiliations, and, without pre-
deliberate squandering of funds entrusted to him by
Congress. . .
.
Since these illegal acts have been commifted by the
highest legal powers in the United States, there is no
final appeal from them excepr ro the conscience and con-
demnation of the American people. American institutions
in fact been protected by the Attorney General's
ruthless suppression. On the conrrary those institutions
have been seriously undermined, and revolutionary unrest
has been vastly intensified. No organizations of radicals
acting through propaganda over the last six months
could have created as much revolutionary sentiment in
America as has been created by the acts of the Department of Justice itself.
have not
OPPOSING VIE\øPOINTS
IN AMERICAN HISTORY
Socíal anà Cu.bural Issues of the 1920s
Even were one to admit that there existed any serious
"Red menace" before the Attorney General started his
Baltimore Sw froru 1906 to 1948 and the þunàer
and editor of the magøzine American Mercury.
Mencþen became celebrated døring the 1920s þr his
cauttic commentaries on the "naditional" American
ualues of rural and small-town Arnerica, in which he
þr
criticized in colorful prose the Amnicøn "booboisie"
their narrow-mind¿dness. His social and literary riticism
greatþ inflaenced. a generation ofintellectuak,
some of whom became
part of the "Lost Generation"
that moued to Europe in the 1920s while decrying the
limits of American culture. The follnwing example of
eration of the evidence) by Assistant Secretary of Labor
Louis F. Post, to whose courageous reestablishment of
American Constitutional Law in deportation proceedings
are due the attacks that have been made upon him, The
Attorney General has consequently got rid of 810 alien
,.lrp..tr, which, on his own showing, leaves him et least
59,160 persons (aliens and citizens) still to cope with.
A GOVERNMENT OF LA\øS
It
has always been the proud boast of America that this is
a government of laws and not of men. Our Constitution
have been based on the simple elements of
Free men cennot be driven and repressed;
they must be led. Free men resPect justice. and follow
,r,rih, b,r, arbitrary power they will oppose until the
end of time. There is no danger of revolution so Sreat
as that created by suppression, by ruthlessness, and by deliberate violation of the simple rules of American law and
l"*,
".rã
human nature.
American decenry.
Mencþen'¡ writing is tahen fom Prejudices: Third
Series, ¿ collection of newspaper ønd magazine essays
published in book
þrm in 1922.
On øhøt points does Mencþen agree with the intellectuab leauing Americ¿? Which portions of this uiewpoint would you rûte Tnott conffouersial? Why?
Apparently there are those who begin to find it
disagrèeable-nay, imPossible. Their anguish fills the
Liberal weeklies and every ship that puts out from New
York carries a groaning cargo of them, bound for Paris,
London, Munich, Rome and way points-anywhere to
escape the great curses and atrocities chat make life intol.."b1. for them at home. Let me say at once that I find
little to cavil at in thei¡ basic complaints. In more thân
one direction, indeed, I probably go a greât deal further
than even the Young Intellectuals. It is, for example,
one of my firmest and most sacred beliefs, reached after
an inquiry extending over â score ofyears and supported
by incessant prayer and meditation, that the government
of the United States, in both its legislative arm and its
executive arm, is ignorant, incompetent, corruPt, and disgusting-ând from this judgment I except no more than
twenty living lawmakers ând no more than twenry executioners of their laws. It is a belief no less piously cherished
most sacred principles of our Constitutional liberry'
FOR FURTHER READING
Stanley Coben, A. Mitchell Palmer, Politican New
University Press, 1 963.
York Columbia
David Cole, Enemy Aliens: Doøble Standards and Constirutional
Freedoms
in the'Var on Terroism. New York: New Press, 2003'
Edwin P, Hoyt, The Palmer Raid¡, 1919-1920. New York:
Seabury Press, 1969.
(Jn-Arnerican tVomanhood: Antirddicalism,
Antifeminism, and tbe First Red.5c¿¡¿. Colurnbus: Ohio State
Universiry Press, 2001.
Kim E. Nielsen,
Vie rvpo int t 7A
H.L. Mencþen Critiques America (1922)
H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)
INTRODUCTIoN .FL2. Mencþen was a noted journalist,
writer, and satirist. He was a columnist þr the
VOL.2: FROM RECONSTRUCTION TO THE
that the administration of justice in the Republic is stupid, dishonest, and against all reason and equity-and
hom this judgment I except no more than thirty judges,
including.*o ,rpott the bench of the Supreme Court of
the United Statis. It is another that the foreign policy
of the United States-its habitual manner of dealing
with other nations, whether Friend or foe-is hypocritical'
disingenuous, knavish, and dishonorable-and from this
judgment I consent to no exceptions whatever, eithe¡ recent
ot iottg past. And it is my fourth (and, to avoid too
depressing a bill, final) conviction that the American people, taking one with another, constitute the most timo-
io.rr, ,niu.littg, poltroonish, ignominious mob of se¡fs
and goose-stepPers ever gathered under one flag in Christendom since the end of the Middle Ages, and that they
grow more timorous, more sniveling' more poltroonish,
more ignominious every d^Y....
Excerpted from "On Being an Amerien" by
Sarler (New York: Kaopf, 1922).
PRESENT
H.L
Mencken, io Prcjudicet Third
B9