Editing First Red Scare (section)

=={{anchor|History}} Progression of events==

===Seattle General Strike===
{{Main|Seattle General Strike}}
[[File:Seattle General Strike.jpg|thumb|Headlines announcing the [[Seattle General Strike|Seattle General Strike of 1919]], the nation's first [[general strike]]]]

On January 21, 1919, 35,000 shipyard workers in [[Seattle]] went on strike seeking wage increases. They appealed to the Seattle Central Labor Council for support from other unions and found widespread enthusiasm. Within two weeks, more than 100 local unions joined in a call on February 3 for a general strike to begin on the morning of February 6.<ref>Murray, 58–60; Brecher, 121</ref> The 60,000 total strikers paralyzed the city's normal activities, like streetcar service, schools, and ordinary commerce, while their General Strike Committee maintained order and provided essential services, like trash collection and milk deliveries.<ref>Hagedorn, 87; [[Jeremy Brecher|Brecher]], 122–124</ref>

Even before the strike began, the press tried to persuade the unions to reconsider. In part they were frightened by some of labor's rhetoric, like the labor newspaper editorial that proclaimed: "We are undertaking the most tremendous move ever made by labor in this country&nbsp; ... We are starting on a road that leads – NO ONE KNOWS WHERE!"<ref>Brecher, 124–25</ref> Daily newspapers saw the general strike as a foreign import: "This is America – not Russia," one said when denouncing the general strike.<ref>Murray, 60–61</ref> The non-striking part of Seattle's population imagined the worst and stocked up on food. Hardware stores sold their stock of guns.<ref>Murray, 60–62</ref>

Seattle Mayor [[Ole Hanson]] announced that he had 1500 police and 1500 federal troops on hand to put down any disturbances. He personally oversaw their deployment throughout the city.<ref name="Murray, 63">Murray, 63</ref> "The time has come", he said, "for the people in Seattle to show their Americanism&nbsp; ... The anarchists in this community shall not rule its affairs."<ref name="Murray, 63"/> He promised to use them to replace striking workers, but never carried out that threat.<ref>Brecher, 126–27</ref>

Meanwhile, the national leadership of the [[American Federation of Labor]] (AFL) and international leaders of some of the Seattle locals recognized how inflammatory the general strike was proving in the eyes of the American public and Seattle's middle class. Press and political reaction made the general strike untenable, and they feared Seattle labor would lose gains made during the war if it continued.<ref>Brecher, 127–28; Murray, 64</ref> The national press called the general strike "Marxian" and "a revolutionary movement aimed at existing government".<ref>Murray, 65</ref> "It is only a middling step", said the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'', "from Petrograd to Seattle."<ref>Murray 65</ref>

As early as February 8 some unions began to return to work at the urging of their leaders. Some workers went back to work as individuals, perhaps fearful of losing their jobs if the Mayor acted on his threats or in reaction to the pressure of life under the general strike.<ref>Foner, 75</ref> The executive committee of the General Strike Committee first recommended ending the general strike on February 8 but lost that vote. Finally on February 10, the General Strike Committee voted to end the strike the next day.<ref>Foner, 75–76</ref> The original strike in the shipyards continued.<ref>Brecher, 128</ref>

Though the general strike collapsed because labor leadership viewed it as a misguided tactic from the start, Mayor Hanson took credit for ending the five-day strike and was hailed for it by the press. He resigned a few months later and toured the country giving lectures on the dangers of "domestic bolshevism". He earned $38,000 in seven months, five times his annual salary as mayor.<ref>Murray, 65–66; Hagedorn, 180</ref> He published a pamphlet called ''Americanism versus Bolshevism''.<ref>Foner, 77n; Noggle, 102–03; Ole Hanson, ''Americanism versus Bolshevism'' (Garden City, New York, 1920), [https://archive.org/details/americanismversu00hansuoft ''Americanism versus Bolshevism''], accessed April 11, 2011</ref>

===Overman Committee===
{{Main|Overman Committee}}
[[File:OvermanCommittee.png|thumb|upright=1.4|alt=Senators Tell What Bolshevism in America Means.|''[[The New York Times]]'' article, June 15, 1919<ref name=nytsenators>{{cite news |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1919/06/15/archives/senators-tell-what-bolshevism-in-america-means-overman-committee-no.html |title=Senators Tell What Bolshevism in America Means |date=June 15, 1919 |access-date=February 7, 2010 |archive-date=July 25, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180725215218/https://www.nytimes.com/1919/06/15/archives/senators-tell-what-bolshevism-in-america-means-overman-committee-no.html |url-status=live }}</ref>]]

The [[Overman Committee]] was a special five-man subcommittee of the U.S. [[Senate Committee on the Judiciary]] chaired by North Carolina Democrat [[Lee Slater Overman]]. First charged with investigating German subversion during World War I, its mandate was extended on February 4, 1919, just a day after the announcement of the Seattle General Strike, to study "any efforts being made to propagate in this country the principles of any party exercising or claiming to exercise any authority in Russia" and "any effort to incite the overthrow of the Government of this country".<ref>United States Congress, ''Bolshevik Propaganda'', 6; Hagedorn, 55; Murray, 94; {{cite news |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1919/02/05/archives/senate-orders-reds-here-investigated-directs-overman-committee-to.html |title=Senate Orders Reds Here Investigated |date=February 5, 1919 |access-date=February 2, 2010 |archive-date=July 25, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180725215024/https://www.nytimes.com/1919/02/05/archives/senate-orders-reds-here-investigated-directs-overman-committee-to.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The Committee's hearings into Bolshevik propaganda, conducted from February 11 to March 10, 1919, developed an alarming image of [[Bolshevism]] as an imminent threat to the U.S. government and American values. The Committee's final report appeared in June 1919.

[[Archibald E. Stevenson]], a New York attorney with ties to the [[United States Department of Justice|Justice Department]], probably as a "volunteer spy",<ref>Hagedorn, 54, 58</ref> testified on January 22, 1919, during the German phase of the subcommittee's work. He established that anti-war and anti-draft activism during World War I, which he described as pro-German activity, had now transformed itself into propaganda "developing sympathy for the Bolshevik movement".<ref>United States Congress, ''Bolshevik Propaganda'', 12–14; Powers, 20</ref> America's wartime enemy, though defeated, had exported an ideology that now ruled Russia and threatened America anew. "The Bolshevik movement is a branch of the revolutionary socialism of Germany. It had its origin in the philosophy of [[Karl Marx|Marx]] and its leaders were Germans."<ref>United States Congress, ''Bolshevik Propaganda'', 14; Lowenthal, 49</ref> He cited the propaganda efforts of [[John Reed (journalist)|John Reed]] and gave many examples from the foreign press. He told the senators that "We have found money coming into this country from Russia."<ref>United States Congress, ''Bolshevik Propaganda'', 19, 29</ref>

The senators were particularly interested in how Bolshevism had united many disparate elements on the left, including anarchists and socialists of many types,<ref>United States Congress, ''Bolshevik Propaganda'', 14–18</ref> "providing a common platform for all these radical groups to stand on".<ref name="ReferenceA">United States Congress, ''Bolshevik Propaganda'', 34</ref> Senator [[Knute Nelson]], Republican of Minnesota, responded by enlarging Bolshevism's embrace to include an even larger segment of political opinion: "Then they have really rendered a service to the various classes of progressives and reformers that we have here in this country."<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Other witnesses described the horrors of the [[Russian Revolution|revolution in Russia]] and the consequences of a comparable revolution in the United States: the imposition of [[atheism]], the seizure of newspapers, assaults on banks, and the abolition of the insurance industry. The senators heard various views of women in Russia, including claims that women had been made the property of the state.<ref>United States Congress, ''Bolshevik Propaganda'', 475</ref>

The press reveled in the investigation and the final report, referring to the Russians as "assassins and madmen", "human scum", "crime mad", and "beasts".<ref>Murray, 97</ref> The occasional testimony by some who viewed the Bolshevik Revolution favorably lacked the punch of its critics. One extended headline in February read:<ref>{{cite news |work=The New York Times |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F07E5DA1139E13ABC4052DFB4668382609EDE& |title=Bolshevism Bared by R. E. Simmons |date=February 18, 1919 |access-date=February 7, 2010 |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304045402/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F07E5DA1139E13ABC4052DFB4668382609EDE& |url-status=live }}</ref>

{{poemquote|Bolshevism Bared by R. E. Simmons;
Former Agent in Russia of Commerce Department Concludes his Story to Senators
Women are 'Nationalized'
Official Decrees Reveal Depths of Degradation to Which They are Subjected by Reds
Germans Profit by Chaos
Factories and Mills are Closed and the Machinery Sold to Them for a Song}}

On the release of the final report, newspapers printed sensational articles with headlines in capital letters: "Red Peril Here", "Plan Bloody Revolution", and "Want Washington Government Overturned".<ref>Murray, 98</ref>

===Anarchist bombings===
{{Main|Galleanisti|1919 United States anarchist bombings}}
There were several anarchist bombings in 1919.

====April 1919 mail bombs====
[[File:Palmer Bombing.jpg|thumb|upright|Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer's house with bomb damage]]

In late April 1919, approximately 36 [[letter bomb|booby trap bombs were mailed]] to prominent politicians, including the Attorney General of the United States, judges, businessmen (including [[John D. Rockefeller]]),<ref>[http://www.footnote.com/spotlight/6883/1919_anarchist_bombings_chicago/ "Send Death Bombs to 36 U.S. Leaders"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200427182043/http://www.footnote.com/spotlight/6883/1919_anarchist_bombings_chicago/ |date=2020-04-27 }} ''Chicago Tribune'', May 1, 1919</ref> and a Bureau of Investigation field agent, R. W. Finch, who happened to be investigating the ''Galleanist'' organization.<ref>The Galleanists were radical anarchists and devotees of Luigi Galleani who advocated [[direct action]], i.e. bombing and assassination, against capitalists and representatives of the government.</ref><ref>Avrich, Paul, ''Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background'', Princeton University Press (1991), pp. 147: The inclusion of R. W. Finch, a low-ranking BOI agent who had been assigned to question and investigate the ''Galleanist'' movement and had questioned other Galleanists about movements of its members, dispelled any doubt on the identity of the bombers.</ref>

The bombs were mailed in identical packages and were timed to arrive on May Day, the day of celebration of organized labor and the working class.<ref>Avrich, Paul, ''Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background'', Princeton University Press (1991), p. 142</ref> A few of the packages went undelivered because they lacked sufficient postage.<ref>Avrich, Paul, ''Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background'', p. 141</ref> One bomb intended for Seattle Mayor [[Ole Hanson]], who had opposed the Seattle General Strike, arrived early and failed to explode as intended. Seattle police in turn notified the [[United States Postal Service|Post Office]] and other police agencies. On April 29, a package sent to U.S. Senator [[Thomas W. Hardwick]] of Georgia, a sponsor of the [[Anarchist Exclusion Act]], exploded injuring his wife and housekeeper. On April 30, a post office employee in [[New York City]] recognized sixteen packages by their wrapping and interrupted their delivery. Another twelve bombs were recovered before reaching their targets.

====June 1919 bombs====
In June 1919, eight bombs, far larger than those mailed in April, exploded almost simultaneously in several U.S. cities. These new bombs were believed to contain up to twenty-five pounds of dynamite,<ref name="PLO">"Plotter Here Hid Trail Skillfully; His Victim Was A Night Watchman", ''The New York Times'', June 4, 1919</ref><ref name="WRE">"Wreck Judge Nott's Home", ''The New York Times'', June 3, 1919</ref> and all were wrapped or packaged with heavy metal slugs designed to act as shrapnel.<ref>"20 Pounds of Dynamite In Bomb Used in New York", ''The Washington Post'', June 4, 1919</ref> All of the intended targets had participated in some way with the investigation of or the opposition to anarchist radicals. Along with Attorney General Palmer, who was targeted a second time, the intended victims included a Massachusetts state representative and a New Jersey silk manufacturer. Fatalities included a New York City night watchman, William Boehner,<ref name="PLO"/><ref name="WRE"/><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1919-06-04/ed-1/seq-4/#date1=1919&index=0&rows=20&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&words=Boehner+William+WILLIAM&proxdistance=5&date2=1919&ortext=William+Boehner&proxtext=&phrasetext=&andtext=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1|title=Boehner Was Martyr to Duty, Family of Watchman Believes|date=June 4, 1919|work=New York Tribune|access-date=June 21, 2019|page=4|archive-date=August 26, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180826161629/https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1919-06-04/ed-1/seq-4/#date1=1919&index=0&rows=20&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&words=Boehner+William+WILLIAM&proxdistance=5&date2=1919&ortext=William+Boehner&proxtext=&phrasetext=&andtext=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1|url-status=live}}</ref><!--Find a Grave is [[WP:RS/P|not a reliable source]]--> and one of the bombers, [[Carlo Valdinoci]], a [[Luigi Galleani|Galleanist]] radical who died in spectacular fashion when the bomb he placed at the home of Attorney General Palmer exploded in his face.<ref>Avrich, Paul, ''Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America'' (AK Press, 2005) {{ISBN|1-904859-27-5}}, {{ISBN|978-1-904859-27-7}}, p. 496</ref> Though not seriously injured, Attorney General Palmer and his family were thoroughly shaken by the blast, and their home was largely demolished.<ref>Avrich, p. 153</ref>

All of the bombs were delivered with pink flyers bearing the title "Plain Words" that accused the intended victims of waging class war and promised: "We will destroy to rid the world of your tyrannical institutions."<ref>Avrich, 149</ref> Police and the Bureau of Investigation tracked the flyer to a print shop owned by an anarchist, [[Andrea Salsedo|Andrea Salcedo]], but never obtained sufficient evidence for a prosecution. Evidence from Valdonoci's death, bomb components, and accounts from participants later tied both bomb attacks to the Galleanists.<ref>Avrich, Paul, ''Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background'', Princeton University Press (1991), pp. 168–183</ref> Though some of the Galleanists were deported or left the country voluntarily, attacks by remaining members continued until 1932.<ref>Avrich, Paul, ''Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America'' (AK Press, 2005) {{ISBN|1-904859-27-5}}, {{ISBN|978-1-904859-27-7}}, pp. 132, 501</ref>

===May Day 1919===
{{main|May Day riots of 1919}}

The American labor movement had been celebrating its [[International Workers' Day|May Day]] holiday since the 1890s and had seen none of the violence associated with the day's events in Europe.<ref name="Murray, 74">Murray, 74</ref> On May 1, 1919, the left mounted especially large demonstrations, and violence greeted the normally peaceful parades in [[Boston]], [[New York City|New York]], and [[Cleveland]]. In Boston, police tried to stop a march that lacked a permit. In the ensuing melee both sides fought for possession of the Socialists' red flags. One policeman was shot and died of his wounds; a second officer died of a heart attack.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.odmp.org/officer/2619-patrolman-adolph-f-butterman |title=Patrolman Adolph F. Butterman |work=Officer Down Memorial Page |access-date=2020-10-25 |archive-date=2020-10-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201028003713/https://www.odmp.org/officer/2619-patrolman-adolph-f-butterman |url-status=live }}</ref> [[William Sidis]] was arrested. Later a mob attacked the Socialist headquarters. Police arrested 114, all from the Socialist side. Each side's newspapers provided uncritical support to their own the next day.<ref name="Murray, 74"/> In New York, soldiers in uniform burned printed materials at the Russian People's House and forced immigrants to sing the ''[[The Star-Spangled Banner|Star-Spangled Banner]]''.<ref>Hagedorn, 185–86; Murray, 75</ref>

[[Cleveland, Ohio]] saw the worst violence. Leftists protesting the imprisonment of [[Eugene V. Debs]] and promoting the campaign of [[Charles Ruthenberg]], the Socialist candidate for mayor, planned to march through the center of the city. A group of [[War bond|Victory Loan]] workers, a nationalist organization whose members sold [[War bond|war bonds]] and thought themselves still at war against all forms of anti-Americanism, tried to block some of the marchers and a [[May Day Riots of 1919|melee ensued]]. A mob ransacked Ruthenberg's headquarters. Mounted police, army trucks, and tanks restored order. Two people died, forty were injured, and 116 arrested. Local newspapers noted that only 8 of those arrested were born in the United States. The city government immediately passed laws to restrict parades and the display of red flags.<ref>Hagedorn, 185–86; Murray 75</ref>

With few dissents, newspapers blamed the May Day marchers for provoking the nationalists' response. The Salt Lake City ''Tribune'' did not think anyone had a right to march. It said: "Free speech has been carried to the point where it is an unrestrained menace."<ref>Hagedorn, 185–86</ref> A few, however, thought the marches were harmless and that the marchers' enthusiasm would die down on its own if they were left unmolested.<ref>Murray, 77</ref>

===Race riots===
{{Main|Red Summer}}

More than two dozen American communities, mostly urban areas or industrial centers, saw racial violence in the summer and early fall of 1919. Unlike earlier [[Mass racial violence in the United States|race riots in U.S. history]], the 1919 riots were among the first in which blacks responded with resistance to white attacks. [[Martial law in the United States|Martial law]] was imposed in [[Charleston, South Carolina]],<ref name=nyt>{{cite news |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1919/10/05/archives/for-action-on-race-riot-peril-radical-propaganda-among-negroes.html |title=For Action on Race Riot Peril |date=October 5, 1919 |access-date=January 20, 2010 |archive-date=August 18, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210818184043/https://www.nytimes.com/1919/10/05/archives/for-action-on-race-riot-peril-radical-propaganda-among-negroes.html |url-status=live }} This newspaper article includes several paragraphs of editorial analysis followed by Dr. Haynes' report, "summarized at several points".</ref> where [[Charleston riot of 1919|men of the U.S. Navy led a race riot]] on May 10. Five white men and eighteen black men were injured in the riot. An official investigation found that four U.S. sailors and one civilian—all white men—were responsible for the outbreak of violence.<ref name=enc>Walter C. Rucker, James N. Upton. ''Encyclopedia of American Race Riots''. Volume 1. 2007, pp. 92–93.</ref> On July 3, the [[10th Cavalry Regiment (United States)|10th U.S. Cavalry]], a segregated African American unit founded in 1866, was attacked by local police in [[Bisbee, Arizona]].<ref>Rucker, Walter C. and Upton, James N. ''Encyclopedia of American Race Riots'' (2007), 554.</ref> Two of the most violent episodes occurred in [[Washington, D.C.]], and [[Chicago]]. In Washington, D.C., white men, many in military uniforms, responded to the rumored arrest of a black man for rape with four days of mob violence, rioting and beatings of random black people on the street. When police refused to intervene, the black population fought back. When the violence ended, ten whites were dead, including two police officers, and 5 blacks. Some 150 people had been the victims of attacks.<ref>Ackerman, 60–62.</ref> The [[Chicago race riot of 1919|rioting in Chicago]] started on July 27. Chicago's beaches along Lake Michigan were segregated in practice, if not by law. A black youth who drifted into the area customarily reserved for whites was [[Stoning|stoned]] and drowned. Blacks responded violently when the police refused to take action. Violence between mobs and gangs lasted 13 days. The resulting 38 fatalities included 23 blacks and 15 whites. Injuries numbered 537 injured, and 1,000 black families were left homeless.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/110488/Chicago-Race-Riot-of-1919 "Chicago Race Riot of 1919"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111120213309/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/110488/Chicago-Race-Riot-of-1919 |date=2011-11-20 }}. ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved January 24, 2010.</ref> Some 50 people were reported dead. Unofficial numbers were much higher. Hundreds of mostly black homes and businesses on the [[South Side, Chicago|South Side]] were destroyed by mobs, and a militia force of several thousand was called in to restore order.<ref name=nyt />

In mid-summer, in the middle of the Chicago riots, a "federal official" told the ''New York Times'' that the violence resulted from "an agitation, which involves the I.W.W., Bolshevism and the worst features of other extreme radical movements". He supported that claim with copies of negro publications that called for alliances with leftist groups, praised the Soviet regime, and contrasted the courage of jailed Socialist Eugene V. Debs with the "school boy rhetoric" of traditional black leaders. The ''Times'' characterized the publications as "vicious and apparently well financed," mentioned "certain factions of the radical Socialist elements", and reported it all under the headline: "Reds Try to Stir Negroes to Revolt".<ref>{{cite news |work=The New York Times |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E07E0D71638E13ABC4051DFB1668382609EDE |title=Reds Try to Stir Negroes to Revolt |date=January 28, 1919 |access-date=January 28, 2010 |archive-date=March 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303210248/https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E07E0D71638E13ABC4051DFB1668382609EDE |url-status=live }}</ref>

In mid-October, government sources again provided the ''New York Times'' with evidence of Bolshevist propaganda targeting America's black communities that was "paralleling the agitation that is being carried on in industrial centres of the North and West, where there are many alien laborers". Vehicles for this propaganda about the "doctrines of Lenin and Trotzky" included newspapers, magazines, and "so-called [[Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League|'negro betterment' organizations]]". Quotations from such publications contrasted the recent violence in Chicago and Washington, D.C., with "Soviet Russia, a country in which dozens of racial and lingual types have settled their many differences and found a common meeting ground, a country which no longer oppresses colonies, a country from which the lynch rope is banished and in which racial tolerance and peace now exist." The ''New York Times'' cited one publication's call for unionization: "Negroes must form cotton workers' unions. Southern white capitalists know that the negroes can bring the white bourbon South to its knees. So go to it."<ref>{{cite news |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1919/10/19/archives/reds-are-working-among-negroes-widespread-propaganda-by-radical.html |title=Reds are Working among Negroes |date=October 19, 1919 |access-date=January 28, 2010 |archive-date=March 17, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180317035821/https://www.nytimes.com/1919/10/19/archives/reds-are-working-among-negroes-widespread-propaganda-by-radical.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Strikes===
{{Main Article|United States strike wave of 1919}}

====Boston police strike====
{{Main|Boston police strike}}
The [[American Federation of Labor]] (AFL) began granting charters to [[Police unions in the United States|police unions]] in June 1919 when pressed to do so by local groups, and in just 5 months had recognized affiliate police unions in 37 cities.<ref>Foner, 93; Slater 243</ref> The [[Boston Police Department|Boston Police]] rank and file went out on strike on September 9, 1919 in order to achieve recognition for their union and improvements in wages and working conditions.<ref>Hagedorn, 351–353</ref> Police Commissioner [[Edwin Upton Curtis]] denied that police officers had any right to form a union, much less one affiliated with a larger organization like the AFL. During the strike, [[Boston]] experienced two nights of lawlessness until several thousand members of the State Guard supported by volunteers restored order, though not without causing several deaths. The public, fed by lurid press accounts and hyperbolic political observers, viewed the strike with a degree of alarm out of proportion to the events, which ultimately produced only about $35,000 of property damage.<ref>Foner, 96</ref>

{{quote box
 | quote  = Bolshevism in the United States is no longer a specter. Boston in chaos reveals its sinister substance.
 | source = — Philadelphia ''Public Ledger''
 | width  = 300px
 | align  = left
}}

The strikers were called "deserters" and "agents of Lenin."<ref>Murray, 126</ref> The Philadelphia ''Public Ledger'' viewed the Boston violence in the same light as many other of 1919's events: "Bolshevism in the United States is no longer a specter. Boston in chaos reveals its sinister substance."<ref>Murray, 129; Foner, 96–97</ref> President [[Woodrow Wilson]], speaking from Montana, branded the walkout "a crime against civilization" that left the city "at the mercy of an army of thugs".<ref>Pietrusza, 99</ref> The timing of the strike also happened to present the police union in the worst light. September 10, the first full day of the strike, was also the day a huge New York City parade celebrated the return of General [[John J. Pershing]], the hero of the [[American Expeditionary Force]].<ref>Hagedorn, 351–52</ref>

A report from Washington, D.C., included this headline: "Senators Think Effort to Sovietize the Government Is Started".<ref>Murray, 130</ref> Senator [[Henry Cabot Lodge]] saw in the strike the dangers of the national labor movement: "If the American Federation of Labor succeeds in getting hold of the police in Boston it will go all over the country, and we shall be in measurable distance of Soviet government by labor unions."<ref>Foner, 97</ref> The ''Ohio State Journal'' opposed any sympathetic treatment of the strikers: "When a policeman strikes, he should be debarred not only from resuming his office, but from citizenship as well. He has committed the unpardonable sin; he has forfeited all his rights."<ref>Murray, 132</ref>

[[Samuel Gompers]] of the AFL recognized that the strike was damaging labor in the public mind and advised the strikers to return to work. The Police Commissioner, however, remained adamant and refused to re-hire the striking policemen. He was supported by Massachusetts Governor [[Calvin Coolidge]], whose rebuke of Gompers earned him a national reputation. Famous as a man of few words, he put the anti-union position simply: "There is no right to strike against the public safety, anywhere, anytime."<ref>Pietrusza, 100; Foner, 100. See also {{cite news |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1919/09/15/archives/bay-state-governor-firm-says-wilsons-suggestion-does-not-apply-as.html |title=Bay State Governor Firm |date=September 15, 1919 |access-date=February 5, 2010 |archive-date=January 20, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120195438/https://www.nytimes.com/1919/09/15/archives/bay-state-governor-firm-says-wilsons-suggestion-does-not-apply-as.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

The strike proved another setback for labor and the AFL immediately withdrew its recognition of police unions. Coolidge won the Republican nomination for Vice-President in the [[1920 United States presidential election|1920 presidential election]] in part due to his actions during the Boston Police Strike.

==== 1918–1920 New York City rent strikes ====
{{Main article|1918-1920 New York City rent strikes}}
[[File:Tenants Bargain Together for Rent, Scenes in Williamsburg New York Tribune Sun Sep 14 1919.jpg|thumb|Williamsburg Rent Strike,{{Br}}Published September 14, 1919]]
Following a housing and coal shortage caused by the mobilization for World War I, a wave of rent strikes occurred across all of New York City and [[Jersey City, New Jersey|Jersey City]] from 1918 to 1920. While it is unclear exactly how many tenants were involved, at least tens of thousands and likely hundreds of thousands tenants struck.<ref name="rent wars" /> 

In response to the strikes, which was marked heavily by the Red Scare, rhetoric accusing tenant leaders of being Bolsheviks and comments that claimed a fear that there would be a mass uprising were commonly invoked by political officials at the time. Repression by the government was also prevalent; two examples include the [[Palmer Raids]] and [[Lusk Committee|Lusk Committee raids]]. The period was also marked by anti-Semitic rhetoric.<ref name=":03">{{Cite book |last=Lawson |first=Ronald |url=http://archive.org/details/tenantmovementin0000unse |title=The Tenant movement in New York City, 1904–1984 |date=January 1, 1986 |publisher=New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-8135-1203-7 |pages=51–89 |chapter=Ch. 2: New York City Tenant Organizations and the Post-World War I Housing Crisis}}</ref><ref name="rent wars">{{Cite book |last=Fogelson |first=Robert Michael |url=https://academic.oup.com/yale-scholarship-online/book/18895 |title=The great rent wars: New York, 1917–1929 |date=2013 |publisher=Yale University press |isbn=978-0-300-19172-1 |location=New Haven (Conn.) |doi=10.12987/yale/9780300191721.001.0001}}</ref><ref name=":112">{{Cite book |last=Day |first=Jared N. |title=Urban castles: tenement housing and landlord activism in New York City, 1890 - 1943 |date=1999 |publisher=Columbia Univ. Press |isbn=978-0-231-11402-8 |series=The Columbia history of urban life |location=New York, NY}}</ref>

In 1920, the [[#Expulsion of Socialists from the New York Assembly|five Socialist members of the New York state assembly were expelled]] from it by a vote of 140 to 6, partially in response to their support for the strikes.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Lawson |first=Ronald |url=http://archive.org/details/tenantmovementin0000unse |title=The Tenant movement in New York City, 1904–1984 |date=January 1, 1986 |publisher=New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-8135-1203-7 |pages=51–89 |chapter=Ch. 2: New York City Tenant Organizations and the Post-World War I Housing Crisis}}</ref>{{Rp|page=|pages=52,65–66}}<ref name=":18">{{cite news |date=April 1, 1920 |title=Democratic Filibusters Delay Vote on Expulsion of Socialists in Stormy Debate in Assembly — Majority for Expulsion — "Throw Them Out," Yells Assembly as One Man — Roosevelt in Opposition — Adler, Too, Maintains Charges Against Socialist Party Were Not Sustained — Chamber Often in Uproar — Minority Wins Battle Against Speaker to Save Governor from Special — Session Dilemma |page=1 |newspaper=New York Times |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1920/04/01/96877249.pdf |access-date=November 17, 2016}}</ref>

By its end, the wave of strikes had led to the passage of the first [[Property law|rent laws]] in the country and fundamentally shifted tenant-landlord relations. However, the more radical tenant groups largely were destroyed by raids or slowly dwindled as a result of the new laws addressing the crisis.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Lawson |first=Ronald |url=http://archive.org/details/tenantmovementin0000unse |title=The Tenant movement in New York City, 1904–1984 |date=January 1, 1986 |publisher=New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-8135-1203-7 |pages=51–89 |chapter=Ch. 2: New York City Tenant Organizations and the Post-World War I Housing Crisis}}</ref><ref name=":11">{{Cite book |last=Day |first=Jared N. |title=Urban castles: tenement housing and landlord activism in New York City, 1890 – 1943 |date=1999 |publisher=Columbia Univ. Press |isbn=978-0-231-11402-8 |series=The Columbia history of urban life |location=New York, NY}}</ref>

====Steel strike of 1919====
{{Main|Steel strike of 1919}}
[[File:Coming out of the smoke.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|"Coming out of the Smoke", ''New York World'', October 11, 1919]]

Though the leadership of the [[American Federation of Labor]] (AFL) opposed a strike in the steel industry, 98% of their union members voted to strike beginning on September 22, 1919. It shut down half the steel industry, including almost all mills in [[Pueblo, Colorado]]; [[Chicago, Illinois]]; [[Wheeling, West Virginia]]; [[Johnstown, Pennsylvania]]; [[Cleveland, Ohio]]; [[Lackawanna, New York]]; and [[Youngstown, Ohio]].<ref>Brody, 233–244</ref>

The owners quickly turned public opinion against the AFL. As the strike began, they published information exposing AFL National Committee co-chairman William Z. Foster's radical past as a [[Industrial Workers of the World|Wobbly]] and [[syndicalism|syndicalist]], and claimed this was evidence that the steelworker strike was being masterminded by radicals and revolutionaries. The steel companies played on nativist fears by noting that a large number of steelworkers were immigrants. Public opinion quickly turned against the striking workers. State and local authorities backed the steel companies. They prohibited mass meetings, had their police attack pickets and jailed thousands. After strikebreakers and police clashed with unionists in [[Gary, Indiana]], the [[U.S. Army]] took over the city on October 6, 1919, and [[martial law]] was declared. National Guardsmen, leaving Gary after federal troops had taken over, turned their anger on strikers in nearby [[Indiana Harbor, Indiana]].<ref>Rayback, 287; Brody, 244–253; Dubofsky and Dulles, 220</ref>

Steel companies also turned toward strikebreaking and rumor-mongering to demoralize the picketers. They brought in between 30,000 and 40,000 [[African-American]] and [[Mexican-American]] workers to work in the mills. Company spies also spread rumors that the strike had collapsed elsewhere, and they pointed to the operating steel mills as proof that the strike had been defeated.<ref>Rayback, 287; Dubofsky and Dulles, 220–21; Brody, 254–55</ref>

Congress conducted its own investigation, focused on radical influence upon union activity. In that context, U.S. Senator [[Kenneth McKellar (politician)|Kenneth McKellar]], a member of the Senate committee investigating the strike, proposed making one of the Philippine Islands a penal colony to which those convicted of an attempt to overthrow the government could be deported.<ref>{{cite news |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1919/10/25/archives/bill-provides-penal-colony-in-philippines-for-anarchists.html |title=Bill Provides Penal Colony in Philippines for Anarchists |date=October 25, 1919 |access-date=January 31, 2010 |archive-date=July 25, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180725215106/https://www.nytimes.com/1919/10/25/archives/bill-provides-penal-colony-in-philippines-for-anarchists.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

The Chicago mills gave in at the end of October. By the end of November, workers were back at their jobs in Gary, Johnstown, Youngstown, and Wheeling. The strike collapsed on January 8, 1920, though it dragged on in isolated areas like Pueblo and Lackawanna.<ref>Brody, 258–262</ref>

====Coal strike of 1919====
{{Main|UMW coal strike of 1919}}
The [[United Mine Workers]] under [[John L. Lewis]] announced a strike for November 1, 1919.<ref>Coben, 176–178</ref> They had agreed to a wage agreement to run until the end of World War I and now sought to capture some of their industry's wartime gains. Attorney General [[Alexander Mitchell Palmer|A. Mitchell Palmer]] invoked the [[Food and Fuel Control Act|Lever Act]], a wartime measure that made it a crime to interfere with the production or transportation of necessities. The law, meant to punish hoarding and profiteering, had never been used against a union. Certain of united political backing and almost universal public support, Palmer obtained an injunction on October 31<ref>{{cite news |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1919/11/01/archives/palmer-to-enforce-law-defends-injunction-as-the-only-way-to-meet.html |title=Palmer to Enforce Law |date=November 1, 1919 |access-date=January 26, 2010 |archive-date=March 4, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180304113319/https://www.nytimes.com/1919/11/01/archives/palmer-to-enforce-law-defends-injunction-as-the-only-way-to-meet.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and 400,000 coal workers went on strike<!--'workers struck' sounds wrong--> the next day.<ref>Coben, 178–79</ref> He claimed the President authorized the action, following a meeting with the severely ill President in the presence of his doctor.<ref>Coben, 178–79. On the President's role, see also Kenneth D. Ackerman, ''Young J. Edgar: Hoover, the Red Scare, and the Assault on Civil Liberties'' (New York: Carroll & Graf, 2007), 100</ref> Palmer also asserted that the entire Cabinet had backed his request for an injunction. That infuriated Secretary of Labor Wilson who had opposed Palmer's plan and supported Gompers' view of the President's promises when the Act was under consideration. The rift between the Attorney General and the Secretary of Labor was never healed, which had consequences the next year when Palmer's attempts to deport radicals were [[Palmer raids#Aftermath|frustrated by the Department of Labor]].<ref>Josephus Daniels, ''The Wilson Era: Years of War and After, 1917–1923'' (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1946), 546–47</ref>

[[Samuel Gompers]], President of the [[American Federation of Labor]], protested that President Wilson and members of his Cabinet had provided assurances when the Act was passed that it would not be used to prevent strikes by labor unions. He provided detailed accounts of his negotiations with representatives of the administration, especially Secretary of Labor [[William Bauchop Wilson|William B. Wilson]]. He also argued that the end of hostilities, even in the absence of a signed treaty, should have invalidated any attempts to enforce the Act's provisions.<ref>{{cite news |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1919/11/23/archives/gompers-repeats-injunction-charge-produces-notes-and-statements-to.html |title=Gompers Repeats Injunction Charge |date=November 23, 1919 |access-date=March 11, 2010 |archive-date=July 25, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180725214533/https://www.nytimes.com/1919/11/23/archives/gompers-repeats-injunction-charge-produces-notes-and-statements-to.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Nevertheless, he attempted to mediate between Palmer and Lewis, but after several days called the injunction "so autocratic as to stagger the human mind".<ref>Coben, 179–180</ref> The coal operators smeared the strikers with charges that Lenin and Trotsky had ordered the strike and were financing it, and some of the press echoed that language.<ref name="Murray, 155">Murray, 155</ref> Others used words like "insurrection" and "Bolshevik revolution".<ref name="Murray, 155"/> Eventually Lewis, facing criminal charges and sensitive to the propaganda campaign, withdrew his strike call, though many strikers ignored his action.<ref>Coben, 181</ref> As the strike dragged on into its third week, coal supplies were running low and public sentiment was calling for ever stronger government action. Final agreement came on December 10.<ref>Coben, 181–183; {{cite news |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1919/12/11/archives/miners-finally-agree-only-one-dissenting-voice-when-leaders-vote-to.html |title=Miners Finally Agree |date=December 11, 1919 |access-date=January 26, 2010 |archive-date=May 5, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180505205934/https://www.nytimes.com/1919/12/11/archives/miners-finally-agree-only-one-dissenting-voice-when-leaders-vote-to.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Reactions===

====Palmer Raids====
{{Main|Palmer Raids}}
[[File:Radicals awaiting deportation.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|Men arrested in raids awaiting deportation hearings on Ellis Island, January 13, 1920]]

Despite two attempts on his life in April and June 1919, Attorney General [[A. Mitchell Palmer]] moved slowly to find a way to attack the source of the violence. An initial raid in July 1919 against a small anarchist group in Buffalo failed when a federal judge tossed out his case.<ref>Pietruszka, 146–47</ref> In August, he organized the General Intelligence Division within the Department of Justice and recruited [[J. Edgar Hoover]], a recent law school graduate, to head it.<ref>Pietruszka, 146</ref> Hoover pored over arrest records, subscription records of radical newspapers, and party membership records to compile lists of resident aliens for deportation proceedings. On October 17, 1919, just a year after the [[Immigration Act of 1918]] had expanded the definition of aliens that could be deported, the U.S. Senate demanded Palmer explain his failure to move against radicals.<ref>Coben, 176</ref>

Palmer launched his campaign against radicalism with two sets of police actions known as the [[Palmer Raids]] in November 1919 and January 1920. Federal agents supported by local police rounded up large groups of suspected radicals, often based on membership in a political group rather than any action taken. Undercover informants and warrantless wiretaps (authorized under the [[Sedition Act of 1918|Sedition Act]]) helped to identify several thousand suspected leftists and radicals to be arrested.

Only the dismissal of most of the cases by Acting [[United States Secretary of Labor]] [[Louis Freeland Post]] limited the number of deportations to 556. Fearful of extremist violence and revolution, the American public supported the raids. Civil libertarians, the radical left, and legal scholars raised protests. Officials at the Department of Labor, especially Post, asserted the rule of law in opposition to Palmer's anti-radical campaign. Post faced a Congressional threat to impeach or censure him. He successfully defended his actions in two days of testimony before the House Rules Committee in June 1919 and no action was ever taken against him. Palmer testified before the same committee, also for two days, and stood by the raids, arrests, and deportation program. Much of the press applauded Post's work at Labor, while Palmer, rather than President Wilson, was largely blamed for the negative aspects of the raids.<ref>Dominick Candeloro, "Louis F. Post and the Red Scare of 1920". ''Prologue: The Journal of the National Archives'' 2.1 (1979): 41–55.</ref>

====Deportations====
[[File:USAT Buford.jpg|thumb|left|alt=the Soviet Ark, a ship, leaving New York Harbor|Text of original caption: "THE SOVIET ARK, The United States army transport Buford, carrying 249 Russian '[[Red (political adjective)|Reds]]' as America's Christmas present to [[Vladimir Ilyich Lenin|Lenin]]e {{sic}} and [[Leon Trotsky|Trotzky]] {{sic}}."]]

On December 21, 1919, the [[USAT Buford|''Buford'']], a ship the press nicknamed the "Soviet Ark", left New York harbor with 249 deportees. Of those, 199 had been detained in the November [[Palmer Raids]], with 184 of them deported because of their membership in the [[Union of Russian Workers]], an anarchist group that was a primary target of the November raids. Others on board, including the well-known radical leaders [[Emma Goldman]] and [[Alexander Berkman]], had not been taken in the Palmer Raids. Goldman had been convicted in 1893 of "inciting to riot" and arrested on many other occasions. Berkman had served 14 years in prison for the attempted murder of industrialist [[Henry Clay Frick]] in 1892. Both were convicted in 1917 of interfering with military recruitment.<ref>Post, 12–16, 19–20</ref> Some of the 249 were leftists or anarchists or at least fell within the legal definition of anarchist because they "believed that no government would be better for human society than any kind of government".<ref>Post, 14–16</ref> In beliefs they ranged from violent revolutionaries to pacifist advocates of non-resistance. Others belonged to radical organizations but disclaimed knowledge of the organization's political aims and had joined to take advantage of educational programs and social opportunities.<ref>McCormick, 158–163; Jerome Davis, ''The Russian Immigrant'' (New York: Macmillan, 1922), 114ff., 164ff.; [[Kate Claghorn|Kate Holladay Claghorn]], ''The Immigrant's Day in Court'' (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1923), 367, 371–373. Louis Freeland Post details the case of Peter Bianky, who was fully aware of and committed to the revolutionary principles of the Union of Russian Workers, but as for most of that organization's members among the deportees Post thought it "a reasonable probability that they were totally ignorant of the objectionable clauses" in the organization's statements that provided the legal basis for deporting them. Post, 22–24.</ref>

The U.S. [[United States Department of War|War Department]] used the ''Buford'' as a transport ship in the [[Spanish–American War]] and in [[World War I]] and loaned it to the [[United States Department of Labor|Department of Labor]] in 1919 for the deportation mission.<ref>Post, 3</ref> A "strong detachment of marines" numbering 58 enlisted men and four officers made the journey and pistols were distributed to the crew.<ref>{{cite news |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1919/12/21/archives/ark-with-300-reds-sails-early-today-for-unnamed-port-bufords.html |title='Ark' with 300 Reds Sails Early Today for Unnamed Port |date=December 21, 1919 |access-date=February 1, 2010 |archive-date=May 5, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160505231553/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A01EEDC1E3CEE3ABC4951DFB4678382609EDE |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Post, 4</ref> Its final destination was unknown as it sailed under sealed orders. Even the captain only learned his final destination while in [[Kiel]] harbor for repairs, since the [[United States Department of State|State Department]] found it difficult to make arrangements to land in [[Latvia]]. [[Finland]], though chosen, was not an obvious choice, since Finland and Russia were at war.<ref>Post, 3, 10–11</ref>

The notoriety of Goldman and Berkman as convicted anti-war agitators allowed the press and public to imagine that all the deportees had similar backgrounds. ''The New York Times'' called them all "Russian Reds".<ref>{{cite news |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1919/12/13/archives/hundreds-of-reds-on-soviet-ark-sail-soon-for-russia-united-states.html |title=Hundreds of Reds on Soviet 'Ark' Sail Soon for Europe |date=December 13, 1919 |access-date=February 1, 2010 |archive-date=February 20, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180220152804/http://www.nytimes.com/1919/12/13/archives/hundreds-of-reds-on-soviet-ark-sail-soon-for-russia-united-states.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Most of the press approved enthusiastically. The Cleveland ''Plain Dealer'' wrote: "It is hoped and expected that other vessels, larger, more commodious, carrying similar cargoes, will follow in her wake."<ref>Murray, 208–09</ref> The ''[[New York Evening Mail]]'' said: "Just as the sailing of the Ark that Noah built was a pledge for the preservation of the human race, so the sailing of the Ark of the Soviet is a pledge for the preservation of America."<ref>Murray, 208</ref> Goldman later wrote a book about her experiences after being deported to Russia, called ''[[My Disillusionment in Russia]]''.

=====Concentration camps=====
As reported by ''The New York Times'', some communists agreed to be deported while others were put into a concentration camp at [[Camp Upton]] in New York pending deportation hearings.<ref>{{cite news |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1920/01/06/archives/begin-procedure-to-deport-reds-half-of-first-twenty-heard-on-ellis.html |title=BEGIN PROCEDURE TO DEPORT REDS; Half of First Twenty Heard on Ellis Island Agree to Go Back to Russia. ALL COMFORTABLY HOUSED New Arrivals Will Be Sent to Concentration Camp at Camp Upton—One Girl Released |date=January 6, 1920 |access-date=June 21, 2019 |archive-date=June 22, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190622014717/https://www.nytimes.com/1920/01/06/archives/begin-procedure-to-deport-reds-half-of-first-twenty-heard-on-ellis.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Expulsion of Socialists from the New York Assembly===
[[File:Five Socialist Assemblymen High Res.jpg|thumb|upright=2.3|The five Socialist assemblymen suspended by the New York Legislature in January 1920]]
{{Anchor|Expulsion of Socialists from the New York Assembly}}On January 7, 1920, at the first session of the [[New York State Assembly]], Assembly Speaker [[Thaddeus C. Sweet]] attacked the Assembly's five Socialist members, declaring they had been "elected on a platform that is absolutely inimical to the best interests of the state of New York and the United States". The Socialist Party, Sweet said, was "not truly a political party", but was rather "a membership organization admitting within its ranks aliens, enemy aliens, and minors". It had supported the revolutionaries in [[German Revolution of 1918–1919|Germany]], Austria, and [[Hungarian Soviet Republic|Hungary]], he continued, and consorted with international Socialist parties close to the [[Communist International]].<ref name=":1">Waldman, 2–7</ref> The Assembly suspended the five by a vote of 140 to 6, with just one Democrat supporting the Socialists.

A trial in the Assembly, lasting from January 20 to March 11, resulted in a recommendation that the five be expelled and [[Socialist Party of America#Expulsion of Socialists from the New York Assembly|the Assembly voted overwhelmingly for expulsion]] on April 1, 1920.<ref name=":1" /> The expulsion was partially in response to [[#1918–1920 New York City rent strikes|their support for and involvement in the wave of rent strikes occurring in NYC]].<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|page=|pages=52,65–66}}<ref name=":18" />

Opposition to the Assembly's actions was widespread and crossed party lines. From the start of the process, former Republican Governor, Supreme Court Justice, and presidential candidate [[Charles Evans Hughes]] defended the Socialist members: "Nothing&nbsp;... is a more serious mistake at this critical time than to deprive Socialists or radicals of their opportunities for peaceful discussion and thus to convince them that the Reds are right and that violence and revolution are the only available means at their command."<ref>{{cite news |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1920/01/10/archives/hughes-upholds-socialists-rights-tells-speaker-sweet-assemblys.html |title=Hughes Upholds Socialists' Rights |date=January 10, 1920 |access-date=February 23, 2010 |archive-date=July 26, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180726005653/https://www.nytimes.com/1920/01/10/archives/hughes-upholds-socialists-rights-tells-speaker-sweet-assemblys.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Democratic Governor [[Al Smith]] denounced the expulsions: "To discard the method of representative government leads to the misdeeds of the very extremists we denounce and serves to increase the number of enemies of orderly free government."<ref>{{cite news |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1920/01/11/archives/sweet-defends-assemblys-action-against-socialists-speaker-writes-in.html |title=Sweet Defends Assembly's Action. Smith Assails Assembly |date=January 11, 1920 |access-date=February 23, 2010 |archive-date=July 25, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180725215514/https://www.nytimes.com/1920/01/11/archives/sweet-defends-assemblys-action-against-socialists-speaker-writes-in.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Hughes also led a group of leading New York attorneys in a protest that said: "We have passed beyond the stage in political development when heresy-hunting is a permitted sport."<ref>Cooper, 329–330. See also {{cite news |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1920/01/13/archives/bar-association-upholds-socialists-committee-to-go-to-albany-to.html |title=Bar Association Upholds Socialists |date=January 13, 1920 |access-date=February 23, 2010 |archive-date=July 25, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180725215019/https://www.nytimes.com/1920/01/13/archives/bar-association-upholds-socialists-committee-to-go-to-albany-to.html |url-status=live }}</ref>