Cultural Focus: Veterans' Day

After the ending of World War I, and the sign of Armistice on Monday, November 11, 1918, the last day of the war was honored with lying down of arms, and numerous demonstrations in many countries all over the globe. A year later President Woodrow Wilson issued his Armistice Day proclamation in the last paragraph of which he said: "To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nation".

The holiday was not considered a national one until in 1938 President Roosevelt signed a bill making the day a legal holiday in the District of Columbia. Nearly a decade later, after World War II, the name of the holiday was questioned as the word "armistice" had no significance to many new veterans. So the name of the holiday was changed to the Veterans' Day and today on this day Americans honor all servicemen of all American wars.

Post-War Years

World War I not only changed the situation in Europe, but also affected the life of Americans. The economic mini-boom during the war created high inflation, which meant higher prices, and, finally, labor strife. Workers, who received higher wages during the war economic boom, were dissatisfied with the rising cost of living in the post-war years. In 1919, the country experienced working riots in major industrial cities – more than 3,500 strikes involving more than 4 million workers took place.

Often workers' strikes were coupled with race riots, when white crowds attacked blacks, and blacks fought back. Many of these riots were supported by a new Ku Klux Klan, organized in 1915. It attracted people, who hated blacks, Catholics, Jews and foreigners. By the mid 1920s, the Klan had probably 4,5 million members. Many political parties felt the influence of KKK in local, state and even national elections. Popularity of this organization stopped only in 1925, after some widely publicized scandals with its leaders.

The war coupled with industrial growth changed traditional women's roles – more and more women had jobs, and by 1920, they made up 13 % of professional force. These changes gave rise to women's movements for suffrage and equal rights with men, which started in the early 20^th century. In 1920, women finally got the right to vote in the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution. The same year women all over the United States voted for the first time in presidential elections.

Beginning from 1917, when the Bolshevik Revolution occurred in Russia, many Americans feared that Red Scare (communism) might come to the USA. Nearly all labor strikes were denounced as communist-inspired. A new Office of General Intelligence was created within the Justice Department, with J.Edgar Hoover as its head. Hoover began to collect files on radicals, which led to the deportation of people from the country. By the summer of 1920, the threats of the Red Scare and anarchy were overcome, many people began to feel safer.

World War I also increased anti-immigration feelings in Americans, who feared that war-torn Europeans would flood the country. The increased immigration led to the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 limiting immigration from one country to three percent of the number from that country already in the USA. In 1924, quotas were cut to two percent and all Japanese immigration was banned. Five years later immigration was limited to 150,000 per year making the USA a more closed country for newcomers.