1921

Some notable events, 1921

January 3: The Supreme Court’s decision in Duplex Printing Press Co. v. Deering , 254 U.S. 443 marks the end of the so-called “Lochner era” of jurisprudence, affirming Congress’ broad authority to regulate commerce, industry and labor relations. These extended wartime measures, which enforced closed-shop collective bargaining, are upheld as constitutional in a 5-4 split.

January 4: President-elect Leonard Wood meets with the National Executive of the NAACP, over the objections of his advisors that it had become a communist front organization.

January 28: The Italian Communist Party (PCI) is founded in Livorno, as part of the growing split in international socialism.

February 1: In the ongoing Russian Civil War, Bolshevik troops occupy Tbilisi. The Menshevik government of the Georgian Democratic Republic is captured, but sporadic fighting continues around the capital and in the countryside.

February 18: The Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic is officially declared in Tbilisi. In reality, the government is a puppet of Moscow.

February 21: The battlecruiser USS Lexington (CC-1) is finally commissioned, following mid-construction refits.

March 3: Sailors at the Bolshevik-controlled Russian naval port of Kronstadt mutiny. They deliver a list of demands to the Bolshevik government that include increased restrictions on the Cheka secret police, a return to soviet democracy, and free elections, among others.

March 4: Leonard Wood is inaugurated president of the United States in Washington DC. Wood is quick to enforce party discipline on the Republicans in the House. His allies in the Cabinet force the resignation of several prominent members of the House Republican Caucus over their opposition to the party’s reform agenda.

March 14: The Kronstadt mutiny is crushed by a force of loyal Cheka volunteers and Red Army officer cadets, demonstrating the severe instability of the Bolshevik government at this point. In Moscow, the Council of People’s Commissars formally implements the New Economic Policy.

March 28: The Budgeting and Accounting Act of 1921 is formally ratified by the US government.

April 2: The reparations commission of the League of Nations orders Germany to pay a sum of 115 billion gold marks, in annual installments of 2.5 billion.

April 15: Red Friday: leaders of the British National Transport Workers Federation and the National Union of Railwaymen vote narrowly to join strike action with the Miner’s Federation in response to wage cuts and lockouts.

April 22: The Red Friday strike ends with the unions accepting more modest cuts, the government having been prepared to break the strike with the use of scabs and middle-class volunteers to preserve essential services.

April 28: Under the terms of the truce agreement, the leaders of Sinn Féin dissolve the Dáil Éireann of the provisional republic, in exchange for a modified Home Rule bill that would grant additional powers to the Parliament of Southern Ireland.

May 1: In a symbolic act of national reconciliation, President Wood issues a general amnesty to all radicals convicted over violations of the Espionage or Sedition Acts. Eugene Debs, released in an earlier pardon deal, meets with President Wood at the White House to “cordially discuss the national affairs of the United States.” Wood’s attempts at reconciliation prove to be deeply unpopular within his party.

May 7: With the crushing of the occupying White Army in Mongolia, and the establishment of the Mongolian People’s Republic, the Soviet Revolutionary Wars are over. Sporadic fighting continues, but organized, effective resistance to the Soviet government ceases.

May 19: First Secretary James Mann passes away from a sudden stroke. President Wood seizes the opportunity to strengthen his hold on the Republican Party by reshuffling the Cabinet, placing noted liberal Leonidas C. Dyer in the position of head of government. In addition, the duumvirate removes William Vare, Secretary of Industrial Coordination, and Charles Hughes, Secretary of State, in favor of James J. Davis and Frank B. Kellogg, respectively.

May 21: Kansas City, Missouri, is rocked by protests pitting pedestrians against motorists and the police, following attempts to enforce the city’s nine-year old ordinance against “jaywalking”. The battle over who owns the streets is sharply divided on class lines.

May 23: The farcical Leipzig War Crimes Trials begin, satisfying neither justice nor German national pride.

May 24: Irish Home Rule elections: pro-treaty Irish nationalists, led by W.T. Cosgrave, eek out a narrow victory over anti-treaty republicans.

May 30: The Workers’ Party of Oklahoma begins its resistance campaign against Jim Crow. Sit-ins and strikes begin at segregated businesses in Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Led by white and black Great War veterans, the campaign aims to force the legislature to revoke Jim Crow. As a tactical concession, workers taking part in the strike continue to do business in the large, well established black districts in these cities.

June 1: Brigadier General Douglas MacArthur is appointed Superintendent of the United States Military Academy.

June 4: President Wood formally signs a joint-resolution officially ending the formal state of war between the United States and Germany, Austria and Hungary.

June 18: The Third World Congress of the Comintern begins in Moscow.

June 30: The British-backed forces of the Kingdom of Hejaz rout the forces of the House of Saud’s Ikhwan in the Asir region

July 4: A truce agreement is reached between Britain and the Irish Provisional Government.

July 12: First Secretary Dyer kills Albert Johnson’s Emergency Immigration Act, after consultation with the Cabinet and major business leaders. Restricting immigration at this time, it is felt, would unduly increase the bargaining power of organized labor. Furthermore, the threat of immigrant radicalism is muted by the strength of native radicalism. With continued immigration, native workers may turn against immigrant workers in competition for jobs.

July 18: Tulsa, OK is paralysed by street-fighting between the communist Spartacus League and the Knights of the KKK. Governor Patrick Nagle (W) declares martial law and mobilises the National Guard with strict orders to contain the racist pogroms centered around the KKK. Mistrusting the National Guard, and with only a plurality in the state legislature, the Governor hopes the coming emergency session will enable him to end the crisis swiftly.

July 29: In Germany, a lowly former corporal from the German Army signal corps is elected leader of the so-called National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP).

August 4: A Workers’ Party/Republican Party concord is formed in Oklahoma. While moderates like Nagle receive criticism from the party for failing to hold to the party-line, the concord enables the passage of laws abolishing Jim Crow, including banning all local ordinances to effect. Additional measures, including a state bank to support credit unions, overtime pay, banning child labor, are expected to face legal challenges.

August 12: Italian immigrant anarcho-syndicalist organizers Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are found guilty of first degree murder and sedition by a Massachusetts jury. Sacco and Vanzetti’s defense accuse the trial of being a kangaroo court, with nothing but circumstantial evidence to support the conviction.

August 18: The First National Congress of the Workers’ Party meets in New York City. The Party adopts a new constitution and platform, and elects a Central Committee.

August 30: President Wood signs Public Law 64-17, ending segregation in federal employment and the military (including the National Guard).

September 4: The Railway Administration Act of 1921 is passed, partially denationalising railroads in the United States. Rolling stock, operations and facilities are returned to their private owners based on the terms of the original 1915 act. The railways themselves remain under the permanent control of the US Railway Administration. The former owners are paid under a different compensation scheme. Maintenance and expansion of the railways is now under the control of the federal government. Regulation and standardization is enforced by the Railway Administration and the Interstate Commerce Commission through the ownership of the railroads.

October 1: A peace conference between the United Kingdom and Éire begins in London.

October 4: The Workers’ Party Central Committee votes to adopt the “Southern Strategy” proposed by William Z. Foster and Harry Haywood, to focus national attention on breaking Jim Crow, including tactical cooperation with the Republican Party.

October 18: As part of demobilisation budget cuts, the US Army’s Tank Corps is merged into the Cavalry branch. Infantry support tanks are given to the Infantry branch. The 3rd Cavalry Regiment begins reorganization into a tank/armored car force, utilizing J. Walter Christie’s M1919 Medium Tank.

November 6: The Washington Naval Conference begins. Delegates from the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Japan attend, aiming to spare the unreasonable financial burden of a renewed naval arms race.

November 7: The National Fascist Party is established in Italy.

December 1: The Anglo-Irish Treaty is ratified by the British Parliament and the Parliament of Southern Ireland. The treaty establishes a 25 country Dominion of Southern Ireland. Violence erupts as anti-treaty sections of the IRA attempt to reignite the war for independence.

December 18: The United States Department of Industrial Coordination and the United States Department of Commerce are merged. The Department of Trade and Industry will have plenipotentiary powers to regulate and promote American industry and international trade.