Xenophobia is the condition in which one is afraid of foreigners. In the years leading up to 1920 immigration from Europe to the United States grew rapidly. In 1918 from month to month there was an average increase of 9.57%. These immigrants came to America with the hopes of a new life with a steady working job.1 Within the first two decades of the twentieth century the number of factory workers went from 4.7 million to 9 million.2 People from Europe saw America as an opportunity for a new start and that there would be plenty of work waiting for them. This frightened many of the working class in America because they knew that the immigrants coming will be looking for work and that they were at risk of losing their jobs to people who. The Red Scare increased the mass feeling of xenophobia because not only were Americans afraid of losing their jobs, they were afraid of communist radicals. Most strikes and other forms of action against the government were viewed as acts of terrorism by communist radicals. In Seattle the media put out an article claiming that those who were responsible were radicals and that this was their push for a revolution.3 The employers of European immigrants feared that they would bring communist ideas into the workplace. While the media did its part to spread its xenophobic ideas, Senator Miles Poindexter claimed that all strikes were caused by communist radicals who were using strikes to destroy the government and implant communism.4

1 Anonymous. “Immigration.” Monthly Labor Review (Pre-1988). 8.1(1919):313
2 Letourneau, Jenny. Xenophobia in 1920s, “ESSAI,6, no 30(2008):1-4
3 Letourneau, Jenny. Xenophobia in 1920s, “ESSAI,6, no 30(2008):1-4
4 Letourneau, Jenny. Xenophobia in 1920s, “ESSAI,6, no 30(2008):1-4

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