The radical element of the world will always seek to strike at the most symbolic of places, at the greatest number of people, to evoke the wildest terror it can. The devilish work of the 9-11 terrorists must not be forgotten, both for its horror and for its impact on history. The same goes for the Wall Street Bombing of 100 years ago. The tragedy, the mystery, the bravery displayed, and the thought-provoking causes and responses must continue to be examined and retold in our national tale.
It is soon after 11:30 a.m. on September 16, 1920 ...
An unknown person or persons place five sheets of loose paper into a mailbox on Cedar Street and Broadway. On these papers, a smudgy message warns:
"Remember. We will not tolerate any longer. Free the political prisoners or it will be sure death for all of you." [1]
It is signed "American Anarchist Fighters."
11:50 a.m. - The skies are clear and blue, barely a cloud to be seen. New York City is hitting its stride as it nears midday. In ten minutes, Wall Street will be hopping with people on their lunch break. The city is already busy with people pursuing the American dream at every stage in the process. There are bankers and businessmen, clerks and salespeople, tourists and immigrants, children and veterans.
Were one to visit the J.P. Morgan headquarters by the corner of Broad Street and Wall Street today, he would see a similar view - albeit one with taxis instead of horse drawn carriages. He would also see, if he looked close enough, a number of aged pockmarks on the side of the building. These are the scars of September 16, 1920.
11:55 a.m. - a bay horse draws a wagon up alongside the building. Nobody pays the situation much notice. The driver leaves the wagon unattended and disappears without a trace among the citizenry. He likely quickens his pace significantly, knowing what is coming.
12:00 p.m. - The bells of the Trinity Church clang. The bourgeois class leaves their citadels of finance and enters the streets on their lunch break. The driver knows it cannot be long. They will get what is coming to them. If there is any regard for the countless members of the lower classes out on the streets as well, it is shrugged off as necessary loss for the cause of bringing terror to the heart of American capitalism.
The bells ring a second time, and then a third time. However, today they are the final resonations of a countdown. Nine ... eight ... seven ...
The large statue of President George Washington looks down on the people from Federal Hall. He will bear silent witness to their suffering. Six ... five ... four ...
The old horse still stands with the rickety wagon. It will cease to exist, pulverized completely, leaving behind hooves and a storm of blood and flesh chunks, in three ... two ...
12:01 p.m. - One.
Blocks away, pedestrians feel the shock of a violent blast; then they hear the ear splitting roar. Those standing close to the wagon are killed instantly, as are some of those unlucky enough to be beside nearby windows. Objects, including cars, are thrown many feet skyward by a plume of fire. About 100 pounds of TNT had just detonated within the wagon. 500 pounds of cast iron sat alongside the explosives, which had become a highly destructive wave of shrapnel. Heads and limbs flew off. Windows shattered, metal bent, foundations rattled, awnings burned, and voices screamed. The smell of a horrid brown smoke mixed with that of singed clothes and cooked hair. 38 people would die of their injuries and over 200 were wounded.
The authorities sprung into action, guarding damaged buildings in fear of a wider conspiracy to attack important financial and cultural sites. The Bureau of Investigation would get on the case, but as the FBI website notes:
"Over the next three years, hot leads turned cold and promising trails turned into dead ends. In the end, the bombers were not identified." [2]
On the 18th of September, Republican Presidential candidate Warren G. Harding gave a speech that held his solutions for the strife erupting in America. He called for immigrant groups - who were widely suspected of masterminding anti-American deeds - to assimilate into American society and emphasized national unity above class, race, and nationality. He utilized the term "hyphenated Americanism" in contrast to his primary campaign message (alongside "Normalcy"): Americanism. "You who are men and women of foreign birth, I do not address as men and women of foreign birth;" he began,
"I address you as Americans, and through you I would like to reach all the American people ... indeed, I would consider it a breach of courtesy to you and a breach of my duty to address myself to any group or special interest or to any class or race or creed."
He spoke analogously of assimilation of cultures into the American union:
"We talked of the American melting pot over the fires of freedom, but we did not apply that fierce flame of patriotic devotion needed to fuse all into the pure metal of Americanism."
Harding also bashed foreign intervention:
"I like to think of an America where every citizen's pride in power and resources, in influence and progress, is founded on what can be done for our people, all our people; not what we may accomplish to the political or national advantage of this or that people in distant lands."
Harding was sounding quite like John Quincy Adams in the early statesman's 1821 Fourth of July Address. Adams had warned that America should not seek "monsters" abroad; he was a President with a focus on domestic improvements.
Harding's speech held plenty of language which seems to be stressing unity and America's strength as a melting pot, but it was a product of its time. Certainly, the use of the term "hyphenated Americanism" within the speech would bring to mind the Italian-American anarchists who were suspected of domestic terrorism and plots to Bolshevize the United States. This was also not a particularly good time to be an Eastern European-American or Chinese-American. President Woodrow Wilson had spoken in Pueblo, Colorado almost exactly a year before the Harding speech in question and utilized "hyphen" rhetoric to bluntly say the following:
"I cannot say too often -- any man who carries a hyphen about him carries a dagger that he is ready to plunge into the vitals of this Republic whenever he gets ready." [3]
It is hard to tell how much of this kind of racist sentiment Harding brought to his speech. Typical for Harding, the language he used was formulated vaguely to allow practically every person listening to agree in some fashion. Each audience member was able to place his or her own opinions in the gaps Harding left. With the power of hindsight, we can examine the way Harding treated the situation while in office to gain a better understanding. What we find is not particularly admirable. The Harding and Coolidge administrations would end up signing strict immigration laws, and the American public would largely go along, their feelings of xenophobia heightened by actions such as the Wall Street Bombing. The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon around eighty years later would produce similar sentiment about followers of Islam and even Indian Sikhs who appeared to the quick-to-judge to be just another brown, turbaned group of alien invaders. President Bush, like Harding, spoke admirably of national unity and the need to look past race or creed following disaster; however, both had their own massive flaws in the way that their future policy reflected the source of their beliefs. There will always be crises, and there will always be fear as a result. America must learn to blame the use of violence, not the color or background of the perpetrator, for the aftermath of pain.
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