It is ironic that one of the Good Fellows claims that he hasn’t “one particle of race-prejudice,” and that he is pleased when “nigger[s]” do well, but only so long as they know their place. Seeing the black porter who works at the Good Fellows council, they all stare at him “gloomily.” The Fellows’ hypocrisy is palpable as they keep talking as usual, but when the porter has left they complain: “I don’t know what’s come over these niggers can i get loan from netspend card, nowadays. They never give you a civil answer.” What is surprising is that at the beginning of the previous quote the subject “I” is used instead of “they” (referring to “they wailed:”) to express a collective opinion. Definitely, this underscores Piper’s “collective” identity of class 9 . This highly racist debate takes place in the Good Fellows council. The irony lies in the fact that their bigoted remarks are at odds with their claim that they are not racially prejudiced: in fact, they assert that white supremacy is good, inequality is good, and “clan” is good.
The newcomers were also considered a serious threat to America’s security. Agitators in the 1920s were mostly foreigners (Lindop Goldstein, 2009 , p. 12). In The Regulated Economy: A Historical Approach to Political Economy published in 2008 it is stated that: “labor unrest would be fueled by foreign agitators. Perhaps of most importance was the emergence of a pivotal group in the form of the foreign born, who were vocal and rapidly gaining the franchise” (230). ..] should be hanged” (40), Babbitt represents not only the view of himself, but also that of many old-timers, the media, and the US Government policy represented by Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge, all of whom, at one time or another, influence his opinions (155). The narrator emphasizes the attitudes of Seneca Doane, “radical lawyer,” and Dr. Yavitch, “a revolutionist Jew,” who criticize boosting and call for the “standardization” of America (89–90), that is, empowering civil society and labor unions. In My Neighbor the Workingman James Roscoe Day, 10 pastor and chancellor of Syracuse University, warns against such foreigners, calling them America’s enemies:
Thus, declaring that “all labor agitators [
Is America unable to protect herself from her most insidious and perilous foes? [. ] Reds and Blacks, Soviets and World-Wides must be sent to their own place. [. ] a country’s greatest safeguard against the socialist in whatsoever form he may appear. We could take the chance of breaking the hearts of foreign lands rather than break up the homes of our own people with hunger and discontent (Day 22–52).
Babbitt is a member of the “right-thinking wing,” and he supports the idea of shooting the “crooked agitators” and even states that all those who demand higher wages are liars and fakers (269)
Remarkably, after encountering Seneca Doane, he alters his lifestyle as well as his political views. Therefore, he defends the strikers in the Athletic Club. When Chum Fink, a member of the Athletic Club suggests that these “bomb-throwing socialists and thugs” and “hoodlums that are trying to take the bread and butter away from our families” should be beaten, Babbitt asserts that “they look just about like you and me, and I certainly didn’t notice any bombs” (273). Chum Fink’s attack on foreigners is similar to that of Day:
Strikes in nearly all cases are projected by foreigners or their descendants, who never have learned our laws and whose ignorance is the secret of their diabolical mischief [. ] These founders of the first openly declared Bolshevik political party in our country, men defeated in bomb-throwing and other kinds of assassination and sabotage, e of labor, the abolition of the United States Senate (Day, 1920 , p. 339). 11