How Spanish flu hit the US

M Rajivlochan

M Rajivlochan
Historian

What might be the social consequences of the current Covid crisis? Are there some aspects of such crises about which we need to be wary? Till now, most speculations have mostly been on the economic outcomes. A handful of people have also wondered about whether being so close to what seems like the end of the world as we know it may change our behaviour for the better. The economic impact of the crisis is something that we may quite easily overcome. But, what about the society and social behaviour? It is in this respect that perhaps a quick look into history might provide an insight into things about which we need to be cautious.

In 1918, the world was faced with a similar crisis when the influenza killed lakhs of people. In India alone, official records say that six lakh died of the flu. Unofficial estimates put the figure to as high as 18 lakh. But, at that time, India was a slave country, firmly under the military boot of the British. Amidst the epidemic, Mahatma Gandhi emerged as the most sought-out leader in India. His leadership ensured that the common people got heavily involved in the effort to oust the British and obtain swaraj within a year. This was the famed Non-Cooperation Movement.

However, it is from American history that we get a much better insight into what happens in times of such crises. America then was a reasonably well-off country, with a free people, unfettered by slavery or war, with the same sort of social inequalities and prejudices that any other society might have. It was hit heavily by the flu which resulted in thousands of deaths.

The influenza epidemic raged for 10 months in America in 1918. This was part of a world pandemic. Initially, much like what happened this year, little attention was paid by anyone in the US to the flu-related deaths. Then in September 1918, the epidemic claimed hundreds of lives in eastern cities and military camps. In the following 10 months, a combination of flu and respiratory complications like pneumonia killed roughly 5.5 lakh Americans. Most of those who died were in the age-group of 20-40 years, the most productive of the population.

The American Medical Association, among others, sought government funding to search for a cure. The American Congress did sanction a million dollars to the Public Health Service to fight the epidemic, but no money was offered for research. The Public Health Service was overwhelmed by calls for medical personnel and also treatment facilities. Actually, much of the help that finally came was from Red Cross nurses and volunteers.

America was facing several other problems at this time for too much attention to be paid to the pandemic. The pandemic and the darkness of death only seemed to exacerbate the pre-existing problems to a level that seems unimaginable today. Racial hatred was inflamed and race riots rocked many cities.

In the war years, three to five lakh Americans had left the South in flight from racial violence and in search of economic opportunities in the North. Chicago’s black population increased by 150 per cent. African-Americans worked as construction labourers, janitors, porters and in other low-paid jobs. They were sitting ducks in the race riots. Cities like Chicago and East St Louis were badly hit by rioting.

For many days in Chicago, white gangs hunted African-Americans in the streets and burnt hundreds out of their homes. Later, the authorities blamed African-Americans for what had happened. Activities of the Chicago Police came in for sharp criticism by Walter White, the then executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, in an article in the journal Crisis, the official organ of that organisation. He wrote: “State Attorney Hoyne openly charged the police with arresting colored rioters and with an unwillingness to arrest white rioters...”

Meantime, the government used the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of May 1918 to suppress opponents ruthlessly. Anyone who dared to question the government was sentenced to years in prison. The American Supreme Court upheld many of these actions, including the conviction of four Russian immigrants who had denounced the American military intervention in the Russian Revolution.

This period also saw a great deal of labour unrest. Businessmen hit back ruthlessly. The Phelps Dodge Mining Company and leading businessmen of Bisbee, Arizona, hired 2,000 armed vigilantes to break a strike in the copper industry in that town. Miners who did not want to resume work were picked up from their homes, from restaurants and stores and herded into the town plaza where two machine guns were installed.

From there, they were marched to the baseball park and issued an ultimatum to return to work. The 1,400 who refused were forced at gunpoint onto a freight train which took them to Columbus, New Mexico, where they were dumped in the desert. When the unions approached the government, a presidential mediation committee criticised the action and called it illegal but they also said the federal government had no jurisdiction in the matter. Arizona’s Attorney-General did not offer any protection for a return to Bisbee.

More than four million American workers were involved in 3,600 strikes in 1919 alone. High post-war inflation and a sharp rise in the prices of food items had led workers to demand more wages. The government did all that was possible to suppress the strikes. In September 1919, the Boston police department went on strike when their demand for a pay raise was rejected. Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge called in the National Guard to restore order. He crushed the strike and the entire police force was fired. One of the largest strikes involved 3.5 lakh steel workers; state and federal troops were used to break it.

Strikes and racial disturbances were increasingly blamed on foreign radicals and alien ideologies. The Alien Act was passed in 1918, which enabled the government to deport any immigrant found to be a member of any revolutionary organisation prior to or after coming to the US. Many hundreds of people were deported. The ‘Red Scare’ left an ugly legacy.

Recalling such episodes puts in perspective the repeated declaration by the current US President that Covid might take away about one lakh Americans. In stark contrast, the government in India has gone into an overdrive to ensure that people are taken care of.