Wilson makes an idealistic fool of himself in treaty negotiations, the Bolshevik Revolution rages in Russia, the Senate refuses to let America join the League of Nations. The war hasn't ended all wars and the world isn't safe for democracy. Everybody is sick of reform, idealism, promises, pep, and doin' it, doin' it. About 550,000 Americans die of the Spanish flu, perhaps 40 million people around the world. Blacks who fought in France come home to race riots.
Anarchists mail dynamite bombs to public men.
You are appalled when eight players for the Chicago White Sox are charged with conspiring to throw the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds. All are acquitted, but all are barred from baseball for life. This is what all the energy and reform come to.