Jan 17, 2018
1920s The Decade That Roared 1920's collectively known as the
"Roaring 20's", or the "Jazz Age"
in sum, a period of great change in American Society - modern
America is born at this time for first time the census reflected an
urban society - people had moved into cities to enjoy a higher
standard of living This 1925 Judge cartoon, Sheik with Sheba, drawn
by John Held Jr
This 1925 Judge cartoon, Sheik with Sheba, drawn by John Held Jr.,
offered one view of contemporary culture. The flashy new
automobile, the hip flask with illegal liquor, the cigarettes, and
the stylish new woman were all part of the Roaring Twenties image.
SOURCE:The Granger Collection (4E746.21). Thomas Hart Bentons 1930
painting City Activities with Dance Hall depicts the excitement and
pleasures associated with commercialized leisure in the Prohibition
era, reflecting urban Americas dominance in defining the nations
popular culture. SOURCE:Thomas Hart Benton,City Activities with
Dance Hall from America Today ,1930. Distemper and egg tempera on
gessoed linen with oil glaze 92 x134 1/2 inches.Collection, AXA
Financial,Inc.,through its subsidiary, The Equitable Life Assurance
Society of the U.S.AXA Financial,Inc. Post WWI Problems violent
labor strikes urban racial riots bomb scares
anger towards anarchists Red Scare the presence of Communist party
members in the United States the Russian Revolution bomb scares and
actual bombings labor strikes Shortly after the end of World War I
and the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, the Red Scare took hold in
the United States. A nationwide fear of communists, socialists,
anarchists, and other dissidents suddenly grabbed the American
psyche in 1919 following a series of anarchist bombings. The nation
was gripped in fear. Innocent people were jailed for expressing
their views, civil liberties were ignored, and many Americans
feared that a Bolshevik-style revolution was at hand. Then, in the
early 1920s, the fear seemed to dissipate just as quickly as it had
begun, and the Red Scare was over. During World War I, a fervent
patriotism was prevalent in the country, spurred by propagandist
George Creel, chairman of the United States Committee on Public
Information. While American boys were fighting the "Huns" abroad,
many Americans fought them at home. Anyone who wasn't as patriotic
as possible--conscientious objectors, draft dodgers, "slackers,"
German-Americans, immigrants, Communists--was suspect. It was out
of this patriotism that the Red Scare took hold. At the time the
World War I Armistice was executed in 1918, approximately nine
million people worked in war industries, while another four million
were serving in the armed forces. Once the war was over, these
people were left without jobs, and war industries were left without
contracts. Economic difficulties and worker unrest increased. Two
main Union/Socialist groups stood out at the time--the
International Workers of the World (the I.W.W. or Wobblies)
centered in the northwest portion of the country and led by "Big"
Bill Haywood, and the Socialist party led by Eugene Debs. Both
groups were well know objectors to WWI, and to the minds of many
Americans therefore, unpatriotic. This led them open to attack. Any
activity even loosely associated with them was suspicious. One of
the first major strikes after the end of the war was the Seattle
shipyard strike of 1919 which, erroneously, was attributed to the
Wobblies. On January 21, 35,000 shipyard workers in Seattle struck.
A general strike resulted when 60,000 workers in the Seattle area
struck on February 6. Despite the absence of any violence or
arrests, the strikers were immediately labeled as Reds who and
charges that they were trying to incite revolution were leveled
against them. Hysteria struck the city as department stores,
grocery stores, and pharmacies were flooded by frightened customers
trying to ensure that they would be able to survive a prolonged
strike. The Seattle strike suddenly became national news, with
newspaper headlines across the country telling of Seattle's
impending doom and potential loss to the Reds and urging for the
strike to be put down. Seattle mayor Ole Hansen, who had long hated
the Wobblies and took the strike as a personal affront to him, took
the offensive against the strikers. He guaranteed the city's safety
by announcing that 1500 of the city's policemen and an equal number
of federal troops were at his disposal to help break the strike and
keep the peace. On February 10, realizing the strike could not
succeed and could even damage the labor movement in Seattle, orders
were given to end the strike. Mayor Hansen took credit for the
termination of the strike, proclaimed a victory for Americanism,
quit his job, and became a national expert and lecturer on
anti-communism. Subsequent to the Seattle strike, all strikes
during the next six months were demonized in the press as "crimes
against society," conspiracies against the government," and "plots
to establish communism." A bomb plot was then uncovered on April
28, and among its intended victims was Mayor Hansen, apparantly a
target for his squashing of the strike. On May Day (May 1), 1919,
rallies were held throughout the country and riots ensued in
several cities, including Boston, New York, and Cleveland. On June
2, another multi-state bomb plot was uncovered, leading to more
fear of unseen anarchists who could inflict destruction and death
from afar. Since one cannot defend against an unknown enemy, the
"known" enemies (those workers who chose to strike) became
increasingly tempting targets for persecution. On September 9, the
Boston police force went on strike. A panic that "Reds" were behind
the strike took over Boston despite the lack of any radicalism on
the part of the striking police officers. Although the city
experienced primarily looting and vandalism (as well as some
rioting), papers around the country ran inflammatory and polemical
headlines. Stories told of massive riots, reigns of terror, and
federal troops firing machine guns on a mob. On September 13,
Police Commissioner Curtis announced that the striking policemen
would not be allowed to return and that the city would hire a new
police force, effectively ending the strike. Weeks later, a
nation-wide steel strike occurred. On September 22, 275,000 steel
workers walked off their jobs, and soon the strikers numbered
365,000. Three quarters of Pittsburgh's steel mills were shut down,
and the strikers estimated that the strike was 90% effective.
Riots, attributed only to the strikers with no newspapers laying
any blame on police or political leaders, resulted in many places.
In Gary, Indiana, for example, unrest was so prevalent that martial
law was declared on October 5. The steel owners held fast, and in
January of 1920, with less than a third of the strikers still out,
the strike ended without the strikers gaining a single demand. As a
result of the strikes and unrest, the strikers were branded as
"Reds" and as being unpatriotic. Fear of strikes leading to a
Communist revolution spread throughout the country. Hysteria took
hold. "Red hunting" became the national obsession. Colleges were
deemed to be hotbeds of Bolshevism, and professors were labeled as
radicals. The hunt reached down to public secondary schools where
many teachers were fired for current or prior membership in even
the most mildly of leftist organizations. The American Legion was
founded in St. Louis on May 8, 1919 "[t]o uphold and defend the
Constitution of the United States of America; to maintain law and
order; to foster and perpetuate a one hundred per cent
Americanism." By the fall, the Legion had 650,000 members, and over
a million by year's end. While most of the Legion engaged in such
relatively innocuous activities as distributing pamphlets, the
patriotic and anti-communist fervor of the Legion led many to
engage in vigilante justice meted out against Reds both real and
suspected. The Legion's prevalence in the country and reputation
for anti-communism was so great that the phrase "Leave the Reds to
the Legion" became the "Wazzzzup" of the late teens. The
government, too, was not immune to anti-communistic hysteria. The
Justice Department, under Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer,
started the General Intelligence (or antiradical) Division of
Bureau of Investigation on August 1, 1919 with J. Edgar Hoover as
its head. Its mission to uncover Bolshevik conspiracies, and to
find and incarcerate or deport conspirators. Eventually, the
antiradical division compiled over 200,000 cards in a card-filing
system that detailed radical organizations, individuals, and case
histories across the country. These efforts resulted in the
imprisonment or deportation of thousands of supposed radicals and
leftists. These arrests were often made at the expense of civil
liberties as arrests were often made without warrants and for
spurious reasons. In Newark, for example, a man was arrested for
looking like a radical. Even the most innocent statement against
capitalism, the government, or the country could lead to arrest and
incarceration. Moreover, arrestees were often denied counsel and
contact with the outside world, beaten, and held in inhumane
conditions. If the national press is any indicator of the
predominant mood of the country, then the efforts of the Justice
Department was overwhelmingly supported by the masses because the
raids, deportations, and arrests were all championed on the front
page of most every paper. All told, thousands of innocent people
were jailed or deported, and many more were arrested or questioned.
On January 2, 1920 alone over 4,000 alleged radicals were arrested
in thirty-three cities. Legislatures also reflected the national
sentiment against radicals. Numerous local and state legislatures
passed some sort of ordinance against radicals and radical
activity. Thirty-two states made it illegal to display the red flag
of communism. The New York Legislature expelled five duly elected
Socialist assemblymen from its ranks. While Congress was unable to
enact a peacetime anti-sedition bill, approximately seventy such
bills were introduced. The national mood, however, began to shift
back to normal in the spring of 1920. In May twelve prominent
attorneys (including Harvard professors Dean Pound, Zachariah
Chaffee, and Felix Frankfurter, who later became a Supreme Court
Justice and a proponent of Sacco and Vanzetti's innocence) issued a
report detailing the Justice Department's violations of civil
liberties. The New York Assembly's's decision to bar its Socialist
members was met with disgust by national newspapers and leaders
such as then-Senator Warren G. Harding, former Republican
presidential candidate Charles Evans Hughes and even Attorney
General A. Mitchell Palmer who felt it unfair to put Socialists and
Communists in the same category. Supreme Court Justice Oliver
Wendell Holmes criticized proposed anti-sedition bills. Possibly
because the proposed bills were viewed as censorship, most
newspapers came out against the anti-sedition bills. Industry
leaders, who were early proponents of anti-communism, began to
realize that deporting immigrants (as many of the communists were
alleged to be) drained a major source of labor, which would result
in higher wages and decreased profits. Suddenly, political cartoons
in newspapers that months earlier had been virulently opposed to
Reds now featured over zealous Red-hunters as their objects of
scorn and ridicule. The Red Scare quickly ran its course and, by
the summer of 1920, it was largely over. The nation turned its
collective attention to more leisurely pursuits. Red Scare At this
time, W. Wilson was gravely ill following a stroke His Attorney
General, A. Mitchell Palmer, wanted to take a shot at the
presidency - he used fears of both immigrants and communism to his
advantage He had J. Edgar Hoover round up suspected radicals, many
of which were deported (Palmer Raids) People Margaret Sanger
Charles Lindbergh and Babe Ruth Marcus Garvey
advocacy of birth control Planned Parenthood Charles Lindbergh and
Babe Ruth Demonstrated that individualism was still alive in a
modern American dominated by corporations and team players Marcus
Garvey Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) Doctors wash
their hands!
Women go to hospitals to have babies 40% of maternal deaths were
caused by sepsis (half following delivery and half associated with
illegally induced abortion) with the remaining deaths primarily
attributed to hemorrhage and toxemia 1942: First use of penicillin
40% of maternal deaths were caused by sepsis (half following
delivery and half associated with illegally induced abortion) with
the remaining deaths primarily attributed to hemorrhage and toxemia
(2). Marcus Garvey (Jamaican born immigrant) established the
Universal Negro Improvement Association
believed in Black pride advocated racial segregation b/c of Black
superiority Garvey believed Blacks should return to Africa he
purchased a ship to start the Black Star line attracted many
investments: gov't charged him with w/fraud he was found guilty and
eventually deported to Jamaica, but his organization continued to
exist Events KKK Prohibition Harlem Renaissance promote white
supremacy
Nordic Americans Prohibition the rise of organized crime proved
difficult to enforce defiance of the law by large numbers of people
rise of organized crime divisions in the Democratic party
widespread smuggling Harlem Renaissance Langston Hughes "Song to A
Negro Wash Woman The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain" Women
members of the Ku Klux Klan in New Castle, Indiana, August 1, The
revived Klan was a powerful presence in scores of American
communities during the early 1920s, especially among native-born
white Protestants, who feared cultural and political change. In
addition to preaching 100 percent Americanism, local Klan chapters
also served a social function for members and their families.
SOURCE:Ball State University Libraries,Archives &Special
Collections,W.A.Swift Photo Collection. The Ku Klux Klan In power
Great increase Anti-black Anti-immigrant
Anti-Semitic Anti-Catholic Anti-womens suffrage Anti-bootleggers A
KKK group youll never see Prohibition Volstead Act untouchables
Gangsters 18th Amendment
The Volstead Act, formally National Prohibition Act, which
reinforced the prohibition of alcohol in the United States, was
named for Andrew Volstead, Chairman of the House Judiciary
Committee, which oversaw its passage. However, Volstead served as
the legislation's sponsor and facilitator rather than its author.
It was the Anti-Saloon League's Wayne Wheeler who conceived and
drafted the bill. Al Capone PROHIBITION - on manuf. and sale of
alcohol
adopted in th AMENDMENT an outgrowth of the temperance movement in
WWI, temperance became a patriotic mvmt. - drunkenness caused low
productivity & inefficiency, and alcohol needed to treat the
wounded a difficult law to enforce... organized crime, speakeasies,
bootleggers were on the rise Al Capone virtually controlled Chicago
in this period -capitalism at its zenith Prohibition finally ended
in 1933 w/ the 21st Amendment forced organized crime to pursue
other interests Fun Fact chemist's war of Prohibition
In 1926, in New York City, 1,200 were sickened by poisonous
alcohol; 400 died. The following year, deaths climbed to 700 How
did the alcohol get poisonous?The govt. Frustrated, federal
officials had decided to try a different kind of enforcement. They
ordered the poisoning of industrial alcohols manufactured in the
United States, products regularly stolen by bootleggers and resold
as drinkable spirits. The idea was to scare people into giving up
illicit drinking. Instead, by the time Prohibition ended in 1933,
the federal poisoning program, by some estimates, had killed at
least 10,000 people. Fun Fact Think the govt learned their lesson
from the 1920s?
In the 1970s, the U.S. government's sprayed Mexican marijuana
fields with Paraquat, an herbicide. Its use was primarily intended
to destroy crops, but government officials also insisted that
awareness of the toxin would deter marijuana smokers. Blacks moved
north to take advantage of booming wartime industry (= Great
Migration) - Black ghettoes began to form, i.e. Harlem within these
ghettoes a distinct Black culture flourished (Harlem Ren.) But both
blacks and whites wanted cultural interchange restricted The critic
and photographer Carl Van Vechten took this portrait of Harlem
Renaissance poet Langston Hughes in The print next to Hughes
reflects the influence of African art, an important source of
inspiration for Harlem Renaissance artists and writers.
SOURCE:National Portrait Gallery,Smithsouian Institution/Art
Resource,New York. Oh, wash-woman / Arms elbow-deep in white suds,
/ Soul washed clean, Clothes washed clean,/ I have many songs to
sing you / Could I but find the words. Was it four oclock or six
oclock on a winter afternoon, I saw you wringing out the last shirt
in Miss White Ladys kitchen? Was it four oclock or six oclock? I
dont remember. But I know, at seven one spring morning you were on
Vermont Street with a bundle in your arms going to wash clothes./
And I know Ive seen you in the New York subway in the late
afternoon coming home from washing clothes. Yes, I know you,
wash-woman. I know how you send your children to school, and
high-school, and even college. / I know how you work to help your
man when times are hard. / I know how you build your house up from
the washtub and call it home. / And how you raise your churches
from white suds for the service of the Holy God -I, too (in whole)
-Hughes
I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother. / They send me to
eat in the kitchen / When company comes, / But I laugh, / And eat
well,/ And grow strong. Tomorrow, Ill be at the table / When
company comes. Nobodyll dare / Say to me, / Eat in the kitchen, /
Then. Besides, / Theyll see how beautiful we are / And be ashamed-
I, too, am America. -I, too (in whole) -Hughes I hear America
singing, the varied carols I hear, Those of mechanics, each one
singing his as it should be blithe and strong, The carpenter
singing his as he measures his plank or beam, The mason singing his
as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work, The boatman singing
what belongs to him in his boat, the deck- hand singing on the
steamboat deck, The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the
hatter singing as he stands, The woodcutter's song, the ploughboy's
on his way in the morn- ing, or at noon intermission or at sundown,
The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work,
or of the girl sewing or washing, Each singing what belongs to him
or her and to none else, The day what belongs to the dayat night
the party of young fellows, robust, friendly, Singing with open
mouths their strong melodious songs. Walt Whitmanleaves of grass
Compare the two poems Black US vs White US experience Note the
difference Black Population, 1920 Although the Great Migration had
drawn hundreds of thousands of African Americans to the urban
North, the Southern states of the former Confederacy still remained
the center of the African American population in 1920. Laws The
Sheppard-Towner Act of 1921
aimed at reducing childbirth mortality rates and infant mortality
rates At the time the legislation was introduced, childbirth
remained the second leading cause of death for women. About 20% of
children in the United States died in their first year and about
33% in their first five years Critics said it was socialism and
challenged it in the supreme courtthey lost.But the act was
de-funded in 1929 due to critics The Sheppard-Towner Act provided
for federal matching funds for such programs as: health clinics for
women and children, hiring physicians and nurses to educate and
care for pregnant women and mothers and their children visiting
nurses to educate and care for pregnant and new mothers midwife
training distribution of nutrition and hygiene information Laws The
law was significant in American legal history because it was the
first federally-funded social welfare program, and because the
challenge to the Supreme Court failed. The Sheppard-Towner Act is
significant in women's history because it addressed the needs of
women and children directly at a federal level. A Society in
Conflict Anti-immigrant Sacco-Vanzetti Trial
National Origins Act Discrimination Sacco-Vanzetti Trial Italian
immigrants Unfair trial On April 15, 1920, F.A. Parmenter, a shoe
factory paymaster, and guard Alessandro Berardelli were murdered in
South Braintree, Massachusetts. The two men who fired the shots
escaped in a waiting car with more than $15,000. Initially this
appeared to be a local story only, not unlike similar incidents
elsewhere in America during the often lawless postwar years. Three
weeks later, arrests were made and charges brought against two
Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco, a shoemaker, and Bartolomeo
Vanzetti, a fish peddler. A prominent left-wing attorney, Fred H.
Moore, was brought in to defend Sacco and Vanzetti in the South
Braintree murders. The accused had no criminal records, but were
known as outspoken anarchists, labor organizers and antiwar
activists activities viewed with great suspicion during the Red
Scare era. Moore made the decision to have his clients freely admit
their unpopular beliefs, in the hope that the trial would be
perceived to hinge on their political convictions and not on the
evidence. In so doing, the Sacco and Vanzetti case became a matter
of national public attention. A trial was held in the summer of
1921 in a Massachusetts Superior Court. The accused readily
admitted their radical beliefs, but denied any involvement in the
crime and conducted themselves with dignity during the proceedings.
Despite the presentation of corroborated testimony that Sacco was
in Boston trying to arrange for a passport at the time of the
murder, the jury rendered guilty verdicts for both. Sentencing,
however, was put off until a later time and years of appeals and
motions followed. Presiding Judge Webster Thayer was clearly not
impartial and had been heard to utter prejudicial remarks. A
protest movement, organized in part by attorney Moore, galvanized
support among liberals and socialists who criticized the blatantly
political nature of the verdict. Labor organizations and the
American Civil Liberties Union joined the protests and sought a new
trial. In late 1925, a convicted bank robber, Celestino Madeiros,
admitted to having participated in the murders, which provided the
Sacco and Vanzetti backers with new hope. Other issues were raised,
alleging improper actions by the police, perjury by witnesses and
evidence of Boston gang ties to the crime. Appeals to the
Massachusetts Supreme Court, however, were routinely turned down on
the basis that only the presiding trial judge could reopen a case
on the basis of new evidence. Judge Thayer was not inclined to do
so. In April 1927, the long-delayed sentencing occurred and both
men were given death sentences. Public clamor forced Massachusetts
Governor Alvan T. Fuller to appoint an investigative committee to
consider the appropriateness of executive clemency. President A.
Lawrence Lowell of Harvard chaired the committee, which in the end
supported the governors decision not to spare the lives of Sacco
and Vanzetti. The looming executions prompted huge demonstrations
throughout the United States, and in Europe and Latin America.
Despite these protests, Sacco and Vanzetti, proclaiming their
innocence to the end, were electrocuted in Charlestown State Prison
on August 23, 1927. The Sacco and Vanzetti case is still hotly
debated in some circles today as a classic example of the tyranny
of the establishment over the poor and politically non-conforming.
It is generally agreed that a second trial should have been granted
and that the refusal to do so was clearly unfair. For many years
there was much support for the belief that both men were wrongly
convicted, but more recent scholarship has pointed to the probable
guilt of Sacco and the likely innocence of Vanzetti. In 1977,
Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis issued a proclamation
asserting that Sacco and Vanzetti had been treated unjustly.
Vanzetti (L)Sacco (R) Laws Immigration Acts of 1921 and 1924
(National Origins Act)
Immigration limited to 2% of the number of people from that country
living in the US in 1890particulary tried to limit Jews and forbids
Asians from immigration Resentment of workers against foreign
immigrants' taking jobs away from Americans by their willingness to
work for low wages A belief, caused by two short postwar
depressions, that the nation's pool of labor was already
overcrowded The belief that those immigrants already in the country
were not adequately Americanized White Anglo-Saxon Protestants
wanted to bar immigrants of different racial, ethnic, and religious
backgrounds The Immigration Act of 1924, or Johnson-Reed Act,
including the National Origins Act, Asian Exclusion Act (43
Statutes-at-Large 153), was a United States federal law that
limited the number of immigrants who could be admitted from any
country to 2% of the number of people from that country who were
already living in the United States in 1890, according to the
Census of It excluded immigration of Asians. It superseded the 1921
Emergency Quota Act. The law was aimed at further restricting the
Southern and Eastern Europeans (particularly, but not limited to,
Jewish immigrants) who were immigrating in large numbers starting
in the 1890s, as well as prohibiting the immigration of East Asians
and Asian Indians. Fun Fact Some of the law's strongest supporters
were influenced by Madison Grant and his 1916 book, The Passing of
the Great Race. Grant was a eugenicist and an advocate of the
racial hygiene theory. His data purported to show the superiority
of the founding Northern European races. Sacco-Vanzetti Case The
Sacco and Vanzetti case is still hotly debated in some circles
today as a classic example of the tyranny of the establishment over
the poor and politically non-conforming. Fun Fact Who did it? Most
scholars agree in the probable guilt of Sacco and the likely
innocence of Vanzetti. Sorry about the being electrocuted Vanzetti
Small Town Anti-Urban Characteristics/beliefs
Prohibition Fundamentalism Immigration restriction Ku Klux Klan
Election of 1928 Mexican workers gathered outside a San Antonio
labor bureau in 1924
Mexican workers gathered outside a San Antonio labor bureau in
These employment agencies contracted Mexicans to work for Texas
farmers, railroads, and construction companies. Note the three
Anglo men in front (wearing suits and ties), who probably owned and
operated this agency. During the 1920s, San Antonios Mexican
population doubled from roughly 40,000 to over 80,000, making it
the second largest colonia in El Norte after Los Angeles.
SOURCE:Goldbeck Collection,Harry Ransom Humanities Research
Center,University of Texas at Austin.Photo by Summerville (46ND).
Annual Immigration to United States, 18601930 Mexican Immigration
to the United States in the 1920s Many Mexican migrants avoided
official border crossing stations so they would not have to pay
visa fees. Thus these official figures probably underestimated the
true size of the decades Mexican migration. As the economy
contracted with the onset of the Great Depression, immigration from
Mexico dropped off sharply. Clifford K. Berrymans 1928 political
cartoon interpreted that years presidential contest along sectional
lines. It depicted the two major presidential contenders as each
setting off to campaign in the regions where their support was
weakest. For Democrat Al Smith, that meant the West, and for
Republican Herbert Hoover, the East. SOURCE:Copyright,1928,Lost
Angeles Times.Reprinted by permission. The Election of 1928
Although Al Smith managed to carry the nations twelve largest
cities, Herbert Hoovers victory in 1928 was one of the largest
popular and electoral landslides in the nations history.
Celebrities Babe Ruth &Ty Cobb Charles Lindbergh
The Spirit ofSt. Louis Jack Dempsey Sports Gene Tunney defeated
Jack Dempsey to become the heavyweight champion of the world. Jim
Thorpe, later voted the most outstanding athlete of the first half
of the twentieth century, won the decathlon at the Olympics and was
later stripped of his medals for earlier playing semi-professional
baseball Gertrude Ederle was the first woman to swim the English
Channel. Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs in a single season. The
Pittsburgh Crawfords, one of the most popular and successful
baseball teams in the Negro National League, organized in Excluded
from major league baseball by a whites only policy, black
ballplayers played to enthusiastic crowds of African Americans from
the 1920s through the 1940s. The Negro leagues declined after major
league baseball finally integrated in 1947. SOURCE:1935 Pittsburgh
Crawfords, champions Negro National League. National Baseball Hall
of Fame Library, Cooperstown,N.Y. "Americans can have any kind of
car they want, and any color they want, as long as it's a Ford, and
as long as it's black." Henry Ford Automobiles Effects Changes in
dating customs More individualism
Bedroom on wheels More individualism Go your own way Demands by
voting public for more governmental funds for highways National
highway system The stimulation of industries connected to the
automobile industry, such as batteries, steel, oil, glass, and
rubber The development of a motel industry Automobiles In 1929,
sociologists Robert and Helen Lynd published, Middletown, a book
based on field research done in Muncie, Indiana, in 1924 and 1925.
The Lynds explored how industrialization had transformed tradition
values and customs in Middle America. They paid particular
attention to people's changing attitudes toward the automobile.
They found that people of every income level considered the
automobile a necessity rather than an luxury. People were willing
to sacrifice food, clothing, and their savings in order to own a
car. Fun Fact Perceived as a shining model of the American success
story, Ford was so trusted by the American public that in 1928,
when he announced the development of the new Model A, half a
million Americans made a down payment on the car without having
seen it, taken it for a test drive, or even known how much it would
cost. Model A Fun Fact Henry Ford was very anti-Semitic
He opened up a newspaper, The Dearborn Independent, whose sole
purpose was to advise the people of the US of the threat of the
Jews. Finished automobiles roll off the moving assembly line at the
Ford Motor Company, Highland Park, Michigan, ca During the 1920s,
Henry Ford achieved the status of folk hero, as his name became
synonymous with the techniques of mass production. Ford cultivated
a public image of himself as the heroic genius of the auto
industry, greatly exaggerating his personal achievements.
SOURCE:Brown Brothers. Until 1924, Henry Ford had disdained
national advertising for his cars
Until 1924, Henry Ford had disdained national advertising for his
cars. But as General Motors gained a competitive edge by making
yearly changes in style and technology, Ford was forced to pay more
attention to advertising. This ad was directed at Mrs. Consumer,
combining appeals to female independence and motherly duties. Great
Trials Leopold and Loeb Scopes Trial symbolize immoral
decadence
fundamentalist discomfort with evolutionary science dispute between
modernists and traditionalist Bobby Franks Clarence Darrow Leopold
and Loeb were two wealthy University of Chicago students who
murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks in 1924, and were sentenced to
life imprisonment. The duo were motivated to murder Franks by their
desire to commit a perfect crime. Once apprehended, Leopold and
Loeb retained Clarence Darrow as counsel for the defense. Darrows
summation in their trial is noted for its influential criticism of
capital punishment and retributive, as opposed to rehabilitative,
penal systems. The 1925 Scopes trial attracted an enormous amount
of media attention, as well as many anti-evolution crusaders. This
group set up shop near the Dayton, Tennessee courthouse. High
School Biology teacher
Scopes MonkeyTrial Evolution vs. Creationism Science vs. Religion
Church Vs. State Famous Lawyers Dayton, Tennessee John Scopes High
School Biology teacher Darrow Fun Fact Scopes was on trial for
teaching from the text A Civic Biology: Presented in Problems which
violated TN law Now hed be on trial for teaching from it because it
was racist Fun Factsome quotes from the biology book
At the present time there exist upon the earth five races or
varieties of man, each very different from the other in instincts,
social customs, and, to an extent, in structure. These are the
Ethiopian or negro type, originating in Africa; the Malay or brown
race, from the islands of the Pacific; the American Indian; the
Mongolian or yellow race, including the natives of China, Japan,
and the Eskimos; and finally, the highest type of all, the
Caucasians, represented by the civilized white inhabitants of
Europe and America. Hunter was also a proponent of eugenics. "[T]he
science of being well born, is an imperative for sophisticated
society. "When people marry there are certain things that the
individual as well as the race should demand," he wrote, arguing
that tuberculosis, epilepsy, and even "feeble-mindedness are
handicaps which it is not only unfair but criminal to hand down to
posterity." "If such people were lower animals, we would probably
kill them off to prevent them from spreading," Hunter lamented in
Civic Biology. "Humanity will not allow this but we do have the
remedy of separating the sexes in asylums or other places and in
various ways preventing intermarriage and the possibilities of
perpetuating such a low and degenerate race." Age of Prosperity
Economic expansion Mass Production Assembly Line
Age of the Automobile Ailing Agriculture Why the boom? On the
whole, the United States economy experienced steady growth and
expansion during the 1920s. Machines Factories The Process of
Standardized Mass Production and increased worker productivity
Effect of WWI on technology. Scientific management: "Taylorism"
Formula for labor, streamline work, industrial research Psychology
of consumption Relations between the federal government and big
business more business, less govt Business policies High tariff
policies. The Fordney-McCumber Act (1922) and the Hawley-Smoot Act
(1930) created the highest-ever schedule of tariffs for
foreign-made goods. Andrew Mellon. Secretary of the Treasury from
1921 to In response to his demands, Congress repealed the excess
profits tax and reduced the rates for corporate and personal income
taxes. Mellon provided business leaders with a list of tax
loopholes which the IRS had drawn up at Mellon's request. Cutbacks
in the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The federal government had
created the FTC to regulate big business and to look into unfair
trade practices, but the commission did less and less of this in
the 1920s. Herbert Hoover. As Secretary of Commerce and as
President, Hoover encouraged price-fixing and believed that the
government was responsible for helping businesses profit. Fun fact
A new innovation appeared in the 1920sthe installment plan, which
encouraged Americans to build up debt in order to buy consumer
goods. In 1926, 75% of all cars were purchased on the installment
plan.Avg. cost of a car$290. Consumer Debt, 192031 The expansion of
consumer borrowing was a key component of the eras prosperity.
These figures do not include mortgages or money borrowed to
purchase stocks. They reveal the great increase in installment
buying for such consumer durable goods as automobiles and household
appliances. An agri. depression in early 1920's contributed to
urban migration
U.S. farmers lost agri. markets in postwar Europe At same time
agri. efficiency increased so more food produced (more food = lower
prices) and fewer labourers needed So farming was no longer as
prosperous, and bankers called in their loans (farms repossessed)
So American farmers enter the Depression in advance of the rest of
society Black American farmers in this period continued to live in
poverty
sharecropping kept them in de facto slavery boll weevil wiped out
the cotton crop white landowners went bankrupt & forced blacks
off their land Consumer Economy Consumerism In a variety of ways,
Americans wanted to get rich, and to do so with little effort.
Thorstein Veblen, an economist, published The Theory of the Leisure
Class in 1898. The book reached a wide American audience during the
1920s because it spoke directly to the psychology of American
consumption. Veblen, in fact, introduced the now-familiar term
"conspicuous consumption," which seemed to embody the cultural
mindset of post World War I America. Why the crash? Stock prices
Were too high And people Bought them
On margin Stock Market Prices, 192132 Common stock prices rose
steeply during the 1920s. Although only about 4 million Americans
owned stocks during the period, stock watching became something of
a national sport. Stocks---what goes up, goes down
From 1921 to 1929, the Dow Jones rocketed from 60 to 400!
Millionaires were created instantly. Investors mortgaged their
homes, and foolishly invested their life savings in hot stocks,
such as Ford and RCA. Stocks Investors soon purchased stock on
margin. Margin is the borrowing of stock for the purpose of getting
more leverage. For every dollar invested, a margin user would
borrow 9 dollars worth of stock. Because of this leverage, if a
stock went up 1%, the investor would make 10%! This also works the
other way around, exaggerating even minor losses. If a stock drops
too much, a margin holder could lose all of their money AND owe
their broker money as well. Black Tuesday What made the stock
market crash? Here's a brief summary. Capital is the tools needed
to produce things of value out of raw materials. Buildings and
machines are common examples of capital. A factory is a building
with machines for making valued goods. Throughout the twentieth
century, most of the capital in the United States was represented
by stocks. A corporation owned capital. Ownership of the
corporation in turn took the form of shares of stock. Each share of
stock represented a proportionate share of the corporation. The
stocks were bought and sold on stock exchanges, of which the most
important was the New York Stock Exchange located on Wall Street in
Manhattan. Throughout the 1920s a long boom took stock prices to
peaks never before seen. From 1920 to 1929 stocks more than
quadrupled in value. Many investors became convinced that stocks
were a sure thing and borrowed heavily to invest more money in the
market. But in 1929, the bubble burst and stocks started down an
even more precipitous cliff. In 1932 and 1933, they hit bottom,
down about 80% from their highs in the late 1920s. This had sharp
effects on the economy. Demand for goods declined because people
felt poor because of their losses in the stock market. New
investment could not be financed through the sale of stock, because
no one would buy the new stock. But perhaps the most important
effect was chaos in the banking system as banks tried to collect on
loans made to stockmarket investors whose holdings were now worth
little or nothing at all. Worse, many banks had themselves invested
depositors' money in the stockmarket. When word spread that banks'
assets contained huge uncollectable loans and almost worthless
stock certificates, depositors rushed to withdraw their savings.
Unable to raise fresh funds from the Federal Reserve System, banks
began failing by the hundreds in 1932 and 1933. By the inauguration
of Franklin D. Roosevelt as president in March 1933, the banking
system of the United States had largely ceased to function.
Depositors had seen $140 billion disappear when their banks failed.
Businesses could not get credit for inventory. Checks could not be
used for payments because no one knew which checks were worthless
and which were sound. Roosevelt closed all the banks in the United
States for three days - a "bank holiday." Some banks were then
cautiously re-opened with strict limits on withdrawals. Eventually,
confidence returned to the system and banks were able to perform
their economic function again. To prevent similar disasters, the
federal government set up the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation, which eliminated the rationale for bank "runs" - to
get one's money before the bank "runs out." Backed by the FDIC, the
bank could fail and go out of business, but then the government
would reimburse depositors. Another crucial mechanism insulated
commercial banks from stock market panics by banning banks from
investing depositors' money in stocks. The stock market was only
one cause of the Great Depression. Unequal income distribution was
another problem. While businesses showed great profits during the
1920s, workers got only a small portion of this wealth in their low
wages. People who had small incomes therefore bought merchandise on
credit. Advertisers pushed them to do so with the slogan "Buy now,
pay later." Many consumers accumulated so much debt that they
couldnt keep up Stocks To the average investor, stocks were a sure
thing. Few people actually studied the fundamentals of the
companies they invested in. Thousands of fraudulent companies were
formed to hoodwink unsavvy investors. Most investors never even
thought a crash was possible. To them, the stock market always went
up. Stocks go up and down The A&P grocery chain expanded from
400 stores in 1912 to more than 15,000 by the end of the 1920s,
making it a familiar sight in communities across America. A&P
advertisements, like this one from 1927, emphasized cleanliness,
order, and the availability of name-brand goods at discount prices.
SOURCE:From Ladies Home Journal .A&P Food Stores LTD. This 1920
magazine advertisement touts the wonders of a new model vacuum
cleaner. Much of the advertising boom in the post World War I years
centered on the increasing number of consumer durable goods, such
as household appliances, newly available to typical American
families. SOURCE:The Granger Collection,New York (4E791.13).
Culture of the Roaring 20s
Radio KDKA Pittsburgh GE, Westinghouse,& RCA form NBC Silent
Movies Charlie Chaplin Talkies The Jazz Singer Starring Al Jolson
Mary Pickford Americas Sweetheart The 20s is The Jazz Age The
Flappers Writers Musicians make up
cigarettes short skirts Writers F. Scott Fitzgerald Ernest
Hemingway Musicians Louis Armstrong Duke Ellington Play Simpsons
Clip Avg presidents Republican Power President Harding Elected 1920
Legacy of Scandals
Teapot Dome Died in office Fun Fact A Democratic leader, William
Gibbs McAdoo, called Harding's speeches "an army of pompous phrases
moving across the landscape in search of an idea." Oil reserve
scandal/bribes
Teapot Dome, in U.S. history, oil reserve scandal that began during
the administration of President Harding. In 1921, by executive
order of the President, control of naval oil reserves at Teapot
Dome, Wyo., and at Elk Hills, Calif., was transferred from the Navy
Dept. to the Dept. of the Interior. The oil reserves had been set
aside for the navy by President Wilson. In 1922, Albert B. Fall,
U.S. Secretary of the Interior, leased, without competitive
bidding, the Teapot Dome fields to Harry F. Sinclair, an oil
operator, and the field at Elk Hills, Calif., to Edward L. Doheny.
These transactions became (192223) the subject of a Senate
investigation conducted by Sen. Thomas J. Walsh. It was found that
in 1921, Doheny had lent Fall $100,000, interest-free, and that
upon Fall's retirement as Secretary of the Interior (Mar., 1923)
Sinclair also loaned him a large amount of money. The investigation
led to criminal prosecutions. Fall was indicted for conspiracy and
for accepting bribes. Convicted of the latter charge, he was
sentenced to a year in prison and fined $100,000. In another trial
for bribery Doheny and Sinclair were acquitted, although Sinclair
was subsequently sentenced to prison for contempt of the Senate and
for employing detectives to shadow members of the jury in his case.
The oil fields were restored to the U.S. government through a
Supreme Court decision in 1927. "Coolidge prosperity" President
Coolidge The business of America is business.
Fordney-McCumber Tariff isolationism Smoot-Hawley Tariff Record
tariffs/contr. to depression No help for farmers Foreign Policy
Isolationism The Fordney-McCumber Tariff also known as the Fordney
McCumber Act, reflected American isolationist inclinations
following World War I. Congress displayed a pro-business attitude
in passing the tariff and in promoting foreign trade through
providing huge loans to the postwar Allied governments who returned
the favor by buying American goods and by cracking down on strikes.
As a result of the war, Americans had two main concerns. First,
they wanted to ensure economic self-sufficiency so that no future
enemy could manipulate the American economy. Second, many
industries wanted to preserve the benefits of the increased wartime
demand. he SmootHawley Tariff Act of 1930 (P.L , sometimes known
under its official name, the Tariff Act of 1930)[1] was an act
signed into law on June 17, 1930, that raised U.S. tariffs on over
20,000 imported goods to record levels. The overall level tariffs
under the Tariff were the second-highest in US history, exceeded
only (by a small margin) by the Tariff of 1828.[2] The ensuing
retaliatory tariffs by U.S. trading partners reduced American
exports and imports by more than half and according to some views
may have contributed to the severity of the Great Depression.[3][4]
Silent Cal speaks "Wealth is the chief end of man!"
"The man who builds a factory, builds a temple. The man who works
there, worships there." Fun Fact The political genius of President
Coolidge, Walter Lippmann pointed out in 1926, was his talent for
effectively doing nothing Fun Fact His wife, Grace Goodhue
Coolidge, recounted that a young woman sitting next to Coolidge at
a dinner party confided to him she had bet she could get at least
three words of conversation from him. Without looking at her he
quietly retorted, "You lose." Calvin Coolidge combined a spare,
laconic political style with a flair for publicity. He frequently
posed in the dress of a cowboy, farmer, or Indian chief.
SOURCE:Calvin Coolidge in headdress and robes after joining Sioux
Indians as Chief Leading Eagle,ca.1928.CORBIS.