Chapter 20-4th period

The Roaring 1920s

US History

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THE ROARING

TWENTIES

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US History

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Introduction The roaring of the 1920s is an important time. This is the decade between

the two wars, World War I and World War II. As the Treaty of Versailles

end the World War I, many changes had happen in the United States.

Such as the sinking of the Titanic (1912), the invention of stainless steel

(1913), and the completion of the Panama Canal. Go along with events

are the politics changes during this decade such as The belief of Isolation,

Communism, the rise of the Second Ku Klux Klan and scandals of the

government. There were several achievements like the invention of

airplanes, automobiles and electricity had increase the quality of life.

But unfortunately, the 1930's soon led to the beginning of World War II,

6,700,000 civilians died in the United States alone.

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Contents

- Chapter 20 : Politics of the Roaring 1920s

o Section 1: Americans Struggle with Postwar Issues

o Section 2: The Harding Presidency

o Section 3: The business of American

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CHAPTER 20: POLITICS OF THE ROARING 1920s.

Section 1: Americans Struggle with Postwar Issues:

Postwar trends: After the war, soldiers had a hard time

getting their jobs back because those jobs had been given to

women and minorities. The feeling of nativism [prejudice against

foreign-born people] and isolationism [kept the US stay away from

world ’s affair] were the responses to the war.

Communism, is known as a type of government ruled by

dictatorship in order to make everything equal. It ’s good on

paper but not in practical.

The Palmer raids: He was against Communists , socialists and

anarchists - people who opposed any kind of governm ent. He sent

people to jail people without any evidence and tria l. He failed.

Sacco and Vanzetti: They

were Italians, a shoemaker and

a fish peddler. They were

captured in a case of

murdering a factory paymaster

and his guard in South

Braintree, Massachusetts. The

gun that Sacco carried was

actually the gun that was used

to kill the paymaster but

there was no evidence to prove that Sacco did pull the trigger.

The story is still a mystery but unfortunately Sacc o and

Vanzetti, were found guilty after all.

Limiting immigration: Discrimination and anti-immigrant

attitudes swept over the united state ever since th e 1880s. Since

the need for unskilled labor in the US decreased, e specially

after the World War I , Nativists believed that fewer immigrants

should be let into the country (Immigrants came fro m the

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Southern/ Eastern Europe worked for

unskilled jobs) Racist ideas from high

status figures started to influence

people ’s attitudes. As a result for anti-

immigrant feelings, different groups of

bigot use anti-communism as an excuse to

harass any group unlike themselves. One

such group was the KKK (The Ku Klux Klan )

Quota system : From 1919-1921 the number of immigrants

rapidly increased that lead the Congress to establi sh the Quota

system . This system set up the maximum number of people w ho could

enter the US from each foreign country.

The Quota system also limited the

migrations of people in the southern and

eastern Europe, mostly the Jews and

Roman-Catholics. However, the Quota

system did not apply to immigrants from

the Western Hemisphere.

In 1919, there were more than 3000

strikes during which

some 4 million

workers walked off

the job. Employers

didn ’t want to give

raises, nor did they

want employees to join unions. Employees

strike for better working conditions, raises,

right to negotiate for shorter working hours

and a living wage. Three strikes in particular

grabbed public attention were: The Boston

Police Strike , The Steel Mill Strike , and The

Coal Miner ’s Strike.

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Decrease in labor movement : The 1920s hurt the labor

movement badly. Over the decade, union membership d ropped from

more than 5 millions to around 3.5 millions. Member ship declined

for several reasons: First, Immigrants willing in w ork in poor

conditions and since immigrants spoke multitude of language,

union has difficulty organizing them. Besides, most union

excluded African American. Last, farmers who had mi grated to

cities to fins factory jobs were used to relying on themselves.

Key words:

- Nativism

- Steel Mill Strike

- Boston Police Strike

- Quota system

- Ku Klux Klan

- World War I

- Communists

- Communism

- Isolationism

- Postwar Trend

Section 2: The Harding Presidency

After WWI secretary of State Charles Evans

Hughes urged that for 10 years, no more

warships are to be built. He had suggest to

the 5 major naval power which are the Unite

State, Great Britain, Japan, France and Italy

to scrap many of their battleships, cruises

and aircraft carriers and for the first time

in history, conference delegates cheered and

celebrated.

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1. High Tariffs and Reparations.

Because of the new conflicts

that occur when it came to Britain and

France payment to the amount that they

have borrow from America, America had

adopted the Fordney-McCumber Tariff,

which raised taxes on some U.S import

to 60% ( highest level ever!). The

United State has benefit from defend

of Germany while Europeans had paid

for the victory with millions of

lives.

2. Scandal Hits Harding’’’’s

Administration.

Harding’’’’s cabinet

When Harding became president he has appointed his closes friends

to become his cabinet members. What he didn't know was that his

friends were corrupted and they were using

their offices to gain wealth. They were

doing illegal works behind Harding ’s back.

Here are some examples. Charles R. Forbes

was the head of Veterans Bureau and he was

caught illegally selling government and

hospital supplies to private companies and

Thomas W .Miller was the head of the office

of alien property and was caught taking a

bribe. The most spectacular example of a

corruption was The Teapot Dome Scandal .

Albert B. Fall was a close friend of various oil ex ecutives; he

was managing to get reserve transferred from the na vy to the

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interior Department. He had secretly leased the lan d to two

private oil companies

Key words:

- Charles Evans Hughes

- Fordney – McCumber Tariff

- Harding ’s cabinet

- Vetrans Bureau

- The Teapot Dome Scandal

Section 3: The Business of American

The new president Calvin Coolidge was

a pro- leader about business in the 1920s.

Coolidge and Hoover favored government

policies that would take the taxes down

and let the business profits up, also gave

all the businesses more opportunities to

develop.

The impact of Automobile: They opened a long distance Route

66 that for people to trek from

Chicago to California.

Automobiles increased then the

rapid construction of building

gas stations also increased.

There were more shopping

centers, motels, public

garages, tourist camps and

repairing shops to serve the

people who were traveling to

stop by and take a rest. The

improvements of automobile were the opportunities f or people to

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travel further and increased more entertainments. T he unplanned

and uncontrolled spreading of cities into surroundi ng regions

called urban sprawl.

Urban Sprawl during 1920s

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The young airplane industry: Planes were a new technique in

that time and it was useful for people lives make t hings easier

like mail carrying services for the US and some for eign

countries. They started improving that planes could carry radio

waves and important national things that needed to be transfer

quickly.

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The Electrical conveniences: People

needed electricity more for their lives

because it ’s convenient. It made the

lives of housewives much easier and

faster, it forced them to the community

and less hand making activities.

Moreover, electricity could run the

refrigerators, vacuums, cooking stoves,

and even more things in their own lives

of each family.

The dawn of Modern Advertising: More products came out that

means there were a lot of advertisers came out to i ntroduce to

people about that new products. The companies hired psychologist

to study to know what will take the people ’s attention about that

product like youthfulness, beauty,

health, wealth. Thus, to sell more

products, they applied the power of

advertising to another area of

American lives and the immigrants

were looking out the new ways of

serving humanity.

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Producing great quantities of goods: The companies grew

quickly, mergers of companies that manufactured int o mobiles,

steels, electrical equipment that provided public u tilities. They

improved the qualities of products and made them be tter for the

lives of people.

Buying goods on credits: The installment plan enabled for

people to buy goods over extended period and do not have to pay

cashes immediately, it helped people could enjoy bu ying and do

not have worry much about paying. The decade of the 1920s had

brought about many new and good

technologies to help the

economics of the US better.

Key words:

- Urban sprawl

- Automobiles

- Installment plan

- Calvin Coolidge

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