Politics and Prosperity New Ways of Life Roaring …. Harding Coolidge Hoover...Politics and Prosperity New Ways of Life Roaring Twenties Nation Divided

Politics and Prosperity

New Ways of Life

Roaring Twenties

Nation Divided

Politics and Prosperity

Republicans in Office

Recession sets in

Economy booms during war, now less demand

2 million soldiers returning – jobs?

Harding takes office

Pro-business

Corruption and scandals

“Ohio Gang”

“Teapot Dome”

Coolidge takes office

“Silent Cal”

Harding Administration

“return to normalcy” Landslide victory Scandals! Teapot Dome Attny Gen. – accepted

bribes Often considered one of

worst presidents Few good things Treaty to repay Columbia

for Panama Pardon of Eugene Debs &

other protesters

1. What were Harding’s goals? 2. How did the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 change government? 3. What was a foreign policy success of Harding? 4. What ruined Harding’s reputation?

Coolidge Administration

Harding dies, VP Coolidge is Pres

“Cool Cal” or “Silent Cal”

Restored integrity to WH

“The business of Americans is business”

Lower taxes

Spoke for civil rights

Economic prosperity

Kellogg-Briand Pact 1929

1. What is a unique characteristic of Coolidge? 2. What were Coolidge’s budget goals/actions? 3. Why did Coolidge miss the signs of economic trouble?

Hoover Administration

Efficiency Movement Encouraged volunteerism

over regulation End Roosevelt corollary &

reduce intervention in Latin Amer.

Called for a halt to reparation payments from Germany “Hoover Moratorium”

Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act in 1930

Depression hit…

The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, 1930

FOR

Protect American workers and farmers

AGAINST

Undermine commitment to international cooperation

Trade wars

The tariff failed – exports dropped by 61% and imports dropped by 66%. It quadrupled the cost of some 3200 items. It helped ruin the world economy.

Laissez-faire economic policy

Pro-business

People responsible for themselves

Small gov’t

Generally isolationist foreign policy

Conciliatory

Utilized new media to communicate – radio, film

Similarities Among the Republican Administrations of the 1920s

New Ways of Life

Increased Standard of Living

By 1929 annual average wages increased from $500 to $700 a year

Typical worker made $5 a day (up from $1 a day previous decade)

Increase in the standard of living

CAUSES

Cheap food prices from highly productive farms (WW 1)

Easy credit for mortgages and consumer products

Wages rose during the war and continued

Technology Cars Create jobs for roads, motels,

service stations, etc

Mass production

EFFECTS

Culture of consumerism is born

Borrowing beyond means

Weak regulation = weak banks and corrupt financial dealings

Stock market crash 1929

Prohibition

Evading the law

Rise of organized crime

repeal

Economic Effects of Prohibition

illegal market for the production, trafficking and sale of alcohol.

economy took a major hit, thanks to lost tax revenue and legal jobs.

Prohibition nearly ruined the country's brewing industry.

Social Effects of Prohibition

Deaths caused by cirrhosis of the liver in men dropped

Contaminated liquor … >50,000 deaths & many cases of blindness and paralysis.

Alcohol consumption during Prohibition declined between 30 and 50 percent.

By the end of the 1920s = were more alcoholics and illegal drinking establishments than before Prohibition

Rise in organized crime

Political Effects of Prohibition

Bootlegging

No means nor desire to enforce

Corruption – organized crime

Roaring Twenties

New Fads & Fashions

Following latest fads

Dance crazes

Flagpole sitting

Dance marathons

Flappers

Rebellious young women

Fads

Flapppers

Jazz

Dance marathons

Pole sitting

Rights for Women

Women voters

Equal rights amendment

Changes for working women

Changing Social behavior

Decrease birth rate Increase divorce rate Un-chaperoned dating More permissive society in

general – flappers, youth culture

Women enter workforce and can vote

Friendship in marriage matters

New inventions change home life

First time 50% live in cities Greater diversity in cities

Harlem Renaissance

Writers, artists, jazz and blues musicians

Langston Hughes

Bessie Smith

The Cotton Club

Duke Ellington

Jazz Age

Jazz

New Orleans

West African rhythms, African American work songs & spirituals, European harmonies

Louis Armstrong

Conservatives: it’s a bad influence!

Automobile

Cheaper cars = more cars Created jobs Auto production Parts Maintenance Roads Oil Motels and restaurants Growth of suburbs Women drivers New mass culture as ppl

less localized

Mass Culture

Radio

Movies

Motion Pictures & radio

Radio in every home

Hollywood

Silent films until 1927

Mass culture

Avg movie goer once a week

Heroes

Bobby Jones – golf

Bill Tilden & Helen Willis – tennis

College football

Baseball!!

Babe Ruth

Charles Lindbergh

A Nation Divided

Red Scare

Hunting up radicals

Sacco and Vanzetti

Intolerance and Xenophobia

1. immigration policy,

2. KKK membership,

3. eugenics movement,

4. Sacco and Vanzetti trial

Race Relations deteriorate

New Klan

Racial tensions north

Marcus Garvey

Perils of Prosperity

Trouble on the farm

Overproduction = prices drop

Prices drop = farmers cannot make enough to repay debts

By end 1920s, farmer’s share of national income shrunk by 1/2

Setbacks for labor During war, inflation ahead

of wages OK with unions for war

effort

After war – want raises – managers say no – strikes Violence turns public opinion

against strikers Fear of Communists

Union membership drops 5 million in 1920 3.4 million in1929

Limiting Immigration

Quota system

Emergency Quota Act 1921

Favored immigrants from Northern Europe

No Asians!

Newcomers from Latin America

Scopes Trial

Clash between old and new values

Dayton, TN

1925 John Scopes

William Jennings Bryan

Clarence Darrow

Election of 1928

Al Smith Catholic

NY

City values

Reveals tensions in American life beneath surface

Won the 12 largest cities

Herbert Hoover

Self-made millionaire

Mid-west

Big business and rural Americans support

Landslide victory

Stock Market Crash 1929

CAUSES

Speculation

Buying on margin

Loose regulation

Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act

EFFECTS

Precipitated bank crisis contraction of credit, business closures, firing of workers, bank failures, decline of the money

supply, Decline of consumer

purchasing