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Chapter 23
The 1920’s: Coping With Change
1920-1929
Introduction
• Why was the economy so prosperous in the 1920’s?
• What were the dominant political values of the 1920’s?
• What was the new popular culture of the decade and which Americans did it barely touch?
• What developments in the period contributed to both the social tensions and artistic flowering?
Booming Business, Ailing Agriculture
• Economy grew rapidly and prospered largely due to electrical appliance industry (refrigerators, washing machines, vacuum cleaners) and automobile industry
• Related industries also prospered• American businesses invested abroad• High Protective Tariffs suppressed
international trade• Farmers suffered from surpluses and low
prices
New Modes of Producing, Managing and Selling
• Assembly line and other innovations increases production 40%
• Chain Stores• Installment Buying• Modern National Advertising• Business leaders were the new American
Hero
Women in the New Economic Era
• 24% of the workforce were women• Secretaries, typists, filing clerks• Teaching and Nursing
Struggling Labor Unions
• Union membership fell from 5 million to 3.4 million
• Intimidation, Open Shop, Scab labor• Benefits
Stand Pat Politics in the Decade of Change
• 1920 Warren G. Harding defeated James M. Cox
• Charles Forbes- stole money from the Veterans bureau
• Attorney General Harry Daugherty sold immunity from prosecution
• Secretary of Interior Albert Fall- Tea pot Dome Scandal
Republican Policy Making in the Pro-business era
• Calvin Coolidge replaces Harding upon his death
• High Protective Tariffs• Andrew Mellon convinces Congress to lower
taxes • William Howard Taft and the Supreme Court rule
Federal Child labor Law is unconstitutional• Coolidge vetoes bill to buy surplus farm
commodities
Independent Internationalism
• US protected American interests but refused to join the League of Nations
• Charles E. Hughes called for an arms reduction treaty at the Washington Naval Conference in 1921
Progressive Stirrings, Democratic Party Divisions
• Election of 1924– Democrats nominate John W. Davis– Progressives nominate Robert LaFollette– Republicans nominate Calvin Coolidge who
wins easily
Women and politics in the 1920’s: A Dream Deferred
• 19th Amendment did not lead to a great influence of women in politics
• Women's Rights groups splintered over goals of the movement
Cities, Cars, Consumer Goods
• Traffic jams, parking problems, accidental deaths, reduced parental supervision of young adults
• New consumer goods available to city dwellers
• New electrical appliances• Henry Ford and the $5 Day
Soaring Energy Consumption and a Threatened Environment
• Coal• Oil• Air Pollution
Mass-Produced Entertainment
• Reader’s Digest• Radio Programs• Silent to Talkies/ Movies
Celebrity Culture
• Babe Ruth• Ty Cobb• Jack Dempsey• Charles Lindbergh
The Jazz Age and the post War Crisis of Values
• Sigmund Freud• Women/Flappers• Jazz
Alienated Writers
• Lost Generation– Sinclair Lewis– Earnest Hemingway– F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Harlem Renaissance– Langston Hughes– Zora Neal Hurston– Countee Cullen
Architects, Painters, Musicians Celebrate Modern America
• Frank Lloyd Wright• Artists
– Thomas Hart Benton– Edward Hopper– Georgia O’Keeffe
• Musicians– George Gershwin– Bessie Smith– Louis Armstrong– Duke Ellington
Advances in Science and Medicine
• Arthur Compton– X-Rays
• Whooping Cough, Measles, Influenza• Life Expectancy
Immigration Restriction
• Established quotas for each nationality• Laws excluded Chinese and Japanese
entirely• Eastern and Southern Europeans received
small quotas• National Origins Quota remained US law
until 1965
Needed Workers/Unwelcome Aliens: Hispanic Newcomers
• The 1920's National Origins Act did not limit immigration from Western Hemisphere countries
• 1930's about 2 million Mexicans arrived in the US
• Nativism
Nativism, Anti-Radicalism and the Sacco and Vanzetti Case
• Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti- Italian immigrants were convicted of robbery and murder
• Evidence was circumstantial• Ethnic Origin and Political Radicalism
Fundamentalism and the Scopes Trial
• Several states passed laws prohibiting the teaching of any theory that contradicted creationism
• John T. Scopes- Substitute Teacher from Dayton Tennessee, fired and fined for teaching evolution
• ACLU hired Clarence Darrow to represent Scopes
• William Jennings Bryan assisted the prosecution• Billy Sunday and Aimee Semple Mcherson
The KKK and Garvey Movement
• KKK- 5 million members• Marcus Garvey- UNIA (United Negro
Improvement Association)– Black pride– Economic solidarity– Return to Africa Movement– 80,000 Members
Prohibition: Cultures in Conflict• 1928 Election Issue
– Organized Crime– Democrat Alfred E. Smith– Republican Herbert Hoover
• Supporters– Native born fundamentalists Protestants– Lived mainly in rural areas
• Opponents– Liberals– Intellectuals– Rebellious Youths– Immigrants
Herbert Hoover’s Social Thought
• Encouraged voluntary cooperation among corporate leaders– raise wages– plan production– marketing – standardized products
• Self Regulation would ensure economic growth and a better life for all