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Out of Many Chapter 23
Post-War Prosperity: The Causes
Increased productivityManufacturing process made more efficient w/
methods of mass productionHenry Ford & the assembly line
Energy technologiesIncreased use of oil & electricityCoal was still used for the RR & home heating
Government PolicyFavored the growth of big businessOffered corporate tax cutsDid almost nothing to enforce the antitrust
laws of the Progressive era
Welfare Capitalism A paternalistic system of labor relations
emphasizing management responsibility for employee well-being
Challenged the power & appeal of trade unions & collective bargaining
ExamplesCompany stock optionsInsurance policies (accidents, old age, illness)Establish recreation programs
Unable to address the problem of seasonal unemployment
Automobile By the 1920s, had
become a way of lifeIN: 21 out of 26 families
who had cars did not have bathtubs w/ running water
“You can’t ride into town in a bathtub!”
Symbol of the new age
WAYS THE AUTOCHANGES LIFEIN AMERICA:
Creates many new small businessesGarages, diners, gas
stations, restaurants, motels, etc.
Tractors replaced animals on farms
SUBURBS flourishedWorkers can now commute
to cities – don’t need to live there
Whole families became more mobileSunday Drives
ASSEMBLY LINE!His greatest achievementDivided operations into simple
tasks that could be done by UNSKILLED LABOR (cheap)
AUTOMOBILE – Model T -now affordable to all
(mass produced) - $290Ford built half of all autos in
world between 1908 & 1927Kept his employees loyal by
high pay ($5) & low hours (8)
CHANGES TO INDUSTRY INTRODUCED BY HENRY FORD
Problems of Farmersin the 20’s:
Prices went down in ’20 & ’21 & never recoveredFarmers are overproducing crops
Farmers had borrowed heavily during WWI to buy new land & equipment so they could grow food to feed the troopsWith prices down after the War, they could
not pay off their debts
The New Mass Culture Movies Radio Broadcasting Sports Sports & Popular Heroes Journalism & Advertising
Industry moves from NY to LA
No talking! Hired piano players to
provide music during the movie
Subtitles
Stars:Charlie ChaplinDouglas FairbanksGloria Swanson
Talking pictures by 1927 (“The Jazz Singer”)
THE MOVIES!
Popular Radio Shows & Music
KDKA was the first NBC & CBS
First to sell on-air advertising Music, sitcoms, etc. Stimulated America’s
demand for goods Advertising industry
booms! By 1930s, over 800
stations broadcasting to over 10 million radios (about 1/3 of US)
“Golden Age of Sports”
Thanks to radio & motion pictures, sports like baseball& boxing reached newheights
Babe Ruth (baseball)Hitting hundreds of homeruns
Jack Dempsey (boxing)Holding the heavyweight title
for 7 years
College Football
JIM THORPE Native American Won Olympic Gold Medals in Pentathlon &
Decathlon Played college & professional football –
become President of NFL Played Major League Baseball Also had career in basketball. Subsequently lost his Olympic titles when
it was found he had played two seasons of minor league baseball prior to competing in the games
Medals restored, 30 years after his death (1983)
AMELIA EARHARDT
1ST Woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, 1928
1st woman to fly solo across Atlantic, 1932
Lost at sea, 1937
New Forms of Journalism Tabloids became popular in the postwar years New York Daily News
Folded in half – made it easy to read on buses/subways/trains
Devoted much of its space to picturesEmphasized sex, scandal, and sports
Discovered an audience of millions who had never read a newspaper before
Most popular feature was the gossip column (invented by Walter Winchell)
A CONSUMER ECONOMY Defined as an economy that relies on a
large amount of consumer spending It led to…
large profits for businessespushed up wagesand encouraged more spending
Is fueled by higher wages, clever advertising, new products, lower costs, and CREDIT
Advertising becomes HUGE!
CREDIT! Installment Plan
buyingSmall down payment
& pay the rest off in periodic installments
Primary method for purchase of cars, radios, furniture, vacuum cleaners, refrigerators, etc.
THE NEW MORALITY Taking over the nation,
challenged traditional ways of seeing & thinking
MarriagesMore emphasis on romance &
friendship
AutomobileYouth loved it because it gave
them independenceDidn’t have to socialize w/family
– found new forms of entertainment
Women in the Workforce Single: needed wages for
themselves or family, breakaway from parental authority
Making $$ allowed them to participate in the consumer market
More women attending college & encouraged to pursue careers
Salesclerks, secretaries, or telephone operators
WOMEN OF THE 20’S
Flappers
Shortened (“bobbed”) hair, shorter skirts, silk stockings
Liquor, cigarettes BUT, few really
dressed more daringly
Most are NOT true flappers
At Home & Away
New technology at homeVaccum cleanersWashing machines
Still faced discrimination outside of home
Divorce As a result of women’s suffrage,
state lawmakers were now forced to listen to feminists
Demanded changes in the divorce laws to permit women to escape abusive & incompatible husbands
1 in 8 marriages ended in divorce in 1920
Thanks to more liberal laws, increased to 1 in 6 marriages by 1930
Education Belief in the value of
education becoming widespread
Combined with economic prosperity, more state gov’ts enacted compulsory school laws
By the end of the decade, # of high school grads doubled to over 25%
CHANGES IN SOCIETY: 18TH Amendment -
PROHIBITION:Rural – pro; Urban – antiBootleggers & Speakeasies
flourished VOLSTEAD ACT
Purpose was to enforce Prohibition
BUT, it was never fully enforcedonly 1500 agents nationwideEven with 540,000 arrests, people
still blatantly broke the law
PROHIBITION LEADS DIRECTLY TO GROWTH OF ORGANIZED CRIME:
Chicago AL CAPONE
One of the most successful gangstersDominated organized crimeBootlegged liquor
Eliot NessBrought down Capone
for tax evasion Alcatraz
NATIVISM / RACISM: Rises during the 1920s
due to the massive rise in immigration
Fear/prejudice of Germans & Communists spreads to all immigrants
Immigrants from Southern & Eastern Europe
From low economic levels Posed a threat to jobs for
Americans KKK
a national force by this time more nativist than racist
What is the main idea of this cartoon?
SACCO & VANZETTI TRIAL, 1921 Italian immigrants
Anarchists, atheists, draft dodgers
Accused of murder Sketchy evidence but
convicted Executed 1927 IMPORTANCE:
Symbolizes mistrust of immigrants in US
Bartolomeo Vanzetti and Nicola Sacco (Dedham courthouse, 1923)
EMERGENCY QUOTA ACT, 1921
QUOTAS are set on immigration
Discriminatory in manner applied since it eliminated much of immigration from Southern & Eastern EuropeOnly 3% of any ethnic
group in the U.S. in 1892 could be admitted in any year
“The hardest quota cases were those that separated families. When part of the family had been born in a
country with a quota still open, while the other part had been born in a country whose quoata was exhausted, the law let in the first part and deported the other part. Mothers were torn from children, husbands from wives.
The law came down like a sword between them.” –quoted in Ellis Island: Echoes from a Nation’s Past
NATIONAL ORIGINS ACT, 1924: Made immigrant restriction a
permanent policy Changed quota policy to only
2% Eventually changed it to only
150,000 immigrants per ethnic group
Exempted natives of the Western hemisphere from the quota system (Mexico & South America)
Accounted for northwestern Europeans making up 87% of quota
Ku Klux Klan Most extreme expression of nativism Northern branches directed their hostility not only against
blacks, but also against Catholics, Jews, foreigners, and suspected Communists
TacticsDressed in white hoods to disguise their identityBurn crossesApply vigilante justiceWhips, tar & feathering, hangman’s noose
DeclineAt first, many tolerated the KKK because it upheld the standards
of Christianity & new morality by driving out bootleggers, gamblers, & adulterers
1923, fraud & corruption were rife – leader convicted of murderInfluence & membership rapidly declined
FUNDAMENTALISM Fundamentalism:
A name derived from a series of pamphlets titled The Fundamentals
Believe that the Bible was literally true & w/out error
Rejected Darwin’s Theory of EvolutionHuman beings had developed from lower forms of
life over the course of millions of years
Believed in CreationismBelief that God created the world & described it in
the Bible
The Scopes Trial Butler Act, 1925
Outlawed evolution education
Dayton, TN American Civil Liberties
Union (ACLU)Hired biology teacher, John
T. Scopes Scopes actually LOST the
trial – fined $100 BUT, Darrow’s attacks on
William Jennings Bryan dealt a blow to the Fundamentalists
President Harding: Harding served one term in U.S. Senate
before running for President in 1920 Harding’s Philosophy:
“A Return to Normalcy”○ Means a return to normal life (like
before WWI) “America First!”
○ Forget foreign affairs; rest, relax, enjoy life in America
Isolationism○ U.S. will NOT join League of Nations
Scandals in Harding’s Administration:
Very corrupt administration OHIO GANG
poker-playing friends who used their connections to sell gov’t pardons, immunities & appointments○ Immunity = freedom from prosecution
WORST is TEAPOT DOME SCANDAL:Sec. Of Interior, Albert Fall, leased out for
use by private individuals oil reserves that had been set aside for the U.S. Navy at Teapot Dome, WY
Harding feels betrayed by his friends
Depressed; takes trip to AK (1923)
On return home, gets ill & dies before scandals were made public
Albert Fall eventually convicted & sent to prison
CALVIN COOLIDGE
Former Gov. of MASettled the Boston Police
Strike “Silent Cal” – didn’t talk much! Cautious, calm, & simple style – very
different from Harding Slept 10 hours a night and took a 4
hour nap every day!
Philosophy on Government:“The business of America is business.” Favored big business
○ It provided plenty of jobs and plenty of products at cheap prices
○ Business would keep the prosperity of the 1920s going
○ Government’s job is to interfere with business as little as possible
Election of 1924 Coolidge – Republican Davis – Democrat
Took 103 attempts to find a candidate Democrats are divided between rural and
urban issues (such as Prohibition and the KKK)
Led to easy victory for Coolidge“KEEP COOL WITH COOLIDGE!”Don’t “rock the boat” – keep business
thriving Also wins easily due to the low voter
turnout.
Promoting Prosperity
Andrew Mellon, Sec. of Treasury’s goals were toBalance BudgetReduce government debtCut taxes (down to 25% for
wealthy) Believed if taxes were
lowered, businesses & consumers would spend their extra money and keep the economy stimulated
Isolationism is foreign policy desired by most Americans after WWI.
Allies owe $10.3 billion to US but are not paying & claim:US lost fewer people in war so U.S. should assume more of
the debtArgue high US tariffs hurting their economies
US says Allies got territory & reparations but US gained nothing, so Allies should pay
Dawes Plan:American banks make loans to GER, GB & FRA agree to
take smaller payments & pay their war debtsRenegotiated and reduced debts but US will never get fully
paid back
Washington ConferenceTreaties
First major world disarmament conferenceProposed that countries should take a 10 yr
moratorium (or pause) in making new warshipsEach country would need to destroy already made
warships, starting w/ US 4, 5 & 9 power treaties made agreements about
reducing navies, respecting territory owned by other countries in the Pacific and open trading policies (China)
MAJOR FAILURE: no agreements to limit military land forces
KELLOGG-BRIAND PACT A Treaty that attempted to outlaw war France & U.S. took the lead in getting it
accomplished 64 nations sign the treaty Weaknesses:
NO MEANS OF ENFORCEMENT (without aggression!)
Countries retained right to defend themselves against aggression
Harlem Renaissance The Great Migration
escape the segregated society of the South
Find economic opportunities
Build better lives Rebirth; explosion of
black culture Showed new spirit of
unity & pride among blacks
Writers & Authors Langston Hughes
Writer/PoetWrote with a proud
defiance & bitter contempt for racism
Harlem Shadows Zora Neale Hurston
AuthorPortrayed rural African
American cultureFirst to set African
American females as central characters
Music & Dance JAZZ
New Orleans style Mix of Dixieland bands & ragtime
Louis Armstrong Solo Trumpeter
Duke Ellington Band Harlem, Cotton Club Charleston is the new dance
craze BLUES
Themes of unfulfilled love, poverty, & oppression
Evolved from African American spirituals
Bessie Smith
MARCUS GARVEY Jamaican “Negro nationalism”
Glorified the black culture & traditions of the past
Leader of UNIA Message of racial pride,
independence and unity Frustrated by continued
violence & discrimination Return to “Motherland
Africa” Seen as threat by FBI
deported due to immigrant status
IMPORTANCE: Despite the failure of Garvey’s movement, he inspired millions of African Americans with a sense of pride in their heritage & hope for the future.
Herbert Hoover Alfred E. SmithRepublican Democrat“A Dry Country Quaker” “A Wet City Catholic”
ELECTION OF 1928
Represents rural (“country”) agrarian interests
Favored Prohibition (“dry”) Radio helped him
(dignified, serious) Slogan: “A chicken in
every pot & two cars in every garage!”
Wins by landslide mainly due to the Republican prosperity of the 20s
Represents urban (“city) & industrial interests
Favors Prohibition, but admits that he drinks (“wet”)
Radio hurts him (a strong NY accent & too much joking)
Hurt by Republican anti-Catholic smear tactics