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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US History
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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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US History
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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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