Boom Time? 10 Facts that say YES!

- America experienced an economic boom during the 1920’s. We’ll look at the reasons for this in a minute, but the

evidence is there for all to see:

1) In 1919 there were 9 million cars. In 1929 there were 26 million (1 in 5 Americans owned a car, 1 in 43 British and 1 in 7,000 Russians!)

2) By 1927 one Ford car was built every 10 seconds.

3) In 1920 there were 60,000 radios in 1929 there were 10,000,000

4) In 1915 there were 10 million telephones. In 1930 there were 20 million.

5) For every one fridge that was around in 1921 there were 167 in 1929.

6) New York doubled in size during the 1920’s

7) Silk Stockings had been a luxury item in 1900 with only 12,000 pairs sold. In 1920’s a cheaper substitute for silk was created (rayon). In 1930 300 million pairs of stocking were sold.

8) There were no civilian airlines in 1918, but 1930 new companies flew 162,000 flights each year.

9) Buy 1929 nearly all American homes were on the electricity grid.

10) During the 1920’s the American road network doubled.

Boom Time? 10 Facts that say NO!

1) FARMING

2) Total US farm income dropped from $22 billion in 1919 to just $13 billion in

1928.

3) Less food was being imported by Europe after the war.

4) Canadian wheat was being produced cheaper.

5) The population of the US was actually falling.

6) More efficiency increased the quantity of food produced which meant that there was too much available (driving

prices down)

7) In the 1920’s the average farmer would produce enough to feed his family and

14 others. 8) 1921 saw farm prices fall by 50%

9) In the 1920’s there were 5 times as many bankruptcies in farming than there had been in the 1900’s and

1910’s.

10) 6 million rural Americas were forced off their land. The African Americans were

particularly badly hit (750,000 made unemployed)

BUT

- Fruit and vegetable farmers did well, since rich Americans wanted their produce. Lettuce shipments to the city rose from 14,000 crates in 1920 to 52,000 crates in 1928.

Boom Time? 10 Facts that say NO!

1) FARMING - Total US farm income dropped from $22 billion in 1919 to just $13 billion in 1928.

2) Less food was being imported by Europe after the war.

3) Canadian wheat was being produced cheaper.

4) The population of the US was actually falling.

5) More efficiency increased the quantity of food produced which meant that there was too much available (driving prices down).

6) In the 1920’s the average farmer would produce enough to feed his family and 14 others.

7) 1921 saw farm prices fall by 50%.8) In the 1920’s there were 5 times as

many bankruptcies in farming than there had been in the 1900’s and 1910’s.

9) 6 million rural Americas were forced off their land. The African Americans were particularly badly hit (750,000 made unemployed).

10) Traditional industries were selling older, established products (that fewer people wanted – see silk stockings as an example). They relied on manpower rather than mass production and were more expensive than the newer mass produced products.

BUT

- Fruit and vegetable farmers did well, since rich Americans wanted their produce. Lettuce shipments to the city rose from 14,000 crates in 1920 to 52,000 crates in 1928.

1. America’s wealth.

- America was rich in raw materials eg. Oil, coal and iron ore, this gave it the ability to manufacture lots of different goods.

2. New Industries

Total production in American industry increased by 50% during the 1920’s. This was driven by the demand for new products including radios, vacuum cleaners and the car.

3. Rising Wages and StablePrices

- Wages went up but pricesbecame the same. The Reasons for

assembly line, made famous the Boom

by Ford was one reason thatprices stayed low.

4. Hire Purchase (credit)

- This allowed people to buy new products (eg radio) with a small deposit and then weekly instalments. 8/10 cars and 6/10 radio were purchased on hire credit.

- Mail order catalogues also provided this.

5. Republican (Government) policies

- ‘Laissez-faire; the president left it to the businessmen to make money.

- Tariffs; 1922 saw the Fordney-McCumber tariff which made imported food expensive to buy. This helped American producers (farmers in this case) sell their products more easily.

- Low Taxes; the Republicans kept taxes low which left people with more money to spend.

- Trusts; Republicans allowed big trusts to be created where one company dominated an industry eg. Rockefller (oil) and Carnegie (steel)

August 1921 saw only 1 licenced radio station in America, but by the end of 1922 there were 508 of them. This goes to show why so many people bought me – I was a new invention and frankly, I was the best!

It’s all about the jazz man. In fact the 1920’s was named after me – ‘the Jazz age’. New dances

like the Charleston and those new flappers were all brought about by my groovy rhythms.

Brrrrrm brrrrm brrrrrm, sorry, nearly didn’t seeyou there, you see I’m the new car and I ROCK! I

allowed Americans to get wherever they Phew, you’ve heardwanted (and the young ones wanted to get of the New York

away from their parents!) In fact by 1929 4.8 Yankies right? Wellmillion cars had been built. Gotta baseball and boxing

go…..Brrrrrrrrrrrrm became reallypopular

Ah yes, the silver screen, that’s me. 100 million tickets were being sold each week by 1930! The first talkie was released in

1927…wow, times move so fast. I was busy shocking people with some provocative (for the time!) movies like A Shocking

Night starring Clara Bow (the first ‘It’ girl. I’ll still remember the women fainting at the sight of a Rudolph Valentino

naked torso in The Sheik in 1921!

Smoked and drank inWore restrictiveclothes and behaved public, went about

appropriately without chaperones.

Very few paid jobs Although there were1920’s – the rise of the flapper….were open to women some high profile

women (EleanorRoosevelt), few womenhad been elected by1929.

1914; only 100,000divorces (womenremained in unhappy

By 1929 200,000marriages)women got divorcedeach year.

The Johnson –Reid Act (1924)

Considering the problems being caused by immigration at the moment; specifically the way in which different groups are looking down on each other (Irish American, French Canadians and German Americans in pole

position, followed by the Eastern European and Italian immigrants with the African Americans and Mexicans at the bottom of the pile., we are

proposing:

- A QUOTA of 150,000 immigrants each year, who are likely to be entirely European.

- Asian immigration is to stop immediately.

Sacco and Vanzetti

These were two high profile victims of the Red Scare. They were Italian Americans who were self-confessed anarchists. Their trial was one of racial slurs and very dodgy evidence. However the judge of the trial hated anarchists and said:

Although Vanzetti ‘may not have actuallycommitted the crime attributed to him, he is

Those nevertheless morally culpable (to blame)anarchist because he is the enemy of our existingB******s institutions’

Although this might seem a bit biased to you, it was carried through and both Sacco and Vanzetti were sentenced to death. This was what the fear of the Red Scare did to some Americans. Despite massive protests Sacco and Vanzetti were both eventually executed in 1927. The Red Scare also caused a clampdown on immigration (already noted). By 1929 the number of immigrants arriving each year had dropped from over a million in 1919 to 150,000 (see the Johnson – Reid Act of 1924).

Commonplace.

The Klu Klux Klan

- This organisation became very popular again in the 1920’s after the release of the film ‘Birth of a Nation’

- At their height they had around 4.5 million members (1924).

- The governors of both Oregon and Oklahoma were both members of the Klan.

- Methods included parades, beatings and lynching.

The Scopes Trial (aka the monkey trial)

- In Tennessee teaching the theory of evolution had been banned.

- One teacher (Scopes ) taught it anyway.

- He was put on trial, this was the conservatives vs the modernists.

- He was found guilty and fined $100.

- However, the war was won by the modernists, who were able to expose the stupidity of this intolerance and the fact that it contradicter the right to freedom of speech. The law was never used again.

- Supporters of Prohibition were also known as ‘dries’. - The Anti-Saloon League and Women’s Christian Temperance Union were the two big anti

drinking groups that wanted to see prohibition introduced.- By 1916 21 states had already banned saloons, this shows us that prohibition had support

from leaders and politicians.- The ‘dries’ claimed that every year 3000 infants were smothered in their beds by drunken

parents.- USA’s entry into WWI boosted the prohibition campaign since many big breweries were run

by German’s and anti-German feeling was encouraged by the war.

- The eighteenth amendment was proposed in 1917 and became law in January 1920. It was known as the ‘Volstead Act’ and ‘prohibited the manufacture, sale or transportation of

intoxicating liquors’.- It was repealed by the new Democratic President Franklin D Roosevelt who put it on his

campaign promises.

- The majority of

Americans weren’t willing to obey the law.

- Maryland never even introduced prohibition.

- Al Capone made $60 million each year from his speakeasies.

- William McKoy made $70 from his importing of illegal whiskey ‘the real Mckoy’

1921 1925 1929Illegal 9,746 12,023 15,794distilleriesseizedGallons of 414,000 11,030,000 11,860,000spirit seizedArrests 34,175 62,747 66,878

Don’t forget he positives, levels of alcohol consumption fell by about 30% during the

1920’s.

- This caused corruption to become rife and led to gang warfare over the lucrative trade in illegal alcohol.

- Organised gangs made over $2 billion from the sale of illegal alcohol.

- George Remus bribed officials to allow him to carry out his illegal practise. He was so rich that at one party he gave a car to all of the female guests and a $25,000 pair of cufflinks to all of the men.

- The most famous of all of these gangsters however, was Al Capone.

- Al Capone was based in Chicago where there were 130 gangland murders in 1926 and 1927 but not one arrest – the criminals were in control!

- He was a well-known figure in the city since he was bribing nearly all of the officials, he even had the mayor on his payroll!

- - He was well known for being generous eg.$100 to waiters and spent $30,000 on a soup kitchen for the unemployed.

- Capone was in complete control of Chicago after 1929 when he carried out the St Valentine’s Day Massacre murdering 7 members of his rivals (Bugsy Malone’s) gang using a false police car and two gangsters in police uniforms.

- He committed (or his gang did at least!) over 300 murders during his time in control.

Hi, I’m Issy Einstein and with my deputy Moe Smith I tried to clamp down on the illegal sale of alcohol in so called speakeasies. In fact, by 1925 there were more speakeasies in American cities than there had been saloons in 1919. It was pretty easy to find people selling alcohol, despite it being illegal. In fact it too me just 21 minutes in Chicago, 17

minutes in Atlanta, 11 minutes in Pittsburgh and my personal favourite, 35 seconds in New Orleans (the taxi driver offered me a bottle of

whiskey)!

This showed that Prohibition wasn’t working, but also shows that we were successfully catching the law breakers. You could use this evidence to

support either side of the argument!

Ask Yourself:

1) Can you give two facts to support the idea that America was booming during the 1920’s?

2) Can you give two facts to support the argument that America was not booming in the 1920’s

3) Which Republican policies helped the boom? 4) What were the new inventions created in the 1920’s? 5) How many Ford Model T cars were being produced during 1925? 6) What evidence is there for the importance of credit during the boom? 7) Give one film star of the 1920’s. 8) How many tickets were being sold each week by 1930? 9) Give two examples of how life had changed for women by the 1920’s. 10) Which immigrants were at the bottom of the pile? 11) What was the immigration quota act called? 12) When was it introduced? 13) What was the quota set to? 14) What was the Red Scare? 15) Where did these ideas come from? 16) Give one example that shows why people were so worried. 17) How many people were arrested during the Red Scare? 18) How many pof those cases actually had a basis in fact? 19) What was the important about the Sacco and Vanzetti case? 20) What was the Scopes Trial? 21) What happened to Scopes? 22) What was the long term result of the trial? 23) Who were the Ku Klux Klan? 24) Which film restarted their popularity? Why? 25) When did their membership peak? How many people had joined? 26) Give one governor who was also a clan member. 27) Which groups campaigned for prohibition. 28) What ‘evidence’ did they use to push their case? 29) When was Prohibition introduced? What was the act called? 30) What evidence was there that Prohibition worked? (give at least 2 examples 31) How many murders were there in Chicago in 1926/7? 32) Name one prohibition agent. 33) How quickly could he find alcohol? 34) How much did Al Capone make from illegal speakeasies? 35) What was ‘the real McKoy?’

- Occurred in October 1929. - Caused by a crash in the Stock Markets.

- People had been investing in the Stock Market because the value of shares kept rising.

- This made them borrow money to buy even more shares. Before selling these shares for a profit (not keeping them for very long). This was called speculation.

- When people started to sell shares their value decreased.

- This meant that the people who had borrowed money were left in massive debt.

- Unemployment started to rise as companies

Key Facts:

- In 1920 there had been only 4 million share owners in America.

- By 1929 there were 20 million. - There were 600,000 speculators

Impacts of the Wall Street Crash:

1) The Wealthy: Rockefeller lost 80% of wealth – left with $40 million

2) The Banks: 1929 – 659 banks went bankrupt, 1930 – 1,352 went bankrupt, 1931 – 2,294 banks went bankrupt, and overall $1 billion have been removed from these banks by investors.

3) Industry and Farming: Industrial and farm production fell by 40% and wages by 60% between 1928 and 1933. Farm income had dropped to $5 billion per year.

4) Unemployment: By 1933 14 million workers had been made unemployed. Unemployment in the steel city of Cleveland hit 50% and Toledo 80%

5) The Human Cost: New slums were created and caused ‘Hoovervilles’ and in New York in 1932 238 people were admitted to hospital for malnutrition. 45 died?

6) WWI Veterans: WWI veterans marched on Washington to ask for their war bonus to be paid early. Hoover asks General MacArthur to deal with them, but to treat them with respect. MacArthur ignored these orders and burnt their camp down. Hoover refused to condemn MacArthur, instead he stood by him.

The Campaign:

- Unlike Hoover (Republican), Roosevelt (Democrat) wanted to do something.

- He carried out a campaign of some 20,800km giving 16 major speeches and a further 60 from the back of the train. He promised a ‘New Deal’.

- Roosevelt won by 7 million votes (a huge margin)

1) The Emergency Banking Act – Roosevelt shut down the banks for two days and had them all checked out. 5000 trustworthy banks were reopened; they were to be backed by the government if necessary.

2) The Federal Emergency Relief Administration – this acted on the needs of the poor. A sum of $500 million was spent on soup kitchens, blankets, employment schemes and nursery schools.

3) The Civilian Conservation Corps – aimed at young unemployed men in particular. They could sign up for periods of six months which could be renewed. Most of their work was done on environmental projects in national parks. 2.5 million young men were helped by this scheme.

4) The Agricultural Adjustment Administration – set quotas to reduce farm production in order to increase prices. Helped modernise farms, however this put farm labourers out of work.

5) The National Industrial Recovery Act:

- Public Works Administration – used government money to build schools, roads, dams, bridges and airports. Great for the long term and created millions of jobs.

- The National Recovery Administration – improved working conditions in industry and outlawed child labour. It also set fair wages and sensible levels of production. It was voluntary, but firms which joined used the blue eagle as a symbol of presidential approval. Over 2 million employers joined the scheme.

6) The Tennessee Valley Authority – this cut across an area of seven states which were particularly poor. The authority built dams which irrigated dried out land, created electricity to those who had none, and created thousands of jobs in the area.

Despite his achievements, by May 1935 Roosevelt was facing severe criticism from all sides. People like Senator Huey Long, for example, thought that he wasn’t doing enough. Roosevelt met with his ‘brains trust’ and decided to take even further action.

1) The Wagner Act – forced all employers to allow trade unions to operate in their companies and to let them negotiate with employers for better pay and conditions. The act made it illegal to sack workers for being in a union.

2) The Social Security Act – provided state pensions for the elderly and for widows and allowed state and federal governments to work together to help the sick and disabled. It also set up unemployment insurance for workers.

3) The Works Progress Administration – later renamed the Works Project Administration united all of the projects put together to create jobs. Also extended to unemployed actors etc. For example 80,000 photos of farming were taken and displayed locally as part of the Federal Arts Project.

4) The Resettlement Administration – helped smallholders and tenant farmers who had not been helped by the AAA. It moved over 500,000 families to better quality housing. The Farm Security Administration replaced the RA in 1937. It gave special loans to small farmers to help them buy their land. It also built camps to help migrant workers.

Women

-The New Deal saw many women achieve prominent positions including Eleanor Roosevelt.

-The National Youth Administration was a woman, Mary Macleod Bethune. She was also African American.

-Frances Perkins was the Secretary of Labour and a key New Deal figure.

-Most of the New Deal programmes were aimed at men, only 8,000 women benefited from the CCC.

-Local governments sought to avoid paying women social security by introducing special qualifications and conditions.

Bethune. She was also African American. a

Problems in the Supreme Court:

- Although he won a huge victory in 1936, Roosevelt’s problems were far from over.

- He now faced the most powerful enemy of the New Deal – The Supreme Court, which was controlled by the Republicans.

- In May 1935 the case highlighted to the right came to the Supreme Court (The Schechter Poultry Corporation).

- The company appealed to the Supreme Court, who overturned the prosecution, claiming that the federal government had no right to prosecute the company. In fact, the Supreme Court (Republican controlled) claimed that the NRA was unconstitutional (illegal) because it took too much power away from the local states.

- Roosevelt was furious. He asked Congress to give him power to appoint six more Supreme Court judges who were sympathetic to the New Deal and would overturn this ruling (by changing the balance of power in the Supreme Court.

- However, the American public were scared by this behaviour. They saw it as Roosevelt attacking the American style of government and behaving like a dictator. Roosevelt had to abandon his plans.

- However, the Supreme Court were also shaken by Roosevelt’s threats and were much less obstructive in the future. Most of Roosevelt’s Second New Deal was approved after 1937.

Opposition to the New Deal:

1) It’s not doing enough – Huey Long, Governor of Louisiana in 1928 (and senator 1932) believed in taxing big business and giving to the poor. He proposed ‘Share Our Wealth’ (personal fortunes no more than $3 million and maximum earning $1 million a year). Free washing machines and radios for the over 60s! Assassinated 1935. Dr Francis Townsend (founder of Townsend Clubs) campaigned for a pension of $200 per month for the over 60s. Father Coughlin set up the National Union for Social Justice.

2) It’s doing too much – Republicans and section of the business community claimed that: there were too many codes and regulations, the free market should deal with the issues, Roosevelt was behaving like a dictator. There was even a smear campaign against Roosevelt claiming that he was disabled due to an STD rather than Polio.

The outcome? Roosevelt won the 1936 election by 27 million votes!!

Schechter Poultry Corporation vs NRA

The Schechter Poultry Corporation had been found guilty of:

1) Selling diseased chickens for human consumption.

2) Filing false sales claims (to make the company worth more)

3) Exploiting its workers

4) Threatening government inspectors.

A New Society?

- The New Deal restored the faith of the American people in their government.

- It handled billions of dollars of public money with no corruption. For example, Harold Hopkins distributed $10 billion but never drew more than his salary of $15,000. The Secretary of the Interior, Harold Ickes, actually tapped the phones of his employees to ensure there was no corruption. There was none.

- However, others accused Ickes and Hopkins of being Communist and anti-business (because they supported trade unions).

Industrial Workers

- The NRA and second new Deal strengthened the position of the labour unions.

- Some labour unions joined forces in 1935 to form the Committee for Industrial Organisation (CIO).

- The Union of Automobile Workers (UAW) was recognised by two very anti-union organisations: General Motors in 1936 and Ford in 1941.

- However, many strikes continued to be broken up with violence and companies such as Ford and Chrysler employed their own thugs or controlled the local police.

Unemployment and the Economy:

- The New Deal created millions of jobs. - It stabilised the banking system and reduced the number of business failures. - Projects, eg. The TVA improved the standard of living for thousands of people. - Valuable resources including schools, roads and power stations were built. - The new Deal never solved the underlying economic problems. - The US economy took longer to recover than most European countries. - There were 6 million unemployed in 1941

African Americans:

- Around 200,000 African Americans gained benefits from the CCC and other New Deal agencies.

- They benefited from the slums clearances etc.

- However, many New Deal agencies still discriminated against African Americans.

Native Americans

- The Indian Reorganisation Act in 1934 provided money to help Native Americans to buy and improve land.

- The Indian Reservation Act (1934) helped the Native Americans to preserve and practise their traditions laws and cultures.

- Native Americans remained a poor and excluded group of society.

Ask Yourself:

1) When was the Wall Street Crash? 2) What was it? 3) Why did it happen? 4) What were speculators? How many of them were there? 5) How many people owned shares by 1929? 6) How many banks shut in 1929? 7) What was Hoover’s solution to the crisis? 8) What were Hoovervilles? 9) What happened to the WWI veterans? Why was this bad for Hoover? 10) How many KM did Roosevelt travel during his election campaign? 11) Wich party did Roosevelt represent? 12) What was the New Deal? 13) How many agencies can you remember? 14) Who did the CCC help? 15) What did the TVA do? 16) How much did farm profits increase by as a result of the AAA? 17) Which two agencies made up the NIRA? 18) Who didn’t like the New Deal? Explain why. 19) Who did? (think votes!) 20) Who did Roosevelt consult before creating the Second New Deal? 21) Do you know all these agencies? 22) Who benefited from the SSA? 23) What was good about the RA? 24) Who benefited from the New Deal? 25) Who didn’t? 26) What was unemployment in 1941?

27) Give two key New Deal supporters from Roosevelt’s government; what did they do that made them important?

28) Give an example of an important woman? 29) Who were the CIO and UAW? 30) Make sure that you know all of the above, go through the questions again!

With Reference To:

Ben Walsh: Modern World History

OCR Modern World History

Google Images