Chapter 12Politics of the Roaring 20s

The Roaring 20’s 1920-29

• Post War Issues– Economy – had to adjust from making guns to

making butter again• Cost of living had doubled

– Labor troubles• Jobs taken away from women and African

Americans – given back to returning GIs

Isolationism

• Did not want to get involved in another war like WWI – pulled away from world affairs– Feelings of nativism (prejudice against foreign

born people) increased

Communism• Russian revolution – Lenin’s Bolsheviks

overthrew tsar – established communist government in Russia

Red Scare

• Fear of Communism led to the Red Scare– Palmer Raids –

suspected communists were hunted down

• Rights were taken away• Not one single credible

threat was found

Sacco and Vanzetti

• Italian anarchists• Charged with robbery

and murder – convicted even though evidence was circumstantial

• Executed

Sacco and Vanzetti

• Symbolic example of discrimination against radical beliefs during the Red Scare

Great Migration

• African Americans moved north to look for better job opportunities

Ku Klux Klan

• Grows over Red Scare and anti-immigrant feelings

• By 1924, the Klan had 4.5 million members

"It is like writing history with Lightning. And my only regret is that it is all

so terribly true." -- President Woodrow Wilson

• "...the President was entirely unaware of the nature of the play before it was presented and at no time has expressed his approbation of it."--Letter from J. M. Tumulty, secretary to President Wilson, to the Boston branch of the NAACP, which protested against the film's blackface villains and heroic Ku Klux Klanners.

Congress Limits Immigration• nativist pressure led to decision to limit

immigration from southern and eastern Europe

• The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 – set up a quota system to control

and restrict immigration

Labor unrest

• Strikes were outlawed during WWI

• 1919 there were more than 3,000 strikes involving 4 million workers – low wages

Labor Unions

• Membership began dropping

• Accused of being communists

African Americans were excluded from many unions

Warren G. Harding Administration

– Kellogg-Briand Pact - renounced war as a means of national policy (signed by 15 nations, but difficult to enforce)

– Fordney McCumber Tariff – raised taxes on U.S. imports – made it hard for foreign countries to sell goods in U.S.

– Dawes Plan - solved problem of post-war debt - provided loans to Germany to pay France/Britain who then paid the U.S

Political Scandal– “Ohio gang” - Harding’s poker buddies

who he set up in cabinet

– Many in “gang” became corrupt through use of graft ( political favors)• Some were caught illegally selling

government supplies to private companies

TEAPOT DOME SCANDAL • government set aside oil-rich public land in

Teapot, WY

• Secretary of Interior Albert Fall secretly leased the land to two oil companies

• Fall received $400,000 from the oil companies and a felony conviction from the courts

THE BUSINESS OF AMERICA

• Calvin Coolidge - pro-business

• His famous quote: “The chief business of the American people is business . . .the man who builds a factory builds a temple – the man who works there worships there”

President Calvin Coolidge 1924-1928

Life in the 1920s

• Age of consumption

Automobile• altered the American landscape and

society

• 80% of all registered motor vehicles in the world were in the U.S.

• Urban sprawl – people could live farther from work

IMPACT OF THE AUTO

Among the many changes were:

• Paved roads, traffic lights• Motels, billboards• Home design• Gas stations, repair shops• Shopping centers • Freedom for rural families• Independence for women

and young people• Cities like Detroit, Flint,

Akron grew • By 1920 80% of world’s

vehicles in U.S.

AIRLINE TRANSPORT BECOMES COMMON

• The airline industry began as a mail carrying service and quickly “took off”

• By 1927, Pan American Airways was making the transatlantic passenger flights

When commercial flights began, all flight attendants

were female and white

AMERICAN STANDARD OF LIVING SOARS

• The years 1920-1929 were prosperous ones for the U.S.

• Americans owned 40% of the world’s wealth

• The average annual income rose 35% during the 1920s ($522 to $705)

• Discretionary income increased

MODERN ADVERTISING EMERGES

• Ad agencies no longer sought to merely “inform” the public about their products

• They hired psychologists to study how best to appeal to Americans’ desire for youthfulness, beauty, health and wealth

• “Say it with Flowers” slogan actually doubled sales between 1912-1924

A SUPERFICIAL PROSPERITY

• Many during the 1920s believed the prosperity would go on forever

• Wages, production, GNP, and the stock market all rose significantly

• But. . . .

PROBLEMS ON THE HORIZON?• Businesses expanded recklessly• Iron & railroad industries faded• Farms nationwide suffered losses due to

overproduction• Too much was bought on credit

(installment plans) including stocks