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