1920s The Decade That Roared 1920's collectively known as the "Roaring 20's", or the "Jazz Age"
in sum, a period of great change in American Society - modern America is born at this time for first time the census reflected an urban society - people had moved into cities to enjoy a higher standard of living This 1925 Judge cartoon, Sheik with Sheba, drawn by John Held Jr
This 1925 Judge cartoon, Sheik with Sheba, drawn by John Held Jr., offered one view of contemporary culture. The flashy new automobile, the hip flask with illegal liquor, the cigarettes, and the stylish new woman were all part of the Roaring Twenties image. SOURCE:The Granger Collection (4E746.21). Thomas Hart Bentons 1930 painting City Activities with Dance Hall depicts the excitement and pleasures associated with commercialized leisure in the Prohibition era, reflecting urban Americas dominance in defining the nations popular culture. SOURCE:Thomas Hart Benton,City Activities with Dance Hall from America Today ,1930. Distemper and egg tempera on gessoed linen with oil glaze 92 x134 1/2 inches.Collection, AXA Financial,Inc.,through its subsidiary, The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the U.S.AXA Financial,Inc. Post WWI Problems violent labor strikes urban racial riots bomb scares
anger towards anarchists Red Scare the presence of Communist party members in the United States the Russian Revolution bomb scares and actual bombings labor strikes Shortly after the end of World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, the Red Scare took hold in the United States. A nationwide fear of communists, socialists, anarchists, and other dissidents suddenly grabbed the American psyche in 1919 following a series of anarchist bombings. The nation was gripped in fear. Innocent people were jailed for expressing their views, civil liberties were ignored, and many Americans feared that a Bolshevik-style revolution was at hand. Then, in the early 1920s, the fear seemed to dissipate just as quickly as it had begun, and the Red Scare was over. During World War I, a fervent patriotism was prevalent in the country, spurred by propagandist George Creel, chairman of the United States Committee on Public Information. While American boys were fighting the "Huns" abroad, many Americans fought them at home. Anyone who wasn't as patriotic as possible--conscientious objectors, draft dodgers, "slackers," German-Americans, immigrants, Communists--was suspect. It was out of this patriotism that the Red Scare took hold. At the time the World War I Armistice was executed in 1918, approximately nine million people worked in war industries, while another four million were serving in the armed forces. Once the war was over, these people were left without jobs, and war industries were left without contracts. Economic difficulties and worker unrest increased. Two main Union/Socialist groups stood out at the time--the International Workers of the World (the I.W.W. or Wobblies) centered in the northwest portion of the country and led by "Big" Bill Haywood, and the Socialist party led by Eugene Debs. Both groups were well know objectors to WWI, and to the minds of many Americans therefore, unpatriotic. This led them open to attack. Any activity even loosely associated with them was suspicious. One of the first major strikes after the end of the war was the Seattle shipyard strike of 1919 which, erroneously, was attributed to the Wobblies. On January 21, 35,000 shipyard workers in Seattle struck. A general strike resulted when 60,000 workers in the Seattle area struck on February 6. Despite the absence of any violence or arrests, the strikers were immediately labeled as Reds who and charges that they were trying to incite revolution were leveled against them. Hysteria struck the city as department stores, grocery stores, and pharmacies were flooded by frightened customers trying to ensure that they would be able to survive a prolonged strike. The Seattle strike suddenly became national news, with newspaper headlines across the country telling of Seattle's impending doom and potential loss to the Reds and urging for the strike to be put down. Seattle mayor Ole Hansen, who had long hated the Wobblies and took the strike as a personal affront to him, took the offensive against the strikers. He guaranteed the city's safety by announcing that 1500 of the city's policemen and an equal number of federal troops were at his disposal to help break the strike and keep the peace. On February 10, realizing the strike could not succeed and could even damage the labor movement in Seattle, orders were given to end the strike. Mayor Hansen took credit for the termination of the strike, proclaimed a victory for Americanism, quit his job, and became a national expert and lecturer on anti-communism. Subsequent to the Seattle strike, all strikes during the next six months were demonized in the press as "crimes against society," conspiracies against the government," and "plots to establish communism." A bomb plot was then uncovered on April 28, and among its intended victims was Mayor Hansen, apparantly a target for his squashing of the strike. On May Day (May 1), 1919, rallies were held throughout the country and riots ensued in several cities, including Boston, New York, and Cleveland. On June 2, another multi-state bomb plot was uncovered, leading to more fear of unseen anarchists who could inflict destruction and death from afar. Since one cannot defend against an unknown enemy, the "known" enemies (those workers who chose to strike) became increasingly tempting targets for persecution. On September 9, the Boston police force went on strike. A panic that "Reds" were behind the strike took over Boston despite the lack of any radicalism on the part of the striking police officers. Although the city experienced primarily looting and vandalism (as well as some rioting), papers around the country ran inflammatory and polemical headlines. Stories told of massive riots, reigns of terror, and federal troops firing machine guns on a mob. On September 13, Police Commissioner Curtis announced that the striking policemen would not be allowed to return and that the city would hire a new police force, effectively ending the strike. Weeks later, a nation-wide steel strike occurred. On September 22, 275,000 steel workers walked off their jobs, and soon the strikers numbered 365,000. Three quarters of Pittsburgh's steel mills were shut down, and the strikers estimated that the strike was 90% effective. Riots, attributed only to the strikers with no newspapers laying any blame on police or political leaders, resulted in many places. In Gary, Indiana, for example, unrest was so prevalent that martial law was declared on October 5. The steel owners held fast, and in January of 1920, with less than a third of the strikers still out, the strike ended without the strikers gaining a single demand. As a result of the strikes and unrest, the strikers were branded as "Reds" and as being unpatriotic. Fear of strikes leading to a Communist revolution spread throughout the country. Hysteria took hold. "Red hunting" became the national obsession. Colleges were deemed to be hotbeds of Bolshevism, and professors were labeled as radicals. The hunt reached down to public secondary schools where many teachers were fired for current or prior membership in even the most mildly of leftist organizations. The American Legion was founded in St. Louis on May 8, 1919 "[t]o uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America; to maintain law and order; to foster and perpetuate a one hundred per cent Americanism." By the fall, the Legion had 650,000 members, and over a million by year's end. While most of the Legion engaged in such relatively innocuous activities as distributing pamphlets, the patriotic and anti-communist fervor of the Legion led many to engage in vigilante justice meted out against Reds both real and suspected. The Legion's prevalence in the country and reputation for anti-communism was so great that the phrase "Leave the Reds to the Legion" became the "Wazzzzup" of the late teens. The government, too, was not immune to anti-communistic hysteria. The Justice Department, under Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, started the General Intelligence (or antiradical) Division of Bureau of Investigation on August 1, 1919 with J. Edgar Hoover as its head. Its mission to uncover Bolshevik conspiracies, and to find and incarcerate or deport conspirators. Eventually, the antiradical division compiled over 200,000 cards in a card-filing system that detailed radical organizations, individuals, and case histories across the country. These efforts resulted in the imprisonment or deportation of thousands of supposed radicals and leftists. These arrests were often made at the expense of civil liberties as arrests were often made without warrants and for spurious reasons. In Newark, for example, a man was arrested for looking like a radical. Even the most innocent statement against capitalism, the government, or the country could lead to arrest and incarceration. Moreover, arrestees were often denied counsel and contact with the outside world, beaten, and held in inhumane conditions. If the national press is any indicator of the predominant mood of the country, then the efforts of the Justice Department was overwhelmingly supported by the masses because the raids, deportations, and arrests were all championed on the front page of most every paper. All told, thousands of innocent people were jailed or deported, and many more were arrested or questioned. On January 2, 1920 alone over 4,000 alleged radicals were arrested in thirty-three cities. Legislatures also reflected the national sentiment against radicals. Numerous local and state legislatures passed some sort of ordinance against radicals and radical activity. Thirty-two states made it illegal to display the red flag of communism. The New York Legislature expelled five duly elected Socialist assemblymen from its ranks. While Congress was unable to enact a peacetime anti-sedition bill, approximately seventy such bills were introduced. The national mood, however, began to shift back to normal in the spring of 1920. In May twelve prominent attorneys (including Harvard professors Dean Pound, Zachariah Chaffee, and Felix Frankfurter, who later became a Supreme Court Justice and a proponent of Sacco and Vanzetti's innocence) issued a report detailing the Justice Department's violations of civil liberties. The New York Assembly's's decision to bar its Socialist members was met with disgust by national newspapers and leaders such as then-Senator Warren G. Harding, former Republican presidential candidate Charles Evans Hughes and even Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer who felt it unfair to put Socialists and Communists in the same category. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes criticized proposed anti-sedition bills. Possibly because the proposed bills were viewed as censorship, most newspapers came out against the anti-sedition bills. Industry leaders, who were early proponents of anti-communism, began to realize that deporting immigrants (as many of the communists were alleged to be) drained a major source of labor, which would result in higher wages and decreased profits. Suddenly, political cartoons in newspapers that months earlier had been virulently opposed to Reds now featured over zealous Red-hunters as their objects of scorn and ridicule. The Red Scare quickly ran its course and, by the summer of 1920, it was largely over. The nation turned its collective attention to more leisurely pursuits. Red Scare At this time, W. Wilson was gravely ill following a stroke His Attorney General, A. Mitchell Palmer, wanted to take a shot at the presidency - he used fears of both immigrants and communism to his advantage He had J. Edgar Hoover round up suspected radicals, many of which were deported (Palmer Raids) People Margaret Sanger Charles Lindbergh and Babe Ruth Marcus Garvey
advocacy of birth control Planned Parenthood Charles Lindbergh and Babe Ruth Demonstrated that individualism was still alive in a modern American dominated by corporations and team players Marcus Garvey Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) Doctors wash their hands!
Women go to hospitals to have babies 40% of maternal deaths were caused by sepsis (half following delivery and half associated with illegally induced abortion) with the remaining deaths primarily attributed to hemorrhage and toxemia 1942: First use of penicillin 40% of maternal deaths were caused by sepsis (half following delivery and half associated with illegally induced abortion) with the remaining deaths primarily attributed to hemorrhage and toxemia (2). Marcus Garvey (Jamaican born immigrant) established the Universal Negro Improvement Association
believed in Black pride advocated racial segregation b/c of Black superiority Garvey believed Blacks should return to Africa he purchased a ship to start the Black Star line attracted many investments: gov't charged him with w/fraud he was found guilty and eventually deported to Jamaica, but his organization continued to exist Events KKK Prohibition Harlem Renaissance promote white supremacy
Nordic Americans Prohibition the rise of organized crime proved difficult to enforce defiance of the law by large numbers of people rise of organized crime divisions in the Democratic party widespread smuggling Harlem Renaissance Langston Hughes "Song to A Negro Wash Woman The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain" Women members of the Ku Klux Klan in New Castle, Indiana, August 1, The revived Klan was a powerful presence in scores of American communities during the early 1920s, especially among native-born white Protestants, who feared cultural and political change. In addition to preaching 100 percent Americanism, local Klan chapters also served a social function for members and their families. SOURCE:Ball State University Libraries,Archives &Special Collections,W.A.Swift Photo Collection. The Ku Klux Klan In power Great increase Anti-black Anti-immigrant
Anti-Semitic Anti-Catholic Anti-womens suffrage Anti-bootleggers A KKK group youll never see Prohibition Volstead Act untouchables Gangsters 18th Amendment
The Volstead Act, formally National Prohibition Act, which reinforced the prohibition of alcohol in the United States, was named for Andrew Volstead, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which oversaw its passage. However, Volstead served as the legislation's sponsor and facilitator rather than its author. It was the Anti-Saloon League's Wayne Wheeler who conceived and drafted the bill. Al Capone PROHIBITION - on manuf. and sale of alcohol
adopted in th AMENDMENT an outgrowth of the temperance movement in WWI, temperance became a patriotic mvmt. - drunkenness caused low productivity & inefficiency, and alcohol needed to treat the wounded a difficult law to enforce... organized crime, speakeasies, bootleggers were on the rise Al Capone virtually controlled Chicago in this period -capitalism at its zenith Prohibition finally ended in 1933 w/ the 21st Amendment forced organized crime to pursue other interests Fun Fact chemist's war of Prohibition
In 1926, in New York City, 1,200 were sickened by poisonous alcohol; 400 died. The following year, deaths climbed to 700 How did the alcohol get poisonous?The govt. Frustrated, federal officials had decided to try a different kind of enforcement. They ordered the poisoning of industrial alcohols manufactured in the United States, products regularly stolen by bootleggers and resold as drinkable spirits. The idea was to scare people into giving up illicit drinking. Instead, by the time Prohibition ended in 1933, the federal poisoning program, by some estimates, had killed at least 10,000 people. Fun Fact Think the govt learned their lesson from the 1920s?
In the 1970s, the U.S. government's sprayed Mexican marijuana fields with Paraquat, an herbicide. Its use was primarily intended to destroy crops, but government officials also insisted that awareness of the toxin would deter marijuana smokers. Blacks moved north to take advantage of booming wartime industry (= Great Migration) - Black ghettoes began to form, i.e. Harlem within these ghettoes a distinct Black culture flourished (Harlem Ren.) But both blacks and whites wanted cultural interchange restricted The critic and photographer Carl Van Vechten took this portrait of Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes in The print next to Hughes reflects the influence of African art, an important source of inspiration for Harlem Renaissance artists and writers. SOURCE:National Portrait Gallery,Smithsouian Institution/Art Resource,New York. Oh, wash-woman / Arms elbow-deep in white suds, / Soul washed clean, Clothes washed clean,/ I have many songs to sing you / Could I but find the words. Was it four oclock or six oclock on a winter afternoon, I saw you wringing out the last shirt in Miss White Ladys kitchen? Was it four oclock or six oclock? I dont remember. But I know, at seven one spring morning you were on Vermont Street with a bundle in your arms going to wash clothes./ And I know Ive seen you in the New York subway in the late afternoon coming home from washing clothes. Yes, I know you, wash-woman. I know how you send your children to school, and high-school, and even college. / I know how you work to help your man when times are hard. / I know how you build your house up from the washtub and call it home. / And how you raise your churches from white suds for the service of the Holy God -I, too (in whole) -Hughes
I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother. / They send me to eat in the kitchen / When company comes, / But I laugh, / And eat well,/ And grow strong. Tomorrow, Ill be at the table / When company comes. Nobodyll dare / Say to me, / Eat in the kitchen, / Then. Besides, / Theyll see how beautiful we are / And be ashamed- I, too, am America. -I, too (in whole) -Hughes I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear, Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong, The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam, The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work, The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deck- hand singing on the steamboat deck, The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands, The woodcutter's song, the ploughboy's on his way in the morn- ing, or at noon intermission or at sundown, The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing, Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else, The day what belongs to the dayat night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly, Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs. Walt Whitmanleaves of grass Compare the two poems Black US vs White US experience Note the difference Black Population, 1920 Although the Great Migration had drawn hundreds of thousands of African Americans to the urban North, the Southern states of the former Confederacy still remained the center of the African American population in 1920. Laws The Sheppard-Towner Act of 1921
aimed at reducing childbirth mortality rates and infant mortality rates At the time the legislation was introduced, childbirth remained the second leading cause of death for women. About 20% of children in the United States died in their first year and about 33% in their first five years Critics said it was socialism and challenged it in the supreme courtthey lost.But the act was de-funded in 1929 due to critics The Sheppard-Towner Act provided for federal matching funds for such programs as: health clinics for women and children, hiring physicians and nurses to educate and care for pregnant women and mothers and their children visiting nurses to educate and care for pregnant and new mothers midwife training distribution of nutrition and hygiene information Laws The law was significant in American legal history because it was the first federally-funded social welfare program, and because the challenge to the Supreme Court failed. The Sheppard-Towner Act is significant in women's history because it addressed the needs of women and children directly at a federal level. A Society in Conflict Anti-immigrant Sacco-Vanzetti Trial
National Origins Act Discrimination Sacco-Vanzetti Trial Italian immigrants Unfair trial On April 15, 1920, F.A. Parmenter, a shoe factory paymaster, and guard Alessandro Berardelli were murdered in South Braintree, Massachusetts. The two men who fired the shots escaped in a waiting car with more than $15,000. Initially this appeared to be a local story only, not unlike similar incidents elsewhere in America during the often lawless postwar years. Three weeks later, arrests were made and charges brought against two Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco, a shoemaker, and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, a fish peddler. A prominent left-wing attorney, Fred H. Moore, was brought in to defend Sacco and Vanzetti in the South Braintree murders. The accused had no criminal records, but were known as outspoken anarchists, labor organizers and antiwar activists activities viewed with great suspicion during the Red Scare era. Moore made the decision to have his clients freely admit their unpopular beliefs, in the hope that the trial would be perceived to hinge on their political convictions and not on the evidence. In so doing, the Sacco and Vanzetti case became a matter of national public attention. A trial was held in the summer of 1921 in a Massachusetts Superior Court. The accused readily admitted their radical beliefs, but denied any involvement in the crime and conducted themselves with dignity during the proceedings. Despite the presentation of corroborated testimony that Sacco was in Boston trying to arrange for a passport at the time of the murder, the jury rendered guilty verdicts for both. Sentencing, however, was put off until a later time and years of appeals and motions followed. Presiding Judge Webster Thayer was clearly not impartial and had been heard to utter prejudicial remarks. A protest movement, organized in part by attorney Moore, galvanized support among liberals and socialists who criticized the blatantly political nature of the verdict. Labor organizations and the American Civil Liberties Union joined the protests and sought a new trial. In late 1925, a convicted bank robber, Celestino Madeiros, admitted to having participated in the murders, which provided the Sacco and Vanzetti backers with new hope. Other issues were raised, alleging improper actions by the police, perjury by witnesses and evidence of Boston gang ties to the crime. Appeals to the Massachusetts Supreme Court, however, were routinely turned down on the basis that only the presiding trial judge could reopen a case on the basis of new evidence. Judge Thayer was not inclined to do so. In April 1927, the long-delayed sentencing occurred and both men were given death sentences. Public clamor forced Massachusetts Governor Alvan T. Fuller to appoint an investigative committee to consider the appropriateness of executive clemency. President A. Lawrence Lowell of Harvard chaired the committee, which in the end supported the governors decision not to spare the lives of Sacco and Vanzetti. The looming executions prompted huge demonstrations throughout the United States, and in Europe and Latin America. Despite these protests, Sacco and Vanzetti, proclaiming their innocence to the end, were electrocuted in Charlestown State Prison on August 23, 1927. The Sacco and Vanzetti case is still hotly debated in some circles today as a classic example of the tyranny of the establishment over the poor and politically non-conforming. It is generally agreed that a second trial should have been granted and that the refusal to do so was clearly unfair. For many years there was much support for the belief that both men were wrongly convicted, but more recent scholarship has pointed to the probable guilt of Sacco and the likely innocence of Vanzetti. In 1977, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis issued a proclamation asserting that Sacco and Vanzetti had been treated unjustly. Vanzetti (L)Sacco (R) Laws Immigration Acts of 1921 and 1924 (National Origins Act)
Immigration limited to 2% of the number of people from that country living in the US in 1890particulary tried to limit Jews and forbids Asians from immigration Resentment of workers against foreign immigrants' taking jobs away from Americans by their willingness to work for low wages A belief, caused by two short postwar depressions, that the nation's pool of labor was already overcrowded The belief that those immigrants already in the country were not adequately Americanized White Anglo-Saxon Protestants wanted to bar immigrants of different racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds The Immigration Act of 1924, or Johnson-Reed Act, including the National Origins Act, Asian Exclusion Act (43 Statutes-at-Large 153), was a United States federal law that limited the number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 2% of the number of people from that country who were already living in the United States in 1890, according to the Census of It excluded immigration of Asians. It superseded the 1921 Emergency Quota Act. The law was aimed at further restricting the Southern and Eastern Europeans (particularly, but not limited to, Jewish immigrants) who were immigrating in large numbers starting in the 1890s, as well as prohibiting the immigration of East Asians and Asian Indians. Fun Fact Some of the law's strongest supporters were influenced by Madison Grant and his 1916 book, The Passing of the Great Race. Grant was a eugenicist and an advocate of the racial hygiene theory. His data purported to show the superiority of the founding Northern European races. Sacco-Vanzetti Case The Sacco and Vanzetti case is still hotly debated in some circles today as a classic example of the tyranny of the establishment over the poor and politically non-conforming. Fun Fact Who did it? Most scholars agree in the probable guilt of Sacco and the likely innocence of Vanzetti. Sorry about the being electrocuted Vanzetti Small Town Anti-Urban Characteristics/beliefs
Prohibition Fundamentalism Immigration restriction Ku Klux Klan Election of 1928 Mexican workers gathered outside a San Antonio labor bureau in 1924
Mexican workers gathered outside a San Antonio labor bureau in These employment agencies contracted Mexicans to work for Texas farmers, railroads, and construction companies. Note the three Anglo men in front (wearing suits and ties), who probably owned and operated this agency. During the 1920s, San Antonios Mexican population doubled from roughly 40,000 to over 80,000, making it the second largest colonia in El Norte after Los Angeles. SOURCE:Goldbeck Collection,Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center,University of Texas at Austin.Photo by Summerville (46ND). Annual Immigration to United States, 18601930 Mexican Immigration to the United States in the 1920s Many Mexican migrants avoided official border crossing stations so they would not have to pay visa fees. Thus these official figures probably underestimated the true size of the decades Mexican migration. As the economy contracted with the onset of the Great Depression, immigration from Mexico dropped off sharply. Clifford K. Berrymans 1928 political cartoon interpreted that years presidential contest along sectional lines. It depicted the two major presidential contenders as each setting off to campaign in the regions where their support was weakest. For Democrat Al Smith, that meant the West, and for Republican Herbert Hoover, the East. SOURCE:Copyright,1928,Lost Angeles Times.Reprinted by permission. The Election of 1928 Although Al Smith managed to carry the nations twelve largest cities, Herbert Hoovers victory in 1928 was one of the largest popular and electoral landslides in the nations history. Celebrities Babe Ruth &Ty Cobb Charles Lindbergh
The Spirit ofSt. Louis Jack Dempsey Sports Gene Tunney defeated Jack Dempsey to become the heavyweight champion of the world. Jim Thorpe, later voted the most outstanding athlete of the first half of the twentieth century, won the decathlon at the Olympics and was later stripped of his medals for earlier playing semi-professional baseball Gertrude Ederle was the first woman to swim the English Channel. Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs in a single season. The Pittsburgh Crawfords, one of the most popular and successful baseball teams in the Negro National League, organized in Excluded from major league baseball by a whites only policy, black ballplayers played to enthusiastic crowds of African Americans from the 1920s through the 1940s. The Negro leagues declined after major league baseball finally integrated in 1947. SOURCE:1935 Pittsburgh Crawfords, champions Negro National League. National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown,N.Y. "Americans can have any kind of car they want, and any color they want, as long as it's a Ford, and as long as it's black." Henry Ford Automobiles Effects Changes in dating customs More individualism
Bedroom on wheels More individualism Go your own way Demands by voting public for more governmental funds for highways National highway system The stimulation of industries connected to the automobile industry, such as batteries, steel, oil, glass, and rubber The development of a motel industry Automobiles In 1929, sociologists Robert and Helen Lynd published, Middletown, a book based on field research done in Muncie, Indiana, in 1924 and 1925. The Lynds explored how industrialization had transformed tradition values and customs in Middle America. They paid particular attention to people's changing attitudes toward the automobile. They found that people of every income level considered the automobile a necessity rather than an luxury. People were willing to sacrifice food, clothing, and their savings in order to own a car. Fun Fact Perceived as a shining model of the American success story, Ford was so trusted by the American public that in 1928, when he announced the development of the new Model A, half a million Americans made a down payment on the car without having seen it, taken it for a test drive, or even known how much it would cost. Model A Fun Fact Henry Ford was very anti-Semitic
He opened up a newspaper, The Dearborn Independent, whose sole purpose was to advise the people of the US of the threat of the Jews. Finished automobiles roll off the moving assembly line at the Ford Motor Company, Highland Park, Michigan, ca During the 1920s, Henry Ford achieved the status of folk hero, as his name became synonymous with the techniques of mass production. Ford cultivated a public image of himself as the heroic genius of the auto industry, greatly exaggerating his personal achievements. SOURCE:Brown Brothers. Until 1924, Henry Ford had disdained national advertising for his cars
Until 1924, Henry Ford had disdained national advertising for his cars. But as General Motors gained a competitive edge by making yearly changes in style and technology, Ford was forced to pay more attention to advertising. This ad was directed at Mrs. Consumer, combining appeals to female independence and motherly duties. Great Trials Leopold and Loeb Scopes Trial symbolize immoral decadence
fundamentalist discomfort with evolutionary science dispute between modernists and traditionalist Bobby Franks Clarence Darrow Leopold and Loeb were two wealthy University of Chicago students who murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks in 1924, and were sentenced to life imprisonment. The duo were motivated to murder Franks by their desire to commit a perfect crime. Once apprehended, Leopold and Loeb retained Clarence Darrow as counsel for the defense. Darrows summation in their trial is noted for its influential criticism of capital punishment and retributive, as opposed to rehabilitative, penal systems. The 1925 Scopes trial attracted an enormous amount of media attention, as well as many anti-evolution crusaders. This group set up shop near the Dayton, Tennessee courthouse. High School Biology teacher
Scopes MonkeyTrial Evolution vs. Creationism Science vs. Religion Church Vs. State Famous Lawyers Dayton, Tennessee John Scopes High School Biology teacher Darrow Fun Fact Scopes was on trial for teaching from the text A Civic Biology: Presented in Problems which violated TN law Now hed be on trial for teaching from it because it was racist Fun Factsome quotes from the biology book
At the present time there exist upon the earth five races or varieties of man, each very different from the other in instincts, social customs, and, to an extent, in structure. These are the Ethiopian or negro type, originating in Africa; the Malay or brown race, from the islands of the Pacific; the American Indian; the Mongolian or yellow race, including the natives of China, Japan, and the Eskimos; and finally, the highest type of all, the Caucasians, represented by the civilized white inhabitants of Europe and America. Hunter was also a proponent of eugenics. "[T]he science of being well born, is an imperative for sophisticated society. "When people marry there are certain things that the individual as well as the race should demand," he wrote, arguing that tuberculosis, epilepsy, and even "feeble-mindedness are handicaps which it is not only unfair but criminal to hand down to posterity." "If such people were lower animals, we would probably kill them off to prevent them from spreading," Hunter lamented in Civic Biology. "Humanity will not allow this but we do have the remedy of separating the sexes in asylums or other places and in various ways preventing intermarriage and the possibilities of perpetuating such a low and degenerate race." Age of Prosperity Economic expansion Mass Production Assembly Line
Age of the Automobile Ailing Agriculture Why the boom? On the whole, the United States economy experienced steady growth and expansion during the 1920s. Machines Factories The Process of Standardized Mass Production and increased worker productivity Effect of WWI on technology. Scientific management: "Taylorism" Formula for labor, streamline work, industrial research Psychology of consumption Relations between the federal government and big business more business, less govt Business policies High tariff policies. The Fordney-McCumber Act (1922) and the Hawley-Smoot Act (1930) created the highest-ever schedule of tariffs for foreign-made goods. Andrew Mellon. Secretary of the Treasury from 1921 to In response to his demands, Congress repealed the excess profits tax and reduced the rates for corporate and personal income taxes. Mellon provided business leaders with a list of tax loopholes which the IRS had drawn up at Mellon's request. Cutbacks in the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The federal government had created the FTC to regulate big business and to look into unfair trade practices, but the commission did less and less of this in the 1920s. Herbert Hoover. As Secretary of Commerce and as President, Hoover encouraged price-fixing and believed that the government was responsible for helping businesses profit. Fun fact A new innovation appeared in the 1920sthe installment plan, which encouraged Americans to build up debt in order to buy consumer goods. In 1926, 75% of all cars were purchased on the installment plan.Avg. cost of a car$290. Consumer Debt, 192031 The expansion of consumer borrowing was a key component of the eras prosperity. These figures do not include mortgages or money borrowed to purchase stocks. They reveal the great increase in installment buying for such consumer durable goods as automobiles and household appliances. An agri. depression in early 1920's contributed to urban migration
U.S. farmers lost agri. markets in postwar Europe At same time agri. efficiency increased so more food produced (more food = lower prices) and fewer labourers needed So farming was no longer as prosperous, and bankers called in their loans (farms repossessed) So American farmers enter the Depression in advance of the rest of society Black American farmers in this period continued to live in poverty
sharecropping kept them in de facto slavery boll weevil wiped out the cotton crop white landowners went bankrupt & forced blacks off their land Consumer Economy Consumerism In a variety of ways, Americans wanted to get rich, and to do so with little effort. Thorstein Veblen, an economist, published The Theory of the Leisure Class in 1898. The book reached a wide American audience during the 1920s because it spoke directly to the psychology of American consumption. Veblen, in fact, introduced the now-familiar term "conspicuous consumption," which seemed to embody the cultural mindset of post World War I America. Why the crash? Stock prices Were too high And people Bought them
On margin Stock Market Prices, 192132 Common stock prices rose steeply during the 1920s. Although only about 4 million Americans owned stocks during the period, stock watching became something of a national sport. Stocks---what goes up, goes down
From 1921 to 1929, the Dow Jones rocketed from 60 to 400! Millionaires were created instantly. Investors mortgaged their homes, and foolishly invested their life savings in hot stocks, such as Ford and RCA. Stocks Investors soon purchased stock on margin. Margin is the borrowing of stock for the purpose of getting more leverage. For every dollar invested, a margin user would borrow 9 dollars worth of stock. Because of this leverage, if a stock went up 1%, the investor would make 10%! This also works the other way around, exaggerating even minor losses. If a stock drops too much, a margin holder could lose all of their money AND owe their broker money as well. Black Tuesday What made the stock market crash? Here's a brief summary. Capital is the tools needed to produce things of value out of raw materials. Buildings and machines are common examples of capital. A factory is a building with machines for making valued goods. Throughout the twentieth century, most of the capital in the United States was represented by stocks. A corporation owned capital. Ownership of the corporation in turn took the form of shares of stock. Each share of stock represented a proportionate share of the corporation. The stocks were bought and sold on stock exchanges, of which the most important was the New York Stock Exchange located on Wall Street in Manhattan. Throughout the 1920s a long boom took stock prices to peaks never before seen. From 1920 to 1929 stocks more than quadrupled in value. Many investors became convinced that stocks were a sure thing and borrowed heavily to invest more money in the market. But in 1929, the bubble burst and stocks started down an even more precipitous cliff. In 1932 and 1933, they hit bottom, down about 80% from their highs in the late 1920s. This had sharp effects on the economy. Demand for goods declined because people felt poor because of their losses in the stock market. New investment could not be financed through the sale of stock, because no one would buy the new stock. But perhaps the most important effect was chaos in the banking system as banks tried to collect on loans made to stockmarket investors whose holdings were now worth little or nothing at all. Worse, many banks had themselves invested depositors' money in the stockmarket. When word spread that banks' assets contained huge uncollectable loans and almost worthless stock certificates, depositors rushed to withdraw their savings. Unable to raise fresh funds from the Federal Reserve System, banks began failing by the hundreds in 1932 and 1933. By the inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt as president in March 1933, the banking system of the United States had largely ceased to function. Depositors had seen $140 billion disappear when their banks failed. Businesses could not get credit for inventory. Checks could not be used for payments because no one knew which checks were worthless and which were sound. Roosevelt closed all the banks in the United States for three days - a "bank holiday." Some banks were then cautiously re-opened with strict limits on withdrawals. Eventually, confidence returned to the system and banks were able to perform their economic function again. To prevent similar disasters, the federal government set up the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which eliminated the rationale for bank "runs" - to get one's money before the bank "runs out." Backed by the FDIC, the bank could fail and go out of business, but then the government would reimburse depositors. Another crucial mechanism insulated commercial banks from stock market panics by banning banks from investing depositors' money in stocks. The stock market was only one cause of the Great Depression. Unequal income distribution was another problem. While businesses showed great profits during the 1920s, workers got only a small portion of this wealth in their low wages. People who had small incomes therefore bought merchandise on credit. Advertisers pushed them to do so with the slogan "Buy now, pay later." Many consumers accumulated so much debt that they couldnt keep up Stocks To the average investor, stocks were a sure thing. Few people actually studied the fundamentals of the companies they invested in. Thousands of fraudulent companies were formed to hoodwink unsavvy investors. Most investors never even thought a crash was possible. To them, the stock market always went up. Stocks go up and down The A&P grocery chain expanded from 400 stores in 1912 to more than 15,000 by the end of the 1920s, making it a familiar sight in communities across America. A&P advertisements, like this one from 1927, emphasized cleanliness, order, and the availability of name-brand goods at discount prices. SOURCE:From Ladies Home Journal .A&P Food Stores LTD. This 1920 magazine advertisement touts the wonders of a new model vacuum cleaner. Much of the advertising boom in the post World War I years centered on the increasing number of consumer durable goods, such as household appliances, newly available to typical American families. SOURCE:The Granger Collection,New York (4E791.13). Culture of the Roaring 20s
Radio KDKA Pittsburgh GE, Westinghouse,& RCA form NBC Silent Movies Charlie Chaplin Talkies The Jazz Singer Starring Al Jolson Mary Pickford Americas Sweetheart The 20s is The Jazz Age The Flappers Writers Musicians make up
cigarettes short skirts Writers F. Scott Fitzgerald Ernest Hemingway Musicians Louis Armstrong Duke Ellington Play Simpsons Clip Avg presidents Republican Power President Harding Elected 1920 Legacy of Scandals
Teapot Dome Died in office Fun Fact A Democratic leader, William Gibbs McAdoo, called Harding's speeches "an army of pompous phrases moving across the landscape in search of an idea." Oil reserve scandal/bribes
Teapot Dome, in U.S. history, oil reserve scandal that began during the administration of President Harding. In 1921, by executive order of the President, control of naval oil reserves at Teapot Dome, Wyo., and at Elk Hills, Calif., was transferred from the Navy Dept. to the Dept. of the Interior. The oil reserves had been set aside for the navy by President Wilson. In 1922, Albert B. Fall, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, leased, without competitive bidding, the Teapot Dome fields to Harry F. Sinclair, an oil operator, and the field at Elk Hills, Calif., to Edward L. Doheny. These transactions became (192223) the subject of a Senate investigation conducted by Sen. Thomas J. Walsh. It was found that in 1921, Doheny had lent Fall $100,000, interest-free, and that upon Fall's retirement as Secretary of the Interior (Mar., 1923) Sinclair also loaned him a large amount of money. The investigation led to criminal prosecutions. Fall was indicted for conspiracy and for accepting bribes. Convicted of the latter charge, he was sentenced to a year in prison and fined $100,000. In another trial for bribery Doheny and Sinclair were acquitted, although Sinclair was subsequently sentenced to prison for contempt of the Senate and for employing detectives to shadow members of the jury in his case. The oil fields were restored to the U.S. government through a Supreme Court decision in 1927. "Coolidge prosperity" President Coolidge The business of America is business.
Fordney-McCumber Tariff isolationism Smoot-Hawley Tariff Record tariffs/contr. to depression No help for farmers Foreign Policy Isolationism The Fordney-McCumber Tariff also known as the Fordney McCumber Act, reflected American isolationist inclinations following World War I. Congress displayed a pro-business attitude in passing the tariff and in promoting foreign trade through providing huge loans to the postwar Allied governments who returned the favor by buying American goods and by cracking down on strikes. As a result of the war, Americans had two main concerns. First, they wanted to ensure economic self-sufficiency so that no future enemy could manipulate the American economy. Second, many industries wanted to preserve the benefits of the increased wartime demand. he SmootHawley Tariff Act of 1930 (P.L , sometimes known under its official name, the Tariff Act of 1930)[1] was an act signed into law on June 17, 1930, that raised U.S. tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods to record levels. The overall level tariffs under the Tariff were the second-highest in US history, exceeded only (by a small margin) by the Tariff of 1828.[2] The ensuing retaliatory tariffs by U.S. trading partners reduced American exports and imports by more than half and according to some views may have contributed to the severity of the Great Depression.[3][4] Silent Cal speaks "Wealth is the chief end of man!"
"The man who builds a factory, builds a temple. The man who works there, worships there." Fun Fact The political genius of President Coolidge, Walter Lippmann pointed out in 1926, was his talent for effectively doing nothing Fun Fact His wife, Grace Goodhue Coolidge, recounted that a young woman sitting next to Coolidge at a dinner party confided to him she had bet she could get at least three words of conversation from him. Without looking at her he quietly retorted, "You lose." Calvin Coolidge combined a spare, laconic political style with a flair for publicity. He frequently posed in the dress of a cowboy, farmer, or Indian chief. SOURCE:Calvin Coolidge in headdress and robes after joining Sioux Indians as Chief Leading Eagle,ca.1928.CORBIS.