American Life in the Roaring 20’s C hapter: 31

1. American Life in the Roaring 20’sChapter: 31 By: Olivia Shirk

2. Essential Questions • How did the automobile revolutionize American culture? • Why did Prohibition lead to organized crime? • What made Americans “afraid” of radical ideas? • How does the KKK differ from the past KKK?

3. Vocabulary • Emergency Quota Act (1921): cut the number of immigrants who were allowed to enter America to 3% of their nationalities US population in 1910. • Immigration Act (1924): cut down the number to 2% of their nationalities US population in 1890. • Al Capon: Was the biggest and the baddest gangster in Chicago, he was jailed in Alcatraz for tax evasion. • Lindbergh Law: passed by Congress to make interstate kidnapping punishable by death. • John Dewey: advocated “learning by doing.” • Fundamentalist: believed in a literal reading of the Bible • Henry Ford: perfected the assembly line and could produce a new car every ten seconds.

4. Vocab. Cont. • Bruce Barton: was an ad-master, he wrote a best-seller called, The Man Nobody Knows. • Frederick Taylor: promoted efficiency in production • Charles Lindbergh: first man to fly across Atlantic Ocean in 1927 • Guglielmo Marconi: invented wireless telegraphy in the 1890’s • Thomas Edison: helped invent/develop the movies • D.W. Griffith: created the first full length movie in 1915 called the The Birth of a Nation. • National Women’s Party: emerged in 1923 with the want to get an equal rights amendment passed to the Constitution. • Marcus Garvey: started the United Negro Improvement Association to re-locate blacks to their native homeland. And sponsored black enterprises, to keep black’s money in black’s hands.

5. “Red Scare” • After WWI, American’s moods changed to isolationism . • Red Scare was a fear of communism. • Reason for the scare was the recent Russian Revolution, Eugene Debs growing numbers, many strikes, and a series of mail bombs.

6. KKK • The KKK had been started as an anti-black group. In the 20’s a few were added to the list of “we don’t likes.” • Catholics, Jewish, pacifists, communists, internationalists, revolutionists, bootleggers, gambling, and adultery. • The KKK was simply pro-white Anglo-Saxon and against everything else. • By expanding their horizons, they became 5 million members strong. • Their tactics were to intimidate and scare.

7. Foreign Flood • Congress took action in the anti-foreign mood to limit immigrants from Europe. • The Emergency Quota Act of 1912, cut the number of immigrants who were allowed to enter USto 3% of their nationalities US population in 1910. • The Immigration Act of 1924, cut the number to 2% of their nationalities US population in 1890. • They changed it from 1910 to 1890 before immigrants had arrived. • The law also closed the door to entering Japanese immigrants, although the law did not apply to Canadians and Latin Americans because they were desired to work jobs. • 1931 more foreigners left then came in for the first time. • New ideas on the “melting pot” began to grow. Horace Kallenargued that ethnic groups should keep their old-world traditions. Randolph Bourne argued that groups should interact with one another.

8. Prohibition • In 1919 the 18th amendment was passed to prohibit alcohol. The Volstead Act was created later in the year to carry out the amendment. • Many didn’t like the amendment, the US had a long tradition of liking drinking. Many ended up violating the amendment. • Positive response: bank savings increased and absences at works decreased.

9. Gangsterism • Liquor distribution was a popular organized crime after the prohibition. • Gangs began emerging, they would stake out their territories for the “companies.” A place where they kept their liquor, narcotics, gambling, whore houses, and extortion money. • Chicago was the top city of the gang world. • About 500 gangsters were murdered in Chicago during the 20’s. Although, many convictions or arrests were rare, because no one would rat out one another. • Al Capone was the biggest gangster of his time.

10. Lindbergh Baby • Gang violence really hit the media after Charles Lindbergh’s baby in 1932 was kidnapped for ransom. They soon found the baby murdered. After this event the Lindbergh Law was passed making interstate kidnapping punishable by death.

11. Education • John Dewey advocated education to hands on learning rather than rote memorization. • Science also made gains, nutrition and healthcare extended the life expectancy by 10 years.

12. Scopes Monkey Trial • Scopes Monkey Trial occurred when scientist butted heads with traditionalists over Darwin’s theory of evolution. • Tennessee passed a law that prohibited teaching of evolution in public schools but a biology teacher named John T. Scopes broke the law and kept teaching evolution. • Dayton, TN had the first evolution vs. creation showdown. Clarence Darrow argued the evolution side, and William Jennings Bryan argued the creation side. • The trial itself was already spoken for, Scopes had broken the law, so he was convicted. • Bryan died five days later after a stroke, the stress and passion got to him too much. • Fundamentalists gained a victory, and their faith was strengthened even more. Number kept growing especially Baptist and the new Church of Christ.

13. The Mass-Consumption Economy To sell all the new products, new advertising techniques were needed. Ads started to employ persuasion and sex appeal. Bruce Barton was the master of all advertising, many other marketers did well following his steps. People soon began to buy things they didn’t know they needed or wanted until they saw the ad. Many began following the some what dangerous techniques of buying. They bought on installment plan and on credit. Both ways could plunge a consumer into major debt. • Machinery began to be more efficient and ran on cheap energy. Henry Ford perfected the assembly line in his Rouge Rive Plant and started producing a car every 10 seconds. Ford’s way of mass production was applied to many other industries, lowering costs, and starting mass consumption.

14. Media • Mass media (newspapers, magazines, infant radio, etc.) made the US more the same from coast to coast. This was great for mass consumption. • The media helped sports grow in popularity. Baseball was the king of sports, with heroes like Babe Ruth. • Now many people liked following their teams on a daily basis. • Boxing was popular too with Jack Dempsey. Horse racing was the second most popular sport. Jack Dempsey Babe Ruth

15. Putting America on Rubber Tires • Americans used European knowledge to further develop the gasoline engine. • Frederick Taylor worked on promoting efficiency in production. • He would begin by putting a stop watch on a worker then orchestrate his movements to see where wasted movement could be eliminated to quicken the process. • Cars quickly became the most used mode of transportation. The car industry created 6 million jobs. • Now more roads needed to be built, there was a big boom in paving. • Cars brought independence to younger people, the US began to reshape itself by spreading out into suburbs. • Although, there were a lot of crashes, by 1951 a million people died from crashes.

16. Humans Develop Wings • Gas engines led to airplanes. Many people first saw airplanes when a stunt flier would barnstorm their town or county fair. • After WWI airplanes really started booming, they were used for air mail. The first continental air mail route started from NY to San Francisco in 1920. • Charles Lindbergh was the first to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1927. He became very popular, he flew across in 33.5 hours, and won $25,000. • The Wright brothers flew for the first time on December 17, 1903 for 12 seconds at Kitty Hawk, NC.

17. Radio Revolution • Guglielmo Marconi invented wireless telegraphy in the 1890’s., his invention was first used in WWI. • First major broadcast for the radio was made in Pittsburgh by KDKA. Warren Harding won the pres. Election due to the broadcast. • Entrepreneur Powel Crosley’s station sent out 5 thousand watts and could reach anywhere in the US. • The radio majorly changed society. • Everyone could now hear the same news at the same time. • Cars started scattering people, but now the radio kept them at home. Sitting around listening to the radio as a family was normal. • Advertisers took the radio as a great opportunity. • It was now easier for people to follow their sports teams. • Politicians had to adjust to the new media.

18. Movies • Thomas Edison helped invent the movies. • The Great Train Robbery, in 1903 was the first large movie. The First full length movie was created by D.W. Griffith called The Birth of a Nation. It was on reconstruction and the Civil War. It seemed to glorify the KKK which caused the movie to be controversial. • Hollywood became the main headquarters for movie production. Early movies featured nude women and female vampires, until criticism clothed things. • The Jazz Singer starred Al Jolson (1927), the movie with white men dressed as black men. First movie with sound. • Movies quickly became the main form of entertainment. • Although, there were many that stood against movies and radio because it turned the US away from grandma story telling.

19. Dynamic Decade • The census of 1920 showed that more people live in urban areas then rural. • The 20’s marked the change from traditional to modern. This often came with culture clash. • Margaret Sanger promoted birth control for women. The National Women’s Party came about in 1923 with the ambitions of getting an Equal Rights Amendment passed to the US constitution. • Modernist pushed at Fundamentalists, Modernist saw God as an old chum, as opposed to the traditional view that men were born sinners and in need for forgiveness.

20. Flappers • Flapperswere the young modern women of the 20’s. The dressed scantily and danced dirty to Charleston. They drank booze, bobbed their hair, and openly spoke of sex.

21. Dynamic Decade cont. • Sigmund Freud’s psychological theories was very popular to read, it involved sex and violence. Freud stated that sexual repression led to illnesses, mental and physical. • Jazz came in a big way as well. Jazz pioneers were WC Handy with his Memphis blues style. Jazz was mostly started by black artists but white performers got most of the profit. • Black pride: • Langston Hughes (poet) penned the voice of black America • United Negro Improvement Association was founded by Marcus Garvey to re-locate blacks to their native lands and helped keep blacks money in blacks hands.

22. Literature • There was a major turning point in literature during the 20’s. • The new writers came from broad backgrounds not just New England protestants. • H.L. Mencken wrote the American Monthly using wit and criticism to jab at every aspect of society. • F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby about a ruined WWI vet, he also wrote The Side of Paradise about partying college-kids. • Theodore Dreiser wrote An American Tragedy, it told of a pregnant women murdered by her so called lover. He wrote in an ugly form of a realist. • Ernest Hemingway wrote The Sun Also Rises about young adults partying in Paris. He also wrote A Farwell to Arms about a young officer seeking love, and fleeing from war. Both stories was an example of hollow lives of adults. • Sherwood Anderson wrote Winesburg, Ohio which dredged the small-town America. • William Faulkner wrote hauntingly about the Southern experience in The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, and Absolom, Absolom! His books sometimes stunned or confused readers with the new, choppy "stream of consciousness" writing technique. • Sinclair Lewis also depicted small-town America in Main Street. • Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot were the leaders of new poetry. Robert Frost wrote of New England in the “Road Not Taken.” • Eugene O'Neill was one of America's greatest playwrights. Plays like "Strange Interlude" which intervened with Freudian ideas of sex.

23. “Harlem Renaissance” • In New York there was an outpouring of African American art and culture, which is a “Harlem Renaissance.” Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, and Zora Neal Hurston were the leading writers. • Architecture was one of the most symbolic of the changing society because it involved both art and science. • Frank Lloyd Wright was an understudy of Louis Sullivan. Wright shocked people with his use of concrete, glass, and steel and his theory that “form follows function.”

24. Wall Street’s Big Bull Market • A Florida land boom shot prices in Florida through the roof. Then a hurricane dealt reality and the land boom went bust in 1926. • The desire to get rich quick on rising stock prices created a "buy-now" feeling. • Many people started buying with borrowed money. This meant there would be major profit if the stock went up, major debt if it dropped. • Bureau of the Budget was passed by Congress, meanwhile the federal government tried to get their financial house in order. • Sec. of Treasury Andrew Mellon disliked the high taxes leftover from WWI. He felt that they forced the rich to put their money in tax-exempt securities, not in the factories. His idea still is around today, when more tax revenue through high taxes is desired, the hire rate hurts the economy and leads to less revenue for the gov’t. • Congress did decrease the tax hardship on the rich and the economy did boom during the 1920’s.

25. Quiz • Which of the following characterized the economy of the 1920s?: • a drop in the real wages of workers. • increasing wealth for the agricultural sector. • an emphasis on cash rather than credit purchases. • a shift to the production of consumer goods. • By the end of the 1920s, what had become the nation's largest industry?: • automobiles. • steel. • oil. • chemicals

26. Quiz cont. • The rapid growth of the automobile industry was made possible by?: • the introduction by Henry Ford of an eight-hour day and a minimum wage of $5 a day in 1914. • a ready market created by the rising standard of living and the increase of leisure time of the average American. • cooperation of labor and management in the trucking industry. • failure of trolleys and railroads to maintain a high standard in their facilities and operations. • The Harlem Renaissance refers to?: • the movement of African-American artists, poets, and writers who expressed their pride in being black. • the "Lost Generation" of writers who moved to Europe during the 1920s. • the most famous jazz ensemble during the 1920s. • the name of the shipping company owned by the United Negro Improvement Association, promoting a "Back-To-Africa" movement.