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America in the Roaring Twenties. Palmer Raids, 1919. Attorney General of USA, A. Mitchell Palmer. Arrested 6000 radicals after bombings in 8 cities Galleanists: “There will have to be murder; we will kill, because it is necessary” Palmer’s own home in DC was damaged by a bomb
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Palmer Raids, 1919 Attorney General of USA, A. Mitchell Palmer • Arrested 6000 radicals after bombings in 8 cities • Galleanists: “There will have to be murder; we will kill, because it is necessary” • Palmer’s own homein DC was damaged by a bomb • 249 communists and anarchists deported to Russia, 1919
Exiled, imprisoned, escaped • Promised “We will dynamite you!” after passage of Anarchist Act • Published bomb-making manual, The Health is In You! Anarchist Luigi Galleani, deported to Italy 1919
Emma Goldman deported, 1919 Subscription list of Mother Earth provided gov’t with names during Red Scare J. Edgar Hoover led Department of Investigation (later the FBI) Alexander Berkman
Red Scare Anarchist Act, 1920 State laws against Criminal Syndicalism Prosecution of Industrial Workers of the World (“Wobblies”)
Sacco and Vanzetti Case, 1927 Charged with murder of paymaster and security guard in armed robbery Braintree, MA 1921 Italian immigrants, draft dodgers, anarchists Executed 1927 after high-profile trial Radicals claimed political frame-up
American Legion • Patriotism • Veterans Rights and Benefits, especially the “Bonus” • Conservatism • Law and Order • Anti-radicalism
Revival of Ku Klux Klan “Invisible Empire” • Anti-foreign, anti-black, anti-Catholic • Strong in Midwest and South • 5 million dues-paying members • Powerful in Democrat Party • Led parade of 40,000 in Washington, DC 1925
Immigration Quota Act, 1924 New laws limited a country’s immigration to 3% of the number who had been in the US in 1910 Intended to cut back on those coming from Eastern Europe Changed to 2% of those in 1890 census, 1924 Total exclusion of Japanese No quotas for Canadians or Latin Americans
Prohibition: the Noble Experiment Popular in South and Midwest, not in big cities Difficult to enforce Corruption, bribery Bootleggers, smugglers, moonshiners Gangsterism, organized crime worth $12 billion
Scopes Monkey TrialDayton, TN 1925 John Scopes was fired for teaching evolution, illegal in Tennessee Fundamentalists vs Darwinists Wm J. Bryan vs Clarence Darrow H.L. Mencken wrote about the trial, ridiculing Bryan and his followers Inherit the Wind is based on this case
Economic Prosperity Cheap fuel, coal and oil Electrification of cities Automobile Household appliances: refrigerators, washers, vacuums, radios Advertising Credit buying, installment plan, “buy now, pay later” Mass entertainment: spectator sports, movies High profits and wages
Auto Industry Assembly line, mass production techniques Industry leaders: Ford, Sloan, Olds Detroit became the “Motor City” 500,000 Model T’s by 1914 Rubber, glass, fabric, repair, gas stations, travel industries grew rapidly Freedom, tourism, leisure Growth of suburbs 6 million jobs by 1930 Henry Ford with “Tin Lizzie”
Jazz Age Hollywood movie industry: first “talkie” was The Jazz Singer Jazz bands popular in New Orleans, Chicago, New York Widespread popularity of radio programs: news, sports, music, drama, religion Harlem Renaissance displayed black musicians, singers, dancers, artists, writers
Movie Stars of the 1920s Clara Bow Charlie Chaplin Rudolph Valentino
George Herman “Babe” Ruth “The Bambino” “The Sultan of Swat” New York Yankees
Langston Hughes The Weary Blues “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”
Marcus Garvey Jamaican immigrant Black Nationalist Favored black-owned businesses, racial pride and unity Universal Negro Improvement Association Popular among working-class blacks in Harlem “Back-to-Africa” Movement Black Star Steamship Co. Convicted of fraud, deported
The Lost Generation F. Scott Fitzgerald Ernest Hemingway The Sun Also Rises The Great Gatsby
Cynicism, alienation, pessimism H.L. Mencken Sinclair Lewis Baltimore Sun; American Mercury Main Street; Babbitt; Elmer Gantry
The Politics of Boom and Bust Warren G. Harding Republican from Ohio “Back to Normalcy” Easygoing, amiable, intellectually flabby “Not a bad man, just a slob”—Alice Roosevelt Pro-business, anti-reform Appointed Taft as Chief Justice Pardoned Eugene Debs Poker-playing whiskey drinker Enjoyed socializing with his cronies, the “Ohio Gang” Died of a stroke, 1923
Eugene Debs received pardon from Harding, left federal prison
Harding’s Cabinet Andrew Mellon, Secretary of Treasury Charles Evans Hughes, Secretary of State Albert Fall, Secretary of Interior Herbert Hoover, Secretary of Commerce
Republican Foreign Policy • Isolationism—No membership in League of Nations • Negotiations for oil drilling rights in Middle East • No diplomatic relations with communist gov’t of Russia • Disarmament Conference reduced size of naval fleets • Kellogg-Briand Pact renounced war, declared it illegal • Tariffs raised, reducing world trade, causing retaliation, hurting Europe’s ability to repay debts from WW I • Left problems such as Japan’s invasion of Manchuria to a weak League of Nations
Teapot Dome scandal leads to bribery conviction of Albert Fall
Calvin Coolidge, 1923-1929 Honest, frugal, hard-working, laconic; “Silent Cal” Favored lower taxes, reduction of public debt “The business of America is business” Sworn in as president after sudden death of Harding Conservative Republican from Massachusetts Enforced Prohibition Kept Mellon as Sec of Treasury Allowed loans to Germany, which paid Br and Fr, who repaid USA
Herbert Hoover, 1929-1933 Coolidge said “I do not choose to run” in 1928 Republicans nominated Hoover, a Quaker engineer from Iowa, former Sec of Commerce and Food Administrator in WW I “Rugged Individualism” Isolationism, small government, low taxes, free enterprise Signed Hawley-Smoot Tariff, his worst mistake
5000 Banks Failed 4 million unemployed in 1930 12 million unemployed in 1932 Soup Kitchens fed jobless men “Hooverville”
Hoover’s Policies • Gov’t loans to railroad, banks, rural credit corporations: Reconstruction Finance Corporation • Public Works like Hoover Dam • Encouragement of private charity and local government to provide direct “relief” • Norris-LaGuardia Act to help labor unions: no “yellow-dog” contracts, no court injunctions against strikes and boycotts • Optimistic speeches: “Prosperity is just around the corner” • Hawley-Smoot tariff
Douglas Macarthur led troops to expel Bonus Marchers from DC, 1932