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The Roaring 20 s. John Ermer U.S. History Honors Miami Beach Senior High LACC.1112.RH.1.9, SS.912.A.5.1-10, SS.912.A.1-7, SS.912.G.1-3, SS.912.G.4-3. A Booming Economy. Recession of 1921-22 ends, bringing almost a decade of prosperity
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The Roaring 20s John Ermer U.S. History Honors Miami Beach Senior High LACC.1112.RH.1.9, SS.912.A.5.1-10, SS.912.A.1-7, SS.912.G.1-3, SS.912.G.4-3
A Booming Economy • Recession of 1921-22 ends, bringing almost a decade of prosperity • The United States emerge only healthy industrial power after the war • Industrial growth funds more innovation and technological expansion • Automobile spurs boom in suburban construction & road building • Commercial Air Travel • Radios, Telephones, Electronics, & Home Appliances • Early research into computers at MIT • Notable Columbia University & Cal Tech geneticist Thomas Hunt Morgan
Labor in the 1920s • Welfare Capitalism • Henry Ford shortens work week, raises wages, offers paid vacations • U.S Steel improves factory safety • “Company Unions” • Company towns/worker housing • Many workers below poverty level, replaced by machines • 1920s not a good time for organized labor, AFL remains weak
Women & Minorities at Work • “Pink Collar Jobs”: low paying service jobs • Like manufacturing, not skilled enough to be organized by AFL • AFL craft jobs actively block participation by African-Americans • In northern cities, African-Americans forced to work low-paying jobs • In the West, Asians & Hispanics blocked from high paying work • 1920: California passes law to prevent purchases of land by Japanese • Mexican barrios develop in Los Angeles, El Paso, San Antonio, Denver • The “American Plan” campaign of union busting
Agricultural technology • Number of tractors triples in the 1920s after the invention of the internal combustion engine, expanding acres under cultivation • Sophisticated combines and harvesters helped produce more crops with fewer workers, many farmer workers out of work • Hybrid crops, chemical fertilizers and pesticides • Demand for food does not keep up with crop production, prices drop • Parity: attempts to set “adequate” price controls on farm goods