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The 1920’s Coping With Change 1920-1929

The 1920’s Coping With Change 1920-1929. Chapter 23. A New Economic Order. Teddy’s Death 1919 Allowed return of Republican “old guard” (conservatives) Not laissez-faire government but limited government regulation Booming Business Recession and Recovery After WWI slowdown

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The 1920’s Coping With Change 1920-1929

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  1. The 1920’sCoping With Change1920-1929 Chapter 23

  2. A New Economic Order • Teddy’s Death • 1919 • Allowed return of Republican “old guard” (conservatives) • Not laissez-faire government but limited government regulation • Booming Business • Recession and Recovery • After WWI slowdown • 64% rise in manufacturing output between 1919-1929 • Consumer Prosperity • Electricity = appliances • Automobile • Ford Motor Company • Stimulated rubber, gasoline and motor oil, advertising, and highway construction industries • Capitalism Expansion • Overseas markets • Loaned money to Europe • Economic Nationalism • High tariffs = no foreign competition • Corporate tax cuts • Increased Productivity • Scientific management, Frederick Taylor • Assembly line (Fordist method) • Energy technologies • Increase in use of oil and electricity • Oil 23% of U.S. energy by 1930 • Ailing Agriculture • New technologies help farmers but don’t solve problems • Post-war slowdown and surplus • War kept prices/demand high • Tariff depressed exports • Fordney-McCumber Tariff 1922 • Smoot-Hawley Tariff 1920 • Farm income falls 60% between 1919-1921 • Weak prices • Surplus = lower prices

  3. New Modes of Producing, Managing, and Selling • Increase in productivity • Frederick Taylor’s studies • Increased use of oil and electricity • Assembly line • Fordism • Ford didn’t invent assembly line, he perfected • Business consolidation • Corporate giants • Ford, GM, Chrysler, GE • Elaborate management systems • Product development • Market research • Employee relations • Wage policies • Ford • Higher wages increase productivity • “one’s own employee should be one’s own best customer” • Union activity decreased • Distribution • Chain stores • Department stores • Air conditioning • Advertising • Albert Lasker (Chicago) • Celebrities • Credit • New consumer credit • Payment schedules • Prior to 1920 – personal loans

  4. Women in the Workplace • Less women working than Pre- WWI • Wage discrimination • Corporate World • Secretaries • Clerks • Typists • Women not “welcomed” into professional world • Less women lawyers, doctors • Employed women lived in the city • More women going to college

  5. Struggling Labor Unions • Membership falls 20% • Why? • Overall wages climbed • Industrial changes • Management hostility • Series of unsuccessful strikes • United Mine Workers • “open shop” success • Keeping jobs open to nonunion workers • In south unionization violently resisted • Anti-Union Campaign • Welfare capitalism • Cafeterias • Recreational facilities • Improved benefits • Higher wages

  6. Politics in the 1920s • Democrats • White south and immigrants • Republicans • Accepted limited government regulation as aid to stabilizing business • Northern farmers, corporate leaders, business people, native, professionals

  7. Warren G. Harding • Agenda • Tax cuts (income, estate) • Help for big business • America 1st foreign policy • High tariffs • Bureau of the Budget • Good choices: • Sec. of State: Charles Hughes • Sec. of Commerce: Hoover • Supreme Ct Justice: Taft • Pardoned Eugene V. Debs • Bad choices: • Charles Forbes (Veteran’s Bureau) • Harry Daugherty (Att. General) • Took bribes for not prosecuting certain criminals • Albert Fall (Interior Secretary) • Scandals • Teapot Dome Scandal • Fall accepted bribes for granting oil leases near Teapot Dome, Wyoming • Fall 1st cabinet officer in U.S. History to go to jail

  8. Harding’s Domestic Policy • Reduction of income tax • Increased Tariff Fordney-McCumber Act of 1922 • Established Bureau of the Budget • Government budget must be voted on by Congress • Died unexpectedly in August 1923

  9. Silent Cal • Assumed presidency in 1923 • Re-elected in 1924 • Morality of White House improves • No scandals • “America’s Business is Business” • Pro-Business climate • Lower taxes • Supreme Court • Overturned reform measures • Ex. Child Labor Law • Opposition to Government Assistance • Mississippi River flood 1927 • No obligation to protect against “hazard of elements” • Vetoed WWI vet bonuses • Vetoed McNary-Haugen Bill for farmers • Gov’t purchases surplus of 6 basic commodities • Independent Internationalism • Foreign Policy • Only pursue what’s in America’s national interest • Isolationism • Harding’s Achievements: • Washington Naval Arms Conference • Dealt with Arms race • Reduced battleship construction • disarmament • Respect territorial holdings • Coolidge: • US now a creditor nation • Dawes Plan 1924 • Cycle of payments • Kellogg-Briand Pact 1928 • Renounced aggression • Led by women • Jane Addams wins Nobel Peace Prize in 1931 • Outlawed war unless defensive • Lacked enforcement

  10. Progressivism revised? • Reform in legislative branch • Business • Prohibition • Adopted in 1920 • 1922 Midterm elections • Labor and farm groups • Conference for political action • 1924 Party • Sen. La Follette • Supported by AFL, Socialist Party • Women • 19th amendment 1919 • Little political power • Only success 1921 with Sheppard-Towner Act • Party split • Alice Paul and others want equal rights for women added to the constitution • Others content with right to vote • Reforms short-lived

  11. Mass Society, Mass Culture • Cities • 1920 urban population surpasses rural • Migration of African Americans • Cars • Changes America • Increased mobility • Changed social dymanic • Standardized transportation • Women, farmers, families, culture, and suburbs • Consumer goods • Electricity and gas reduce household labor

  12. Energy Consumption • Electrical use tripled in 1920s • Coal, oil, an natural gas • 1929= 20 million cars • Influenced foreign policy with Mexico • Teapot Dome Scandal • Oil Rush in TX and OK • Lots of waste • Wilderness • Easier access for vacations • Heavy pressure from tourists • Hoover concerned • Sierra Club, Audubon, Izaak Walton League

  13. Mass Produced Entertainment • Reading • Magazine circulation over 2.5 million • Saturday Evening Post • Reader’s Digest • Book of the month clubs • Radio • Drew America together and shared culture • Began 11/02/1920 • Pittsburgh w/ KDKA • By 1922 • 500 new stations, national obession • Independent ventures led to networks • NBC 1926, CBS 1927 • Advertising • Movies • Reached all classes • Combined opulence, sex, and adventure • Celebrities • Charlie Chaplin, Clara Bow, Rudolph Valentino, Mary Pickford, Cecil B. DeMille • 1st “talkie” Jazz Singer1927 • 1st movie with sound • 1st cartoon Steamboat Willie 1928 • Weekly attendance 80 million by 1930 • MGM, Warner Brothers • Shaped youth culture • Less impact in rural America • Resisted by evangelical Christians

  14. Celebrity Culture • New “heroes” replaced heroes of past like T.R., WJB, and Wilson • Professional Sports • Baseball • America’s pastime • Played by and for working class • Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb • Boxing • Jack Dempsey, Gene Tunney • Football • Collegiate sport • Celebrated for its life lessons and teamwork • Turned pro with Chicago Bears • Jim Thorpe • Media-promoted spectacles • Miss America Pagent 1921 • Decade’s Hero • Charles Lindbergh • “Lucky Lindy” • Spirit of St. Louis • May 20-21, 1927 • Embodied American Spirit

  15. Religion • Modernism • Historical and critical view of the bible • Accepted Darwin without abandoning faith • Fundamentalism • Led by protestant preachers in rural areas that condemned modernists • Creationism • Blamed liberals for decline in morals • Revivalists • Preached fundamentalism through radio • Billy Sunday • Aimee McPherson • Attacked drinking, dancing, gambling

  16. The Jazz Age: Crisis of Values • Radio made Jazz available to public • Media/Novelistic creation • F. Scott Fitzgerald • This Side of Paradise 1925 • The Great Gatsby 1929 • Not everyone participated • Bubbling postwar cultural ferment • College Students • Threw parties, drank, danced the Charleston, went to jazz clubs • Sexual revolution • Women • “Flappers” • Challenged “separate spheres” • Smoking, birth control, short skirts, short hair, drinking • Sexual revolution • Changes in divorce laws • 1 in 8 in 1920 • 1 in 6 in 1930

  17. “The Lost Generation” • Term coined by Gertrude Stein • Alienated Writers • Scorned religion as hypocritical and bitterly condemned sacrifices of WWI vets as fraud perpetrated by big business • Expatriates • Sinclair Lewis • Critical of Postwar US • The Main Street 1920 • Babbitt 1922 • Henry L. Mencken • Baltimore journalist • 1924 The American Mercury Magazine • Ridiculed small-town America, Fundamentalism, all politicians • Ernest Hemingway • The Sun Also Rises 1926 • Farwell to Arms 1929 • Futility of war • William Faulkner • Poets • Ezra Pound • T.S. Elliot

  18. Harlem Renaissance • Created by African-American urban migration • Largest A.A. community in Harlem, NYC • Population in 1930= 200,000 • Explosive artistic movement • Music • Duke Ellington , The Cotton Club • Bessie Smith • Poets • Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen • Claude McKay • James Weldon Johnson • Authors • Zora Neale Hurston • Art • Aaron Douglas • No Equality….. Yet. • Still segregated • But promising step

  19. Architecture, Art, and Music • Architecture • Skyscrapers • Form follows function • Art • Painted impact of new technology and urban life in stark paintings • Thomas Hart Benson • Celebrated mythic past • Edward Hopper • Faded towns, lonely cities • Georgia O’Keefe • Congestion and allure of city • Music • Jazz • From New Orleans • Brought to New York City • Embraced by white composers like George Gershwin • Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong

  20. Society in Conflict • Return of “Nativism” • Immigration • Preservation of a “white” nation • Quota Law of 1921 • Limited immigration to 3% of # of foreign-born persons from a given nation counted in the 1920 census • Max of 357,000 persons • National Origins Act 1924 • Restricted to 2% of 1890 census • Limit 161,000 • “America must be kept American” • Focused on Southern and Eastern Europeans • Supreme Court reinforcement • Ozawa v. U.S. 1922 • Citizenship request from Japanese born student a Univ. of Cal- B • Upheld in 1923 Cali law limiting right of Japanese to own land • Hispanics • No restrictions on Latin America • Migratory workers, seasonal • Discrimination

  21. Society in Conflict • Nativism • Xenophobia continues after WWI • Palmer Raids • “hysteria”, red scare • Attorney General Palmer reacting to bombs • Led to deportations of radicals • Led to creation of F.B.I. • Sacco- Vanzetti Case • Anarchists charged with murder and robbery in 1920 • Judge called them “anarchists bastards” • Guilty, Electrocuted 1927 • Protested by liberal artists and intellectuals • Appeals for six years • Fundamentalism v. Religion • Scopes Trial 1925 • Teacher ( John Scopes) arrested for teaching evolution in Tenn. classroom • Clarence Darrow (defense) • William J. Bryan (prosecution) • Found guilty • Later overturned • Captured the interest of US • Long-lasting effects • Darrow successful in discrediting fundamentalists • Embarrassed W.J.B on stand

  22. Society in Conflict • KKK • Revived in 1915 • Stone Mountain, Georgia • Glorified by “Birth of a Nation” • Strong political influence • Supported in low-to middle class cities/towns • 1920 membership drive • Used advertising • Targeted • African-Americans, Jews, Catholics, Aliens, and Communists • Promise • Restore nation’s purity • Defend white womanhood • Collapse • David Stephenson, rape charges • Garvey Movement • “Back to Africa” • Negro Improvement Association 1916 • Gain political and economic independence outside white society • Encouraged message of racial pride and self-respect • Convicted of fraud 1925 • Race Riots • Tulsa 1920 • Black show shiner arrested for sexually assaulting a white woman • Whites gathered outside courthouse • African Americans came to protect shoe shiner from white mob and being lynched • Shots fired, chaos • Mob of 10,000 whites went wild • 120 homes burned • Mass graves, 300? Died • Rosewood 1923 • Just like Tulsa • 6 African-Americans killed • Entire community burned to the ground

  23. Prohibition • 18th amendment • Would boost production and eliminate crime and lift nation’s morality • Volstead Act • Passed to enforce amendment • Failure • Speakeasies • Not just criminals • Willingness to break the law led to wider decline in standards and morals • President served alcoholic drinks! • Organized crime • Al Capone • Bootleggers, rumrunners • Repealed in 1933 • Only amendment to be repealed

  24. Election of 1928 • Social issues on the forefront prohibition, immigration, religion, and clash of urban and rural values • Democrat Nominee • Al Smith • Governor of NY • Supported by progressives • Campaigned cross-nation • Catholic • Against quotas • Opposed prohibition • Republican Nominee • Herbert Hoover • Self-made millionaire • Served three presidents • Secretary of Commerce • Brilliant but aloof • Boring campaign • Pro-prohibition • Used “Coolidge prosperity” • Image of morality, efficiency, service and prosperity • “Rugged Individualism”

  25. Herbert Hoover • “Great Engineer” • Rags to riches • “Rugged Individualism” • Disapproved of cutthroat competition • Demanded corporate cooperation • Economy = efficient machine • Volunteerism, welfare capitalism • Individual Self-reliance • industrial self-management • limited federal government • Early Months seemed promising

  26. Heading towards Disaster

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