The New Era: the 1920s

1. The New Era: the 1920s My candle burns at both ends; It will not last the night; But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends- It gives a lovely light! -Edna St. Vincent Millay, “First Flag”, 1920

2. 1 radio 1 phonograph 1 washing machine 1 vacuum cleaner 1 sewing machine $75 $50 $150 $50 $60 living in the 1920s priceless

3. “The business of America is business”– C. Coolidge • Mass production • Spending is an American virtue • Aviation industry (initially about mail delieraybut on cusp of expanding ideas – Lindbergh, Earhart)

4. The Car • changed landscape & architecture, created jobs (gas stations, motels, shopping centers, mechanics), engineering feats (Holland Tunnel, Woodbridge Cloverleaf) • less isolation, further from job,(urban sprawl) suburbs, vacationing, freedom • status symbol – youth culture • success of free enterprise: owning own transportation & go wherever • Accidents, abandonment of the hearth, aided crime waves • late 1920s, 80% of world’s cars were in US (1 car for every 5 Americans) – 30 million cars

5. We Need Stuff Listerine Advertisement: She was a beautiful girl and talented too. She had the advantage of education and better clothes than most girls of her set. She possessed that culture and poise that travel brings. Yet in the one pursuit that stands foremost in the mind of every girl and woman – marriage – she was a failure • increase in appliance purchases: frees up housewives for leisure, community activities, working outside the home • actually made Americans more alike than before • modern advertising: product features & prices, psychological studies of which color sells, package sizing, slogans, necessities • brand names • The Man Nobody Knows

6. Traditionalism & longing for simpler earlier time Efforts to consolidate complexities of modern world into brief “bites” Mass Circulation Magazines

7. Movies and Broadcasting • The Jazz Singer – the first feature-length “talkie” 1927 • Motion Picture Association (monitoring & “safe” viewing) • Radio’s influence – KDKA & NBC • Self monitored stations • More diverse & • subversive Silent Movies Charlie Chaplin “Talkies” The Jazz Singer Starring Al Jolson Mary Pickford “America’s Sweetheart”

8. Harlem Renaissance • Drew white audiences • Celebrated The New Negro Duke Ellington “I am a Negro – and beautiful” – Langston Hughes

9. New Attitudes & Expectations • returning soldiers & Great Migration migrants expected increased opportunities • increased lynchings in South • layoffs to make room for returning white veterans in North • Chicago Race Riots - both “sides” engaged in brutal roaming beatings in oppositions neighborhoods • significant in that blacks fought back (at urging of NAACP)

10. Black Nationalism • Marcus Garvey- pride in African heritage & superiority • UNIA – supported black owned businesses • Return to Africa movement

11. Postwar Recession 1921-1922 • post war econ. drop off • GNP down 10%, 100,000 bankruptcies, 5 mill. unemployed, 453,000 farms lost • huge inflation • many labor gains made during war are lost • numerous strikes

12. Labor Unrest • 1919 – more than 3,000 strikes (4 million workers) • During war not possible to strike & wages did not keep up with prices • Management didn’t want raises or unions • 3 significant strikes to look at: • Boston Police, 1919 • Steel Mill, 1919 • Coal Miners,1919

13. Boston Police Strike “He gives aid & comfort to the enemies of society” – Chicago Tribune • Cost of living had doubled since beginning of WWI – last time they had a raise • Sent reps to ask for cost of living raise – commissioner fired whole group • Rest of dept. goes on strike • Governor Calvin Coolidge calls in Nat’l Guard & refuses to rehire strikers • Coolidge seen as nat’l hero for standing up to anarchy & communism “Striking Back” – New York Evening World

14. Steel Mill Strike • Working conditions very difficult: long hours, hot & noisy foundries • Management refused to meet with representatives • Labor wanting right to unionize • Management hired strike breakers: 18 workers killed, 100s hurt • Strikers linked w/communism • Strike ends without unionizing “Coming Out of the Smoke” – New York World

15. Coal Strike “Keeping Warm” – Los Angeles Times • United Mine Workers – president John L Lewis • Low wages & long work day result in strike • Attny Gen. Palmer gets court order to go back to work but they don’t • Ultimately got 27% increase • Lewis became nat’l figure

16. Labor Loses Its Appeal “While We Rock the Boat” – Washington Times • Membership drops off: • Many workers were immigrants w/no choice but bad working conditions • So many languages made communication hard • Migrated farmers now in city jobs used to relying on themselves • African Americans were excluded by many

17. Economics of the 1920s • Move to consolidation of large-scale industries – steel in particular • New administrative style – divisional organization (more efficient) • Trade associations help stabilize industries not consolidating • Overall goal not to overproduce, over expand and fail – avoid collapse (avoid mistakes of other development periods)

18. 1920’s Labor • Welfare capitalism – “paternalistic” approach to labor management – avoided independence of organized unions – provided perks & councils for dispute resolution to avoid formal union involvement • Majority of workers saw no real increase in living standard or power over situation – always in fear of loss of job, barely keeping head above water • Independent unions still struggling – remaining committed to excluding unskilled workers • Women remained in “pink collared” service jobs – nonunionized • A. Philip Randolph – Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters –rare ex of organized minority group successfully gaining rights & benefits • Big business promoting – “American Plan” – protecting the open shop = union busting – included gov’t involvement (making picketing illegal, refusing protection from violent strikebreaking… - union membership falls)

19. The 1920’s Farmer • Increase in mechanization, new farming techniques • Caused surpluses resulting in drop in farming income • Parity – McNary-Haugen Bill – vetoed by Coolidge twice

20. The New Woman (?) • Reality was still choosing work or family – married who worked were lower class • Kept to same traditional “professions” as before • “mothering” not just a natural skill – need trained pros • “companionate marriage” – a partner in the relationship not just breeder & child raiser • birth control- Margaret Sanger

21. Flapper – modern woman w/modern attitudes • Reality was women still dependent @work & home on men • Increase in women’s organizations & political activity • Alice Paul – ERA • League of Women Voters • Sheppard-Towner Act (1921-1929) ultimately showed didn’t need to cater to female voter, not a real force but medical profession was

22. Youth Culture • Creation of adolescence • separate stage of American life – in need of further dev. before adulthood • More emphasis on training & education • Schools provide setting for development w/in peer group

23. Good- bye “self made man” • Need for formal training & formal education eliminating him in field after field • What does it mean to be a man? • Athletics • Fraternal societies • war • Cultural conflict at work: Edison, Lindbergh & Ford (modern yet self made)

24. The Disenchanted • “The Lost Generation” • Modern society denies individual fulfillment, promotes alienation • Fraudulent nature of WW1, increased materialism & consumerism, conformist morality, • Ernest Hemingway • H.L. Mencken – “debunkers” • Sinclair Lewis • F.Scott Fitzgerald

25. Fear of Communism • Third Communist International meeting: calls for worldwide revolution and abolition of private property & free enterprise • Increase in US Communist Party membership • “Red Scare” in US • A. Mitchell Palmer – Attorney General– leads the charge

26. PalmerRaids • J. Edgar Hoover appointed to head division in Justice Dept – later will become FBI • Hunted down & held suspected radicals: Communists, socialists, anarchists • Palmer warned of May Day revolt – never happened – no real evidence of overthrow conspiracy ever found Chicago - 1920 Police arrest suspected “reds”

27. Sacco & Vanzetti Nicola Sacco & Bartolomeo Vanzetti – Italian immigrants, anarchists – tried and convicted of robbery and murder. Executed in 1927 despite accusations of bias based on their backgrounds

28. Immigration • Nativist/ anti-immigration attitude + decrease in need for unskilled labor led to decision to allow fewer immigrants in (Emergency Quota Act of 1921) • National Origins Act 1924: Quotas based on nationality – 2% of # of nationals living in US in 1890 (discriminates against eastern & southern Euros – mostly Catholics & Jews – b/c major influx in after 1890 - excluded Asians totally – didn’t apply to Western Hem. nations • 1929: base yr moved to 1920 but overall immigrant # capped

29. New Rise of the KKK • In response to anticommunism and anti-foreigner feelings: • The Birth of a Nation • “100 percent Americanism” • 4.5 million members by 1924 • Against Catholics, Jews, unions, saloons, birth control, evolution, gambling • Had women’s & children’s auxiliaries (family values) • Began including divorce, sexual promiscuity & drunkenness as “sins” worthy of persecution • Supported mandatory bible reading in school • Provided stability, community & purpose to many

30. Klansmen were just “regular” people feeling threatened by all the changes happening: advances made by women, African Americans, job competition from immigrants, urban intellectuals • Influencing local, state & national politics from all over the nation • Major decrease in power by end of decade b/c of violent acts, internal power struggles, & scandals

31. Prohibition • 18th Amendment & Volstead Act (1919) • “Noble experiment” – initial support by many but very quickly recognized as a failure by most (rural Protestants continued support – represented being anti big city, immigrant, Catholic, “modern” • Easily acquired in most places – weak, ill trained, easily bribed officials • Fueled organized crime – 1920s Chicago gang wars (500+ deaths) • “wets” aren’t successful until 1933 (Depression playing huge role in decision)

32. Religion • Harry Emerson Fosdick • modernists vs fundamentalists • Billy Sunday – evangelical • Scopes Trial

33. Election of 1920 • Republicans: Warren G. Harding (Ohio, Senator) with VP Calvin Coolidge (Mass., governor) – generally pro-business & anti-foreign involvement • Democrats: James M. Cox (Ohio, governor) with VP Franklin D. Roosevelt (ass’t sect. of navy) • Electoral landslide: 404 to 127 • First presidential election women took part in – divided pretty much the same as male voters • Continuing general trend of traditional values – conservative Republicans

34. “I knew this job would be too much for me” - W. Harding • Negatives will outweigh positives • “Good” decisions: created Bureau of Budget, pardoned Eugene V Debs, persuaded US Steel to move from 12 hr day and 7 day work week, Sect of St. Charles Evans Hughes, Sect of Treasury Andrew Mellon, Sect of Commerce Herbert Hoover & Sect of Agric Henry C Wallace

35. “…this is a hell of a job, ...I have no trouble with my enemies…, ...but my damn friends…they’re the ones that keep me walking the floor nights” • “Bad” decisions: “government by crony” – Ohio Gang • Attny General Harry Daugherty – close friend – caught accepting bribes • Dir Veterans’ Bureau Charles Forbes – acquaintance – indicted & jailed for fraud • Sect. Interior Albert B Fall – Teapot Dome Scandal – leased gov’t lands set aside for conservation effort to oil companies – said it was in gov’t’s best interest but He got rich around the same time **first cabinet member in history to serve prison sentence** • “In America everyone is assumed guilty until proven rich.” (businessmen who gave bribes not guilty)

36. “Silent Cal” • Harding dies suddenly • Coolidge takes office just as crimes are becoming known • Symbolized: old Puritan values, hard work, religious faith, honesty • Elected to own term, 1924 • Similar passive leadership approach as Harding • Continued pro-business philosophy – “the man who builds a factory builds a temple and the man who works there worships there” • Treasury Sect. Andrew Mellon – cut taxes on corporate profits & trimmed budget to relieve half of the WWI debt • Hoover – “ Associationalism”