People�s Views- 1919-1920 first red scare. Nationwide crusade against radicals who were seen as un American.
KKK resurgence in the early twenties. Had almost 5 million members in mid �20�s
Immigration- 800,000 people entered in 1920-21. Americans felt we were getting rejects from Europe. Emergency Quota Act 1921 restricted immigration to 3% of each nationality�s people living in US in 1910.
Immigration Act of 1924 changed to 2% from 1890 census. Ended unrestricted immigration.
Prohibition- Made law by 18th Amendment and Volstead Act. Rarely enforced and not taken seriously. It lessened consumption but didn�t prohibit it. Repealed by 21st Amendment in 1933.
Gangsters and the Mob- Spawned by prohibition, sold illegal alcohol and bribed police. Al "scarface" Capone was leader and the richest mobster. Alcohol led to prostitution, gambling and drugs. 1932 Lindbergh�s son was kidnapped and murdered led to Lindbergh Law making kidnapping a death-penalty offense in some cases.
Educational Changes- John Dewey Columbia professor wanted education to be life skills training. Made school more useful. Science had made leaps too. Life expectancy was lengthend and more illnesses. Scientific views were thought to be un-christian. John Scopes tried for teaching Darwin�s theory. Lost but led to change in thought.
Minorities:
Blacks: Migrated to the cities and were still segregated in the cities. Usually worked on low-paying jobs, but it was better than tenant farming. They also had the Harlem renaissance were they displayed their artistic talents in jazz, art, and literature. Marcus Garvey started the Universal Negro Improvement Assc. which stressed black pride and separatism.
Mexicans & Puerto Ricans: Moved into southwest US and took up low paying jobs. Went and settled as far as NY.
Sacco and Venzetti: A person was murdered and no one knew who the killer was. Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Venzetti were immigrants and got tried and convicted. Their innocence was still in question.
Innovations/Inventions- Prosperous economy led to many new parts of life.
Automobile: First in 1896 Model T by Ford sold 500,000 by 1914. In mid �20�s sold for $260 a low price. Led to many other industries.
Advertising: Many new products needed advertising to sell. Appealed their product to the average person to buy.
Sports: With prosperity comes leisure time. Sports were a chance for individuals to display their talents. Was racially colorblind. Babe Ruth was best known baseball player, became rich and famous for ability to play a sport.
Buying on Margin: Credit came about and people could buy now pay later. Especially prominent in stock market with stocks. Helped lead to crash.
Rubber: Brought on by the auto, made smoother and more appealing. Needed to replace carriage tires.
Mass-Production/Assembly line: Ford was the first to use this in industry. His factories were very efficient and fast. Led to low prices and more cars. Frederick W. Taylor was an industrial genius who helped make mass-production run even better.
Airplane: The Wright brothers took the first flight on Dec. 17, 1903 at Kitty Hawk. Gasoline engines powered more modern airplanes that shrunk the world. Cross-country travel was made quicker and easier. Also had military uses during war. Charles A. Lindbergh first to cross Atlantic in airplane.
Radio: Became available in early 1920 but was widespread in late 1920. Shows were transmitted nationally along with advertising commercials. Almost every house had a radio and brought family together and created favorite shows. Politics were also transmitted to a national audience.
Films: The first move The Great Train Robbery in 1903 led to motion pictures. First started as silent movies, gradually more movies had sound and the theaters could show them. Another way to spend leisure time and advertise was born. Controversy on what should be shown also stemmed from movies.
The Gasoline Age-
With the invention of the automobile came 6 million job opportunities. Supporting industries like glass, rubber, fabric, roads, and gas stations. Cars symbolized freedom and luxury while it spread out the city even more. It was dangerous and in the early years many accidents resulted. It changed American life as we know it.
Change from Old-
Women were more common in the workplace. Women Shortened dresses, cut hair, and they felt free to express themselves. Flappers as they were called defied tradition with one piece bathing suits and a sexual appeal that was rarely seen.
Jazz Music- Jazz was a way for black musicians to express themselves. Moved north with blacks and became the music of twenty�s.
Literature- Realist authors like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Earnest Hemingway portrayed life as it really was. A complete change from the romantics.
Authors
Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby
Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises, Farewell to Arms
Sherwood Anderson: Winnsburg, Ohio
Sinclair Lewis: Main Street, Babbitt
William Faulkner: Soldiers Pay, The sound and fury, As I lay dying
Poets
Ezra Pound
T.S. Elliot
Actors
Eugene O�Neill
Jazz Musicians
Louie Armstrong
Eubie Blake
Modern America-
The �20�s led us into modern America. The inventions and ideas were started that we still have today. The inventions and innovations are still used today also.
Economic Elements
Stock Market: Became popular and many people invested to become rich. Buying on margin became popular which led to more inflation of the stock market. Market kept rising with no fall in sight.
Big Business: Corporations were consolidating and were becoming giant empires. Most of the corporate wealth was with these large corporations.
Banks: Banks were consolidating too to provide for the large corp. which was the money they had.
Labor: In the twenties workers were in a very free environment. They could be in a union or not, but there was still strikes and some unions disappeared.
National Debt: in 1921 was more than $23 billion after the war. Taxation was the only solution. Treasurer Mellon didn�t like it because it taxed the rich. Decreased the debt but could have done more.
Advertising: Commercials on radio and film curved the opinion of people. Jobs were created by new inventions made the work force huge.
Political Elements
Presidents:
Warren G. Harding-
Well liked bad politician. Weak with a mediocre mind he couldn�t make a decision. Tried to get a strong congress. Businesses tried to take advantage of Harding�s conservative mindset by trying to re-establish laissez-faire and for gov�t to help business. Appointed four new supreme court justices. Corporations expanded without interjection by Harding.
Calvin Coolidge-
Thrust into presidency after Harding�s death. Very honest homegrown man. Believed that successful businesses should be able to prosper. Brought morality after Harding�s presidency. Coolidge was re-elected in 1925.
Herbert Hoover-
Hoover beat Al Smith in the 1928 election. Hoover tried to reform America with some new legislation, but was put into power at a bad time. Had to try and form a plan to help the depression.
Foreign Policy
Bailey's isolation Tomlin's waging neutrality started after WWI. Didn't join league of nations. Washington Conference started naval disarmament. Troops withdrew from Dominican Republic in 1924 and Haiti in 1934, and Nicaragua in 1933. The debt was $16 billion owed to the US after WWI. Tariff was too high for Europeans to sell to us couldn't pay. Mexico in 1926 tried to capture oil reserves but Coolidge stopped.
Debt: Dawes plan was start to a solution. US would loan Germany money to pay France and England and they in turn would give money to the US. Very weak and US never got it's money.
Hawley Smoot Tariff 1930: Designed to help farmers, raised from 38.5% of Fordney-McCumber to 60%. Angered foreigners and pushed America farther into isolation.
Kellogg-Briand Pact: Outlawed aggressive tactics by a nation and renounced war as a national policy. Signed by almost all major nations.
Farmers-
Were very prosperous in the wartime economy. But without gov't backing prices went down and competition returned. Motor driven cultivators were invented and this made more efficient harvests but also led to massive surplus after the depression. McNary-Haugen Bill 1928 pushed for gov�t to buy surplus and sell them abroad but was vetoed by Coolidge. Agricultural Marketing Act made Farm Board with $500 billion dollars to spend. Grain Stabilization Corporation and Cotton Stabilization Corporation were made to help stabilize prices, but failed too.
Acts:
Esch-Cummins Transportation Act 1920: private consolidation of RR�s to save business
Merchant Marine Act 1920: dispose of as many ships as the Shipping board wanted and run what was left.
Veterans Bureau: provided aid to wounded or poor veterans
Aftermath of War: Didn�t join league of nations. Turned our back on middle east and Europe. Disarmament was a question with Japan becoming restless. Led to a more isolationist nation.
Washington Conference: Disarmament conference to scale down the world powers� navies. Secretary Hughes came up with Five-Power Naval Treaty 1922 scaled down US, Britain, France, Italy, and Japan�s navies and joined US, Britain, France, and Japan to police the Pacific.
Teapot Dome: Scandal in 1921 involving Naval oil reserves in Teapot Dome, Wyoming, and Elk Hills, CA. Albert Fall, secretary of the interior, got the secretary of the navy to transfer to Interior. Fall leased to oil people Harry Sinclair and Edward Doheny. Leaked in 1923 and Fall was tried in 1929 and found guilty. Another scar to Harding�s administration.
Black Tuesday: Prices on stock exchange rose and continued to rise. People got scared in 1929 and started selling their "questionable" stocks. On Tuesday October 29, 1929 16 million shares of stock were sold causing collapse. The market continued to spiral downward until people had lost $40 billion in paper value stocks.
The Depression & New Deal
Causes: Overproduction by farmers and industry. Had too many goods and not enough consumers. All the money went to rich people and not to salaries. Most of the money was in stock market and when it crashed so did everyone�s salary and job.
Reality of A Depression in America: It was felt by everyone except the upper echelon of society. Many had lost everything and there was nothing they could do about it. Relief was rarely available and declined but Hoover finally realized something had to be done and led the way for FDR�s New Deal.
Hoover�s Relief: Hoover proposed $2.25 billion for relief projects. First was Reconstruction Finance Corporation which loaned money to banks, agricultural organizations, and state gov�t�s to get them going. Got Congress on the way for the massive New Deal Legislation.
Bonus Army 1932: Army of Veterans demanding service bonuses. General MacAthur cleared the demonstration at Washington, but Hoover lost much respect.
Japanese and Good Neighbor: Japan was getting restless on China�s border province of Manchuria. League tried to intervene but it drove Japan out of the League. Stimson doctrine said that we wouldn�t recognize territory acquired by force. A very small step towards internationalism. Hoover abandoned interventionist twist on Monroe Doctrine and said we would help nations on our side of the world.
The New Deal
Preview: Hoover lost the 1932 election to Franklin Delano Roosevelt due mainly to the fall of the country. Roosevelt was ready to get America back on its feet with Relief, Recovery, and Reform. He needed the hundred days congress to pass programs.
People:
FDR: President who came up with most of the new ideas
Hundred Days Congress: FDR�s congress who passed most of his ideas
Harry L. Hopkins: In charge of FERA, CWA, WPA
Father Charles Coughlin: Anti-new deal priest
Huey Long: Senator who had a plan to make everyone prosperous by giving every family $5,000 at the expense of the rich. Assassinated.
Dr. Francis E. Townsend: First to think of a Social Security plan and Pension Plan.
Labor Union: Committee for Industrial Organization or CIO was formed. Under the AFL it started to grow with the auto industry and started sit down strikes. Separated and fought frequently with AFL. Confused actual labor with different union�s ideas.
Dust Bowl: As farms were abandoned and fields were plowed the topsoil was left. An extreme drought and high winds caused dust storms in the plains states.
Election of 1936: Alfred M. Landon was Republicans candidate. Wanted to stop the supposed wasteful spending New Deal. Lost by a big margin because people liked all the help that FDR was trying to dish out.
Supreme Court: Throughout the New Deal Reforms the supreme court had denied the reformers 7 out of 9 times, due to ultra-conservative justices. Tried to pay every justice over forty to retire but didn�t work and congress wouldn�t cooperate. But the justices tried to change to save their job and the reformers won some cases.
Criticism: Many thought it was a very socialist and favorable to big business. Conservatives didn�t want all the radical change and thought up other plans and who knows if they would�ve worked.
Minorities and Women during New Deal:
Native Americans: Indian Reorganization Act 1934 which gave them land and the ability to have tribal gov�t. John Collier also got them help from New Deal legislation.
Mexicans: Were dropped from jobs and many left for Mexico.
Blacks: Were hardest hit because no legislation helped and almost all lost their jobs. Not until Fair Employment Practices Commission insured consideration for jobs.
Women: Made due with whatever they could. Showed strength and resilience to keep the family together.
Final Analysis: FDR�s New Deal didn�t solve the depression but it did help heal some of the wounds. The Great Depression would not truly be over until the beginning of WWII
Programs:
Program Date What it Affected
Banks closed March, 6 1933 Started the massive reconstruction
Emergency Banking Relief Act March 9, 1933 Gave president power to regulate banking and reopen old banks.
Glass-Steagall Banking Reform Act June16, 1933 Made Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation which insured deposits in the bank.
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) March 31,1933 Provided work for 3 million young men in things like foresting, firefighting, and flood control.
Federal Emergency Relief Act Provided for immediate relief instead of long range recovery.
Federal Emergency Relief Administration May 12, 1933 Made by previous act run by Harry Hopkins to spend $3 billion to states for wages.
Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) May 12, 1933 Helped farmers pay their mortgages and payments. Paid farmers to reduce their crop output and farm size.
Home Owner�s Loan Corp. (HOLC) June 13, 1933 Refinanced mortgages on nonfarm houses helped millions pay for their houses.
Civil Works Administration (CWA) Nov 9, 1933 Made temporary jobs in the winter emergency.
Works Progress Administration WPA May 6, 1935 Built bridges, buildings etc. Provided more jobs.
National Recovery Administration June 16,1933 Industries: fair competition and established minimum wage.
Labor: said they could organize and no anti-union messages and child labor was regulated.
Public Works Administration (PWA) June 16, 1933 Long term recovery by building large scale projects like the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia river.
Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act Feb 29, 1936 Paid farmers to plant soil-conserving crops like soybeans.
2nd AAA Feb 16, 1938 Gave them more money for giving up their farm acreage and gave them more of national income.
Federal Securities Act May 27, 1933 Required bond salesman to give info regarding the soundness of their bonds or stocks.
Securities and Exchange Commission June 6, 1934 Watched over stock market trading and companies
Public Utility Holding Company Act Aug 26,1935 Stopped businesses from becoming big pyramids and then crashing after something like the crash.
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) May 18, 1933 Discovered a cost for electricity based on their production. Brought employment, better living conditions, healthier environment, and improved the whole Tennessee valley.
Federal Housing Administration
United States Housing Authority June 28,1934
Sept 1, 1937 Gave money to improve old houses and build new ones.
Continued to give money for low cost housing.
Social Security Act
National Labor Relations Act
Fair Labor Standards Act Aug 14, 1935
July 5, 1935
June 25, 1938 Retired workers who qualified would get monthly payments from the gov�t. People paid for with taxes and received when they were retired.
Reasserted the laborers right to self-organize
Set minimum wage and maximum hours, put restrictions on child labor.
