politics of the roaring 20’s. objectives 1. the learner will trace the political and social...

POLITICS OF THE ROARING 20’S

Objectives1. The learner will trace the political and social changes after World War I and throughout the decade of the 1920’s.2. The learner will summarize the reaction in the United States to the perceived threat of communism.3. The learner will analyze the causes and effects of the quota system in the United States.4. The learner will describe some of the postwar conflicts between labor and management.

State Standards6.4 Identify patterns of immigration and the causal factors that led to immigration to the United States of America (i.e., crop famines, European social and political unrest, religious freedom)

6.5 Distinguish the differences in assimilation of "old" vs. "new" immigration. (i.e., languages, settlement patterns, education, employment, housing, Nativist reaction, religion, geographic origin).

7.10 Analyze the American isolationist position versus interventionist arguments.

8.3 Recognize the definitions of totalitarianism, fascism, communism, nationalism, and anti-Semitism.

SECTION 1: AMERICAN POSTWAR ISSUES

• The American public was exhausted from World War I

• Public debate over the League of Nations had divided America

• An economic downturn meant many faced unemployment

• A wave of nativism swept the nation

Nativism – favoring the interests of native-born people over foreign-born people.

Section 1

Americans Struggle withPostwar Issues

ISOLATIONISM

• Many Americans adopted a belief in isolationism

• Isolationism is a policy of abstaining from involvement in world affairs.


Isolationism – opposition to political and economic entanglements with other countries.

Section 1


FEAR OF COMMUNISM• One perceived threat

to American life was the spread of Communism

• Communism is an economic and political system based on a single party government ruled by a dictatorship.

• Communism called for the abolition of private property in order to equally distribute wealth and power.



Communism – an economic and political system based on one-party government and state ownership of property.

Section 1


SOVIET UNION COMMUNISM

• Russia was transformed into the Soviet Union in 1917, a Communist state

• Vladimir Lenin led the Bolsheviks and overthrew the Czarist regime

• He was a follower of the Marxist doctrine of social equality

• A Communist party was formed in America, too

• The panic surrounding the threat of communism in the early 1920’s was called the “Red Scare.”

Lenin

Fear of Communism• People who oppose all forms of

government are called anarchists.• Anarchists radical opposition to

any and all forms of government led many with similar beliefs to be harassed, arrested, and deported during the Red Scare.

• As Attorney General, A. Mitchell Palmer sent government agents out on a series of illegal raids to hunt down suspected radicals.

• Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer believed that he needed to protect the American people from political radicals.

• According to Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, communism was “eating its way into the homes of the American workman, its sharp tongues…. Licking the altars of the churches.”

• Raids trample civil rights, fail to find evidence of conspiracy

Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer




Anarchists – a person who opposes all forms of government.

Section 1


SACCO & VANZETTI

• The Red Scare fed nativism in America

• Italian anarchists Sacco & Vanzetti were a shoemaker and a fish peddler

• Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were charged with, and convicted of robbery and murder despite flimsy evidence, their execution was symbolic of discrimination against radical beliefs during the Red Scare

THE KLAN RISES AGAIN• As the Red Scare and anti-

immigrant attitudes reached a peak, the KKK was more popular than ever

• To expand it membership in the 1920’s, the Ku Klux Klan engaged in blaming national problems on immigrants, playing on people’s fears of political radicals, allowing members to profit from recruiting new members.

• By 1924, the Klan had 4.5 million members

• Although it membership sharply increased as a result of the Red Scare and nativism, the Ku Klux Klan power declined once its criminal activity and racial violence became exposed.

CONGRESS LIMITS IMMIGRATION

• Congress, in response to nativist pressure, decided to limit immigration from southern and eastern Europe

• The quota system of the 1920’s was created to reduce immigration.

• The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 set up a quota system to control and restrict immigration

America changed its formally permissive immigration policy





Quota system – a system that sets limits on how many immigrants from various countries a nation will admit each year.

Section 1


Limiting Immigration

Limiting Immigration• The Quota System

– 1919–1921, number of immigrants grows almost 600%

– Quota system established the maximum number of immigrants who were allowed into the United States from each foreign country.

• sharply reduces European immigration

– Nativists who found fault with the Emergency Quota Acts of 1921 would have been most likely to say it did not restrict immigration enough.

– 1924, European arrivals cut to 2% of number of residents in 1890

– Discriminates against southern, eastern Europeans

– Prohibits Japanese immigration; causes ill will between U.S., Japan

– The immigration policies of the 1920’s limited immigration from Italy, Japan, and England.

– Does not apply to Western Hemisphere; many Canadians, Mexicans enter

A TIME OF LABOR UNREST

• Strikes were outlawed during WWI, however in 1919 there were more than 3,000 strikes involving 4 million workers

• To protect their own interests, employers

often accused striking workers of being communists.

BOSTON POLICE STRIKE

• Boston police had not received a raise in years and were denied the right to unionize

• Massachusetts governor Calvin Coolidge called out the National Guard to break the Boston police strike.

• As the governor of Massachusetts during the Boston police strike, Calvin Coolidge opposed the strikers and called out the National Guard to restore order.

• The National Guard was called• New cops were hired

STEEL MILL STRIKE• In September of 1919, the U.S. Steel

Corporation refused to meet with union representatives

• In response, over 300,000 workers struck• Scabs were hired while strikers were

beaten by police and federal troops• The strike was settled in 1920 with an 8-

hour day but no union

COAL MINERS’ STRIKE

• In 1919, United Mine Workers led by John L. Lewis called a Strike on November 1

• Lewis met with an arbitrator appointed by President Wilson• Lewis won a 27% pay raise and was hailed a hero• As president of the United Mine Workers, John L. Lewis led the miners on a strike that eventually resulted in a significant wage increase.• John L. Lewis is most closely associated with the Coal miners’ strike.

Lewis

1920s: TOUGH TIMES FOR UNIONS

• The 1920s hurt the labor movement

• Union membership dropped from 5 million to 3.5 million

• Why? African Americans were excluded from membership and immigrants were willing to work in poor conditions

• During the 1920’s, union membership dropped considerably.

• Fears of communism was most closely tied to the public’s negative reactions to

organized labor in the 1920’s.

Ford Foundry workers in 1926; only 1% of black workers were in

Unions at the time





Quota system – a system that sets limits on how many immigrants from various countries a nation will admit each year.

Section 1


Objectives1. The learner will trace the political and social changes after World War I and throughout the decade of the 1920’s.2. The learner will contrast Harding’s policy of “normalcy” with progressive era reforms .3. The learner will identify scandals that plagued the Harding administration.

State Standards6.4 Identify patterns of immigration and the causal factors that led to immigration to the United States of America (i.e., crop famines, European social and political unrest, religious freedom)

6.5 Distinguish the differences in assimilation of "old" vs. "new" immigration. (i.e., languages, settlement patterns, education, employment, housing, Nativist reaction, religion, geographic origin).

7.10 Analyze the American isolationist position versus interventionist arguments.

8.3 Recognize the definitions of totalitarianism, fascism, communism, nationalism, and anti-Semitism.

SECTION 2: THE HARDING PRESIDENCY

• International Problems– President Warren G. Harding

voices public desire for “normalcy”

– President Harding’s secretary of state was Charles Evans Hughes, who later went off to become chief justice of the Supreme Court.

– Hosts Washington Naval Conference; invites major powers, not Russia

– Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes proposes disarmament, others agree

– The main goal of the Washington Naval Conference was to reduce the threat of War.

– In 1928 Kellog-Briand Pact nations renounce war as national policy

– The Kellogg-Briand Pact rejected War as an instrument of national policy.

Harding 1920-1924

Harding 1920-1924

THE HARDING PRESIDENCY

• Warren G. Harding’s modest successes include the Kellogg-Briand Pact which renounced war as a means of national policy (signed by 15 nations, but difficult to enforce), and the Dawes Plan which solved the problem of post-war debt by providing loans to Germany to pay France/Britain who then paid the U.S.

• The Kellogg-Braid Pact was considered useless because it provided no means of enforcing the “no war” agreement

Signing of the Kellog-Braid Pact

Harding Struggles for Peace• Tariffs rose dramatically in the

early 1920’s.• High Tariffs and Reparations

– Fordney-McCumber Tariff raises taxes on U.S. imports to 60%• Britain, France cannot repay U.S.• The Fordney-McCumber Tariff was

adopted in 1922 to raise the taxes on imported goods.

• The Fordney-McCumber Tariff was meant to raise taxes on goods entering the United States.

• As a result of the Fordney-McCumber Tariff, Britain and France were not able to sell enough goods to pay off their war debts.

– Germany defaults; Dawes Plan—U.S. investors lend reparations money • Britain, France repay; resentment

on all sides– The Dawes Plan arranged for loans

to be made to Germany so that it could pay war reparations.

Fordney-McCumber Tariff – a set of regulations, enacted by Congress in 1922, that raised taxes on imports to record levels in order to protect American businesses against foreign competition.

Section 2

The Harding Presidency

SCANDAL HITS HARDING

• The president’s main problem was that he didn’t understand many of the issues

• Several of Harding’s appointee’s were caught illegally selling government supplies to private companies

Scandal Hits Harding’s Administration

• Harding’s Cabinet– Harding favors limited government

role in business, social reform– Creates Bureau of the Budget to help

run government– Has capable men in cabinet—

Hughes, Herbert Hoover, Andrew Mellon

– Also appoints Ohio gang—corrupt friends who cause embarrassment

– The personal friends that President Harding put into his cabinet were known as the Ohio gang.

– The Ohio gang consisted of various friends or associates of President Warren G. Harding who took advantage of their political positions to gain wealth and influence.


Ohio gang – a group of close friends and political supporters whom President Warren G. Harding appointed to his cabinet.

Section 2


TEAPOT DOME SCANDAL

• The worst case of corruption was the Teapot Dome Scandal

• The government set aside oil-rich public land in Teapot, WY

• Secretary of Interior Albert Fall secretly leased the land to two oil companies

• The Teapot Dome scandal centered around Oil-rich lands.

• Fall received $400,000 from the oil companies and a felony conviction from the courts

• The Teapot Dome scandal involved the secret leasing of oil-rich lands owned by the public or the government or the United States to private oil companies.

• An anarchist might have said, “the scandals are more proof that all forms of government should be abolished” about President Harding’s administration.


Ohio gang – a group of close friends and political supporters whom President Warren G. Harding appointed to his cabinet.

Teapot Dome Scandal – Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall’s secret leasing of oil-rich public land to private companies in return for money and land.

Section 2


Objectives1. The learner will trace the political and social changes after World War I and throughout the decade of the 1920’s.2. The learner will summarize the impact of the automobile and other consumer goods on American life.3. The learner will explain how prosperity affected different groups of Americans. 4. The learner will explain in what ways the country’s prosperity was superficial. State Standards6.3 Identify major urban areas of the United States on a map (i.e., Northeast, upper Midwest, Atlantic Coast, California).

6.4 Identify patterns of immigration and the causal factors that led to immigration to the United States of America (i.e., crop famines, European social and political unrest, religious freedom)

7.5 Recognize the new trends, ideas, and innovations of the 1920's popular culture (i.e., radio, automobile, phonograph, Prohibition, birth control, organized crime, sports).

7.7 Determine the possible factors that led to the economic collapse of 1929 (i.e., over production of agriculture and industry, expansion of credit, financial speculation, agricultural crop failures, tariff barriers, laissez- faire).

8.2 Recognize the negative patterns of an economic cycle (i.e., increase of unemployment, decrease of price level, excess inventory, decrease of production, repossession, increase of business failure, and bankruptcy).

SECTION 3: THE BUSINESS OF AMERICA

• The new president, Calvin Coolidge, fit the pro-business spirit of the 1920s very well

• His famous quote: “The chief business of the American people is business . . .the man who builds a factory builds a temple – the man who works there worships there”

President Calvin Coolidge 1924-1928

AMERICAN BUSINESS FLOURISHES

• Both Coolidge and his Republican successor Herbert Hoover, favored governmental policies that kept taxes down and business profits up

• Tariffs were high which helped American manufacturers

• Government interference in business was minimal

• Wages were increasing

THE IMPACT OF THE AUTO

• The auto was the backbone of the American economy from 1920 through the 1970s

• It also profoundly altered the American landscape and society

• Great changes in America’s landscape were tied mostly closely to a large increase in the use of

automobile in the 1920’s.

The Ford Model T was the first car in America. It came only in black and sold for $290. Over 15 million were

sold by 1927.

IMPACT OF THE AUTO

Among the many changes were:• Paved roads, traffic lights• Motels, billboards• Home design• Gas stations, repair shops• Shopping centers • Freedom for rural families• Urban Sprawl

– The main factor causing urban sprawl in the 1920’s was the automobile.

• Independence for women and young people

• Cities like Detroit, Flint, Akron grew • By 1920 80% of world’s vehicles in

U.S.• Changes in American landscape,

changes in American Architecture, urban sprawl was considered a direct result of the growing popularity and availability of the automobile.

Urban sprawl – the unplanned and uncontrolled spreading of cities into surrounding regions.

Section 3

The Business of America

AIRLINE TRANSPORT BECOMES COMMON

• The airline industry began as a mail carrying service and quickly “took off”

• The first practical peacetime use of airplanes was for carrying mail.

• By 1927, Pan American Airways was making the transatlantic passenger flights

When commercial flights began, all flight attendants

were female and white

AMERICAN STANDARD OF LIVING SOARS

• The years 1920-1929 were prosperous ones for the U.S.

• Americans owned 40% of the world’s wealth

• The average annual income rose 35% during the 1920s ($522 to $705)

• Discretionary income increased

ELECTRICAL CONVENIENCES

• While gasoline powered much of the economic boom of the 1920s, the use of electricity also transformed the nation

Electric refrigerators, stoves, irons, toasters, vacuums, washing machines and sewing

machines were all new

MODERN ADVERTISING EMERGES

• Ad agencies no longer sought to merely “inform” the public about their products

• They hired psychologists to study how best to appeal to Americans’ desire for youthfulness, beauty, health and wealth

• “Say it with Flowers” slogan actually doubled sales between 1912-1924

A SUPERFICIAL PROSPERITY

• Many during the 1920s believed the prosperity would go on forever

• Wages, production, GNP, and the stock market all rose significantly

• But. . . .

PROBLEMS ON THE HORIZON?

• Businesses expanded recklessly

• Iron & railroad industries faded

• Farms nationwide suffered losses due to overproduction

• Too much was bought on credit (installment plans) including stocks

• “A dollar down and a dollar forever” represents a form of credit called the installment plan.

• The economic situation on farms, the number of products purchased on credit, the difference in income between workers and managers were all considered a sign that the prosperity of the 1920’s was superficial.

Urban sprawl – the unplanned and uncontrolled spreading of cities into surrounding regions.

Installment plan – an arrangement in which a purchaser pays over an extended time, without having to put down much money at the time of purchase.

Section 3

The Business of America

politics of the roaring 20’s. objectives 1. the learner will trace the political and social...

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american people

foreignborn people

political system

political radicals

political unrest

perceived threat of

economic entanglements

american life