The Roaring 20’s

Return to “Normalcy”

• Harding was the anti-Wilson…a simple man from Ohio (6th one since 1865)

• Most Americans were disillusioned by the war and peace and wanted a return to Pre-War America.• The 20’s can be seen as the birth of “Modernism”…a time of change…and a negative reaction to that change

•For the 1st time in American history, more people lived in cities than in rural areas

“America’s present need is not heroics but healing; not nostrums but normalcy; not revolution but

restoration;…not surgery but serenity”

The Red Scare• Think back to Haymarket…there was a distrust of

socialism…it was Anti-American• The Bolshevik revolution was looked at the same way.• Labor discontent was high.

– Number of strikes increased after the war– The public blamed the Bolsheviks for this

• Most strikes were seen to be leading to a Bolshevik Rev and needed to be stopped right away.

• Nationwide crusade against left-wingers– Led by A. Mitchell Palmer (atty gnrl) PALMER RAIDS (1919-1920)– IWW members persecuted and prosecuted– Quickly seized upon by the business community

• Closed shop, for example, was seen as a Bolshevik ploy

Notice the racial undertones…?

• A clear example of this hysteria was the prosecution of 2 Italian anarchists who were convicted of murder and electrocuted (1927).

• Sacco and Vanzetti• The case was notorious all

across the globe

Nativism redux

• The KKK was re-born!• Who were the Know-Nothings?• Anti-foreign, Anti-Black, Anti-

Jew, Anti-Catholic, anti-commie, anti-gambling, anti-anti

• Spread beyond the South• Overall, this was a reaction to

the change of the period

What kind of place would do this?

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Not everyone sported a hood to show their disdain for diversity/change

• Nativism pushed Congress to reduce immigration– Immigration boomed again after the war…mostly

from Southern and Eastern Europe– Emergency Quota Act of 1921

• # of newcomers restricted to 3% of their nationality who were here in 1910.

– Immigration Act of 1924• Quotas cut to 2% and year switched to 1890.

– 1929 changed to only allow 150,000 in total

• Loophole in the law allowed many immigrants from Mexico-89,000 in 1924

Conservatives win out!

• Temperance finally achieves their goal…18th Amendment (1919)

• Around 1900 WCTU and the Anti-Saloon League launched a crusade for prohibition– The “abortion” of the day? They pushed churches

to elect dry candidates.

• Gained steam during the war (sacrifice, anti-German, etc.)

Did it work?

• Increased criminal activity– Speakeasies, bathtub gin, cocktail parties, etc.– Actually gave rise to an increase in drinking by

women.– Gangsters and organized crime attempted to

control the black market.• Chicago gets famous in 1929

Monkey Businessin Tennessee-1925

• Illegal to teach evolution• Teacher in TN volunteered• Was arrested and put on trial• The first “Trial of the century”• Darrow v. Bryan• Scopes found “guilty” but fundamentalists

made out to be ignorant

Women’s Movement

• Just because they can vote doesn’t mean the movement is over

• Equal Rights Amendment was the next frontier-introduced in every congress since 1923

– Eliminate any legal distinctions between sexes– Failed to ratify

• Margaret Sanger and birth control

Cultural Changes in the 1920’s

• Mass Consumption Society– A finished car emerged every 10 seconds in Detroit!– The emergence of the assembly line focused

attention on increasing consumption…Advertising!– Spectator sports grew immensely– Buying on credit was established

The car changed the landscape-economically and socially

• Henry Ford changed America– Put people in cars

• 1 car for every 5 Americans

– Revolutionized production– Improved working condit.– Ancillary business prosp.

• Rubber, glass, fabrics, roads, service, OIL!!!

– Brought country closer

Youth Culture emerged

• The car gave kids freedom• Hollywood emerged

– Along with it, a type of sexual revolution– Flappers! New Women vs. Victorian values

• Jazz age had begun! It was the music of “cool”– Slang also developed

Jazz was the Bee’s Knees

• As a result of the Great Migration, A.A. culture came north and spread.

• White kids would want to go try new dances listening to AA Jazz– This was unacceptable to many conservatives

• White musicians emerged playing the same music and it then became acceptable.

Harlem Renaissance

• Blossoming of AA culture– Literature, music, politics

• Langston Hughes and Nora Neale Hurston were prominent authors

• Marcus Garvey and DuBois were the political figures

– Garvey founded the UNIA• Back to Africa movement• Black Businesses grew• Roots of black nationalism

Politics of the decade• Harding, Coolidge and Hoover• Harding had scandals rock his tenure

– Teapot Dome scandal- leased gov’t lands for a bribe• Caused distrust in gov’t officials

• Coolidge was “Silent Cal” – took over after Harding died

• Isolation was the foreign policy of choice– Except for our presence in Haiti and Nicaragua– 1928-Kellog-Briand Pact-prohibited war as an

instrument of foreign policy

Debt Payments

• Americans wanted the loans to be repaid from the war– Allies protested saying they gave enough during– Persistence by Americans indirectly put pressure

on Germany to pay reparations• Germany teetered on the brink of anarchy• We then started loaning money to Germany…to go to

Allies…to go to Us• Allied resentment festered towards us

“The Business of America is Business” Calvin Coolidge

• Bull Market Conditions through 20’s • Average Joes invested their money• Many bought on margins-little to no regulation

• Stocks only go up!!!!!!• Tax burden also reduced on wealthy

– Andrew Mellon-Sec of Treasury-worked to lower taxes

• Coolidge was also pro business-favored lowering taxes• Fordney-McCumber tariff of 1922 brought tariffs up

– Caused a vicious cycle where Europe raised their tariffs

Election of 1928

• Coolidge decides not to run again• Hoover vs. Al Smith (Catholic Dem from NY)

– Some Republicans swung into Dem. Fold– Landslide victory for Hoover (the great Engineer)

Black Tuesday Oct 29, 1929

date change % change close

October 28, 1929 -38.33 -12.82 260.64

October 29, 1929 -30.57 -11.73 230.07

• Market hit a 6 year high in September (DJIA 381.17 )-The idea of permanent growth was prevalent… and then the volatility began.

• Low point was hit in 1932 (DJIA 41.22) -89% decline•Did not return to the same high until 1954!

• By August 1929, brokers were routinely lending small investors more than ⅔ of the face value of the stocks they were buying. Over $8.5 billion was out on loan, more than what was in the currency supply!

$40 billion lost by December 1929

Speculation fueled the burst

• People ignored the warning signs in 1927 and then 1929

• Margin Buying pushed the prices up and then down

Did the Crash cause the Depression?

• No1. Overproduction (agriculture and industry)2. Disparity in income distribution

– Consumer purchasing power decreased3. Government policies- High Tariffs, low taxes, pro-biz

1. Hawley-Smoot Tariff in 1930----DUUUHHHHH!!!!! 60%!!!

4. World Monetary system tied to gold– Needed a flexible system/amount of money

5. Over Speculation-stocks, installment plans, etc.1. Cheap credit inflated the prices…remember this phenomenon?

What to do?• Hoover was a classical Republican

– Not the gov’t job to solve world’s problems• “rugged individualism”• Rejects the idea of the dole

– Relies on the Trickle-down theory…help rail, banks, etc.

– He gets much blame…wonder worker? Engineer?– Eventually changes his tune…begins series of public works

programs-main goal is not the handout…pump the machine!• Hoover Dam, etc.• Rejected a TVA on grounds that the gov’t would compete with firms

to sell electricity• Overall, he expanded the role of gov’t

Bonus Army1932

• WWI Vets go to DC to ask for bonuses early

• Hoover sends out MacArthur to send the boys home…turns into a riot 2 people died