unit #9 the roaring 20’s through the great depression

Unit #9The Roaring 20’s through The Great

Depression

The Roaring 20’s• America turns inward – a movement back towards

isolationism– _______________________________________– Americans fear the communist party

• Billy Sunday, a prominent priest of the time says that he would throw so many communists in jail their feet would be sticking out the window

– _______________________________________• Disillusioned by war and peace, Americans in the 1920’s:

Denounce radical foreign ideas, condemn un-American life-styles, shun diplomatic commitments to foreign countries and restrict immigration

– _______________________________________– _______________________________________

The Roaring 20’s

• Ku Klux Klan– _______________________________________– Was a reaction to the forces of diversity and

modernity that were transforming American culture– One of their many slogans, “Kill the Kikes, Koons, and

Katholics”• Emergency Quota Act of 1921– _______________________________________

• The Immigration Act of 1924– _______________________________________

The Roaring 20’s

– _______________________________________

• During the 1920’s many American ethnic groups lived in neighborhoods with their own churches or synagogues, newspapers and theatres– _______________________________________

• Many Polish peasants learned about America from agents of US railroads and/or steamship lines, letters from friends and relatives, Polish American businesspeople

The Roaring 20’s• Prohibition– _______________________________________– Once alcohol is made illegal the mafia takes over the

industry• “speakeasies” & “moonshine”

– In addition to alcohol American Gangsters earned rich profits from prostitution, gambling, labor racketeering and illegal drugs

– _______________________________________– Federal and State agencies were understaffed making it

nearly impossible to police the illegal alcohol trade– _______________________________________

• St. Valentine’s Day Massacre

The Roaring 20’s• The Battle over Evolution– _______________________________________– High-school biology teacher, John T. Scopes, was indicted

for teaching evolution in Tenn.– _______________________________________– _______________________________________– _______________________________________– Despite Darrow’s strong showing Scopes is found guilty

and fined $100– _______________________________________– After the “Monkey Trial” fundamentalist religion remained

a vibrant force in American spiritual life

The Roaring 20’s• The Mass Consumption Economy

– _______________________________________– Gasoline Age begins – Oil barons pop up in OK, TX and CA– Rubber, highway construction and glass industries benefit greatly as

well– _______________________________________– The automobile revolution helped consolidate schools, spread the

suburbs, decreased population in less desirable states and altered youthful sexual behavior

– _______________________________________– In response to develop greater mass markets for their products

American Businesses relied on new techniques of consumer advertising

– _______________________________________– _______________________________________

The Roaring 20’s• Frederick W. Taylor promotes industrial efficiency and

scientific management– _______________________________________

• Babe Ruth and Jack Dempsey (boxing) become household names– _______________________________________– _______________________________________

• Charles “Lucky” Lindbergh sets out to fly from the New York to Paris for $25,000– _______________________________________– Lindbergh has no window to look out of and a fly ends up

keeping him awake

The Roaring 20’s• Radio Revolution

– _______________________________________– American radio was very different from European radio due to the fact that

the American radio station was a commercial business built on advertising– _______________________________________

• Motion Picture industry takes hold in Hollywoodland– _______________________________________– Many aspiring film makers move to Hollywoodland to make movies– No one had patent rights to use the motion picture camera so Hollywoodland

was the best place to be in case they film makers had to flee to Mexico– _______________________________________– _______________________________________– Film used as propaganda during WWI– _______________________________________

The Roaring 20’s• Job opportunities for women in the 1920’s tended to cluster in a

few low-paying fields– _______________________________________– _______________________________________– Marcus promoted the resettlement of American blacks in Africa,

inspired strong feelings of self-confidence and self-reliance amongst blacks, sponsored black owned business enterprises and was convicted of mail fraud and deported by the US

– _______________________________________– Flappers symbolized this new movement amongst young women– _______________________________________– _______________________________________– “neckers” and “petters” poached upon the forbidden territory of each

other’s bodies

The Roaring 20’s

• American Literature– Langston Hughes becomes a prominent African

American writer– _______________________________________– F. Scott Fitzgerald writes, “The Great Gatsby” which

encapsulated the Roaring 20’s– _______________________________________– William Faulkner who later is deemed the greatest

American story teller begins to write– _______________________________________

The Roaring 20’s• Wall Street’s Big Bull Market– _______________________________________– Many were cashing in on “hot tips”

• Wild stories of elevator operators and valets making millions fueled the process of buying on margin

– _______________________________________– Many taxes were left over from WWI so Secretary of

Treasury Andrew Mellon placed the heaviest tax burden on the middle class by eliminating nearly all of the taxes on the rich (excise tax, gift tax, surtax and estate tax)

– _______________________________________

Boom or Bust Politics– Three Republican Presidents in the 20’s: Harding, Coolidge, Hoover

– _________________________________________– _________________________________________

– Warren G. Harding:– _________________________________________– had a hard time detecting moral weaknesses in associates– had a hard time saying “No” because he didn’t like hurting anyone’s feelings– _________________________________________

– Harding’s Cabinet:– Charles Evans Hughes – Naval arms limitation– _________________________________________– Herbert Hoover – foreign trade and trade associations– _________________________________________– Harry Daugherty – justice and law enforcement

Boom or Bust Politics– Republican policies under Harding hoped to encourage the government actively to

assist business along the path to profits– _________________________________________

– Organized labor was adversely affected by the demobilization policies adopted by the federal government during the 20’s– _________________________________________– The American Legion successfully lobbied Congress to give them a bonus

insurance policy to compensate them for wages lost during the war– _________________________________________

– The 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact officially outlawed war as a solution to international rivalry and conflict

Boom or Bust Politics– Hiking the Tariff higher

– The Fordney-McCumber and Hawley-Smoot Tariff laws shrank international trade making it impossible for Europe to repay America for war debt

– _________________________________________– Albert B. Fall convinces Harding to move the Teapot Dome (Wyoming) and Elk

Hills (California) oil reserves to the department of the interior where it is then leased to oilmen Harry F. Sinclair and Edward L. Doheny

– _________________________________________– _________________________________________

Boom or Bust Politics– Warren G. Harding dies in San Francisco under mysterious conditions

– _________________________________________– _________________________________________– After Harding’s death it is discovered that Harding had two extramarital affairs

– One with a married woman and another with a 16 year old girl that he also fathered a child with

– _________________________________________– After the initial shock of the Harding scandals, many Americans reacted by

excusing some of the wrongdoers because “they had gotten away with it”– _________________________________________

Boom or Bust Politics• 1924 Election

– Democratic party was split on many issues:• ________________________________• Immigrants vs Generational Americans• ________________________________• ________________________________

– Senator Robert La Follette tries to reinvigorate the Progressive party• ________________________________• ________________________________• ________________________________

– The Progressive Party did not do well in the election because too many people shared in the general prosperity of the early 20’s

• Meanwhile, America’s European allies argued that they should not have to repay their WWI debts because they had paid a much heavier price in lost lives so it was only fair for the US to absolve the debt

Boom or Bust Politics• Election of 1928

– Republican Herbert Hoover vs Democrat Alfred E. Smith (most colorful candidate of the 1920’s)• ________________________________• ________________________________

– Herbert Hoover’s chief strength a Presidential candidate was his talent for administration• ________________________________

• Hoover, not one for handouts, signs the Agricultural Marketing Act– This act lent money to farmers to help them organize producers’

cooperatives• ________________________________• ________________________________

Boom or Bust Politics• “Black Tuesday” – Oct. 29th 1929

• ________________________________– Then a mass sell-off of stocks sent everyone into a panic

• ________________________________– GDP falls from $103 billion to $55 billion

• ________________________________– Banks failed across the nation

• ________________________________– Two months after crash the US had lost $40 billion in wealth– So many suicides happened in that two month period that when you checked into a hotel the clerk would ask,

“for sleeping or jumping?”• Causes of the Great Depression

• ________________________________• ________________________________

– United States was heavily in debt due to loans to other nations

• ________________________________• ________________________________

– A “Run” on the banks

• ________________________________

Boom or Bust Politics• Hoover, slow to react, eventually did the following things in an attempt to

fix the Great Depression:– Gives direct assistance to businesses and banks by setting up the (RFC)

Reconstruction Finance Corporation• ________________________________• ________________________________

– Lent federal funds to feed farm livestock• ________________________________

• Hoover was against any policy he felt was “socialistic”– Took a lot of grief over the huge expense of the Hoover Dam

• ________________________________• Bonus Army Marches on DC

– They wanted the bonuses they were guaranteed for WWI• ________________________________

Boom or Bust Politics• The Japanese see the Depression in the West and decide that it’s the

perfect time to seize Manchuria in China (1931)• ________________________________• ________________________________

– The US passes the Stimson Doctrine in 1932 stating that the US would not recognize any territorial acquisition achieved by force of arms• ________________________________• ________________________________

• The election of 1932• ________________________________

The Great Depression and the New Deal

• The country needs and . . . demands bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.

• FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, CAMPAIGN SPEECH, 1932• As a boy FDR was stricken with Polio confining him to a wheelchair at a very young age• _________________________________• The Democratic party platform on which Franklin Roosevelt campaigned for the Presidency in 1932 called for extensive

social reforms and a balanced budget• _________________________________• FDR revealed a deep concern for the plight of the “forgotten man”—a phrase he used in a 1932 speech—although he was

assailed by the rich as a “traitor to his class.”• _________________________________


• Roosevelt consistently preached a New Deal for the “forgotten man,” but he was annoyingly vague and somewhat contradictory

• _________________________________

• They were predominantly youngish college professors who, as a kind of kitchen cabinet, later authored much of the New Deal legislation

• _________________________________• _________________________________

• FDR wins in a landslide and at his inauguration states, “Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”


• FDR wins unprecedented support from Congress• Hundred Days – the flood of legislation passed by Congress in the first months of FDR’s Presidency• _________________________________

– Shuts down the banks for 1 week, and begins to introduce policies which soon become known as “Alphabet Soup”• _________________________________• _________________________________• _________________________________

• The New Dealers, sooner or later, embraced such progressive ideas as unemployment insurance, old-age insurance, minimum-wage regulations, conservation and development of natural resources, and restrictions on child labor

• FDR directly addresses the people with his “Fireside Chats”• _________________________________


• Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 creates the FDIC which insured $5000 of every individual’s deposits– 1920 – 167 banks fail– 1925 – 615 banks fail

• _________________________________– 1931 – 2294 banks fail– 1932 – 1456 banks fail

• _________________________________– 1934 – 57 banks fail

• _________________________________• FDR was trying to temporarily increase inflation to help pay debts and then reduce the inflation at a later date• Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) - reforestation, firefighting, flood control, and swamp drainage

– The recruits were required to help their parents by sending home most of their pay• _________________________________• _________________________________


• Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) – paid unemployed workers for projects• Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) - made available many millions of dollars to help farmers meet their mortgages• _________________________________• _________________________________

• Civil Works Administration (CWA) - Designed to provide purely temporary jobs during the cruel winter emergency• _________________________________

– Critics of FDR claimed that he would pay one man to dig a hole and another man to fill it in


• Father Charles Coughlin, the “microphone messiah” was a Catholic priest in Michigan and a huge critic of FDR• _________________________________

• His rants finally became so anti-Semitic, fascistic, and demagogic that he was silenced in 1942 by his superiors

• Senator Huey P. (“Kingfish”) Long becomes another outspoken critic of FDR• _________________________________• _________________________________

• Works Progress Administration (WPA) passes in 1935 – employed 9 million unemployed workers

• Tennessee Valley Authority passes – intended to provide cheap electrical power in competition with private industry• _________________________________


• Women play an important role• _________________________________• Indian Reorganization Act attempted to reverse the forced assimilation of Native Americans into white society by

establishing tribal self-government• _________________________________• Public Works Administration (PWA) - for industrial recovery and for unemployment relief• _________________________________


• The Dust Bowl• _________________________________

– Black Blizzards – wind storms that picked the soil right off the earth• _________________________________

– Most Dust Bowl migrants headed to California• _________________________________• The American Social Security System differed from European social welfare because you had to work to qualify for it• Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) - designed as a watchdog administrative agency• _________________________________


• Unions resurge• _________________________________

– National Labor Relations Act – most beneficial to unskilled workers– Industrial Organizations – primary interest was the organization of all workers within an industry

• Election of 1936– Was a bitter class struggle between the rich (republicans) and the poor (democrats)

• _________________________________• _________________________________

– The sweeping victory gave FDR the impression that the public had given him a mandate because of their support of the New Deal


• Supreme Court of the 1930’s• _________________________________

– Many were very old but would not retire because they did not like the policies of Roosevelt– In 1937 Roosevelt asks Congress to pass a bill stating that he could add a Supreme Court Justice for every Justice that

was over the age of 70• _________________________________

– Ironically enough, after FDR’s failed attempt to stack the Supreme Court they began to rule that New Deal programs were constitutional


• Twilight of the New Deal• _________________________________

– Progress was going slower than anticipated and then trouble hit in 1937 with another downturn of the economy dubbed, “Roosevelt’s Recession”

• _________________________________– FDR turns to British Economist John Maynard Keynes– Keynes recommended the concept of deficit spending

• _________________________________• _________________________________• _________________________________

unit #9 the roaring 20’s through the great depression

Documents

s frederick

s prohibition

american spiritual life

american culture

alcohol american gangsters

great depression slide

s ku klux klan

polish american businesspeople