The Roaring 20’s

Unit Themes

The 1920s are “roaring” and crazy times

• America leaves Europe and becomes isolationist

• The Red Scare: Fear of Communists

• Immigration reform

• Laissez-faire presidents

• Booming economy

Themes, cont.

• Birth of the automobile culture

• Trends in dance, music and fashion

• Rise of the consumer economy

• The Great Migration and the Harlem Renaissance

Isolationism

• Policy of avoiding political or economic alliances with other countries

Russian Revolution

• Czar Nicholas II is unpopular due to WWI and high casualties

• Forced to give up power

• Leads to a communist revolution in 1917

Communism

• A form of government where private ownership is banned and the means of production are owned by the community as a whole and controlled by the government

Vladimir Lenin

• Communist leader who takes control of Russia

• Seizes all private property and puts ownership in hands of the government

• His followers are called “Bolsheviks” and “Reds”

Labor Strikes Make U.S. Leaders Nervous

• 1919: A wave of labor strikes sweeps nation after Armistice

• Boston Police Strike

• Steel and Coal Strikes

Strikes Broken Up By Force

• Nervous business owners fear Communists have infiltrated their workers

• In reality, cost of living is twice what it was before the war

Red Scare

• An intense fear of communism and other ideas considered extreme

Palmer Raids

• A campaign of raids to identify and root out groups whose activities posed a "clear and present danger" to the country, such as communists, socialists and anarchists

Sacco & Vanzetti

• Two Italian immigrants and anarchists whose arrest, conviction and electrocution caused public outrage and controversy due to the perception that they did not receive a fair trial

Immigration

• 1920 is at the end of the greatest wave of migration in U.S. history

• 1880-1920: more than 25 million foreigners arrive

• By 1920: 42% of New Yorkers are foreign-born; 41% of Chicagoans; 42% of San Franciscans

“New Immigrants”

• Immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe arriving in large numbers from 1890-1920

• Over 80% after 1890 are "New Immigrants”

• Between 50% and 80% of New Immigrants eventually return home

• The exceptions are Jews (4% repatriated) and Irish (9%), due to religious persecution, political oppression, and poverty back home

Quota

• Numerical limit on immigrants from each foreign nation

• Quotas set low for Eastern and Southern Europe

• Asian immigration banned

New Immigration Laws

•1921 Emergency Quota Act: Sets quota for each country to the # of people from that country living in the U.S. in 1910•1924 Immigration Act: Sets quota for each country to the # of people from that country living in the U.S. in 1890•Reduces immigration of “New Immigrants” by 97%

Great Migration

Reasons to Move North

• Jim Crow laws & discrimination• Boll Weevil infests cotton crops in

1910, forcing many sharecroppers to find other work

• Factory jobs during WWI• Sudden halt of immigration

reduces job competition• Great Mississippi Flood of 1927

displaces hundreds of thousands of African-Americans

Racial Conflict

• African-Americans face anger and hatred from whites

• Whites fear job competition

• Black women often domestics in white households for low wages

2nd Rise of the Ku Klux Klan

• During 1920’s Klan membership explodes to 4-5 million

• Still anti-black, but now anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic, anti-evolution, anti-drinking, and anti-sex

Some Factors That Lead to Rise of KKK

Film: Birth of a Nation

•1915 silent film glorifying the KKK during the Civil War era•Highest-grossing film of the silent era•Remained highest-grossing film for 22 years•Helps to revive the KKK, which had mostly died out in the 1870’s

• "History writ with lightning, and my only regret is it's all so terribly true."– President Woodrow Wilson, commenting on the pro-KKK film Birth of a Nation

KKK Influence

• Claim to defend “purity” of American values

• Take over leadership of town councils in some places

• Up to 15% of white male population join

• Quickly dies out

Estimated peak membership in the Ku Klux Klan during the …

1870s: 500,0001920s: 4 million1960s: 20,000

KKK Parade, 1925

Warren G. Harding, (R) 1921-1923

• Elected on campaign of “a return to normalcy”

• Considered by some historians to be worst president in history

• Hostile to government regulations from Progressive era

• Staffs regulatory agencies with officials from the industries meant to be regulated

• Many regulators are philosophically opposed to government regulation and deeply corrupt Worst President Ever?

Teapot Dome Scandal

• Harding’s Secretary of the Interior, Albert B. Fall, gives away oil drilling rights on federal land for $300,000 in bribes

• Fall later goes to jail

• The worst of several scandals in Harding’s administration

• Harding dies before full extent of scandal comes to light

Teapot Dome in Wyoming

Calvin Coolidge (R), 1923-1929

• Harding's replacement

• Also an economic conservative

• Reputation for respectability

• Most famous for saying "the business of America is business”

• ‘Coolidge Prosperity’ defines the 20s: Robust economic growth and widespread affluence

Known as “Silent Cal”

Show me the money

A Great Time to Be Rich

• Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon lowers income tax rates for wealthiest Americans from 73% to just 25%

• Investors enjoy one of the greatest periods of market growth in U.S. history

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average peaks in 1929 at more than six times its value in 1921

• Less than 1% of U.S. population owns stock, so directly benefits only the wealthy

A Terrible Time to Be a Farmer

• Collapse of agricultural prices in 1920

• Poverty, crushing debt and foreclosures

• During WWI U.S. farmers benefit from high demand and high prices throughout the world

• Many European farmers can’t produce during war, which drives up prices

Farmers Left Behind

• From 1920 to 1921, farm prices fall at catastrophic rate

• Price of wheat falls by ½ • Price of cotton falls by ¾ • Farmers suddenly can’t make

payments • Rural wealth falls far behind

urban wealth• More than 90% of U.S. farms

still lack power into the 1930’s• Rural access to telephones

actually falls during the 20’s

Herbert Hoover (R), 1929-1933• "We in America today are nearer

to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land... we shall soon, with the help of God, be in sight of the day when poverty will be banished from this nation."– Presidential candidate Herbert Hoover, 1928

• Stock market crashed 8 months into his term

• Tried to combat Depression with voluntary efforts to get industries to hire and increase production

• Failed and lost re-electionWorst Luck Ever

Ford Model-T

• Most popular car in America in the first three decades of the 20th century

• $1000 when introduced in 1908

• Model T's cost fell every year

• Less than $300 in 1927

• More than 15 million sold

Ford River Rouge Complex

• Massive production facility cut costs

• Mastered assembly line process

• Copied by other manufacturers

• Lower costs led to low prices for consumer goods

• Consumption skyrockets

Supply and Demand

As PRODUCTION

PRICES

And CONSUMPTION

• 1920: One car for ever 15 people

• 1929: One car for ever 5 people

Result:

Rise of a Consumer Economy

• Consumer economy: An economy that depends on a large amount of buying by consumers—individuals who use (or “consume”) products

Buying on Credit

• Installment plan: A system that lets customers make partial payments (installments) over a period of time until the total debt is paid

• Consumers buy things on credit they otherwise wouldn’t buy

• By 1929, most middle-class Americans in cities or towns would most likely own:

--Car

--Washing machine

--Radio

--Refrigerator

--Other small appliances

Mass Media Creates a National Culture

• Chain stores, branch banking, national brands, etc.

Mass Media

• National Radio Shows

• Hollywood Movies

• National celebrities

• Seeing same movies, listening to same radio shows

• Creates common ground that breaks down ethnic boundaries in America's cities

• What does that today?

Rise of the National Celebrity

• Hero worship: Intense or excessive admiration for a hero or a person regarded as a hero; seen widely in the 1920’s

Babe Ruth

• Baseball hero of 1920’s pop culture

• Helped popularity of baseball to explode

• 714 career home runs and 2,814 hits

Charles Lindberg: Celebrity Pilot

• First non-stop flight across the Atlantic in 1927

Prohibition

• Alcohol banned nationwide 1920

• Already banned in 16 states

• Promoted as a pro-war measure

Underground Market Booms

• Estimated income of bootleg liquor industry in 1929: $3 billion

• Entire United States federal budget in 1929: $2.9 billion18

Speakeasy

•Illegal, underground saloons that operated during the Prohibition era

Speakeasies are Everywhere

• Estimated number of speakeasies (illegal saloons) in United States during prohibition: 200,000-500,000

• In 1919 Cleveland had 1,200 legal bars

• In 1923 it had over 3,000 illegal speakeasies

• Estimated 3,000 residents sold alcohol

• Estimated 100,000 residents made homebrew or bathtub gin for themselves and friends

Prohibition Raids

Unenforcable

• Original amount Congress approved for enforcement: $5 million

• Several years later, government estimates enforcement would cost $300 million

• Quickly loses public support

• When prominent city leaders are caught in speakeasies, enforcement efforts stop

• By 1925, 6 states pass laws preventing investigations of violations

Organized Crime

• Widespread criminal activities, such as bootlegging, prostitution, interstate theft, or illegal gambling, that occur within a centrally controlled formal structure.

• Bootlegging: the act of making or transporting alcoholic liquor for sale illegally

Rise of Organized Crime

• Prohibition created huge consumer market unmet by legitimate means

• Meant that criminals ran the market

• Criminals get rich• In 1927 Al Capone makes $60

million• Organized crime gains

power in cities• Increases lawlessness

Al Capone

Weakened Law Enforcement

• Leads to public contempt for police

• Organized crime leaders, bootleggers and speakeasies pay bribes to cops

• In 1927, Al Capone had half of Chicago’s police on his payroll

Resistance to Prohibition

Prohibition Ends in 1933