Chapters 12 – 15REVIEW

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Chapter 12 p. 432Politics of the Roaring Twenties

1. Nativism: Americans who are prejudice against foreign-born people. As returning WWI soldiers returned they faced unemployment or took their old jobs away from women and minorities. The cost of living doubled, farmers and factory workers suffered as wartime orders diminished. Many Americans responded to the stressful conditions by becoming fearful of outsiders.

2. Isolationism: a policy that the nation would pull away from involvement in world affairs. Many citizens wanted to get back to normal, peaceful living – they felt resentful of anyone who caused unrest.

3. communism: it is an economic and political system based on a single-party government ruled by a dictatorship. They would put an end to private property, substituting government ownership of factories, railroads, and other businesses. It’s spread was perceived as a threat to American life. The American Communist Party firmly believed in the possibility of revolution in the US. Ambitious politicians used the perceived threat of communist revolt as justification for their attacks on radicals and labor activists. Such attacks, which created a climate of fear and repression, served to maintain the status quo. A short lived Red Scare fed people’s suspicions of foreigners and immigrants. 4. Anarchists: people who opposed any form of government. Anarchists were associated with immigrants (examp. Italy).

5. Sacco and Vanzetti: May 1920. Victims of nativist attitudes. Nicola Sacco a shoemaker and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, a fish peddler. Italian immigrants and anarchists who both evaded the draft during WWI. They were arrested and charged with the robbery and murder of a factory paymaster and his guard in Mass. Witnesses said the criminals appeared to be Italian. They professed their innocence and provided alibis and the evidence was circumstantial. The judge made prejudicial remarks Soooooo… the jury found them guilty and sentenced them to death. The WORLD protested. Many thought that they were mistreated because of their radical beliefs and others because they were immigrants. The government reviewed the case and proceeded with their executions. They died in the electric chair on Aug. 23, 1927. In 1961 ballistics tests showed that the pistol found on Sacco was the murder weapon.

6. bigot: a person who is intolerant of any creed, race, religion, or political belief that others from his own. As a result of the Red Scare and anti-immigrant feelings, different groups of bigots used anti-communism as an excuse to harass any group unlike themselves – such as the KKK. In 1924 membership reached 4.5 million (white male native-born gentile citizens – 100% American). They believed in “keeping blacks in their place”, destroyed saloons, opposed unions, wanted Catholics, Jews and foreign-born out of the country. Their world was one of secret rituals and racial violence. They dominated state politics in many states.

7. Quota system: 1919 – 1921.As the number of immigrants to the US grows almost 600% (141,000 – 805,000), Congress (in response to nativists pressure) decided to limit immigration from certain countries – mainly from southern and eastern Europe. The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 set up a quota system. It established the maximum number of people who could enter the US from each foreign country. Its goal was to sharply cut European immigration to the US. It was amended in 1924 when the law limited immigration from each European nation to 2% of the number of its nationals living in the US in 1890. It discriminated against people from eastern and southern Europe – mostly Catholics, Jews. The national origins quota system did NOT apply to immigrants from the Western Hemisphere.

8. Warren G. Harding: a very presidential looking Ohio senator who became president in 1921. He made soothing speeches about America’s need to return to “normalcy” and to simpler days before the Progressive Era and the Great War. His words of peace calmed and comforted the healing nation – but his judgment turned out to be poor. He favored a limited role for government in business affairs and in social reform. His cabinet included the OHIO GANG. He died suddenly on August 2, 1923. His vice president Calvin Coolidge assumed the presidency. 9. Ohio Gang: part of Harding’s cabinet. They were the president’s poker-playing cronies from his home state who would cause great embarrassment. Harding’s administration unraveled as his corrupt friends used their offices to become wealthy through graft. Some were caught selling government supplies to private companies, another was caught taking a bribe.

9. Teapot Dome scandal: The most spectacular example of corruption. Public oil reserves were leased for private gain. Teapot Dome Wyoming and Elk Hills, CA. Albert B. Fall was convicted of bribery and convicted of a felony while holding a cabinet post.10. Calvin Coolidge: Harding’s vice president who assumed the presidency when Harding died in office. He was a respected man of integrity who helped restore people’s faith in their government and the Republican Party. He is elected president. He fit into the PRO BUSINESS spirit of the 1920s. His famous quote, “the chief business of the American people is business…”. He and late Pres. Herbert Hoover favored government policies that would keep taxes down and business profits up, and give businesses more available credit in order to expand. GOAL: to keep government interference in business to a minimum and slow private enterprise to flourish.

• Impact of the automobile: Roads were paved, and shopping centers and other services for cars were built: people commuted to work and URBAN SPRAWL developed . Regional differences diminished.

12. Urban sprawl: it allowed workers to live miles from their jobs. Cities spread in all directions. 13. Installment plan: easy credit – a dollar down and a dollar forever. It enabled people to buy goods over an extended period, without having to put down much money at the time of purchase. Advantages: people could buy goods they could not otherwise afford. Disadvantage: people could go far into debt without realizing it. Easy credit played a pivotal role in the 20s economy. The installment plan was an ideal solution to big ticket items. Consumers bought goods ignoring their accumulating debts. 20s economy began to resemble a financial house of cards. It was precarious at best when disaster hit the stock market in 1929.

Chapter 13 p. 456The Roaring Life of the 1920s

14. prohibition: the 18th Amendment to the Constitution in which the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages were legally prohibited. IN FAVOR: because of its devastating impact of alcohol on human lives. IT would improve society. OPPOSED: because such a restriction would limit individual freedom. It was unnecessary and difficult to enforce. 15. speakeasy: to obtain liquor illegally, drinkers went underground to hidden saloons and nightclubs called speakeasies – called so because when inside, one spoke quietly or “easily” to avoid detention. They were found everywhere. To be admitted, one had to present a card or use a password.

16. bootlegger: as people grew bolder getting around the prohibition law, many learned to distill alcohol and build their own stills. Since alcohol was allowed for medicinal and religious purposed, prescriptions for alcohol and sales of sacramental wine skyrocketed. Bootleggers were smugglers who smuggled (brought into this country illegally) liquor from Canada, Cuba, and the West Indies. This contributed to organized crime in nearly every major city. Chicago became notorious as the home of Al Capone, a gangster whose bootlegging empire net over $60 million a year. By the mid-1920s only 19% of Americans supported Prohibition. It caused worse effects than the initial problem. Prohibition was in effect until 1933 when it was repealed by the 21st Amendment.

17. Fundamentalism: a Protestant movement grounded in the literal or non- symbolic, interpretation of the Bible. They were skeptical of some scientific discoveries and theories; they argued that all important knowledge could be found in the Bible. They believed that the BIBLE was inspired by God, and that therefore its stories in all their details were true – if it was in the Bible, it was true. They rejected the theory of evolution (Charles Darwin). 18. Clarence Darrow: Famous lawyer: Hired by the ACLU(American Civil Liberties Union) to defend John T. Scopes (a young biology teacher in Dayton, Tennessee) who had been arrested for teaching evolution in school. 19. Scopes Trial: March 1925 Tennessee passed the nation’s first law that made it a crime to teach evolution. ACLU promised to defend any teacher that would challenge the law. John Scopes accepted the challenge. As he read from a textbook, he was arrested. It was a fight over evolution and the role of science and religion in public schools and in American society. It was a national sensation. Scopes was found guilty and fined $100.

The Tennessee Supreme Court later changed the verdict on a technicality, but the law outlawing the teaching of evolution remained in effect• The Scopes Trial pitted Clarence Darrow against prosecutor William

Jennings Bryan a 3 time Democratic presidential candidate and a devout fundamentalist. In the end, Bryan admitted that the Bible might be interpreted in different ways.

In the rebellious, pleasure loving atmosphere of the 20s, many women began to assert their independence, reject the values of the 19th c. and demand the same freedoms as men. 20. flapper: During the 1920s a new ideal emerged for some women. The flapper was an emancipated contemporary young woman who embraced the new fashions and urban attitudes of the day. She was more assertive, smoked, drank and talked openly about sex. The flapper used hairstyles and behavior to claim a new freedom for women.

21. Charles A. Lindbergh: A pilot from Minnesota who made the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean on May 20, 1927. He took off near NYC in the Spirit of St. Louis and flew up the coast of Newfoundland and after 33 hours and 29 minutes landed at Le Bourget airfield outside of Paris, France at night. His accomplishment paved the way and inspired others. He became a hero. In 1932 his young son was kidnapped and murdered. It was called the trial of the century. 22. Marcus Garvey: an immigrant from Jamaica believed that Af/Am should build a separate society. In 1914 he founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). He opened offices in urban ghettos to recruit followers. He claimed to have a million followers. He message was to encourage Af/Am to return to Africa. He was convicted of mail fraud and jailed.

23. Harlem Renaissance: Many Af/Am from the South moved to Harlem, a neighborhood on the Upper West Side of New York’s Manhattan Island. In the 1920s, Harlem became the world’s largest black urban community. It was referred to as the “Capital of black America.” It was overcrowded, had high unemployment and poverty – like many other urban neighborhoods. It helped to create a distinctive Af/Am culture in the US. Writers and artists of the HR celebrated their black culture in this literary and artistic movement.

Chapter 14 p. 486 The Great Depression• The stock market crash of October 29, 1929, and the depression that

followed, dealt a crushing blow to the hopes and dreams of millions of Americans. The high-flying prosperity of the 1920s was over and hard times had begun.• Stock: is a share of ownership in a company.• The stock market is the most visible symbol of how prosperous the

American economy is. 24. Dow Jones Industrial Average: a widely used barometer of the stock market’s health. The Dow is a measure based on the stock prices of 30 representative large firms trading on the NY Stock Exchange.

25. speculation: when people buy stocks and bonds on the chance of a quick profit, ignoring the risks. At this time in history, people ignored the risks and bought more than they could pay for. 26. Buying on margin: when many began paying a small % of a stock’s price as a down payment and borrowing the rest. It led to unrestrained buying and selling and fueled the market’s upward spiral. The government did little to discourage this. In reality, these rising prices did not reflect companies’ worth. Worse, if the value of stocks declined, people who had bought on margin had no way to pay off the loans. 27. Black Tuesday: Oct. 29, 1929 – when the stock market fell. Shareholders frantically tried to sell before prices plunged even lower. Shares were dumped in the millions. Others could find no buyers. People who had bought on credit were left with huge debts. Many lost their entire savings. With the crash of the stock market, the US enters the Great Depression.

28. Great Depression: 1929 – 1940. With the stock market crash, America entered an era in which the economy plummeted and unemployment skyrocketed. The Crash alone did not cause the Depression, but it hastened the collapse of the economy and made the depression more severe. Businesses failed, banks failed. People lost their savings and jobs. The poverty level becomes unbelievable, it spread globally. Causes of the Great Depression:• Tariffs and war debt policies that cut down the foreign market for American

goods• A crisis in the farm sector• The availability of easy credit• An unequal distribution of income

29. Hawley Smoot Tariff Act: 1930, Congress passed this tariff which established the highest protective tariff in US history. It was designed to protect American farmers and manufacturers from foreign competition – had the opposite effect.

• The Depression brought hardship, homelessness, and hunger to millions. As people lost their jobs and homes, they ended up in the streets. They slept in parks, or sewer pipes wrapping themselves in newspapers to stay warm…

29. Shantytown: The makeshift shacks built out of scrap materials. They were little towns consisting of shacks that sprang up. They were made up of anything they could find to provide shelter.

30. Soup kitchens: everyday the poor dug through garbage or begged. Soup kitchens offered free or low-cost food and –

31. Bread lines: lies of people waiting to receive food from a charitable organization or public agency became common site.

• Drought in the Great plain in the 1930s wreaked havoc. Farmers from Texas to N. Dakota had used tractors to break up the grassland and plant millions of acres of new farmland. It had removed the thick protective layer of prairie grass, the land was overproduces and the grassland became unsuitable for farming. Then the drought and winds in the 30s picked up the topsoil exposing sand and grit. The dust storms would travel hundreds of miles.

33. Dust Bowl: the regions – Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado. Thousands of farmers and sharecroppers were plagued by dust storms, and evicted. They packed up and headed west (Route 66) to California. These migrants (Okies – negative term) found work there. During the depression hundreds of thousands of transients (mainly men) or hoboes wandered around the country hitching rides in railroad boxcars, sleeping under bridges.

34. Direct relief: during the depression, there was no federal system of direct relief: cash payments or food provided by the government to the poor. 35. Herbert Hoover: president during the stock market crash. He was faced with a crisis of unprecedented proportions. His use of caution and conservatism insured failure. He failed to recognize the severity of the crisis and to formulate approaches to deal with it. He believed strongly in his principles and was inflexible (did not support direct relief) to adapt to the situation at hand. He believed that reason could solve problems, that government should foster cooperation between competing groups, and that individuals, and private organizations should help care for the less fortunate. a year after the crash the economy was still shrinking and unemployment was rising, companies went out of business, soup kitchens and shantytowns (called Hoovervilles) and hobos became common. America blames Hoover for their plight.

36. Federal Home Loan Bank Act: 1932. (Hoover) it lowered mortgage rates for homeowners and allowed farmers to refinance their farm loans and avoid foreclosure. 37. Bonus Army: in spring of 1932, 10,000 – 20,000 WWI veterans and their families arrived in Washington DC from all over the country. They called themselves the Bonus Expeditionary Force (Bonus Army). The demanded the immediate payment of a bonus they had been promised for military service. Fearing the angry group would become violent, Hoover asked General MacArthur to disband the group. Instead of proceeding in an orderly manner (as the president ordered), MacArthur used force in which tear gas was used. A baby died and a boy was blinded and people were shot. Americans were stunned and outraged by the government’s treatment of veterans. The downturn in the economy and Hoover’s inability to deal effectively with the Depression had sealed his political fate.

Chapter 15 p. 512 The New Deal38. Franklin Delano Roosevelt: FDR Democrat. Elected president in 1932. immediately began creating work programs. These programs sparked great enthusiasm and appeared as if the country had turned a corner and was beginning to emerge from the nightmare of the Great Depression. He was stricken with polio in 1921 who would not let his disability defeat his will. He was the first president to use live radio in his fireside chats with America in which he had a tremendous impact on national morale. His ability to explain situations inspired hope for a brighter future. NEW DEAL: FDRs program designed to alleviate the problems of the Depression. It had 3 goals: relief for the needy, economic recovery, and financial reform.

39. Glass-Steagall Act: of 1933 which established the 45. FDIC – Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The FDIC provided federal insurance for individual bank accounts of up the $5,000, reassuring millions of bank customers that their money was safe. It also required banks to act cautiously with their customers’ money. 40. Federal Securities Act: regulating the stock market. May 1933. required corporations to provide complete information on all stock offerings and made them liable for any misrepresentations. 46. In 1934 Congress creates the SEC – Securities and Exchange Commission – One goal was to prevent people with inside information from “rigging” the stock market for profit. 41. Deficit spending: spending more money than the government receives in revenue. It allowed the Roosevelt administration to fund the New Deal programs and he felt it was a necessary step to restore economic balance to the nation. This would influence employment, salaries, prices and costs of living.

42. Eleanor Roosevelt: wife of FDR who reached out to Af/Am, the poor, women and children. She was dedicated to social reform and humanitarian causes and did pioneering work for human rights with the United Nations. She traveled the country observing social conditions reminding the president about the suffering of the nation’s people. 43. Works Progress Administration (WPA): part of the Second New Deal. A series of programs set up to help youths, professionals, and other workers. It set out to create as many jobs as possible – 1935 – 1943 mostly to unskilled workers. This agency provided jobs in construction, garment making, teaching, the arts, etc. 44. Social Security Act: 1935. It provided aid and helped retirees and their spouses, the unemployed, families with dependent children and the disables. 47. Tennessee Valley Authority – TVA- a federal corporation established in 1933 to construct dams and power plants in the Tennessee Valley region to generate electricity as well as to prevent floods.