Roaring and Outrageous

Focus Question

What would proponents of the 1920’s government point out in

support of the government’s role in society during the era? Do you

agree? Explain.

1920’sThe Red Scare

• 1919 - 1920

• The Bolsheviks - predicted a violent overthrow of the capitalist system.

• Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer

• “Palmer Raids” – arrest radicals.

– Violated civil rights

– No evidence of plot to overthrow the govt.

1920’sThe Sacco and Vanzetti Case

•Two Italian immigrants

•Convicted of killing a paymaster and a guard

•Despite flimsy evidence, both put to death

The Harding AdministrationThe Politics of Normalcy

1920 - Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge championed a laissez-faire approach for government.

The Harding AdministrationThe Republican Formula

• Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon - cut taxes to spur the economy.

• Director of the Budget Charles G. Dawes - cut expenses to gain a surplus to off set WWI deficit.

• Revenue Act of 1921 - eliminated WWI business taxes

• Fordney McCumber Tariff - hiked tariffs / President could raise tariff in certain situations.

The Harding AdministrationThe American Plan

• Anti- Labor Policy

• Businesses offered attractive wages and benefits

• Formed company unions

• 1920 - 1925: Union membership dropped from 5 million to 3.5 million.

The Harding AdministrationThe American Plan

Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty helped to break strikes by obtaining

injunctions that prohibited every conceivable union activity including

picketing, press statements, and jeering at strikebreakers.

The Harding PresidencyHarding’s Political Scandals

The Harding Administration is considered one of the most corrupt in U.S. history.

There is little evidence linking President Harding himself to the scandals.

President Harding said of his Ohio

Gang, “I have no trouble with my

enemies. I can take care of them all right. But my

friends, … they are the ones that keep me walking

the floors at night.”

• Charles Forbes, head of the Veteran’s Bureau had swindled the country out of $200 million.

• Jess Smith, advisor to President Harding, committed suicide when it was learned favors and appointments were sold by the Ohio Gang

• Harry Daugherty, Attorney General, resigned in 1924 after being charged with bribery and fraud.

• Albert B. Fall, Secretary of Interior, leased government oil reserves for kickbacks .

The Harding AdministrationCorruption

Immigration RestrictionsReasons

• Racism

•Fear of competition for jobs

•Worries about political radicals

National Origins Act1924

• Set quotas higher for northern /western European countries

• Great Britain, Ireland, German, and Scandinavian countries = 80% of immigrants

• Japanese immigrants were completely excluded.

August 2, 1923

President Warren G. Harding died of an apparent heart attack.

Many speculate that it was due to the stress brought on by the early breaking news his administration’s corruption.

Given the likelihood that President Harding had no part in and little

knowledge of the corruption of his

administration, should he be held accountable for the one of the most corrupt administrations

in United States History?

The Coolidge PresidencyElection of 1924

Republicans candidate Calvin Coolidge campaigned little.

He won by a lot.

The people wanted more of the same.

“Silent Cal” was a hands-off president. Rather than instituting an aggressive path for the United States, he spent most of his energy opposing legislation he believed to be harmful or unnecessary.

“The business of America is business.”

During the Coolidge administration the national debt continued to drop by a billion dollars a year.

Because the times were prosperous, most people went

along happily with President Coolidge’s

“hands off” approach.

With President Coolidge at the helm, the times seemed good.

And the 1920’s

Roared!

Duke Ellington

Henry Ford

Automobile sales jumped from under 2 million in 1920 to over

4 million in 1929.

The Coolidge YearsProsperity

The Coolidge YearsThe Ford Model T

The Ford Model T was a key factor in the increase in auto

sales, as its $400 sticker price was

affordable for many Americans.

The Coolidge YearsProsperity

To entice consumers to purchase the increased out put of goods, advertising became a major industry.

Installment buying “allowed” consumers to purchase goods that they might otherwise not

have been able to buy.

The Roaring TwentiesEntertainment

1920 - The first radio broadcast at station

KDKA in Pittsburgh, PA.

By 1929, almost 40% of American families had a Radio in their home.

The radio had become a major source of news and entertainment to millions of Americans.

The Roaring TwentiesEntertainment

During the Twenties many

Americans flocked to the movie theaters

to see their favorite movie

stars.

Clara Bow shown above in, Wings, was known by many as the “It Girl.”

Rudolph Valentino was the

Twenties most popular sex

symbol.

Though many women would visit his grave for years after his death, his

popularity did suffer once voice

was added to movies

Charlie Chaplin was the era’s premier comic character.

Al Josen starred in, The Jazz Singer, (1927) the first publicly available talking motion picture.

Jazz is often associated with the 1920’s. Even though Jazz has been listened to for several generations, the music did flourish through out the 1920’s.

The Jazz Age

Louis Armstrong was a founder of modern Jazz whose popularity extended beyond the 1920’s.

While the roots of jazz are found in black spirituals and African folk rhythms, white

artists such as Paul Whiteman became popular composing and playing jazz numbers.

George Gershwin

wrote classical pieces that borrowed

heavily from jazz, including, “Rhapsody in

Blue.”

The Roaring Twenties

Sports

During the Twenties

athletes became idols for many

fans.

Babe Ruth, the Great Bambino, lead the New York Yankees to numerous World Series rescuing baseball from the 1919 Black Sox scandal.

Red Grange became a

football star with few equals.

The Jack Dempsey / Gene Tunney fights drew fans to the ring side or to their radios.

While not a professional athlete, there was no greater

hero in the United States than Charles

Lindbergh, who flew the Spirit of St. Louis

form Long Island across the Atlantic

Ocean to Paris.

Fads: a major part of the Roaring Twenties Culture.

• Dances

•Charleston, Fox Trot

• Magazines

• Time, New Yorker

•Games

• Dressing Styles

Flappers

• Untraditional women

• Wore hair and dresses short

• Single / smoked

• Often unfairly, many had “reputations”

Despite the carefree existence experienced by many Americans

during the 1920’s, the era’s writers raised the conscience of

many about the time period’s lack of moral fortitude,

meaninglessness, and/or misdirected course.

The Lost Generation

The Lost Generation refers to a generation of writers who came of age between the wars writing realistic (sometimes profane) stories of the human experience. As a group they were disillusioned by the era in which they wrote.

Ernest Hemingway F. Scott Fitzgerald

Langston Hughes, while only one of many black writers, was

perhaps the most celebrated writer of the movement.

Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance celebrated black culture with special attention to art and literature.

Harlem

by: Langston Hughes

What Happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up

like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore-

and then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over-

like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags

like heavy load.

Or does it explode?

Prohibition

While the Volstead Act provided for the enforcement of prohibition, illegal bars (speakeasies) were popular.

Bootlegging became big business.

Al Capone

Al Capone was the most

prominent gangster to

benefit from illegally

distributing alcohol during

the prohibitions era.

In 1931 Al Capone was convicted of tax evasion.

Calvin Coolidge1928 Election

1928 - President Coolidge decided not to run in 1928.

Though history is not kind to Coolidge, many people were disappointed in 1928 when he decided not to run.

With the election of yet another “laissez-faire” Republican President in 1928, the roaring Twenties seemed destined to continue.

Election of 1928

Republicans were expected to win in 1928.

Apart from the farm crisis, there was little

Democrats could point to for reform.

Newspaper columnist Will Rogers : “You can’t lick this prosperity thing. Even the fellow that hasn’t got any is all excited over the idea.”

Farmers in the 1920’s

During the 1920s’ farmers did not share in the era’s prosperity.

The McNary-Haugen Bill would have had the government buy up farm surpluses.

Calvin Coolidge vetoed the bill.

1928 Election

Herbert Hoover ran on a platform that included Rugged Individualism and “Republican Prosperity.”

His landslide victory suggests that Americans were very much in favor of the Republican Formula where the government got out of the way of average Americans.

Focus Question

What would proponents of the 1920’s style government point out in support of the government’s role in society during the era? Do you

agree? Explain.