
Objectives
1. To summarize the reaction in the
United States to the perceived threat
of communism
2. To describe some of the conflicts
between labor and management
after the war
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World War I left most of America exhausted
Debate of the League of Nations left the
nation divided
After the war America wanted a breather
Economy was difficult: returning soldiers
faced unemployment, cost of living
doubled
Factories & farmers orders diminished after
the war
Communism: an economic & political
system based on a single party
government ruled by a dictatorship
 Goal: equalize wealth & power
 Ends private property and substitutes it
with government ownership of factories,
railroads & other businesses
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Panic in the U.S. began in 1919
Revolutionaries in Russia overthrew the
czarist regime
Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin established
a new Communist state
Wanted a worldwide revolution that would
abolish capitalism
A Communist Party formed in the U.S. –
70,000 radicals joined
America grew fearful after bombs were
mailed to government & business leaders
U.S. Attorney A. Mitchell Palmer
appointed Edgar Hoover as his special
asst.
 They hunted down Communists, socialists
& anarchists
 They disregarded peoples civil rights,
invaded homes & offices
 Jailed suspects without legal trial
 Foreign born radicals were deported
without a trial

Palmer’s raids failed to turn up evidence
of a revolutionary conspiracy – or any
explosives
 Some thought Palmer was just trying to
get campaign support
 The public decided that Palmer didn’t
know what he was talking about.

Red Scare fueled people’s mistrust of
immigrants & foreigners
 Nativist attitudes led to ruined reputation
& wrecked lives
 Most famous victims were Nicola Sacco
& Bartolomeo Vanzetti
 Arrested & charged with robbery &
murder of a factory paymaster in
Massachusetts

Witnesses said the criminals were Italian,
circumstantial evidence, they had alibis &
asserted their innocence
 Jury still found them guilty &sentenced
them to death
 Protests in the U.S & Europe: many people
thought they were being mistreated due to
radical beliefs, immigrants
 Both died in the electric chair on Aug. 23,
1927

Prevailing attitude: “Keep America for
Americans”
 Nativists believed that because the U.S.
had fewer jobs that fewer immigrants
should be let into the country
 Feared immigrants would take their jobs
 Immigrants also involved in labor
disputes- attached them to socialists &
communism

Used anti-communism as an excuse to
harass any group unlike themselves
 By 1924 membership reached 4.5 million
 Destroyed saloons, opposed unions &
tried to drive out Catholics, Jews &
foreign born groups

Congress (pressured from nativists)
decided to limit immigration from
southern & eastern Europe
 Quota system established the maximum
number of people who could enter the
U.S. from each foreign country.
 Goal was to cut European immigration
into the U.S. drastically
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29th President 1921-1923 – Republican
VP: Calvin Coolidge
Publisher of a newspaper, teacher &
insurance salesman
Served in the State Senate and as
Lieutenant Governor of Ohio
He delivered the nominating address for
President Taft at the 1912 Republican
Convention
In 1914 he was elected to the Senate
He was the first president to ride to his
inauguration in an automobile.
 While in office, he was the first president
to visit both Alaska and Canada
 He was considered personally popular
but allowed his cabinet members to take
over his presidency.

Wanted “normalcy” like that before the
Progressive Era & WWI
 Speeches involved words of peace &
calm.
 Favored a limited role for government in
business affairs & social reform
 Had poor judgment – scandal in his
administration

Kellog-Briand Act: renounced war as a
national policy, nations would disarm
 Pact was useless as it provided no means
of enforcement
 Britain & France had to payback $10
million dollars
 Could do it in two ways: sell goods to us
or by collecting reparations from
Germany

Fordney-McCumber Tariff: raised taxes
on some imports up to 60%
 Made it impossible for Britain & France to
sell goods to us
 The two countries looked to Germany for
payment
 Germany defaulted on the loans &
French troops marched into Germany
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Dawes Plan
* Charles G. Dawes, an American
banker went to help negotiate a loan
* American investors loaned Germany
$2.5 million to pay back Britain &
France
* France & Britain would pay back the
U.S. (We were getting paid back with
our own money)
* caused resentment among all involved
Appointed Charles Evans Hughes as
secretary of state
 Made Herbert Hoover secretary of
commerce
 Andrew Mellon (very wealthy) became
secretary of treasury (cut taxes &
reduced the national debt)
 Also included the Ohio Gang: Harding’s
poker playing cronies (would use their
position to become wealthy)

Charles r. Forbes, head of the Veterans
Bureau, was caught illegally selling
government & hospital supplies to
private companies
 Colonel Thomas W. Miller, head of the
Office of Alien Property was caught
taking a bribe

Government set oil rich public land in
Teapot Dome, Wyoming & Elk Hills, Ca,
for use by the U.S.
 Navy Secretary of the Interior, Albert B.
Fall got the oil reserves transferred from
the navy to the Interior Dept.
 Fall secretly leased the land to two
private oil companies
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He received more than $400,000 in loans,
bonds, cash

Later found guilty of bribery

1st American to be convicted of a felony
while holding a cabinet post
Coolidge & Hoover Presidency
 Both favored minimal government
involvement in business
 Allow private businesses to flourish
 1920-1929 were prosperous: America
owned 40% of the world’s wealth
 It changed the way Americans lived,
worked, played & consumed.

Changed America’s landscape
 Construction of paved roads
 Construction of gas stations, repair
shops, motels & shopping centers
 First traffic light in Detroit
 Intersections (New Jersey)
 Under water tunnels constructed
 New houses being built (garages,
driveways, small lawns
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Liberated families – no longer isolated
Could travel to the city to shop or see a
movie
Vacations in new, faraway places
Allowed women & young people to
become more independent
Urban sprawl – workers could live miles from
their jobs – cities spread in all directions
Became a status symbol (1 in 5 had a car)
Automobile symbolized the success of
the free enterprise system
 Main economic resource for Akron, Ohio
and Detroit, Flint, Dearborn & Pontiac in
Michigan
 Will Rogers to Henry Ford: “It will take a
hundred years to tell us whether you
have helped us or hurt us, but you
certainly didn’t leave us like you found
us”.
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Carried mail for the government
 Became a means of transportation
 Weather forecasting, navigation
equipment & radio systems made flying
more predictable & popular

Factory machines
 Transformers allowed suburbs to function
on electricity
 Irons, refrigerators, stoves, toasters made
life easier – families had more time for
leisure

Radio
Phonograph
Washing machine
Vacuum cleaner
Sewing machine
$ 75
$ 50
$150
$ 50
$ 60
Businesses relied on advertising to sell
their products
 Hired psychologists to study how to
appeal to buyers
 What colors, size packages, how to take
advantage of people’s worship of age,
beauty, health & wealth
 “Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet”
 “Even your best friend won’t tell you”
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Most people thought that prosperity would
go on forever
As productivity increased, businesses
expanded in size & attitude
Mergers of companies (auto, steel,
electrical)
Chain stores sprouted up
Neighborhood banks were created
Bigger gap between workers & managers
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Mining & farming decreased
Iron & railroad industries weren’t really
prosperous
Creation of the installment plan (credit)
Advertisers pushed the goods, banks
provided the money
Some people worried credit was getting
out of hand – but most people only
concerned with the present & not their
future
Life was easier & more enjoyable
Section 1: Changing Ways of Life
 Rural & Urban Differences
 Role of Science & Religion in America
Education
 Traditional Values vs. Modern Values
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Rural Life
Small towns & farms
Conservative morals &
values
Established, well to do
families
Church defined moralityparents enforced
Thriftiness, moderation &
respectability
Slow paced
County fairs
Everyone knew each other
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Urban Life
Industrialized, skyscrapers,
fast paced
Impersonal & frightening
Competitive & always
changing
Museums, sporting events,
nightclubs, movies
Discussed scientific & social
ideas
Tolerated drinking,
gambling
Pursuit of wealth &
possessions
Different ethnic/cultural
backgrounds
Most support came from south and west
 Drinking led to crime, wife & child abuse,
social problems, accidents on the job
 Prohibition was doomed – not enough
money in government to enforce it
 People wanted to enjoy life

Drinking went underground
 Speakeasies: hidden saloons &
nightclubs where liquor was sold illegally
 Found in penthouses, cellars, office
buildings, hardware stores, tearooms,
boarding houses, etc.
 To be admitted you had to have the
password
 Mostly middle to upper class men &
women

Made liquor with their distilling
equipment, smuggled it in & sold it
illegally
 Paid off cops & judges to let them
operate freely
 Sold from ships in Atlantic Ocean,
shipped across state lines

Got involved in making & selling liquor
illegally
 Knew they could make money from it
 Al Capone netted over $60 million a year
(in 1927 made $105 million)
 Took control of the Chicago liquor
business
 Brought in whiskey from Canada
 Had a network of 10,000 speakeasies
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Fundamentalism: a Protestant movement
grounded in a literal interpretation of the Bible
Skeptical of scientific knowledge
Only needed the Bible for knowledge
Rejected the theory of evolution by Charles
Darwin
Believed God created the world
Did not want evolution to be taught in school
Moderate Protestants viewed these beliefs
were concern
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Tennessee passed the first law that made it
a crime to teach evolution
ACLU got involved & said it would protect
any teacher who did teach it
John T. Scopes accepted the challenge &
went to trial – Clarence Darrow was his
lawyer
The trial was a fight over evolution & the role
of science & religion in public schools & in
American society
Scopes was found guilty & fined $100
(verdict was overturned later)
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Women began to assert their independence
Demanded the same freedom as men
Flapper: an emancipated young woman who
embraced the new fashion & urban attitudes of
the day (an image of rebellious youth)
Dresses above the knee, hats, pumps, strings of
beads, bracelets, short hair dyed black & wore
makeup
Smoke & drank in public
Marriage was viewed as an equal partnership
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1 million college women graduates moved
into women’s professions of teaching ,
librarians & nursing
Women bankers, lawyers & police officers
rose as well
2 million women became typists, clerks,
secretaries
800,000 became store clerks
2 million worked on assembly lines
Battle for equality just beginning
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Social & economic changes reshaped the
family
Birthrates dropping
Technological innovations simplified household
labor & family life
Children at school
Special homes helped take care of the elderly
Marriage was based on personal choices – not
arranged
Divorce rate doubled
Rebellious teens – spent more time with friends
than family – led to peer pressure

Complete question 4 on page 617

Answer the following question:
Write a paragraph explaining how you
think women’s lives changed most
dramatically in the 1920’s.
When he was only seven years
old, his dad sent him to St.
Mary's Industrial School for Boys,
which was both a reformatory
and an orphanage. He gave
up custody to the Catholic
missionaries of the school. Babe
lived there for the next twelve
years and only visited his family
on special occasions. Babe
was introduced to baseball by
Brother Matthias Boutlier, who
was the head of discipline at St.
Mary's and also a father figure
in his life. In fact, he was the
one who not only taught him
baseball skills, but also how to
read and write.
Babe Ruth has been considered one of
the greatest sports heroes in American
culture. He had a charismatic
personality and a home run hitting
prowess. He was famous for his charity
off the field, but he also had a reckless
lifestyle. In the 1920s, the popularity of
the sport exploded, and much of this is
credited to his impact on baseball.
Dempsey's popularity never
approached its peak until he had lost
the championship. He was reviled as a
slacker during World War I, and
although a jury exonerated him of a
charge of draft-dodging, the odium
clung to him until the night Gene
Tunney punched him almost blind and
took his title.
Grange vaulted to national prominence as a result of his
performance in the October 18, 1924, game against
Michigan. This was the grand opening game for the new
Memorial Stadium, built as a memorial to University of Illinois
students and alumni who had served in World War I. He
returned the opening kickoff for a 95-yard touchdown and
scored three more touchdowns on runs of 67, 56 and 44
yards in the first twelve minutes. This four-touchdown first
quarter outburst equaled the number of touchdowns
allowed by Michigan in the previous two seasons. After
sitting out the second quarter, Grange returned in the
second half to run 11 yards for a fifth touchdown and
passed 20 yards for a sixth score as Illinois won 39-14 to end
Michigan's 20-game unbeaten streak. He amassed 402
yards - 212 rushing, 64 passing and 126 on kickoff returns.[6]
Tilden’s talent for tennis greatly
increased as he played in Pennsylvania
throughout the war. In 1920, he made it
onto the American Davis Cup Team
and traveled to London. He led the
team to seven consecutive victories
from 1920 to 1926. He won Wimbledon
in 1920, as well as in 1921 and 1930.
During this time, he was also the U.S.
champion five times in a row from 1920
to 1930. For nearly a decade, Tilden
was the undisputed number one player
in the world. His powerful serve was
known as a “cannonball” serve, and it
was unstoppable.
Considered by many to be the
greatest tennis player of all
time...winner of eight Wimbledon
Championships between 1927 and
1938...winner of seven United States
singles titles from 1923 until
1929...winner of 10 Wightman Cup
matches throughout her career...first
woman to receive an athletic letter
from the University of
California...inducted into the University
of California Women's Athletic Hall of
Fame in 1978...enshrined in the Bay
Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1981.
But when Jones finally broke through by
winning the 1923 U.S. Open, the fat years
began. From 1923 to 1930, Jones played
in 21 national championships ... and won
13 of them. His brilliance culminated in
1930 when he won the Grand Slam of the
time: the U.S. Open, U.S. Amateur, British
Open and British Amateur all in the same
year.
And then, at age 28, Jones retired from
competitive golf.
He founded Augustus National & the
Masters Tournament
Gertrude Ederle, a famous American
swimmer, became the first woman to
swim the English Channel. In 1926, at the
age of 19, Ederle swam the channel from
France to England. Her time of 14 hours 39
minutes for the 35-mile (56-kilometer)
distance broke the previous record and
stood as the women's record for 35 years.
From 1921 to 1925, Ederle set 29 United
States and world records for swimming
races ranging from the 50-yard to the halfmile race. In the 1924 Summer Olympic
Games, she won a gold medal as a
member of the championship U.S. 400-meter
freestyle relay team. She also won bronze
medals for finishing third in the
100-meter and 400-meter freestyle races.
Ederle was born in New York City.
Lindbergh, Charles Augustus (1902-1974),
an American aviator, made the first solo
nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean
on May 20-21, 1927. Other pilots had
crossed the Atlantic before him. But
Lindbergh was the first person to do it
alone nonstop.
Lindbergh's feat gained him immediate,
international fame. The press named him
"Lucky Lindy" and the "Lone Eagle.”
Lindbergh's heroic flight thrilled people
throughout the world. He was honored
with awards, celebrations, and parades.
President Calvin Coolidge gave
Lindbergh the Congressional Medal of
Honor and the Distinguished Flying Cross.
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NAACP founded in 1909 by W.E.B.
Du Bois
25 race Riots in 1919
In the 1920’s NAACP fought to protect African
American rights – was a more militant voice
Universal Negro International Group – founded
by Marcus Garvey
Garvey wanted a separate society for African
Americans
Support declined after Garvey was committed
of mail fraud
In the 1920’s Harlem became the World’s
largest black urban community
 Highly diverse mix of cultures: southern
blacks, West Indies, Haiti, Cuba, Puerto
Rico
 Lived in poverty, overcrowding, &
unemployment
 Harlem Renaissance: a literary and
artistic movement celebrating African
American culture

Literary movement led by welleducated, middle class African
Americans
 They expressed a new pride in the
African American experience: they
explored & celebrated their heritage &
folklore
 They wrote with defiance about the trials
of being in a white world

Charles McKay: wrote poems that urged
blacks to resist prejudice & discrimination
 Langston Hughes: was the movements
best known poet. Described the difficult
everyday lives of working-class blacks
 Zora Neale Hurston: most accomplished
female writer of the era – work
celebrated African American values &
way of life
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Jazz was born in New Orleans
Louis Armstrong (along with Joe “King”
Oliver) traveled to Chicago.
Jazz spread all across the U.S.
Popular in nightclubs with white people
Cotton Club-famed nightclub of the 1920’s
Duke Ellington: one of America’s greatest
composers
Cab Calloway: popularized “scat” or jazz
singing (no words)
Bessie Smith: female blues singer, highest
paid black artist in the world
 Josephine Baker: dancer, singer &
comedy star
 Lived & worked in Paris
 Joined the Red Cross where she spied for
the French underground

Tariffs & war debt policies that cut down
the foreign market for American goods
 A crises in the farm sector
 The availability of easy credit
 An unequal distribution of income
 Industries weaken & housing starts
decrease

People lost their jobs, evicted from their
homes & ended up in the streets
 Shantytowns: little towns consisting of
shacks where people lived during the
depression
 Soup kitchens: places that offered free
bread & food. (lines of people waiting for
food became a common sight)
 Latinos & African Americans had it more
difficult- their unemployment rates higher,
dealt with racial violence

Thousand of farmers lost their land due to
falling prices & rising debt
 400,000 farms lost from foreclosure
between 1929-1932
 Some farmers turned to tenant farming &
barely scraped out a living
 One positive aspect: could grow food for
their families

A drought that began in 1930 that
wreaked havoc on the Great Plains
 Farmers had overproduced their lands
leaving nothing to hold down the soil
 Drought & winds began to blow sand
hundreds of miles
 One windstorm picked up millions of tons
of dust from the plains & carried it to east
coast cities

Hardest hit were: Kansas, Oklahoma,
Texas, New Mexico & Colorado
 Thousands of farmers & crop holders left
their land, packed up their families &
headed west to California

Stood as a source of strength
 Americans still believed in traditional
values & family unity
 Most families stayed home and played
board games or listened to the radio
 However there was severe pressure put
on family life: making ends meet was a
daily struggle
 Some families did split due to this strain

Men had difficulty coping with
unemployment: supporting family & earning
a wage
 Everyday they would walk the streets in
search of a job
 Some men so depressed they left their
families
 300,000 transient or hobos wandered the
country hitching rides, climbing on railroad
boxcars & sleeping under bridges
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Canned food & sewed clothes
Carefully managed household budgets
Some worked outside of the home: they
were paid less than men – this caused
resentment
Many Americans assumed women had an
easier time than men because so few were
seen begging or standing in bread lines
Not true- most women too ashamed to
reveal their hardships
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Poor diets
Lack of money for health care led to serious
health conditions
School year was shortened or schools closed
due to no money – 300,000 children out of school
By 1933, 2,600 schools had shut down
Thousands of children went to work insteadsweatshops & awful conditions
Some teenagers hopped on the rails to look for
work or adventure to escape poverty
From 1929-1939, 26,647 rail trespassers were killed
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Some people so demoralized by the
depression they lost their will to survive
Between 1928-1932 suicide rose 30%
Three times as many people were
committed to mental hospitals
Adults stopped going to the doctors &
dentists
Dreams of going to college were dashed
Marriage & having children were put off
Achieving financial security was the
primary focus
People showed great kindness to one
another & strangers
 People gave food, clothing & a place to
stay to the needy
 Families shared resources &
strengthened the bonds within their
communities
 People developed habits of saving &
thriftiness

31st President 1929-1933
 Reputation for public service as an
engineer, administrator, and
humanitarian
 Married his Stanford sweetheart, Lou
Henry, and they went to China
 Worked for a private corporation as
China's leading engineer
 President Wilson appointed Hoover head
of the Food Administration

Head of the American Relief Administration,
organized shipments of food for starving
millions in central Europe
 Secretary of Commerce under Presidents
Harding and Coolidge
 Republican Presidential nominee in 1928.
He said then: "We in America today are
nearer to the final triumph over poverty than
ever before in the history of any land."

Americans were disillusioned with Hoover:
during his campaign he pledged “A
chicken in every pot and a car in every
garage.”
 They demanded the government help
them
 Hoover tells them to be optimistic & to go
about their business as usual
 Some thought let the economy fix itself, but
Hoover felt government should play a
limited role in solving problems

Government’s chief functions was to
foster cooperation between competing
groups & interests in society
 Cooperation must be voluntary &
government solutions must serve both
interests
 Government’s role was to encourage &
facilitate cooperation – not to control it

He also believed in “rugged
individualism” – people should succeed
through their own efforts
 Do not depend on a government bailout
 Did not believe in federal welfare
 Handouts would weaken one’s self
respect
 Charities & local organizations should
pitch in and help those in need

Called together key leaders in the fields
of business, banking & labor
 Wanted them to work together to find a
solution to the nation’s economic woes
 Examples: don’t cut wages or layoff
workers, don’t ask for higher wages or
strike(labor unions)
 None of these steps made any
difference
 One exception: Hoover Dam
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In 1930 elections, Democrats won more
seats in Congress & Republicans lost control
of the House of Representatives
Senate majority decreased as well
American expressed their anger
Farmers burned their crops, & spilled milk
onto the highway rather than sell it at a loss
Also blocked roads to prevent food from
getting to the market
Tried to create a food shortage to raise
prices
Shantytowns started to be called
Hoovervilles
 Homeless people called the newspapers
they used as blankets, “Hoover blankets”
 Empty pockets turned inside out were
called “Hoover flags”
 Many thought of him as a cold &
heartless leader
 Despite all of this, Hoover held firm to his
principles
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President Hoover started to soften his position
on government intervention
Took a more activist approach to the nation’s
economic troubles
Negotiated agreements among private entities
called cooperatives
Federal Farm Board: raise crop prices by
buying crops for members
National Credit Corporation: loaned money to
smaller banks to avoid bankruptcy
Both measures failed to turn economy around
Federal Home Loan Bank Act: lowered
mortgage rates, allowed farmers to
refinance their farm loans
 Glass-Steagall Banking Act: separated
commercial banking with investment
banking
 Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC):
authorized up to $2 billion for emergency
financing for banks, life ins. Companies,
railroads & other large businesses
 Philosophy: money would trickle down to
the average citizen-jobs & higher wages

Loaned out over $805 million to large
corporations
 Business failures continued
 Too little , too late
 Homeless & hungry people could not
wait for money to “trickle down”

10,000-20,000 WWI Vets & families arrived
in Washington D.C. & called themselves
the Bonus Army
 There to support the Patman Bill which
authorized the government to pay a
bonus to WWI vets - $500/soldier
 Supposed to paid out in 1945, but Wright
Patman believed these vets should get in
now (1932)

Hoover thought these Bonus Marchers
were “communists & persons with
criminal records”
 He opposed the legislation, yet
respected their right to demonstrate
 Brought food & supplies to them as they
erected Shantytowns
 Senate vetoed the bill & Hoover asked
the Bonus Army to leave
 2,000 refused to leave

Hoover thought the Bonus Army might
get violent & called in 1,000 soldiers to
disband them
 Soldiers were in full gear, & threw tear
gas at the Bonus Army. They also set
buildings on fire
 Two people shot, many injured, 11 month
baby died & 8yr old blinded
 Hoover’s image suffered – Americans
outraged at how vets were treated
