US - Life in the 1920s
–Lifestyles of the 1920s
–Post - WWI Tensions
–Republican Leadership
during the 1920s
• Women won the right to
vote:
– 19th Amendment, 1920
• Change in fashion
– “Flappers”
– Short Skirts, short hairdos
– Lipstick
• Change in the work place
and leisure.
Role of Women
Prohibition
• 1917 - Congress passed
the 18th Amendment
– Ratified in 1919
• “Bootlegging” Liquor
• “Speak-Easies”
• 1933 - Congress passed
21st Amendment
– Ending Prohibition.
• Becomes a big
Business/Entertainment
• “Heroes”
– Baseball: Babe Ruth & Ty
Cobb
– College Football
– Boxing: Joe Dempsey
Sports
• Industrial improvements of the 1920s
focused on consumer goods:
– Ice boxes, Autos, & radios
• Supermarkets were introduced:
– Invention of cellophane
Douglas Fairbanks
Lillian Gish
Movies & Film
• Motion Picture was a
popular past time
• Movie stars as
celebrities grew.
– Movie studios began to
market films to
public’s choice
Clara Bow
Mary Pickford
• Miss America pageant
– Atlantic City, 1921
“The Jazz Singer”
• 1927 musical film. 1st full
length feature motion
picture, using
synchronized dialogue.
• “Talkies” film.
New
Transportation
• 1920 - 9 million registered
autos
• 1930 - 27 million
registered autos
– Tripled
• 1920 - 387,000 miles of
roads
• 1929 - 662,000 miles of
roads
– Doubled
• 2009 - 6.1 Million miles
• Henry Ford & the
assembly line production
• Auto industry employed
3.7 million people in 1929.
Air Travel
• 1927, First TransAtlantic Air Flight.
• Within 1 year, air
travel grew 4x.
Charles Lindbergh, 25 years old
• May 12, 1927. Flew from San Diego, CA
to Long Island, NY (22 hours)
• May 20, 1927 Flew from Long Island,
NY USA to Paris, France. (38 hours)
End of WWI & Victory Parade
•
•
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WWI ends
November, 1918
US Celebrates the
victory with
parades in NYC.
4+ million
soldiers return
home from being
mobilized in the
war
Strikes & Labor Unrest
•
Strikes - workers refusal to work unless their demands are met.
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Prices rose quickly, wages much more slowly
Unsafe, unfair business practices
1919 - 4 million workers went on strike.
•
Famous strikes:
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Boston Police Strike, 1919
No. Indiana Steelworkers, 1919
United Mine Workers Coal Mine
Strike, 1919
“Red Summer”
of 1919
• 1920, Car bombing, Wall Street,
NYC
• Strikers were subject to hysteria,
prone to begin riots.
• Fearful of pro socialist/communist
actions against the American
capitalist market system.
• Fearful of south & eastern
European immigrants.
Attorney General
A. Mitchell Palmer
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•
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Appointed by President Woodrow Wilson.
Responsible for the US’ 1st “Red Scare”.
“Palmer raids” - rounded up Soviet
immigrants, deported or detained them. Acts
of government repression.
ACLU founded by U. Sinclair & Jane Adams.
– Provided legal assistance to victims of Palmer’s
tactics.
•
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Patriotic Americans saw a Red agitator behind
union organizers and every labor protest.
Anti Immigrant feelings were at an all time high.
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April 1920 - a robbery at a factory in So. Braintree, MA,
– Resulted in two deaths
3 weeks later, these 2 Italian immigrants were arrested.
– Known Anarchists and protesters of the “Palmer Raids”.
Convicted based upon contradictory evidence and testimony.
Honorable W. Thayer sentenced the accused to death.
– Mass American and foreign protest did not change the verdict.
Executed on Aug. 23, 1927
Claim - innocent victims of the “Red Scare”.
Marcus Garvey
•
Leader of African Americans in 1920s.
–
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“Struggle for Black Identity”
Back to Africa movement: hoped to take blacks back to Africa &
return with imports/products to trade with in the US markets.
His leadership resulted in a growing spirit of race consciousness
and race pride.
•
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1925 - KKK march down Pennsylvania Ave.
– 40,000 man in attendance
“Nativists - white Protestant men.
Intolerant, Spread hate, Anti- immigrant
(foreigners in general), black, Jew, Catholic.
1921 & 1924 - influenced Congress to pass
legislation limiting immigration into the US.
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•
July, 1925. Dayton, Tennessee
John Scopes was arrested and tried for teaching the theory of
evolution.
–
•
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Scientific theory of C. Darwin, cited by traditionalists as
destroying faith in the Bible.
ACLU hired C. Darrow, most famous attorney of the day, to
defend Scopes. Took the case without pay.
So called “monkey trial”
US - Life in the 1920s
– Lifestyles of the 1920s
– Postwar Tensions
– Republican Leadership
during the 1920s
Republican Leadership
in the White House
• With Warren G.
Harding’s
inauguration in 1920,
began 12 years of
Republican leadership
in the Capitol.
• Presidents Harding,
Coolidge & Hoover
• Examine their tenure
in office and the
issues the US faced
during this era.
Harding
Coolidige
Hoover
Albert B. Fall, Secretary of Interior
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President Harding’s Cabinet was subjected to mismanagement & corruption.
Most infamous case :
– “Teapot Dome Scandal”
1921 - Albert B. Fall gained control of government oil fields & secretly leased them to private
oil companies
– Teapot Dome, Wyoming
$125k & Hundreds of cattle were give in the form of a bribe.
Conviction, 1 year in jail sentence.
Vice President Coolidge swearing in.
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Warren G. Harding died August 2nd, 1923.
– Harding was ill from eating tainted crabs while on a trip to Alaska & California.
– He was also suffering from bronchial pneumonia.
Calvin Coolidge, Harding’s VP was sworn into office on a farm in Vermont, by his
father, a notary public at 2:30 am, August 3, 1923.
– He was resworn the next day in Washington D.C. by a Supreme Court Justice.
– He was on vacation with family during the summer of 1923.
President Coolidge’s Cabinet
•
President Coolidge kept most of the Harding
Cabinet once he sworn is as President.
– Secretary of Treasury: Andrew Mellon
– Secretary of State: Charles Evan Hughes
•
Main New appointee: Attorney General
Harlan Fiske Stome.
– Stowe was tasked with weeding out the “Ohio
Gang”
• President Coolidge was
a devote family man.
– Enjoyed spending
time with family vs.
time with political
leaders from around
the country & the
world.
• Averaged a 4-hour
work day.
• He was one not to
indulge in the
extravagance of the
1920’s lifestyle.
• He was Pro business, as
the US economy
improved, Coolidge
advocated more &
more that government
should be guided by
business principles &
practices.
Coolidge, Mellon & Hoover
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•
Political cartoons like this
depicted Coolidge’s
opinion on running for
reelection in the 1928
election.
Coolidge refused the
Republican party’s
nomination for President.
– Opened the way for
Herbert Hoover.
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1924 - “Keep it Cool with Coolidge”
Election of Coolidge, here with Secretary of Treasury
Mellon & Secretary of Commerce, Hoover.
All 3 men were pro business.
– Industrial output DOUBLED during period 1921 - 1929
– Silent government/laissez-faire in its approach to US
business.
Herbert Hoover
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Hoover campaigning in NYC at
the Metropolis.
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“Rugged individualism” was his
philosophy.
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Self-made millionaire by 40
Standford University graduate.
Through Hard work & diligence,
the American Dream could be
possible.
Personified the Republican party
base.
–
Midwestern, small-town Protestant
white American voters.
•
Personal & Political views
included:
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Conservative
Pro-business
Advocate of small federal
government
Belief in the individual
1928: Herbert Hoover vs. Alfred E. Smith