Unit 5 - The Business of Government
 PIC
The Business of Government
Focus: How did domestic and foreign policy change
direction under Harding and Coolidge?


Warren G. Harding
1920 - Harding takes Presidency

Followed Wilson

Pushed conservative policies not
progressive reforms


Aiding growth of business
Wanted a “return to normalcy”

Laissez-faire economics (minimum govn’t interference)
The Business of Government


Ohio Gang
Harding


Was very friendly, trusted others to
make decisions for him
Appointed friends to positions
• Saw position as a chance to get rich

Leads to Corruption



Harding is from Ohio
Thus the Ohio Gang
Friends took money – at citizens
expense

Laundering, dirty, scandalous
The Business of Government

Teapot Dome Scandal

Albert Fall - Sec. of Interior



Leases land to private oil men


Takes control of land - Teapot Dome, Wyoming
Oil Reserves, intended for Navy
For “loans” aka bribes
Leads to Senate investigation

Fall sentenced to prison - 1924
The Business of Government
 Harding

Dies while in office
 August 2,1923
 Heart Attack

American people mourn
 Greatest loss since Lincoln
 Until scandals are revealed
 Public perception shifts
The Business of Government

Calvin Coolidge

Harding’s – VP

Different from Harding





“Silent Cal”
Honest, quiet, frugal
Less progressive
Economy wasn’t solely on the government’s shoulders
By the book

Limiting opportunity for corruption
The Business of Government

Calvin Coolidge

Favored productive business

Due to job creation
• Benefits entire nation

Continued to reduce debt



Trims budget
Reduces taxes (Business incentives)
6 years of economic prosperity for Middle America
The Business of Government

Calvin Coolidge

Beneath the Surface - problems brewed

Farm prices drop, land lost

Unions demand


Better conditions, more pay
African Americans

Face discrimination (Jim Crow)
As did Mexican Americans

Coolidge (remained “Silent)

• Not the govn’ts responsibility to create an
Ideal nation
The Business of Government
 America’s Role in the World

US Foreign Policy – Seek End to War

Stay away from the Arms Race – limit
construction of large warships, etc.
• Washington Naval Disarmament
Conference

Kellogg- Briand Pact - 1928
• Agreement between US and other nations
• Outlaws war as an instrument of national
policy
• Designed by US Sec of State and Prime
Minister of France
• Impossible to enforce (in reality)

Refusal to join the World Court
• Which tried to solve international problems mediate
• US stays clear - isolationism
The Business of Government

US and War Debts

US desired owed funds
 From Britain and France

Britain and France were waiting
as well
 German reparations

US enters an agreement with
Germany




Dawes Plan
Loans Germany money - to give
British and French
US hoping to create interest on
owed funds
Crash of 1929 - hurts the plan and
system of payment
Social & Cultural Tensions
Focus: How did Americans differ on major social and
cultural issues?


City dwellers



Standard of living rising
City dwellers now outnumbered “country folk”
Farmers


1920’s
Standard of living dropping
Urban-Rural Division


Heightened by major issues
Differing beliefs
* Sectionalism - by living arrangement, not North v. South
Social & Cultural Tensions

Traditions vs. Modern Thought

Modernism - Growing trend in the United States
 Value science and secular thought over excepted
religious beliefs
 Faith vs. Fact

Further separation in lifestyle
 Rural (Church) vs. Urban (Modern)
Social & Cultural Tensions


Education





Traditions vs. Modern Thought
Rural - education (books) - not as vital to success
Farming knowledge, strength, endurance are key
Urban - education more important
Mastery of Math and Language - determined jobs
1930

High school graduates in the United States - increasing
Social & Cultural Tensions

Traditions vs. Modern Thought

Religion
 People were becoming frustrated
 Scientific and secular approaches
 Perceived as attacks on faith

Turn to fundamentalism
 A strict adherence to the “holy book”
 Literal adherence to Bible’s teachings
• Answers to all questions
Social & Cultural Tensions


Traditions vs. Modern Thought
Teaching the Theory of Evolution

Evolution of human species
• Life developed gradually from simpler forms of life
• Charles Darwin



Touchy subject for devout Christians who favored
creationism
Saw no need for teaching evolution in public schools
Scopes Trial

Major focal point
Social & Cultural Tensions


Scopes Trial
John Scopes
 Biology Teacher - TN
 Imprisoned for teaching evolution
 Takes case to trail (Monkey Trial)
• Common misconception - about Darwin's theories

Trial - Scopes defended by Charles Darrow
 Prosecutor - William Jennings Bryan
 Heated arguments/ showing division over issues
 Furthered the Rural/ Urban split
 Scopes – found guilty, fined $100
Social & Cultural Tensions


Nativists




Immigrants took jobs
Threatened religion
Threatened culture
Pass pre-war literacy test


Restricting Immigration
Had to be able to read and write (own language) to enter the US
Post- war

Red Scare
Social & Cultural Tensions

Immigration

Quota System
 Quota Act 1921
 National Origins Act 1924
 Limited immigration from certain countries

Mostly excluded Asians, limited other nations
 Generally let in other “white” immigrants
• England and Ireland

Mexicans continue to immigrate

Farming - legally entering country- job competitions - violence
Social & Cultural Tensions


The Ku Klux Klan – Updated
Originated during Reconstruction – aimed at AA who sought to vote

Targeted Blacks, Jews, Catholics, and Immigrants


Burned crosses
Boycotted certain establishments
Controlled Politicians - in some areas

Opposition - those embracing the “Melting Pot”




NAACP
Jewish – Anti-Defamation League
Klan fizzles due to corruption within itself

Lied to members, stole from members, bribes
Social & Cultural Tensions

Prohibition

Rose from the Temperance Movement
 “Drys” favored no alcohol - Dry counties

1919 - 18th Amendment ratifies
 no alcohol
 distribution (manufacturing) or sale

Volstead Act  Enforced 18th

Leads to serious issues…
Social & Cultural Tensions

Prohibition
“Wets” – opposed prohibition
 Would increase organized crime



Wasn’t illegal to drink, so people illegally bought
Bootlegging



Sold illegal alcohol
Stills (moonshine), foreign alcohol
Sold at “speak easies” – secret drinking establishments
Social & Cultural Tensions

Prohibition

Gave rise to large criminal empires
 Money to be made
 Law often turned a blind eye

Al Capone
 Chicago
 Bootlegger
 Lead to other forms of crime (selling):
• Prostitutes
• Drugs
• Leading to robbery and murders
Social & Cultural Tensions

Prohibition

Yet another dividing factor
 Cities favored
 Rural did not

City dwellers - sought to repeal the 18th

1933 - 21st amendment would repeal 18th
A New Mass Culture
Focus: How did the new mass culture reflect technological
and social changes?

How had life changed for American in the 1920s?
 Automobile – travel - vacations
 Radio, Movies, Spectator Sports
 More leisure time
• Except for farmers

Technology was increasing
A New Mass Culture
 What
 City



Dwellers
Average work week fell, while salaries went up
70 hours - 1850
45 hours - 1930
 Farmers


allowed for this leisure time?
did not enjoy as much
Sun-up to sundown
Lacked funds for leisure activities
A New Mass Culture

What role did the film industry play in the United States in the
1920s?

Free time + Money = movie goers

60-100 million a week

Movies portrayed culture

Silent films - at first

Cheap

Immigrants – little English

Stars like Charlie Chaplin

1927 film industry changed

The Jazz Singer

First film with synchronized sound
A New Mass Culture


How did the radio and phonograph break barriers?
Radio (originally by Marconi – 1890s)


Improved in the 1920’s
1923 - 600,000 radios in use
• Over 600 radio stations

Americans across the country




Listened to the same broadcast
Learned the same songs and dances
Uniting Americans through music - less sectionalism
Phonograph (record player)
A New Mass Culture
What role did heroes play in pop culture, give examples?

Spectator Sports create heroes for many Americans





Many Americans followed via radio
Babe Ruth (baseball), Red Grange (football), Bobby Jones (golf)
Journalist help create idols
America needed heroes - Post WWI
• Americans capable of dreams
Charles Lindbergh


May 1927- Spirit of St. Louis
First solo, non stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean
• New York to France – 33 hours

Becomes instant celebrity
A New Mass Culture

How did women attempt to
increase their positions in
society ?

Challenged political, economic,
social, and educational boundaries
 Trying to prove their role outside
the home

A shift in typical female dress and
presentation
 Wore shorter clothing, wore
make-up, in the public eye
A New Mass Culture

What was a flapper, what role did they play?

Young women
 Short skirts
 Rouged cheeks (rosy)
 Cropped hair - the bob

Challenged expected roles for women
 More publicized then imitated

Not everyone wanted to be a flapper
But many women desired greater freedoms

A New Mass Culture


What changes were made in the lives of
women, in the 1920’s?
Gained power with suffrage

19th Amendment

Pushed for equal rights

Began to break through the glass ceiling





Achieving positions in previously untouchable
industries
Journalism
Aviation
Banking
Medical fields
A New Mass Culture


Women




Live longer
Work more often
Have children later
Some women work


How did family life shift?
Home life improves (technology)
Rural and Urban women differ greatly

Urban enjoyed less of a strain to complete household chores
A New Mass Culture
 How
were paintings of the 1920’s different?
 Modernism

Clashing with traditionalism
 Shift

to new styles
Often bold and different
A New Mass Culture
 What
was the “Lost Generation”?

Writers that had lost faith
 Cultural norms, not excepted

Realist - no longer favored heroism - following the war

F. Scott Fitzgerald - Great Gatsby



Highlights issues with the American Dream
Meaning of life, and war
Ernest Hemingway- A Farewell to Arms
The Harlem Renaissance
Focus: How did African Americans express a new sense of
hope and pride?
 Harlem
Renaissance

After WWI & Great Migration
 Millions of African Americans relocated
 Northeast

Lead to a flowering of music and literature

Jazz - Harlem Renaissance
 Lasting impacts on culture
The Harlem Renaissance

“Black Consciousness/Culture”

African American sought opportunity
 Northward
 Away from Jim Crow

Found life to be better:
 Jobs
 Positions of authority
 Pay

Growing Voice
The Harlem Renaissance

“Black Consciousness/ Culture”

Did not escape racism

Often forced into:
 Poor housing
 Low paying jobs (still higher then southern jobs)

200,000 settle in Harlem, NY
 Jamaican settlers and southern settlers
 Unique culture created
The Harlem Renaissance


Marcus Garvey
Born in Jamaica
 “Blacks exploited, everywhere”
 “Back to Africa”
 Supported separation of races
• Advocated black pride

Gathered much support


Fizzled after his deportation – prison for fraud
Ideas lasted
 Influenced Nation of Islam and Black Power movement
The Harlem Renaissance
 Jazz
Age

F. Scott Fitzgerald coined the term

Hybrid of African & European Music

Originates in the South & Midwest
 New Orleans – cultures combine
 Spread north with Great Migration
The Harlem Renaissance


Louis Armstrong



Jazz Age
Ambassador of Jazz
Trumpet - legend
Jazz - played in speakeasies



Associated with alcohol
Cotton Club – AA played to all white audience
Phonograph spread the style
The Harlem Renaissance
 Jazz

African American Culture


Age
Depth and richness
Bridge the cultural gap
 Duke Ellington
• Great composer - ~ 2,000 arrangements created

Great contribution
 Influences all musical types and genres
The Harlem Renaissance
 Jazz
Age

Jazz & Blues showed both the highs and lows

Not the only form of expression
 Writings, poetry, art

Harlem Renaissance
 Cultural outpouring
The Harlem Renaissance


Literature
“New


Negro”
Break from the past
Expressive, outspoken

Cane – plea to remember and preserve the past (short stories,
poems, sketches)

Claude McKay – militant writer - outspoken – attack on politics

Langston Hughes - celebrated culture
 Diversity and everyday life of African Americans

Zora Neal Hurston
 Their Eyes were Watching God longing for independence
felt by women, black & white
The Harlem Renaissance
 Lasting



Impact
Voice to African American Culture
Altered the “white” view
 Opened their eyes
Ended with economic collapse (1929)
 Starting point - later civil rights movement