Warren G. Harding
A return to normalcy
Time of economic growth
After Recession of 1921-1922
Manufacturing rose 60% in 1920s
Per Capita income grew by 34%
Cause:
European industry debilitated
Rise in technology
Businesses tended to concentrate in
large corporations
U. S. Steel
General Motors
Textile industries
Throughout industry: strong concern for
over-production
The dream was to stabilize the economy
More than 2/3 of Americans lived no
better than “minimum comfort level”
Half of that 2/3 below level of “subsistence
and poverty”
Henry Ford
Shorter work week
Raised wages
Paid vacations
U. S. Steel
Tried to improve safety
and sanitation
Workers became eligible
for pensions on retirement
Welfare capitalism
Paternalistic techniques adopted by some
employers to avoid disruptive labor
unrest and forestall the growth of
independent trade unions.
Brought many workers important
economic benefits—but did not help them
gain any real control over their fates
Wage & work situation 1920s
Workers: increases proportionately far
below increases in production and profits
Unskilled workers: 2%--1920-1926
Average annual income of workers
$1,500; $1,800 considered
necessary to maintain a decent
standard of living
American workers relatively impoverished
and powerless
Wage & work situation 1920s
Large portion of work force: out of work
for at least some period during the
decade
Technology made many jobs obsolete
William Green (AFL) opposed strikes
Wage & work situation 1920s
Pink Collar Jobs
Low-paying service occupations:
secretaries, sales clerks, telephone
operators
A. Philip Randolph
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car
Porters
1925
Vigorous union
Led to increased
wages, shorter
working days,
other benefits
Japanese immigrants
Issei: born in Japan and
emigrated to U. S.
Nisei: children of Japanese
immigrants, born in USA
Anti-Filipino riots in CA
in 1925
1934—legislation that
eliminated immigration from
Philippines
Mexican immigrants
1920s: 500,000
Most lived in cities of
CA, TX, AZ and NM
Barrios: few services
Farmers
Increased production
Did not stimulate
consumer demand
Result
Overproduction
Decline in food prices
Severe in drop in
farmer income
Average farmer made 25% of average
non-farmer
>3 million people left farming
The Media
Sensational stories helped newspaper
circulation continue to rise.
Tabloids published by
people like William
Randolph Hearst
The Media
Mass circulation magazines also
flourished
The Media
Radio emerged as the most
powerful means of mass
communication in the 1920s
For the first time, Americans
heard news as it happened
News, sports, and music; but
also drama, comedy and variety
Leisure
1929—Americans spent $4.5 billion
for entertainment.
Age of fads and new leisure pastimes
such as crossword puzzles and
playing the Chinese game of mahjong
Also a time of flagpole sitting, ultraraces and dance marathons
By 1925, filmmaking—nation’s fourth
largest industry.
More than 20,000 movie
houses within the U. S.
Hollywood, CA became
the movie capital of the
U. S. because of good
climate and varied terrain
Some great stars of silent films:
Theda Bara (the vamp) and Charlie
Chaplin
Others were
Tom Mix,
Mary Pickford,
Douglas
Fairbanks,
Clara Bow &
Rudolph
Valentino
1927: the first major film
with sound: The Jazz Singer
starring Al Jolson
1928: the first sound
movie starring a
cartoon character:
Walt Disney’s
Steamboat Willie
featuring Mickey
Mouse.
The 1920s: a time of great
literature
F. Scott Fitzgerald:
The Great Gatsby
Eugene O’Neill:
The Hairy Ape
Forced people to look hard at social
issues like isolationism and problems
with wealthy America
Other great authors: Sinclair Lewis
(Main Street & Babbitt), poet T. S. Eliot,
and author Earnest Hemingway (The
Sun Also Rises & A Farewell to Arms)
Great artists included
Georgia O’Keeffe—
oil paintings that
captured the grandeur
of New York. Later in
life, she painted
Southwest landscapes
Great composers were
highlighted by George
Gershwin: Rhapsody
In Blue and Concerto
In F.
Another great composer:
Aaron Copeland:
Music for the Theater
Leisure
Most popular sport was baseball.
Most successful
professional team:
New York Yankees:
George Herman
“Babe” Ruth and
Lou Gehrig
Overcame 1919 “Black Sox” scandal
Leisure
Negro Leagues: excellent quality
baseball beginning 1920
Josh Gibson hit 89
home runs in a
single season
Leisure
Most famous Negro Leagues
player: LeRoy “Satchel”
Paige.
Negro leagues declined
after Jackie Robinson
broke into Major League
baseball in 1947
Leisure
Boxing: biggest star: Jack Dempsey
Lost twice to Gene Tunney in epic
bouts (1926 & 1927)
College football:
Among the
great players:
Red Grange, the
Galloping Ghost,
of Illinois and
George Gipp of Notre Dame.
Coach Knute Rockne of
Notre Dame 105 wins; 5
undefeated seasons
Professional football just
beginning, led by George
Hallas of the Chicago
Bears.
Best athlete of the first
50 years of the 20th
century helped get pro
football moving: Jim
Thorpe
Tennis and golf emerged.
Bill Tilden
Helen Wills Bobby Jones
Gertrude Ederle—
first woman to
swim English
Channel
Greatest race horse:
Man o’ War
Heroes
Most popular: Charles A. Lindbergh
May 20-22, 1927—
First non-stop solo
flight across Atlantic
33 hours, 29 minutes;
New York to Paris
Heroes
Lindbergh stood for honesty and
bravery—traits Americans seemed to
have lost in an era of
excess, crime and
sensationalism.
Amelia Earhart became
a female hero, following
Lindbergh as an aviator
Flappers
No longer necessary to maintain a rigid
Victorian female respectability.
Smoking, drinking,
dancing, seductive
clothes and makeup;
liberated lifestyle
Women’s Rights
National Women’s Party: Alice Paul—
campaigned for equal rights amendment
By 1929: clear that women
voters changed electoral
outcomes hardly at all;
the female vote distributed
itself almost precisely
the same as the male vote.
Result: politicians felt LESS
concern about opposing
demands of female reformers
Education
1914—about 1 million
Americans in high school
1926—4 million
Job market demanded
higher educational standards
1920s high schools: college prep.
plus vocational training & home
economics.
Education
Also, high schools faced the demands
of teaching English to immigrants
As schools offered more, taxes to
support the schools also increased
Mid-1920s, the annual cost of U. S.
education: $2.7 billion
Harlem Renaissance
Cotton Club
Duke Ellington
Harlem Renaissance
Langston Hughes
Claude McKay
A Raisin’ in the Sun
Radical politics in
writings
Prohibition
Prohibition
January 1920: Eighteenth Amendment
Prohibited the manufacture, sale and
transportation of alcoholic beverages
Reformers: liquor = cause of
corruption.
Women’s Christian Temperance
Union
Most support in South & West
Prohibition
Doomed from start
Most Americans tired of sacrifice
To many immigrants—nothing wrong
with drinking—natural part of
socializing
Many resented government meddling
U. S. government: too few enforcers
Prohibition
Drinkers went underground
Home made liquor (bathtub gin)
Bootleggers
Speakeasies
Clever hiding places
A time of illegal cleverness
Prohibition
Emergence of large-scale organized
crime
Chicago: Al Capone
Bootlegging empire
netted over $60 million
a year
Eliminated competition:
522 gang killings 1920s
Prohibition
Capone, Frank Nitty and others
pursued by Elliot Ness and the
Untouchables
Never totally defeated
the gangsters
Ness finally got Capone
on income tax evasion
Served time on Alcatraz
Prohibition
Ended 1933 with passage of 21st
Amendment
Prohibition was a major example of
Protestant Fundamentalism that
swept primarily the rural U. S.
Literal, non-symbolic interpretation
of the Bible
Immigration
Americans returned to nativist
(anti-immigrant) feelings after
World War I.
Associated immigrants with
anarchist movement, revolution
and Communism
After World War I, need for
unskilled labor decreased.
Immigration
Emergency Quota Act of 1921: set
up a quota system—a maximum
number of people who could enter
the U. S. from each foreign country.
3% of the number of a country’s
nationals living in U. S. in 1910.
Discriminated against East
Europeans—Jews and Catholics;
completely excluded Japanese
Immigration
The National Origins Act of 1924
• Banned immigration from East Asia
•Angered Japanese
•Reduced quota for Europeans from 3%
to 2% and based it on the 1890 census
•Favored Nordic or Teutonic stock
•1929—set rigid limit of 150,000 new
immigrants a year
Ku Klux Klan
The 1920s emerged as a time of
conflict between city life and country,
or rural, life.
Rural/Small Towns
Conservative moral values
Close social relationships
Wealthy, established families
set social standards
Churches defined morality
Thriftiness, moderation,
respectability Disney’s Pollyanna
During and after World War I more
people moved to cities
1921—51.4% of Americans lived
in communities of 2,500-1 million
1920 census:
New York: 5.6 million
Chicago: 3 million
Philadelphia: 2 million
68 cities in U. S. 100,000 or more
City life:
Competition and change
New ideas
Entertainment variety
Tolerance: drinking, gambling,
casual dating
Achievement over background
Fundamentalism
Skeptical of all scientific knowledge
All important knowledge in Bible
Bible inspired; all details were true
One scientific theory rejected by
Fundamentalists as blasphemous:
Charles Darwin’s Theory of
Evolution
Fundamentalism
Leading fundamentalist preacher:
Billy Sunday
staged emotional
meetings across the
South
Moderate Protestants
and liberals concerned
March 1925: Tennessee made the
teaching of evolution a crime
The American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU) promised to defend anyone
who would challenge the law.
Biology teacher John Scopes, of
Dayton, Tennessee, accepted
challenge.
Scopes “Monkey” Trial: July 1925
Clarence Darrow vs. William J. Bryan
Scopes “Monkey” Trial
Trial not about Scopes’ guilt or
innocence; trial about legitimacy of
the Tennessee law.
What was the role of science and
religion in U. S. public schools.
Great public interest
Scopes “Monkey” Trial
Great national interest
Live radio coverage
Darrow frustrated at
first
Finally called Bryan as
an expert witness
Scopes convicted; only fined $100.00
The Election of 1920
Democrats:
James M. Cox and Franklin D. Roosevelt
Ohio governor
Asst. Sec of Navy
1920 election—American people
desired a return to normalcy.
Republican candidates Warren
G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge
Scandal
Some cabinet appointments were
very good.
Secretary of State:
Charles Evans Hughes
Candidate for
President 1916;
later became a
Supreme Court Justice
Scandal
Secretary of the Treasury:
Andrew Mellon
One of nation’s
wealthiest people;
reduced national
debt by 1/3 by 1923
Scandal
Secretary of Commerce:
Herbert C. Hoover
Outstanding WW I
reputation for
running Food
Administration &
finding solutions
for refugee problems
Scandal
But some in cabinet were Harding’s
poker-playing cronies from Ohio:
the Ohio Gang.
Secretary of the Interior:
Albert Fall
Former lobbyist for
tobacco & meatpacking
companies; friend of
some oil executives.
Scandal
President Harding—
“in over his head.”
Did not understand
many things he had
to deal with.
Lost control of cabinet—corrupt
cronies used offices to become
wealthy through graft.
Scandal
Teapot Dome Scandal
Oil-rich public land
at Teapot Dome, WY
and Elk Hills, CA
Albert Fall got oil
reserves transferred
from Navy Department
to the Dept. of the Interior
Scandal
Teapot Dome Scandal
Fall secretly leased all
the land to two private
oil companies
Fall claimed the move
was in public interest; but received
$325,000 in bonds and cash and
several ranches and livestock.
Scandal
Harding avoided any public disgrace
and humiliation—largely because of
his good-natured personality.
Instead of taking charge of his
administration, spent most of his
time playing golf.
A hurt and confused man by 1923.
Summer, 1923, Harding embarked
on a goodwill tour of Alaska.
Falls ill in San Francisco on return
trip.
Dies in S. F. on August 2, 1923
Widely mourned throughout U. S.
Replaced by V. P.
Calvin Coolidge
“Silent Cal” restored
people’s faith in
government and GOP.
1920’s:
Republicans in power
Isolationism
Loans to Europe
Disarmament & anti-war feeling
Nativism
Political scandal then
restoration of public faith