The New Era: the 1920s
My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friendsIt gives a lovely light!
-Edna St. Vincent Millay, “First Fig”, 1920
1 radio
$75
1 phonograph
$50
1 washing machine
$150
1 vacuum cleaner
$50
1 sewing machine
$60
living in the 1920s
“The business of America is business” – C.
Coolidge
Mass production
Spending is an American virtue
Aviation industry (initially about mail delieraybut
on cusp of expanding ideas – Lindbergh, Earhart)
The Car
• changed landscape & architecture, created jobs
(gas stations, motels, shopping centers,
mechanics), engineering feats (Holland Tunnel,
Woodbridge Cloverleaf)
• less isolation, further from job,(urban sprawl)
suburbs, vacationing, freedom
• status symbol – youth culture
• success of free enterprise: owning own
transportation & go wherever
• Accidents, abandonment of the hearth, aided
crime waves
• late 1920s, 80% of world’s cars were in US (1 car
for every 5 Americans) – 30 million cars
Listerine Advertisement:
• increase in appliance purchases: frees up
She
was a beautiful
girl and community
talented too. activities,
She had the
housewives
for leisure,
advantage
education
better clothes than most
workingofoutside
theand
home
girls of her set. She possessed that culture and poise that
•travel
actually
made Americans more alike than before
brings. Yet in the one pursuit that stands foremost
•inmodern
product
& –prices,
the mindadvertising:
of every girl and
womanfeatures
– marriage
she
psychological
studies of which color sells, package
was
a failure
sizing, slogans, necessities
• brand names
• The Man Nobody Knows
Traditionalism & longing for
simpler earlier time
Efforts to
consolidate
complexities
of modern
world into
brief “bites”
Mass
Circulation
Magazines
Movies and Broadcasting
The Jazz Singer – the first
feature-length “talkie” 1927
 Motion Picture Association
(monitoring & “safe” viewing)
 Hays Code
 Radio’s influence – KDKA &
NBC
• Self monitored stations
• More diverse &
subversive
Silent Movies
Charlie Chaplin
“Talkies”
The Jazz Singer
Starring Al Jolson
Mary Pickford
“America’s Sweetheart”
The New Woman (?)
 Reality was still choosing work or family – married who
worked were lower class
 Kept to same traditional “professions” as before
 “mothering” not just a natural skill – need trained pros
 “companionate marriage” – a partner in the relationship
not just breeder & child raiser
 birth control- Margaret Sanger
 Flapper – modern woman w/modern attitudes
 Reality was women still dependent @work & home on men
 Increase in women’s organizations & political activity
 Alice Paul – ERA
 League of Women Voters
 Sheppard-Towner Act (1921-1929) ultimately showed didn’t need
to cater to female voter, not a real force but medical profession was
Youth Culture
 Creation of adolescence
 separate stage of American life – in need of further dev. before
adulthood
 More emphasis on training & education
 Schools provide setting for development w/in peer group
Good- bye “self made man”
 Need for formal training & formal education eliminating
him in field after field
 What does it mean to be a man?
 Athletics
 Fraternal societies
 war
 Cultural conflict at work: Edison, Lindbergh & Ford
(modern yet self made)
Labor Unrest
• 1919 – more than 3,000 strikes (4 million workers)
• During war not possible to strike & wages did not
keep up with prices
• Management didn’t want raises or unions
• 3 significant strikes to look at:
– Boston Police, 1919
– Steel Mill, 1919
– Coal Miners,1919
Boston Police Strike
“He gives aid &
comfort to the
enemies of society”
– Chicago Tribune
• Cost of living had doubled since beginning of
WWI – last time they had a raise
• Sent reps to ask for cost of living raise –
commissioner fired whole group
• Rest of dept. goes on strike
• Governor Calvin Coolidge calls in Nat’l Guard &
refuses to rehire strikers
• Coolidge seen as nat’l hero for standing
upBack”
to – New York
“Striking
Evening World
anarchy & communism
Steel Mill Strike
Working conditions very difficult: long hours, hot &
“Coming Out of the
noisy
foundries
Smoke” – New
York World refused to meet with representatives
Management
Labor wanting right to unionize
Management hired strike breakers: 18 workers killed,
100s hurt
Strikers linked w/communism
Strike ends without unionizing
“Keeping Warm” – Los Angeles Times
Coal Strike
•United Mine Workers –
president John L Lewis
•Low wages & long work
day result in strike
•Attny Gen. Palmer gets
court order to go back to
work but they don’t
•Ultimately got 27%
increase
•Lewis became nat’l figure
Labor Loses Its Appeal
• Membership drops off:
“While We Rock
the Boat” –
Washington Times
– Many workers were immigrants w/no choice but bad
working conditions
– So many languages made communication hard
– Migrated farmers now in city jobs used to relying on
themselves
– African Americans were excluded by many
Postwar Recession 1921-1922
post war econ. drop off
GNP down 10%, 100,000 bankruptcies, 5 mill.
unemployed, 453,000 farms lost
huge inflation
many labor gains made during war are lost
numerous strikes
Economics of the 1920s
 Move to consolidation of large-scale industries – steel in particular
 New administrative style – divisional organization (more efficient)
 Trade associations help stabilize industries not consolidating
 Overall goal not to overproduce, over expand and fail – avoid
collapse (avoid mistakes of other development periods)
1920’s Labor
 Welfare capitalism – “paternalistic” approach to labor management –
avoided independence of organized unions – provided perks & councils
for dispute resolution to avoid formal union involvement
 Majority of workers saw no real increase in living standard or power over
situation – always in fear of loss of job, barely keeping head above water
 Independent unions still struggling – remaining committed to excluding
unskilled workers
 Women remained in “pink collared” service jobs – nonunionized
 A. Philip Randolph – Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters –rare ex of
organized minority group successfully gaining rights & benefits
 Big business promoting – “American Plan” – protecting the open shop =
union busting – included gov’t involvement (making picketing illegal,
refusing protection from violent strikebreaking… - union membership falls)
The 1920’s Farmer
Increase in mechanization, new farming techniques
Caused surpluses resulting in drop in farming
income
Parity – McNary-Haugen Bill – vetoed by
Coolidge twice
Fear of Communism
Third Communist International meeting: calls for
worldwide revolution and abolition of private property
& free enterprise
Increase in US Communist Party membership
“Red Scare” in US
A. Mitchell Palmer – Attorney General – leads
the charge
Palmer Raids
• J. Edgar Hoover
appointed to head
division in Justice Dept –
later will become FBI
• Hunted down & held
suspected radicals:
Communists, socialists,
anarchists
• Palmer warned of May
Day revolt – never
happened – no real
evidence of overthrow
conspiracy ever found
Chicago - 1920
Police arrest
suspected “reds”
Sacco & Vanzetti
Nicola Sacco &
Bartolomeo Vanzetti –
Italian immigrants,
anarchists – tried and
convicted of robbery
and murder.
Executed in 1927
despite accusations of
bias based on their
backgrounds
Religion
Harry Emerson Fosdick
modernists vs fundamentalists
Billy Sunday – evangelical
Scopes Trial
Prohibition
 18th Amendment & Volstead Act (1919)
 “Noble experiment” – initial support by many but very
quickly recognized as a failure by most (rural Protestants
continued support – represented being anti big city,
immigrant, Catholic, “modern”
 Easily acquired in most places – weak, ill trained, easily
bribed officials
 Fueled organized crime – 1920s Chicago gang wars (500+
deaths)
 “wets” aren’t successful until 1933 (Depression playing
huge role in decision)
New Rise of the KKK
• In response to anticommunism and anti-foreigner feelings:
– The Birth of a Nation
– “100 percent Americanism”
– 4.5 million members by 1924
– Against Catholics, Jews, unions, saloons, birth control,
evolution, gambling
– Had women’s & children’s auxiliaries (family values)
– Began including divorce, sexual promiscuity &
drunkenness as “sins” worthy of persecution
– Supported mandatory bible reading in school
– Provided stability, community & purpose to many
• Klansmen were
just “regular”
people feeling
threatened by all
the changes happening:
advances made by women,
African Americans, job
competition from immigrants,
urban intellectuals
• Influencing local, state & national politics from all over the nation
• Major decrease in power by end of decade b/c of violent acts,
internal power struggles, & scandals
Immigration
 Nativist/ anti-immigration attitude + decrease in need
for unskilled labor led to decision to allow fewer
immigrants in (Emergency Quota Act of 1921)
 National Origins Act 1924: Quotas based on nationality –
2% of # of nationals living in US in 1890 (discriminates
against eastern & southern Euros – mostly Catholics &
Jews – b/c major influx in after 1890 - excluded Asians
totally – didn’t apply to Western Hem. nations
 1929: base yr moved to 1920 but overall immigrant #
capped
New Attitudes & Expectations
 returning soldiers & Great Migration migrants expected
increased opportunities
 increased lynchings in South
 layoffs to make room for returning white veterans in North
 Chicago Race Riots - both “sides” engaged in brutal
roaming beatings in oppositions neighborhoods
 significant in that blacks fought back (at urging of
NAACP)
Black Nationalism
Marcus Garvey- pride in
African heritage & superiority
UNIA – supported black owned
businesses
Return to Africa movement
Harlem Renaissance
Drew white
audiences
Duke Ellington
Celebrated
The New
Negro
“I am a Negro – and beautiful” –
Langston Hughes
The Disenchanted
 “The Lost Generation”
 Modern society denies individual fulfillment, promotes
alienation
 Fraudulent nature of WW1, increased materialism &
consumerism, conformist morality,
 Ernest Hemingway
 H.L. Mencken – “debunkers”
 Sinclair Lewis
 F.Scott Fitzgerald
Court & Civil Liberties
•
•
•
•
Will see slow change by Court
Bans on mailed literature will lift
Holmes’ “marketplace of ideas”
Brandeis’ freedom of speech - “the greatest menace to freedom is an
inert people
Election of 1920
• Republicans: Warren G. Harding (Ohio, Senator) with VP Calvin
Coolidge (Mass., governor) – generally pro-business & anti-foreign
involvement
• Democrats: James M. Cox (Ohio, governor) with VP Franklin D.
Roosevelt (ass’t sect. of navy)
• Electoral landslide: 404 to 127
• First presidential election women took part in – divided pretty much
the same as male voters
• Continuing general trend of traditional values – conservative
Republicans
“I knew this job would be too much for me” - W. Harding
• Negatives will outweigh positives
– “Good” decisions: created Bureau of Budget, pardoned
Eugene V Debs, persuaded US Steel to move from 12 hr
day and 7 day work week, Sect of St. Charles Evans
Hughes, Sect of Treasury Andrew Mellon, Sect of
Commerce Herbert Hoover & Sect of Agric Henry C
Wallace
– “Bad” decisions: “government by crony” – Ohio Gang
Attny General Harry Daugherty – close friend – caught
accepting bribes
“…this
is a Bureau
hell of
a job,
...I –have
no –
Dir
Veterans’
Charles
Forbes
acquaintance
indicted & jailed for fraud
trouble with my enemies…, ...but
Sect. Interior Albert B Fall – Teapot Dome Scandal –
my
damn
friends…they’re
theeffort
ones
leased
gov’t lands
set aside for conservation
to oil
companies – said it was in gov’t’s best interest but He got
that
keep
me
walking
the
floor
rich around the same time **first cabinet member in history
to serve prison sentence**
nights”
“In America everyone is assumed guilty until proven rich.”
(businessmen who gave bribes not guilty)
- Unyielding commitment to big business –
- Fordney-McCumber Tariff
“Silent Cal”
 Harding dies suddenly
 Coolidge takes office just as
crimes are becoming known
 Symbolized: old Puritan
values, hard work, religious
faith, honesty
 Elected to own term, 1924
 Similar passive leadership
approach as Harding
 Continued pro-business
philosophy – “the man who
builds a factory builds a
temple and the man who
works there worships there”
Treasury Sect. Andrew Mellon – cut taxes on corporate profits &
trimmed budget to relieve half of the WWI debt
Commerce Sect. Hoover – “ Associationalism”
How involved in the world does the
US want to be?
Isolationism – myth or reality
Interventionism – disarmament &
negotiation
The men who would make policy:
President
Wilson (1913-1921)
Harding (1921-1923)
Sect. of State
Bainbridge Colby (1920-21)
Charles E. Hughes (192125)
Coolidge (1923-1929)
Hoover (1929-1933)
Roosevelt (1933-1945)
Frank B. Kellogg (1925-29)
Henry L. Stimson (1929-33)
Cordell Hull (1933-44)
 The pursuit of “independent internationalism”
 War between US & Germany ends 1921
 Naval rankings: Great Brit., US, Japan
 Washington Disarmament Conference, 1921
 “Hughes sank in 35 minutes more ships than
all the admirals of the world have sunk in
centuries”
 Five Power Treaty
 A battleship ratio was achieved through this ratio:
US
5
Britain
5
Japan
3
France
1.67
Italy
1.67
 Japan got a guarantee that the US and
Britain would stop fortifying their Far East
territories [including the Philippines].
 Loophole  no restrictions on small warships
 Nine-Power Pact—a polite endorsement of
the Open Door in China
 Four-Power Act—abolished the AngloJapanese Alliance
European Debts to the US
Hyper-Inflation in Germany: 1923
Dawes Plan (1924)
• The problem of Germany
– In 1923 Germany could no longer pay reparations
– Hughes sponsored a meeting to deal with the crisis
– The result was the Dawes Plan—Germany’s
reparations payments were reduced, Germany was
loaned $200 million
– The limited initial commitment quickly mushroomed
into a massive and ongoing obligation to keep the
system working
• War debts and loans could be used as
diplomatic “tools” – in Europe and elsewhere
Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928)
 15 nations dedicated to outlawing aggression and
war as tools of foreign policy.
 62 nations signed.
 Problems  no means of actual enforcement and
gave Americans a false sense of security.
Economic expansion in Latin America—our sphere
of influence
The US military maintained a presence in many
Latin American countries such as Haiti
US investments in Latin American doubled
between 1924 and 1929
Latin Americans had difficulty repaying the
loans in the face of the US tariff barrier
Hoover and the world crisis—Latin America
Hoover’s goodwill tour
Removal of troops from Haiti
Repudiation of the Roosevelt corollary to the
Monroe Doctrine
Hoover and the world crisis—Europe
Hoover refused to cancel war debts
Instead the Hoover administration focused on
disarmament
World Disarmament Conference 1932 resulted in
frustration
European countries were worried about Germany
and Italy