U.S. 1920’s


During WWI
America prospered
greatly with
industries doubling
and tripling their
activity
The Government
had no plans for
demobilization
◦ Transition from
wartime to peacetime

Government
contracts are
canceled
◦ Hundreds of factories
close down




Crop $ drop
Millions out of work
Soldiers add to that
unemployment rate
1920=5 Million
Americans out of
work

1920=Spike in
inflation

◦ Prices go up and the
value of the $ goes
down

High Inflation and
high unemployment
put America into a
Recession
◦ Decline in economic
activity

1920-1921
◦ 100,000 business go
bankrupt
◦ 435,000 farms were
lost
People got by as
best as they could
sometimes turning
to crime.

After WWI workers
struggle to keep what
they gained during the
◦ Factories went back to
prewar labor practices




Increase work hours
Lower pay
Less emphasis on safety
No Government
involvement

Labor Unions begin to grow
◦ AFL dominates the Unions
◦ IWW
 Wobblies= Socialism was the
solution
◦ 1919= 3,600 different strikes

Seattle Strike

Boston Police Strike

◦ 35,000 shipyard workers walked
off the job
◦ 100,000 joined this general
strike
◦ Highly controversial
◦ Officers walked off the job after
wages were cut
◦ People sympathized at first then
grew angry
After unsuccessful and rise of
violence in strikes unions began
to decrease in popularity and in
membership


Radicalism
◦ Point of view favoring extreme
change especially in social or
economic structures
◦ Ideas of Socialism,
Communism and anarchist
groups

Red Scare

Attorney General
Mitchell Palmer
◦ Launches a campaign to
find and eliminate the rise
of radicals
Communism
◦ Called for public ownership of
the means of production
◦ Classless society in which all
people shared equally in
wealth produced by their labor
◦ Pull ideas from the Russian
Revolution of 1917
◦ Postwar fear of radical
◦ Red=Slang for communist
 J Edgar Hoover would help
him

Palmer Raids
◦ Sought weapons,
explosives and other
evidence of violent activity

Immigration
◦ Revival of Nativism
 A surge of immigrants
caused Nativists to believe
that foreigners would “take
the nation”
 Believed that immigration
restriction was needed

Emergency Immigration
Act 1921
◦ Quota System – to limit
the number of immigrants
from each country

Immigration Act of
1924
◦ Again reduced the number
of immigrants allowed
into the US…

KKK
◦ “Defender of American
values”
◦ Native-born white
Protestants
 Were against
 AA, Immigrants, Catholics and
Jews
◦ Early 1920’s
 3-4 Million members
◦ Won Political Power
 Control state legislatures in
OR, OK,TX, IN
◦ Held massive marches on
D.C and other large cities
◦ “Secretly” terrorized in the
night using
 Whippings, kidnappings, cross
burnings, arson and murder

American Civil
Liberties Union

◦ WWI AA Veterans have
trouble finding jobs
◦ Lynching makes a
comeback
◦ Specialized in the defense
of unpopular individuals
and groups


Immigrants
Asians
◦ Barred from becoming
citizens
◦ Couldn’t own land
◦ Banned mixed marriages
African Americans
 70 AA are murdered in
1919
◦ Race Riots
 Chicago

Jews and Catholics
◦ Fight Religious
Prejudices
Warren Harding


“Less government in
business and more
business in
government”- Harding
Republican Erathrough the 1920’s
there would be only
Republican Presidents

Harding
◦
◦
◦
◦
Small town
Politician
Good Natured
Believed highly in free
enterprise system

Harding
◦ Free enterprise system
 Private ownership of
property, land and
resources
 Fiscal policy- taxes and
government spending…
renews prosperity
◦ “Ohio Gang” Harding’s
people who he
appointed
◦ Teapot Dome Scandal
◦ Secretary of Interior
 Takes $360,000 in
bribes from two
companies that leased
the land
Calvin Coolidge

VP turned President
◦ 1924 Election

Silent Cal Integrity,
hard work and
thriftiness
◦ Believed “the chief
business of the American
people is business”

Cuts spending and
budgets
◦ Reduction of cooperate
taxes

Continues the
prosperity in American
Herbert Hoover


Worked as the lead for
the Food Administration
during WWI
Believed in promoting
business
◦ Associationalism bringing
industry leaders together to
improve economic efficiency

Wanted to end poverty
with more prosperity for
everyone



Return to
Isolationism
Harding, Coolidge
and Hoover all knew
it was important to
stay in touch with the
outside world
through trade
Sent delegates to the
League of Nations
meetings and the
World Courts

Kellogg-Briand pact
◦ Outlawed war in France
and the US

Europe’s war debt
◦ GB and FR owe us
money
◦ GR owes them money
◦ US loans GR money

Dawes plan
◦ Worked for a while but
increased the amount
of money that GR owed
the US




Automobile
industry booms!
Companies take on
the assembly line
Jobs dealing with
the automobile take
off as well
Airplanes are
improved and grow
into a huge
industry

New forms of
plastic becomes a
hit and makes
several new and
user friendly
inventions

Consolidation
◦ Merging of two
businesses


Republicans approve
and encourage
consolidation
Creates chain stores
◦ A&P first chain grocery
store

Ford, GM and Chrysler
◦ Build 90% of all the cars
on the market
Big Business


Get-Rich as the “goodtimes” rolled on people
wanted more wealth
Bought into schemes
◦ Speculators
 People who buy something
at a low price to resale it
at a higher price

Invest in stocks
◦ Spread to the middle
class
◦ Everyone should be rich
Get Rich Quick


GNP increased 40%
1920-1929
1929 needed $2,500
to live decently
◦ More that half of
Americans earned
1,500 or less a year

Hard times for
famers and people
who worked on the
farms




Unskilled workers
suffer as well.
Coal miners are laid
off due to the
increase use of other
natural gases
Textile industry falls
African Americans
suffer greatly last
hired first fired