Getting On With Business
American History
Chapter 11
Sacco and Vanzetti
• Convicted of Murder in a 1920 Robbery
Found Guilty Because they Were Immigrants and Radicals
Radicals Supported Political and Social Revolution
Both Believed in Anarchism- Do Not Recognize the Authority of
Government
People Around the World Protested their Execution
Sacco and Vanzetti Became Martyrs For Socialism and Anarchy
The Red Scare
• Violent Wave of Anti-Communist Sentiment that Swept
Across the United States 1919-1920
 Communist Revolution in Russia (Bolsheviks)
 Communist Uprisings in Hungary and Bavaria
 Development of Two Communist Political Parties in the United
States
• The Red Scare was Directed By Attorney General A.
Mitchell Palmer (The Fighting Quaker)
 Led Americans to Believe that Communists Were About to Take
Over Our Government
 J. Edgar Hoover– Bureau of Investigation– Started to Gather
Information about Radical Activities In the United States
The Red Scare
The Red Scare
• A. Mitchell Palmer Got
$500,000 From Congress
to Remove Radicals from
America
A. Mitchell Palmer
J. Edgar Hoover
• J. Edgar Hoover the Future
Director of the F.B.I. was
Committed to Removing
Communists from the United
States
The Palmer Raids
• November 1919– Raids in 12 Cities
249 Aliens Deported to Russia
Ship was Dubbed “The Soviet Ark”
• December 1919– Raids in 33 Cities
4,000 People Arrested– 600 Deported
They Were Denied their Constitutional Rights
Americans Generally Supported the Raids
• By Mid-Summer 1920 the Red Scare Had
Passed
The Palmer Raids
Labor Unrest
• 1919– Cost of Living Up & Wages Down
3,600 Strikes in 1919 Alone– Some Serious
Boston Police Strike– Opposition to the Strike
Launched the Political Career of Governor Calvin
Coolidge
Steel Strike– 350,000 Workers Went on Strike to
Oppose 12 Hour Days, 7 Days a Week
Coal Strike– Fall of 1919– Threatened the Nation’s
Coal Supply Heading into Winter
 Miners Received a Presidential Order to Return to Work
The Great Migration
Urban African American Populations
City
1920
1930
Increase
Atlanta
62,831
90,119
43%
Birmingham
70,256
99,127
41%
Chicago
109,458
233,903
114%
Cleveland
34,815
73,339
111%
Detroit
40,838
120,066
194%
Los Angeles
15,579
38,894
150%
New York
152,467
327,706
115%
Philadelphia
134,229
219,599
64%
Washington, D.C.
110,701
132,955
20%
The Great Migration
• Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
Meatpacking Industry
Automobile Industry– (Ford)
Steel Industry
• Northern Whites Resented the Migration
1917– Race Riots Erupted in 26 Northern Cities
Riots Continued into the 1920s
The Garvey Movement
• Marcus Garvey– “Back to Africa”
 African-Americans Should Form Their
Own Government in Africa
 Universal Negro Improvement
Association
 Attracted 250,000 Members
 “Black Star” Ships to Take Blacks to
Africa
 Garvey was Eventually Deported as an
Undesirable Alien
Progressivism Endures
New Social Reforms
• Prohibition– Ban the
Manufacture, Sale, Transportation
and Consumption of Alcohol
 During World War I– Alcohol
Was Tied To Germany
 States and Counties Passed
Prohibition Laws
• National Prohibition– 1919
 Volstead Act– Outlawed
Beverages With .05% Alcohol
 Americans Thought Prohibition
Would Eliminate Crime, Poverty,
and Prostitution
Campaign For Woman’s Suffrage
Suffrage Parade, New York City, May 6, 1912
Progressivism Endures
New Social Reforms
• Women’s Suffrage– Voting
Rights
 1848 Seneca Falls Conference
 Western States Led the Way in
Woman’s Suffrage (Kansas
1912)
 National American
Woman Suffrage
Association (1916)
 Carrie Chapman Catt
 National Woman’s Party
 Alice Paul
 19th Amendment– August 26,
1920
3 Republican Presidents
Harding, Coolidge, & Hoover
Calvin Coolidge
Herbert
Hoover
Warren
G. Harding
1923-1929
1921-1923
1929-1933
The Roaring Twenties
The Republican Presidents
• Warren G. Harding- (1921-1923)
 Campaigned on a “Return to Normalcy”
 Move Away From Wilson’s Internationalism
 Extremely Capable Cabinet:
 Charles Evans Hughes– Secretary of State
 Andrew Mellon– Secretary of Treasury
 Herbert Hoover– Secretary of Commerce
 Not So Capable “Ohio Gang” (Harding’s Friends)
 Used Their Jobs to Take Money
 One Went to Jail, Two Committed Suicide
Warren G. Harding
Teapot Dome Scandal
• Teapot Dome: Most Famous of Harding’s
Scandals
Albert Fall-Secretary of the Interior
Leased National Oilfields to Private Companies
Received Several Hundred Thousand Dollars in Bribes
Fall– First Cabinet Member to go to Prison
• Scandal Effected Harding’s Health
Died in San Francisco on August 2, 1923
Public Loved Harding– Upset over Scandal Breakers
Succeeded by Calvin Coolidge
Silent Cal and Big Business
• Coolidge– The Man
Proper New England Upbringing
Attended a One-Room School
Absolute Honesty
Sworn in By His Father (A Justice of the Peace)
 Appeared to be “Looking down his nose to locate that evil smell which
seems forever to affront him.” (William Allen White)
 He looked as if he had been “weaned on a pickle.” (Alice Roosevelt
Longworth)
 “The government is not an insurer of its citizens against the hazards of
the elements.” (Calvin Coolidge)
Calvin Coolidge
Silent Cal and Big Business
•
3 Important Ways Coolidge and Harding Supported Business:
1.
2.
3.
•
Appointed Business People to Commissions that were Supposed
to Regulate Business
Selected Supreme Court Justices who Ruled Against Progressive
Legislation
Named Conservatives to Powerful Cabinet Positions
Examples



FTC & ICC Overlooked Business Violations
5 Conservative Supreme Court Appointments
Andrew Mellon– Sec. of Treasury– 3rd Richest Person in the U.S.
Andrew Mellon
• Secretary of Treasury
Under: Harding, Coolidge
& Hoover
• Founder of the National
Gallery of Art
• From a Rich Pittsburg
Banking Family
• Policies Greatly Reduced
Income Tax
Herbert Hoover, The “Wonder Boy”
• U.S. Food Administration During WW I
Directed Belgium Relief Committee
• U.S. Secretary of Commerce
Extended Regulation to Airlines, and Radio
Had the Bureau of Standards “Standardize” Items
Manufactured in the United States
Tires, Nuts and Bolts, Electrical Appliances, Mattresses
Supported Zoning, 8-Hour Workdays, Improved Nutrition for
Children, Conservation of Natural Resources
Pollution Act of 1924- 1st Effort to Control Coastal Oil Pollution
Herbert Hoover
Republican Foreign Policy
• Expansion of Overseas Business
Shift away from political involvement with Europe,
but an increase in economic involvement
American Domination:
Cars, Farm Machinery, Tractors, & Electrical Equipment
“World Peace Through World Trade” (Thomas J.
Watson, IBM)
The Dawes Plan
• 1922- Germany Defaulted on Its Reparation
Payments to the Allies
• Allies Could Not Repay the $10 Billion They
Owed the United States
• French Troops Marched Into Germany
• Dawes Plan:
U.S. Banks Loaned Germany $2.5 Billion
Germany Pays Allies– Allies Pay The U.S.
An Annual Reparation Schedule Was Established
for Germany
The Dawes Plan
U.S.
$2.6 Billion in War Debt Payments
$2.5
Billion
in Loans
Germany
Allies
$2 Billion in
Reparations
Payments
Results of the Dawes Plan
• War Was Avoided Between France
and Germany
• Assisted the German Economy
• Allowed Allies to Pay Debts to the
United States
• Nobel Peace Prize for Dawes
• Tied the German Economy to the
American Economy
 Made the Great Depression of the
1930s an International Depression
 German Depression Gave Rise to
Fascism
Charles G. Dawes
Washington Conference
• Charles Evan Hughes
Charles Evan Hughes
 1921 U.S. Secretary of State
 Call For Disarmament
 Wanted a Destruction of
Weapons Including Battleships
 Stop Construction of New Ships
 Japan Had the Greatest
Limitations
 No New Western Naval Bases in
Asia
 U.S. Remained Concerned with
the Power of Japan
 Hughes Later Appointed Chief
Justice of the U.S. Supreme
Court
Kellogg-Briand Pact
Diplomats Sign The Kellogg-Briand Pact
• 1928 Attempt to Make War Illegal





U.S. Secretary of State Frank Kellogg
French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand
Treaty Signed by 14 Nations
War was Outlawed
Only Means of Enforcement– War
Relations With Latin America
• U.S. Military Presence In
Nicaragua
 Kept to Protect American
Business Interest
 Resented at Home and Abroad
 Public Opinion Critical of
Coolidge
 Resisted Militarily by Troops
Under César Augusto Sandino
 Troops Reflected U.S.
Commitment to Business
César Augusto Sandino
Prosperity and American Business
• The Gospel of Big Business
“The man who build a factory builds a Temple– The man who
works there worships there.” (Calvin Coolidge)
• Wartime Expansion of American Industry
 Industrial Productivity Rose 70% Between 1922 and 1928
 Highest Wages in the History of the United States
 Electric Power Replaced Steam Power in Factories
 Assembly Lines Speeded Up Production
 Growth of Cities and Suburbs in Manufacturing Areas
Growth of the Auto Industry
Ford Dealership in Topeka, Kansas
• America’s Most Important New Industry
• Ford’s Moving Production Line Produced a Car in 93 Minutes
• By 1925 a New Ford Rolled off the Assembly Line Every 10
Seconds
• Impact on Related Industries:
 Steel, Rubber, Glass, Petroleum, Machine Tools, & Road Construction
New Commercial Downtowns
• Skyscrapers
• Empire State
Building
102 Stories High
World’s Tallest
Building
Other Skyscrapers
Followed
The Corporate Revolution
• Small Companies Lacked the Capital for Research &
Development & Advertising
• Large Corporations Dominated American Business
The Corporate Revolution
Oligopoly– Few Major Producers Influence an Entire
Industry
 Meatpacking, Utilities, Banking, & Tobacco
 Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A & P)
 400 Stores in 1912 to 15,000 Stores by 1932
The American Plan
• After the War, Labor Organizations Were Associated
with Communism
 Throughout the Rest of the 1920s Corporations Kept Labor in
Check Through A System of Rewards and Punishments
 The American Plan– Labor’s Punishment
Open-Shop Associations– Union Members Were Blacklisted
Companies Hired Spies Who Joined Unions and Reported Back
“Yellow-Dog Contracts”– Must Agree Not to Join a Union
 Supreme Court Consistently Ruled in Favor of Business
 Union Membership Fell By 30% From 1921-1929
Welfare Capitalism
• Welfare Capitalism– Labor’s Reward
 Welfare Capitalism– Programs Designed to Convince Workers
That They Do Not Need Unions
 Improved Working Conditions
 On Site Doctors and Nurses
 Group Insurance Programs
 Stock Purchase Opportunities
 Pension Plans
 Industrial Democracies– On Site Unions– “Kiss Me Clubs”
 Welfare Capitalism Paid Off For Big Business in the Form of
Increased Efficiency and Higher Profits
The Changing Nature of Work: Henry Ford
• Industrialist– Commercial
Production and Sale of
Goods
 1914– Introduced the $5.00
Day
 Double A Normal Wage
 Workers Were Also
Consumers
 Ford Called the Wage
Increase the “Smartest Cost
Reduction Plan Ever”
 1926– Reduced the Work
Week to 40 Hours (5 Days)
The Changing Nature of Work: Henry Ford
• Assembly Line Allowed for Mass Production




Ford’s Profits-- $264,000 Per Day In 1922
Ford Hired Immigrants and Minorities
Ford Plants Were Non-Union
Assembly Line Work Was Dehumanizing
Henry Ford
Scientific Management
• Frederick Taylor- The Father of
Scientific Management
Frederick Taylor
 Scientific Management– Efficiency
Experts Analyze Each Aspect of Every
Factory Job
 Workers Would Be Trained on How to
Minimize their Efforts
 Productivity Standards Were
Established
 Bonuses Went to Workers Who
Exceeded Productivity Standards
 1911– The Principles of Scientific
Management
 Embraced by the Auto Industry
 Still Followed in Many Areas Today
New White-Collar Workers
• White-Collar Workers– Professionals, Retail Sales,
Clerks, Bookkeepers, Typists, Bankers, Insurance
Agents, etc.
 Sales– Profits Were Large For Those Who Could Sell
 Traveling Sales Persons; Door-to-Door Sales
 Companies had Quotas, Offered Bonuses, Had Contests
 Advertising– Persuaded Americans They Needed What
Was Being Sold
 Companies Spent Billions on Advertising in the 1920s
 Young White College Graduates
 Women Offered Special Insight on Products
 Salaries Were High, But So Was Job Turnover
Women in the Workforce
• Office Work– (Typists)
 Middle Class, High School Educated, Females
 Needed to Know Spelling, Grammar, Punctuation, and
Capitalization
 Women Worked in a Clean Environment
Women in the Workforce
 Telephone Companies and
Department Stores
 Women Without High
School Diplomas
 Clerks, Cashers, Wrappers,
Switchboard Operators
 Women’s Jobs Were
Unskilled– Little
Advancement Opportunity
 Work Taught Endurance,
Obedience, and Modesty
 Perfect Preparation for
Marriage