The
Roaring
20s
Chapter 8
The Jazz Age
Roaring 20s Begin
I. Presidential Politics 1920s
A. The Harding Administration
1. 1920 Election
a. Democratic Platform
1) continue Progressive Mvmt
2) support League of Nations
3) increase role of gov’t in economy
b. Republican Platform
1) return to Laissez-Faire
2) avoid foreign entanglements
3) “normalcy” (a return to a state of
normal) – Harding’s campaign
slogan
c. Republicans – Warren G.
Harding win
- more in tune w/ public mood:
tired of wartime wage & price
controls; anxious to avoid
another foreign war
Warren G. Harding
2. The Republican Formula: Lower
Spending + Lower Taxes + Higher
Tariffs = Economic Growth
a. run gov’t more efficiently – return to
laissez faire – avoid heavy federal
spending
b. appointed Andrew Mellon as Sec. of
Treasury (1 of 6 richest men in US)
- Who is Sec of Treasury today?
c. believed in cutting taxes on industry
to spur economic growth
d. cut gov’t spending (did by 1/3)
US Secretary of the Treasury
Official Seal
Incumbent:
Jack Lew
since: February 27, 2013
First
Alexander Hamilton
Formation
September 11, 1789
Presidential
succession
Fifth
Website
www.treasury.gov
3. Political Scandals - Harding: hard working
& good natured, but remembered for
scandals while in office
a. Ohio Gang: a group of political friends
from Ohio that Harding appointed to
high gov’t posts
1) good appts: Sec of State Charles
Hughes, Sec of Commerce Hebert
Hoover, Sec of Treasury Andrew
Mellon
2) most not qualified – or just plain
corrupt
3) stories of misconduct made it to the
press
Harding’s Appointees
The Good
The Bad
- Charles Forbes, head of Vets
bureau: swindled country out
of $200m
- Reports of Ohio gang selling
favors, including pardons &
appts to office
b. Harding takes trip to AK & CA, gets
sick, dies Aug 1923
c. Teapot Dome Scandal – new out after
Harding’s death
1) secret, illegal leasing of gov’t oil
reserves to pvt oil companies in
Teapot Dome, WY
2) Albert B. Fall, Sec. of Interior,
leased the reserves to oilmen who
paid him kickbacks
d. Harding’s Atty Gen. Harry Daugherty
forced to resign in 1924 charged w/
bribery & fraud
e. Harding admin goes down in history as
most corrupt in US History
Teapot Dome Scandal
Teapot Dome
B. The Coolidge Administration
1. VP Calvin “Silent Cal” Coolidge of MA takes
over
a. Known for integrity - untouched by
scandals of Harding admin – earned him
the honor of being one of most popular
Presidents
b. Kept Harding’s most capable:
Hughes, Mellon, Hoover
c. Philosophy: to make sure gov’t interfered
w/ biz and industry as little as
possible
**America’s prosperity rested
on biz leadership
Calvin Coolidge
2. 1924 Election
a. Coolidge (R) v. Davis (D) v. LaFollette (P)
b. Coolidge wins easily “Keep Cool with
Coolidge”
- avoided war, avoided scandal,
avoided reform – but supported biz
prosperity
- “The chief business of the American people
is business”
II. A Growing Economy
A. The Rise of New Industries
1. Wages UP, Productivity UP – thanks
to new technology
a. more $ to spend
b. more stuff to buy: radios,
washing machines, vacuum
cleaners, phones & CARS
2. Henry Ford and the Model T
a. Henry Ford made mass production of
autos possible thru use of Assembly Line
- The Model T
b. made auto affordable (not just a luxury for
the wealthy)
c. Ford’s philosophy: lower the cost per car
= increased volume of sales
d. increased pay, established 8 hr shifts =
increased worker loyalty, decreased
union influence
e. competition grew: GM, Chrysler
The Assembly Line
Henry Ford with Model T in
Buffalo, NY, 1921
Henry Ford
Where’s Waldo’s Car?
3. Success of Auto Industry = ripple effect
on economy
a. steel, rubber, glass
b. construction industry
c. fed & state gov’t built roads
d. motels, gas stations
4. Social impact of Auto
a. affordable to middle class
b. new biz opportunities
c. higher demand for educated workers
(mgrs, sales)
- high school enrollment 2X
- college enrollment almost 2X
- biz schools
d. eased isolation of rural life
e. enabled people to live farther from work –
more suburban
5. Consumer Goods Industry – more $, more to
buy
a. For the home:
- indoor plumbing
- household cleansers
- frozen foods
b. New Appliances
- electric irons
- vacuum cleaners
- washing machines
- refrigerators
c. For You
- electric razors
- disposable tissues
- home hair dye
Consumer Economy
6. Airline Industry
a. 1st flight? Orville & Wilbur Wright,
Kitty Hawk, NC Dec. 1903
b. Glenn Curtiss – invents ailerons –
made it possible to build rigid wings
& much larger aircraft
c. WWI – use of airplanes in war
d. US gov’t uses planes for USPS
mail delivery 1918
- Kelly Act 1925: authorized
postal official to contract w/
pvt airplane operators to carry
mail - economic boost
to airplane industry
- Air Commerce Act 1926:
provided federal aid for
building airports
Lucky Lindy
e. Charles A. Lindbergh - 1st solo,
trans-Atlantic flight 1927
- symbolized American
ingenuity, courage & ability
f. 1928: 48 airlines serving 355 US
cities – advent of airline
advertising
“Lucky Lindy”
7. Radio Industry
a. 1912: Edwin Armstrong invented circuit that
made long-range radio transmission of voice
and music practical
b. 1920: 1st radio station KDKA Pittsburgh, PA
announces election results
c. 1926: NBC established
d. By 1927: 700 stations nationwide; Federal Radio
Commission regulates them
e. 1928: CBS competing with NBC
f. Stations sell ad time, hire musicians, actors,
comedians etc; play pop music; etc.
g. 1929: 10 m radio sets in home in US; almost 40%
of US population
B. The Consumer Society: higher pay + shorter
workdays = buying spree
1. Easy Consumer Credit
a. 1920s prosperity gave Americans
confidence to go into debt to buy
consumer goods – to buy on credit –
believed in their ability to pay off debts
b. Rise of auto & expensive long-lasting
goods convinced people to buy on
installment plans/credit (bought 75%
radios, 60% autos on installment)
c. Personal debt rose 2 ½ times faster than
income
d. Stimulated production, but people began
getting in debt over their heads
2. Growth of Advertising Industry
a. To convince Americans that they needed
all the new products available
b. Preyed on consumers’ fears and
anxieties:
- health concerns? buy cleansers
- hectic pace of modern life? Buy
labor savers (iron, fridge etc)
c. Linked products to progress and
success
- concerned with fashion and
appeal? Buy mouthwash,
deodorant etc
3. Growth of the Middle Class
a. industries began to create
organizational structure
b. divided into divisions with diff.
functions (managers, sales,
accounting, operations etc)
c. engineers needed for new
technology
4. Welfare Capitalism – more benefits for
workers!
a. benefits: invited to buy stock; profit
sharing; medical care; pensions
b. Labor Unions less important with
rise in employee benefits
c. with benefits covering certain needs,
workers could spend more of their
income
C. The Farm Crisis recession throughout 1920s
1. urbanization
a. 1900 = 42% farmers; 1929: 25% farmers
b. young people lured to cities for better pay,
more exciting life
2. Less demand for farm products
a. after WWI, no longer selling to Allies, but
farmers had bought lots of equipment on
credit!
b. urbanization: people ate less due to
less hard labor
c. less grain needed for livestock – cars!
d. prohibition: no grapes for wine, no
barley for beer
3. Result? Overproduction of farm goods and
prices way down
a. Advances in tech. only added to
overproduction
b. falling food prices made it hard to make
farm mortgage pays.
4. 1920-21: ½ m farmers lost their farms –
bankruptcy
5. Gov’t attempts to help
a. Federal Farm loans increased
b. McNary-Haugen Bill – gov’t buys surplus,
sell it overseas while protecting
US market w/ high tariff – Coolidge vetos
2X
III. The Policies of Prosperity
A. Promoting Prosperity
1. The Mellon Program (Sec. of Treasury
Andrew Mellon – chief architect of
economic policy in the US in the 1920s)
a. believed gov’t should apply biz
principles to its operations
- created Bureau of Budget – to
prepare Budget
- General Accounting Office – to
track gov’t spending
Andrew Mellon
b. 3 Major Goals
1) balance budget
2) reduce gov’t debt
3) cut taxes
c. Accomplishments?
1) cut spending
2) reduced debt
3) cut taxes
For most: from 5% to .5%
For wealthy: 73% to 25%
2. Supply-Side Economics - economic
theory that lower taxes will boost the
economy as biz and individuals invest their $,
thereby creating higher tax revenue
IV. Foreign Policy in the 1920s
A. International Scenario
1. US returns to isolationism
* a national policy of avoiding
involvement in world affairs
2. Shuns diplomatic commitments w/
foreign countries
B. Trade & Arms Control
1. US becomes dominant economic power - due
to WWI, US shifts from debtor nation
to creditor nation
2. Isolationism
a. most Americans favored isolationism –
nat’l policy of avoiding involvement in
foreign affairs
b. Though not a member of League of
Nations – hard for US to be isolationist –
too powerful, too economically connected,
too involved in int’l affairs
- promoted peace thru agreements
with individual countries instead of
thru League of Nations
3. The Dawes Plan – plan for European
economic recovery
a. after WWI, European economies
suffered
- high debt burden
- no $ to buy American exports
b. Dawes Plan: American banks would
make loans to Germans – Germans
could pay their reparations payments to
Brits and French – Brits and French
would accept less in reparations & pay
more of their war debts (to US)
c. unsuccessful – Europeans further into
debt to US banks & corporations
4. Washington Conference – plan for
disarmament
a. 3 agreements
1) Five-Power Naval Limitation Treaty
(Brits, Fr, Italy, Japan, US)
- freeze naval production to 1921
levels
- build no warships for 10 yrs
- US & Brits wouldn’t build new
naval bases in w. Pacific
2) Four-Power Treaty (US, Japan,
France, Brits)
- respect e/os Pacific territory
- negotiate disagreements
3) Nine-Power Treaty
- preserve = trading rights in
China (Open Door Policy)
- guaranteed China’s
independence
b. Problems with the treaties
1) didn’t limit land forces
2) Japanese unhappy – limited them to
smaller Navy
5. Abolishing War
a. Kellogg-Briand Pact – outlaws war
b. ratified by 62 nations – all agreed to
abandon war and to settle disputes by
peaceful means
I.
Social Scene
A. Early 1920s: Post-War Disillusionment
1. Economic Recession after WWI
2. Racial/Cultural Tensions
3. Influx of Immigrants
B. Rise in Immigration after WWI
1. Rise in immigration leads to rise in racism
and nativism
a. Nativism = a preference for nativeborn people and a desire to limit
immigration
b. So what’s the problem with immigrants?
1) Most new immigrants from S & E
Europe (not WASPs)
2) Seen as a threat to stability and order
3) A threat to returning soldiers who need
jobs in a post-war economy of rising
prices and unemployment
Nativism
2. Nativism and Racism at its worst: The
Sacco & Vanzetti Case
a. The Crime: 2 Italian, Anarchist,
Immigrants accused of murdering a
paymaster and guard during a payroll
holdup in Boston. April 1920.
b. The Evidence: Flimsy at best - see
pg 490-491
c. The Verdict: Guilty! Says the
Judge: “this man, although he may not
actually have committed the crime, is
nevertheless morally culpable, because he
is the enemy of our existing institutions”
d. The Sentence: Death – both executed in
1927
Sacco and Vanzetti
3. Pseudoscience of Eugenics – emphasized
that human inequalities were inherited and
warned against breeding the unfit or inferior
a. praised superiority of American stock.
WASPs = White, Anglo-Saxon,
Protestants
b. contributed to strict immigration controls
C. Immigration Restrictions of the 1920s
1. A response to anti-immigrant feelings caused by
a. Racism/nativism
b. fear of competition for jobs
c. worries about political radicals (Red
Scare)
2. The Quotas
a. Emergency Quota Act of 1921 - only 3%
of an ethnic grp (already here) admitted
(based on 1910 census)
1) restricted # imms. from all countries
2) discriminated heavily against people
from S & E Europe
3) Effect? Ethnic identity & National
Origin determined admission into US
Close the Gates!
Anti-Immigration League
Quotas
b. National Origins Act of 1924
1) quota at 2% (1890 census) – so,
larger #s from N & W Europe
allowed
2) 1929 addition to this act resulted in
N & W Europeans = 87% of quota
3) limited total annual immigration to
150,000 and excluded all
Japanese
Immigration Quotas
3. Hispanic Immigration to US
a. lack of immigrants in the labor pool
led to rise of Mexican immigration
b. National Origins Act of 1924 exempted
natives of Western Hemisphere from
quota system
D. Plight of Black Americans in the 1920s
1. Great Migration: Southern rural blacks
move to northern, industrial cities
a. Faced racial prejudice
b. Life of poverty: frozen out of many
jobs, high unemployment
2. Rise of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) – devoted
to persecuting minorities in US
a. Blamed immigrants for nation’s
troubles
b. Attacked blacks, Catholics, Jews
etc.
c. Used threats and violence to scare
“undesirables”
The Ku Klux Klan
Great increase
In power
Anti-black
Anti-immigrant
Anti-Semitic
Anti-Catholic
Anti-women’s suffrage
Anti-bootleggers
Klan Rally: Houston, TX
E. The New Morality
1. New Morality of the 1920s glorified youth and
personal freedom
a. More Social Freedom
1) Role of the Automobile
- independence/privacy for youth
- socializing shift: from at home
with family to out of the home
with friends
2) prosperity of the era = more $ to
spend on outside entertainment
2. Women in the 1920s
a. more social freedom
1) the “flapper” : the symbol of the
revolution in manners and
morals
2) young dramatic, stylish, and
unconventional woman
- short skirts
- short hair
- danced the tango, foxtrot, and
the new Charleston
The Flapper
Flapper fashion embraced all things and styles modern. A fashionable flapper had
short sleek hair, a shorter than average shapeless shift dress, a chest as flat as a
board, wore make up and applied it in public, smoked with a long cigarette holder,
exposed her limbs and epitomized the spirit of a reckless rebel who danced the
nights away in the Jazz Age.
Hairstyles circa 1922, 1925,1925,1926
b. more economic freedom as more
women working outside the home
1) gain their own personal
identity
2) gain more independence from
parental authority
3) earn wages – can buy things!
c. Increased college enrollment for
women
= more intellectual achievements
in science, medicine etc.
3. The New Morality vs. Traditional Values
a. Rise of Fundamentalist movement
b. Fundamentalist beliefs
- literal translation of Bible
- rejected theory of evolution –
supported creationism
c. Fundamentalists saw moral decline
in American society
- consumer culture
- relaxed ethics
- increased urbanization
d. clash of values
1) science vs religion
2) evolution vs creationism
3) modern vs traditional
4. Clash of Values highlighted by the Scopes
Monkey Trial
a. laws against teaching evolution in some
states
- ACLU wants these laws overthrown
- arrange to have John Scopes
Scopes Trial and
(Biology teacher), arrested for
Prohibition
teaching it
b. Trial: Defense atty Clarence Darrow vs.
prosecuting atty, William Jennings Bryan
- Scopes guilty, but Darrow bested
Bryan many times in trial
Scopes “Monkey”
Evolution vs. Creationism
Famous Lawyers
Trial
Science vs. Religion
Dayton, Tennessee
John Scopes
High School Biology teacher
William J. Bryan vs. Clarence Darrow
Prosecuting Atty Defending Atty
A Case for Evolution?
More Evidence…
Curious, Huh?
E. Prohibition
1. Why ban alcohol? (18th Amendment Jan.
1920)
a. unemployment
b. domestic violence
c. Poverty
d. Loss of productivity
2. Volstead Act
a. enforces prohibition
b. increased fed. gov’t’s police powers
(previously been left to the states)
3. Effects of Prohibition
a. Rise in ORGANIZED CRIME
- bootlegging
- smuggling
- speakeasies – illegal bars
b. Crime became big biz
- gangsters corrupt public officials
- most notorious – Al Capone
(Chicago)
18th Amendment
Gangsters
Al Capone
Prohibition Volstead Act
Bootlegging
Gangsterism
Al Capone
4. Repealing Prohibition
a. 21st amendment, 1933
b. defeat for supporters of traditional
values & for those who favored the use
of federal police powers to achieve
moral reform
5. Lasting effect of Prohibition
a. anti-alcohol laws
b. alcohol awareness - less drinking at
work etc.
II. Cultural Innovations
A. Art & Literature
1. Writers and artists flock to NYC’s
Greenwich Village & Chicago’s South Side
a. Bohemian lifestyle – artistic and
unconventional
b. focus on creativity
2. Modern American Art
a. diverse range of artistic styles
b. urban landscapes; cubism,
realism
Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks depicts isolated
people in the city
Georgia O’Keeffe
More O’Keeffe
3. Poets & Writers – varied styles and subject
matter
a. poet Gertrude Stein – important literary
critic
b. Novelist Ernest Hemingway wrote about
Gertrude Stein
disillusionment and reevaluated myths
"A rose is a
about American heroes – result of his
rose is a rose“
That is…Things
WWI experience as an ambulance driver
are what they are
c. writer F. Scott Fitzgerald exposed
emptiness and superficiality of modern
society in the The Great Gatsby
d. poet/writer T.S. Elliot concentrated on
negative effects of modernism
TS Elliot: The Hollow Men
A penny for the Old Guy
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw.
Alas! Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;
Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom
Remember us -- if at all -- not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.
T.S.Eliot, author of The Waste Land
(1922) and The Hollow Men (1925).
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a
whimper.
B. Pop Culture 1920s
1. Economic Prosperity of the era
a. Americans had more leisure time and
more money
b. able to enjoy various forms of
entertainment/pop culture
2. Baseball, Boxing, and Other Sports
a. Media coverage (motion pictures, radios,
newspapers, magazines) of sports
helped to increase its popularity
b. Sports legends of the era
•Baseball – Babe Ruth famous worldwide
•Boxing – Jack Dempsey
•College Football – Red Grange
•Golf – Bobby Jones
•Tennis – Bill Tilden; Helen Wills
•Swimming – Gertrude Ederle – swam the
English Channel in record time
The “Bambino”
3. Rise of Hollywood
a. Silent Movies
- live piano players set the tone in
the theater
- subtitles revealed the plot
b. First “talkie”: The Jazz Singer
1927
- golden age of Hollywood began!
Al Jolson as the “Jazz Singer”
First “Talking” Motion Picture
4. Radio
a. 1920 – KDKA Pittsburgh launched
1st commercial radio broadcasts:
election results of the 1920
Presidential Election – Harding’s
landslide victory
b. Radios
•played pop music of the day
•comedy shows such as
Amos ‘n’ Andy
5. Significance of 1920s mass media?
a. new technology led to social
changes
b. unified Americans through shared
national culture
c. spread new ideas and attitudes
of the times
III. African American Culture
A. The Harlem Renaissance
1. Black Americans move to northern cities in Great
Migration during WWI era
2. New York City neighborhood of Harlem – area full
of night clubs & music becomes home to a
cultural movement known as the Harlem
Renaissance – significance?
a. stimulated artistic development
b. racial pride
c. sense of community
d. political organization
3. The Writers
a. Claude McKay: immigrant from
Jamaica – criticized racism in America
b. Langston Hughes: examined the
place of blacks in a white world
- many of his poems expressed a
positive, hopeful message –
things may not be good now, but
there is hope for the future
Claude McKay’s If We Must Die
4. The Music – radio/phonograph = pop music
a. JAZZ
1) birthplace: New Orleans
2) American style of music that
developed from ragtime & blues and
which uses syncopated rhythms &
Birth of Jazz
melodies
3) Early Jazz Greats
- Louis Armstrong: 1st great
coronet & trumpet soloist
Known for improvisation
- Duke Ellington: bandleader
Known for improvisation &
orchestration using diff. combos
of instruments
b. The Blues
- Bessie Smith: “empress of the blues”
c. The Cotton Club – famous Harlem
nightspot where many black artists got
their start - could perform or work there,
but couldn’t be a regular customer
The Harlem Renaissance
Bessie Smith
B. African American Politics
1. Harlem Renaissance: brought int’l fame to
many black Americans + sparked a
political transformation in the US
2. Great Migration led to increased political
power of black Americans – created a
strong voting bloc in the north
3. NAACP – W.E. B. DuBois
a. battled discrimination and
segregation through the legal
system – in the courts
b. led efforts in Congress to pass antilynching legislation
4. Black Nationalism – Marcus Garvey
a. glorify black culture & traditions of the
past
b. Garvey proclaimed that blacks
could never find justice or freedom in the
US – developed plan to lead blacks to
new homeland in Africa
c. $ sent in for his cause was
wasted/mismanaged. Garvey jailed,
deported back to Jamaica – organization
collapsed
Marcus Garvey