The Roaring Twenties
PROHIBITION
SUFFRAGE
CONSUMERISM OF THE 1920’S
THE AUTOMOBILE CULTURE
YOUTH SETS THE SCENE
FUNDAMENTALISM
THE SCOPES TRIAL
Prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition – a ban of the sale of
alcohol in the US
Argued that ban would be good for society
During WWI – linked alcohol with being
un-patriotic
- grain for troops, not alcohol
- German brewers plotting to
make American troops unfit
By 1919, 26 states limited sale of alcohol
and ¾ of people lived in “dry” areas
Eighteenth Amendment 1919
- enforced by the Volstead Act
Prohibition
Suffrage
Women had been trying to get the right
to
vote since 1848
Progressives wanted women to vote
- help with reforms like child
labor
Carrie Chapman Catt
- National Women Suffrage Assn.
Alice Paul
- Congressional Union
- National Women’s party
- picketed White House
The Nineteenth Amendment
President Wilson urged Congress to
approve suffrage
Ratification of national suffrage came
on August 26, 1920
The right to vote still didn’t grant women
full equality
In many states women still couldn’t:
- serve on juries
- hold office
- enter businesses
- sign contracts without
husband’s permission
Suffrage
Americans as Consumers
For the first time, Americans had
more than just enough money to
live on
Improved standard of living
Mass produced goods became more
available:
• vacuum cleaners, toasters, irons,
washing machines, refrigerators
Increased leisure time:
• listening to radio, phonographs,
talk on telephone, etc.
Poverty in Midst of Plenty
Low wages and unemployment
combined to send many Americans
into poverty
New technology caused farmers to
produce more than they could sell
- farm prices declined
Coal industry in decline, replaced
by electricity in manufacturing
Textile industry because of changes
in fashion
1/3 of Americans lived below “minimum
standards for a decent life”
America Hits the Road
By 1927, Americans owned 4 out of
every 5 cars in the world
Last of the Model – T’s cost less than
$300, were affordable since average
family made $2,000 a year
boosted entire economy, especially
steel, glass, rubber, gasoline
End of WWI we had 7,000 miles of
concrete roads, by 1927 there were over
50,000 miles
10,000 miles of new road per year
The Driving Culture
The car changed culture in
many ways:
- dating habits of young people
- Sunday outings of families
- places people lived and
vacationed
- the way people shopped
People began to travel to other
areas of the country
People were also saddled with
debt for the first time (buying
a car on credit)
weren't the only thing being
Buying on Time Cars
bought on time
By 1928:
85% of furniture
80% of phonographs
75% of washing machines
70% of refrigerators
Credit: putting money down
and paying in installments
Mass Media: advertizing
encouraged people to buy more
and more
Youth Sets the Scene
Girls turned the modest image that
was popular before WWI upside down
Before WWI, women were arrested for
smoking or using profanity in public
Ten years later… flappers smoked,
drank, went joyriding in cars
Society seemed to encourage their
behavior.
Flappers
Women’s movement and new laws
gave women more economic and
intellectual independence
At the Movies
In the 1920’s, the average American went
to the movies once a week
Inexpensive for high school and college
students – 10Cents!
Fans identified with movie stars
– movie stars set the trends
School Days
Most Americans were prosperous
enough to let kids stay in school
By 1929, 51% of all high school
aged youth were in school as
opposed to less than 6%in 1890
Large high schools with gyms and
libraries
More and more began to attend
college, 1 in 8 by 1930
The Power of Religion
Scopes Trial Fallout
Fundamentalism: a movement
that affirmed the literal truth
of the Bible
Movement thrived in the U.S.,
especially in the South and the
Midwest
Evangelists: fundamental preachers
Evangelists began to use radio to
reach people
Billy Sunday
Prohibition Fails
Prohibition pitted fundamentalists
against opponents who favored more
tolerance
small-town, rural America against urban
America
Bootleggers: people who illegally made,
sold, or transported liquor
People blatantly ignored the law,
refused to take it seriously
Led to rise in crime
Al Capone became a multimillionaire as
head of Chicago gang
The Great Depression
Part 1
ELECTION OF 1928
CAUSES OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION
STOCK MARKET CRASH
HOOVER’S RESPONSE
BONUS ARMY
ELECTION OF 1932
FDR
Young Hoover supporter in 1928
HOOVER WINS 1928
ELECTION
 Republican Herbert
Hoover ran against
Democrat Alfred E.
Smith in the 1928
election
 Hoover emphasized
years of prosperity
under Republican
administrations
 Hoover won an
overwhelming victory
“The United States is nearer
to the final triumph over
poverty than ever before in
the history of any land.”
Herbert Hoover, 1928
THE GREAT
DEPRESSION
BEGINS
Photos by photographer Dorothea Lange
SECTION 1: THE NATION’S SICK
ECONOMY
As the 1920s advanced, serious problems threatened
the economy while
Important industries struggled, including:









Agriculture
Railroads
Textiles
Steel
Mining
Lumber
Automobiles
Housing
Consumer goods
CAUSES OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION
 U.S. demand
low, despite
factories
producing more
 Farm sector
crisis
 Easy credit
 Unequal
distribution of
income
FARMERS STRUGGLE
 No industry suffered as
much as agriculture
 During World War I
European demand for
American crops soared
 After the war demand
plummeted
 Farmers increased
production sending
prices further downward
Photo by Dorothea Lange
CONSUMER SPENDING
DOWN
 By the late 1920s,
American consumers
were buying less
 Rising prices, stagnant
wages and overbuying on
credit were to blame
 Most people did not have
the money to buy the
flood of goods factories
produced
 Telephones, radios,
refrigerators, washing
machines piled up in
warehouses
GAP BETWEEN RICH &POOR
 The gap between rich
and poor widened
 The wealthiest 1% saw
their income rise 75%
in the 1920’s
 The rest of the
population saw an
increase of only 9%
 More than 70% of
American families
earned less than
$2500 per year
Photo by Dorothea Lange
Everyone Can Be Rich!
“If a man saves $15 a week, and invests in good common
stocks, and allows the dividends and rights to accumulate,
at the end of twenty years he will have at least $80,000 and
an income of around $400 a month. He will be rich.”
-John J. Raskob, Democratic National
Committee Chairman, 1929
The stock market became an attractive gamble!
 dramatic difference between the return on a savings
account and what could be made in the stock market!
THE STOCK MARKET
 By 1929, many Americans
were invested in the Stock
Market
 The Stock Market had
become the most visible
symbol of a prosperous
American economy
 The Dow Jones Industrial
Average was the
barometer of the Stock
Market’s worth
 The Dow is a measure
based on the price of 30
largest firms
STOCK PRICES RISE THROUGH
THE 1920s
 Through most of the
1920s, stock prices
rose steadily
 The Dow reached a
high in 1929 of 381
points (300 points
higher than 1924)
 By 1929, 4 million
Americans owned
stocks
New York Stock Exchange
SEEDS OF TROUBLE
 By the late 1920s,
problems with the
economy emerged
 Speculation: Too many
Americans were engaged
in speculation – buying
stocks & bonds hoping
for a quick profit
 Margin: Americans were
buying “on margin” –
paying a small
percentage of a stock’s
price as a down payment
and borrowing the rest
The Stock Market’s bubble was
about to break
Buying on Margin
investor with $500
option 1: buy 5 shares of stock in a company costing $100 a piece
or…
option 2: use the same $500 to buy 100 shares at 5% down
now he holds $10,000 worth of stock
All is good as long as the stock prices rose…brokers were happy
(they got 20% interest on loans)…stockholders happy
If prices went down… brokers asked investors for more cash…if they
didn’t have it brokers sold the stock
THE 1929 CRASH
 In September the Stock




Market had some unusual up
& down movements
On October 24, the market
took a plunge . . .the worst
was yet to come
On October 29, now known as
Black Tuesday, the bottom fell
out
16.4 million shares were sold
that day – prices plummeted
People who had bought on
margin (credit) were stuck
with huge debts
By mid-November, investors
had lost about $30 billion
THE GREAT DEPRESSION
 The Stock Market crash
signaled the beginning
of the Great Depression
 The Great Depression is
generally defined as the
period from 1929 – 1940
in which the economy
plummeted and
unemployment
skyrocketed
 The crash alone did not
cause the Great
Depression, but it
Alabama family, 1938 Photo by Walter Evans
hastened its arrival
FINANCIAL COLLAPSE
 After the crash, many
Americans panicked
and withdrew their
money from banks
 Banks had invested in
the Stock Market and
lost money
 In 1929- 600 banks fail
 By 1933 – 11,000 of the
25,000 banks
nationwide had
collapsed
Bank run 1929, Los Angeles
HOOVER STRUGGLES WITH THE
DEPRESSION
 After the stock
market crash,
President Hoover
tried to reassure
Americans
 He said, “Any lack of
confidence in the
economic future . . .
is foolish”
 He recommended
business as usual
Herbert Hoover
Hoover’s Response
Hoover believed in voluntary
action
 asked businesses to pledge not to
cut wages or production of goods
 wanted city and state governments
to fund building projects to provide
new jobs to stimulate the economy
HOOVER’S PHILOSOPHY
 Hoover was not quick to
react to the depression
 He believed in “rugged
individualism” – the idea
that people succeed
through their own efforts
 People should take care
of themselves, not
depend on governmental
hand-outs
 He said people should
“pull themselves up by
their bootstraps”
Hoover believed it was the individual’s job to take care of themselves, not the government’s
GNP DROPS, UNEMPLOYMENT
SOARS
 Between 1928-1932, the
U.S. Gross National
Product (GNP) – the
total output of a nation’s
goods & services – fell
nearly 50% from $104
billion to $59 billion
 90,000 businesses went
bankrupt
 Unemployment leaped
from 3% in 1929 to 25%
in 1932
TARIFFS
 The U.S. was not the only




country gripped by the Great
Depression
Much of Europe suffered
throughout the 1920s
In 1930, Congress passed the
toughest tariff in U.S. history
called the Hawley- Smoot Tariff
It was meant to protect U.S.
industry yet had the opposite
effect
Other countries enacted their
own tariffs and soon world
trade fell 40%
HARDSHIPS DURING DEPRESSION
 The Great Depression
brought hardship,
homelessness, and hunger to
millions
 Across the country, people
lost their jobs, and their
homes
 Some built makeshifts
shacks out of scrap material
 Before long whole
shantytowns (sometimes
called Hoovervilles in mock
reference to the president)
sprung up
Too Little Too Late
Hoover still felt that voluntary action
and local programs were the best
way to deal with the Depression
Hoover reluctantly approved in 1932:
Reconstruction Finance Corp. (RFC)
-$2 billion in loans to faltering
banks, insurance companies,
railroads to spur economy
Emergency Relief Act
- $300 million in loans to state
governments for unemployment
relief
SOUP KITCHENS
 One of the common features
of urban areas during the
era were soup kitchens and
bread lines
 Soup kitchens and bread
lines offered free or low-cost
food for people
Unemployed men wait in line for
food – this particular soup kitchen
was sponsored by Al Capone
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
Famous Depression Era song
During presidential campaign of
1932 Republicans tried to
discourage radio stations from
playing the song
Yip Harburg
“Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?”
BONUS
ARMY
 A 1932 incident further
damaged Hoover’s image
 That spring about 15,000
World War I vets arrived in
Washington to support a
proposed bill
 The Patman Bill would have
authorized Congress to pay a
bonus to WWI vets
immediately
 The bonus was scheduled to
be paid in 1945 --- The Army
vets wanted it NOW
BONUS ARMY TURNED DOWN
 Hoover called the
Bonus marchers,
“Communists and
criminals”
 On June 17, 1932 the
Senate voted down
the Putnam Bill
Thousands of Bonus Army soldiers
protest – Spring 1932
BONUS MARCHERS CLASH WITH
SOLDIERS
 Hoover told the Bonus
marchers to go home– most
did
 2,000 refused to leave
 Hoover sent a force of 1,000
soldiers under the command
of General Douglas
MacArthur and his aide
Dwight Eisenhower
AMERICANS SHOCKED AT
TREATMENT OF WWI VETS
 MacArthur’s 12th infantry gassed more than 1,000
marchers, including an 11-month old baby, who died
 Two vets were shot and scores injured
 Americans were outraged and once again, Hoover’s image
suffered
Election of 1932
Routing of the Bonus Army was
the last nail in Hoover’s political
coffin
When Hoover tried to campaign
he was often booed
On his way to vote on Election
Day people threw stink bombs
at his car
Franklin Delano Roosevelt won
the election in a landslide
Election of 1932