Chapter 23
The 1920’s: Coping With Change
1920-1929
Introduction
• Why was the economy so prosperous in the
1920’s?
• What were the dominant political values of the
1920’s?
• What was the new popular culture of the decade
and which Americans did it barely touch?
• What developments in the period contributed to
both the social tensions and artistic flowering?
Booming Business, Ailing
Agriculture
• Economy grew rapidly and prospered
largely due to electrical appliance industry
(refrigerators, washing machines, vacuum
cleaners) and automobile industry
• Related industries also prospered
• American businesses invested abroad
• High Protective Tariffs suppressed
international trade
• Farmers suffered from surpluses and low
prices
New Modes of Producing,
Managing and Selling
• Assembly line and other innovations
increases production 40%
• Chain Stores
• Installment Buying
• Modern National Advertising
• Business leaders were the new American
Hero
Women in the New Economic Era
• 24% of the workforce were women
• Secretaries, typists, filing clerks
• Teaching and Nursing
Struggling Labor Unions
• Union membership fell from 5 million to 3.4
million
• Intimidation, Open Shop, Scab labor
• Benefits
Stand Pat Politics in the
Decade of Change
• 1920 Warren G. Harding defeated James
M. Cox
• Charles Forbes- stole money from the
Veterans bureau
• Attorney General Harry Daugherty sold
immunity from prosecution
• Secretary of Interior Albert Fall- Tea pot
Dome Scandal
Republican Policy Making
in the Pro-business era
• Calvin Coolidge replaces Harding upon his
death
• High Protective Tariffs
• Andrew Mellon convinces Congress to lower
taxes
• William Howard Taft and the Supreme Court rule
Federal Child labor Law is unconstitutional
• Coolidge vetoes bill to buy surplus farm
commodities
Independent Internationalism
• US protected American interests but
refused to join the League of Nations
• Charles E. Hughes called for an arms
reduction treaty at the Washington Naval
Conference in 1921
Progressive Stirrings, Democratic
Party Divisions
• Election of 1924
– Democrats nominate John W. Davis
– Progressives nominate Robert LaFollette
– Republicans nominate Calvin Coolidge who
wins easily
Women and politics in the 1920’s: A
Dream Deferred
• 19th Amendment did not lead to a great
influence of women in politics
• Women's Rights groups splintered over
goals of the movement
Cities, Cars, Consumer Goods
• Traffic jams, parking problems, accidental
deaths, reduced parental supervision of
young adults
• New consumer goods available to city
dwellers
• New electrical appliances
• Henry Ford and the $5 Day
Soaring Energy Consumption and
a Threatened Environment
• Coal
• Oil
• Air Pollution
Mass-Produced Entertainment
• Reader’s Digest
• Radio Programs
• Silent to Talkies/ Movies
Celebrity Culture
•
•
•
•
Babe Ruth
Ty Cobb
Jack Dempsey
Charles Lindbergh
The Jazz Age and the post War
Crisis of Values
• Sigmund Freud
• Women/Flappers
• Jazz
Alienated Writers
• Lost Generation
– Sinclair Lewis
– Earnest Hemingway
– F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Harlem Renaissance
– Langston Hughes
– Zora Neal Hurston
– Countee Cullen
Architects, Painters, Musicians
Celebrate Modern America
• Frank Lloyd Wright
• Artists
– Thomas Hart Benton
– Edward Hopper
– Georgia O’Keeffe
• Musicians
–
–
–
–
George Gershwin
Bessie Smith
Louis Armstrong
Duke Ellington
Advances in Science and Medicine
• Arthur Compton
– X-Rays
• Whooping Cough, Measles, Influenza
• Life Expectancy
Immigration Restriction
• Established quotas for each nationality
• Laws excluded Chinese and Japanese
entirely
• Eastern and Southern Europeans received
small quotas
• National Origins Quota remained US law
until 1965
Needed Workers/Unwelcome
Aliens: Hispanic Newcomers
• The 1920's National Origins Act did not
limit immigration from Western
Hemisphere countries
• 1930's about 2 million Mexicans arrived in
the US
• Nativism
Nativism, Anti-Radicalism and the
Sacco and Vanzetti Case
• Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo VanzettiItalian immigrants were convicted of
robbery and murder
• Evidence was circumstantial
• Ethnic Origin and Political Radicalism
Fundamentalism and the
Scopes Trial
• Several states passed laws prohibiting the
teaching of any theory that contradicted
creationism
• John T. Scopes- Substitute Teacher from Dayton
Tennessee, fired and fined for teaching evolution
• ACLU hired Clarence Darrow to represent
Scopes
• William Jennings Bryan assisted the prosecution
• Billy Sunday and Aimee Semple Mcherson
The KKK and Garvey Movement
• KKK- 5 million members
• Marcus Garvey- UNIA (United Negro
Improvement Association)
– Black pride
– Economic solidarity
– Return to Africa Movement
– 80,000 Members
Prohibition: Cultures in Conflict
• 1928 Election Issue
– Organized Crime
– Democrat Alfred E. Smith
– Republican Herbert Hoover
• Supporters
– Native born fundamentalists Protestants
– Lived mainly in rural areas
• Opponents
– Liberals
– Intellectuals
– Rebellious Youths
– Immigrants
Herbert Hoover’s Social Thought
• Encouraged voluntary cooperation among
corporate leaders
– raise wages
– plan production
– marketing
– standardized products
• Self Regulation would ensure economic
growth and a better life for all