CHAPTER 25: TRANSITION TO MODERN AMERICA, 1920-1928 (#2)
The Rural Counterattack
- shift of population from the countryside to the city led to heightened social tensions in the 1920s
o rural Americans saw in the city all that was evil in contemporary life
- countryside struck back at the newly dominant urban areas, aiming to restore the primacy of the
Anglo-Saxon and predominantly Protestant culture they revered
o American Legion – tried to root out “un-American” behavior and insisted on cultural as well as
political conformity
- progressivism focused on such problems as drinking and illiteracy to justify repressive measures like
Prohibition and immigration restriction
- The “Red Scare”
o achieving unity at the expense of ethnic diversity
 new target was bolshevism
 growing turn to communism among American radicals accelerated these fears
o in cities – their influence appeared to be magnified with the outbreak of widespread labor
unrest
 was a rash of strikes and a series of bombings
o Attorney General Palmer – led the attack on the alien threat
 launched a massive roundup of foreign-born radicals
o series of raids – federal agents seized suspected anarchists and communists and held them for
deportation with no regard for due process of law
 the “Soviet Ark” (as named by the press)
 nearly all were innocent of the charges against them
o month later – Palmer rounded up nearly 4,000 suspected communists in a single evening
(without search warrants)
 aliens rounded up were deported without hearings or trials
 whole anti-communist episode was known as the Red Scare
o very extremism of the Red Scare led to its rapid demise
 courageous government officials from the Department of Labor insisted on due process
and full hearings before anyone else was deported
 public leaders began to speak out against the acts of terror
o Palmer – was warned of a vast revolution to occur on May 1
 entire New York City police force, some 11,000 officers, were placed on duty to prepare
for imminent disaster
 no bombings or violence took place on May Day – the public began to react
against Palmer’s hysteria
o Red Scare – died out by the end of 1920
o Red Scare – exerted a continuing influence on American society in the 1920s
 foreign born lived in the uneasy realization that they were viewed with hostility and
suspicion
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o two Italian aliens – Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti – were arrested in May 1920 for a
payroll robbery and murder
 courts rejected all appeals and they died in the electric chair
 fate symbolized the bigotry and intolerance that lasted through the 1920s and
made that decade one of the least attractive in American history
Prohibition
o Eighteenth Amendment – prohibited the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages
 Volstead Act – illegal for anyone to make, sell, or transport any drink that contained
more than one-half of 1 percent alcohol by volume
 “noble experiment”
o did in fact lead to a decline in drinking
 rural areas became totally dry
 cities – consumption of alcoholic beverages dropped sharply among the lower classes,
who could not afford the high prices for bootleg liquor
o middle class and wealthy – drinking became fashionable
 bootleggers supplied whiskey
o despite the risk of illness or death from extraordinarily high alcohol content or poorly controlled
distillation, Americans consumed some 150 million quarts of liquor a year in the 1920s
o urban resistance to Prohibition finally led to its repeal in 1933
 bred a profound disrespect for the law
The Ku Klux Klan
o rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan
 Colonel William J. Simmons – founded the modern Klan
 only “native born, white, gentile Americans” were permitted to join
o Anglo-Saxon Protestant men flocked into the newly formed chapters, seeking to relieve their
anxiety over a changing society by embracing the Klan’s unusual rituals and by demonstrating
their hatred against blacks, aliens, Jews, and Catholics
o not just anti-black
 were anti any threat to American culture – that came from aliens – Italians and Russians,
Jews and Catholics
o enforcing their own values – punished blacks who did not know their place, women who
practiced the new morality, and aliens who refused to conform
 beating, flogging, burning with acid – even murder – were condoned
 tried more peaceful methods of coercion – codes of behavior and by seeking
community-wide support
o KKK – gained control of the legislatures of Texas, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Indiana
 Protestant to the core
o each Klan had its own Klalendar, a weekly Klonklave in the local Klavern, followed the rules set
forth in the Kloran
 was a men’s organization – the Klan did not neglect the family
 Women’s Order, a Junior Order for boys, and Tri-K Klub for girls
o members had to be born in America, but foreign-born Protestants were allowed to join a
special Krusaders affiliate
 blacks, Catholics, Jews, and prostitutes were beyond redemption
o Klan – fell even more quickly than it rose
 more violent activities – kidnapping, lynching, setting fire to synagogues and Catholic
churches, and (in one case) murdering a priest – began to offend the nation’s
conscience
 misuse of funds and sexual scandals among Klan leaders repelled many of the
rank and file
 effective counterattacks by traditional politicians ousted the KKK from control in Texas
and Oklahoma
o spirit lived on – testimony to the recurring demons of nativism and hatred that have surfaced
periodically throughout the American experience
- Immigration Restriction
o nativism – was evident in the immigration legislation of the 1920s
 restrict the flow of people fro Europe
o 1917 – Congress enacted a literacy test that reduced the number of immigrants allowed into
the country
 war caused a much more drastic decline
o Congress in 1921 – passed an emergency immigration act
 new quota system restricted immigration from Europe to 3% of the number of nationals
from each country living in the United States in 1910
o National Origins Quota Act – limited immigration from Europe to 150,000 a year; allocated
most of the available slots to immigrants from Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, and
Scandinavia; and banned all Asian immigrants
 quota system would survive until the 1960s
o growing tide of Mexican laborers, exempt from the quota act – flowed across the Rio Grande to
fill the continuing need for unskilled workers on the farms and in the service trades
- The Fundamentalist Controversy
o Scopes trial held in Dayton, Tennessee
 1925 –William Jennings Bryan – who had unsuccessfully run for president several times
in previous decades, engaged in a crusade against the theory of evolution
 chief witness against John T. Scopes
o Scopes – a high school biology teacher, had initiated the case by deliberately violating a new
Tennessee law that forbade the teaching of Darwin’s theory
 Chicago defense attorney Clarence Darrow succeeded in making Bryan look ridiculous
 court found Scopes guilty but let him off with a token fine
o Bryan – exhausted by his efforts, died a few days later
o traditional rural religious beliefs were stronger than ever
 more and more rural dwellers drove their cars into town instead of going to the local
crossroads chapel
Politics of the 1920s
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tensions between the city and the countryside also shaped the course of politics in the 1920s
GOP (“Grand Old Party”) controlled the White House from 1921 to 1933 and had majorities in both
houses of Congress from 1918 to 1930
o Republicans – used their return to power to halt further legislation and to establish a friendly
relationship between government and business
Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover
o 1920 – Warren G. Harding of Ohio, reflected both the virtues and blemishes of small-town
America – was a genial man who lacked the capacity to govern and who, as president, broadly
delegated power
 made some good cabinet choices
 but for two corrupt officials – Attorney General Harry Daugherty and Secretary
of the Interior Albert Fall – sabotaged his administration
o Teapot Dome Scandal – two oil promoters gave Fall nearly $400,000 in
loans and bribes; in return, he helped them secure leases on naval oil
reserves in Elk Hills, California and Teapot Dome, Wyoming
o Vice President Calvin Coolidge – assumed the presidency upon Harding’s death
 honesty and integrity reassured the nation
o Coolidge – became famous for his epigrams, which contemporaries mistook for wisdom
 believed his duty was simply to preside benignly, not govern the nation
 Coolidge – was elected to a full term by a wide margin in 1924
o Herbert Hoover – became the Republican choice to succeed him
 epitomized the American myth of the self-made man
 embodied the nation’s faith in individualism and free enterprise
o sought cooperation between government and business
 assist American manufacturers and exporters in expanding their overseas trade, strongly
supported a trade association movement to encourage cooperation rather than
cutthroat competition among smaller American companies
Republican Policies
o Harding – focused on a “return to normalcy”
 coined a new word (“normality”) that became the theme for the Republican
administrations of the 1920s
 sought a return to traditional Republican policies
o mixture of traditional and innovative measures that was neither wholly
reactionary nor entirely progressive
o tariff and tax policy
 Congress passed an emergency tariff act in 1921 and followed it a year later with the
protectionist Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act
o Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon – worked hard to achieve a similar return to normalcy
in taxation
 pressed for repealing an excess of profits tax on corporations and slashing personal
rates on the very rich
 he reduced government spending, thereby creating a slight surplus
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o revenue acts of the 1920s greatly reduced the burden of taxation
 greatest relief went to the wealthy
 J.P. Morgan – and his nineteen partners had paid no income tax at all during the
depths of the Depression
o growing crisis in American farming during the decade forced the Republican administrations to
seek new solutions
 sharp decline in farm prices and a return to the problem of overproduction
 farmers then supported more controversial measures designed to raise domestic crop
prices by having the government sell the surplus overseas at low world prices
 Coolidge – vetoed the legislation on grounds that it involved unwarranted
government interference in the economy
o Republicans – widened the scope of federal activity and nearly doubled the ranks of
government employees
 government encouraged corporations to develop welfare programs that undercut trade
unions, and he tried to minimize labor disturbances by devising new federal machinery
to mediate disputes
 instead of going back to the laissez-faire tradition of the 19th century – the
Republican administrations of the 1920s were pioneering a close relationship
between government and private business
The Divided Democrats
o Republicans ruled in the 1920s – Democrats seemed bent on self-destruction
o pace of the Second Industrial Revolution and the growing urbanization split the party in two
 Traditional Democrats – who had supported Wilson stood for Prohibition,
fundamentalism, the Klan, and other facets of the rural counterattack against the city
 contrast, a new breed of Democrat was emerging in the metropolitan areas of the North
and the Midwest
o immigrants and their descendants began to become active in the Democratic party
 Catholic or Jewish in religion and strongly opposed to Prohibition, they had little in
common with their rural counterparts
o delegates divided between Alfred E. Smith – the governor of New York – and William G.
McAdoo of California – Wilson’s secretary of the treasury
 neither the city nor the rural candidate could win a majority, both men withdrew and
the weary democrats finally chose John W. Davis as a compromise nominee
 Robert La Follette of Wisconsin – offered an alternative by running on an
independent Progressive party ticket
o Davis –made the poorest showing of any Democratic candidate in the 20 th century
o large cities were swinging clearly into the Democratic column; all the party needed was a
charismatic leader who could fuse the older rural elements with the new urban voters
The Election of 1928
o Al Smith – prototype of the urban Democrat, Catholic and was associated with a big-city
machine, was a “wet” who wanted an end to Prohibition
o Herbert Hoover – was a Protestant, a dry, and an old-stock American, who stood for efficiency
and individualism
 Hoover – won the support of many old-line Democrats who feared the city, Tammany
Hall, and the pope
o Smith – was a Catholic, a wet, and a descendant of immigrants, who closely associated with bigcity politics
 Smith – appealed to new voters in the cities
o 1928 – election was a dubious victory for the Republicans
 Hoover – won easily
o Smith – succeeded for the first time in winning a majority of votes for the Democrats in the
nation’s twelve largest cities
o new Democratic electorate was emerging, consisting of Catholics and Jews, Irish and Italians,
Poles and Greeks
 task was to unite the traditional Democrats of the South and West with the urban voters
of the Northeast and Midwest
o growing influence of the city on politics of the 1920s reflected the sweeping changes taking
place throughout the decade in American social and economic development
 emergence of the city as the center of 20th-cenutry life
 production and use of consumer goods led to a very different lifestyle
 modern American focused on the automobile and the city
o decade ended in a severe depression that lasted all through the 1930s
 only after World War II would the American people finally enjoy an abundance and
prosperity rooted in the urban transformation that began in the 1920s