1. The Roaring Twenties Part 2
Mr. Owens

2. Essential Questions
How did technological change, modernization, and changing demographics cause increased political and conflict during the 1920s including: tradition vs. innovation, urban vs. rural, fundamentalist Christianity vs. scientific modernism, management vs. labor, native-born vs. new immigrants, white vs. black, and idealism vs. disillusionment?

3. Science vs. Religion
Modernism: melding of Christianity with modern Darwinian science – Harry Emerson Fosdick
Fundamentalism: literal truth of the Bible, blamed modernists for immorality, opposed evolution
Revivalism: new Great Awakening style preaching, used the radio – Billy Sunday (anti-drinking, gambling, dancing) Aimee Semple McPherson preached against twin evils of communism & jazz in Los Angeles
Scopes Trial: Science vs. Religion
Tennessee’s “Butler Act” (& other Southern states) banned teaching of evolution in public schools
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) supported John T. Scopes to defy law in Dayton 1925
“Monkey Trial” defended by ACLU lawyer Clarence Darrow
Prosecuted by fundamentalist William Jennings Bryan
Scopes found guilty (later overturned on technicality) but laws remained & battle between science & religion continued – Bryan died 5 days later

4. Prohibition
Causes: “Drys” led by WCTU, Anti-Saloon League & rising fundamentalists, most Republicans, business leaders & anti-Germanism – 18th Amendment ratified in 1919
Prohibition Volstead Act passed to enforce it (included anything over 1% alcohol)
Effects: more success in rural areas, but not in cities
Speakeasies – illegal bars & saloons
Bootleggers – smugglers (from Canada & Caribbean) in Chicago controlled by Al Capone – rise of organized crime (expanded to prostitution, gambling, & narcotics), murder rates rose significantly
Police & city officials often bribed to look other way & not enough $ to enforce it effectively
Opposition & Repeal: growing crime rates turned public against it, Northern Democrats opposed it “wets”, Depression raise taxes & use $ elsewhere.
21st Amendment (1933) ended the “Noble Experiment”

5. 1920s Nativism
Causes: anti-foreign mood from WWI, Red Scare, conservative Republicans, isolationists, job concerns
Immigration Act of 1921 set up quota system =annual immigration less than 3% of nationality from 1910
National Origins Act of 1924, lowered to 2% of 1890 (why?) & banned immigration from East Asia
1929 Immigration law limit annual total to 150,000
Canadians & Mexicans were exempt: 500,000 migrants from Mexico in decade
Rise of New KKK: support in strong in Midwest (Indiana) in South (Texas), support from lower-middle class white Protestants, target: blacks, Jews, Catholics, foreigners, Communists, “100% Pure Americanism”, headed by Grand Dragon David Stephenson (convicted of rape & murder in 1925)
Sacco & Vanzetti case: convicted of robbery & murder in 1921, executed in 1927
1928 Election: Democrat Al Smith was attacked & nearly mobbed for being 1st Catholic candidate defeated by Republican Herbert Hoover

6. 1920s Foreign Policy
Republicans effort to cut budget pushed disarmament & avoid conflict
Washington Conference of 1921 led by Sec. of State Hughes naval reductions: Five-Power Treaty reduce largest battleships at ratio: US & GB 5, Japan 3, France & Italy 1.67, Four-Power Treaty: respect territory in Pacific, Nine-Power Treaty: respect Open Door
Dawes Plan – “circular loans”: Britain & France owed $10-11 billion in war debts to US banks, Charles Dawes plan in 1924 loaned billion to Germany to pay off debts (collapsed in 1929)
Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928: due to pacifist pressure (Jane Addams won Nobel Peace Prize in 1931) Sec. of State Frank Kellogg international pact to outlaw war for nationalist ends signed by most of world (defense OK & no means of enforcement)
$ expansion in Latin America: troops in decline (removed from D.R.), but investment doubled
“Red Line Agreement” 1928 U.S. negotiated right for U.S. oil companies to drill in Iraq