1. The Modern Era of the 1920s Unit 7 Ch.23 1920-1929

2. Business-Government Partnership  Republicans believed that the economy would prosper if business took the lead  Warren G. Harding became president in 1921 with Calvin Coolidge as his vice president  Harding assembled a cabinet of progressives, conservatives, and friends

3. The “Associated” State  Sec. of Commerce Hoover directed the creation of two thousand trade associations to work with businesses  Hoover wanted to achieve through voluntary cooperation what the Progressives had tried to legislate  Scandal in the Administration  Charles Forbes (Veterans Bureau) caught selling government and hospital supplies to private companies  Thomas Miller (Office of Alien Property) took bribes  Albert Fall (Sec. of Interior) arranged to have oil-rich land transferred to his department and then secretly leased it to his friends in the oil industry- Teapot Dome Scandal  Harding died in 1923 as the news was breaking

4. Election of 1924  Republicans- Calvin Coolidge  Taciturn and moral  Democrats- divided between North and South  John Davis was the compromise Candidate  Progressive party- Robert La Follette  Coolidge won handily  low voter turnout

6. Women in Politics  Influential as lobbyists  The Women’s Joint Congressional Committee  Sheppard-Towner Maternity and Infancy Act  First federally funded health-care legislation  Conservatives attacked it as a Communist plot and an attempt to socialize America

7. Corporate Capitalism  Business Consolidation  Accelerated rapidly during the 1920s in major industries  Chemicals (DuPont), electrical appliances and machinery (Westinghouse and General Electric), and automobiles (General Motors)  Oligopolies dominated major industries  1920s Economy  1919-inflation, 2 years of recession, 1922-1929 steady growth  Abundance of new consumer products  Agriculture, coal, textiles, and railroads were the “sick industries”

8. Welfare Capitalism  Labor relations that stressed management’s responsibility for employees’ wellbeing.  Large corporations offered health insurance, pension plans, and the opportunity to buy stock  Goals were to create a loyal workforce and deter unionization

9. Economic Expansion Abroad  American business spread to Europe, Asia, and south America  Fordney-McCumber Tariff (1922)  Raised tariffs on foreign-made goods  Made it difficult European nations to pay their war debts  Dawes Plan (1924)  Reduced German reparations while providing them with loans  Success depended on American loans to Germany and Allied payments to America

10. Foreign Policy in the 1920s  Combination of isolationism and internationalism  Washington Naval Arms Conference  Placed strict limits on naval expansion to deter excessive spending and limit Japanese naval power in SEA  Kellogg-Briand Pact  Agreement condemn war for the “solution of international controversies, and to renounce it as an instrument of national policy.”

12. National Culture  Consumer Society  New electrical conveniences started to become necessities instead of luxuries  Irons, refrigerators, cooking ranges, and toasters  Modern Advertising  Hired psychologists to study how to appeal to people’s desires  The Automobile  Paved roads, homes with garages, gas stations, repair shops, motels, shopping centers, traffic signals  People could live farther from work (urban sprawl) and vacation far from home  Symbolized freedom and success

17. Mass Culture  Movies  Early stars included Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplain, Mary Pickford, and Clara Bow (who became the icon of flappers)  Jazz  Began in New Orleans and spread to the major cities  Journalism  Mass circulation magazines, tabloid newspapers, Associated Press spread mass culture  Radio  Became the primary form of entertainment for many households

19. Mass Culture  Leisure  Driving, playing tennis or golf, swimming  Sports  Baseball and boxing were the primary professional sports of the 1920s

21. Rise of Nativism  Nativism- prejudice against foreign-born people  Immigration Restriction  Emergency Quota Act (1921) and the National Origins Act (1924) severely restricted immigration from Europe  Immigration from the Western Hemisphere continued  The New Klan  4.5 million members by 1924  Prohibitionists, anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic, anti-Union, anti-immigration, anti-black  Appealed to most American sentiments at the time

22. Legislating Values  Protestant Fundamentalism  A movement grounded in the literal interpretation of the Bible  The Scopes Trial (1925)  Tennessee science teacher John Scopes was put on trial for teaching about evolution  ACLU provided Clarence Darrow as defense attorney  William Jennings Bryan served as special prosecutor and Bible expert  Scopes was found guilty, but it was overturned by the Tenn. Supreme court

23. Legislating Values  The “Noble Experiment”  Eighteenth Amendment took effect in 1920  Some urban ethnic groups made their own beer or distilled bathtub gin (bootleggers)  Organized crime increased  Speakeasies sprang up across the country  Twenty-first Amendment in 1933 ended prohibition

30. Intellectual Crosscurrents  “Lost Generation”  A group of writers and artists who lashed out against war and the pursuit of excess material wealth  Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, T.S. Eliot, Sinclair Lewis  Harlem Renaissance  Championed racial pride among Black Americans  Writers, musicians, and other artists went to Harlem to be part of the experience  Claude McKay, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes  Marcus Garvey and UNIA  Universal Negro Improvement Association  Jamaican immigrant who encouraged black separatism and started a back to Africa movement

31. Election of 1928  Campaign issues: Prohibition, Protestant Fundamentalism, nativism  Democrat- Alfred Smith  4 terms as governor of New York  Tammany Hall political machine  Irish Catholic  Republicans- Herbert Hoover  Secretary of Commerce  Food Administration (WWI)

34. Great Depression: Causes and Consequences  Causes  Tariffs and war debt policies, farm crisis, easy credit, unequal distribution of income, overproduction of consumer goods  “Black Tuesday”  Oct. 29, 1929- 16.4 million shares were sold with additional millions unable to sell  Middle-class bought stock on margin and lost their money  Economic weaknesses  Agriculture, railroads, coal, textiles, steel, housing starts  Financial Panic becomes Depression  Banks closed, economic contraction prolonged, business refused to invest, and people refused to buy

35. Great Depression: Causes and Consequences  Worldwide Depression  Between 1929 and 1932 9,000 banks closed and 13 million people (25% of the workforce) were out of jobs  American couldn’t import as many foreign goods  Britain abandoned the gold standard  Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act  Raised tariff rates to protect American industries  Significantly decreased world trade and resulted in retaliatory tariffs

36. Herbert Hoover Responds  Cautious Step  Asked employers not to cut wages or lay off workers  Asked labor leaders not to demand higher wages or go on strike  Refused direct government intervention  Revenue Act of 1932  Increased taxes to balance the budget and looser interest rates  The Reconstruction Finance Corporation  Provided federal loans to railroads, financial institutions, banks, and insurance companies (pump priming)  Designed to increase production and create new jobs

37. Herbert Hoover Responds  Rising Discontent  “Hoovervilles”-shanty towns built out of scrap material  Violent strikes, farmers violently resisted repossession of their land  Coal Strike, Ford Strike  Bonus Army  WWI veterans who marched on Washington to receive their bonus pay early  Hoover called out troops to burn the bonus army’s encampment

43. Election of 1932  Republicans- Herbert Hoover  Democrats- Franklin Delano Roosevelt  Governor of New York  Pledged vigorous action to correct the economy