Describe each picture. What might each represent about the 1920’s?

Unit 4—Chapter 7 The Roaring Twenties CSS 11.5

Part One Normalcy and the Booming Economy Discuss the rise of mass production techniques, the growth of cities, the impact of new technologies (e.g., the automobile, electricity), and the resulting prosperity and effect on the American landscape. EQ: How did the booming economy of the 1920’s lead to changes in American life?

The Automobile Drives Prosperity Henry Ford (1863 – 1947) combined mass production with high wages tried to pay his workers enough that they could buy his cars $5 a day in 1914 set very high standards on the work and lives of his workers “I will build a car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for the individual to run and care for. It will be constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. But it will be low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one-and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God's great open spaces.”

The Automobile Drives Prosperity The Model T, 1908 marketed to the middle class cost $850 in 1908 but price dropped to $295 by 1927 car ownership went from 10% of American families in 1919 to 56% in 1927 over 15 million were produced "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black."

The Automobile Drives Prosperity the automobile changed the entire nation 1.stimulated economic growth resources, roads, service stations, diners, motels, insurance 2.freedom of movement unlike the train, you could go wherever you wanted whenever you wanted 3.helped create “urban sprawl” spread cities out to the suburbs

Mass Production Assembly Line techniques to produce goods in large numbers were popularized by Henry Ford standardized parts the assembly line lowered cost of production provided lots of jobs that required little expertise made things affordable that had been too expensive for average people a Model T rolled off the assembly line every three minutes a Model T could be made in 93 minutes

A Bustling Economy Consumerism money saved during WWI, was now spent on new, affordable goods vacuum cleaner, electric iron, electric washing machines, radios, refrigerators Advertising used scientific techniques to play on peoples desires and fears Installment Buying consumers could make a small down payment and then pay monthly payments people could own products that they otherwise could not afford Listerine's new ads featured forlorn young women and men, eager for marriage but turned off by their mate's rotten breath. "Can I be happy with him in spite of that?" one maiden asked herself. In just seven years, the company's revenues rose from $115,000 to more than $8 million.

The Stock Market Bull Market a period of rising stock prices 4 million Americans owned stock by 1929 economists claimed that the value of stocks would always rise

The Stock Market Buying on Margin the buyer paid 10% down and had months to pay the rest the stock was the collateral for the loan people figured that by the time the money was due they could sell the stock for a profit this is allowed more people to buy stock This is a REALLY, REALLY, REALLY bad idea!! People paid 10% of stock price, and could “make payments” on the rest, causing them to buy more than they could afford.

“We in America are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land. We have not yet reached the goal—but... we shall soon, with the help of God, be in sight of the day when poverty will be banished from this nation.” —Herbert Hoover, 1928

EQ: How did the booming economy of the 1920’s lead to changes in American life?