War and Prosperity Chapter 12 Section 1

 From 1900 to 1917, political life in the United States had moved under the banner of progressive reform.  After World War I, however, most Americans ceased to care about promoting reform.  They wanted to forget the war and enjoy the new prosperity.  The U.S. government returned to the 19 th century policy of laissez-faire.  For most of the 1920s, the United States enjoyed a period of prosperity.

Impact of War  World War I ended in  In the election of 1920, the Republican candidate Warren G. Harding, defeated his Democratic opponent by a huge majority.  Two groups that entered the workforce to replace men who went off to war were both white and African American women.

Women, African Americans, and Other Minorities  Some 300,000 African American men joined the military during WWI.  When peace came, both women and African Americans were reluctant to accept their pre- World War I status.  Women’s rights advocates increased their protests to gain the right to vote.  When African Americans soldiers returned home from the war; they had difficulty going back to being treated as second-class citizens.

 Many of the confrontations between blacks and whites occurred in southern cities.  One of the most serious took place in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in  As was true in other parts of the South, blacks in Tulsa were not allowed to live or own businesses in the white part of the city.  As a result, African Americans lived and worked in their own segregated community.

Tulsa Riots  The cause of the Tulsa riot was similar to the cause of racial strife in other cities.  Rumors spread about a black male attacking a white woman.  An army of whites forced their way into the black section of the city where deadly combat took place.  When the rioting was over, many black-owned homes and businesses had been burned to the ground, and many people, mostly black, had been killed.

 People from Asia faced discrimination that lived on the West Coast.

Movement of African Americans to the North  Two main reasons for the migration to the North. 1. First, they wanted to escape the segregation, or Jim Crow, laws of the South. Their resentment of these laws increased after World War One. If they boldly defied whites’ prejudice against them, they risked being jailed or even lynched. 2. A second reason for moving to the North was the hope of finding a steady job for good pay.

 White people in the North felt threatened by the arrival of blacks in large numbers.  Riots would break out and blacks found segregated beaches, housing, schools, and clubs.

Return to “Normalcy”  In his presidential campaign, Harding promised that he would lead the American nation back to “normalcy.”  In other words he suggested a return to the quieter time before the war and before the progressive politics of Woodrow Wilson and follow a laissez faire policy.

Postwar Recession  During World War I, prices of many American- made goods increased because most were exported or used by the military.  Fewer goods were available in the home market.  During this period, wages did not keep pace with rising prices.  By 1920, unemployment had increased from 2 percent during the war to more than 12 percent, as exports and the production of armaments declined.

 As the demand for good decreased, businesses went bankrupt.  Both the unemployed and those whose wages did not keep pace with prices could no longer afford to purchase goods and services.  Added to this was a decline in farm income, as Europeans farmers once again began to grow products that had been imported from the United States during the war.  These conditions caused the United States to fall into a recession, which last from 1920 to 1922.

Teapot Dome Scandal  Teapot Dome was the name of federally owned lands in Wyoming that contained huge reserves of oil.  Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall secretly leased oil-rich public lands to several oil companies.  In return for his cooperation, Fall received from the companies secret and illegal payments (bribes) totaling about $325,000.

 Harding knew nothing about the corrupt dealings of Fall and other high ranking officials, but he bore the responsibility for having appointed untrustworthy politicians to office.

 Vice President Calvin Coolidge became president when Harding died.  Coolidge was a man of few words.  Reporters referred to him as “Silent Cal.”  Coolidge did say something memorable: “The business of America is business.”  Coolidge and the Republican Party were viewed as supporters of big business.  In the 1920’s, the depressed situation of United States agriculture was chiefly caused by mechanization and overproduction.

 During most of the 1920s, owners of small family farms experienced the most severe economic problems.  The economic boom and the financial speculation of the 1920’s were caused in part by installment buying and an unregulated stock market.

 During the 1920s, there was no more trust busting by the government. (laissez faire)  When workers spend less time accomplishing the same amount of work, their productivity rises.  New machinery and the use of assembly line methods resulted in impressive gains in productivity during the 1920s, thus making it cheaper to manufacture goods.

Laissez Faire  Although workers wages also increased, they were far below the increases in productivity.  An average factory worker earned $1,350 a year in 1929, compared to $1,100 a year in  Business was so good that average Americans with average incomes began buying the stocks of major corporations.