The New Era: the 1920s

My candle burns at both ends;It will not last the night;

But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends-

It gives a lovely light!-Edna St. Vincent Millay, “First

Fig”, 1920

1 radio

1 phonograph

1 washing machine

1 vacuum cleaner

1 sewing machine

living in the 1920s

$75

$50

$150

$50

$60

“The business of America is business” – C. Coolidge

Mass productionSpending is an American virtueAviation industry (initially about mail

delieraybut on cusp of expanding ideas – Lindbergh, Earhart)

The Car• changed landscape & architecture,

created jobs (gas stations, motels, shopping centers, mechanics), engineering feats (Holland Tunnel, Woodbridge Cloverleaf)

• less isolation, further from job,(urban sprawl) suburbs, vacationing, freedom

• status symbol – youth culture• success of free enterprise: owning

own transportation & go wherever• Accidents, abandonment of the

hearth, aided crime waves• late 1920s, 80% of world’s cars

were in US (1 car for every 5 Americans) – 30 million cars

• increase in appliance purchases: frees up housewives for leisure, community activities, working outside the home

• actually made Americans more alike than before

• modern advertising: product features & prices, psychological studies of which color sells, package sizing, slogans, necessities

• brand names• The Man Nobody Knows

Listerine Advertisement:

She was a beautiful girl and talented too. She had the advantage of education and better clothes than most girls of her set. She possessed that culture and poise that travel brings. Yet in the one pursuit that stands foremost in the mind of every girl and woman – marriage – she was a failure

Traditionalism & longing for simpler earlier time

Efforts to consolidate complexities of modern world into brief “bites”

Mass Circulation Magazines

Silent MoviesCharlie Chaplin

“Talkies”The Jazz SingerStarring Al Jolson

Mary Pickford“America’s Sweetheart”

Movies and BroadcastingThe Jazz Singer – the first

feature-length “talkie” 1927

Motion Picture Association (monitoring & “safe” viewing)Hays Code

Radio’s influence – KDKA & NBC• Self monitored stations• More diverse &

subversive

The New Woman (?)Reality was still choosing work or family –

married who worked were lower class

Kept to same traditional “professions” as before

“mothering” not just a natural skill – need trained pros

“companionate marriage” – a partner in the relationship not just breeder & child raiser

birth control- Margaret Sanger

Flapper – modern woman w/modern attitudes

Reality was women still dependent @work & home on men

Increase in women’s organizations & political activityAlice Paul – ERALeague of Women VotersSheppard-Towner Act (1921-1929) ultimately

showed didn’t need to cater to female voter, not a real force but medical profession was

Youth CultureCreation of adolescence

separate stage of American life – in need of further dev. before adulthood

More emphasis on training & education

Schools provide setting for development w/in peer group

Good- bye “self made man”

Need for formal training & formal education eliminating him in field after field

What does it mean to be a man?AthleticsFraternal societieswar

Cultural conflict at work: Edison, Lindbergh & Ford (modern yet self made)

Labor Unrest• 1919 – more than 3,000 strikes

(4 million workers)• During war not possible to strike

& wages did not keep up with prices

• Management didn’t want raises or unions

• 3 significant strikes to look at:–Boston Police, 1919–Steel Mill, 1919–Coal Miners,1919

Boston Police Strike“He gives aid & comfort to the enemies of society” – Chicago Tribune

• Cost of living had doubled since beginning of WWI – last time they had a raise

• Sent reps to ask for cost of living raise – commissioner fired whole group

• Rest of dept. goes on strike• Governor Calvin Coolidge calls in

Nat’l Guard & refuses to rehire strikers

• Coolidge seen as nat’l hero for standing up to anarchy & communism

“Striking Back” – New York Evening

World

Steel Mill Strike“Coming Out

of the Smoke” – New York

World

Working conditions very difficult: long hours, hot & noisy foundries

Management refused to meet with representatives

Labor wanting right to unionize

Management hired strike breakers: 18 workers killed, 100s hurt

Strikers linked w/communism

Strike ends without unionizing

Coal Strike“Keeping Warm” – Los

Angeles Times

• United Mine Workers – president John L Lewis

• Low wages & long work day result in strike

• Attny Gen. Palmer gets court order to go back to work but they don’t

• Ultimately got 27% increase

• Lewis became nat’l figure

Labor Loses Its Appeal

• Membership drops off:– Many workers were immigrants w/no

choice but bad working conditions– So many languages made

communication hard– Migrated farmers now in city jobs used

to relying on themselves– African Americans were excluded by

many

“While We Rock the Boat” –

Washington Times

Postwar Recession 1921-1922

post war econ. drop off

GNP down 10%, 100,000 bankruptcies, 5 mill. unemployed, 453,000 farms lost

huge inflation

many labor gains made during war are lost

numerous strikes

Economics of the 1920s Move to consolidation of large-scale industries –

steel in particular

New administrative style – divisional organization (more efficient)

Trade associations help stabilize industries not consolidating

Overall goal not to overproduce, over expand and fail – avoid collapse (avoid mistakes of other development periods)

1920’s Labor Welfare capitalism – “paternalistic” approach to labor

management – avoided independence of organized unions – provided perks & councils for dispute resolution to avoid formal union involvement

Majority of workers saw no real increase in living standard or power over situation – always in fear of loss of job, barely keeping head above water

Independent unions still struggling – remaining committed to excluding unskilled workers

Women remained in “pink collared” service jobs – nonunionized

A. Philip Randolph – Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters –rare ex of organized minority group successfully gaining rights & benefits

Big business promoting – “American Plan” – protecting the open shop = union busting – included gov’t involvement (making picketing illegal, refusing protection from violent strikebreaking… - union membership falls)

The 1920’s Farmer

Increase in mechanization, new farming techniques

Caused surpluses resulting in drop in farming income

Parity – McNary-Haugen Bill – vetoed by Coolidge twice

Fear of CommunismThird Communist International meeting: calls for worldwide revolution and abolition of private property & free enterprise

“Red Scare” in US

A. Mitchell Palmer – Attorney General – leads the charge

Increase in US Communist Party membership

Palmer Raids

Chicago - 1920

• J. Edgar Hoover appointed to head division in Justice Dept – later will become FBI

• Hunted down & held suspected radicals: Communists, socialists, anarchists

• Palmer warned of May Day revolt – never happened – no real evidence of overthrow conspiracy ever found

Police arrest suspected “reds”

Sacco & Vanzetti

Nicola Sacco & Bartolomeo Vanzetti – Italian immigrants, anarchists – tried and convicted of robbery and murder.

Executed in 1927 despite accusations of bias based on their backgrounds

ReligionHarry Emerson Fosdickmodernists vs fundamentalistsBilly Sunday – evangelicalScopes Trial

Prohibition18th Amendment & Volstead Act (1919)“Noble experiment” – initial support by

many but very quickly recognized as a failure by most (rural Protestants continued support – represented being anti big city, immigrant, Catholic, “modern”

Easily acquired in most places – weak, ill trained, easily bribed officials

Fueled organized crime – 1920s Chicago gang wars (500+ deaths)

“wets” aren’t successful until 1933 (Depression playing huge role in decision)

New Rise of the KKK• In response to anticommunism and

anti-foreigner feelings:– The Birth of a Nation– “100 percent Americanism”– 4.5 million members by 1924– Against Catholics, Jews, unions,

saloons, birth control, evolution, gambling

– Had women’s & children’s auxiliaries (family values)

– Began including divorce, sexual promiscuity & drunkenness as “sins” worthy of persecution

– Supported mandatory bible reading in school

– Provided stability, community & purpose to many

• Klansmen were just “regular” people feeling threatened by all the changes happening: advances made by women, African Americans, job competition from immigrants, urban intellectuals• Influencing local, state & national politics from all

over the nation• Major decrease in power by end of decade b/c of

violent acts, internal power struggles, & scandals

ImmigrationNativist/ anti-immigration attitude +

decrease in need for unskilled labor led to decision to allow fewer immigrants in (Emergency Quota Act of 1921)

National Origins Act 1924: Quotas based on nationality – 2% of # of nationals living in US in 1890 (discriminates against eastern & southern Euros – mostly Catholics & Jews – b/c major influx in after 1890 - excluded Asians totally – didn’t apply to Western Hem. nations

1929: base yr moved to 1920 but overall immigrant # capped

New Attitudes & Expectations

returning soldiers & Great Migration migrants expected increased opportunities

increased lynchings in South

layoffs to make room for returning white veterans in North

Chicago Race Riots - both “sides” engaged in brutal roaming beatings in oppositions neighborhoods

significant in that blacks fought back (at urging of NAACP)

Black Nationalism

Marcus Garvey- pride in African heritage & superiority

UNIA – supported black owned businesses

Return to Africa movement

Harlem Renaissance

“I am a Negro – and beautiful” – Langston Hughes

Duke Ellington

Drew white audiences

Celebrated The New Negro

The Disenchanted“The Lost Generation”

Modern society denies individual fulfillment, promotes alienation

Fraudulent nature of WW1, increased materialism & consumerism, conformist morality,

Ernest HemingwayH.L. Mencken – “debunkers”Sinclair LewisF.Scott Fitzgerald

Court & Civil Liberties• Will see slow change by Court• Bans on mailed literature will lift• Holmes’ “marketplace of ideas”• Brandeis’ freedom of speech - “the greatest

menace to freedom is an inert people

Election of 1920• Republicans: Warren G. Harding (Ohio, Senator)

with VP Calvin Coolidge (Mass., governor) – generally pro-business & anti-foreign involvement

• Democrats: James M. Cox (Ohio, governor) with VP Franklin D. Roosevelt (ass’t sect. of navy)

• Electoral landslide: 404 to 127• First presidential election women took part in –

divided pretty much the same as male voters• Continuing general trend of traditional values –

conservative Republicans

“I knew this job would be too much for me” - W. Harding

• Negatives will outweigh positives– “Good” decisions: created Bureau of

Budget, pardoned Eugene V Debs, persuaded US Steel to move from 12 hr day and 7 day work week, Sect of St. Charles Evans Hughes, Sect of Treasury Andrew Mellon, Sect of Commerce Herbert Hoover & Sect of Agric Henry C Wallace

– “Bad” decisions: “government by crony” – Ohio GangAttny General Harry Daugherty –

close friend – caught accepting bribesDir Veterans’ Bureau Charles Forbes –

acquaintance – indicted & jailed for fraud

Sect. Interior Albert B Fall – Teapot Dome Scandal – leased gov’t lands set aside for conservation effort to oil companies – said it was in gov’t’s best interest but He got rich around the same time **first cabinet member in history to serve prison sentence**

“In America everyone is assumed guilty until proven rich.” (businessmen who gave bribes not guilty)

“…this is a hell of a job, ...I have no trouble with my enemies…, ...but my damn friends…they’re the ones that keep me walking the floor nights”

“Silent Cal” Harding dies suddenly

Coolidge takes office just as crimes are becoming known

Symbolized: old Puritan values, hard work, religious faith, honesty

Elected to own term, 1924

Similar passive leadership approach as Harding

Continued pro-business philosophy – “the man who builds a factory builds a temple and the man who works there worships there”

Treasury Sect. Andrew Mellon – cut taxes on corporate profits & trimmed budget to relieve half of the WWI debt

Hoover – “ Associationalism”

How involved in the world does the

US want to be?Isolationism – myth or realityInterventionism – disarmament &

negotiationThe men who would make policy:

President Sect. of State

Wilson (1913-1921) Bainbridge Colby (1920-21)

Harding (1921-1923) Charles E. Hughes (1921-25)

Coolidge (1923-1929) Frank B. Kellogg (1925-29)

Hoover (1929-1933) Henry L. Stimson (1929-33)

Roosevelt (1933-1945) Cordell Hull (1933-44)

The pursuit of “independent internationalism”War between US & Germany ends 1921Naval rankings: Great Brit., US, JapanWashington Disarmament Conference,

1921

“Hughes sank in 35 minutes more ships than all the admirals of the world have sunk in centuries”

Five Power Treaty A battleship ratio was achieved through this ratio:

US Britain Japan France Italy 5 5 3 1.67 1.67

Japan got a guarantee that the US and Britain would stop fortifying their Far East territories [including the Philippines].

Loophole no restrictions on small warships

Nine-Power Pact—a polite endorsement of the Open Door in China

Four-Power Act—abolished the Anglo-Japanese Alliance

European Debts to the US

Hyper-Inflation in Germany: 1923

Dawes Plan (1924)• The problem of Germany

– In 1923 Germany could no longer pay reparations

– Hughes sponsored a meeting to deal with the crisis

– The result was the Dawes Plan—Germany’s reparations payments were reduced, Germany was loaned $200 million

– The limited initial commitment quickly mushroomed into a massive and ongoing obligation to keep the system working

• War debts and loans could be used as diplomatic “tools” – in Europe and elsewhere

Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928)

15 nations dedicated to outlawing aggression and war as tools of foreign policy.

62 nations signed.

Problems no means of actual enforcement and gave Americans a false sense of security.

Economic expansion in Latin America—our sphere of influenceThe US military maintained a presence in

many Latin American countries such as HaitiUS investments in Latin American doubled

between 1924 and 1929Latin Americans had difficulty repaying the

loans in the face of the US tariff barrier

Hoover and the world crisis—Latin AmericaHoover’s goodwill tourRemoval of troops from HaitiRepudiation of the Roosevelt corollary to the

Monroe Doctrine

Hoover and the world crisis—EuropeHoover refused to cancel war debts Instead the Hoover administration focused on

disarmament World Disarmament Conference 1932 resulted

in frustration European countries were worried about

Germany and Italy