SS- Chapter 19

Chapter 19: The Roaring Twenties

The Twenties brought about tremendous change in America.

WWI brought about change:
1. Women got the right to vote.
2. Women went out to work.
3. Many African Americans moved north in the Great Migration.

Immigrants suffered during the war- they were discriminated against and there were quotas placed on them. Fewer immigrants came to America in the twenties.

After the war, the people wanted life to go back to the way it was- to “return to normalcy”. Harding won the presidency by a landslide because he promised just that. He was an awful president, but a nice person. He didn’t have great government skills- he put his friends in office who were crooks, but he didn’t know about it. They were nicknamed the “Ohio Gang”. Harding had a heart attack and died in office.

After Harding’s death, many scandals surfaced:
1. One of them involved the Veteran’s Bureau- an organization that takes care of war veterans. The head was convicted of selling hospital supplies for his own benefit.
2. Teapot Dome Scandal- the secretary of interior, Albert Fall, was accused of accepting bribes from oil companies in exchange for giving them permission to drill for oil in protected lands in Teapot Dome, Wyoming.

Harding died and Calvin Coolidge became president. Coolidge was elected on his own in 1924.

The Coolidge years were called Coolidge Prosperity- the economy was strong. Coolidge had a laissez faire attitude towards business. Coolidge had many pro-business policies:
1. Businesses and the wealthy were helped by the tax laws- gave a tax reduction to businesses.
2. Regulatory agencies helped businesses more than they regulated business.
3. Had a very relaxed attitude toward mergers- allowed businesses to merge and grow strong. By 1929, two hundred companies owned half of the nation’s wealth.
4. Place heavy tariffs on imports so that American businesses would be strong.

The farmers weren’t doing great. Post WWI, the agricultural industry, along with the textile industry slumped. Labor unions also weren’t doing so well, but life was improving for the laborers.

Another flaw in Coolidge Prosperity was the stock market speculation- people bought stocks on margin, which was a little risky.

The twenties was a time of mass consumption. People were now buying and buying.

Three major areas of industry that changed people’s lives:
1. Car- stimulated many businesses such as steel and gas.
a. Automobile industry set off a real estate boom. People now began to move out to the suburbs because they can now drive to work.
b. Produced goods for the cars.
c. More highways and roads.
d. Led to the decline of railroads.
e. Increased social equality because the car was relatively inexpensive. Ford built the car so that it could be affordable to all.
f. The car stimulated installment buying- buy now and pay later.
g. Stimulated the advertising agency.
2. Electric industry- hanged the way we work and live:
a. It changed the home, factory and city.
b. Electricity helped increase production because now there is more time to work.
c. Electric items work quicker and are more efficient. Electric appliances made life so much easier.
3. Radio and movies- erased the regional differences from different areas because everyone listened to the same stations, forcing them all in the same way. The radio also increased people’s expectations and helped popularize jazz and other music. The radio additionally increased our interests in politics, sports and technology.

Together with the new business techniques, this caused a great change in America. Ford and the assembly line that mass produced cars was at the head of the change.

The twenties was also a time of shifting cultural values. Wealth, possessions and fun became the need of the day. These ideas of pursuing fun and lose morals was an idea that was influenced by Sigmund Freud. Freud was a Jewish psychiatrist who said that if you don’t go after what you want, it’ll cause you pain. He began the idea of psychoanalysis.

There was now leisure time for Monopoly, crossword puzzles, theater and board games. People began to idolize movie and sports stars. Games became in style. The new popular woman was known as the flapper. She drank, smoked, wore short dresses and bobbed her hair. Really, flappers basically only existed in the movies, but life for woman definitely did change.

90% of married woman were still home, but there were many changes. Divorce and smaller families now became more accepted. Families now went from a producing unit to a consuming unit. A large family was now a drain because each child was a consumer. There was now more emphasis on the role of a wife than the role of a mother.

In 1921, the Sheppard Towner Act was passed- to improve health care for woman, childbirth and infant mortality. Clinics were opened up to teach woman about their health and discuss health care.

Alice Paul tried to introduce equal rights amendments. It was met with tremendous disagreement. Women’s votes didn’t have a tremendous effect on politics.

Literature reflected the times. F. Scott Fitzgerald was a writer. He wrote about the excitement of the time. Hemmingway was also a writer at this time. He ran away because he said that America is too materialistic.

One of the most cultural experiences at this time was the Harlem renaissance- in Harlem, NY, there was an explosion of black music, art and literature.

Duke Ellington is the father of jazz music. The twenties is sometimes called the Jazz Age.

Langston Hughes was a black poet and writer.

There were many constitutional and legal issues in the twentiess. Some were a threat to our freedoms.

Legal issues:
1. Red Scare- in 1917 was the Russian Revolution- the Russians formed a communist government. America wasn’t happy about this. They were on the lookout for communists in America. Foreigners were the first ones to be suspected. There were events which America blamed on communists, such as:
a. Riots in NY
b. Race riots in many cities
c. Rioting against the Boston police.
Mitchell Palmer was the Attorney General and he began to raid homes without a search warrant- Palmer raids. He raided communist agencies and agencies which he believed were communist. Thousands of people were arrested and many immigrants were deported. Palmer’s actions were extreme and eventually people said that he’s crazy and the raids ended.
2. Saco and Vanzetti Trial- Mr. Saco and Mr. Vanzetti were accused of murder in a bank robbery in Massachusetts. They were anarchists- someone who believes in no government, but in absolute freedom. They stood trial for murder and were found guilty. They felt the evidence about the murder wasn’t strong and they thought they were being accused because of their beliefs. Felt they were killed for their beliefs. In 1972, they were found to be not guilty.
3. Klu Klux Klan- the Klu Klux Klan rose again. They were anti immigrants, Jews and blacks.
4. Scopes Trial- it took place in 1925, in Tennessee. It received nation-wide attention because it placed science vs. religion. As the country modernizes, we’re going to have this fight of science vs. religion. John Scopes was a teacher of biology and he wanted to teach about evolution but it was illegal to teach about religion. He was fined for teaching about evolution. There was a trial and it became a national event. William Jennings Brian was a lawyer in favor of religion. Darrow was in favor of science. Brian was a great speaker but he x speak well in public about this. Scopes was found guilty. Bryan’s confusing speech weakened religion in America.
5. Quotas- during the twenties, quotas were placed on immigrants. Immigrants weren’t allowed into the country from Europe and particularly Asia.
6. Prohibition- the eighteenth amendment was passed. It outlawed the sale, manufacturing and consumption of all alcoholic beverages. The government passed the Volstead Act, which was going to implement the Prohibition. The Prohibition proved to be unenforceable.
Organized crime now began in America- Mafia, Al Capone- famous gangster in Chicago, gangsters. Now, people smuggled- bootlegging. There were thousands of speakeasies (bars) across America.
In 1933, the twenty-first amendment was passed, repealing the prohibition.