Chapter 20From Business Culture to Great

Depression: The Twenties, 1920-1932

Who benefited and who suffered in the new consumer society?

The Business of America

A Decade of Prosperity● Productivity and economic output

rose dramatically as new industries- chemicals, aviation, electronics- flourished, and older ones adopted Henry Ford’s moving assembly line.

● The automobile was the backbone of economic growth.

● American companies produced 85% of the world’s cars and 40% of its manufactured goods.

The Model T

A New Society● Telephones made communication easier.● Hollywood films dominated the world

movie market.● Radios and phonographs brought

entertainment into Americans’ living rooms.● The widespread acceptance of going into debt

to buy consumer goods had replaced the values of thrift and self-denial.

Electric washing machines and Hoover vacuum cleaners found their way into many American homes.

The Limits of Prosperity

● The fruits of increased production were unequally distributed.● The majority of families had no savings, and an estimated 40% of the population

remained in poverty, unable to participate in the consumer economy.● More Americans worked in the professions, retailing, finance, and education, but

the number of manufacturing workers declined by 5%

The Farmers’ Plight ● Farmers didn’t share in the decade’s prosperity.● As a result, farm incomes declined steadily.● Before the 1930s, rural America was in an economic depression.

The Image of Business

● Hollywood films spread images of “the American way of life” across the globe.

● Several firms aimed to justify corporate practice to the public and counteract its long standing distrust of big business.

● For instance, they succeeded in changing the popular attitudes toward Wall Street.

● Congressional hearing of 1912-1914 had laid bare the manipulation of stock prices by a Wall Street “money trust”.

The Decline of Labor● Business appropriated the rhetoric of Americanism and “industrial freedom” as

weapons against labor unions.● Some corporations spoke of “welfare capitalism”, a more socially kind of

business leadership.● Employers embraced the American Plan. The policy promoted an open shop- a

workplace free of government regulation and unions.● Employers insisted that prosperity depended on giving business complete

freedom of action.● Organized labor lost more than 2 million members.

The Equal Rights Amendment● Many activists struggled for their “own conception of freedom”.● Black feminists insisted that the movement must now demand enforcement of the

15th Amendment in the South, but they won little support from their white counterparts.

● Harriot Stanton Blatch, a prominent feminist, was convinced that women should support an independent electoral force that promoted governmental action.

● There was a division between two competing conceptions of women’s freedom- one based on motherhood, the other on individual autonomy, and the right to work.

● The division was crystallized in the debate over an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the Constitution.

The Equal Rights Amendment(cont.)● The amendment proposed to eliminate all

legal distinctions “on account of sex”.● To the supporters of mother’s pensions and laws

limiting the women’s hours of labor, which the ERA would take away, represented a step backward.● The ERA campaign failed. ● In 1929, Congress repealed the Sheppard Towner Act (Harriot Stanton Blatch)

of 1921, a major achievement of the maternalist reformers that had provided federal assistance to programs for infants and child health.

Women’s Freedom

● “Flappers” had bobbed hair, short skirts, smoke in public, and drank. ● Many flappers attended Hollywood films featuring stars like Clara Box

and Rudolph Valentino.● Women’s pursuit of personal pleasure became a device to market goods

from automobiles to cigarettes.● Once women married, the “family claim” still ruled. Having found a

husband, women were expected to seek freedom within the confines of the home, finding “liberation” according to advertisements, in the use of new labor-saving appliances.

The painting illustrates the global appeal of the “new woman”. The moga (“modern girl” in Japanese), sits alone in a nightclub wearing Western clothing, makeup, and hairstyle, accompanied by a cigarette and a martini.

Business and Government

Because mixing those two is always a good idea.

In what ways did the government promote business interests in the 1920s?

The Retreat From Progressivism● Government undermined the foundation of democratic thought, the idea of the rational, self-

directed citizen. ● Scientist pointed to wartime IQ tests to demonstrate that many Americans were mentally

unfit for self-government.● During this time, Walter Lippman published two of the most piercing indictments of

democracy ever written. Public Opinion and The Phantom Public.● Lippman claimed, the American voter was ill-informed and was vulnerable to

emotion. ● “Manufacture of consent.” Lippman came up with to talk about how the

government perfected the art of creating and manipulating public opinion.

Public Opinion

Assessment of functional democratic government, especially the irrational, and often self-serving, social perceptions that influence individual behavior, and prevent optimal societal cohesion. Published in 1922

The Phantom Public

He expresses his lack of faith in the democratic system, arguing that the public exists merely as an illusion, myth, and inevitably, a phantom. Published in 1925

The Republican Era● Government policies reflected the pro-business ethos of the 1920’s● Business lobbyists dominated national conventions of the Republican

Party. ● They called on the federal government to lower taxes on personal

incomes and business profits, maintain high tariffs, and support employers’ campaign against unions.

● Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge “Never before, here or anywhere else has a government been so completely fused with business.”

● The Court created a federal law that barred goods produced by child labor from interstate commerce.

Warren G. Harding Calvin Coolidge

Corruption In Government

● Warren G Harding took office in 1921 promising a return to “normalcy”

after an era of Progressive reform and world war.

● His administration became one of the most corrupt in American history.

● Harding seemed to have little regard for either governmental issues or the

dignity of the presidency.

● Prohibition did not cause him to lose his appetite for liquor.

● Harding surrounded himself with cronies who used their offices for private

gain.

The Election of 1924

● Calvin Coolidge vs John W Davis● Coolidge was elected by a landslide! (Over 2.5 million votes)● Coolidge described WWI as a blueprint for a “communistic and

socialistic” America.● Coolidge was Harding’s successor when he was in presidency.● He was a dour man with few words. And for this, he was known as

“Silent Cal” ● Coolidge only served one term and did not campaign for a second.

Economic Diplomacy● The U.S country stayed out of the League of Nations. ● Even as American diplomats continued to press for access to markets

overseas, the Fordney McCumber tariff of 1922 raised taxes on imported goods to their highest levels in history, a plan to dismiss Huntington Wilson’s principle of free trade.

● The United States emerged from WWI as both the world’s foremost center of manufacturing and the major financial power, thanks to British and French debts for American loans that funded their war efforts.

The Birth of Civil Liberties

Why did the protection of civil liberties gain importance in the 1920s?

A “Clear and Present Danger”● The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was established in 1920. ● Its efforts helped give meaning to traditional civil liberties like freedom of

speech and invented new ones, like the right to privacy. ● Prior to WWI, the Supreme Court had done almost nothing to protect the

rights of unpopular minorities.● In its initial decisions the Supreme Court gave the concept of civil liberties

a series of devastating blows● 1919, the Court upheld the constitutionality of the Espionage Act and the

conviction of Charles T. Schenck, a socialist who had distributed antidraft leaflets through the mails.

The Court and Civil Liberties

● In 1919, the Court upheld the conviction of Jacob Abrams and 5 other men for distributing pamphlets critical of American intervention in Russia after the Bolshevik revolution

● Holmes declared that “the only meaning of free speech was that every set of beliefs, even ‘proletarian dictatorship,’ should have the right to convert the public to their views in the great ‘marketplace of ideas.”

● The Court observed that the 14th Amendment obligated the states to refrain from unreasonable restraints on freedom of speech and the press

The Culture WarsMass entertainment, liberated sexual

rules….and oh yeah, religion

What changes led to new separations amongst groups and how did different groups approach

these changes?

The Fundamentalist Revolt● Many evangelical Protestants felt threatened by the decline of traditional

values and the increased visibility of Catholicism and Judaism● Harry Emerson Fosdick was a pastor and a modernist● Fundamentalists launched a campaign to get rid of modernism in Protestant

denominations and preserve traditional morality● Billy Sunday was a professional baseball player who became a revivalist

preacher● Prohibition succeeded in reducing the consumption of alcohol● Many Americans believed that Prohibition was a violation of individual

freedom

The Scopes Trial● John Scopes was a teacher arrested for violating a

state law that prohibited the teaching of Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution

● The American Civil Liberties Union had told Scopes to violate the law in order to test its constitutionality

● The jury found Scopes guilty, but the state Supreme court overturned the decision

● The movement for anti-evolution laws disintegrated

The Second Klan● The Klu Klux Klan resurged in the early 1920s● By the mid -1920s, the KKK claimed more than 3 million members ● The KKK controlled the state Republican Party for a time● The members of the KKK were against blacks, immigrants, and all the forces

Closing The Golden Door● The Klan’s influence faded after 1925● Some new laws redrew the boundary of citizenship to include groups previously

outside it● The Cable Act of 1922 overturned a law that previously required women who

married foreigners to assume the citizenship of the husband● 2 years later Indians born in the U.S. were declared to be citizens ● The 1924 law barred the entry of all those ineligible for naturalized citizenship

Race and The Law● Race was a determinant of public policy

Pluralism and Liberty● Cultural Pluralism was used to describe a society that gloried in

ethnic diversity rather than attempting to suppress it● most immigrants resented the coercive aspects of

Americanization, however they still assimilated

Promoting Tolerance● In 1924, the Catholic Holy Name Society brought 10,000

marchers to Washington to challenge the Klan and to affirm Catholic’s loyalty to the nation

● The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith and the National Catholic Welfare Council lobbied for laws prohibiting discrimination against immigrants by employers

The Emergence of Harlem● the emergence of black population doubled in urban centers● Harlem gained an international reputation as the “capital” of black America

“I had heard of prejudice in America but never dreamed of it being so intensely bitter”- Claude McKay

● Harlem was a community of widespread poverty● few blacks shared in the prosperity of the 1920s

The Harlem Renaissance● Poets and novelist were befriended and sponsored by white intellectuals and

published by white presses● “New Negro” in art meant the rejection of established stereotypes and a search

for black values to put in their place

The Great DepressionUh oh.

What lead to the Great Depression and what were the responses to it?

The Election of 1928

● Alfred E. Smith vs. Herbert Hoover. Who won? HERBERT HOOVER!

● Immediately after WWI he gained international fame. How? He coordinated international food relief. (What a nice guy)

● Herbert was said to be the “the only man” to emerge from the peace conference “with enhanced reputation.”

● Democratic platform (Smith) and the Republican platform (Hoover) didn’t differ much, so it was the candidates personalities and religions that were discussed.

● With more than 58% of votes, Hoover won by a landslide!

Can you guess which of these fine fellows is Hoover and which is Smith?

The Coming of the Great Depression

● Oct. 21, 1929, guess where our beloved president was? Golden Anniversary of the Festival of Light (to commemorate T. Edison’s light bulb invention)

● At the festival, Hoover talked about the progress of businessmen and scientist

● Ironically, 8 days later, Black Tuesday happened (no, not Black Friday). The stock market crashed.

● And there, my friends, was when the Great Depression began. The greatest economic disaster in modern history.

● BUT, it wasn’t the stock market crashing that caused the GD● So what did cause the Great Depression?

What was the outcome?

● Hundreds of thousands of people went on the road to look for work

● Thousands of families were evicted from their homes and moved into ramshackle shantytowns called Hoovervilles

● Reverse happened! People were moving out of the cities to grow food for their families

● 2 responses to the depression: resignation or protest.

● Protest were at first uncoordinated and spontaneous b/c unions, socialist organizations, etc., were decimated

● Who were the most organized? The Communist

Hoovervilles

In all its glory

Hoover’s Response

● In the eyes of many Americans, Hoover’s response to the Great Depression was inadequate and uncaring

● Most, including Hoover, thought that gov. intervention to aid the unemployed would do nothing but encourage Americans to rely on gov. charity to address misfortune

● Economic downturns were a “silver lining” b/c it weeded out unproductive firms and encouraged moral virtue

● Hoover’s public statements about the “tide turning” to appease the public did nothing but make him appear out of touch with reality

Opinions on Hoover’s response to the Depression

The Worsening Economic Outlook

● How did the administration try to fix the GD? Hawley-Smoot Tariff● This epically failed and did nothing but worsen the economy● Why? Raising already high taxes on imported good, it inspired

similar increases abroad, further reducing international trade.● What next? By 1932, Hoover failed to stem the Depression so he

signed laws creating the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which loaned money to failing banks, railroads, businesses, etc.

● However, Hoover opposed direct relief to the unemployed - “it would do them a disservice,” he said to Congress