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Politics and Prosperity
New Ways of Life
Roaring Twenties
Nation Divided
Politics and Prosperity
Republicans in Office
Recession sets in
Economy booms during war, now less demand
2 million soldiers returning – jobs?
Harding takes office
Pro-business
Corruption and scandals
“Ohio Gang”
“Teapot Dome”
Coolidge takes office
“Silent Cal”
Harding Administration
“return to normalcy” Landslide victory Scandals! Teapot Dome Attny Gen. – accepted
bribes Often considered one of
worst presidents Few good things Treaty to repay Columbia
for Panama Pardon of Eugene Debs &
other protesters
1. What were Harding’s goals? 2. How did the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 change government? 3. What was a foreign policy success of Harding? 4. What ruined Harding’s reputation?
Coolidge Administration
Harding dies, VP Coolidge is Pres
“Cool Cal” or “Silent Cal”
Restored integrity to WH
“The business of Americans is business”
Lower taxes
Spoke for civil rights
Economic prosperity
Kellogg-Briand Pact 1929
1. What is a unique characteristic of Coolidge? 2. What were Coolidge’s budget goals/actions? 3. Why did Coolidge miss the signs of economic trouble?
Hoover Administration
Efficiency Movement Encouraged volunteerism
over regulation End Roosevelt corollary &
reduce intervention in Latin Amer.
Called for a halt to reparation payments from Germany “Hoover Moratorium”
Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act in 1930
Depression hit…
The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, 1930
FOR
Protect American workers and farmers
AGAINST
Undermine commitment to international cooperation
Trade wars
The tariff failed – exports dropped by 61% and imports dropped by 66%. It quadrupled the cost of some 3200 items. It helped ruin the world economy.
Laissez-faire economic policy
Pro-business
People responsible for themselves
Small gov’t
Generally isolationist foreign policy
Conciliatory
Utilized new media to communicate – radio, film
Similarities Among the Republican Administrations of the 1920s
New Ways of Life
Increased Standard of Living
By 1929 annual average wages increased from $500 to $700 a year
Typical worker made $5 a day (up from $1 a day previous decade)
Increase in the standard of living
CAUSES
Cheap food prices from highly productive farms (WW 1)
Easy credit for mortgages and consumer products
Wages rose during the war and continued
Technology Cars Create jobs for roads, motels,
service stations, etc
Mass production
EFFECTS
Culture of consumerism is born
Borrowing beyond means
Weak regulation = weak banks and corrupt financial dealings
Stock market crash 1929
Prohibition
Evading the law
Rise of organized crime
repeal
Economic Effects of Prohibition
illegal market for the production, trafficking and sale of alcohol.
economy took a major hit, thanks to lost tax revenue and legal jobs.
Prohibition nearly ruined the country's brewing industry.
Social Effects of Prohibition
Deaths caused by cirrhosis of the liver in men dropped
Contaminated liquor … >50,000 deaths & many cases of blindness and paralysis.
Alcohol consumption during Prohibition declined between 30 and 50 percent.
By the end of the 1920s = were more alcoholics and illegal drinking establishments than before Prohibition
Rise in organized crime
Political Effects of Prohibition
Bootlegging
No means nor desire to enforce
Corruption – organized crime
Roaring Twenties
New Fads & Fashions
Following latest fads
Dance crazes
Flagpole sitting
Dance marathons
Flappers
Rebellious young women
Fads
Flapppers
Jazz
Dance marathons
Pole sitting
Rights for Women
Women voters
Equal rights amendment
Changes for working women
Changing Social behavior
Decrease birth rate Increase divorce rate Un-chaperoned dating More permissive society in
general – flappers, youth culture
Women enter workforce and can vote
Friendship in marriage matters
New inventions change home life
First time 50% live in cities Greater diversity in cities
Harlem Renaissance
Writers, artists, jazz and blues musicians
Langston Hughes
Bessie Smith
The Cotton Club
Duke Ellington
Jazz Age
Jazz
New Orleans
West African rhythms, African American work songs & spirituals, European harmonies
Louis Armstrong
Conservatives: it’s a bad influence!
Automobile
Cheaper cars = more cars Created jobs Auto production Parts Maintenance Roads Oil Motels and restaurants Growth of suburbs Women drivers New mass culture as ppl
less localized
Mass Culture
Radio
Movies
Motion Pictures & radio
Radio in every home
Hollywood
Silent films until 1927
Mass culture
Avg movie goer once a week
Heroes
Bobby Jones – golf
Bill Tilden & Helen Willis – tennis
College football
Baseball!!
Babe Ruth
Charles Lindbergh
A Nation Divided
Red Scare
Hunting up radicals
Sacco and Vanzetti
Intolerance and Xenophobia
1. immigration policy,
2. KKK membership,
3. eugenics movement,
4. Sacco and Vanzetti trial
Race Relations deteriorate
New Klan
Racial tensions north
Marcus Garvey
Perils of Prosperity
Trouble on the farm
Overproduction = prices drop
Prices drop = farmers cannot make enough to repay debts
By end 1920s, farmer’s share of national income shrunk by 1/2
Setbacks for labor During war, inflation ahead
of wages OK with unions for war
effort
After war – want raises – managers say no – strikes Violence turns public opinion
against strikers Fear of Communists
Union membership drops 5 million in 1920 3.4 million in1929
Limiting Immigration
Quota system
Emergency Quota Act 1921
Favored immigrants from Northern Europe
No Asians!
Newcomers from Latin America
Scopes Trial
Clash between old and new values
Dayton, TN
1925 John Scopes
William Jennings Bryan
Clarence Darrow
Election of 1928
Al Smith Catholic
NY
City values
Reveals tensions in American life beneath surface
Won the 12 largest cities
Herbert Hoover
Self-made millionaire
Mid-west
Big business and rural Americans support
Landslide victory
Stock Market Crash 1929
CAUSES
Speculation
Buying on margin
Loose regulation
Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act
EFFECTS
Precipitated bank crisis contraction of credit, business closures, firing of workers, bank failures, decline of the money
supply, Decline of consumer
purchasing
