1920s Automobile Industry & Gasoline Age

Putting America on Rubber Tires

• The automobile industry sparked an industrial revolution in the 1920s
• It established a new industrial system using assembly-line methods and mass production
• Detroit was the motorcar capital of the world
• Henry Ford introduced the Model T using the moving assembly line (Fordism)
• By 1930, over 20 million Model Ts were in use

The Advent of the Gasoline Age

• The rise of automobile industry created millions of jobs and support industries
• The American standard of living increased
• The oil industry expanded, while the railroad industry suffered from automobile competition
• Cars gave women more independence
• Suburbs expanded because of cars
• Automobiles caused many deaths but also provided convenience, pleasure, and excitement
• The invention of the gasoline engine led to the creation of the airplane
• Orville and Wilbur Wright made their first flight on December 17, 1903; it lasted 12 seconds and covered 120 feet
• Passenger airlines began operating after WWI, often with airmail contracts
• Charles A. Lindbergh made the first solo transatlantic flight in 1927, boosting the aviation industry

Radio Waves and Filmland Fantasies

• Guglielmo Marconi invented wireless telegraphy in the 1890s
• Voice-carrying radio broadcasts began in the 1920s
• Radios brought people back home and offered educational and cultural content
• Motion pictures, initially developed by Thomas A. Edison, emerged in the 1890s
• The first story sequence in motion picture was The Great Train Robbery in 1903
• Hollywood became the movie capital
• Motion picture was used as anti-German propaganda during WWI
• Motion pictures facilitated immigrant assimilation

The Mass-Consumption Economy

• World War I and Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon's tax policies led to prosperity in the mid-1920s
• Bruce Barton pioneered the advertising industry
• Sports became a major business in the consumer economy
• Buying on credit became common, increasing personal debt and economic vulnerability

The Dynamic Decade

• Most Americans had moved from rural to urban areas by the 1920s
• Margaret Sanger led the movement for birth control
• Alice Paul founded the National Women's Party in 1923 to advocate for an Equal Rights Amendment
• Modernists gained influence over Fundamentalists, presenting a more positive view of God and the universe
• Sex appeal became more prominent
• Flappers expressed their rejection of traditional norms through short skirts, drinking, driving, and smoking
• Dr. Sigmund Freud emphasized that sexual repression caused emotional issues
• Jazz music became extremely popular
• Racial pride grew in northern black communities
• Marcus Garvey founded the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) to promote black resettlement in Africa and support black-owned businesses

Seeing Red

• Fear of Russia spread following the Bolshevik revolution in 1917
• The "red scare" of 1919-1920 targeted people suspected of being un-American
• Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer led roundups
• Criminal syndicalism laws were passed, restricting free speech
• Striking workers were seen as un-American
• Some businesses supported the "American plan," where union membership was not required
• Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were convicted of murder in 1921; their trial was influenced by prejudice due to their Italian origin, atheism, anarchism, and draft dodging
• They were executed in 1927 despite international criticism

Hooded Hoodlums of the KKK

• The Ku Klux Klan grew in the early 1920s, fueled by intolerance and prejudice, especially in the Midwest and South
• The Klan opposed foreigners, Catholics, blacks, Jews, pacifists, communists, internationalists, evolutionists, bootleggers, gamblers, adulterers, and birth control and supported Anglo-Saxons, "native" Americans, and Protestants
• The KKK declined in the late 1920s after officials were caught embezzling

Stemming the Foreign Blood

• Isolationist sentiment increased in the 1920s
• The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 limited European immigration to 3% of the population of their nationality living in the United States in 1910
• The Immigration Act of 1924 lowered the quota to 2% and banned Japanese immigration
• Canadians and Latin Americans were exempt due to proximity
• The quota system reduced immigration significantly
• The Immigration Act of 1924 ended unrestricted immigration

The Prohibition "Experiment"

• The 18th Amendment in 1919 banned alcohol, enforced by the Volstead Act
• Prohibition was most common in the South, where white people wanted to keep alcohol away from black people, and in the West, where alcohol was tied to crime
• Prohibitionists overestimated the law's enforceability, given the federal government’s limited control of personal lives
• Enforcement was weak due to the limited number of officials
• "Speakeasies" emerged
• Prohibition increased bank savings and decreased absenteeism

The Golden Age of Gangsterism

• Gang wars broke out over the illegal alcohol market
• Al Capone controlled the Chicago booze market and engaged in six years of gang warfare
• Capone was convicted of income-tax evasion and imprisoned for 11 years
• Gangsters expanded into activities like prostitution, gambling, narcotics, and kidnapping
• The Lindbergh Law in 1932 made interstate abduction a death-penalty offense, following the kidnapping and murder of Charles A. Lindbergh's son

Monkey Business in Tennessee

• Education became a stronger focus in the 1920s
• Professor John Dewey advocated "learning by doing" and "education for life"
• Science and healthcare advanced
• Fundamentalists opposed Darwinian evolution, arguing it undermined religious faith and morals
• John T. Scopes was tried in 1925 for teaching evolution in Tennessee
• The "Monkey Trial" featured Clarence Darrow defending Scopes and William Jennings Bryan prosecuting
• Scopes was found guilty and fined $100

Cultural Liberation

• A new generation of writers revitalized American literature post-WWI
• Modernism involved questioning social conventions
• H.L. Mencken criticized marriage, patriotism, democracy, and prohibition in American Mercury
• F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote This Side of Paradise (1920) and The Great Gatsby (1925)
• Earnest Hemingway wrote about disillusioned expatriates in The Sun Also Rises (1926)
• Sinclair Lewis wrote Main Street (1920) and Babbitt (1922)
• Sherwood Anderson wrote Winesburg, Ohio (1919)
• The Harlem Renaissance was a black cultural movement
• Architecture grew as materialism and functionalism gained popularity

Wall Street's Big Bull Market

• Stock market became popular among average citizens in the 1920s
• The Federal government did not manage the national debt effectively after WWI
• The Bureau of the Budget was created in 1921 to help the president with the budget, preventing extravagant appropriations
• Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon reduced taxes, arguing high taxes discouraged investment in businesses, creating a series of tax reductions from 1921-1926 which benefited the wealthy
• Congress eliminated the gift tax, reduced excise taxes, the surtax, the income tax, and estate taxes
• Mellon's policies shifted the tax burden from the wealthy to the middle class
• Mellon reduced the national debt by $10 billion

The Republican "Old Guard" Returns

• Warren G. Harding became president in 1921 but struggled with corruption in his staff
• Charles Evans Hughes was the secretary of state
• Andrew W. Mellon was the secretary of the Treasury
• Herbert Hoover was the secretary of commerce
• Albert B. Fall was the anti-conservationist secretary of the interior
• Harry M. Daugherty was the corrupt attorney general

GOP Reaction at the Throttle

• Industrialists wanted less government regulation and more support for business profits
• The Supreme Court struck down progressive legislation
• In Adkins v. Children's Hospital (1923), the Supreme Court ruled women did not need special workplace protections because the 19th Amendment made them equal to men
• Corporations expanded under Harding without antitrust concerns
• The Interstate Commerce Commission favored railroad managers

The Aftermath of War

• The government released control over the economy after WWI
• The Esch-Cummins Transportation Act of 1920 returned railroads to private management and guaranteed their profitability
• The Merchant Marine Act of 1920 sold wartime vessels at low prices
• The La Follette Seaman's Act of 1915 improved sailors’ working conditions but hurt the American shipping industry
• Labor struggles occurred due to lack of government support
• The Veterans Bureau was created in 1921 to provide hospitals and vocational rehabilitation
• The American Legion, founded in 1919, supported veterans
• The Adjusted Compensation Act in 1924 provided payments to veterans based on service years

America Seeks Benefits Without Burdens

• The U.S. technically remained at war with Germany, Austria, and Hungary until Congress passed a joint resolution in July 1921
• Isolationism was widespread
• Harding opposed the League of Nations
• Secretary Hughes secured oil rights for American companies in the Middle East
• The Washington "Disarmament" Conference in 1921-1922 discussed naval limitations
• The Five-Power Naval Treaty of 1922 limited construction of large naval ships
• Britain and the U.S. agreed not to fortify Pacific possessions, while Japan had no such restrictions
• A Four-Power Treaty between Britain, Japan, France, and the U.S. preserved the Pacific status quo
• The Kellogg-Briand Pact, signed in 1928, sought to outlaw war but allowed defensive wars

Hiking the Tariff Higher

• The Fordney-McCumber Tariff Law in 1922 raised tariffs to 35% to protect American markets
• Harding and Coolidge favored raising tariffs
• Europe needed to sell goods to the U.S. to repay war debts, but increased tariffs hindered this
• European countries also raised tariffs

The Stench of Scandal

• Colonel Charles R. Forbes stole $200 million from the Veterans Bureau in 1923
• In the Teapot Dome scandal (1921), Albert B. Fall leased naval oil reserves to Harry F. Sinclair and Edward L. Doheny in exchange for bribes
• Attorney General Daugherty was accused of selling pardons and liquor permits
• President Harding died on August 2, 1923, in San Francisco

"Silent Cal" Coolidge

• Vice President Calvin Coolidge became president after Harding's death
• Coolidge maintained Harding’s pro-business policies

Frustrated Farmers

• After WWI, farms struggled due to the end of government price guarantees and increased competition
• Machines increased crop production but led to surpluses and lower prices
• The Capper-Volstead Act exempted farmers' marketing cooperatives from antitrust prosecution
• The McNary-Haugen Bill sought to maintain high agricultural prices through government purchases of surpluses for sale abroad, but Coolidge vetoed it

A Three-Way Race for the White House in 1924

• The Democratic party was divided before the 1924 election and nominated John W. Davis
• Senator La Follette led the Progressive party, supported by labor and farmers
• The Progressives advocated government ownership of railroads, farm relief, opposed monopolies and labor injunctions, and sought to limit the Supreme Court's power
• Calvin Coolidge won the election of 1924

Foreign-Policy Flounderings

• Isolationism persisted during Coolidge's second term, except in the Caribbean and Central America
• In 1926, Mexico asserted control over its oil resources, and Coolidge resolved the situation diplomatically
• The U.S. became a creditor nation after WWI
• The U.S. demanded repayment of $10 billion in WWI loans from the Allies
• European Allies argued for debt forgiveness due to their losses and the impact of U.S. tariffs
• The Dawes Plan of 1924 managed debt repayment, setting German reparations and enabling American loans to Germany
• Economic downturns disrupted the flow of money, and the U.S. never received full repayment

The Triumph of Herbert Hoover, 1928

• Herbert Hoover was the Republican candidate in 1928
• Hoover supported isolationism, individualism, free enterprise, and small government
• Democrats nominated Alfred E. Smith, a Catholic
• Radio was widely used in campaigns, benefiting Hoover
• Smith lost the South due to anti-Catholic sentiment, his opposition to prohibition, and his liberal views
• Hoover won the election of 1928, becoming the first Republican candidate in 52 years to win a former Confederate state

President Hoover's First Moves

• Unorganized wage earners and farmers were not benefiting from the growing economy
• The Agricultural Marketing Act of 1929 established the Federal Farm Board to stabilize agricultural prices by purchasing surpluses, which led to the creation of the Grain Stabilization Corporation and the Cotton Stabilization
• The corporations failed due to overproduction
• The Hawley-Smoot Tariff of 1930 raised tariffs to 60%, the highest level in peacetime
• The tariff worsened the depression in America and abroad and increased international financial chaos

The Great Crash Ends the Golden Twenties

• The stock market crashed in October 1929
• The British raised interest rates, which triggered the crash
• On "Black Tuesday," October 29, 1929, millions of stocks were sold in a panic
• Stockholders lost $40 billion by the end of 1929
• Millions lost jobs, and thousands of banks closed
• The U.S. was hit the hardest, leading to The Great Depression

Hooked on the Horn of Plenty

• Overproduction by farms and factories was a main cause of the Great Depression
• The nation’s production capacity exceeded its ability to consume
• Too much money was invested in production, while wages remained too low
• Over-expansion of credit contributed to the depression
• The Depression worsened economic conditions in Europe
• A drought in the Mississippi Valley in the 1930s forced farm sales
• "Hoovervilles" were shantytowns during the Depression

Rugged Times for Rugged Individuals

• Hoover initially opposed government welfare, emphasizing industry and self-reliance
• Faced with the Depression, he recognized the government’s role
• Hoover's plan aimed to aid railroads, banks, and credit corporations, hoping prosperity would "trickle down"
• He was criticized for aiding big bankers

Hoover Battles the Great Depression

• Hoover convinced Congress to allocate $2.25 billion for public works, such as the Hoover Dam
• Hoover opposed projects viewed as "socialistic" and vetoed the Muscle Shoals Bill
• The Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) was created in 1932 to lend money to various entities
• The Norris-La Guardia Anti-Injunction Act in 1932 outlawed antiunion contracts and barred federal courts from stopping strikes

Routing the Bonus Army in Washington

• WWI veterans were severely affected by the Depression
• The "Bonus Expeditionary Force" (BEF) demanded early payment of bonuses promised in 1924 but not due until 1945
• Hoover sent the army to remove the BEF, leading to riots and increased criticism of Hoover

Japanese Militarists Attack China

• In September 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria, violating the League of Nations
• The League lacked the power to act without American support
• Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson issued the Stimson Doctrine
• The Stimson Doctrine stated the U.S. would not recognize territory acquired by force
• Japan ignored the doctrine and moved onto Shanghai in 1932

Hoover Pioneers the Good Neighbor Policy

• President Hoover sought to improve relations with Latin America by withdrawing troops from Haiti and Nicaragua
• Hoover's policies laid the foundation for Roosevelt's "Good Neighbor" policy

The 1920s saw the rise of the automobile industry, creating millions of jobs and support industries. The oil industry expanded, the railroad industry suffered, and suburbs grew. The gasoline engine also led to the invention of the airplane.