The Roaring Twenties PDF - Module 8

Module 8 The Roaring Twenties Essential Question Why did political, economic, and social tensions characterize the 1920s? About the Photograph: Gertrude “Ma” In this modu...

Module 8 The Roaring Twenties Essential Question Why did political, economic, and social tensions characterize the 1920s? About the Photograph: Gertrude “Ma” In this module you will learn about the challenges and changes that the Rainey was one of the earliest professional nation faced after World War I. You will also discover the vibrant cultural blues singers. She made over 100 recordings, life of the 1920s. including some with Louis Armstrong. Ma Rainey has been called “The Mother of What You Will Learn... the Blues.” Lesson 1: The Business of America.................... 360 The Big Idea Although the U.S. government was rocked by scandal Explore ONLINE! during the early 1920s, a business boom fueled a rise in America’s standard of living. VIDEOS, including... Lesson 2: Postwar Issues.......................... 370 Boom The Big Idea A desire for normality after the war and a fear of The Presidents: Warren G. communism and “foreigners” led to postwar isolationism. Harding Lesson 3: Changing Ways of Life..................... 379 Henry Ford and the Model T The Big Idea Americans experienced cultural conflicts as customs and values changed in the 1920s. The True Story of Sacco and Lesson 4: The Twenties Woman...................... 386 Vanzetti The Big Idea American women pursued new lifestyles and assumed America Goes Dry with new jobs and different roles in society during the 1920s. Prohibition Lesson 5: Education and Popular Culture................ 391 The Monkey Trial The Big Idea The mass media, movies, and spectator sports played important roles in creating the popular culture of the 1920s—a Document-Based Investigations culture that many artists and writers criticized. Graphic Organizers Lesson 6: The Harlem Renaissance.................... 400 The Big Idea African American ideas, politics, art, literature, and Interactive Games music flourished in Harlem and elsewhere in the United States. Carousel: Women of the 1920s Image with Hotspots: Harlem in the 1920s 358 Module 8 Timeline of Events 1919–1929 Explore ONLINE! United States Events World Events 1919 1920 Warren G. Harding is elected president. 1921 Sacco and Vanzetti 1921 Chinese Communist Party is founded are convicted. in Shanghai. 1922 Benito Mussolini is 1922 Louis Armstrong plays for King appointed prime minister of Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band in Chicago. Italy. 1922 King Tut’s tomb is discovered in Egypt. 1923 Time magazine begins 1923 Mustafa Kemal becomes publication. first president of the new Republic of Turkey. 1924 Calvin Coolidge 1924 Vladimir Ilich Lenin, founder is elected president. of the Soviet Union, dies. 1925 A. Philip Randolph organizes the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. 1925 The Scopes trial takes place in Tennessee. 1926 British laborers declare a general strike. 1926 Hirohito becomes emperor of Japan. 1927 Charles Lindbergh makes the first nonstop solo transatlantic flight. 1928 President Álvaro Obregón of Mexico is assassinated. 1928 Herbert Hoover is elected president. 1928 Joseph Stalin launches the first of his Five-Year Plans in the USSR. 1929 The Roaring Twenties 359  Lesson 1 The Business of America One American’s Story The Big Idea Charles E. Sorensen emigrated from Denmark to the United States Although the U.S. government at the age of four. After working at several other jobs, he met Henry was rocked by scandal ­during Ford at a Detroit foundry. Sorensen went to work for Ford as a pat- the early 1920s, a business boom fueled a rise in America’s ternmaker, turning Henry Ford’s ideas into reality. Over the years, ­standard of living. Sorensen would play an instrumental role in developing Ford’s dream of building automobiles that almost anyone could afford to Why It Matters Now buy and maintain. Sorensen and Ford succeeded to a remarkable The government must guard degree with the Model T, a carefully crafted product. against scandal and corruption to merit public trust. In addi- tion, business, technological, and social developments of the 1920s launched the era of ­modern consumerism. Key Terms and People Warren G. Harding Charles Evans Hughes Fordney-McCumber Tariff Ohio gang Teapot Dome scandal Albert B. Fall A Ford Model T Calvin Coolidge urban sprawl “Many of the world’s greatest mechanical discoveries were consumerism accidents in the course of other experimentation. Not so Model installment plan T, which ushered in the motor transport age and set off a chain reaction of machine production now known as automa- tion. All our experimentation at Ford in the early days was toward a fixed and, then, wildly fantastic goal.” —Charles E. Sorensen, from My Forty Years with Ford The Model T and its successor, the Model A, transformed the United States. The automobile became the backbone of the American econ- omy in the 1920s and remained such until the 1970s. It profoundly altered the country’s landscape and society, but it was only one of several factors in the business boom of the 1920s. 360 Module 8  Struggles for Peace In 1920 the American people were weary with war and the zeal of the Progressive Era. The postwar economy had faltered. Strikes and riots disrupted the cities. Voters wanted peace and quiet. The presidential elec- tion reflected those attitudes. Senator Warren G. Harding, the handsome Ohio Republican presidential candidate, promised “normalcy” if he were elected. Harding won a landslide victory. His tenure began with sincere peacekeeping efforts. LEGISLATING PEACE After World War I, problems surfaced relating to arms control, war debts, and the reconstruction of war-torn countries. In 1921 President Harding invited several major powers to the Washington Naval Conference, also known as the Washington Disarmament Confer- ence. Russia was left out because of its Communist government. At the conference, Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes urged that no more warships be built for ten years. He suggested that the five major naval pow- ers—the United States, Great Britain, Japan, France, and Italy—scrap many of their battleships, cruisers, and aircraft carriers. Conference delegates cheered, wept, and threw their hats into the air. For the first time in history, powerful nations agreed to disarm. Later, in 1928, 15 countries signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which renounced war as a national policy. However, the pact was futile, as it provided no means of enforcement. Vocabulary HIGH TARIFFS AND REPARATIONS New conflicts arose when it came time reparations payments for Britain and France to pay back the $10 billion they had borrowed from demanded from a defeated enemy America. They could do this in two ways: by selling goods to the United States or by collecting reparations from Germany. However, in 1922 Amer- ica adopted the Fordney-McCumber Tariff, which raised taxes on some U.S. imports to 60 percent—the highest level ever. The tax protected U.S. businesses—especially in the chemical and metals industries—from foreign competition, but made it impossible for Britain and France to sell enough goods in the United States to repay debts. The two countries looked to Germany, which was experiencing terrible inflation. When Germany defaulted on (failed to make) payment, French troops marched in. To avoid another war, American banker Charles G. Dawes was sent to negotiate loans. Through what came to be known as the Dawes Plan, American investors loaned Germany $2.5 billion to pay back Britain and France with annual payments on a fixed scale. Those countries then paid the United States. Thus, the United States actually arranged to be repaid with its own money. Reading Check Summarize How did The solution caused resentment all around. Britain and France considered the United States try the United States a miser for not paying a fair share of the costs of World to solve the political War I. Further, the U.S. had benefited from the defeat of Germany, while and financial issues that faced the country Europeans had paid for the victory with millions of lives. At the same time, as the 1920s began? the United States considered Britain and France financially irresponsible. The Roaring Twenties 361  Harding’s Domestic Policies and Problems On domestic issues, Harding favored a limited role for government in busi- ness affairs and in social reform. ECONOMIC POLICIES Harding believed the answer to the nation’s postwar economic struggles could be found in his campaign slogan, “Less government in business and more business in government.” To help achieve his pro-business goal, Harding sought to cut the federal budget and to reduce taxes on the wealthiest Americans. Harding and his advisers believed that it was the wealthy who started and expanded businesses. By taxing them less, the thinking went, business would grow and pull the nation out of hard times. These poli- cies did contribute to a period of prosperity—but only for a time. Some of Harding’s policies were more progressive. He set up the Bureau of the Budget to help run the government more efficiently and urged U.S. Steel to abandon the 12-hour workday. Warren G. Harding, HARDING’S CABINET Harding appointed Charles Evans Hughes as secre- shown here in 1923, looked presidential, but tary of state. Hughes later went on to become Chief Justice of the Supreme he is considered one Court. The president made Herbert Hoover the secretary of commerce. of the least successful Hoover had done a masterful job of handling food distribution and refu- presidents. gee problems during World War I. Andrew Mellon, one of the country’s wealthiest men, became secretary of the treasury and set about drastically cutting taxes and reducing the national debt. However, the cabinet also included the so-called Ohio gang, the president’s poker-playing cronies, who would soon cause a great deal of embarrassment. SCANDAL PLAGUES HARDING The president’s main problem was that he didn’t understand many of the issues. He admitted as much to a secretary. “John, I can’t make a... thing out of this tax problem. I listen to one side and they seem right, and then... I talk to the other side and they seem just as right.... I know somewhere there is an economist who knows the truth, but I don’t know where to find him and haven’t the sense to know him and trust him when I find him.... What a job!” —Warren G. Harding, quoted in Only Yesterday Harding’s discomfort with policy details contributed to his inability to see the criminal behavior going on right under his nose. Harding’s administration began to unravel as his corrupt friends engaged in graft. That is, they used their offices improperly to become wealthy. One example was Charles R. Forbes, the head of the Veterans Bureau. He was caught illegally selling government and hospital supplies to private companies. Colonel Thomas W. Miller, the head of the Office of Alien Property, was another corrupt official. He was caught taking a bribe. 362 Module 8  THE TEAPOT DOME SCANDAL The most spectacular example of corruption was the Teapot Dome scandal. The government had set aside oil-rich public lands at Teapot Dome, Wyoming, and Elk Hills, California, for use by the U.S. Navy. Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall, a close friend of various oil executives, managed to get the oil reserves transferred from the navy to the Interior Department. Then, Fall secretly leased the land to two private oil companies, includ- ing Henry Sinclair’s Mammoth Oil Company at Teapot Dome. Although Fall claimed that these contracts were in the government’s interest, he suddenly received more than $400,000 in “loans, bonds, and cash.” He was later found guilty of bribery and became the first American to be convicted of a felony while holding a cabinet post. In the summer of 1923, Harding declared, The elephant, shaped like a teapot here, is the symbol of the “I have no trouble with my enemies.... But Republican Party (also referred to as the Grand Old Party). The my... friends, they’re the ones that keep me cartoonist implies that Republicans were responsible for the Teapot walking the floor nights!” Shortly thereafter, Dome scandal. on August 2, 1923, he died suddenly, probably from a heart attack or stroke. Reading Check Make Inferences Americans sincerely mourned their good-natured president. The crimes How did the of the Harding administration were coming to light just as Vice-President corruption of the Calvin Coolidge assumed the presidency. Coolidge, a respected man of Harding administration affect the country integrity, helped to restore people’s faith in their government and in the economically? Republican Party. The next year, Coolidge was elected president. American Industries Flourish The new president, Calvin Coolidge, fit into the pro-business spirit of the 1920s very well. It was he who said, “the chief business of the American people is business.... The man who builds a factory builds a temple—the man who works there worships there.” Both Coolidge and his Republican successor, Herbert Hoover, favored government policies that would keep taxes down and business profits up, and give businesses more available credit in order to expand. Their goal was to minimize government involve- ment in business and to allow private enterprise to flourish. This approach echoed the laissez faire economic policy of 19th-century industrializa- tion—the idea that business should not be regulated. For most of the 1920s, this tactic seemed to work. Coolidge’s adminis- tration continued to place high tariffs on foreign imports, which helped American manufacturers. Reducing income taxes meant that people had more money in their pockets. Wages were rising, and so was productivity. The Roaring Twenties 363  THE AUTO INDUSTRY AND INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY The auto industry was one of the biggest business successes of the 1920s. Henry Ford and his Model T led the way. To create his Model Ts, Ford used several methods to make production as efficient and cost-effective as possible. He used assembly-line manufacturing, increased pay for workers, and avoided changes to the car’s design. Other industries learned from Ford. Manufacturers began using assembly-line techniques to make many types of products in large quantities and at lower costs. During the 1920s, productivity—a measure of output per unit such as labor—rose by about 45 percent. American workers were producing more in less time, which helped the growth of American manufacturers. THE IMPACT OF THE AUTOMOBILE The automobile literally changed the American landscape. Its most visible effect was the construction of paved roads suitable for driving in all types of weather. One such road was the leg- endary Route 66, which provided a route for people trekking west from Chi- cago to California. Many people, however, settled in towns along the route. Commissioned on the cusp of the Depression, Route 66 symbolized the road to opportunity. Also known as “the Mother Road,” it became the subject of countless songs, films, books, and legends. Explore ONLINE! Route 66 1916 Federal Aid Road Act sets up a highway program with the federal government paying half the cost of states’ highway construction. 1921 Highway construction in 11 western states begins under the Lake Superio MONTANA r administration of the Bureau of Public Roads. 0 100 200 mi 1926 U.S. Highway 66, which would run 2,448 miles from Chicago, Lake 0 100 200 km Illinois, to Los Angeles, California, is established. Hu Mis WISCONSIN L a k e M i ch i gan ron sis sip °N p CALIFORNIA iR MINNESOTA MICHIGAN WYOMING Route 66 linked iver The “Auto Camp” R O hundreds of rural developed as M O communities in Chicago townspeople IOWA Illinois, Missouri, C K Y roped off spaces OHIO and Kansas to alongside the INDIANA U N T A Chicago, enabling ILLINOIS road where NEBRASKA UTAH farmers to transport Springfield travelers could r produce. sleep at night. ve ss M R Ri COLORADO iv o u r i o er i ad KANSAS l or Arka I N S Co nsas River MISSOURI St. Louis MOJAVE DESERT KENTUCKY Barstow PAINTED Galena DESERT Springfield 120°W Los Angeles TENNESSEE Albuquerque Tulsa Claremore Winslow Tucumcari Holbrook ARKANSAS Santa Amarillo OKLAHOMA ARIZONA Rosa Red R iver °N PACIFIC NEW MEXICO Interpret Maps The routing of the OCEAN TEXAS highway through 392 1. Place Why do you think government officials decided to build miles of Oklahoma N Route 66 through the Southwest rather than straight west gave the state more miles, more jobs, and W from Chicago? more income than E 2. Movement How do you think the increase in traffic affected other states on Route 66. S the economic development of the cities along this route? 364 Module 8  In addition to the changing landscape, architectural styles also changed, as new houses typically came equipped with a garage or carport and a driveway—and a smaller lawn as a result. The automobile also launched the rapid construction of gasoline stations, repair shops, public garages, motels, tourist camps, and shopping centers. The first automatic traffic signals began blinking in Detroit in the early 1920s. The Holland Tun- nel, the first underwater tunnel designed specifically for motor vehicles, opened in 1927 to connect New York City and Jersey City, New Jersey. The automobile liberated the isolated rural family, who could now travel to the city for shopping and entertainment. It also gave families the oppor- tunity to vacation in new and faraway places. It allowed both women and young people to become more independent through increased mobility. It allowed workers to live miles from their jobs, resulting in urban sprawl as cities spread in all directions. The automobile industry also provided an economic base for such cities as Akron, Ohio, where several tire com- panies were headquartered, and Michigan cities Detroit, Dearborn, Flint, and Pontiac, where the cars were manufactured. The industry drew people to oil-producing states such as California and Texas. The automobile even Vocabulary became a status symbol—both for individual families and to the rest of status symbol a the world. In their work Middletown, the social scientists Robert and Helen possession believed to enhance the owner’s Lynd noted one woman’s comment: “I’ll go without food before I’ll see us social standing give up the car.” The auto industry symbolized the success of the free enterprise system and the Coolidge era. Nowhere else in the world could people with little money own their own automobile. By the late 1920s around 80 percent of all registered motor vehicles in the world were in the United States—about one automobile for every five people. The humorist Will Rogers remarked to Henry Ford, “It will take a hundred years to tell whether you helped us or hurt us, but you certainly didn’t leave us where you found us.” BIOGRAPHY Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) Stepping into office in 1923, the tightlipped Vermonter was respected for his solemnity and wisdom. Coolidge supported American business and favored what he called “a constructive economy.” Known for his strength of character, Coolidge forced the resignation of Attorney General Harry Daugherty and other high officials who had created scandal in office. Shortly after Coolidge was elected, his son died of blood poisoning. Coolidge later wrote, “The power and the glory of the presidency went with him.” When he decided not to seek reelection in 1928, Coolidge stumped the nation. Keeping in character, he said, “Goodbye, I have had a very enjoyable time in Washington.” The Roaring Twenties 365  THE YOUNG AIRPLANE INDUSTRY Automobiles weren’t the only form of transportation taking off. The airplane industry began as a mail-carrying service for the U.S. Post Office. Although the first flight in 1918 was a disaster, a number of successful flights soon established the airplane as a peacetime means of transportation. With the development of weather forecasting, planes began carrying radios and navigational instruments. Reading Check Henry Ford made a trimotor airplane in 1926. Transatlantic flights by Analyze Effects How did the Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart helped to promote cargo and com- widespread mercial ­airlines. In 1927 the Lockheed Company produced a single-engine use of new plane, the Vega. It was one of the most popular transport airplanes of the transportation options affect the late 1920s. Founded in 1927, Pan American Airways inaugurated the first country? transatlantic passenger flights. America’s Standard of Living Soars The 1920s were prosperous ones for the United States. It seemed like the American Dream was coming true. Americans owned around 40 percent of the world’s wealth, and that wealth changed the way most Americans lived. The average annual income increased by more than 35 percent during the period—from $522 to $705. People found it easy to spend all that extra income and then some. Consumerism, or the acquisition of goods in ever- greater amounts, began to play a significant role in the American economy and culture. ELECTRICAL CONVENIENCES Gasoline powered much of the economic boom of the 1920s, but the use of electricity also transformed the nation. American factories used electricity to run their machines. Also, the devel- opment of an alternating electrical current made it possible to distribute electric power efficiently over longer distances. Now electricity was no longer restricted to central cities but could be transmitted to suburbs. The number of electrified households grew, although most farms still lacked power. The electrification of new areas of the country made it possi- ble for people to use the latest home conveniences. By the end of the 1920s, more and more homes had electric irons, while well- to-do families used electric refrigerators, cooking ranges, vacuum Goods and Prices, 1900 and 1928 1900 1928 wringer and washboard $ 5 washing machine $150 brushes and brooms $ 5 vacuum cleaner $ 50 American consumers in the 1920s could sewing machine $25 sewing machine $ 60 purchase the latest household electrical (mechanical) (electric) appliances, such as a refrigerator, for as little as a dollar down and a dollar a week. 366 Module 8  cleaners, and toasters. The new refrigerators’ freezers might hold foods quick-frozen by a process developed by Clarence Birdseye. Home­makers could save time by shopping at the new self-service grocery stores that Clarence Saunders created. The new appliances and food preparation options made the lives of housewives easier, freed them for other community and leisure activities, and coincided with a growing trend of women working outside the home. THE DAWN OF MODERN ADVERTISING With new goods flooding the market, advertising agencies no longer just informed the public about products and prices. Now they hired psychologists to study how to appeal to people’s desire for youthfulness, beauty, health, and wealth. Results were impressive. The slogan “Say it with flowers” doubled florists’ busi- ness between 1912 and 1924. “Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet” lured weight-conscious Americans to cigarettes and away from candy. Brand names became familiar from coast to coast, and luxury items now seemed like necessities. One of those “necessities” was mouthwash. Listerine advertisements aimed to convince readers that without mouthwash a person ran the risk of having halitosis—bad breath—and that the results could be a disaster. “She was a beautiful girl and talented too. She had the advantages 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.” —Listerine advertisement Reading Check Businesspeople applied the power of advertising to other areas of Ameri- Find Main Ideas can life. Across the land, they met for lunch with fellow members of such What were some popular service organizations as Rotary, Kiwanis, and the Lions. As one observer laborsaving noted, they sang songs, raised money for charities, and boosted the image devices and of the businessman “as a builder, a doer of great things, yes, and a dreamer concepts that changed lifestyles whose imagination was ever seeking out new ways of serving humanity.” in the 1920s? Many Americans idolized business during these prosperous times. ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE The Needy after the war, the demand for U.S. crops fell, as did While income rose for many Americans in the prices. Before long there were U.S. farm surpluses. 1920s, it did not rise for everyone. Industries such as textile and steel manufacturing made very little Many American farmers could not make their profit. Mining and farming actually suffered losses. loan and mortgage payments. They lost their Farmers were deeply in debt because they had purchasing power, their equipment, and their borrowed money to buy land and machinery so farms. As one South Dakota state senator that they could produce more crops during World remarked, “There’s a saying: ‘Depressions are farm War I. When European agriculture bounced back led and farm fed.’” The Roaring Twenties 367  A Superficial Prosperity During the 1920s most Americans believed prosperity would go on forever— the average factory worker was producing 50 percent more at the end of the decade than at its start. Hadn’t national income grown from $64 billion in 1921 to $87 billion in 1929? Weren’t most major corporations making for- tunes? Wasn’t the stock market reaching new heights? PRODUCING GREAT QUANTITIES OF GOODS As the adoption of mass pro- duction techniques increased productivity, businesses expanded. There were numerous mergers of companies that manufactured automobiles, steel, and electrical equipment, as well as mergers of companies that provided public utilities. Chain stores sprouted, selling groceries, drugs, shoes, and clothes. Five-and-dime stores like Woolworth’s also spread rapidly. Mail-order cata- logs allowed Americans who lived far from big cities to buy the attractive new products. Congress passed a law that allowed national banks to open branch offices within cities where their main office was located. As the number of businesses grew, however, so did the income gap between workers and managers. There were a number of other clouds in the blue sky of prosperity. The iron and railroad industries, among others, weren’t very prosperous, and farms nationwide suffered losses—with new machinery, they were producing more food than was needed and this drove down food prices. BUYING GOODS ON CREDIT In addition to advertising, industry provided another solution to the problem of luring consumers to purchase the moun- tain of goods produced each year: easy credit, or “a dollar down and a dollar forever.” The installment plan, as it was called, enabled people to buy goods Document-Based Investigation Historical Source Coolidge and Big Business This cartoon depicts Calvin Coolidge playing a saxophone labeled “Praise” while a woman representing “Big Business” dances and sings “Yes, Sir, He’s My Baby.” Analyze Historical Sources 1. The dancing woman is a 1920s “flapper”— independent, confident, and assertive. In what ways was big business in the 1920s comparable to the flappers? 2. What do you think the cartoonist suggests about Coolidge’s relationship with big business? 368 Module 8  over an extended period, without having to put down much money at the time of purchase. Banks provided the money at low interest rates. Adver- tisers pushed the “installment plan” idea with such slogans as “You furnish the girl, we’ll furnish the home” and “Enjoy while you pay.” Some economists and business owners worried that installment buying might be getting out of hand. They feared that the practice was really a sign of fundamental weaknesses behind a superficial economic prosperity. Still, most Americans focused their attention on the present. What could possibly go wrong with the nation’s economy in the future? What little concern there was for the years ahead often took the form of speculation, or investing in risky ventures in the hope that prices would rise and big profits would result. Speculation would eventually spell financial disaster for many investors. The decade of the 1920s had brought about many technological and Reading Check Make Inferences economic changes. And yet the Coolidge era was built on paradox—the How do you think president stood for economy and a frugal way of life, but he was favored by the changes a public who had thrown all care to the wind. Life definitely seemed easier in spending will affect the and more enjoyable for hundreds of thousands of Americans. From the economy? look of things, there was little warning of what was to come. Lesson 1 Assessment 1. Organize Information Create a web diagram and fill it 3. Form Opinions Do you agree with President Coolidge’s in with events that illustrate the central idea. statement: “The man who builds a factory builds a temple—the man who works there worships there”? Explain your answer. Think About: Technology & the goals of business and of religion Business Changes of the 1920s the American idolization of business the difference between workers and management 4. Evaluate How successful was Harding in fulfilling his campaign pledge of returning the country to “normalcy”? Support your opinion with specific 2. Key Terms and People For each key term or person in examples. the lesson, write a sentence explaining its significance. 5. Analyze Effects How do you think the postwar feelings in America influenced the election of 1920? The Roaring Twenties 369  Lesson 2 Postwar Issues One American’s Story The Big Idea During the 1920s and 1930s, Irving Fajans, a department store sales A desire for normality after the clerk in New York City, tried to persuade his fellow workers to join war and a fear of communism the Department Store Employees Union. He described some of the and “foreigners” led to postwar isolationism. techniques union organizers used. Why It Matters Now “If you were caught Americans today continue to distributing... union debate political isolationism and literature around the immigration policy. job you were instantly Key Terms and People fired. We thought up xenophobia ways of passing leaf- nativism lets without the boss isolationism being able to pin any- communism body down.... We... anarchists swiped the key to the Sacco and Vanzetti toilet paper dispens- Irving Fajans organized department store ers in the washroom, workers in their efforts to gain better pay and quota system took out the paper and working conditions during the 1920s. John L. Lewis substituted printed slips of just the right size! We got a lot of new members that way—It appealed to their sense of humor.” —Irving Fajans, quoted in The Jewish Americans During the war, workers’ rights had been suppressed. Then in 1919, workers began to cry out for fair pay and better working conditions. Tensions arose between labor and management, and a rash of labor strikes broke out across the country. The public, however, was not supportive of striking workers. Many citizens longed to get back to normal, peaceful living—they felt resentful of anyone who caused unrest. 370 Module 8  Postwar Trends World War I had left much of the American public exhausted. The debate over the League of Nations had deeply divided America. Further, the Progressive Era had caused numerous wrenching changes in American life. The economy, too, was in a difficult state of adjustment. Demobilized sol- diers, those returning from the war, faced unemployment or took their old jobs away from women and minorities. Also, the cost of living had doubled. Farmers and factory workers suffered as wartime orders diminished. POSTWAR FEARS Many Americans responded to the stressful condi- tions by becoming fearful of outsiders. Such unreasoned fear of things or people seen as foreign or strange is called xenophobia. A wave of ­nativism, or prejudice against foreign-born people, swept the nation. World War I had caused a wave of anti-German sentiment, which contin- ued after the war’s end. For example, some schools stopped teaching Ger- man language classes and some Americans of German heritage changed their names to be more English-sounding. Anti-Semitism, or the hatred of Jews, also increased during the 1920s, as immigration from Jewish communities in Eastern Europe surged. Also prevalent was a belief in isolationism, a policy of pulling away from involvement in world affairs. Isolationism was in contrast to internationalism, the engagement in global concerns that had begun to develop in the previous century. A GLOBAL ECONOMY At the same time that isolationism dominated public opinion and government policy, however, the U.S. economy was becoming more international. American prosperity allowed loans to Europe, which helped pull those countries out of a post-war slump. U.S. factories exported manufactured goods. More efficient farming techniques Reading Check increased agricultural production so much that during the early 1920s, Summarize What American products were marketed to countries around the world. After challenges faced the United States after European agriculture recovered, however, U.S. farmers suffered from over- World War I ended? production and increased competition. Fear of Communism One perceived threat to American life was the spread of communism, an economic and political system based on a single-party government ruled by a dictatorship. In order to equalize wealth and power, Communists would put an end to private property, substituting government ownership of factories, railroads, and other businesses. THE RED SCARE The panic in the United States began in 1919, after revo- lutionaries in Russia overthrew the czarist regime. Vladimir I. Lenin and his followers, or Bolsheviks (“the majority”), established a new Communist state. Waving their symbolic red flag, Communists, or “Reds,” cried out for a worldwide revolution that would abolish capitalism everywhere. The Roaring Twenties 371  A Communist Party formed in the United States. Some 70,000 radicals joined, including some from the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). When several dozen bombs were mailed to government and business lead- ers, the public grew fearful that the Communists were taking over. A “Red Scare” gripped the country. U.S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer took the lead in trying to eradicate what many Americans saw as a real threat. THE PALMER RAIDS In August 1919 Palmer appointed J. Edgar Hoover as his special assistant. Palmer, Hoover, and their agents hunted down sus- pected Communists and Socialists; officials did not distinguish between the two groups. Also targeted were anarchists—people who opposed any form of government. The government agents trampled people’s civil rights, invading private homes and offices and jailing suspects without allow- ing them legal counsel. Hundreds of foreign-born radicals were deported without trials. But Palmer’s raids failed to turn up evidence of a revolutionary con- spiracy—or even explosives. Many thought Palmer was just looking for a campaign issue to gain support for his presidential aspirations. Soon, the public decided that Palmer didn’t know what he was talking about. Background SACCO AND VANZETTI Although short-lived, the Red Scare fed people’s On August 23, 1977, suspicions of foreigners and immigrants. This nativist attitude led to ruined exactly 50 years after the executions, reputations and wrecked lives. The two most famous victims of this attitude Massachusetts were shoemaker Nicola Sacco and fish seller Bartolomeo Vanzetti. Both were governor Michael Italian immigrants and anarchists; both had evaded the draft during World Dukakis declared that Sacco and Vanzetti War I. had not been given a In May 1920 Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested and charged with the fair trial. robbery and murder of a factory paymaster and his guard in South Brain- tree, Massachusetts. Witnesses had said the criminals appeared to be Ital- ians. The accused asserted their innocence and provided alibis. In addition, the evidence against them was circumstantial, and the presiding judge made prejudicial remarks. Nevertheless, the jury found them guilty and sentenced them to death. Document-Based Investigation Historical Source Palmer and the Red Scare As fear of Communists spread, Palmer expressed the panic that many Americans felt. “The blaze of revolution was sweeping over every American institution of law and order... eating its way into the homes of the American workman, its sharp tongues of revolutionary heat... licking the altars of the churches, leaping into the belfry of the school bell, crawling into the sacred corners of American homes,... burning up the foundations of society.” —A. Mitchell Palmer, from “The Case Against the Reds” Analyze Historical Sources 1. What are some words and phrases that Palmer used to stir emotions? 2. Why do you think that Palmer doesn’t provide any evidence of his claims? 372 Module 8  Protests rang out in the United States, Europe, and Latin America. Many people thought Sacco and Vanzetti were mistreated because of their radi- cal beliefs; others asserted it was because they were immigrants. The poet Edna St. Vincent Millay donated proceeds from her poem “Justice Denied in Massachusetts” to their defense. She personally appealed to Governor Alvan Fuller of Massachusetts for their lives. However, after reviewing the Reading Check case and interviewing Vanzetti, the governor decided to let the executions Analyze Motives go forward. The two men died in the electric chair on August 23, 1927. What fears drove the In 1961 new ballistics tests showed that the pistol found on Sacco was Red Scare, the Palmer raids, and the Sacco in fact the one used to murder the guard. However, there was no proof that and Vanzetti arrest? Sacco had actually pulled the trigger. Immigration and Citizenship Issues During the wave of nativist sentiment, “Keep America for Americans” became the prevailing attitude. Anti-immigrant attitudes had been grow- ing in the United States ever since the 1880s, when new immigrants began arriving from southern and eastern Europe. Many of these immigrants were willing to work for low wages in industries such as coal mining, steel production, and textiles. But after World War I, the need for unskilled labor in the United States decreased. Nativists believed that because the United States now had fewer unskilled jobs available, fewer immigrants should be let into the country. Nativist feelings were fueled by the fact that some of the people involved in postwar labor disputes were immi- grant anarchists and Socialists, who many Americans believed were actu- ally Communists. Racist ideas like those expressed by Madison Grant, an anthropologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, fed nativist attitudes. “The result of unlimited immigration is showing plainly in the rapid decline in the birth rate of native Americans... [who] will not bring children into the world to compete in the labor market with the Slovak, the Italian, the Syrian and the Jew. The native American is too proud to mix socially with them.” —Madison Grant, quoted in United States History: Ideas in Conflict THE KLAN RISES AGAIN As a result of the Red Scare and anti-immigrant Vocabulary feelings, different groups of bigots used anti-communism as an excuse to bigot a person who harass any group unlike themselves. One such group was the Ku Klux Klan is intolerant of any creed, race, religion, (KKK). The KKK was devoted to “100 percent Americanism.” By 1924 KKK or political belief that membership reached 4.5 million “white male persons, native-born gentile differs from his own citizens.” The Klan also believed in keeping blacks “in their place.” The Great Migration, the movement of African Americans to northern cities, had heightened racial tensions there. The KKK took advantage of that tension The Roaring Twenties 373  In August 1925 nearly 60,000 Ku Klux Klan members marched along Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC. to increase its repression and violence against black Americans. Other Klan activities included destroying saloons, opposing unions, and driving Roman Catholics, Jews, and foreign-born people out of the country. Support for Klan activities varied according to what members perceived as the biggest threats to their way of life. For example, in Birmingham, Alabama, an industrial city, Klan members used violence to keep African Americans from getting good jobs in the local steel mills and associated factories. Birmingham Klan leaders also suppressed unions. Another example of targeted Klan activities comes from the 1928 presidential elec- tion. New Yorker Al Smith, a Catholic, was the Democratic nominee. The Klan encouraged anti-Catholic prejudice, helping the Republicans win. KKK members were paid to recruit new members into their world of secret rituals and racial violence. Though the Klan dominated state poli- tics in many states, by the end of the decade its criminal activity led to a decrease in power. THE QUOTA SYSTEM From 1919 to 1921 the number of immigrants had grown almost 600 percent—from 141,000 to 805,000 people. Congress, in response to nativist pressure, decided to limit immigration from certain countries, namely those in southern and eastern Europe. Although some Americans wanted to end immigration from those countries, a compromise was reached. The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 set up a quota system. This system established the maximum number of people who could enter the United States from each foreign country. The goal of the quota system was to cut sharply European immigration to the United States. It achieved that goal. As amended in 1924, the law limited immigration from each European nation to 2 percent of the number of its nationals living in the United States in 1890. This provision discriminated against people from eastern and southern Europe—mostly Roman Catholics and Jews—who had not started coming to the United States in large numbers until after 1890. Later, the base year was shifted to 1920. In 1927 the law reduced the total number of persons to be admitted in any one year to 150,000. 374 Module 8  U.S. Patterns of Immigration, 1921–1929 The map and graph below show the change in immigration patterns resulting from the Emergency Quota Act, among other factors. Hundreds of thousands of people were affected, including people from Asia who were excluded from entering the U.S. due to the new quotas. For example, while the number of immigrants from Mexico rose from 30,758 in 1921 to 40,154 in 1929, the number of Italian immigrants dropped drastically from 222,260 in 1921 to 18,008 in 1929. C ANADA EUROPE PACIFIC OCEAN UNITED STATES MEXICO ATLANTIC OCEAN Immigration to the United States, 1921 and 1929 250,000 Number of Immigrants 200,000 150,000 100,000 50,000 0 1921 1929 1921 1929 1921 1929 1921 1929 1921 1929 1921 1929 1921 1929 1921 1929 1921 1929 1921 1929 North America Europe Canada Great Britain Italy Portugal, Spain, Greece Mexico Ireland Poland Yugoslavia, Austria, Scandinavia Germany Hungary, Czechoslovakia Source: Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970 Interpret Graphs 1. Which geographical areas show the sharpest decline in immigration to the U.S. between 1921 and 1929? What are the only areas to register an increase in immigration to the U.S.? 2. How did the quota system affect where immigrants came from? The Roaring Twenties 375  In addition, the law prohibited Japanese immigration, causing much ill will between the two nations. Japan—which had faithfully kept the Gentlemen’s Agreement to limit immigration to the United States, nego- tiated by Theodore Roosevelt in 1907—expressed anger over the insult. President Calvin Coolidge, who signed the bill into law, was also unhappy with the exclusion of Japanese immigrants. He added a statement to the bill in which he expressed his disapproval. The national origins quota system did not apply to immigrants from the Western Hemisphere, however. During the 1920s about a million Canadi- ans and almost 500,000 Mexicans crossed the nation’s borders. CHANGES FOR NATIVE AMERICANS While laws and intimidation were lim- iting immigration for some people during the 1920s, conditions were finally improving for another group. Although their ancestors had lived on the land for centuries, thousands of Native Americans were not yet full U.S. citizens. Nonetheless, some 17,000 Native Americans had registered for military ser- Reading Check vice during World War I. About 10,000 of them served in the armed forces. Compare What Partially in recognition of their service, President Coolidge signed the Indian challenges faced Citizenship Act into law in 1924. The law granted citizenship to about African Americans, Native Americans, 125,000 native people. However, the act did not include people born before and immigrant the effective date of the 1924 act. Nor did it ensure voting rights. Loopholes Europeans and allowed states to deny suffrage to Native Americans. Not until 1948 was Japanese who sought the rights the right extended to all. Native Americans’ right to full self-determination of U.S. citizenship? would also be delayed for many more years. A Time of Labor Unrest Another severe postwar conflict formed between labor and management. During the war, the government wouldn’t allow workers to strike because nothing could interfere with the war effort. The American Federation of Labor (AFL) pledged to avoid strikes. However, 1919 saw more than 3,000 strikes dur- ing which some 4 million workers walked off the job. Employers didn’t want to give raises, nor did they want employees to join unions. Some employers, either out of a sincere belief or because they saw a way to keep wages down, attempted to show that union members were planning a revolution. Employers labeled striking workers as Communists. Newspapers screamed, “Plots to Establish Communism.” Three strikes in particular grabbed public attention. THE BOSTON POLICE STRIKE The Boston police had not been given a raise since the beginning of World War I. Among their many grievances was that they had been denied the right to unionize. When Strikers included working women tailors who fought for improved working conditions. 376 Module 8 representatives asked for a raise and were fired, the remaining policemen decided to strike. Massachusetts governor Calvin Coolidge called out the National Guard. He said, “There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, any time.” The strike ended, but members weren’t allowed to return to work; new policemen were hired instead. People praised Coolidge for saving Boston, if not the nation, from com- munism and anarchy. In the 1920 election he became Warren G. Harding’s vice-presidential running mate. THE STEEL MILL STRIKE Workers in the steel mills wanted the right to negotiate for shorter working hours and a living wage. They also wanted union recognition and collective bargaining rights. In September 1919 the U.S. Steel Corporation refused to meet with union representatives. In response, over 300,000 workers walked off their jobs. Steel companies hired strikebreakers—employees who agreed to work during the strike— and used force. Striking workers were beaten by police, federal troops, and state militias. Then the companies instituted a propaganda campaign, linking the strikers to Communists. In October 1919 negotiations between labor and management produced a deadlock. President Woodrow Wilson made a written plea to the combative “negotiators.” “At a time when the nations of the world are endeavoring to find a way of avoiding international war, are we to confess that there is no method to be found for carrying on industry except... the very method of war?... Are our industrial leaders and our industrial workers to live together without faith in each other?” —Woodrow Wilson, quoted in Labor in Crisis The steel strike ended in January 1920. In 1923 a report on steel mills’ harsh working conditions shocked the public. The steel companies agreed to an eight-hour workday, but the steelworkers remained without a union. THE COAL MINERS’ STRIKE Unionism was more successful in America’s coalfields. In 1919 the United Mine Workers of America, organized since 1890, got a new leader—John L. Lewis. In protest of low wages and long workdays, Lewis called his union’s members out on strike on ­November 1, 1919. Attorney General Palmer obtained a court order send- ing the miners back to work. Lewis then declared it over, but he quietly gave the word for it to continue. In defiance of the court order, the mines stayed closed another month. Then President Wilson appointed an arbi- trator, or judge, to put an end to the dispute. The coal miners received a 27 percent wage increase, and John L. Lewis became a national hero. The miners, however, did not achieve a shorter workday and a five-day work- week until the 1930s. LABOR MOVEMENT LOSES APPEAL In spite of limited gains, the 1920s hurt the labor movement badly. Over the decade, union membership dropped from more than 5 million to around 3.5 million. Membership declined for several reasons: The Roaring Twenties 377  BIOGRAPHY John Llewellyn Lewis (1880–1969) John L. Lewis was born in the little mining town of Lucas, Iowa. His family had traditionally been concerned with labor rights and benefits. Lewis grew up with a fierce determination to fight for what he believed companies owed their employees: decent working conditions and a fair salary. As he said years later, “I have pleaded your case not in the tones of a feeble mendicant [beggar] asking alms but in the thundering voice of the captain of a mighty host, demanding the rights to which free men are entitled.” restrictive government policies had intimidated union advocates, much of the work force consisted of immigrants willing to work in poor conditions, since immigrants spoke a multitude of languages, unions had diffi- culty organizing them, farmers who had migrated to cities to find factory jobs were `used to relying on themselves, and most unions excluded African Americans. By 1929 about 82,000 African Americans—or less than 1 percent of Reading Check Compare How their population—held union memberships. By contrast, just over 3 do the results of percent of all whites were union members. However, African Americans the Boston police joined some unions like the mine workers’, longshoremen’s, and railroad strike and the steel mill strike porters’ unions. In 1925 A. Philip Randolph founded the Brotherhood of compare? Sleeping Car Porters to help African Americans gain a fair wage. Lesson 2 Assessment 1. Organize Information 3. Evaluate In a cause-and-effect chart like the one shown, list Do you think Americans were justified in their fear of examples of the aftereffects of World War I. radicals and foreigners in the decade following World War I? Explain your answer. Event Result 1. Think About: 2. the goals of the leaders of the Russian Revolution the challenges facing the United States What event do you think was the most significant? 4. Analyze Issues Explain your choice. In the various fights between management and union 2. Key Terms and People members, what did each side believe? For each key term or person in the lesson, write a 5. Draw Conclusions sentence explaining its significance. What do you think the Sacco and Vanzetti case shows about America in the 1920s? 378 Module 8  Lesson 3 Changing Ways of Life One American’s Story The Big Idea As the 1920s dawned, social reformers who hoped to ban alcohol— Americans experienced cultural and the evils associated with it—rejoiced. The Eighteenth Amend- conflicts as customs and values ment to the U.S. Constitution, banning the manufacture, sale, and changed in the 1920s. transportation of alcohol, took effect in January 1920. Billy Sunday, Why It Matters Now an evangelist who preached against the evils of drinking, predicted The way in which different a new age of virtue. groups react to change contin- ues to cause conflict today. “The reign of tears Key Terms and People is over! The slums Prohibition will soon be only speakeasy a memory. We bootlegger will turn our pris- fundamentalism ons into factories Clarence Darrow and our jails into storehouses and Scopes trial corncribs. Men will walk upright now, women will smile and the children will laugh. Hell will be forever for rent!” —Billy Sunday, quoted in How Dry We Were: Prohibition Revisited 1920s evangelist Billy Sunday Sunday’s dream was not to be realized in the 1920s, as the law proved unenforceable. The failure of Prohibition was a sign of cultural conflicts most evident in the nation’s cities. Lured by jobs and by the challenge and freedom that the city represented, millions of people rode excitedly out of America’s rural past and into its urban future. The Roaring Twenties 379  Rural and Urban Differences America changed dramatically in the years before 1920, as was revealed in the 1920 census. According to figures that year, 51.2 percent of Americans lived in communities with populations of 2,500 to more than 1 million. Between 1922 and 1929, migration to the cities accelerated, with nearly 2 million people leaving farms and towns each year. “Cities were the place to be, not to get away from,” said one historian. The agricultural world that millions of Americans left behind was largely unchanged from the 19th century. It was a world of small towns and farms bound together by conservative moral values and close social relationships. Yet small-town attitudes began to lose their hold on the American mind as the city rose to prominence. THE NEW URBAN SCENE At the beginning of the 1920s, New York, with a population of 5.6 million people, topped the list of big cities. Next came Chicago, with nearly 3 million, and Philadelphia, with nearly 2 million. Another 65 cities claimed populations of 100,000 or more, and they grew more crowded by the day. Life in these booming cities was far different from the slow-paced, intimate life in America’s small towns. Chicago, for instance, was an industrial powerhouse. It was home to native- born whites and African Americans, immigrant Poles, Irish, Rus- sians, Italians, Swedes, Arabs, French, and Chinese. Each day, an estimated 300,000 workers, 150,000 cars and buses, and 3,000 Cars and pedestrians streetcars filled the pulsing downtown. At night, people crowded into ornate crowd the streets of New York City on Easter movie theaters and vaudeville houses offering live variety shows. Sunday, 1920. For small-town migrants, adapting to the urban environment demanded changes in thinking as well as in everyday living. The city was a world of competition and change. City dwellers read and argued about current sci- entific and social ideas. They judged one another by accomplishment more often than by background. City dwellers also tolerated drinking, gambling, and casual dating. These worldly behaviors were considered shocking and sinful in small towns. For all its color and challenge, though, the city could be impersonal and frightening. Streets were filled with strangers, not friends and neighbors. Life was fast-paced, not leisurely. “It is not for nothing that the predominating color of Chicago is orange. It is as if the city, in its taxicabs, in its shop fronts, in the wrappings of its parcels, chose the color of flame that goes with the smoky black of its factories. It is not for nothing that it has repelled the geometric street arrangement of New York and substituted... great ways with names that a stranger must learn if he can.... He is in a [crowded] city, and if he has business there, he tells himself, ‘If I weaken I shan’t last long.’” —Walter L. George, from Hail Columbia! In the city, lonely migrants from the country often ached for home. Throughout the 1920s Americans found themselves caught between rural 380 Module 8  and urban cultures. It was a tug that pitted what seemed to be a safe, small- town world of close ties, hard work, and strict morals against a big-city world of anonymous crowds, moneymakers, and pleasure-seekers. This tension between traditional, rural attitudes and modern, urban lifestyles was both a reflection of and a reaction to changes in American society during the 1920s. The conflict would be expressed in several ways. THE PROHIBITION EXPERIMENT One vigorous clash between small-town and big-city Americans began in earnest in January 1920, when the Eigh- teenth Amendment went into effect. This amendment launched the era known as Prohibition, during which the manufacture, sale, and transporta- tion of alcoholic beverages were legally prohibited. Reformers had long considered liquor a prime cause of corruption. They thought that too much drinking led to crime, wife and child abuse, acci- dents on the job, and other serious social problems. Support for Prohibition came largely from the rural South and West, areas with large populations of native-born Protestants. The church-affiliated Anti-Saloon League had led the drive to pass the Prohibition amendment. The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, which considered drinking a sin, had helped push the measure through. At first, saloons closed their doors, and arrests for drunkenness declined. But in the aftermath of World War I, many Americans were tired of making sacrifices; they wanted to enjoy life. Most immigrant groups did not consider drinking a sin but a natural part of socializing, and they resented government meddling. Eventually, the government sealed Prohibition’s fate when it failed to budget enough money to enforce the law. The Volstead Act established a Prohibition Bureau in the Treasury Department in 1919, but the agency was underfunded. The job of enforcement involved patrolling 18,700 miles of coastline as well as inland borders, tracking down illegal stills (equipment for distilling liquor), monitoring highways for truckloads of illegal alcohol, and overseeing all the industries that legally used alcohol to be sure none was siphoned off for illegal purposes. The task fell to approximately 1,500 poorly paid federal agents and local police. It was clearly an impossible job. DIFFICULT DECISIONS To Prohibit Alcohol or Not? 2. If you had been a legislator asked to vote for the The question of whether to outlaw alcohol divided Eighteenth Amendment, what would you have Americans. Many believed the government should said? Explain. make alcohol illegal to protect the public, while 3. What happens when the government legislates others believed it was a personal decision and not moral values? Give contemporary examples to morally wrong. support your answer. 1. Examine the pros and cons of each position. Which do you agree with? What other factors, if any, do you think would influence your position? The Roaring Twenties 381  SPEAKEASIES AND BOOTLEGGERS To obtain liquor illegally, drinkers went underground to hid- den saloons and nightclubs known as speakeasies— so called because when inside, one spoke quietly, or “easily,” to avoid detection. Speakeasies could be found everywhere—in penthouses, cellars, room- ing houses, office buildings, tenements, hardware stores, and tearooms. To be admitted to a speakeasy, one had to present a card or use a password. Inside, one would find a mix of fashionable middle-class and upper-middle-class men and women. Before long, people grew bolder in getting around the law. They learned to distill alcohol and built their own stills. Since alcohol was allowed for medicinal and religious purposes, prescrip- tions for alcohol and sales of sacramental wine (intended for church services) skyrocketed. People also bought liquor from bootleggers (named for a smuggler’s practice of carrying liquor in the legs of boots). Bootleggers smuggled alcohol in from Canada, Cuba, and the West Indies. “The busi- ness of evading [the law] and making a mock of it has ceased to wear any aspects of crime and has A young woman demonstrates one of the means used to become a sort of national sport,” wrote the jour- conceal alcohol—hiding it in containers strapped to one’s legs. nalist H. L. Mencken. ORGANIZED CRIME Prohibition had a devastating unintended conse- quence. Not only did Prohibition generate disrespect for the law, it also contributed to organized crime in nearly every major city. Chicago became notorious as the home of Al Capone,