Ch. 23 The Enduring Vision (1) PDF

Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially af...

Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 23 Coping with Change 1920–1929  AMONG THE MANY IMMIGRANTS arriving at Ellis Island in 1913 was the eighteen- year-old son of a veterinarian A New Economic Order (p. 698) from a southern Italian village: Booming Business, Ailing Agriculture 698 Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Piero New Modes of Producing, Managing, and Selling 699 Filiberto Guglielmi di Valentina Women in the New Economic Era 699 d’Antoguolla. After working as a Struggling Labor Unions in a Business Age 702 gardener and dance instructor, he Standpat Politics in a Decade of joined a touring operetta company Change (p. 702) that soon went bankrupt. Adrift in The Evolving Presidency: Scandals and RUDOLPH VALENTINO IN THE FOUR Public-Relations Manipulation 702 San Francisco, he met an actor HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE Republican Policy Making in a Probusiness (Granger Collection) who encouraged him to move Era 704 Independent Internationalism 704 to Hollywood, America’s emerging movie capital. Shortening his Progressive Stirrings, Democratic Party name to “Rudolph Valentino,” he appeared in fifteen short films in Divisions 706 Women and Politics in the 1920s: 1919–1920. Achievements and Setbacks 706 Mass Society, Mass Culture (p. 706) Stardom came in 1921 with The Sheik and The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Cities, Cars, Consumer Goods 706 Appearing in romantic melodramas such as Blood and Sand (1922), Monsieur Beaucaire Soaring Energy Consumption and (1924), and The Son of the Sheik (1926), Valentino reigned as Hollywood’s most popu- Environmental Threats 708 lar male actor. With his good looks, swarthy skin, and piercing dark eyes, he exuded Mass-Produced Entertainment 708 sex appeal, rousing fantasies of erotic adventures in female viewers. In this era of silent Celebrity Culture 711 films, his poor English posed no problem. Movie magazines chronicled his two mar- Cultural Ferment and riages and an affair with a famous actress, Pola Negri. Creativity (p. 712) In August 1926, at thirty-one, Valentino died in New York after surgery for a per- The Jazz Age and the Postwar Crisis of forated ulcer. Lines of female fans stretched for blocks around the funeral home. Pola Values 712 Negri collapsed at the coffin. For several years thereafter, a veiled woman in black Alienated Writers 716 appeared each year on the anniversary of his death to place flowers at his grave in Architects, Painters, and Musicians Confront Hollywood. In a meteoric seven-year career, an unknown immigrant had become one Modern America 716 of the brightest celebrities of a celebrity-obsessed decade. The popularity of the mov- The Harlem Renaissance 717 ies and their larger-than-life stars was only one novelty in a turbulent era that brought a Niagara of new consumer goods, a gushing flood of automobiles, and a babble of A Society in Conflict (p. 718) sound from millions of radios and phonographs. The decade also saw changing cul- Immigration Restriction 718 tural values, creativity in the arts, and bitter social conflicts. With good reason, it soon Needed Workers/Unwelcome Aliens: acquired a nickname, “the Roaring Twenties.” Hispanic Newcomers 718 Many features of contemporary American life may be traced to the 1920s. Indeed, Nativism, Antiradicalism, and the this decade marks the dawn of the modern era. This chapter explores how different Sacco-Vanzetti Case 719 groups of Americans responded to technological, social, and cultural changes that Fundamentalism and the Scopes Trial 719 could be both exciting and threatening. The Ku Klux Klan 720 The Garvey Movement 721 Prohibition: Cultures in Conflict 722 Hoover at the Helm (p. 723) The Election of 1928 723 Herbert Hoover’s Social Thought 724 A PLEASURE-MAD DECADE A 1925 railroad poster advertises the Lake Michigan beaches near Chicago. (Chicago Historical Society) 697 Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.  Motor Company led the market until mid-decade, when General Motors (GM) spurted ahead by tout- FOCUS Questions ing comfort and color (Ford’s Model T came only in black). GM’s lowest-priced car, named for French What economic innovations came in automotive designer Louis Chevrolet, proved espe- the 1920s, and what was their effect on cially popular. In 1927 Henry Ford introduced the different social groups? stylish Model A in various colors. By the decade’s What political and social ideas shaped the end, the automobile industry accounted for about administrations of Presidents Harding and 9 percent of all manufacturing wages and had stim- Coolidge? ulated such industries as rubber, gasoline and motor What developments underlay 1920s’ mass oil, advertising, and highway construction. culture, and how did they affect American The stock market reflected the prevailing pros- life and leisure? perity, and then far outran it. As the decade ended, What social developments contributed to a speculative frenzy gripped Wall Street (covered in the cultural creativity and conflicts of the Chapter 24). 1920s? The business boom reverberated globally. To supply overseas markets, Ford, GM, and other How did Herbert Hoover’s social and corporations built production facilities abroad. political thought differ from that of Harding U.S. firms acquired foreign factories or sources and Coolidge? of raw materials. U.S. meatpackers built plants in Argentina; Anaconda Copper bought Chile’s biggest copper mine; the mammoth United Fruit Company established plants across Latin America. But true A New Economic Order economic globalization lay far ahead. Economic nationalism prevailed in the 1920s, as the industri- Fueled by new products and new ways of produc- alized nations, including the United States, erected ing and selling goods, the economy surged in the high tariff barriers. The Fordney-McCumber Tariff 1920s. Not everyone benefited, and farmers suf- (1922) and the Smoot-Hawley Tariff (1930) pushed fered severe economic woes. Still, the overall picture U.S. tariffs to all-time highs, helping domestic man- appeared rosy. These economic changes influenced ufacturers but stifling foreign trade. the decade’s political, social, and cultural climate, as Americans confronted a changing society. Index of Industrial Production (1913=100) 200 Booming Business, Ailing 180 Agriculture 160 Recession struck in 1920 as Washington canceled wartime defense contracts and veterans reentered the 140 job market. Recovery came by 1922, however, and for 120 the next few years the nonfarm economy hummed (see Figure 23.1). Unemployment fell to 3 percent, 100 prices held steady, and the gross national product 80 (GNP) grew by 43 percent from 1922 to 1929. New consumer goods, including electrical prod- 60 ucts, fed the prosperity. By the mid-1920s, with 40 more than 60 percent of the nation’s homes electri- fied, new appliances, from refrigerators and vac- 20 uum cleaners to fans and razors, filled the stores. 0 The manufacture and marketing of such appliances, 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 as well as the construction of hydroelectric generat- ing plants and equipment, provided a massive eco- FIGURE 23.1 ECONOMIC EXPANSION, 1920–1929 After a nomic stimulus. brief postwar downturn, the American economy surged in The automobile helped fuel the boom. Introduced the 1920s. before the war (see Chapter 21), automobiles spread Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Long-Term Economic like wildfire in the 1920s. By 1930, some 60 percent Growth (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, of U.S. families owned cars (see Figure 23.2). Ford October 1966), 169. 698 Chapter 23 Coping with Change, 1920–1929 Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.  160 workers’ per capita output by some 40 percent. At Ford plants near Detroit, workers stood in place 140 and performed repetitive tasks as chains conveyed the vehicles past them. 120 Assembly-line work influenced employees’ Millions of cars 100 behavior. Managers discouraged individual initia- tive. Even conversation or laughter could distract 80 workers from their task. Ford employees learned to speak without moving their lips and adopted an 60 expressionless mask that some called “Fordization of the face.” Job satisfaction diminished. Assembly- 40 line labor did not foster the pride that came from 20 farming or mastering a craft. Nor did it offer much prospect of advancement. In Muncie, Indiana, 0 factories employing over four thousand work- ers announced only ten openings for foremen in 10 20 30 40 50 70 80 90 00 06 60 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 20 20 19 1924–1925. FIGURE 23.2 THE AUTOMOBILE AGE: PASSENGER CARS U.S. mass-production methods had a global REGISTERED IN THE UNITED STATES, 1910–2006 From a plaything impact. Fordism became a synonym worldwide for the rich, the automobile emerged after 1920 as the basic mode for assembly-line manufacturing. In Russia, which of transportation for the masses. The number leveled off after 1990, as many people switched to sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and light purchased twenty-five thousand Ford tractors in trucks, which are not included in these statistics. the 1920s, people “ascribed a magical quality to the name of Ford,” a visitor reported. Sources: Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to Business consolidation, spurred by the war, con- 1970 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1975), 716; tinued. By the late 1920s, over a thousand companies Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1980-2009 (Washington, D.C.: a year vanished through merger. Corporate giants U.S. Government Printing Office). While prosperity lifted overall wage rates, work- ers benefited unequally, reflecting regional varia- tions and discriminatory employment practices. The variation between North and South loomed largest. In 1928, unskilled laborers in New England earned an average of forty-seven cents an hour, in contrast to twenty-eight cents in the South. Textile corporations moved south seeking lower wage rates, devastating New England mill towns. African- Americans, women workers, Mexican-Americans, and recent immigrants clustered at the bottom of the wage scale. For farmers, wartime prosperity gave way to hard times. Grain prices plummeted when government purchases for the army dwin- dled, European agriculture revived, and America’s high tariffs depressed agricultural exports. As trac- tors and other new machinery boosted farm pro- duction, the resulting surpluses further weakened prices. Farmers who had bought land and equip- ment on credit during the war felt the squeeze as payments came due. New Modes of Producing, Managing, and Selling “HONEY, WHERE DID YOU PARK THE CAR?” Hundreds of identical Fords Productivity increased dramatically in the 1920s. jam Nantasket Beach near Boston on a Fourth of July in the early 1920s. New assembly-line techniques boosted industrial (Archive/Getty Images) A New Economic Order 699 Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.  dominated the major indus- [S]miling faces, shining teeth, schoolgirl complexions, “America stands for one tries: Ford, GM, and Chrysler in cornless feet, perfect fitting [underwear], distinguished automobiles; General Electric collars, wrinkleless pants, odorless breath, regularized idea: Business.” and Westinghouse in electric- bowels,... charging motors, punctureless tires, perfect ity; and so forth. Samuel Insull, busts, shimmering shanks, self-washing dishes, backs president of Chicago’s Commonwealth Edison behind which the moon was meant to rise. Company, controlled a sprawling empire of local power companies. By 1930, one hundred corpo- The advertisers even defined America’s essen- rations controlled nearly half the nation’s busi- tial meaning in terms of its abundance of material ness. Without actually merging, companies that goods and consumers’ “freedom of choice” in the made similar products formed trade associations marketplace. Buying more and more products, they to coordinate prices, market share, and product claimed, fulfilled the “pursuit of happiness” prom- specifications. ised in the Declaration of Independence, and was As U.S. capitalism matured, management struc- thus the duty of all good citizens. tures evolved. Corporations set up separate divi- A few critics challenged the advertisers’ cultural sions for product development, market research, dominance. In Your Money’s Worth (1927), Stuart economic forecasting, employee relations, and so Chase and F. J. Schlink punctured advertisers’ exag- on, each under a professional manager. gerated claims. One observer called the book “the The shift to a consumer economy affected wage Uncle Tom’s Cabin of the consumer movement.” The policies. Rather than paying the lowest wages pos- Consumers’ Research Bulletin, launched by Chase sible, business leaders now realized that higher and Schlink in 1929, tested products and reported wages increased consumers’ buying power. Henry the results to consumers. Ford had led the way in 1914 by paying his workers Easy credit further lubricated the economy. five dollars a day, well above the average for factory Earlier, credit had typically involved pawnbrokers, workers. Other companies soon followed suit. bank loans, or informal arrangements between buy- New systems for distributing goods emerged. ers and sellers. Now retailers routinely offered credit Automobiles reached consumers through dealer plans for big-ticket items such as automobiles, fur- networks. By 1926, nearly ten thousand Ford deal- niture, and refrigerators. erships dotted the nation. Chain stores accounted Business values saturated 1920s’ culture. “America for about 25 percent of retail sales by 1930. The A&P stands for one idea: Business,” proclaimed the Indepen- grocery chain boasted 17,500 stores. Department dent magazine in 1921; “Thru business,... the human stores grew more inviting, with remodeled inte- race is finally to be redeemed.” Presidents Harding and riors and attractive displays. Air conditioning, a Coolidge praised corporate America and hobnobbed recent invention, made department stores (as well with business leaders. Magazines profiled business as movie theaters and restaurants) welcome havens tycoons. A 1923 opinion poll ranked Henry Ford as on summer days. a leading presidential prospect. In The Man Nobody Advertising and credit sales further stimulated Knows (1925), ad man Bruce Barton described Jesus the consumer economy. In 1929, corporations Christ as a managerial genius who “picked up twelve spent nearly $2 billion on radio, billboard, news- men from the bottom ranks of business and forged paper, and magazine ads, and advertising compa- them into an organization that conquered the world.” nies employed some six hundred thousand people. Although more women worked outside the Chicago advertising baron Albert Lasker owned the home in the 1920s, their proportion of the total Chicago Cubs and his own golf course. Advertisers female population held steady at about 24 percent. used celebrity endorsements, promises of social suc- Male workers dominated the auto plants and other cess, and threats of social embarrassment. Beneath assembly-line factories. a picture of a sad young woman, a Listerine mouth- Women who did enter the workplace faced wage wash ad proclaimed: “She was a beautiful girl and discrimination. In 1929, for example, a male trim- talented too.... Yet in the one pursuit... foremost in mer in the meatpacking industry received fifty-two the mind of every girl and woman—marriage—she cents an hour; a female trimmer, thirty-seven cents. was a failure.” Her problem was “halitosis,” or bad The weakening of the union movement hit women breath. The remedy, of course, was Listerine, and workers hard. By 1929, the proportion of women lots of it. workers belonging to unions fell to a minuscule Portraying a fantasy world of elegance, pleasure, 3 percent. and limitless abundance, ads aroused desires that Most women workers, especially recent immi- the advertisers promised to fulfill. One critic in grants and members of minority groups, held 1925 described the advertisers’ “dream world”: low-paying, unskilled positions. By 1930, however, 700 Chapter 23 Coping with Change, 1920–1929 Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. THE EXCITING NEW WORLD OF ELECTRIC APPLIANCES In this 1920 ad, a bride contemplates the thrill of owning her very own electric washing machine. Pay only “a few dollars” down, the ad promised, and the balance “in convenient monthly sums.” A New Economic Order 701 Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.  some 2 million women were employed in corpo- refused to negotiate and evicted strikers from their rate offices as secretaries, typists, or filing clerks, company-owned homes. When armed thugs in although rarely at higher ranks. Indeed, office-space league with the owners raided an encampment of arrangements often segregated male managers and strikers, the police chief was shot, possibly by one female clerks. of his own deputies. In the end, these strikes failed, Nearly fifty thousand women received college and the textile industry remained nonunion. degrees in 1930, almost triple the 1920 figure. Of As wartime antiradical sentiments persisted, these female graduates who joined the workforce, opponents of labor unions often smeared them many entered such traditional “women’s profes- with the “communist” label, whether accurate or sions” as nursing, librarianship, and school teach- not. The antiunion campaign took subtler forms ing. With medical schools limiting the number of as well. Manufacturers’ associations renamed the women students to 5 percent of their total enroll- nonunion shop the “open shop” and dubbed it the ment, the number of women physicians actually “American Plan” of labor relations. Some corpora- declined from 1910 to 1930. A handful of women, tions provided cafeterias and recreational facili- however, following the lead of Progressive Era trail- ties for employees or sold them company stock at blazers, pursued postgraduate education to become reduced prices. Corporate publicists praised “wel- faculty members in colleges and universities. fare capitalism” (the term for this anti-union strat- Marginalized in the workplace, women were egy) as evidence of employers’ benevolent concern courted as consumers. In the decade’s advertis- for their workers. ing, glamorous women smiled behind the steering Black membership in labor unions stood at only wheel, swooned over new appli- about eighty-two thousand by 1929, mostly miners, ances, and smoked cigarettes in dockworkers, and railroad porters. The American “Men are judged... romantic settings. (One ad man Federation of Labor officially prohibited racial dis- promoted cigarettes for women crimination, but most AFL unions in fact barred according to their as “torches of freedom.”) In African-Americans. Corporations often hired job- power to delegate the advertisers’ dream world, less blacks as strikebreakers, increasing organized housework became an excit- labor’s hostility toward them. work. Similarly the ing challenge. As one ad put it, wise woman delegates “Men are judged... according to their power to delegate work. Standpat Politics in a to electricity all that electricity can do.” Similarly the wise woman dele- gates to electricity all that elec- Decade of Change tricity can do.” With Republicans in control of Congress and the White House, politics reflected the decade’s business Struggling Labor Unions in a orientation. Unsettled by rapid social change, voters turned to conservative candidates who seemed to Business Age represent stability and traditional values. In this cli- Organized labor struggled in the 1920s. Union mate, would-be reformers and exploited groups had membership fell from 5 million to 3.4 million in few political options. the decade. Several factors underlay this decline. For one thing, despite inequities and regional varia- The Evolving Presidency: Scandals tions, overall wage rates rose, reducing the incen- tive to join a union. Further, the union movement’s and Public-Relations Manipulation strength lay in traditional crafts and older indus- While white southerners and urban immigrants tries like printing, railroading, mining, and con- remained heavily Democratic, the Republican struction. These unions were ill-suited to the new Party continued to attract northern farmers, busi- mass-production factories. nesspeople, many white-collar workers and profes- Management hostility further weakened orga- sionals, and some skilled blue-collar workers. The nized labor. Henry Ford hired thugs to intimidate GOP also benefited from the antiradical mood that union organizers. In 1929, anti-union violence fueled the early postwar Red Scare (see Chapter 22) flared in North Carolina, where textile work- and the anti-union campaign. Exploiting such fears, ers faced low wages, long hours, and appalling the Republican-led New York legislature set up a work conditions. In Marion, deputy sheriffs shot committee to investigate “seditious activities” and and killed six striking workers. In Gastonia, the required loyalty oaths of public-school teachers. communist-led National Textile Workers Union With Republican progressives having bolted to organized the strike. The mill’s absentee owners Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, GOP conservatives 702 Chapter 23 Coping with Change, 1920–1929 Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. PRESIDENT HARDING WITH LADDIE, JUNE 1922 As politicians learned the arts of publicity, posed scenes like this became more common. (Library of Congress) controlled the 1920 convention and nominated presidency. By 1922, Washington rumor hinted at Ohio Senator Warren G. Harding for president. corruption in high places. “I have no trouble with As a young newspaper editor, Harding had married my enemies,” Harding told an associate; “[b]ut... my the local banker’s daughter, who helped manage his goddamn friends... keep me walking the floor 1914 Senate campaign. A genial backslapper, he nights.” In summer 1923, vacationing in the West, enjoyed good liquor, a good poker game, and at least Harding suffered a heart attack and died in a San one long-term extramarital affair. In the election, Francisco hotel. Harding swamped his Democratic opponent James A 1924 Senate investigation exposed the scan- M. Cox. After the stresses of war and Wilson’s mor- dals. Charles Forbes, convicted of stealing Veterans’ alizing, voters welcomed Harding’s bland oratory. Bureau funds, evaded prison by fleeing abroad. Harding made some notable cabinet selections: The bureau’s top lawyer committed suicide, as did Henry C. Wallace, the editor of an Iowa farm peri- an aide to Attorney General Daugherty accused of odical, as secretary of agriculture; Charles Evans influence peddling. Daugherty Hughes, former New York governor and 1916 pres- himself narrowly escaped con- idential candidate, secretary of state; and Andrew viction in two criminal trials. “I have no trouble with my Mellon, a Pittsburgh financier, treasury secretary. Interior Secretary Fall went Herbert Hoover, the wartime food czar, became to jail for leasing government enemies,” Harding told secretary of commerce. oil reserves, one in Teapot an associate; “[b]ut... Harding also made some disastrous appoint- Dome, Wyoming, to oilmen ments: his political manager, Harry Daugherty, as in return for a $400,000 bribe. my goddamn friends... attorney general; a Senate pal, Albert Fall of New Like “Watergate” in the 1970s, keep me walking the floor Mexico, as secretary of the interior; a wartime draft “Teapot Dome” became a dodger, Charles Forbes, as Veterans’ Bureau head. shorthand label for a tangle of nights.” Such men set the low ethical tone of Harding’s scandals. Standpat Politics in a Decade of Change 703 Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.  With Harding’s death, Vice torrential spring rains caused severe flooding on the The government had no President Calvin Coolidge, on Mississippi River. Soil erosion resulting from poor vacation in Vermont, took the farming practices worsened the flood conditions, duty to protect citizens presidential oath by lantern light as did ill-considered engineering projects aimed at “against the hazards of from his father, a local magis- draining the river’s natural floodplain for develop- trate. After entering local poli- ment purposes. One official described the river as the elements,” Coolidge tics in Massachusetts, Coolidge “writh[ing] like an imprisoned snake” within its declared. had been elected Massachusetts artificial confines. From Cairo, Illinois, to the Gulf of governor in 1918 and secured Mexico, water poured over towns and farms, flood- the Republican vice-presidential ing twenty-seven thousand square miles. Hundreds nomination in 1920. died, and the toll of the homeless, including many Coolidge’s image as “Silent Cal,” a Yankee African-Americans, reached several hundred thou- embodiment of old-fashioned virtues, was carefully sand. Disease spread in makeshift refugee camps. crafted. The advertising executive Bruce Barton, Floodwaters swept over New Orleans’s low-lying an early master of political image-making, guided black neighborhoods. Coolidge’s bid for national office in 1919–1920. President Coolidge rejected calls to aid the Having persuaded a Boston publisher to issue a book victims. The government had no duty to protect of Coolidge’s speeches, Barton sent autographed cop- citizens “against the hazards of the elements,” he ies to key GOP convention delegates. Barton planted declared. Coolidge did, however, sign the Flood pro-Coolidge articles in magazines and in other ways Control Act of 1928 funding levee construction marketed his candidate just as advertisers were mar- along the Mississippi. keting soap, socks, and cereal. The very name Calvin Another test of Coolidge’s anti-government Coolidge, he wrote in a Collier’s magazine article ideology came when hard-pressed farmers rallied building brand recognition, “seems cut from granite; behind the McNary-Haugen Bill, a price-support one could almost strike sparks with such a name, like plan under which the government would purchase a flint.” Targeting newly enfranchised women, Barton the surplus of six basic farm commodities—cotton, composed a “Message to Women” published under corn, rice, hogs, tobacco, and wheat—at their aver- Coolidge’s name in Woman’s Home Companion. age price in 1909–1914 (when farm prices were Long before Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “fireside high). The government would then sell these sur- chats” of the 1930s (covered in Chapter 24), Bruce pluses abroad at market prices and recover the Barton understood the political potential of radio. difference, if any, through a tax on domestic sales He advised Coolidge to speak conversationally in of these commodities. Coolidge twice vetoed the his radio addresses, avoiding earlier politicians’ McNary-Haugen bill, warning of “the tyranny of spread-eagle oratory. Wrote an admirer of Barton: bureaucratic regulation and control.” The govern- “No man is his equal in [analyzing] the middle- ment must not favor a single interest group, he class mind and directing an appeal to it.” argued—even though corporations had long ben- efited from high tariffs and other measures. These Republican Policy Making in a vetoes led many angry farmers to vote Democratic in 1928. In the 1930s, New Deal planners would Probusiness Era draw upon the McNary-Haugen approach in shap- While Coolidge raised the ethical tone of the White ing farm policy (as discussed in Chapter 24). House, the probusiness policies, symbolized by high tariffs, continued. Prodded by Treasury Secretary Mellon, Congress lowered income-tax rates for the Independent Internationalism wealthy from their high wartime levels. Lower tax The Harding and Coolidge administrations contin- rates for the well-to-do, Mellon argued, would actu- ued to oppose U.S. membership in the League of ally increase revenues by reducing the incentive to Nations. Coolidge did support U.S. membership in seek tax shelters. He also contended that tax cuts for the new International Court of Justice (the World high income earners encouraged business investment Court), but the Republican-controlled Congress and thus benefited everyone. In the same probusiness imposed unacceptable reservations, and the U.S. spirit, the Supreme Court under Chief Justice William did not join. Howard Taft (appointed by Harding in 1921) over- Backing away from Woodrow Wilson’s idealis- turned a federal ban on child labor passed in 1919. tic view of America’s global destiny, the Republican While promoting corporate interests, Coolidge administrations of the 1920s pursued foreign poli- opposed government assistance for other cies that served America’s economic interests—an Americans. This position faced a test in 1927 when approach historians have called independent 704 Chapter 23 Coping with Change, 1920–1929 Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. internationalism. Despite postwar Europe’s bat- One notable diplomatic achievement was the tered economies, Washington demanded repay- Washington Naval Arms Conference. After the ment of $22 billion in Allied war debts and German war ended, the United States, Great Britain, and reparation payments. A study commission in 1924 Japan edged toward a dangerous (and costly) naval- reduced these claims, but high U.S. tariffs and arms race. In 1921, Secretary of State Hughes called Europe’s economic problems, including runaway a Washington conference to address the problem. inflation in Germany, made repayment of even the He startled the delegates by outlining a specific ratio lower claims unrealistic. When Adolf Hitler took of warships among the world’s naval powers. Great power in Germany in 1933 (covered in Chapter 25), Britain, Japan, Italy, and France accepted Hughes’s he repudiated all reparations payments. plan, and agreed to halt battleship construction for The Republican administrations worked to ten years. The United States and Japan also pledged protect U.S. corporate interests in Latin America. to respect each other’s territorial holdings in the In Mexico, the U.S. State Department vigorously Pacific. Although this treaty ultimately failed to pre- opposed the efforts of a new revolutionary govern- vent World War II, it did represent an early arms- ment to regain control of oilfields earlier granted control effort. to U.S. companies and to restrict landholding by Another U.S. peace initiative was mainly sym- foreign interests. In Nicaragua, President Coolidge bolic. In 1928, the United States and France, even- in 1926 sent U.S. Marines to put down an insurrec- tually joined by sixty other nations, signed the tion against the country’s president, Adolfo Diàz, Kellogg-Briand Pact renouncing aggression and who had close ties to a U.S.-owned gold-mining outlawing war. Lacking enforcement mechanisms, company. this high-sounding document accomplished little. THE 1927 MISSISSIPPI RIVER FLOOD A few of the 700,000 people displaced by the raging waters of the Mississippi await rescue, their partially submerged homes in the background. President Calvin Coolidge resisted calls for federal aid. (Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library) 705 Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.  Progressive Stirrings, Democratic The Women’s Joint Congressional Committee (WJCC), a coalition of activist groups, lobbied for Party Divisions child-labor laws, protection of women workers, The reform spirit survived in Congress. The maternal health care, and federal support for educa- Sheppard-Towner Act (1921) funded rural prena- tion. The WJCC played a key role in passage of the tal and baby-care centers staffed by public-health Sheppard-Towner Act and in congressional enact- nurses. The Federal Radio Commission, created by ment of a constitutional amendment banning child Congress in 1927, extended the regulatory principle labor in 1924. to this new industry. A reform-minded Nebraska As former suffragists scattered across the poli- senator, George Norris, prevented the Coolidge tical spectrum, however, the movement lost focus. administration from selling a wartime federal The League of Women Voters, drawing middle-class hydroelectric plant to Henry Ford at bargain prices. and professional women, played a role in the forma- In the 1930s, this Alabama plant would become tion of the WJCC, but otherwise abandoned feminist part of the Tennessee Valley Authority, a key New activism, focusing instead on nonpartisan studies of Deal agency. civic issues.” Alice Paul’s National Woman’s Party In the 1922 midterm election, proposed a constitutional amendment guaranteeing labor and farm groups joined women equal rights, but other reformers argued that One young woman forces to defeat some conserva- it could jeopardize laws protecting women work- tive Republicans. In 1924, this ers. Politically active African-American women criticized earlier battled racial discrimination rather than addressing alliance revived the Progressive suffragists’ lack of Party and nominated Senator feminist issues; Hispanic women in the Southwest Robert La Follette for presi- focused on labor-union organizing. “feminine charm” and The reactionary political climate intensified this dent. The Socialist Party and the their “constant clamor American Federation of Labor retreat from feminist activism. Patriotic groups endorsed La Follette. accused Jane Addams and other woman’s-rights about equal rights.” leaders of communist sympathies. Younger women, The 1924 Democratic con- vention in New York City split bombarded by ads defining liberation in terms of between urban and rural wings. By one vote, the consumption, rejected the prewar feminists’ civic delegates defeated a resolution condemning the Ku engagement. One in 1927 criticized earlier suffrag- Klux Klan (discussed later in this chapter). While ists’ lack of “feminine charm” and their “constant the party’s Protestant southern wing favored former clamor about equal rights.” Treasury Secretary William G. McAdoo, the big-city The reforms backed by women’s groups proved delegates championed New York’s Catholic gover- short-lived. The Supreme Court struck down child- nor Alfred E. Smith, of Irish, German, and Italian labor and women’s-protective laws. Few states rati- immigrant origins. This split mirrored deep divi- fied the constitutional amendment banning child sions in the nation. After 102 ballots, the exhausted labor, as critics accused its supporters, including delegates nominated an obscure New York corpora- the WJCC, of undermining the free-enterprise sys- tion lawyer, John W. Davis. tem. The Sheppard-Towner Act, denounced by the Calvin Coolidge, aided by media adviser Barton, American Medical Association for weakening phy- easily won the Republican nomination. The GOP sicians’ monopoly of health care, expired in 1929. platform praised the high protective tariff and urged tax cuts and reduced government spending. Amid general prosperity, Coolidge polled about twice Mass Society, Mass Culture Davis’s total. La Follette’s 4.8 million votes cut into Amid this conservative political climate, major the Democratic total, contributing to Coolidge’s transformations were reshaping society. Assembly landslide victory. lines, advertising, new consumer products, and innovations in mass entertainment and corporate organization all fueled the ferment. While some Women and Politics in the 1920s: welcomed these changes; others recoiled in fear. Achievements and Setbacks Reformers’ hope that woman suffrage would trans- Cities, Cars, Consumer Goods form politics survived briefly after the war. Polling In the 1920 census, the urban population (defined as places shifted from saloons to schools and churches. persons living in communities of twenty-five hun- The 1920 major-party platforms endorsed several dred or more) surpassed the rural (see Figure 23.3). measures proposed by the League of Women Voters. The United States had become an urban nation. 706 Chapter 23 Coping with Change, 1920–1929 Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.  100 FIGURE 23.3 THE URBAN AND RURAL POPULATION OF THE UNITED Percentage of total population Urban STATES, 1900–2000 The urbanization of America in the twentieth century had 75 profound political, economic, and social consequences. 50 Source: Census Bureau, His- torical Statistics of the United States, updated by relevant Statistical Abstracts of the United States, and U.S. Dept. of Transportation, Fed- 25 eral Highway Administration. Rural 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 Urbanization affected different groups in different highway fatalities (more than twenty-six thousand ways. African-Americans migrated cityward in mas- in 1924). In some ways, the automobile brought sive numbers, especially after the 1927 Mississippi families together. As family vacations became more River floods. By 1930, more than 40 percent of the common, tourist cabins and roadside restaurants nation’s 12 million blacks lived in cities, 2 million sprang up. But the automobile also eroded fam- of them in urban centers of the North and West ily cohesion and parental authority. Young people (see Figure 23.4). The first black congressman since could borrow the car to catch a movie, attend a dis- Reconstruction, Oscar De Priest of Chicago, won tant dance, or park in a secluded lovers’ lane. election in 1928. Middle- and upper-class women welcomed the For many women, city life meant eased house- automobile. They could now drive to work, attend work thanks to laborsaving appliances. Store- meetings, visit friends, and gain a sense of indepen- bought clothes replaced hand-sewn apparel. Home dence. Stereotypes of feminine delicacy faded as baking and canning declined as bakeries and super- women mastered this new technology. As an auto- markets proliferated. motive magazine editorialized in 1927, “[E]very For social impact, nothing matched the auto- time a woman learns to drive,... it is a threat to yes- mobile. In Middletown (1929), a study of Muncie, terday’s order of things.” Indiana, Robert and Helen Lynd reported one Automobiles offered farm families easier access resident’s comment: “Why... do you need to study to neighbors and to the city, lessening rural isola- what’s changing this country? I can tell you... in tion. The automobile’s country cousin, the tractor, just four letters: A-U-T-O.” increased productivity and reduced the physical The A-U-T-O’s social impact proved decidedly demands of farming. Yet increased productivity did mixed, including traffic jams, parking problems, and not always mean increased profits. And as farmers 14 FIGURE 23.4 THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN URBAN POPULATION, 1880–1960 (IN MILLIONS) The 12 increase in America’s urban black population from under 1 million in 1880 to nearly 14 million Population (in millions) 10 by 1960 represents one of the great rural-urban migrations of modern history. 8 Source: Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970 (Washington, D.C.: 6 Bureau of the Census, 1975), vol. I, p. 12. 4 2 80 90 00 10 20 30 40 50 60 18 18 19 19 19