Chapter 31 (Part I Notes)

(1919-1929)

Mr. K. McLaughlin, M.S. Ed.

Morris Knolls High School

Introduction Isolationism as a response to war

Shunning of “radical” and “un-American lifestyles”

New Technologies

Consumerism

Entertainment

Boston Herald Headlines 1920 “Bolshevist Plan for Conquest of America!”

“Bride Thinks Reds Kidnapped Missing Groom”

“I believe we should place them [the reds] all on a ship of stone, with sails of lead, and that their first stopping place should be hell.”

Red Scare Causes

Withdraw of Russia from WWI in 1918

Bolshevik call for worldwide overthrow of capitalism

4 million Americans walked off the job in 1919

Inspired by labor militancy in Russia and Western Europe

Progressives and socialist membership grew amongst: middle class, intelligentsia, immigrants, and African Americans

Socialist Party – 150,000 member 1920

1920 Election – Debbs received almost 1 million votes while imprisoned

5 million workers belonged to labor unions

Red Scare (1919-1920) Wave of political reaction and xenophobia

Small numbers of Americans were members of the communist party

Strikes put the nation on edge after the end of WWI

Communists were scapegoats for labor troubles

Bolsheviks were blamed for 1919

Billy Sunday “I had my way, I’d fill the jails so full of them that their feet

would stick out the window.”

Resulted in a nationwide crusade against left-wingers whose Americanism was suspect

Red Scare Effects Attorney General A. Mitchell

Palmer “Fighting Quaker” Palmer Raids - Utilized

Section Act to put 6,000 radicals in jail, many without bail and charges for a week(33 cities)

Confiscated three pistols and no bombs

Hired Hoover as his Special Assistant

A bomb exploded on Palmer’s lawn convinced Palmer to step up his prosecutions and deportations

Explosion at Palmer’s Residence

Palmer Raids Video http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?

ItemID=WE52&iPin=WPA0250&SingleRecord=True

Red Scare Effects Cont… “Soviet Ark” 249 alleged alien radicals deported on the

Buford

September 1920 – Wall Street bomb killed 38 people, wounded several hundred

Several state legislatures passes criminal syndicalism laws Unlawful to proselytize violence for political change Critics cited infringement of free speech

IWW and radicals were vigorously prosecuted

Five Socialist Party member of NY State legislature were denied seats

Goldman and Berkman

Red Scare Effects Continued Conservative businesspeople denounced unions as

“Sovietism” in disguise

Sacco and Vanzetti Italian Immigrants convicted of the murders of a

Massachusetts paymaster and his guard

Judge was biased Sacco and Vanzetti were: Italians, atheists, anarchists, and draft

dodgers

Liberals and radicals rallied to Sacco and Vanzetti’s defense

Case lasted six years until 1927

Evidence was not conclusive

Two men were electrocuted and became martyrs for “radicals”

Protest in London http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?

ItemID=WE52&iPin=WPA0265&SingleRecord=True

Anarchists Address Wobblies

Hooded Hoodlums of the KKK Membership in the Ku Klux Klan grew in the early 20’s

Extremist and Ultra Conservativism

Anti: foreign, Catholic, African American, Jewish, pacifist, Communist, internationalist, revolutionist, bootlegger, gambling adultery, birth-control.

Pro: Anglo-Saxon, “native” American, and Protestant.

Grew in the Midwest and the “Bible Belt” South

Peaked in mid 1920s (5 million paid dues)

Congressional Investigation prosecuted embezzlement

Membership collapsed in the 1920s

Was an alarming manifestation of xenophobia, intolerance, and prejudice caused by peoples cowardly fears of the social change

Immigration Quotas 800,000 stepped ashore in

1920-1921 2/3 from Southern and

Eastern Europe

Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 Why? National Origins System -

Quota was set to 3% of the people of their nationality who had been living in the US in 1910 according to the US census Favorable to immigrants from

Southern and Eastern Europe, large numbers by 1910

Immigration Quotas Cont… Immigration Act of 1923

replaced 1921 Act National Origins Quota

limited to 2 % and now based on 1890 Census Limited Southern and

Eastern European Immigrants

United Kingdom – 666,000 est. and Italy 5,800 est.

Essentially ended Japanese immigration “Hate America” rallies in Japan Canadians and Latin

Americans were exempt - workers

End of An Era of Immigration By 1931, more immigrants left than arrived

Sacrificed tradition of freedom, opportunity, and ethnic diversity

During the 1800s 35 million immigrants arrived in the US, mostly from Europe

Patchwork of ethnic communities(i.e. Italians, Jewish, and Polish) remained – separated by language, religion, and customs

“Ethnic variety undermined class and political solidarity”

Detractors of Immigration Control Cultural Pluralists

Melting Pot would eliminate ethnic differences

Horace Kallen Ethnic differences would create a symphony, where each

immigrant community would harmonize with others while retaining it own identity

Randolph Bourne Stressed preservation of identity

US should serve as a vanguard of an international and multicultural age

John Dewey, Jane Addams, and Louis Brandeis supported cultural pluralism

Prohibition 18th Amendment – enforced by the Volstead Act “Make the World Safe for Hypocrisy” according to Pageant Support

Popular in South – whites wanted to keep stimulants away from the oppressed

Western Support – attacks on the vices of – public drunkenness, prostitution, corruption, and crime

Opposition Eastern Cities Recent immigrants

Law was unenforceable if the majority of Americans opposed the law

Prohibition Cont… Forsaking personal liberty

Legislators spoke or voted cry yet privately drank

Returning soldiers complained

Working class cheap beer vs. Wealthy Illicit Liquor

Dry Agents killed bystanders

Illegal Importing West Indies and Canada

Speakeasies replaced taverns

Bootlegging in the south gave rise to NASCAR

Positives - Bank savings increased, absenteeism on the job decreases

Al Capone “Scarface”

“Everybody calls me a racketeer. I call myself a businessman. When I sell liquor, it’s bootlegging. When my patrons serve it on a silver tray on Lake Shore drive, it hospitality?

The Golden Age of Gangsterism Illegal alcohol profits led to police bribery

Gang wars especially in the 1920s Over 500 mobsters were murdered

Arrests and convictions were minimal

Al Capone “Scarface” six years of illicit alcohol distribution made him a millionaire Careened through Chicago in his armor platted car with

bulletproof windows

Valentine’s Day Massacre (1929)

Served 10 years of an income tax sentence, released because of syphilis

Gangsterism Cont… Illegal gangster activities – gambling, narcotics, and

prostitutions

Merchants were forced to pay “protection money”

Windows could be smashed, employees beaten, trucks destroyed, employees beaten up

Racketeers invaded ranks of local labor unions as organizers and promoters

Organized Crime annual income was 12-18 billion, which was more than the income of the Washington gov.

Charles Lindbergh Flew first transatlantic solo flight -33.5 hours – Long Island to Paris

Lindbergh Kidnapping Lindbergh baby abducted for $50,000 ransom, eventually

found murdered miles from Hopewell, NJ home 2,000 people abducted that year for ransom Lindbergh Law passed – made interstate abduction a death

penalty offense Bruno Hauptmann had over 13,000 marked bills and, put on

trial in Flemington, NJ. Convicted of murder and electrocuted after governor’s stay expired.

Protests occurred in the US and London Doubts surfaced about guilt, anti-German discrimination,

Widows sued New Jersey for wrongful death twice in the 1980s.

Encompassed many elements of the 1920s: gangsterism, immigrant discrimination, and the perils of prosperity.

Education Education in the 1920s made giant strides

Mores states were requiring students to remain in schools until 16 or 18

Proportion of 17 year olds who graduated almost doubled in 1920s, more than 1 in 4

John Dewey Columbia 1904 – 1930

Learning by doing

Experiential Learning Lab Schools – Learning by doing

New Age of Science Rockefeller Foundation virtually eradicated hookworm

Better nutrition and healthcare increased average life expectancy from 50 yrs in 1901 to 59 years in 1929

Religious fundamentalists opposed the teaching of Darwinian evolution Emphasized literal reading of the Bible

Monkey Trial (Tennessee vs. John Scopes) Scopes defended by Clarence Darrow

W.J. Bryan took stand, five day later died from a stroke

Scopes was found guilty and fined $100 (set asided on technicality)

Scopes Trial

Mass Consumption Economy Economy grew after 1921 Andrew Mellon served as Treasury Secretary – rapid

expansion of capital investment Advertising began as a means to continue mass

consumption Persuaded Americans to adopt consumption as an element of

American identity Bruce Barton – theorized that Jesus Christ was the greatest

adman of all time

Sports became big business – “Babe” Ruth, Jack Dempsey (million dollars in fight revenue)

Consumption and debt became common – refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, cars, and radios

Putting America on Rubber Tires Assembly line = mass production Henry Ford – supposedly produced a

new automobile every ten seconds Electricity fueled rapid industrial growth By 1930s Americans owned almost 30

million cars Frederick W. Taylor – Father of Scientific

Management Model T became the first affordable

vehicle Steadily reduced vehicle cost through

efficient production methods 1914 – 500,000th Model T 1930 – 2o million Model T’s By 1929 – 1 vehicle for every 4.9

Americans

Advent of the Gasoline Age Economic Impacts

Steel industry emerged – employed 6 mill. By 1930 New Industry – rubber, glass, fabrics, highways, service stations, and

garages Petroleum Industry – grew rapidly, CA, TX, and OK Railroads declined – supplanted by buses, cars, and trucks

Social Impacts Automobiles – luxury to necessity, developed into badge of freedom

and equality Produce quickly transported to cities Regional isolation lessened, social mobility increased, and gender roles

changed By late 1920s Americans owned more automobiles than bathtubs Autobuses allowed for the consolidation of schools and churches Suburbs spread from urban core

Gasoline Age Cont Negatives

By 1951 – 1 million Americans had died in a motor vehicle accident

More than killed in all the battlefields of the nation’s war to date.

Adults were concerned with the liabilities of teenagers in automobiles

Autos provided quick getaways for Gangsters

Positives

No horses = improved air and env. quality

Humans Develop Wings Wright Brothers

Bicycle mechanics

Kitty Hawk 12/17/1903 12 second flight at 120 feet

Utilized during WWI with no large impact

After WWI passenger lines with airmail contracts began to operate

Lindbergh “Lucky Lindy” first solo flight across Atlantic (1927)

By 30s and 40s plane travel was safer than highway travel

Isolation was becoming a dream

The Radio Revolution Marconi invented wireless radio

in the 1890s Used during WWI

Voice-carrying radio became a national phenomenon Advertisements became

common of US Private Radio Unlike state controlled radio of

Europe

Became a family and neighborhood pastime “Amos and Andy”

Companies and products became household names.

Sports, politicians, and symphonies utilized radio

Hollywood's Film Industry 1920s Nickelodeons “Great

Train Robbery” Discriminatory “Birth of a

Nation” Film industry truly emerged

in 1920s with WWI anti-German propaganda “Hang the Kaiser”

1927 – Jazz Singer (first talkie) starring Al Jolson

Movie stars commended more than the president

Diversity of the old world was diminished

The Dynamic Decade For the first time most American’s

lived in urban areas Women

Worked in low paying jobs (retail clerking and office typing)

Margaret Sanger led a birth control movement

Fundamentalists vs. Modernity Advertising

Advertisers exploited sexual appeal to sell everything from soap and tires

Sigmund Freud influenced modern thought In earlier days a kiss had been the

equivalent of marriage

Jazz Age and the Harlem Renaissance Diffused from New Orleans with

immigrating African Americans Jelly Roll Morton Joseph Joe King Oliver

Harlem Renaissance One of largest African

American communities Writers Claude McKay, Zora

Neal Hurston, Louis Armstrong and Eubie Blake

Marcus Garvey (United Negro Improvement Association) His efforts helped inspire the

Nation of Islam

New Generation of Writers Energetic and non WASP

H.L. Mencken “Bad Boy of Baltimore” American Mercury – criticized marriage, patriotism,

democracy, prohibition, the South, do-gooders, Rotarians, and middle-class American.

F Scott Fitzgerald Graduate of Princeton

Wrote – This Side of Paradise (1920) – became Bible of the young and the Great Gatsby – (pitfalls of social standing)

Theodore Dreiser wrote An American Tragedy – dealt with murder of pregnant working girl by her ambitious young boyfriend

New Generation of Writers Cont.. Ernest Hemingway

Sun Also Rises – told of disillusioned veterans of WWI A Farwell to Arms - about WWI war experience

Probing of Americans small town life – Sherwood Anderson Winesburg Ohio, Sinclair Lewis Main Street and Babbitt

William Faulkner Fictional chronicle of an imaginary county – Sound and the Fury, As

I Lay Dying, Abasalom, Abasalom!

Pound – Make It New T. S. Eliot Waste Land Eugene O’Neil

Theatrical Play – “Strange Interlude”

New York’s Greenwich Village

Architectural Innovation Frank Lloyd Wright

Building should blend with the landscape and not imitate Ancient Greece

Created the Prairie Style House

Designed many well known homes and buildings during career

Fallingwater

Oak Park (FLR)

Wall Street’s Big Bull Market Several hundred banks failed annually Florida Boom and Bust

Prinz Valdemar blocked the Miami Harbor Hurricanes devastated coast

National debt rocketed Speculators ran wild and bought large shares of stock National debt rocketed from the 1914 figure of 1.2 billion to

almost 24 billion in 1921 Republican Congress created the Bureau of the Budget. Mellon (Sec. of Treasury) reduced taxes created during wartime

In 1921 made 1 million paid 663,000 in taxes In 1926 made 1 million paid 200,000 in taxes Shifted tax burden from wealthy to middle class.

Wall Street Cont… Controversy of Mellon

Reduced national debt by 10 billion from about 26 billion to 16 billion

Critics believed debt should have been further reduced

Accused of encouraging the bull market

Refusal to collect national income taxes created more money for frenzied speculation that would contribute the collapse of the stock market.