The Roaring Twenties Politics , Economics, and a “return to normalcy”

A WWI victory parade in New York 1919

Postwar Trends

• War leaves Americans exhausted; debate over League divides them

• Economy adjusting: cost of living doubles; farm, factory orders down

o soldiers take jobs from women, minorities

o farmers, factory workers suffer

• Nativism—prejudice against foreign-born people—sweeps nation

• Isolationism—pulling away from world affairs—becomes popular

The Red Scare

• Communism—economic, political system, single-party government; ruled by dictator and no private property

• 1919 Vladimir I. Lenin, Bolsheviks, set up Communist state in Russia

• U.S. Communist Party forms; some Industrial Workers of the World join

• Bombs mailed to government, businesses; people fear Red conspiracy

• Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer takes action

The Palmer Raids

• J. Edgar Hoover and Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer mobilized federal, state, and local officials to hunt down Communists, socialists, anarchists

o Anarchists oppose any form of government

• Raids trample civil rights, fail to find evidence of conspiracy

• Over 600 people deported including 249 on the “Soviet Ark”

Appendix A Analyze the cartoon

Sacco and Vanzetti • Red Scare feeds fear of

foreigners, ruins reputations, wrecks lives

• 1920, Sacco and Vanzetti, Italian immigrants, anarchists, arrested o charged with robbery, murder

o trial does not prove guilt

• Jury finds them guilty; widespread protests in U.S., abroad o Sacco, Vanzetti executed 1927

Bartolomeo Vanzetti and Nicola Sacco listening to death sentence in Massachusetts courtroom July 9, 1927

Rise of Nativism

Anti-Immigrant Attitudes

• Nativists: fewer unskilled jobs available, fewer immigrants needed

• Think immigrant anarchists and socialists are Communist

The Klan Rises Again

• Nativists use anti-communism to harass groups unlike themselves

• KKK opposes blacks, Catholics, Jews, immigrants, unions, saloons

—1924, 4.5 million members

• Klan controls many states’ politics; violence leads to less power

1925 Washington March of KKK

Quota System • 1919–1921, number of immigrants grows almost 600%

• Anti-immigration laws-

• 1921-Johnson Act-limited Eastern and Southern immigrants

• 1924- National Origins Act-put quotas on all nationalities • Quota system sets maximum number can enter U.S. from each

country o Sharply reduces European immigration esp. those from

southern and eastern Europe o Prohibits Japanese immigration o Does not apply to Western Hemisphere; many Canadians,

Mexicans enter

Appendix B: Use diagram to complete multiple choice item.

The data in the chart support the idea that the immigration

laws of 1921 and 1924 were primarily designed to

A. stop illegal entry into the country.

B. admit skilled workers.

C. encourage immigration from southern Europe.

D. reduce immigration from specific regions

Labor Unrest

•Government doesn’t allow strikes in wartime, so in 1919 over 3,000 strikes

•Strikes in coal mining and steel industry have some success early in the 1920s:

• 1923 report on conditions in steel factories leads to 8-hour day;

• Miners receive 27% wage increase;

•Employers are against raises, unions and many label strikers “Communists”

• In1920s, union membership drops from over 5 million to 3.5 million

Presidential Politics of 1920s

First time women voted

Public tired of moral progressivism and self-sacrifice

Return to support of business and laissez-faire policies

Supreme Court often rules against progressive legislation

Warren G Harding (1921-1923) Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929) Herbert Hoover (1929-1933)

www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/

The Harding and International Relations • President Warren G. Harding voices public desire for

“normalcy” and return to peace

• Hosts Washington Naval Conference (1921); invites major powers, promotes disarmament

• In 1928 Kellog-Briand Pact nations promise not to use war to solve issues

• Fordney-McCumber Tariff raises taxes on U.S. imports to 60%

• Britain and France cannot repay loans; Germany defaults on reparations

• Dawes Plan—U.S. investors lend reparations money; then Britain, France repay; resentment on all sides

Harding and Scandal • Harding has capable men in cabinet—Hughes, Herbert Hoover, Andrew Mellon but also appoints corrupt friends who use their positions to become wealthy through graft

• Teapot Dome Scandal—naval oil reserves used for personal gain

• Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall leases land to private companies

• Takes bribes; is first person convicted of felony while in cabinet

• August 1923, Harding dies suddenly

• VP Calvin Coolidge assumes presidency, restores faith in government

Appendix C: Analyze the cartoon

American Business Consumer goods fuel the business boom of the 1920s as

America’s standard of living soars.

Calvin Coolidge favors minimal government interference in business and allow private enterprise to flourish; “laissez-faire”

Productivity increasing, businesses expanding:

Electricity reaches more homes

New appliances make housework easier

Most Americans believe prosperity will last forever

Chain stores develop; national banks allowed to create branches

Income gap between workers, managers grows

Iron, railroad industries not prosperous; farms suffer losses

Impact of Automobile

• Cars change life—paved roads, gas stations, motels, shopping centers

• Give mobility to rural families, women, young people

• Workers live far from jobs, leads to urban sprawl (spread of cities)

• Auto industry economic base for some cities, boosts oil industry

• By late 1920s, 1 car for every 5 Americans

Mass Consumerism

New technology brings many new products

Rising consumer culture with new goods

Advertising-now using psychology to sell!

Installment plans- pay for goods over extended period with interest

Banks provide money at low interest rates

Appendix D: Brainstorm Causes and Effects of US Isolationism in the 1920s