Transcript USA in the 1920’s - Dr. Charles Best Secondary School

USA in the 1920’s
Ms Leslie
History 12
After WWI
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American Business had done well in the war.
Europe continued to buy American goods
Fordney-McCumber Act, 1922, Created
high tarrifs on imported goods to encourage
local spending. Taxes were cut so the public
would hav emore money to spend,
Laissez-faire attitude towards marker
adopted – no government involvement with
business
Changing climate
Privatization of telephone, telegraph, cable
lines, railways
 Soldiers returning home
 1920 – coal stikes
 Woodrow Wilson becomes ill after Paris
Peace Conference. Is replaced by Warren
Harding in 1921.
 Harding focuses on America
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Depression
World in a depression immediately after
the war
 Harding cuts government spending
 Business allowed to work with out
regulation
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Immigration
Traditionally a nation of diversity
 Starting to get paranoid about ‘open
door’ policy
 Feared wage competition from foreigners
 1917 – minimum literacy rate for
immigrants and no more Asians
 1920 – Republican party wants a stronger
policy against ‘undesirables’ as they
thought immigrants could not assimilate
fast enough
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Immigration con’t
1921 – immigration at 357,000 a year
 1924 reduced to 150,000 a year
 Racial percentage of immigrants to be on
par with current population
 Japanese immigration banned completely
 Africans, Jews and Catholics also
discriminated against
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Ku-Klux Klan
Membership increasing
 1920-25 there are 5 million members
(total US population ~ 100 million)
 Mostly in the East and Mid-west where
75% of all African-Americans lived
 Believed Jews, Blacks, Catholics, socialists
and non-english speakers did not belong
in America
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KKK
Feared their way of life being lost
 Would dress up in their white sheets and
terrorize with beatings, tar and feathering,
and lynching
 Harding ran on a campaign that said he
was ‘the Finest pioneer blood, AngloSaxon, German, Scotch-Irish and Dutch’
so the government didn’t do much
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KKK
The ‘Jim Crow’ laws in the South were
passed preventing blacks from using the
same busses, hotels and schools as whites.
 Many were barred from voting or
participating in the judicial system.
 Despite the rampant discrimination,
First-Nations were granted full citizenship
in 1924 and then forgotten about on
reserves.
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Prohibition on Alcohol
Started in WWI
 Enforced in the Constitution in the
Eighteenth Amendment in 1919 in the
Volstead Act.
 This amendment was to curb
drunkenness and absenteeism from
factories and improve society.
 All the ban did was create a new
generation of gangsters to illegally supply
booze through the means of bootlegging.
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Corrupt mayors, like Chicago’s Big Bill’
Thompson allowed the likes of Al Capone and
John Torrio to operate openly.
 Al Capone made as much at $100 million a
year and had many judges, police and
politicians on his payroll.
 He wasn’t stopped until he was arrested for
Not paying his taxes.
 Harding himself continued to serve whiskey to
White House guests.
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Harding died of a heart attack in 1923
and was replaced by Calvin Coolidge
(1923-29).
More Prohibition
Coolidge did little to enforce prohibition
either
 . By 1928 there were 30,000 ‘speak
easies’ in New York alone, twice as many
as before prohibition.
 Bootlegging made enormous profits that
were invested into other criminal
activities such as gambling and
prostitution.
 Prohibition was not dropped until 1933.
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Prosperity
Lots of growth for industry
 Road infrastructure increased
 More people owned cars, telephones and
radios
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cars
1925 – Henry Ford’s factories are making
a new car every 10 seconds.
 Means more steels, rubber and glass
needed
 America had 5/6 of world’s cars
 More road trips = more hotels or
restaurants
 The suburbs are born
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11 million new homes built in 1924
 Houses electrified
 Vacuums and washing machines!!
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Changing Role of Women
19th amendment gave women the right to
vote.
 WWI let them work outside the home, they
did not want to go back in
 10 million women gainfully employed by
1928
 Driving markets – Cotton industry took a
hit when fashion changed to sleeker skirts
 Stopped wearing corsets – wale bone no
longer needed.
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General mood
Americans were generally better off then
ever before.
 Education was also increased with literacy
rates rising.
 Jazz clubs were prolific as well as
orchestras.
 There was little radical activity and
workers were happy.
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The down side
Agriculture remained week
 Although machinery allowed farmers to
over-produce there was no one to sell
the surplus too as the world’s nations
were producing enough of their own
food.
 As a result food prices fell and farmers
could no longer make enough money to
pay their mortgages and the banks took
their land.
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Bad for industry
Over production meant the goods had
less value with no one to buy them.
 Workers began to get laid off.
 Tariffs remained high and businesses
unregulated. Prices were inflated as a
result.
 Although business profits increased by
72%, wages only increased by 8%.
 purchasing on credit became a way of life.
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New President
Coolidge decided not to run for election
in 1928 and was replaced by Herbert
Hoover (1929-33).
 Hoover like other Americans believed the
economy was unstoppable.
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Markets
Company stock and shares could be
bought on the ‘margin’, meaning the buyer
pays a down payment and takes a loan out
for the rest.
 Stocks and shares were sold by ‘brokers’
who got their money from bank loans.
 The brokers’ livelihood depended on
finding buyers for their shares.
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This is a system everyone bought in to.
 About a million people bought in to
these shares.
 As shares rose in value a few began to sell
of their shares to make a profit.
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Beginning of the end
By 1927 the world economy had slowed
down and less people were consuming.
 Housing starts were down, automobile
sales were down and food sales were
down.
 People started to sell their stocks and
shares.
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The Crash
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This created a panic in Oct 1929 and
everyone started to sell off their shares as
soon as possible.
On ‘Black Tuesday’ (October 29th) 13
million shares were ‘dumped’.
The value for shares plummeted.
Hundred of thousands of people were now
indebt as their shares were bought with
credit and they sold for less then they were
bought for.
Brokers and businessmen jumped out of
their office windows on wall street.
 Banks went bankrupt as they couldn’t
collect on their loans.
 And many lost their life savings.
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World goes in to a Great Depression
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More on that later