The Roaring 20s

1. The Roaring 20s http://intergate.sbhsd.k12.ca.us/sbhslib/reference/roaring20s.jpgintergate.sbhsd.k12.ca.us

2. Intro… • WWI left young intellectuals disillusioned • New “modernists” challenged traditional values • Artists, writers, journalists • Both a mood and a movement • Western civilization now in an era of bewildering change • New modes of transportation & communication • Quantum mechanics & relativity theory • Impressionism, futurism, dadaism, surrealism, Freudianism • Paul Gauguin called it “an epoch of confusion”

3. Intro…(2) • Social Tensions and Radicalism • Post-War • Strikes • Bombings • Anti-Communist hysteria • Race riots • American nationalism linked to • Nativism • Anglo-Saxon racism, • Militant Protestantism

4. SOCIETY

5. Nativism • By early 1920s, 1/2 of the white men and 1/3 of white women working in manufacturing were immigrants—mostly from central or eastern Europe. • “Old-stock” immigrants viewed these workers suspiciously—as socialists and anarchists • Sacco & Vanzetti • Italian-born anarchists accused of robbery and murder • Guilty of crimes: maybe yes/maybe no • Convicted & executed due to anarchist prejudice

6. Nativism (2) • Emergency Immigration Act of 1921 • Restricted European arrivals each year to 3% of the foreign-born of any nationality as of the 1910 census. • 1924 quota law reduced number to 2% of 1890 census • Established a quota, effective in 1929, of ~150,000 immigrants per year based on “national origins” of the American people as of 1920. • Signed by President Coolidge • “America must be kept American.” • Completely excluded Asians • Ironically, resulted in large increase of Latin American immigrants

7. The Klan Returns • Nativism takes on a different dimension • Prompts revival of the KKK • “New” Klan devoted to 100% Americanism and membership limited to white Protestants • Takes on an anti-melting pot attitude • African Americans • Catholics and Jews • Immigrants • [America is no melting pot.] “It is a garbage can…! • William Simmons, founder of new Klan (Tindall & Shi)

8. The Klan Returns (2) • Membership spread outside the South • Defenders of white “native” women and Christian morals • White robes and burning crosses • Included anti-bootleggers, “clean” movies and literature, protect homes, enforce laws… • Peak membership 3 – 8 million • Nativist fervor declines after passage of 1924 immigration law

9. Fundamentalism • Based on literal interpretation of the Bible • Fighting threat of modernism in the churches • Modern studies wanted to reconcile scientific theories with the Bible • Modernism would infect the schools and even the pulpits • William Jennings Bryan fights to keep evolution out of schools.

10. Scopes “Monkey” Trial • Tennessee outlawed teaching of evolution in public schools & colleges • John Scopes arrested for teaching evolution in high school biology • William Jennings Bryan for prosecution • Clarence Darrow [ACLU] for defense • Trial becomes media event • Judge says only issue to decide: was evolution taught? • Defense wanted case dismissed on grounds that law was unconstitutional.

11. Scopes “Monkey” Trial (2) • Jury of 12 men • 10 were middle-aged farmers • 11 regularly attended church • Carnival atmosphere • Defense originally wanted H. G. Wells for lead. • Scopes found guilty and fined $100. • Tennessee Supreme Court • Overturned fine on technicality • Dismissed the case from further action

12. Prohibition • WCTU and Anti-Saloon League worked for national prohibition law • 1917, Congress sent 18th Amendment to the states for ratification • January 1919 sees ratification • 18th Amendment banned nation-wide manufacture, sale or transport of intoxicating liquors • Did not stop people from drinking, however.

13. Organized Crime • Shouldn’t blame Prohibition entirely for the rise of organized crime • US already had vice, gambling, extortion • Bootleg liquor provided a new source of income for criminals like Al Capone • 1929 brings Treasury agents (G-Men) to fight Capone’s bootlegging efforts • Capone ultimately busted on tax evasion charges. • Sentenced to 11 years in prison, several of which were at Alcatraz.

14. Hear the Roar… • New cosmopolitan urban areas vs. old and provincial small-towns and farms • Young urban intellectuals disdained older values • Sinclair Lewis wrote Main Street • The trivial, commonplace life in a prairie town • Broad theme of the period • Small towns and rural areas retaliate • Stereotypical cities with vice, crime, corruption, and yes…foreigners!

15. The Jazz Age • F. Scott Fitzgerald’s name for the post- WWI era. • Young people were willing to experiment in life • New jazz music from cities like New Orleans, Kansas City, Memphis, NY, & Chicago • Improvisation, blue notes, polyrhythms • New dances like the Charleston and Black Bottom http://www.learn360.com/ShowVideo.aspx?ID=138180

16. New Morality • Changes in manners and morals • Especially at colleges • This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald • Spreading awareness of Freud brought more open discussions of sex: libido, Oedipus complexes, sublimation, … • Fashion changes • Skirts at the knee • Flappers • How galoshes “flapped” at the ankles • Cigarettes and drinking • Margaret Sanger and contraception • Anti-Victorian morality wanes by 1930

17. Harlem Renaissance • 1. Harlem Renaissance (HR) is the name given to the period from the end of World War I and through the middle of the 1930s Depression, during which a group of talented African-American writers produced a sizable body of literature in the four prominent genres of poetry, fiction, drama, and essay. •  2. The notion of "two-ness" , a divided awareness of one's identity, was introduced by W.E.B. Du Bois, one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the author of the influential book The Souls of Black Folks (1903): "One ever feels his two-ness - an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled stirrings: two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder." • 3. Common themes: alienation, marginality, the use of folk material, the use of the blues tradition, the problems of writing for an elite audience. • 4. HR was more than just a literary movement: it included racial consciousness, "the back to Africa" movement led by Marcus Garvey, racial integration, the explosion of music particularly jazz, spirituals and blues, painting, dramatic revues, and others. • Source:http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap9/9intro.html • Another source: http://www.jcu.edu/harlem/index.htm

18. Merry-Go-Round "Colored child at carnival: Where is the Jim Crow section On this merry-go-round, Mister, Cause I want to ride? Down South where I come from White and colored Can't sit side by side. Down South on the train There's a Jim Crow Car. On the bus we're putin the back-- But there ain't no back To a merry-go-round! Where's the horse For a kid that's black? ----Langston Hughes (Garraty 872) Langston Hughes http://asms.k12.ar.us/classes/humanities/amstud/97-98/harren/HUGHES.HTM

19. Notables! Billie Holiday Louis Armstrong Jacob Lawrence Zora Neale Hurston http://asms.k12.ar.us/classes/humanities/amstud/97-98/harren/HARREN.HTM http://www.butlerart.com/pc_book/pages/jacob_lawrence_b.htm

20. Marcus Garvey • “Negro Nationalism” • Considered every white person as a “potential Klansman” • Promoted “social and political separation of all peoples” • Racial pride and self-reliance • Universal Negro Improvement Association • “Back to Africa” movement • Du Bois said: [Garvey was] “the most dangerous enemy of the Negro race”

21. Marcus Garvey (2) • Mail Fraud conviction, 1925 • Federal government pursued several avenues of legal action against Garvey • Ultimately convicted of selling stock in a ship the UNIA didn’t own yet. • Stock advertised in UNIA newspaper • Sold via the US mail • Pardoned in 1927 by President Coolidge • Deported to Jamaica • Legacy: “Black Power” racial pride • Considered a Rastafarian prophet although never believed or followed Rastafarianism.

22. Modernist Literature • Ezra Pound • T.S. Eliot • Gertrude Stein • F. Scott Fitzgerald • Ernest Hemingway • Thomas Wolfe • William Faulkner

23. POLITICS

24. Election of 1920 • Democrats run James Cox, former governor of Ohio • Republicans run Warren G. Harding, Ohio Senator • “America’s present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration; not agitation, but adjustment; not surgery, but serenity; not the dramatic, but the dispassionate; not experiment, but equipoise; not submergence in internationality, but sustainment in triumphant nationality.”

25. Harding’s Cabinet • Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes • Herbert Hoover Secretary of Commerce • Andrew Mellon Secretary of the Treasury • Henry Wallace Secretary of Agriculture • Oops! • Albert Fall (Interior) goes to prison • Teapot Dome • Harry Daugherty (Attorney-General) barely misses prosecution • Profiting from sale of government alcohol supplies • Poor choices become dubbed “The Ohio Gang”

26. Supreme Court • Harding appoints Taft as Chief Justice • Also appointed 3 other conservative justices • Taft Court • Struck down a federal child-labor law • Struck down minimum wage law for women • Issued several injunctions against striking unions • Issued decisions limiting powers of federal regulatory agencies

27. Pro-Business • Sustained economic growth through government spending cuts and federal tax reduction • Mellon wanted tax cuts for the rich • Would promote general welfare through increased capital investment • Mellon successful in balancing federal budget • High tariffs: Fordney-McCumber Tariff • Increased rates on chemical and metal products as well as on imported farm products • US continued loans to Europe

28. Pro-Business (2) • Couldn’t get rid of regulatory agencies • Named commissioners “friendly” to business • “Nullification of federal law by a process of boring from within.” [unidentified Senator] • Henry Cabot Lodge “We have torn up Wilsonism by the roots.”

29. Corruption! • Ohio Gang profited • V.A. head stole medical and hospital supplies • Resigned and fled to Europe • A.G. Daugherty peddled influence for $$$ • Took the “5th” • Never indicted—had destroyed evidence • Teapot Dome • Naval Petroleum Reserve in Wyoming • Exploited by private companies without competitive bids • Fall took “loans” from oil executives

30. What did Harding Know? • Who knows? • Avoided public disgrace • “My God, this is a hell of a job!” • “I have no trouble with my enemies, I can take care of my enemies all right. But my d*** friends, my God-d*** friends…they’re the ones that keep me walking the floor nights!” • 1923: Harding dies of food poisoning

31. “Silent” Calvin Coolidge • Took a “back seat” to Congress • Identified good of the nation with success of big business • “The chief business of the American people is business…The man who works there worships there.” • Focused on industrial development • Wall Street Journal said “Never before, here or anywhere else, has a government been so completely fused with business.”

32. Election of 1924 • Coolidge runs • Democrats runs John Davis, a lawyer • Progressive Party reorganizes and runs Robert La Follette • Coolidge calls La Follette a dangerous radical who would turn America into a “communistic and socialistic state.” • Country decided to “keep cool with Coolidge”

33. Economy

34. Growing Consumerism • Products, once only for the rich, available to middle class • Hand-held cameras • Wristwatches • Cigarette lighters • vacuum cleaners • Washing machines • Newspaper editorial: the American’s “first importance to his country is no longer than of a citizen but of consumer. Consumption is a new necessity.”

35. Pre-Presidential Hoover • Herbert Hoover managed the Belgian relief program and Food Administration Program (Post-WWI) • Secretary of Commerce • New markets for business • Focus on product design, production, and distribution • Continued emphasis on standardization • Supported business trade associations • 1925: Supreme Court said “sharing information” was okay.

36. McNary-Haugen • 1924 Farm Relief Bill which never became law • Controversial • Create federal agency to keep prices at pre-WWI level. • Buy surpluses and sell overseas • Supported by Sec. of Agriculture • Pres. Coolidge—vetoed twice • preferred plan by Sec. of Commerce Hoover • Create Federal Farm Board • Improved agricultural methods

37. Anti-Union Attitudes • Suffered post-WWI setback • “Open-shop” often resulted in anti-union hiring practices • “yellow-dog” contracts: workers agreed to not join unions or strikes • Labor spies, blacklists • Industrial democracy/welfare capitalism • Some employers • Profit sharing, bonuses, pensions, health programs, recreational activities • Lessened incentive to join unions

38. Gastonia Strike • NC textile strike @ Loray Mill • People working 11 hours; 6 days a week; lower wages (men=$15/week; women=$6) • Night shift added • Initially the UTW • Then, NTWU -- Communist Party-led • Also committed to racial equality • Management not meet with strikers • Governor (also textile mill owner) sends in the National Guard • Vigilante groups • 7 strikers arrested on conspiracy in death of police chief

39. Hoover wins in 1928 • “I have no fears for the future of our country; it is bright with hope.” • Inaugural address [3/4/1929] • Passed Agricultural Marketing Act 1929 • Federal Farm Board • Revolving loan fund for cooperatives • Hawley-Smoot Tariff of 1930 • Raised tariffs on manufacturers & farm goods • Raised prices to consumers, damaged export trade, ultimately hurt farmers

40. Economic Free-Fall • Not in era of permanent economic growth • Florida real-estate boom based on greed • Collapsed in 1926 • Stock market experiences rampant speculation • Buy stock on margin • Usually 10% down payment and borrow rest • If stock value fell and buyer didn’t pay balance, then broker could sell the stock to cover the loan

41. Economic Free-Fall (2) • Other indicators of trouble • Residential construction and auto sales catching up to demand • Business inventories growing • Rate of consumer spending slowing • Stock market continues to grow anyway. • Tuesday, October 29: most devastating day in market’s history (to that time) • Despite NY Stock Exchange fall of 37%, Hoover still said the fundamental business of the country was sound.

42. What went wrong? • Imbalance between rising productivity and declining purchasing power • Attractiveness of stock market worked against American foreign investments • High tariffs discouraged foreign trade • Growing money supply = lower interest rates = growing speculation frenzy • Gold standard limitations encouraged further fall of prices and wages • International economy in bad shape

43. To see what happens next… • See next PowerPoint on Great Depression and New Deal.