1920s

1
1920s

• 1918-1929

2
The End of the War

• The first American troops arrived in France in
  the Spring 1918
• The doughboys participated in the last great
  counteroffensive which marked the start of the
  end for Germany
• Initially the Americans were under the command of
  the French but they were later assigned to
  General John J. (Black Jack) Pershing
• Before the end of the war President Wilson
  formulated his Fourteen Points as the basis for
  peace

3

• Germany signed the armistice on November 11, 1918
  mainly because of the potential of the American
  forces
• Wilson became a hero to the people of a liberated
  Europe
• During the war partisan politics did not afflict
  Congress as the country united behind the war
  effort
• In 1918 Wilson asked for a Democratic victory,
  but the Republicans ended up with a narrow
  advantage
• Wilson went to Paris for the peace talks and left
  the country in the hands of a Republican Congress

4

• Wilson was the first president to travel to
  Europe but he alienated the Republicans by not
  inviting one republican to the Peace Conference
• The chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign
  Relations, Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts was
  particularly angered
• Lodge and Wilson shared a mutual hatred
• The Paris Conference was dominated by the Big
  Four Wilson, Lloyd George of Britain, Orlando
  of Italy, and Clemenceau of France
• The matter which caused the greatest concern was
  stopping the spread of Communism

5

• Wilsons main goal was to establish a League of
  Nations
• He imagined an organization of representative who
  would meet to discuss world problems
• When Wilson returned to America he found that
  few, especially among the Republicans, shared his
  enthusiasm for a League of Nations
• The Republicans declared they would not approve
  the League in its current form
• Opposition from the Republicans weakened Wilsons
  diplomatic power in Paris
• When he did return to Paris he found that the
  opinion of the major powers had become much more
  aggressive

6
The Versailles Treaty

• France was determined to occupy the
  German-Rhineland and the Saar Valley
• Wilson persuaded the French to accept occupation
  of the region by the League of Nations for 15
  years
• France also received a security pledge from
  Britain and America both countries promised to
  help if Germany re-armed
• The final treaty was given to the Germans to sign
  in June 1919

7

• When the Germans saw the treaty they were shocked
  to see so few of Wilsons Fourteen Points, which
  had been the basis under which they had
  surrendered
• Wilson had been forced to compromise his original
  ideals to keep the bickering Europeans happy
• As soon as he returned to America, Wilson was
  confronted with a hostile Congress
• Isolationists wanted no part of foreign treaties
• Some thought the agreement did not punish Germany
  enough for starting the war
• Irish-Americans, German-Americans and
  Italian-Americans all hated Wilson

8
The End of Wilson

• Wilson still felt confident the Versailles Treaty
  would be ratified. Even Lodge only wanted to
  make the treaty more American
• The Treaty became bogged down in Senate as Lodge
  examined every page
• Wilson set off around the country to muster
  public support even though he was advised
  against such a move by his own physicians
• While in Colorado in September, 1919, Wilson
  collapsed from exhaustion
• He was quickly returned to Washington, but
  suffered a stroke only days later

9

• Wilson remained out of circulation for over six
  months
• Lodge saw the opportunity to step up. Lodge had
  failed to get the Treaty amended but now was his
  chance
• Critics were especially annoyed over Article X
  which promised the United States would give aid
  to any country that faced external aggression
• Lodge attached a series of amendment to the
  original treaty so the Republicans could claim
  some of the credit
• Wilson told the Democrats to vote against the
  amended treaty

10

• The treaty was defeated in the Senate
• The public was angry and upset that the Senate
  could not agree on a simple resolution and they
  demanded a second ballot
• The Democrats would have to accept the amended
  packet otherwise the whole treaty would fail
• Wilson refused to compromise and ordered the
  Democrats to once again vote against the amended
  treaty
• The treaty died in the Senate

11
The Election of 1920

• The Republicans eventually selected Senator
  Warren G. Harding of Ohio with Massachusetts
  Governor Calvin Coolidge as his running mate
• Coolidge had made a name for himself by defeating
  the police strike in Boston
• Democrats nominated Governor James M. Cox of Ohio
  with Franklin D. Roosevelt as his running mate
• In the first election that included women,
  (Nineteenth Amendment 1920) the Republicans won
  404-127

12

• Harding gained over 7 million more popular votes
• Socialist Eugene V. Debs ran as a Third party
  from the Atlanta penitentiary and gained almost 1
  million votes
• The public had shown they were tired of Wilsonian
  politics and European affairs they wanted what
  Harding promised a return to normalcy
• Unfortunately Harding was a poor choice and
  proved to be an even worse president, mainly
  because of his poor choice of appointments

13
The Red Scare

• In 1917 the Bolshevik Revolution forced Russia
  out of the war, changed the Russian government,
  created a small Communist party in America, and
  caused fear and concern among non-Communist
  nations
• In the wake of the war the country was gripped by
  a series of strikes
• Most people assumed the strikes were part of a
  Communist/Bolshevik plot
• The red scare of 1919 created political
  careers, ruined some lives, caused pain and
  anguish to anguish to many innocent people

14

• In 1919 a bomb exploded at the home of Attorney
  General A. Mitchell Palmer (the Fighting Quaker)
  who had been leading the campaign against
  possible Bolsheviks
• The explosion caused Palmer to increase his
  efforts and gained him enormous public support
• In December 1919 the government deported 249
  suspected aliens and Bolshevik sympathizers on
  the Buford
• The following year another bomb exploded on Wall
  Street and killed nearly forty people
• Many states joined together to pass anti-red
  legislation

15

• Critics of the paranoia protested that basic
  American rights were been ignored
• But the red scare served the conservatives and
  businessmen well they could now complain about
  troublemakers and unions and associate them with
  the Bolsheviks
• Unions found it hard to even exist. Any appeal
  for a union was seen as un-American
• The most notorious case of anti-foreign sentiment
  was the Sacco-Vanzetti case in Massachusetts

16
Sacco and Vanzetti

• Nicola Sacco a factory worker and Bartolomeo
  Vanzetti a fish seller were convicted in 1921 of
  murdering a Massachusetts paymaster and his guard
• The defendants were of Italian descent and known
  as anarchists and atheists
• The case lasted six years before both men were
  convicted and sentenced to death
• They were executed in 1927

17
Prohibition

• One of the greatest social experiments in
  American history was the attempt to prohibit
  alcohol in the 1920s
• The Eighteenth Amendment (1919) (and the Volstead
  Act) tried to abolish the manufacturing, sale,
  and transportation of alcohol
• The Act was very popular in the South and the
  West, but in the East there was strong opposition
• But the idea was flawed because many people,
  especially foreign-born Americans found was
  around the law

18

• The authorities had not really considered how to
  enforce a law that so many people opposed and
  that had been a large part of normal society
• Speakeasies with secret passwords and tiny
  windows sprouted in major cities
• Illegal alcohol was shipped from the West Indies
  or from Canada by gangsters determined to supply
  the thirsty market and make a fortune
• Bootleggers produced homemade alcohol that often
  caused blindness or death
• But there were some benefits to the Prohibition
  era
• Absenteeism from work decreased and people saved
  more money
• The noble experiment failed because so many
  people simply refused to accept the law

19
Isolationism

• The large number of immigrants that were entering
  the country from Europe worried many people
• The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 was attempt to
  limit immigration by only allowing a certain
  quota from each country 3 of that nationality
  living in America in 1910
• Favored those from Southern and Eastern Europe
• Congress approved the Immigration Act of 1924
  which cut the quota of foreigners from 3 to 2
  and changed the date to 1890 from 1910

20

• This new changed favored immigrants from Northern
  Europe at the expense of those from the South and
  East who called the legislation discriminatory
• Nativist believed a stronger, better America
  could be attained though people with light hair
  and blue eyes
• The Act also stopped completely the immigration
  of Japanese
• Exempt from the quota system were Canadian and
  those from Latin America because they were
  needed to take the lowest paying jobs
• Act ended the belief that all were welcome

21
The Ku Klux Klan

• Another element of the anti-foreign campaign was
  the reemergence of the KKK
• The KKK had been around since the middle of the
  nineteenth century, but after the Civil War it
  had become known as an antiblack movement
• In the 1920s, the new KKK reinforced the nativist
  spirit that was sweeping the country they were
  anti-foreign, antiblack, anti-Jewish,
  anti-Communist, anti-Catholic, anti-international,
  anti-birth control, anti-drinking, and
  anti-gambling

22

• They were pro-American, pro-Anglo-Saxon,
  pro-Protestant they were ultra-conservative and
  dedicated to maintaining traditional American
  morals, standards, and culture
• The new KKK had a great deal of support,
  especially in the southern Bible Belt states
• At its height of popularity it claimed to have
  over 5 million members
• The organization collapsed in the late twenties
  when it was investigated for corruption and
  embezzlement
• The KKK was a realization of what can happen when
  people are confronted with social change

23
The Fordney-McCumber Tariff (1922)

• Mellon also wanted higher tariffs
• The Fordney-McCumber Tariff increased tariffs
  against chemicals and metal products that were
  been imported from Germany
• During the war the United States had moved from a
  creditor to a debtor nation
• The tariff made it harder for European nations to
  sell in America and consequently prevented them
  from making money and repaying their war debt

24

• Harding appointed Republicans dedicated to his
  ideals to all the main committees
• In 1923 news was leaked about members of the
  administration robbing the Veterans Bureau
• The official ran away to Europe
• Other cronies were charged with a variety of
  crimes
• The biggest scandal was the Teapot Dome scandal

25
Crime

• Prohibition created untold opportunities for
  criminals to make money
• In many major cities like Chicago, virtual gang
  wars erupted as rival crime bosses competed for
  the millions of dollars associated with alcohol
• The most famous crime boss was Scarface Al
  Capone who controlled a crime empire that was
  worth millions of dollars
• The gangsters were hard to catch and harder to
  prosecute
• Capone was eventual found guilty of tax evasion

26
The Ohio Gang

• Many of Hardings appointments were members of a
  group called the Ohio Gang
• Harding met with the Ohio Gang on a regular
  basis and often in places outside the White House
• They earned a reputation as drinking, women, and
  gambling even during a time of Prohibition
• Once in office the administration started
  dismantling Progressive legislation, especially
  the social reforms
• Harding was able to appoint four Supreme Court
  justices

27
McNary-Haugen Bill

• Farmers suffered in the post-war years as they
  could not sell their products
• Many looked to farmer cooperatives and
  associations to protect their interests and give
  them greater political leverage
• In 1924 Senator McNary and Representative Haugen
  introduced a bill to help the framers
• The idea was to dump surplus crop on the world
  market to raise domestic prices
• In 1927 and 1928 the bill passed both Houses but
  was vetoed by Coolidge

28

• It was clear that the administration was
  pro-business
• Secretary of Treasury Mellon reduced government
  spending and lowered taxes mostly for the rich
• Mellon believed that by giving money to the rich
  they would have more to invest and that would
  stimulate the economy
• In 1921 he persuaded Congress to pass the Budget
  and Accounting Act, which created the Bureau of
  Budget
• The Revenue Act of 1926 lowered taxes even more
  for the rich

29
Teapot Dome

• Oil reserves under the Teapot Rock in Wyoming had
  been set aside by Albert Fall of the Interior
  Department for the naval oil reserves
• Fall signed contracts with private companies
  letting them use the oil reserves
• Falls standard of living skyrocketed including a
  loan of 400,000 from the oil companies which
  was delivered in a bag
• Harding claimed to have had no knowledge of the
  extent of the scandals, but he obviously knew
  there was a problem

30

• In 1923 Harding went to Alaska Territory and on
  the way back he stopped in Seattle
• He suffered food poisoning and died
• The public was distraught as they didnt know the
  extent of the problems
• Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as president
• Coolidge promised to return the White House to
  the Gilded Age philosophies
• Even more than Harding, silent Cal advocated
  supporting big business the man who builds a
  factory builds a temple
• He distanced himself from the scandals and became
  the Republican nominee for 1924

31
The Election of 1924

• The Democrats were divided and nominated John
  Davis a Wall Street lawyer
• A farmer-labor coalition third party appeared
• The Progressive party led by Robert La Follette
  from Wisconsin was backed by the Socialist party
  and the American Federation of Labor
• Coolidge accused La Follette of wanting to turn
  America into a communist and socialist state
• Coolidge won easily with Davis only winning the
  South the Progressives gained the most third
  party votes

32
Scope Monkey Trial (1925)

• By the 1920s many states required students to
  wait until they were 16 before graduating
• The type of education and the quality of
  education had changed dramatically as new
  philosophies swept the teaching field
• But there was always an issue about how to teach
  evolution
• Fundamentalists believed the one true way was to
  reinforce biblical teachings about creationism
• Science leaned more toward Darwin and evolution

33

• Several states, including Tennessee, passed laws
  prohibiting the teaching of evolution
• In 1925, at Dayton Tennessee, a high school
  biology teacher, John T. Scopes was indicted for
  teaching evolution
• Scopes was defended represented by the American
  Civil Liberties Union and by famed trial lawyer
  Clarence Darrow an agnostic
• The Fundamentalists hired former presidential
  candidate William Jennings Bryan to lead the
  prosecution
• Bryan defending creationism was made to look
  foolish in the cross examination

34

• In the end Scopes was found guilty and fined 100
  the fine was eventually set aside on a
  technicality
• The Fundamentalists had won the case but in doing
  so they had weakened their own argument for
  teaching creationism

35
Foreign Policy

• Washington Naval Conference (1925) - attempted to
  prevent a naval arms race among United States,
  Britain, and Japan. Also included France, Italy,
  the Netherlands, China, and Portugal and created
  3 treaties

36

• 1. The Five-Power Pact (1922) - U.S., G.B.,
  Japan, Italy, and France agreed to build no more
  warships for 10 years. Also limited naval
  tonnage5 tons for U.S. and G.B.3 tons for
  Japan1.75 tons for France and Italy
• 2. Nine-Power Pact - Promised to maintain Chinas
  territorial integrity and support the open door
  policy
• 3. Four-Power Pact - U.S., G.B., France, and
  Japan agreed to respect each others rights in
  the Pacific and promised to settle disputes
  through negotiations

37
Dawes Plan (1924)

• After World War I the European nations owed 26
  billion
• Hyperinflation in Germany (1923-4) caused them to
  default on their payments forcing other nations
  to default
• The French occupied the Ruhr - the Germans
  stopped working in protest
• American banker Charles Dawes negotiated large
  loans from American banks to help Germany
• Britain and France reduced the amount of
  reparations over 5 years

38

• Geneva Naval Disarmament Conference (1927) -
  Initiated by Coolidge to construct smaller
  warships, but only attended by U.S., G.B., and
  Japan. No agreement was reached
• Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928) - Negotiated by French
  Foreign Minister Briand and Secretary of State
  Kellogg. It outlawed war as an instrument of
  national policy. Signed by 48 countries, but no
  means of enforcement
• Young Plan (1929) - Reworked the Dawes Plan to
  reduce the payments even more and allow Germany
  even more time

39
Consumerism

• Business and industry saw the election of
  Coolidge as a vindication of their practices
• The American economy changed dramatically as
  consumerism became the order of the day
• Leisure and advertising became huge enterprises
  as the economy moved from thrift and saving to
  spending and consumption

40

• During the first part of the decade many people
  invested in real estate, especially in Florida
• People eager to make money gambled with property,
  but in 1926 the bubble burst
• Treasury Secretary Mellon reduced more taxes to
  keep the economy flowing
• People shifted their money to Wall Street and
  purchased stock on margin
• For a small payment investors could buy stocks
  with a promise of paying later
• Between 1927 and 1929 the number of broker loans
  doubled
• But consumption was reaching saturation point

41
The Election of 1928

• Coolidge decided not to seek re-election in 1928
• The Republicans nominated Herbert Hoover
• The Democrats nominated Governor Alfred Smith of
  New York
• Hoover represented big business and middle
  America
• Smith, the son of immigrants and a Catholic
  represented big cities
• Hoover won 444-87 in a vindication of
  Republicanism

42

• 1929 promised continued prosperity, but there
  were some signs of problems
• Also in 1929 Congress passed the Agricultural
  Marketing Act, which created the Federal Farm
  Board to allow loans to farmers
• The Hawley-Smoot Tariff of 1930 sent duties to an
  all-time high
• Over 1,000 economist petitioned Hoover to veto
  the bill as it would hurt consumers
• Hoover ignored the appeal

43
Life in the Roaring Twenties

• Life in the twenties was based on a fast-paced,
  big city mentality. Living in small towns with
  small town values was frowned upon
• In 1920 Sinclair Lewis wrote Main Street about
  the cramped life of a prairie town
• F. Scott Fitzgerald dubbed the twenties the Jazz
  Age symbolized by experimentation with music and
  sexuality
• African and European music blended to form jazz
  which became popular with the younger crowd

44

• New music meant new dances and the gyrations of
  the Charleston and the Black Bottom became all
  the rage
• The development of the radio allowed people all
  over the country to be connected
• Now ideas from one area could be spread almost
  immediately across the country
• People listened to jazz and rag time, but even
  more popular were sporting events
• The movies became the entertainment of choice as
  people thrilled at action on the big screen
• In 1927 the introduction of sound increased the
  popularity of movies

45

• One of the biggest changes witnessed during the
  decade came from a shift in morality
• Traditional values of what was acceptable were
  cast aside as the twenties created a new woman
• Novels, magazines, and the movies quickly showed
  the public what life was going to be like for
  these independent females who wore make up,
  smoked, drank, and were often kissed in public.
• At the start of the decades skirts were expected
  to be just off the ground. By 1927 skirt length
  was at the knee.

46

• The women who wore these short skirts were called
  flappers and they came to represent the new
  feminism of the twenties
• The most controversial issue of the 1920s was
  birth control
• Margaret Sanger promoted the use of birth control
  in 1912.
• Sanger opened the first family- planning clinic
  in New York in 1916 by asking women if they could
  afford to keep having large families?
• By 1920 women found themselves able to gain
  access to contraception
• In 1921 she started the American Birth Control
  League

47
Womens Right

• Women had supported the plight of emancipation
  and rights for the former slaves and many were
  disappointed when they were not included in
  legislation
• The womens suffrage movement which had started
  much earlier became a focal point in the years
  prior to the 1920s
• In 1912 Alice Paul became the head of the
  National American Woman Suffrage Associations
  Congressional Committee
• Paul was very militant and urged woman to go on
  the offensive for their rights

48

• Carrie Chapman Catt became the head of the
  National Suffrage Association in 1915
• In 1916 Alice Paul helped create the Womans
  party which copied the tactics of British
  suffragettes
• In 1917 Paul and some followers were arrested for
  picketing the White House. In prison they went
  on hunger strike
• President Wilson avoided the issue until 1916
  when he supported womens suffrage as part of the
  Democratic platform
• In 1918 the Anthony Amendment passed the House
  but failed in the Senate by 2 votes

49

• Eventually it was passed in 1919, but was not
  ratified as the Nineteenth Amendment for another
  14 months
• In 1919 the League of Women Voters was formed
• After attained the franchise many women stopped
  working for more rights
• Paul and the Womans party introduced an Equal
  Rights Amendment into Congress in 1923, but her
  amendment would not be adopted until 1972

50
African Americans

• Starting in roughly 1915 thousands of African
  Americans migrated north to the cities to work in
  the factories
• With the sudden and large increase in African
  Americans there were some noticeable changes in
  society, particularly in politics
• Blacks felt more inclined to participate in the
  political process in the North
• In addition to an economic and political change
  there was a social change

51

• The Harlem Renaissance was a rebirth of the black
  cultural spirit
• Claude McKay wrote Harlem Shadows (1922)was one
  of the first writers to participate in the
  Renaissance spirit
• James Weldon Toomer and Langston Hughes became
  widely read black authors
• There was also a new spirit of Negro
  nationalism which allowed people like Marcus
  Garvey to express the importance of black culture
  and the uniqueness of being black
• Garvey formed the Universal Negro Improvement
  Association in 1916

52

• Garvey told blacks to liberate themselves from
  the whites and his words found a receptive
  audience in the racially-heated twenties
• Not all black leaders agreed with Garveys
  rhetoric W.E.B. DuBois called Garvey an enemy
  of the Negro race
• Garvey spoke at the UNIA convention in 1920 and
  told blacks that their best hope was to leave
  America and move back to Africa
• He was found guilty of mail fraud and sentenced
  to prison in 1925 where he stayed until President
  Coolidge pardoned him in 1927 and sent him to
  Jamaica

53

• The organization Garvey started would reemerge
  much later in the form of the Black Power
  Movement
• A more influential organization was the National
  association for the Advancement of Colored People
  (NAACP) which was founded in 1910
• The organization focused on getting public
  attention on the Fourteenth and Fifteenth
  Amendments the Amendments intended to allow the
  black man to vote
• Gradually through the work of the Supreme Court
  the NAACP was able to make significant changes to
  the voting laws

54
The Automobile

• The policies of Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon
  favored those who were willing to invest and
  invest heavily
• Capitalists looked for industrialists and
  industrialists looked for a product and a market
• The greatest symbol of American ingenuity was
  Henry Fords assembly line which turned out a new
  car every 10 seconds
• Perhaps nothing symbolizes the 1920s and the new
  culture of America than the automobile

55

• By the middle of the decade Fords Model T (the
  Tin Lizzie) was cheap enough that most workers
  could afford one
• By the end of the decade there were almost 30
  million automobiles in the United States
• Thousands of new jobs were created to accommodate
  the new automobile industry
• Production of rubber, glass, and steel all
  increased dramatically roads had to be laid
  motels appeared by the side of the road as did
  gas stations
• Demand for oil was gripped the nation
• Once a luxury, the automobile became seen as a
  necessity

56

• On a weekend American families would climb into
  their cars and visit the countryside
• No longer were city dwellers confined to the
  cities
• Great areas of the country suddenly became
  popular as tourism became a major industry
• Workers no longer had to live in the cities they
  could travel to work, so living in the suburbs
  became fashionable

57
Flight

• In 1903 Orville and Wilbur Wright created a plane
  that stayed in the air for 12 seconds the door
  to air travel had been kicked open
• During the First World War airplanes were
  commonly seen above the battlefields although
  they were poorly used and referred to as flying
  coffins
• After the war private companies started offering
  travel by airplane and the first commercial
  flights from New York to San Francisco started in
  1920

58

• In 1927 Charles Lindbergh became the first man to
  fly west to east across the Atlantic Ocean
• His plane the Spirit of St. Louis flew from new
  York to Paris in a little over 33 hours
  Lindbergh was able to claim the 25,000 prize

59
Sports

• In the 1920s baseball became Americas game
• Babe Ruth, who had been sold by the Boston Red
  Sox, became a living legend in New York playing
  for the Yankees
• Yankee Stadium became commonly known as the
  house that Ruth built
• In 1921 Jack Dempsey knocked out Georges
  Carpentier in front of the first crowd to pay a
  million dollars to see a fight

60
The Arts

• The first real movie was The Great Train Robbery,
  made in 1913 and shown in theaters called
  nickelodeons because they charged five-cents
• D. W. Griffith produced The Birth of a Nation in
  1915 about the Ku Klux Klan during Reconstruction
  was one of the first full-length movies
• Southern California quickly became the center of
  the movie making business

61
The Wall Street Crash

• By 1929 many advised caution but making money
  seemed almost too easy
• The president even urged the Stock Market to
  discourage speculation
• The Federal Reserve Board raised the interest
  rate but with no effect
• In September prices dropped but it was seen as a
  slight adjustment and not a problem
• October 29 became the most devastating single day
  for the market
• People unable to meet their margin were forced to
  sell at a loss

62

• During October over a third of the value was lost
• In September the New York Times stock average was
  452, in July 1932 it was 52!
• As prices fell companies started laying people
  off and increasing unemployment
• Without work there was no income
• Banks started to close, farmers went bankrupt,
  and factories closed
• The crash did not cause the Great Depression but
  the policies of the government and the reluctance
  of the administration to interfere with business
  practices prevented any form of recovery