Chapter 11

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Chapter 11

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Section 1 A Booming Economy

•

The Rise of New Industry

–

Horseless carriage = automobile

–

Per capita earnings rose 22 %

–

Work hours decreased leading to more leisure time

–

The Oldsmobile (by Ransom Olds) had a less expensive car

in 1901

•

Technology = Henry Ford

–

Mass production = rapid manufacture of large numbers of

identical products

–

Henry Ford created the first assembly line

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Impact of the Automobile

•

Henry’s Workers:

–

Workers salaries went up- from $2.35 a day to $5.00 a

day

–

Reduced work hours to 8 hours

–

Workers now had Saturday and Sunday off.

–

Ford created a “Sociological Department” to watch his

employees

•

Model T “Tin Lizzy”

–

Cost went from $850.00 to $350 by 1916 and to $290

(4)

How the car changed America

•

The Automobile:

–

Social revolution

• _{young people could go on dates}

• _{New sense of freedom – mobility to drive across country or}

just for Sunday outings

–

New small businesses that could handle car repairs.

• _{Steel, rubber, asphalt, wood, gasoline, insurance, road}

construction (federal highways)

–

Commuters

• _{People no longer had to live in the cities – they could move}

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Consumer goods and culture

•

Consumer good industry:

–

Electric razors, Disposable facial tissues (Kleenex)

–

Frozen foods

–

Indoor plumbing

–

Household cleaning products

–

Electric irons, vacuum cleaners, Washing machines,

refrigerators,

–

Gas stoves

(6)

Consumer Society

• _{Easy Consumer credit:}

– _{Prosperity lead to increase in debt}

– _{People buying on credit – putting a small amount of cash down and then}

paying it off with regular monthly payments

– _{Most considered debt to be shameful}

– _{Most Americans bought their home items on credit.}

• _{Mass Advertising:}

– _{Manufacturers turned to advertising to help sell their new products’} – _{They created appealing, persuasive messages}

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The 1920s saw the growth of the culture of

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…creating and manufacturing

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And for the first time in history, large consumer items,

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The Long Bull Market

• _{Stock Market: Established as a system for buying and selling}

shares of companies

• _{Bull Market: long period of rising stock prices. By 1929 about 3}

million Americans owned stocks

• _{Margin: buying stock with only a minimal amount down ($1,000}

down could buy $10,000 in stock) the rest came from a stockbroker who loaned you the money

• _{Margin Call: as prices started to fall the stockbrokers demanded}

investors to pay their balances

• _{Speculation: buying stock in a company without regards to the}

(15)

Cities and Suburbs

• _{People flocked to the cities: the immigrants, farmers that left their fields,}

African Americans, Mexican Americans.

• Cities also grew at a fast pace, not only horizontally, but also vertically as new buildings reshaped the skyline.

•

• _{Skyscrapers dominated the skylines of the nation’s cities.}

– _{Empire State Building 1931 symbolized the power and majesty of the US.}

• _{The automobile enabled people to move into suburbs.}

• Improved mass transportation allowed the worker to live outside the city.

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Hardships: Agriculture, Ailing Industries

• _{Agricultural profits steadily declined and the gap between farm}

and non-farm income widened.

– _{“Leven-cent cotton, forty cent meat, How in the world can a}

poor man eat? Mule’s in the barn, no crop’s laid by, Corncrib empty and the cow’s gone dry. Pray for the

sunshine, cause it will rain Things getting worse, driving us insane”

• _{Other sick industries included:}

– _{coal mining—which faced competition from oil and natural gas} – _{railroads—which faced competition from cars and trucks}

– _{New England textiles—which faced competition from low-wage}

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Advertising was a new

field, which encouraged

people to “buy, buy,

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It was the

woman of the

house who

sought products

to make

housework

easier and more

effective

more

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The culture

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Section 2 The Business of Government

• _{The Harding Administration “Return to Normalcy”}

• _{Secretary of Commerce – Herbert Hoover}

• _{New policies favor big business}

– _{Names Andrew Mellon Secretary of Treasury}

– _{Mellon supported legislation that advanced business interests} – _{No new income tax}

– _{Cut the budget – by 1925 Congress reduced spending from $18 Billion to $3}

Billion.

• _{Harding – Tariffs and monopolies}

– _{He raised tariffs by 25%, making foreign products more expensive so people}

would by American goods.

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Ohio Gang and Teapot Dome Scandals

•

Harding’s friends made up the Ohio Gang

– _{Not honest men, they were greedy who saw a way to use the}

Gov. to get richer.

– _{Attorney General Harry Daugherty took bribes}

– _{Charles Forbes pocketed most of the $250 million that was to}

be spent on Hospitals and supplies.

• He spent $70,000 worth of floor cleaner at 24 times the actual cost. It was enough cleaner to last 100 years.

•

Teapot Dome Scandal - Albert fall and Edwin Denby

– Fall received hundreds of thousands of dollars in payoffs when he secretly leased Navy oil reserves in Teapot Dome,

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Teapot Dome Scandal

•

Congressional investigations led to many

arrests and prison.

•

Harding died on Aug. 2

nd

after a speaking tour

of Alaska.

(28)

Silent Cal (president Calvin Coolidge)

•

Coolidge Prosperity

–

He was quiet, honest and frugal

–

Supported big business

–

Believed in creating a wealthy nation

–

Reduce the national debt

–

Lower taxes for businesses

–

For six years the economy boomed under Coolidge

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America’s Role in the World

•

Washington Naval Disarmament

–

World leaders agreed to limit the construction of

large warships.

•

Kellogg-Briand Pact 1928

–

To “outlaw war…as an instrument of national policy”

–

To renounce war as a means of settling problems

–

62 nations signed the agreement but it was

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Dawes Plan

•

Britain and France owed the US a great deal of money

from the War.

•

Germany had to pay Britain and France so they could

then pay us.

•

Dawes plan:

– The US would loan money to Germany so they could pay Britain and France who could then pay us.

– _{1929 Germany stopped reparation payments}

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Section 3: Social and Cultural Tensions

•

Traditionalism and Modernism Clash

– More people lived in urban areas than in rural

– _{On virtually every important social and cultural issue the}

two groups were divided.

– Urban Americans:

• _{Acceptance of new consumer products, leisure activities, openness}

toward social change new discoveries of science

• Secular values over traditional ideas about religion became known as modernism

– _{Rural Americans: embraced a more traditional view of}

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Education, Religion and Evolution

•

Education:

–

Rural: they just wanted their kids to have the basic

3”r”’s. Muscle for the farm rather than book learning.

–

Urban: higher education was more important. Mastery

of Mathematics and Language most valuable.

–

By 1930 more Americans were graduating from high

(33)

•

Religion:

–

Soviet Communism attacked the Orthodox Church

–

Mexican revolution attacked the Roman Catholic

Church

–

Fundamentalism: (strongest in Rural America)

• _{emphasized Protestant teachings and the belief that}

the word in the Bible was literal truth.

• _{The answer to every important moral and scientific}

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Evolution and the Scopes Trial

• _{Clash between Modernism and Fundamentalism}

• _{Issue: the theory of evolution – developed by Darwin, human beings had}

developed gradually from simpler forms of life.

• _{This theory clashed with the teachings in the Bible.}

• _{Scopes trial:}

– Attorney for Scope: Clarence Darrow.

– Attorney for the prosecution: William Jennings Bryant

– Bryan who was an expert on the Bible was questioned by Darrow (who tried to show that science could cast doubt on the Bible)

– Scopes was found guilty and fined $100.00

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. Darrow defended John T. Scopes, a biology

teacher, in his test of Tennessee's law banning the teaching of evolution. Bryan testified for the prosecution as a Bible expert. The ACLU lost

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Restricting Immigration

• _{Immigrants were required to be able to read and write in their}

own language.

• _{The Red Scare – fear of communism and socialism also sought to}

limit immigrants.

• _{Two important laws were designed to deal with immigration}

– _{Emergency Quota Act of 1921}

– _{National Origins Act of 1924: the number of immigrants of a given}

nationality could not exceed 2% of those already living in the US in 1890.

– _{Did not apply to Mexicans – most came to the US to work harvesting}

crops in California and Texas

• _{Mexicans faced discrimination and hostility from native-born Americans for}

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The New Ku Klux Klan

•

New KKK promoted a hatred of African Americans,

Jews, Catholics, and immigrants, labor unions,

lawbreakers and immorality.

•

At their height there were 4-5 million members

•

Center of KKK- Indiana - where Klan leader David

Stephenson ruled.

•

Klan members boycotted business owned by

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• _{They burned crosses outside their homes.}

• _{Wore masks hide their faces.}

• _{Leaders were called Grand Dragon or Imperial Wizard.}

• Americans opposed to the Klan

– _{NAACP, Jewish Anti-Defamation League,}

– _{These groups called for racial and cultural diversity.}

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Prohibition and Crime

• ₁₈th_{Amendment forbade the manufacture, distribution and}

sale of alcohol anywhere in the US.

• _{Volstead Act = officially enforced the amendment.}

• Advocates were called “drys” – they believed that it improved individuals and strengthened families.

• _{Alcoholism and liver disease decreased during Prohibition.}

• _{Opponents called “wets” claimed that it did not stop people}

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•

Prohibition crime:

–

Bootlegging: people made illegal liquor at home and

the bootleggers sold it to people.

–

Speakeasies sold liquor in “tea rooms”.

–

Government agents called “Feds” tried to stop the

illegal production of liquor but there were not

enough of them to stop corruption and organized

crime.

(41)

–

Other crimes associated with liquor – prostitution,

drugs, robbery and murder.

–

Nation divided over the issue of Prohibition

• _{City politicians wanted repeal of the 18}th_amendment

• _{Rural Americans still blamed liquor for high crime rates} • _{It would not be until 1933 that the 21}st_Amendment