06. Limits to 1920s Prosperity

Question 1

Where was the wealth of the 1920s concentrated?

Answer 1

Industrial North and Far West

The 1920s were a difficult time for farmers (with the exception of fruit growers in California and large grain farmers in the Mid-West)

Question 2

How was wealth distributed across the USA?

Answer 2

Wages in the North Eastern Industrial cities: average $921 a month
Wages in rural South: average $361 a month
Wages in South Carolina: average $129 a month

Question 3

What % of families lived on less than $2,000 a year?

Answer 3

60%

Question 4

What were the causes for the drop in demand of agricultural goods?

Answer 4

Prohibition the demand for grain from brewers and distillers dropped and virtually disappeared from 1920

The end of WW1 brought a drop in need for goods

Increase use of synthetic fibres instead of cotton, such as rayon: fewer workers were needed to produce rayon than cotton.
Those who kept their jobs earned an average of only $9 per week in 1926

Foreign trade decreased: countries such as Britain that had been importing massive amounts of farm produce during the war, stopped

The Fordney-McCumber Tariff passed in 1922 also meant that many foreign markets were now closed to American exports as foreign governments increased taxes on American goods making them more expensive.

Question 5

What were the consequences of the drop in demand?

Answer 5

Overproduction: Farmers continued to produce the same amount, which led to huge wastage and drop in prices - so farmers made huge income losses

Question 6

How did the proportional of national income that farmers received change from 1919 - 1929?

Answer 6

In 1919, farmers had 16% of the national income, by 1929 they had just 9%.
Farm income fell from $22 billion in 1919 to $13 billion in 1929.

Question 7

How did wheat prices fall?

Answer 7

From $2.5 to $1 per bushel by 1926

Question 8

How did farms get more efficient and why did this cause problems?

Answer 8

Mechanisation: More crops could be produced on fewer acres, 13 million acres were taken out of production during the 1920s meaning many people lost jobs as there was less need for sharecroppers and other farmers.

Farm population fell by 5%, yet production rose by 9%

By 1930 almost every farmer in Nebraska used tractors. This meant less need for animals like horses, so less need for animal food to be grown - again, decreasing demand.

Question 9

What % of farmers operated at a loss?

Answer 9

66%

Question 10

What was the Agricultural Credits Act 1923? What did it aim to do?

Answer 10

Small scale farmers were going bankrupt.
The Act funded 12 Credit banks to fund cooperatives - with the idea that small farms would join together.
However, this was a loan - which small scale farmers could not pay back - so big farms benefitted instead.

Question 11

What rate of farms were foreclosed by 1926?

Answer 11

The average rate of foreclosure was 17.4 farms per 1,000 by 1926 - the land belonging to these farmers, which their families had farmed for generations, was either repossessed by banks or sold for cents

Question 12

What were agricultural businesses?

Answer 12

Mass production/ harvesting of one big crop to make a profit. Big farms or enterprises would be well financed and produce cereals and fruit on a large scale. They were able to access the Agricultural Credits Act loans.

(example: fruit growers in California and large grain farmers in the Mid-West)

Question 13

What was the The McNary-Haugen Bill and why did it fail?

Answer 13

It was to aid farmers by buying their surplus to sell to foreign markets. However Coolidge vetoed it twice in 1927 and 28, seeing it as intervening too much - farmers should have to stand on their own two feet

Question 14

How many women were in high paid skilled careers in the 1920s?

Answer 14

150 dentists
Less than 100 accountants
Less than 2% of judges or lawyers

Question 15

What were the limits to female political participation?

Answer 15

1920 women got the vote, but generally voted in line with their husbands
145 women in state legislatures
Only 2 women out of 435 in House of Representatives

Question 16

What sort of jobs did majority of women have?

Answer 16

Low-paid menial jobs, 700,000 domestic servants
By 1920, women made up 20% of the workforce. Even where women managed to access the same work as men they were paid less, although more often than not they were cabined to occupations suitable for their sex: domestic servants, seamstresses and sales clerks.

Question 17

What happened to women’s education?

Answer 17

Those receiving college education fell by 5%

Question 18

What was the reality of women’s liberation during the 1920s?

Answer 18

Although flappers were seen as fun loving and liberal women, they enforced the stereotype that women could not be taken seriously in career or politics.

Many women were expected to give up work when they got married and look after their home and family.

Question 19

What % of the US population were black and where did the majority live?

Answer 19

10% of total population, 85% lived in the rural deprived South

Question 20

What was northern migration?

Answer 20

Many black Americans moved to northern industrial cities for better opportunities

Question 21

What was the reality of northern migration?

Answer 21

Ghettoisation, many black Americans ended up living in poor and overcrowded conditions, such as Harlem in New York whose population grew to 165,000 by 1930

Question 22

What was the role of sharecroppers?

Answer 22

Farmers allow tenant farmers to use the land in exchange for a share of the crop.

Many black American families after the Civil War (1860s) did not have enough wealth to own their own farms, so many became sharecroppers working on the farms of white farmers.

Many were living close to subsistence during the 1920s.
Life was particularly hard for black Americans in the southern states. The majority were poverty-stricken sharecroppers on farms owned by white landlords. When the price of crops fell or the boll weevil devastated cotton crops, they were either sacked or did not receive the share of the crop to which they were entitled. Three-quarters of a million lost their jobs during the 1920s

Question 23

What traditional industries did not share in economic prosperity?

Answer 23

The coal industry was producing too much coal and not enough people and countries wanted to buy it as oil became more popular, as did electricity. As a result, coal price went down.
In 1920 coal was $3.75 a ton, by 1929 it was $1.78
Ship building was another major industry that made thousands redundant due to a reduction in the demand for new ships.

Question 24

How did the wages of construction workers change?

Answer 24

In spite of huge building projects during the “Roaring Twenties”, construction workers missed out on the boom. Their wages increased by only 4 per cent during the 1920s.

Question 25

What happened to the yellow dog clauses and how did this affect union membership?

Answer 25

The Republicans weakened trade unions which meant workers could not negotiate better wages and working conditions. The infamous yellow-dog contracts were allowed to continue - clauses in an employees contract which forbade them from joining a trade union. Henry Ford was one such employer. Union membership fell from 5 million to 3.4 million in the 1920s

Question 26

What were attitudes towards labor unions like during the 1920s?

Answer 26

Attitudes toward Labour Unions were hostile during the 1920s as they became associated with immigrants and dangerous political ideas. Whilst the Unions had grown in popularity before WW1, many Union leaders were accused of being communists and investigated.