Boom And Crash 1920-29

Question 1

How did gnp rise from 1920-29

Answer 1

1920 - $73.3 billion
1929 - $104.4 billion

Question 2

What was inflation like 1920-29

Answer 2

Never rose above 1%

Question 3

How did profits increase for business 1923-29

Answer 3

Rose by 62%

Question 4

What have the USA an advantage compared to counties like britain

Answer 4

Had a population of 106million in 1920, compared to britains 42 million

Question 5

Where were America;s vast natural resources

Answer 5

-coalfields in areas such as West Virginia
-reserves of oil in areas such as Texas
-large quantities of iron, copper and lead

Question 6

How did America exploit its natural recourses

Answer 6

The USA developed thr most advanced transportation system in the world with an extensive railway network and river system

Question 7

How else was natural recourses exploited

Answer 7

‘Spirit of enterprise’
The ideal of an American dream suggested that anyone, np master how poor initially, through hard work and talent, could become rich.

Question 8

What did millions of European immigrants provide for America

Answer 8

Cheap labour and hard work to lay foundations for the USAs rapid economic advance

Question 9

How did ford create mass production

Answer 9

-ford established a car manufacturing plant in Detroit before WW1
-on the ford assembly line, individual workers learned how to assemble only specific parts of a car
-the assembly line moved at a steady pace, setting the rate of production
-this meant low skilled and semi skilled workers could be employed

Question 10

How did the assembly line reduce the amount of time it took to produce a ford car

Answer 10

1913- took 12.5 hours
BY 1913, took 2 hours 40

Question 11

How did the number of cars rise 1920-29

Answer 11

1920- 8 million
1929- 26million

Question 12

How did mass production affect finances

Answer 12

Higher output and lowered prices

Question 13

How much did a ford model t cost in 1925

Answer 13

$290, well within the reach of the ordinary American

Question 14

What did Frederick Taylor introduce

Answer 14

Time and motion studies of production
-methods of production were analysed so that new, more time efficient ways for manufacturing goods could be adopted to lower costs and higher profits

Question 15

What impact did the creation of large industrial corporations have

Answer 15

Allowed companies to benefit from economies of scale - corporations bought up natural resources and controlled the whole manufacturing process and sales of their products. They could benefit from raw material costs and pass on lower prices to customers

Question 16

By 1929, how much did large companies control the USA

Answer 16

By 1929, just 16 companies controlled 90% of the USA’s electricity supply industry

Question 17

What did electification stimulate

Answer 17

The development of other advances, such as radios, vacuums, toasters

Question 18

1912-29 , how did the amount of electrical appliances change

Answer 18

1912- 2.4 million
1929, 160 million

Question 19

What was the downside to electrication

Answer 19

It was centred on towns and cities and by 1929, much of rural America was still without electricity

Question 20

What was the first major radio station

Answer 20

KDKA in Pittsburgh, became a model for radio stations across the USA

Question 21

How did advertisement advance

Answer 21

Popular radio shows were sponsored by corporations advertising their goods

Question 22

By the mid 1930s how many households owned a radio

Answer 22

%75

Question 23

What did the car allow for us workers

Answer 23

To live further away from work, stimulating the growth of suburbs around towns and cities

Question 24

How did cars improve holidaying

Answer 24

Seaside resorts such as Atlantic city grew rapidly as the destination for New Yorkers and national parks now became more accessible

Question 25

What did the 1921 federal highways act do

Answer 25

Gave the government responsibility of building roads
1920-29, overall length of surfaced roads increased from 350,000 miles to 662,000 miles

Question 26

How many cars did ford produce in 1920

Answer 26

1.25 million , one every minute

Question 27

How did cars improve employment

Answer 27

Hundreds of thousands of people employed in car manufacture in companies such as ford, General Motors and Chrysler

Question 28

How many did the car industry directly employ

Answer 28

375,000

Question 29

By 1929, what perfect of thr workforce was employed in car industry

Answer 29

7%

Question 30

What other industries did car manufacturing stimulate

Answer 30

Steel,rubber and glass

Question 31

What did car ownership lead to the increase of

Answer 31

Demand of petrol , stimulating the oil industry and garages

Question 32

How myuch did real wages rise 1920-29

Answer 32

13%

Question 33

What did hire purchase schemes do

Answer 33

Allowed customers to buy goods by initially paying a small portion of the price and then paying off the rest in monthly instalments

Question 34

What percentage of cars were bought by hire purchase

Answer 34

75%

Question 35

What belief stimulated economic growth

Answer 35

The belief that the economic boom would be never ending

Question 36

Which party dominated politics and congress in the 20s

Answer 36

Republican

Question 37

What did Calvin Coolidge claim

Answer 37

Business of America is business
Believed in laissez faire economic policies which aimed to reduce taxes and government regulation of businesses

Question 38

What was the 1922 fordney mcumber tariff

Answer 38

Placed taxes on foreign goods imported into the us such as chemicals, textiles and farm products
Increased the profits of the American chemical, dye, steel and aluminium industries
However, it did nothing to deal with overproduction and led to a fall in farm product prices

Question 39

What did Andrew melon do

Answer 39

Adopted a low tax policy
Taxes on the rich were lowered by 50% to 20% in a series of revenue acts from 1921 to 1926
For instance, the 1926 revenue act lowered the tax right for high earners, but also lowered tax on the transfer of property and repealed the gift tax
Mellon handed out 3.5 billion in tax reductions and supported a reduction in public spending and balanced the federal budget for part of his time
Under Coolidge, the federal government actually operated on a surplus

Question 40

What did the federal trade commission and republican run state governments do

Answer 40

Reduced regulations on business
Price fixing by businesses to raise profits was often ignored by the federal trade commission
Little attempt was made to regulate hours of work or the use of child labour and wage rates were kept low, all of which favoured business

Question 41

To do with trade unions, what did federal government do during the First World War

Answer 41

Had protected the rights of workers to join trade unions, by the wars end trade union membership had risen to 4 million
Once government controls were lifted,, many employers became part of the American plan, a slogan for reducing union power
No strike and no union agreements were forced on workers
By 1929, trade union membership had declined by nearly a million

Question 42

How did farmers fare after their boom in the war

Answer 42

European agriculture began to recover and demand for us food exports dropped and so did agricultural prices in the USA

Question 43

How was agriculture affected by technological developments

Answer 43

The combine harvester increased productivity in cereal production but also led to an increase in unemployment among farm workers
By 1929, more Americans lived in urban rather than rural areas for the first time
In south eastern USA in the 1920s, cotton was affected n by the appearance of of the boil weevil, which caused serious damage to cotton plants

Question 44

Why did attempts to help farmers fail

Answer 44

The mcnary haugen bill attempted to stabilise agricultural prices with government buying surplus produce however it failed in congress dominated by laissex faire policies

Question 45

Why did black Americans fare badly in the boom

Answer 45

Majority still lived in south eastern USA and suffered legal and social discrimination
Sharecropping involved poor farmers buying seed and renting land from a large landowner. If the harvest was poor they suffered economically. Black Americans in urban ares were given the most menial and low paid jobs such as clerks

Question 46

Where did black Americans migrate to

Answer 46

Nearly a million left the poverty stricken south east hobs for jobs in the prosperous northern idustrial cities such as Detroit, New York and Chicago
By 1929, black Americans were engaged in manufacturing employment in large numbers for the first time