Chapter 12 Flashcards
After the war, what happened to the soldiers?
1.Returning soldiers faced unemployment
How did soldiers get their jobs back?
1.They took jobs away from women or minorities
What happened to the cost of living and how did Americans respond to stesses?
- The cost of living doubled.
- There were stressful conditions, so as a result, Americans responded with nativism or fear/prejudice against foreign born people.
isolationism,
a policy of puling away from involvement in world affairs.
What was communism and what was the Red Scare?
- A threat that was perceived in America was fear of communism, an economic and political system based on a single party government ruled by a dicator. It would put an end to private property, and private ownership.
- The Red Scare in the US after revolutionaries in Russia overthrew Valdimir I Lenin.
Which union was most involved in the communism. What was mailed to the government
1.There was a communist party in the US. Seventy thousand radicals joined including some from the IWW. Several dozen bombs were mailed to US Gov.
- US Attorney General took action to combat this Red Scar
- He appointed J. Edgar Hoover as his special assistant.
Who was the attorney general?
Mitch. A. Palmer
What did Palmer do? Did the movement loose fire?
- They hunted down suspected anarchists, or people who opposed any form of government. They took away civil rights and violated the Constitution, while jailing people without legal council.
- They deported people
- Soon the movement lost fire because people thought that Palmer didn’t know what he was talking about and he wanted to gain support for his presidential asperations
What were some major points of the Sacco and Vanzetti Case?
- Sacco and Vanzetti were two immigrants from Italy. Both were an archists.
- They had evaded the draft for WWI
- In May 1920, they were arrested and charged with the robbery and murder of a factory paymaster and his guard in South Braintree MA.
- This is because they appeared to be Italian
- They provided alibis but were eventually sentenced to death
- Protests rang out around the world.
- They were executed on August 23, 1927
1.Soon immigration started to be limited What was the sentiment and what was a fear?
- There was a sentiment, Keep America for Americans
- This was there ever since the immigrants began arriving form east and south europe.
- This fear was because of less unskilled jobs.
1.As a result of the red scare, and anti immigrant feelings, different groups used that as an excuse to torture people. What was an example of this?
1.The Ku Klux Klan was such a group. They were paid to recruit new members for racial violence.
- The immigrant population kept growing.
- Soon Congress decided to limit immigration from certain countries. What was a result of this?
- The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 set up a quota system. This established the maximum number of the people who could enter the US from each country.
- It achieved that goal-to cut European Immigration
- In 1924, the law was amended, and it limited immigration from each European Nations to 2 percent of the numberof its nationals living in the US in1890
- This law also discriminated against Roman Catholics and Jews. This law did not apply to immigrants from the West Hemisphere
What happened with the Gentlemens Agreement?
1.The law prohibited Japanese immigration causing very much tensions, because the Gentlemens agreement had been kept faithfully.
- There was also strikes. But, the AFL pledged to avoid more strikes.
- But, in 1919, there were atleast 3000 strikes. This is because, the Employers did not give workers the wages they deserved.
What were some major points of the Boston Police Strike?
- The Boston Police Strike:
- Police had not been given a raise since the beginning of WWI
- They could not unionize.
- When reps asked for raises, they were fired.
- So, the policemen striked.
- MA governor Coolidge called the National Guard saying that this interfered with public safety.
- New members were hired
The Steel Mill Strike:
- Workers wanted the right to negotiate for shorter working hours.
- They wanted a union recognition and collective bargining rights.
- The US Steel Corporation refused to meet with them
- So, 300000 workers walked off.
- Steel companies hired strike breakers: employees who worked during the strike.
- They also used police, federal troops, and state militias.
- They linked strikers to Communists.
- Woodrow Wilson, in 1919 sent a written plea to the combative negotiators.
- The strike ended in Jan 1920
- But a report shocked the public because of the harsh conditions
39.The Coal Miners strike:
- In 1919, the United Mine Workers of America organized and got a new leader-John Lewis.
- IN protest of low wages and long workdays, Lewis called his union members out on strike on Nov. 1 1919. Attorney General Palmer obtained a court order sending the miners back to work.
- Although it was declared over, Lewis gave word for it to continue.
- The mines stayed closed another month.
- President Wilson appointed a judge to settle the conflict..
- It was declared that the workers received a 27 percent raise
40.The labor movement lost appeal soon. Membership dropped.
- Much of the work force consisted of immigrants willing to work in poor conditions
- It was difficult to organize immigrants who spoke different languages.
- Farmers who migrated to the city to find factory jobs relied on themselves
- African Americans were excluded (even though they joined other unions)
- After WWI, problems surfaced relating to arms control, war debts and reconstruction.
- In 1921, President Harding invited several major powers to Washington except Russia, because they were a communist government
- Secretary of State, Charles Evans Hughes urged that:
- no more warships be built for 10 years. He also suggested that the five major naval powers US, GB, Japan, France, and Italy scrap their ships
- All agreed to disarm
The Kellogg Briand Pact
denounced war as a national policy. It provided no means of enforcement.
Britain and France had to pay back the 10$ billion dollars that they borrowed. How did they do it?
They could sell to the US or they could collect damages from Germany
1922, America adopted the Fordney McCumber Tariff:
Raised tariffs on imported goods to 60%
- Germany was experiencing inflation. French troops marched in because they could not pay.
- American banker Charles G. Dawes sent to negotiate loans. This became as the Dawes Plan
What was this plan?
- American banker Charles G. Dawes sent to negotiate loans. This became as the Dawes Plan
- American investors loaned Germany 2.5 billion dollars, to pay GB and Grance with annual payments on a fixed state.
- This caused the US to be repayed with their own money.
- This caused outcry.
- GB and France thought that the US was a miser and was not paying a fair share of costs of WWI.
- They had benefited from the defeat of Germany, while Europeans paid
Harding favored a limited role for government in business affairs. So, what did he set up?
The Bureau of Budget
- He urged US Steel to abandon 12 day workday.
- Although Hughes became the supreme court justice, there were others in Hardings cabinet. Herbert Hoover was secretary of commerce. Andrew Mellon was the secretary of treasure. He cut taxes and reduced the national debt.
- But the cabinet also involved the:
Ohio Gang
Albert Fall.
The Secretary of the interior
Teapot Dome Scandal
Fall transfered Navy owned oil full lands and leased them to oil companies
- Calvin Coolidge fit the pro biz spirit of the 1920s.
- He built factories
- Coolidge and Hoover favored government policies that would
keep taxes down and business profits up. This would give the biz more credit to expand on. They also placed high tariffs. Reducing income taxes was there. Lastly, wages were rising.
What was significant about the automobile?
- It changed American landscape
- It allowed transport to be faster
- Liberated isolated country families
Urban Sprawl:
Cities expanded in all directions
What symbolized the free enterprise system in the US in the Coolidge era:
The car
What cities were people drawn to after the invention of the car?
Oil Cities?
- The airplane industry began as a mail carrying service for the US Post Office.
- It increased weather forcasting, radios, and navigational instruments on the plane.
- Henry Ford made a
trimotor plane
Which two pilots promoted the airplane?
Amelia Erhart and Charles Lindberg
In the Coolidge Era, how much did the standard of living increase by
35%
1.Gasoline powered much of the economic boom of the 1920s, but there was also electricity. What did factories use?
Electricity
The development of alternating electrical current
you could distribute electrical power over long distances
- With new goods, it flooded the market advertising agencies no longer just informed the public about products and prices.
- They hired psychologists to study how appeal to peoples desire
youth, beauty, health, wealth
- As productivity increased, businesses expanded.
- There were numerous mergers of companies that manufactured automobiles, steel and electric products.
- There were chain stores that sold drugs, clothes and food.
- Congressed passed a law that allowed
national banks to branch within cities of their main office.
What happened as businesses grew?
The income gap between workers and employers did as well
What industries were not prosperous
railroad/iron
The installment plan enabled
people to pay installments on an item, rather then hand over the cash at the register.
Why was this a problem?
People could accumulate debt
