The Roaring Twenties Flashcards
Issues in 1920s
- Discrimination against women, African Americans, and immigrants
- Debate between Free Market/Mixed Market Principles
After WWI
- US emerges one of the global powers industrially and militarily
- Europe and parts of Asia are in economic ruin because WWI; become dependent on US for assistance/aid and create a bigger market for American goods
The Red Scare
Fear of communists, socialists, anarchists, etc. following a series of anarchist bombings in 1919
-A. Mitchell Palmer coordinated raids on homes of suspected radicals and headquarters of radical organizations across US
Sacco & Vanzetti Trial
two anarchist Italian immigrants convicted for robbery and murder based on who they are rather than evidence
Immigration Quota Act of 1924
The quota for immigrants entering the U.S. was set at two percent of the total of any given nation’s residents in the U.S. as reported in the 1890 census–targeted “undesirable” immigrants most associated with radical ideas
Dawes Plan (1924)
1) U.S. gives $2.5 billion in Loans to Germany
2) Germany pays $2 billion as reperations to the Allies (England & France)
3) Allies give $2.6 billion to the U.S. in War Debt Payments
Foreign Policy in Latin America
- Withdrew troops from the Dominican Republic but left troops in Haiti
- Removed & sent back troops from Nicaragua
- Issues in Mexico when Mexican government infringed on American oil rights but issue resolved diplomatically without use of military force
Women’s Suffrage Movement (1920s)
-Women continue the fight for equality (at home and in the workplace) and the right to vote.
-Women were able to find some success in state voting and rights in the workplace throughout the late 19th century and early 20th centuries.
Successful examples: Atlanta Washerwoman Strike, Muller v. Oregon, Aftermath of Triangle Shirtwaste Fire
Muller v. Oregon
- Oregon passed laws that restricted the amount of hours women could work
- Women therefore could not negotiate with their employers for better working conditions, therefore sued the state of Oregon under violation of the 14th amendment
- The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the state of Oregon, because it was to ‘protect’ the welfare of women.
Prohibition in the 1920s
- Prohibition passed by 18th Amendment and implemented by Congress’s Volstead Act
- Difficult to enforce –> Bootlegging
- Rise in gangs (made $12-18 billion)
Susan B. Anthony (20s)
- Formed the National Women’s Suffrage Association (NWSA) which continue to push for the right to vote for women *
- Wymoning became the first state to allow women the right to vote
Alice Stone Blackwell
- helped bring together the NWSA and the AWSA which had been split over the issue of African-American voting rights
- editor of Women’s Journal magazine which continued to encourage the Women’s Suffrage Movement and Temperance Movement
Carrie Chapman Catt
- Succeeded Susan B. Anthony as President of the NWSA
- Very passionate/skilled speaker who delivered many speeches and recording which brought the movement into the mainstream
- She felt it was more practical to appeal to each state to pass voting rights as opposed to appealing to the Federal Government for an Amendment
Harriet Stanton Blatch
- Daughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton
- Believed in more militant tactics to achieve suffrage
- Formed Women’s Political Union
- Believed in striking and picketing to achieve results
19th Amendment
On June 4th, 1919 Congress passed the 19th Amendment which gave women the right to vote.
Modernism vs. Conservatism
Modernism:
- Equality for African-Americans, women, workers
- Government regulation (Prohibtion, Antitrust legislation)
Conservatism:
- Restore America to traditional values
- Immigration Quotas
- Emphasis on religion
Scopes Trial (1925)
- over the teaching of evolution
- shows conflict fundamentalists & science (traditionalism vs. modernism)
- fundamentalists argued teaching evolution eroded faith in God and and contributed to the overall moral decay of the youth during the “Jazz Age”
- Scopes was found guilty and fined because he did violate the Tennessee Law (Butler Law) banning the teaching of evolution
Consumerism
- Small post-war recession ended 1921 & the economy prospered
- Advertising and credit stimulate consumption (though real wages did not increase significantly)
- Sports and politics got a boost from radio & Hollywood films were popular
- Electricity facilitated economic growth
Transportation
- Henry Ford perfected assmbly-line production - 1 car every 10 sec (30 millions cars in US by 1930)
- Manfacture & service of cars undustry employed 6 million
- Threatened monopoly of railroads
- Speedy marketing of pershiable foods & growth of suburbs
- Wright Brothers lauch aviation age 1903
- Charles Lindbergh flew solo across the Atlantic in 1927
Radio & Film
- 1920s made long-range radio broadcast possible & national programs were broadcast into American homes
- First movies with sound (“talkie”)
Harlem Renaissance
- A flowering of African American culture in the 1920s –> instilled interest in African American culture and pride in being an African American (“New Negro”)
- Marcus Garvey formed the United Negro Improvement Assoc.
- Poetry & jazz music flourished & Harlem became a center for movements to improve the conditions for blacks in America
Lifestyle changes of the roaring 20s
- Flappers exemplified the clash between modernists and traditionalists → image of a post 19th Amendment “New Woman:” independent, bobbed hair, a shorter skirt, makeup, a cigarette in her hand, consuming bootlegged liquor in a speakeasy
- Margaret Sanger advocated for access to birth control
- Alice Paul established the National Women’s Party to campaign for an “equal rights amendment”
The Lost Generation
- Term popularized by Gertrude Stein for disillusioned artists and writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald & Ernest Hemingway
- Sinclair Lewis was the first American to win the nobel prize in literature with his novel “Babbitt” which ridiculed conformity and materialism
- Criticized war & questioned progress
The Bull Market
- Stock speculation rampant as people bought on margin, borrowing large sums of money to invest in the stock market that seemed to have unlimited potential for growth
- Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon wanted to cut taxes on the wealthy
Republicans & Pro-business policies
- Unwittingly, Harding filled his cabinet with his “Ohio Gang” of corrupt cronies
- Laissez-Faire & “trickle down” economics - decreased government regulation & relaxed antitrust laws
- Dismantled wartime economic controls
- Andrew Mellon’s tax plan cut taxes for the wealthy
- Bull Market - over-inflated values on stocks due to speculation & buying on margin
The Labor Movement
-The government had been friendly to labor during WWI (War Labor Board)
1-919 steel strikers branded “dangerous Reds”
-Attorney General’s pro-big business bias led to issuing a federal injunction breaking up rail strike in 1922
-Union membership dropped 30% between 1920 and 1930
Government Failures
The Republican Party became the predominant party in the 1920s because of the backlash of modern/progressive movements in the United States.
-The Presidencies of Warren G. Harding & Calvin Coolidge led to a series of disastrous domestic and foreign policies that will impact the United States.
The US & The World After WWI
- Isolationism & disarmament were the dominant policies
- 1922: The Five-Power Naval Treaty
- Harding Administration raises tariffs which starts tariff war, stunting economic development & recovery
- After WWI, America became a creditor to the world
The Five-Power Naval Treaty
-Limited the construction of certain types of large naval ships, and it applied ratio limits to the number of ships a country could build (Among the Allied Powers)
Kellogg-Brian Pact 1928
- Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg and French Ministers negotiated a treaty to end all wars.
- Over 15 countries signed the treaty in the hopes of ending global conflicts between nations
- Japan, who signed the Pact, invaded Manchuria three years later, and neither the United States nor the rest of the nations who signed did anything to retaliate.
- Failure
Corruption in the Cabinet
- Political corruption under Harding such as the Teapot Dome Scandal (Cabinet member leased oil fields to private companies in return for a $100,000 bribe)
- Attorney General Daugherty forced to resign due to illegal sales of liquor permits
- Corruption in cabinet reminiscent of Grant who was also woefully unaware
- Harding died in 1923 & succeeded by Coolidge
Frustrated Farmers
- War ended & so did government-guaranteed high prices for crops
- Mechanized agriculture (ex. gas engine tractors) led to overproduction driving prices down
- Coolidge vetoes McNary-Haugen Bill to keep prices high by the government buying surpluses and selling them abroad
Stock Market Crash
- Black Tuesday (1929): over 16 million stocks sold in one day
- Stock market crashed: within 2 months, $40 billion was lost
- Over 5000 banks collapsed in the first 3 years and people’s savings were wiped out.
CAUSES:
- Speculation & buying on margin/credit
- Overproduction & underconsumption
Reactions to the Crash
Hoover stayed committed to laissez-faire policies but did take some action to remedy the depression:
- Hawley Smoot Tariff
- Reconstruction Finance Corporation
- Bonus Army
- Hoovervilles
Hawley Smoot Tariff
- (proposed before crash but passed after) reduced flow of goods into US by imposing tariffs (taxes on foreign goods) –> led to retaliatory tariffs & worsened the Depression.
Reconstruction Finance Corporation
-gave loans to businesses, banks, and state and local governments, but no direct relief to the people (trickle down economics in action)
Bonus Army
- WWI veterans marched on DC demanding their $1,000 bonus pay before the 1945 due date
- Brutally evicted with bayonets & tear gas –> Hoovers popularity continued to plummet
Hoovervilles
-shantytowns sprang up as people lost everything and blamed the president who had ironically promised in 1928: “A Chicken in Every Pot and a Car in Every Garage”
