US 1920s Flashcards
How did car ownership increase between 1920 and 1929?
1920 - 8m
1929 - 26m
What did the Revenue Acts 1924 and 1926 do?
•cut top band of taxes from 50% to 20%
•11000 millionaires in the US by 1929
• led to tax reductions totalling $3.5 billion to large scale industrialists and corporations
How did real wages increase between 1923 and 1929?
increased by 13%
How did the stock market increase in 1928 and since 1922?
•increased by 50% in 12 weeks through speculation
• increased by nearly 20% each year until 1929
How did consumer borrowing increase between 1920 and 1929?
•1920 - consumer borrowing just over $2bn
• 1929 - $8bn
• 75% of cars and 50% of household goods were bought using hire purchase
Stat demonstrating how many people bought on the margin
• nearly 40 cents of every American dollar loaned went to the stock market
Why did America become an economic superpower during WW1?
•America provided 80% of Allied oil during the war - wealth of oil in Texas and Cali
• Also naturally rich in raw materials like wood, iron, coal, minerals, land and therefore dominated chemical industry also
How did GNP increase between 1920 and 1929?
1920 - $73.3bn
1929 - $104.4bn
increased by around 42%
How did profits for US businesses increase between 1923 and 1929?
increased by 62%
How did number of electrical appliances in the US increase between 1912 and 1929? (demonstrates increased consumerism)
1912 - 2.4 million electrical appliances
1929 - 160 million
after the creation of the assembly line, what rate did Ford produce cars at?
1923 - 2 million cars produced, highest annual production figure ever achieved by a single model
Between 1922 and 1929 what were unemployment rates
never higher than 3.7%
How and why did union membership decline during the 1920s
• 5m to 2m
• the supreme court made several decisions that weakened the labour movement
How many people worked in farming at the start of the 1920s?
• 60 million - people had to move because of the recession, Coolidge vetoed laws proposed to fix prices for farmers between 1927 and 1928
When was the Fordney-Mccumber tariff introduced and what did it do?
• 1922
• taxes were increased on imported goods, making consumer goods cheaper and guaranteeing domestic producers a market
How did production of industrial goods increase between 1922 and 1929?
50%
What was radio ownership by 1929?
10 million
When were Sacco and Vanzetti executed and why?
• 1927
• accused of murder and denied a fair trial due to being suspected of being anarchists and socialists
• executed despite eye witnesses claiming their innocence
How were workers exploited (government do nothing to stop this)
• weak trade unions
• child Labour common in the textile mills of Southern states, a 56 hour week common there and wages rarely rose to more than 18 cents an hour
Cars affordable in 1920s
• 1920 Ford was mass producing a car per minute (1,250,000) a year
• 1925 Ford producing a car every ten seconds - cheaper again, $290 for a car
• petrol cost between 20 and 25 cents a gallon - average manufacturing wage 50 cents an hour
Cars desirable in the 1920s
• reported that 65% of workers were working to afford a car
Cars contributing to boom and cycle of prosperity
• gave rise to rubber, steel, construction and service industries (e.g petrol stations, changed landscape along highways )
• by 1929, motor industry employed 7% of all workers and paid them 9% of all wages
Car industry changing infrastructure of America
• Federal Highway Act of 1921 gave responsibility for road building to central government - highways were being constructed at the rate of 10k miles per year by 1929
• goods could be more easily transported from factories to markets - truck registration increased from less than 1 million in 1919 to 3.5 million by 1929
How many electrical devices were sold in 1912 compared to 1929?
• 1912 - 2.4 million
• 1929 - 160 million
(Labour saving devices like vacuum cleaners and washing machines)
•However the rural south didn’t have electricity , so couldn’t buy
• however mass produced so much led to issue of overproduction
How did increased car ownership affect leisure pursuits?
• by 1920, 1 million Americans went camping - by 1923 2,000 campsites across America
• tourist courts (cabins where motorists could rest for the night)
How many movie theatres were built in the 1920s?
1926 - 17,000 cinemas
1930 - 303,000 cinemas
(Famous stars Charlie Chaplin and Clara Bow)
How did large corporations benefit from laissez faire government policies?
• by 1929 the largest 200 corporations possessed 20% of the nation’s wealth
• Would operate illegal cartels (control whole industrial process) that the government turned a blind eye to
Increased electrical goods in households
by 1927 40% of households had telephones, 1/3 had radio, 2/3 had electricity (electrical goods a sigh of affluence)
How was America divided in 1920s?
• Urban vs rural
• Modern vs traditional
• religious vs non religious
What laws were passed in the 1920s to limit immigration?
• Emergency Immigration Act 1921
• National Origins Act 1924 - banned Japanese immigration
• Coolidge stated that ‘America must be kept American’
How did KKK membership increase in 1924?
• Had 4.5 million members
• Used The Birth of a Nation Film as propoganda and memebrs to recruit others
• Red Scare - growing xenophobia, 1920 Palmer Raids
Was communism a real threat?
The communist party had only 70,000 members - around 0.1% of America’s population
When was prohibition passed and why?
• 1920 (18th amendment to Constitution)
• anti-immigrant feeling/ xenophobia - liquor industry characterised as foreign controlled, lining the pockets of German Americans
• government - viewed as the upholder of morality
• Women set up Women’s temperance movement - alcohol leading to abuse, divorce, excess spending of family budget
Why did prohibition fail?
• not enough prohibition agents - only 4000
• corruption and bribes - 1/10 agents sacked for taking bribes
• lack of public support - speak easies
• increased violence - 1929 Valentines Day Massacre (Al Capone)
What was the Tulsa Race Massacre 1921?
• Mobs of white residents were given weapons by government officials and attacked black residents and businesses of the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma
• 300 people may have died
How was the Scopes trial demonstrative of American fundamentalism?
•1925 - John Scopes fined for teaching evolution in schools
• Introduction of monkey laws, banning this (Tennessee passes this first in 1925)
What was the Mexican Revolution?
• increased the flow of Hispanics to the USA to escape violence. sudden influx led to instability in rural areas of south west USA, demons for jobs
Who were the lost generation?
• The generation of writers, artists, musicians and intellectuals that came of age during the First World War and 20s, wrote about decadence of society, lack of faith in democracy, peace
• E.g F.Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway
What was weekly cinema attendance at the end of the decade?
90 million
When was the first film with sound released?
1927 - The Jazz Singer
What was a popular radio programme of the time?
• Amos n Andy (late 1920)
• Entertained Americans around the country but portrayed negative racial stereotypes
How much did Americans spend on entertainment in 1929?
$4.6bn
How did sports become bigger?
• People could listen to Major League Baseball on the radio
• College football
• Baseball: Babe Ruth (sold to Red Sox for $100k, African American) and Ty Cobb national superstars
• However baseball still segregated
• 1927 - 50m people tune in for Jack Dempsey vs Gene Tunney boxing match
Statistic demonstrative of the Great Migration
• By 1920 over 5 million of the nations 12 million blacks lived in cities (over 40%)
Influential figures of Harlem Renaissance
• Poet Langston Hughes
• Louis Armstrong , Billie Holidays
How popular was jazz?
• played on the radio through new phonograph technology
• enjoyed by both races e.g both black and whites gathered to listen to jazz at the Harlem Cotton Club (likes of Duke Wellington played here)
• fast paced accompanied fads like Charleston and flapper girls
• however denounced by religious groups and KKK
• lyrics reflected struggles of African Americans e.g Billie Holidays Strange Fruit about lynching
What amendment gave women the vote and what difference did this make?
• 19th amendment 1920
• however no political representation, no female senators and only 2 women in house of representatives
• more clerical roles available to women (contributed to rural to urban shift) - however by 1930 there were only 150 female dentists and fewer than 100 female accountants
Where did women not experience liberty?
• unmarried women
• university still only male
• rural America strictly religious
Stats about catastrophic 1929 WSC
• By the end of Black Thursday, value of shares had fallen by almost $4bn
• largest stock exchange in the USA - 12.8m changed hands on Blck Thursday, panic, shattered public confidence
What were some factors that led to the WSC?
• Reckless overconfidence and continuous growth of stock market created asset bubble (overvalued stocks)
• August 1929 Federal Reserve Bank of New York increased interest rates from 5% to 6%, affected market stability and reduced economic growth
• Speculation
• public panic
• Florida land boom 1924-25, crashes and creates concerns
How many black Americans were lynched in 1920s?
400
How many people were arrested during the 1919-20 palmer raids
6000
What started the first red scare?
1917 Bolshevik Revolution (Russian Revolution)
How many people lived in poverty 1920s?
• America owned 20% of the world’s wealth but 50% of Americans lived in poverty
What was the impact of the boll weevil
70% of productivity on cotton reduced in Alabama - impacted agriculture recession
Who was Bessie Smith and why was she influential?
A jazz singer who influenced jazz and female culture, well known in independent female households
Illegal alcohol trade
• Rum running from Canada
• Bootleggers would sneak rum from West Indies
Violence (organised crime)
• by mid 20s there was an estimated 1300 gangs in Chicago
• by 1926, more than 12,000 murders taking place every year across America
• protection rackets
• Kingpins like Capone made $1 billion a year
Prohibition agents
• Only 4000 prohibition agents
• Only paid around $2500 so were prone to bribery
• Eliot Ness’ Untouchables and two agents raided 3,000 speakeasies in the first half of the 1920s
Lack of public support prohibition
• 1929 - 30,000 speakeasies in New York
• President Harding repeatedly disobeyed the law
• Prohibition didn’t make drinking illegal, just manufacture, transport and sale - therefore over 10 million prescriptions were issued for over 1 million gallons of beer
• Alcohol was tabboo encouraged more people to drink
How did prohibition make the rural urban divide worse
• 3000 gangsters snuck stills into big cities - made divide between urban + rural worse as South viewed cities as immoral
Alcohol consumption figures
• 1920 - Alcohol consumption falls to 1/3 of pre-prohibition levels
• 1921 - Back to 2/3 of pre-prohibition levels
How damaging was the Smoot Hawley tariff?
• 1930
• Sixty countries passed retaliatory tariffs in response - world trade slumped
• damaged agriculture industry, especially cotton, pork, lard and wheat which were sold worldwide
• increased cost of living for consumers
Resistance to Smoot Hawley Tariff 1930
• more than a thousand economists signed a petition urging Hoover to veto the tariff
What did monetarist and Keynesian economists attribute the Depression to?
• Monetarist - increased interest rates
• Keynesian - decline in spending
What did the Federal Reserve do in response to Hoover Administration’s policies,
• Increased interest rates in 1931, reduced confidence/ investment further and reduced money supply
Women disadvantaged in employment
• 40% of the population only received 12% of the nations wealth
• Almost all women in this group, had little money to invest
Women given the right to vote
• 1920 19th amendment
• However had little impact in their lives
Why did urban women experience greater freedom
• Due to Labour saving devices e.g hoovers
• 1920s only a 1/3 of American homes had electricity
• therefore didn’t change lives for rural areas much
How many women joined the workforce in the 1920s?
2 million
Women with college degrees in 1930
• 1930 - 50,000 women had degrees
• Three times as many as in 1920
What jobs did women occupy in the 1920s?
• secretaries, waitresses, typists, telephonists
Famous influences on female emancipation
• Jazz singer Bessie Smith
• Actress Clara Bow - became an icon of the rejection of pre war values
Women changing as consumers
• bought tobacco, cosmetics, fashion clothing
Political influence of KKK
• an estimated 75 House members took their seats with KKK influence in the 1920s
• Opposition to Democrat 1928 election candidate Al Smith fuelled by KKK due to his characterisation as a Catholic and Alcoholic
Location of KKK support
• 40% of Klan membership located in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois
• Mostly in Midwest- rural areas, left behind in economic boom
Reasons for decline of KKK
• 1925 D.C Stephenson case
• KKK leader found to be a murderer and rapist
• immigration quota acts introduced by government reduced threat
KKK political influence in Maine
• mid 1920s helped to elect Owen Brewster to Maine Republican Party
Impact of depression on ethnic minorities
• 500,000 Mexican Citizens were forced to leave the US before 1933
• 1932 - 24 people lynched and killed
• In Louisiana 10 African American railways workers killed by white mobs trying to drive blacks out of jobs
• 1932 customers boycott Chinese laundries
Effect of the Depression on farmers
• between 1929 and 1932, farm incomes fell by 2/3
• Between 1929 and 1932, cotton, main crop of South East, price dropped by 2/3
• over 600 banks went out of business in 1930, thousands of farmers lost their livelihoods
What was KKK membership 1929?
20,000
