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
