Social Science Section 2 Academic Decathlon 25-26

Henry Ford

Born Dearborn, Michigan, 1963

At 23, moved to Detroit as mechanical engineer

Established Ford Motor Company in 1903, which made cars accessible to the common people

Model T

Released 1908, nicknamed "Tin Lizzie"

4 cylinder, 40 hp internal combustion engine

Hand crank

Black

Albert Kahn

Highland Park Ford Plant

Introduced the assembly line based on sewing machines and pork "disassembly" lines

Highland Park Ford Plant Description

By British journalist... "squirrels... monkeys... lions...pigs ... elephants... sinners"

Scientific Management

Popularized by Frederick W. Taylor

Time and motion studies used to increase factory production

Ford Production

Before assembly line: 1910= 18,664 cars ; 1911= 34,538 cars; 12 hours to produce

After assembly line: Annual production= 300,000 cars; 93 minutes to produce

Ford River Rouge Plant

Increased production: doubled 1923-25

1921= Over 1 million cars made (Over half of cars in US)

October 31, 1925 Ford Production

9,109 cars

1 car/ 10 seconds

1930 Car Production in US

Accounted for 1/10th of US manufactured goods

Effects of increased car production

Increase in demand for steel, rubber, glass, and oil

Vertical integration

One company controls every resource required for a product

Ford's Vertical Integration

Acquired iron mines and timberland in Michigan's Upper Peninsula

Purchased steamships and old railroad lines

Purchased 10 hydroelectric plants, failed to operate federal gov. hydroelectric dam at Muscle Shores, Alabama and Fordlandia

Fordlandia

Ford's attempt to create utopian town on Amazon River in Brazil to control rubber production

Ultimately failed

Ford Model T Prices

1909= $825

1914= $490

1925= $290

Car Ownership

1914 = 1 in 13 households owned a car

1920 = 1 in 3 households

1930 = 4 of 5 households

Minimum Wage

First implemented by Ford with $5 daily wages on Jan 5, 1914

Increased to $6/day in 1919

Car Productions Effect on Detroit

"Motor City"

Population grew 58% from 1920-1930, ending at 1,568,622 and the USA's 4th largest city

Welfare Capitalism

Benefits given to workers to increase loyalty

Unions, social and recreational actives, insurance, profit sharing, stock purchasing programs, and discounted housing

Pullman, Illinois

Entire population consisted of employees of Pullman Palace Car Company

Company Unions

1926, 432 plants and 4 million workers at firms with employee representation

Little real power over wages and hours, often for small issues

Company sponsored leisure

Musicals, theater, films, carnivals

Sponsored sports teams

Effect of Company Unions

Decline of labor activism in 1920s

Union membership declined from 3.5 million in 1921 to 2.7 million in 1929

Ford's Welfare Capitalism

Paternal

Enforced code of conduct: "sober, saving, steady, and industrious"

Assimilated immigrant work force (~2/3) by mandating English and civic courses, encouraged to apply for citizenship

Cars Effect on Physical Landscape

Highway System

1908, 6% of roads were paved; 1927, 27%, 3 million miles (paid by a gas tax & federal subsidies)

Gas stations, car repair shops, drive in restaurants & movies, motels, billboards

Lincoln Highway

San Francisco to New York

First transnational highway

USA Amount of Driving 1930

1930, 206 billion miles total

400% increase from 1921

Car Ownership Distrubtion

Fairly evenly distributed

More effects of cars

Allowed people to commute from rural/ suburban areas

Reduced geographic isolation

Seen as status symbol

Allowed churches & schools to consolidate

Road tro[s

Henry Ford road trips

With Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, and John Burroughs , "The Vagabonds"

Summers of 1914-1925

50 vehicles, 2 weeks

"Waldorf Astoria on Wheels"

Federal Government road trip

1920, 72 days, 5,600 miles, all 12 Western National Parks

Promoted auto-tourism to National Parks

Negative Effects of Cars

Increase in car crashes, 1924= 23,600 dead, 700,000 injured

Traffic and parking issues

Change in dating traditions, blamed for moral drift of youth

Uses of small, electric motors

Dishwashers, vacuums, mixers, sewing machines, fridges

Uses of resistance coils

Toasters, electric kettles, hair curlers

Effects of electrification on homes

1920, 34.7% of homes were electrified (>2x % of 1912)

1929, 70% of homes

Effects of electrification on industry

Factories could stay on 24/7

Improved safety

Eliminated jobs and skill

Distribution of electricity

More prominent in Northeast and Midwest urban/suburban areas

1920, 1.6% of rural areas had electricity, 47% of urban

1930, 10% rural, 85% urban

1940, 35% rural (despite federal electrification programs)

% of people with irons, vacuums, and washing machines

1930s

97.8% of households with electricity owned an electric iron

44.4% owned a vacuum

35.1% owned a washing machine

1926, 26 cities, 80% of surveyed owned both vacuum & washer

Effects of electrification on women

Continued to do chores old-fashioned, but with an increased workload due to perceived easiness

General Motors (GM)

Run by William C. Durant, established crediting

General Electric (GE)

Monitor Top Refridgerators

General Electric invested $18 mil in 1926

Produced starting in 1927

1929, 50,000 sold

1929-30 & 30-31 production doubled

Sold 1 millionth to Henry Ford on radio

General Motors Yearly Advertising

$20 Million annually

Advertising Annual Worth

$3 billion, 1929

Magazines, 220 million sold

Psychological Advertising

Used hopes and insecurities

EX Bran Flakes, cereal remedy for stress of modern life

EX Toothpaste, mouthwash, soap, deodorant

Brand Identity in Advertising

Mascots (Betty Crocker, Jolly green Giant)

Celebrity Endorsements

Lucky Strike Cigarettes

Used actors, signers, and radio presenters to tell about positive health effects of cigarettes on throats and voices

Also featured Amelia Earhart (not a smoker)

Planned Obsolescence

Pioneered by lightbulb manufacturers, 1924

Purposefully designing a product to wear down quicker to increase sales

Making a new product each year with slight changes

Model A

1927

New brakes, geared transmission, electric ignition, hydraulic shock absorbers, 65 mph

17 body styles, color combos

Caused Ford to recontrol 45% of auto industry by 1930

Universal Credit Corporation

Created by Ford to sell the Model A

Installment Buying

1919, General Motors set up a system to financing credit purchasing agreements to spread cost + interest over monthly payments

1921, used by 50% of auto sales; 1926, 75% of auto, 15% of all retail sales ($6 bil); 1927, $2-3 bil of consumer debt

Effects of Installment Buying

Aggressive sales techniques & debt collectors

Distorted financial markets, weakened nation's character

Use of radio Pre-WW1

Point-point communication using Morse Code

Military & maritime application

David Sarnoff

At the American Marconi Company, created the "Radio Music Box" in 1916

President of Radio Corporation of America in 1930

Radio Music Box

Created by David Sarnoff at the American Marconi Co. in 1916

Simple receiver, able to be adjust to various frequencies, amplified with tubes and telephone loudspeaker

Enjoy musicals, baseblall scores, lectures

Dr. Frank Conrad

Creator of first radio station KDKA

From suburban Pittsburg

Enterprising Executive at Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company

KDKA

First radio station with "broadcasting license" from federal gov

Carried 1920 Harding-Cox election results

First broadcast Nov 2 1920

Evolution of radio stations

1921, 26 new stations

1922, 508 new stations

1926, >700 stations

Production of radios

1920-1940, 41 million radios manufactured

Started 1922 with the "Radio Music Box" for $50-100

1922, $60 million; 1924, $258 million; 1925, 2.5 million radios

Radio Corporation of America

Founded by General Motors and AT&T after American Marconi was dissolved

Directed by Owen Young to expand Americas cultural and economic influence

Used vertical integration

Founded National Broadcasting Company (NBC)

Directed by David Sarnoff (1930)

National Broadcasting Company (NBC)

Established by the Radio Corporation of America

Effects of the radio

Forged a national culture and many regional, ethnic, and racial sub-cultures

Increased consumer spending through advertisements

Negative Effect of the radio

Various frequencies interfered with each other's signals

Radio Act of 1912

Created by Herbert Hoover

Rely on cooperation of radio stations

Denied many licenses which caused legal challenges that often ended against Hoover

Herbert Hoover & the Radio

Hosted conferences 1922-25

Radio Act of 1912

Federal Radio Act of 1927

Hosted first international radio conference, 76 nations to D.C that created treaties on wavelengths & principles

Federal Radio Act of 1927

"Constitution of the Air"

Created the Federal Radio Commission

Federal Radio Commission

Created by the Federal Radio Act of 1927

5 member body

Grant and renew broadcasting licenses, assign frequencies, regulate transmission strength, set broadcasting hours, prohibit content and language

Effects of the Radio

Communicating to mass audiences, reduced need for politicians to travel, increased intimacy

Contributed to propaganda

Father Charles Coughlin

"Radio Priest" of the Shrine of the Little Flower Church

Created radio station to spread gospel

Shrine of the Little Flower Church

Started in Royal Oak, Michigan by Father Charles Coughlin with 1 hr/weekly sermons on New Testament

Spread to Chicago and Cincinnati, 1929 heard across Midwest

1930, deal with CBS, started attacking communists, socials, and FDR's New Deal

Franklin D Roosevelt's Fireside Chats

Communicated directly with the people during the Depression and WW2

Major contributor to popularity

Movie Palaces

30 Cent admission, accommodated several thousand

Longer, sophisticated narrative films accompanied by an organist

Movie theater growth

1923, 15,000 theaters, 50 million visitors/ week

1930, 100 million/ week

2/3 of US went to the movies 1x/week

Movie budgets

Started $25,000-50,000

Ended in millions

Movie genres

Westerns, gangster films, historical dramas, romances, comedies

Douglas Fairbanks

Starred in the Thief of Bagdad (1924)

Masculine sex appeal in silent films

Married to Mary Pickford

Rudolph Valentino

Starred in The Sheik (1926)

Masculine sex appeal in silent films

Mary Pickford

"America's Sweetheart"

1916, negotiated million dollar contract

Co-founded United Artists when husband Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chapman, & D.W. Griffin

Clara Bow

Stared at Betty Lou Spence in It (1927), led to the name "It Girl"

The Jazz Singer

(1927) First "talkie" film, by Warner Brothers

Starring Al Jolson as Jewish immigrant who wishes to sing jazz, but father wishes him to become a cantor

Effects of The Jazz Singer (1927)

Caused a consolidation of the movie industry

1930, 8 studios controlled 95% of movie industry

Ended silent films

Movies outside US

Pre 1927: US movies popular abroad due to lack of language

1925, 95% of movies in Britain and Canada were American, 80% in S. America, 70% in France

Kodak

Produced 75% of film rolls

Based in Rochester, New York

Effect of US Movies Abroad

Resentment among local movie makers

Americanization, cultural imperialism

Germany, Britain, and France enforced policies that were shut down by Hollywood and U.S. State Department

Bobby Jones

Amateur golfer

Won 13 championships from 1923-30

Caused 4,000 new golf courses, 3 million new golfers

William Tilden

Top ranked amateur tennis player 1920-25

Basketball

No true professional league

Local teams (EX South Philadelphia Hebrew All-Stars & Polish Detroit Pulaski's)

Yearly Sports Crazes

1924, Mah Jong (tile based game)

1925, Cross Words

1926, Flag Pole sitting

Gertrud Ederle

August 6, 1926, swam across English Channel, broke previous man's record by 2 hours

20 year old New Yorker, Olympic gold medalist

Professional Baseball

Large cities sponsored multiple teams

Segregated

George Herman Ruth

"Babe Ruth"

Baseball slugger for NY Yankees

1927, 60 home runs to win World Series

College Football

Very popular

Caused many new stadiums

1930 revenue of $21.5 million dollars

Red Grange

U of Illinois star halfback

1925, brought 65,000 fans to U of Illinois Memorial Stadium to game vs. U of Michigan Wolverines, 5 touchdowns scores