USA 1918-41

factory production, world's wheat, cotton

increaed by 35%, 30%, 55%

tonnes of steel in 1910 and 1920

26.1 mil to 42.1 mil

things that increased during ww1

natural resources, transport, consumer goods

prices for goods, more farmers

increased by 25%, took out loans

number of ppl in work, unskilled worker wages

increased by 1.3mil 1916-1918, increased by 20%

limitations of ww1

- Race riots
- Decline in demand for US goods from abroad
- Unemployment
- Strikes
- Government contracts cancelled as European farming had recovered by 1920
- Farmers found it hard to pay back loans for farm expansion
- Fear of communism
- Many new workers lost jobs to returning soldiers - women

Ford: Oct 1925

Model T every 10 seconds, previously 12 hrs before mass production with skilled workers

Cost of Ford car

Originally $950, 1925 - $290

hire purchase

by 1929, 75% cars and 50% of electrical devices

advertising

by 1929, 618 radio stations, $2 billion spent a year

consumer goods (fridges)

5,000 fridges in 1921 - 1 mil in 1929

stock market popularity

• Between 1927 and 1929, 1.5 million Americans participated in the stock market
• Bought shares of companies
• "Buying on the margin" was when someone borrowed money from a bank/broker to invest in shares, then sell them to make a profit and repay the loan
• Ordinary people became shareholders and were gambling on shares rising

cinema

1924 - 40 million cinema tickets sold each week, more than doubled by 1929

jazz

famous musicians such as Duke Ellington, Charleston and Black bottom
Connie's inn new york - $15
black americans: harlem new york, cotton club (dancehall- 700 each night)

sport

1921 - 300,000 watched baseball world series
Gertrude Ederle swam English Channel in 1926

radios and brands

60,000 radios in homes in 1920, 10 million in 1929. Max Factor, Colgate, Listerine

motoring: car ownership and travel

8 mil owned in 1920s, 23 mil in 1929. 2.7 mil visitors to American national parks in 1930

during war for women

20% of workforce, only women in NY in 1917 could vote, stay at home or have a chaperone

after war for women

2 mil joined workforce 1920s. 1920 right to vote. Shepherd-Towner Act 1921, health care for pregnant women. 1928 145 women in state governments. Divorce rate rose and birth rate fell. electrical appliances.

Flappers

Clara Bow, make-up, sex, no chaperones. Expensive, only white, city, still married.

wheat went from

$2.50 per bushel to less than a dollar

how many lost their farms

1924 - 600,000

demand fell and production rates rose due to:

rayon, mechanisation needed fuel, Europe market eliminated from Emergency Tariff Act of 1921

overproduction: scientific advances and tractors

new seeds, fertilisers and pesticides
mass produced tractors cheaper. 10 times more tractors in 1920 than 1915

how many lost farming jobs

1 million

coal mining

1920 - 568 million tonnes, 518 million tonnes in 1930

textiles

cotton demand fell, silk and rayon installed
1929 - police chief killed in Southern mill strike

railroads

competition from cars
transportation of goods grew at slow 10% rate

effects of older industries declining in 1920s

strikes, wages cut, unemployment, poverty

attitudes to immigration

WASPs
bias against catholics, jews, illiterate
fear of communism: russian rev 1917
fear of replacement

immigration policy

Emergency quota act 1921 - outside Western half immigration limited to 357,000 per year. Followed by National Origins Act to 164,000. 1929: 150,000

impact of immigration restrictions

1914 - 1.2 mil
1929: 280,000
border patrol in 1925

red scare: fear, strikes and mail bombs

fear of communism: revolution, comintern
eastern and southern europe
1919: 100,000 strike in seattle (industrial workers)
3,600 total of strikes USA
April 1919 - 40 mail bombs

palmer raids

Attorney general A. Palmer
because 8 cities experienced bomb attacks
sets up General Intelligence Division
Raids: Union of Russian Workers offices
1920 - raids in 33 cities

impact of Palmer raids

600 radicals deported
Prisoners sent to Deer Island (poor conditions, suicide)
Weakened trade unions
Increased support for immigration laws

sacco and vanzetti

April 1920: murder and robbery by 2 Italian immigrants. they were anarchists.
May 1921: Trial. USA and Judge Thayer were anti-immigrant and anti-anarchist
Workers protested in 60 cities in Italy, mail bomb sent to USA embassy in Paris

Jim Crow laws

From 1890s: Intermarriage banned, separation of bathrooms, burial grounds and education. Only 1% of black people of high school age could attend a black school

lynchings in 1919

76

migration

1.5 mil black ppl migrated north
Had to live in ghettos: Harlem, New york, population 50,000 1919, 165,000 by 1930
1919: 24 places had race riots

Problems of Black Americans

job opportunities and security
living conditions
right to vote (grandfather clause)

KKK values

White supremacy (1915 film birth of a nation)
Liked WASPS and had strong christian values
Hated immigrants

By 1923 KKK

5 million members (peak). Urban middle class

KKK in the 1920s

violence, protests, controlled education, boycotts
Mid 1920s: senators, judges and police officers were members
1925: Grand Dragon (state leader) found guilty of rape and murder
By 1929, membership dropped to 200,000

bible belt

divide between fundamentalists and modernists (darwinism)

causing of Butler Act

Anti-Evolution leave of America succeeded in Tennesse, passed Butler Act making it illegal to teach Darwinism

John Scopes

Taught evolution, trial in July 1925. Prosecution: William Jennings-Bryan. Defence: Clarence Darrow

results of monkey trial

scopes fined $100 - little achieved on surface
turned into a debate: religious, got national attention, hundreds of reporters came to Dayton, recorded on radio
damaged cause of fundamentalism

cause of prohibition

women's christian temperance union, Anti-Saloon league. Pressured the gov.

when did prohibition occur

1919 - drys won vs wets and 18th Amendment introduced

positive effects of prohibition

- number of deaths from liver disease fell from 29.5 per thousand in 1911 to 10.7 in 1929
- around 40% in favour so popular
- Izzy Einstein and Moe Smith seized around 5 million bottles of alcohol in the 1920s
- suggested that it was improving lives, was well received and properly enforced

negative impacts of prohibition

breweries, farmers and saloons suffered
loss of 11$ billion by 1931 of income tax on alcohol
criminality and disrespect for federal laws
smuggling, bootleggers, speakeasies, moonshine

In New York, how many people died from wood alcohol poisoning over four days?

34

how much money given to stop alcohol crime

$2 million

how many convicted during prohibition

only 20 out of thousands of cases - opposition

Al Capone & Organized Crime

Chicago gangster
Made around $105 mil a year
Lined up seven men of a rival gang and shot them dead on 14th feb 1929
convicted him of income-tax evasion and sent him to jail in 1931.

impact of organised crime

by 1924, 200 gang related murders in Chicago
controlled politicians locally
normalised crime

1929 alcohol consumption level

around 70% of its 1914 level

Black Thursday and Black Tuesday

Oct. 24th and 29th in 1929. The Stock Market crashed losing over 30 billion in wealth.

under consumption

71% of americans were on low incomes and lacked purchasing power

over production

car sales fell by a 1/3 in 1929

farmers

falling demand and overproduction, soil erosion caused a dust bowl

banks

had limited reserves and diff regulations in each state
- 20% of US banks failed in the 1920s
- 1930 NYC Bank left 400,000 people without their savings

loans

weren't repaid from europe, e.g. Dawes plan

how many banks closed, how many savings lost

9,000 and $2.5 billion

us farmer income and how they were impacted

$ billion in 1929, $2 billion in 1932
lost land, sometimes auctioned back to them
struggled to pay off mortgages

how many migrated

2 million from rural to urban towns in the early 1930s
migrant labourers - Okies lived in very poor conditions

how many black blizzards

1933 - 38

drought

1930 - affected 17 million

wages were cut

by 50%

how many Ford workers in detroit were made redundant?

1/2

how many unemployed and what else

24.9% of potential workforce unemployed in 1933, underemployment

kids didn't have enough food and how many homeless

20,000 kids in NYC in 1931 homeless
20,000 kids in NYC in 1932 didn't have enough food

minorities and older ppl

more likely to lose jobs (500,00 workers returned to mexico in the early 1930s)
household help no longer affordable (25% of women lost jobs) but 25% more women found work (40,000 joined black shirts, campaigning against black ppl in work)
couldn't retire (no pension schemes)

Hoovervilles

a shantytown built by unemployed and destitute people during the Depression of the early 1930s.

Bonus Marchers (1932)

WWI veterans who demanded the bonus they were promised for serving in WWI

how many protested for veteran bonus

20,000 arched to Washington DC and camped across the river from the Capitol

how much money was made available

$100,000

How were the Bonus Marchers removed from Washington DC?

By army tear gas and 100 injured

Hoover's beliefs

volunteerism: encouraged businessmen to make good decisions
self-reliance: individuals should be able to look after themselves and not depend on relief

National Credit Corporation

$500 mil raised for failing banks, but little was spent

Reconstruction Finance Corporation

Congress set up $2 billion. It made loans to major economic institutions such as banks, insurance companies and railroads. Criticised for not helping people

Hawley-Smoot Tariff

Raised import duties by 40%, but reduced international trade

Federal Farm Loan Act amendement

$125 million for mortgages, but no payment help

public works

Doubled spending but still very low

When did the Wall Street Crash happen?

October 1929

FDR elected president

November 1932, 42/48 states, 23 million voted for him

Roosevelt's 3 main aims

recovery (increased income, higher production rates, end banking crisis)
relief (for hunger and poverty and unemployed)
reform (social security system and long term recovery)

how did Roosevelt achieve his aims

by using fireside chats to gain support, used his majority in congress to pass New Deal policies into law, used government money to create jobs, expand federal gov

First Hundred Days

FDR pushes through 15 new laws and ends banking crisis

Emergency Banking Act

Only financially sound banks reopened, encouraged Americans to deposit their savings
Led to $1 mil being deposited

Agricultural Adjustment Act

Sets up agricultural adjustment administration to help farmers. Offered subsidies to farmers who limited production.
But there were still too many farm products, so they paid farmers for extra goods with Commodity Credit Corporation

Farmers Credit Administration

Helped improve mortgage arrangements for around 20% of USA's farms

National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA)

Sets up NRA. Industry-wide codes (limit production, control prices and improve working conditions)
2.3 mil businesses took part in scheme by 1933
Union membership increased from 3.1mil to 3.9mil from 1932 to 1939

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

Unemployed young men paid $30 a month

Public Works Administration (PWA)

Created jobs on government projects (Grand River Dam in Oklahoma)

Civil Works Administration (CWA)

Short term projects, helped 4.2 million workers survive the winter

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

Provided work for southerners, generate electricity for remote farms, control flooding and improve land condition. Plan to build up to 20 dams.

relief

direct: $500 mil grant given to states to spend on relief
Home Owner's Refinancing Act: extended migrated payments to 20 years
Made it easier for 1 mil ppl to keep their homes

need for 2nd new deal

national income still low, high unemployment and worker strikes

Works Progress Administration (WPA) 1935

Harry Hopkins in charge. established to make project jobs (i.e. public buildings). Cultural program designed to enchance culture. Employed 8 million