USH Boom Bust Recovery Timeline

1919: Volstead Act passed to enforce Prohibition

• prohibited manufacture, sale, consumption of alcohol

• prohibition enacted to reduce crime, DV, etc but ended up increasing organized crime and gangs

1920: First commercial radio broadcast

• announced results of the Harding-Cox presidential election

• allowed listeners to hear news before it appeared in newspapers, showing radio’s potential, beginning radio broadcasting industry

1920: 19th Amendment takes effect

• women vote nationally for the first time

• gives women right to vote after long women’s suffrage movement

1921-1922: Washington Naval Conference

• conference between US, Japan, China, France, UK, etc over arms control

• captured popular demand for peace and disarmament—ended building new battleship fleets and weapons

1924: National Origins Act restricts immigration

• belief that immigrants brought radical politics and cultural differences

• National Origins Act sets quotas, uses 1890 census to restrict “undesirable” groups (anyone not W. European)

• Asians excluded almost entirely

• reflects xenophobia, eugenics, “100% Americanism)

1925: Scopes Trial tests teaching evolution in public schools

• John Scopes charged for teaching evolution; staged by ACLU to challenge Butler Act

• trial becomes national media event → discourse over whether the law is constitutional

• clash between modernism and traditionalism (science and academic freedom vs. traditional religious values)

1927: The Jazz Singer premieres

• first major “talkie” film

• first feature-length film with synchronized dialogue and music

• started “talkie” era, end of silent film era

1927: Charles Lindbergh completes first solo transatlantic flight

• first solo, nonstop transatlantic flight from New York to Paris

• proved feasibility of long-distance air travel and boosted commercial aviation

1928: Kellogg-Briand Pact

• attempted to outlaw war

• international treaty where US, France, Germany, Japan, etc. agreed to settle disputes peacefully to prevent another world war after WWI

• failed due to lack of enforcement and loopholes

1929: Stock Market Crash (“Black Tuesday”)

• investors bought and sold stock based on confidence, and prices weren’t based on reality; high risks were taken due to prior growth

• prices began to drop in Sep. 1929 and investors started to sell as precaution

• on Oct 29, stock market collapsed and billions of dollars were lost; some investors lost all their money

1930: Hawley-Smoot Tariff

• worsens global economic conditions

• raised US import taxes on foreign goods to protect American farmers and industries during Great Depression

• trading partners retaliated with their own tariffs → collapse in global trade, spread of Great Depression with worldwide economic collapse

1932: Bonus Army marches on Washington

• US military veterans gathered in Washington DC wanting their bonus checks due to Depression

• Hoover sent army out in defense, they drove veterans away with tear gas and burned encampments + veterans’ last possessions

• huge drop in popularity for Hoover

1933: FDR inaugurated; launches First New Deal

• won against Hoover because he promised to do something about Great Depression

• goals: stop panic and restore confidence, stabilize banks and finance, get people working—relief, recovery, reform

• allowed direct gov. intervention and individual aid unlike Hoover

1933: 21st Amendment repeals Prohibition

• rise of gangs and organized crime as a result of Prohibition led to big trouble for gov

• Al Capone and other gang leaders bribed/killed police who tried to arrest them

• Prohibition declared a failure and repealed

1935: Second New Deal

• WPA, Wagner Act, Social Security Act

• more aggressive than First New Deal

• still focused on relief (unemployment still 15-20%) with WPA

• greater focus on reform with Social Security Act and NLRA

1936: Court-packing crisis

• began after FDR proposed judicial reforms

• court struck down key early New Deal programs by declaring FDR’s overreach of federal power unconstitutional

• FDR responded with threat to “pack” the courts—adding justices for every existing justice>70 to stop programs from being struck down; publicly said it was because older justices were “overworked”

• critics said it threatened checks and balances

1937: “Roosevelt Recession” slows economic recovery

• some tied FDR’s program cutbacks and Social Security taxes to recession

• unemployment stayed high/rose

• many argue WWII mobilization ended it

1933: Emergency Banking Act

• FDR declared 4-day banking holiday that shut down the banking system to examine banks and ensure financial stability

• allowed federal reserve banks to give additional money so banks that reopened could handle people’s money

1933: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)

• thousands of banks had failed and people were rushing to withdraw all their money, putting even more strain on the banking system

• the gov. inspected and intervened directly into the banking system to reopen and protect banks, and encourage people to put money in them again

1934: Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

• oversaw stock market, protected investors, ensured transparency, and prevented fraud to encourage people to invest in businesses again

1933: Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

• unemployment rate 25%

• gave young men jobs on environmental projects for food, housing, and pay

• helped reduce unemployment, improved national parks, forests, and public land

1933: Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)

• farmers in debt, farms foreclosed, crop prices low

• gov. directly paid farmers to grow less food; prices would rise, so farmers would earn more for what they sold

• kept farms from collapsing

1933: Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

• poor regions like TV: no electricity, poor roads, flooding, few jobs

• TVA modernized region: built dams, produced electricity, created jobs, encouraged economic development

• long-term plan to restore regions economy

1933: National Recovery Administration (NRA)

• regulated industry by setting minimum wages, maximum hours, and prices; limiting production for businesses

• declared unconstitutional in 1935 for overstepping federal power

1935: Works Progress Administration (WPA)

• gov. hired unemployed people directly to build public projects

• roads, bridges, schools, parks, Federal Art Project

• employed millions of Americans

1935: Social Security Act

• retirement support for older Americans

• supported unemployment systems and other aid programs

• new idea: federal gov. provides long-term economic security

1935: Wagner Act/National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)

• protected workers’ right to organize

• encouraged collective bargaining

• creates rules for labor-management conflict