APUSH Notes Week of 3/3

Introduction

• The decade of the 1920s has been referred to as the “Jazz Age” and the “Roaring Twenties.” The Decade was a dichotomy between a desire to maintain the old ways of the past versus a new assault on the old morality of the middle class. Perhaps for the first time in American History there came to exist a true youth culture that rebelled in both overt and subtle ways.

• The Decade was also a paradox of wealth vs. poverty. The U.S. was the unquestioned global leader in the post war period. Domestically the middle class boomed and was characterized by a new consumer culture. New products exploded on the scene, fashion magazines and movies drove style, and Americans for the first time could hit the open road.

• Today were will be doing an overview of some key aspects of the 1920s. You will have seen parts of it with your 1920s research and some of it will be new.

Politics of the 1920s

This was a period of almost complete Republican domination of the executive and legislative branches. Harding, Coolidge and Hoover reigned over a period recognized for greater laissez-faire economics as well as economic expansion. During this period partially because of the Red Scare labor activities were suppressed (sometimes violently). The relationship between big business and the Federal government grew. In some respects the current Trump Administration greatly resembled the 1920s Republican administrations. Government regulation of industry was minimized dramatically, and the FTC turned a blind eye to many practices. Concerns over the environment took a backseat the resource exploitation. One of the most memorable issues of the 1920s was the Teapot Dome scandal during the Harding Administration. In 1922 Wyoming Democratic senator John Kendrick introduced a resolution that set in motion one of the most significant investigations in Senate history. On the previous day, the Wall Street Journal had reported an unprecedented secret arrangement in which the secretary of the Interior , Albert Fall without competitive bidding, had leased the U.S. naval petroleum reserve at Wyoming's Teapot Dome to a private oil company. Wisconsin Republican senator Robert La Follette arranged for the Senate Committee on Public Lands to investigate the matter. His suspicions deepened after someone ransacked his quarters in the Senate Office Building. The investigation uncovered Secretary Fall's shady dealings. Fall would end up as the first former cabinet officer to go to prison. In foreign affairs the U.S. continued bi-lateral negotiations without ever joining the League of Nations. These included the Washington Naval Conference, a naval arms control agreement, the Kellogg-Briand Pact that hoped to outlaw war, and a series of measures to restructure European debt payments (The Dawes and Young Plans).

Music and Culture

Often referred to as the “Devil’s Music” or “Race Records,” Jazz was in some ways the only truly American music because it blended pre-existing styles. The older generation worried that the music was too wild, and it was associated with deviant behavior. Jazz (born in New Orleans) was associated with African-Americans but it reached a wider young white audience in the 1920s. Also, it spread to other parts of the nation during the war years (Harlem and the Cotton Club). Jazz also had an international appeal and, like other music forms helped to spawn associated cultural styles.

The Literary World

The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural explosion that reflected a growing cultural awareness and, in the post-war cities like Chicago and New York a growing middle class. Langston Hughes, James Weldon Johnson, Nora Neal Hurston Countee Cullen were famed novelists among many others. This also reflected the Jazz Culture. The Lost Generation writers of post. World War One helped to magnify a growing discontent with middle class culture and values. It also reflected a growing angst about the future and perhaps a level of escapism. This will become even more prominent with film in the 1930s. These include Earnest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald (among many others)

The Women’s Movement

The Old Victorian Morality did not die and in fact, it could be argued that anti-feminism even grew during the 1920s as a new sense of religious fundamentalism surged. And Radio Preachers like Billy Sunday and Aimee Semple McPherson reached huge audiences. Many conservative women saw the movement ending with the 19th amendment. But, Alice Paul (Equal Rights Amendment), Margaret Sanger (Family Planning), and Jane Addams (Hull House) all represented a new demand for equality beyond the right to vote. The Equal Right Amendment gained no traction partly because many of the leader’s political views were suspect. Alice Paul was a socialist and in the climate of the 1920s this likely hurt the movement. As I hope that you recall this came back again in the 1950s and again in the 1970s. Now since 2022 the needed 38 states have voted yes on the ERA but it has not officially entered. So, as a result we are still on 27 amendments.

The Scopes Trial 1925

Perhaps nothing reveals the culture war of the 1920s better than a showdown between evolutionary science and religious fundamentalism better than a famous trial in Dayton TN. Scopes Trial, also known as the Scopes Monkey Trial, was the 1925 prosecution of science teacher John Scopes for teaching evolution in a Tennessee public school, which a recent bill had made illegal. The trial featured two of the best-known orators of the era, former Secretary of State a three-time Presidential Candidate William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow, as opposing attorneys. The trial was viewed as an opportunity to challenge the constitutionality of the bill, to publicly advocate for the legitimacy of Darwin’s theory of evolution, and to enhance the profile of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

The Rise of Prohibition

In 1919, the amendment passed and for the next 13 years, alcohol was illegal except for certain circumstances in the U.S. and what a mess. The Volstead Act was well intentioned but likely caused more problems than it cured. The spread of organized crime intensified with the illicit alcohol trade spawning gang leaders like Al Capone and resulting gang violence such as the St. Valentine’s day massacre. And let’s face it, if one had the money and connections you could find a drink. Speakeasies were common and if you were connected you could party and drink the night away. Of course, there were also deaths that occurred from making alcohol (bath tub gin).

The Red Scare 1917 – 1920s

The Red Scare occurred in the wake of World War I. The Russian Revolution of 1917 saw the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, topple the Romanov dynasty, kicking off the rise of the communist party and inspiring international fear of Bolsheviks and anarchists. In the United States, labor strikes were on the rise, and the press sensationalized them as being caused by immigrants bent on bringing down capitalism and democracy. As you may recall the Sedition Act of 1918 targeted people who criticized the government, monitoring radicals and labor union leaders with the threat of deportation. The fear turned to violence with the 1919 anarchist bombings, a series of bombs targeting law enforcement and government officials. Bombs went off in a wide number of cities including Boston, Cleveland, Philadelphia, D.C., and New York City. The first Red Scare climaxed in 1919 and 1920, when United States Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer ordered the Palmer raids, a series of violent law-enforcement raids targeting leftist radicals and anarchists. They kicked off a period of unrest that became known as the “Red Summer.”

Palmer himself was a target of one of the bombings. One of the most memorable events of the Red Scare was the Trial of Sacco and Vanzetti (a good synthesis would be the events of the Haymarket bombers). arrest and subsequent trial of Sacco and Vanzetti occurred at a time of great tension and unrest in the United States. Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti trouble and intrigue us decades later. Experts continue to debate whether one or both men committed armed robbery and murder. On one subject, however, there should be no debate. Sacco and Vanzetti did not receive a fair trial. Sacco and Vanzetti were charged with committing robbery and murder at the Slater and Morrill shoe factory in South Braintree Massachusetts. The evidence against them seemed flimsy and because one or both possessed anarchic writings, this probably played a greater role in their executions.

Introduction

• The crash of the stock market on Black Tuesday October 24, 1929 was merely the most obvious symbol of a greater problem. The nation’s economy and indeed those of the industrialized west had been teetering on the brink since 1919. Indeed, the impact of WWI went a long way in explaining why the Depression occurred. Many European markets had never recovered from the war. Germany was saddled with tremendous reparation payments in the trillions. France and to a lesser degree Britain had budgeted their national economies based upon the payments in gold. As Germany defaulted so did France. Britain had wisely budgeted far less for the income of revenue from Germany.

• The Coolidge Administration had refused to reschedule loan repayment from our allies further deepening their problems. Hoover would forgive some debt and reschedule payments under the Dawes Plan but it was too little too late. The idea was to reduce German reparations to only that amount necessary for Britain and France to repay their American loans.

• To understand the series of events that created a global depression we have to look at key economic indicators. Many of these still today are part of a checklist that defines the health of our economy. You will see several examples of why our current recession occurred.

Procedure

The Agricultural sector

• You will recall that since the Wilson administration there had been some bipartisan support for farm aid. These measures had been blocked by Coolidge under the McNairy-Haugan Act. The farm sector had been stalling for a while. Once again WWI played a role.

• There was an unnatural economy of the war years and early 1920s. American farm products flowed overseas while Europe was at war. The American farmer received a higher price for their goods from

1914 – 1918. In addition, the Federal government purchased millions of tons of food. Then suddenly the war ended and so did favorable market. The result was overproduction and falling prices. However, at the same instant, farmers had taken out new loans for seed and equipment.

• The inability to pay back loans and the driving up of other farm related businesses weakened an important sector of the economy. There will be no true bounce back until World War Two.

• In the Midwest, small farmers were forced to sell out to corporate farms and banks repossessed homes and land that had been for generation in the same families (This is what the book Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck was all about). Part of the culprit here was man-made and natural disasters resulting in huge dust storms known as “black blizzards” (more on this later).

The Industrial Sector

• Similarly, with the agricultural sector there was serious overproduction in major industries. Some of this was war related but much more of it came from a new modern day form of financing, credit and installment plans. Here is why this was a problem: In the 1920s the middle class exploded in growth. Cars, houses, and appliances became more affordable because of installment plans. This is not new today and the problem of credit is a constant threat to your future if you are not careful.

• After a meteoric rise in the early 1920s there was a general decline in durable goods demands. Many people had already purchased these items and needed no more for a while. Yet factories continued to produce. By the later 1920s unemployment was rising and demand for big ticket items was falling.

• Demand for American goods in overseas markets dwindled also as Europe got back to work and could compete with the U.S. again. The fears of the old imperialists were being realized.

International Trade Policies

• As said above war repayments and failure to renegotiate loan payments created a major problem as European powers could not both pay off debt and grow their own economies which were now globalized. In 1924, some understanding seemed to exist that trade limitations hurt the global economy. In 1924, the Dawes and Young Plans did reduce German debt payments to Britain and France in 1:1 ratio. This was supposed to also allow Britain and France flexibility in loan repayment. This did in fact help increase global trade but Republicans in Congress would not remove tariff restrictions.

• To make matters worse tariffs returned. At precisely the moment that Europeans need a cash stream from selling in America, Republicans shut off the faucet with restrictive tariff measures.

Banking and Finance

• A familiar story……speculation and bad loaning practices were a major cause of the depression. The Federal Reserve and Federal Trade Commission both turned a blind eye to unsound banking practices. The boom of the early 1920s was simply too irresistible. There were some warnings that the economy was superheating and that interest rates should be raised. Belatedly the Federal Reserve did realize the problem. But in move similar to the old “specie circular” of the 1837 Panic, here too the brakes were stomped and this panicked investor.

• There were a few banks in trouble even before the Depression because they had made unsecured loans. Soon, there would be a phenomenon known as a “run on the bank” when investors, upon hearing rumors of a bank’s insolvency, rushed to remove their money before all was lost. (There was not yet deposit insurance).

Housing Starts

• One of the most critical economic indicators is housing starts and new building in general. This is so crucial because vast segments of the economy are tied to this.

• There was a post war housing boom in the early 1920s as soldiers returned. This will be even more remarkable after WWII. However, just as we have seen with other sectors, the market started slowing down by the mid-late 1920s. Just like our current recession banks had played a role in the earlier frenzy offering cheap rates with almost no collateral.

Personal Finance and Unemployment

• Personal savings were going down as consumers leveraged their future against a materialistic present. Advertising and other cultural factors ramped up credit buying. But then, as the unemployment rate rose, people faced repossessions.

• There was a growing gap between wealthy and poor was growing. The modern day Republican idea of “trickle-down” or “supply side economics” calls for job creation by low taxes which encourage the business sector to create jobs. But, if that sector instead pockets the revenue instead of making capital investments, then the trickle becomes a slow drip.

• Unemployment was not surprisingly rising as producers laid off workers which of course led to a decline in consumer spending, declining from early 1920s.

The Stock Market

• And so we return to the crash of the stock market in 1929. There had been several small declines in the 1920s already known as “corrections.” Fluctuations in stock values are common but in the 1920s a new crop of buyers were in the market, the small investor.

• In the early 1920s the idea of Margin lending developed. There was an up and down side to this process. Loans from brokers stimulate buying from small investors. The brokers got loans from banks and the whole idea floated on a sea of credit. Of course, this brought greater wealth to the market and increased to overall strength of the economy. But the speculation on margin was made worse by the constant presence of “Watered stock” offerings. The “correction” that came on Black Tuesday was deep. Wise and wealthy investors had already sold and gotten out. But, the small investor, the greedy, and the incredulous were left to freak out. And freak they did! The frenzied sell-off dropped the market to all-time lows.

• The Hoover administration tried to convince wealthy Americans like JP Morgan to restore public confidence by buying large sums of stock.

Hoover Takes Action…..Sort of

• The president appealed to industry to keep wages high in order to maintain consumer purchasing power. Nevertheless, while businesses did maintain wages for skilled workers, it cut hours and wages for unskilled workers and installed restrictive hiring practices that made it more difficult for under qualified younger and older workers to get a job. By April 1, 1933, U.S. Steel did not have a single full-time employee.

• Hoover persuaded local and state governments to sharply increase public works spending. However, the practical effect was to exhaust state and local financial reserves, which led government by 1933 to slash unemployment relief programs and to impose sales taxes to cover their deficits.

• In much the same way that FDR’s New Deal would do during the early days of the Great Depression, Hoover launched the largest public works projects. The Hoover Dam (named after the President) later was one of the largest publicly sponsored building projects in American History. Yet, he continued to believe that problems of poverty and unemployment were best left to "voluntary organization and community service." He feared that federal relief programs would undermine individual character by making recipients dependent on the government. He did not recognize that the sheer size of the nation's economic problems had made the concept of "rugged individualism" meaningless.

• By 1932 Hoover seemed finally to understand the enormity of the problem. created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) to help save the banking and railroad systems. Loans offered under the program funded public works projects and the first federally-supported housing projects. Originally intended to combat the Depression, the RFC lasted 21 years and was authorized to finance public works projects, provide loans to farmers and victims of natural disasters, and assist school districts

Hoover’s Darkest Days

• It’s hard to imagine now that Hoover would want to be re-elected but he announced that he would in 1932. Misery was everywhere though. People lived in camps because they had lost their homes or were wandering the countryside looking for work. These camps were sometimes called “Hoovervilles.” Perhaps the worst point of his Presidency came in 1932 about 6 months before the election.

• In May of 1932, some 15,000 veterans, many unemployed and destitute, descended on Washington, D.C. to demand immediate payment of their wartime pensions promised ironically for the year 1945. They proclaimed themselves the Bonus Expeditionary Force but the public dubbed them the "Bonus Army." Raising ramshackle camps at various places around the city, they waited. The veterans made their largest camp at Anacostia Flats across the river from the Capitol. Approximately 10,000 veterans, women and children lived in the shelters built from material

• By July 28, Attorney General Mitchell ordered the evacuation of the veterans from all government property, entrusted with the job, the Washington police met with resistance, shots were fired and two marchers killed. Learning of the shooting at lunch, President Hoover ordered the army to clear out the veterans. Infantry

Troops prepare to evacuate the

Bonus Army

July 28, 1932

and cavalry supported by six tanks were dispatched with Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur in command. Major Dwight D. Eisenhower (future Allied commander in WWII and 2 term President) served as his liaison with Washington police and Major George Patton (future general in WWII African, Italian, and French campaigns) led the cavalry.

• By 4:45 P.M. the troops were massed on Pennsylvania Ave. below the Capitol. Thousands of Civil Service employees spilled out of work and lined the streets to watch. The veterans assuming the military display was in their honor, cheered. Suddenly Patton's troopers turned and charged. "Shame, Shame" the spectators cried. Soldiers with fixed bayonets followed, hurling tear gas into the crowd.

• This was a public relations disaster for Hoover made worse by the fact that two babies among the crowd were killed from inhaling tear gas. In the minds of the electorate almost anyone was better than Hoover.

• Another Republican mistake that Hoover made was the signing of yet another tariff. The Hawley Smoot Tariff of 1931 brought immediate retaliation from Europe. This may have largely doomed farmers while Republicans thought that they were protecting them

The 1932 Presidential Election

Franklin Roosevelt, who like his cousin Theodore was the former governor of New York. He proposed a "New Deal" for Americans, a program with emphasis on states' rights, opposition to too powerful central government, opposition to big government which should be cut down to its proper size, opposition to high taxes, unbalanced budgets, and government debts. In pre-election speeches, Roosevelt stressed the rights of the states so much so as to urge that public welfare relief, old¬ age pensions and unemployment insurance should be administered by the states, and that the federal government would merely aid the states with relief funds and serve as collection agent for social insurance. Above all Roosevelt decried the shocking spending habits of the Republicans and the mounting public debt. He called Herbert Hoover "the greatest spender in history." He said of the Republican Party: "It has piled bureau on bureau, commission on commission ... at the expense of the taxpayer." He told the people: "For three long years I have been going up and down this country preaching that government, federal, state and local, ¬ costs too much. I shall not stop that preaching."