Politics of the 1920s

Election of 1920

• The first election women were able to vote in after the ratification of the 19th Amendment.
• After World War I, many criticized Woodrow Wilson and his handling of policies and his neglect of hi campaign promise to keep the U.S. out of wars such as WWI.
• While he was determining whether he was going to run for a third term, the Republican and Democratic Parties were drafting candidates for the Election of 1920.

The Democratic Party

• The Democratic Party entered their political convention with conversations around Treasury Secretary William G. McAdoo and Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer as potential candidates before choosing the Governor of Ohio James M. Cox.
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt was ultimately chosen as his running mate.
• Platform:
  • Endorsed the League of Nations (which was widely unpopular) and progressive causes.

The Republican Party

• The Republican Party entered their convention with candidates such as Gen. Leonard Wood, Illinois Gov. Frank O. Lowden, and California Sen. Hiram Johnson.
  • When they couldn’t decided on who to choose to represent the political party, they came to a compromise on Ohio Senator Warren G. Harding.
• Massachusetts Gov. Calvin Coolidge was a chosen as Harding’s running mate.
• Platform:
  • Emphasis on conservatism and a “Return to Normalcy”
  • Criticism of the League of Nations

Results of Election 1920

• Harding won the election in one of the widest margins in the popular vote.
  • Many saw this win as a reason to overturn many of Wilson’s policies.

Warren G. Harding Presidency

• Pro-Business Agenda
  • Laissez-faire policies- “Hands Off” Economics
  • Taxes were reduced
  • Budget and Accounting Act of 1921
• Limited Immigration
• Unfortunately, some of Harding’s cabinet was Corrupt
  • Teapot Dome Scandal
  • Albert Fall, the Secretary of the Interior rented public lands to oil companies in exchange for gifts and personal loans.
• On August 2, 1923, Harding died from an apparent heart attack.
• Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as the 30th President on August 3rd.
• Ohio gang was a gang of politicians and industry leaders who were tied with Harding (29th president) who eventually became a big part of his Cabinet.
• Charles Forbes: was appointed to head the Veterans Bureau and became involved with corrupt financial dealings with a number of contractors. He was convicted for bribery and corruption.
• Thomas Miller: was appointed Custodian of the Office of Alien Property, which handled property seized during WWI. He became involved in the sale of the American Metal Company, whose assets were seized during WWI, to German metal magnate Richard Merton. This led to charges of conspiracy to defraud the government.

Calvin Coolidge

• Nickname: “Silent Cal”
• Worked to clean up the corruption from the Harding Presidency.
  • This helped with restoring the public’s faith in the government.
• He believed in small government, private businesses, and the U.S. industry.
  • High tariffs on imported goods.
• The U.S.’s membership in the League of Nations was rejected.

The First Red Scare

• Anti-Communism Movement that resulted in Nativist and anti-immigration views and legislature.
• First broke out during WWI.
  • The Russian Revolution = Rise of Communism = Fear of Anarchists
• The Sedition Act of 1918
  • Targeted those who criticized the government, monitored leaders of certain groups (i.e. labor unions) and threaten people with deportation.
• 1919 Anarchist Bombings
  • Series of bombs that targeted law enforcement and government officials.
  • Cities affected:
  • Boston
  • Cleveland
  • Philadelphia
  • D.C.
  • New York City

Labor Unrest

• Workers were striking after WWI for better pay and less working hours. They had been pushed hard to manufacture things during WWI.
• Strike attributed to Communism- create a negative view of labor unions.
  • Boston Police Strike- 1919 police strike over pay raise, strike put down, and government a hero.
  • Link workers to Communism
  • Steel Mill Strike- 1919 workers strike for shorter hours and better pay
  • Workers linked to Communism
  • Public views putting strike down as a good thing- prevent spread of Communism

Palmer Raids

• Order by United States Attorney General Alexander Mitchell Palmer.
  • Violent law-enforcement raids targeting leftist radicals and anarchists.
  • 2 Waves
  • Known as “Red Summer”
• A special division of the Bureau of Investigation (Pre-FBI) was created after the bombings.
  • J. Edgar Hoover was charged with identifying people.
  • Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman
    • Well known Anarchists
• The ACLU
  • The American Civil Liberties Union
  • Was created in response to the Raids, challenged the Sedition Act, and defended immigrants, labor unions, and certain political figures.
• US Government (Palmer and J. Edgar Hoover)
• Hoover is a detective who will eventually became the director of the FBI.
  • Under the administration of Woodrow Wilson and carried out by Attorney General Mitchell Palmer
• Invade private homes and offices.
• Jail suspects without allowing them counsel.
• Deport foreign born Communists.
• Goal: Hunt down and get rid of suspected Communists.
• More than 500 foreign citizens were deported.

Sacco and Vanzetti Case

• Sacco and Vanzetti- two Italian born immigrants
• Arrested and charged with robbery and murder.
• During trial they provided alibis, evidence was circumstantial, and judge made prejudicial remarks.
• Sacco and Vanzetti found guilty and put to death.

Rise of Nativism

• Limits on Immigration
  • Quota system- set limits on how many people could enter the U.S. from each country.
• Emergency Quota Act of 1921
  • Limited European immigration
  • Prohibited Japanese immigration

Rise of the KKK

• The revival of the KKK in the early twentieth century reflected a society struggling with the effects of industrialization, urbanization, and immigration.
• Major urban areas expanded as many White Americans became bitter and resentful about immigration from Asia and Eastern Europe.
• Complained that these immigrants were taking jobs away from whites and diluting the imagined “racial purity” of American society.
• 1924- Klan membership reached 4.5 million
  • Klan beliefs
  • Keep blacks “in their place”
  • Destroy saloons
  • Oppose unions
  • Drive Roman Catholics, Jews, and foreign-born people from US

The Roaring Twenties

Changing Ways of Life

• During the 1920s, urbanization continued to accelerate.
• First time more Americans lived in urban areas than rural.
• NYC homes to over 5 million people in 1920.
• Chicago had nearly 3 million.

Modernism and Traditionalism

• The roaring 20s saw a type of deep division between modernists and Traditionalists which resulted in a “culture war”.
• Today we will look at this idea through the lens of:
  • Prohibition
  • Organized Crime
  • Rise of the KKK and Immigration
  • Ideas about Science
• You can see these values in the two magazine covers from the early 1920s.

Modernists

• A person who embraces new styles, ideas, and social media.
  • Typically younger
  • Urban
  • Believe that traditional values restrict freedom happiness

Traditionalists

• A person with deep respect for long-held cultural and religious values.
  • Older
  • traditional families
  • Rural
  • Believe that these values anchor order and stability in society

Urban vs. Rural

• Throughout 1920s, Americans found themselves caught between urban & rural cultures.
• Urban life was considered a world of anonymous crowds, strangers, moneymakers, & pleasure seekers (MODERNISTS).
• Rural life was considered to be safe, with close personal ties, hard work and morals (TRADITIONALISTS).

The Roaring 20s: A Cultural Shift

• Although the 1920s are often called the “Roaring Twenties”, it was not a good time for all Americans.
• The standard of living rose as new technology, such as automobiles, airplanes, radio, and movies that were massed produces on assembly lines became available.
• New appliances and an increased reliance on electricity to run them also changed the daily lives of many Americans particularly women.

Prohibition

• One example of the clash between city & farm was the passage of the 18th Amendment in 1920.
• The Amendment launched the era known as Prohibition.
• The new law made it illegal to make sell or transport liquor.
• Prohibition lasted from 1920- 1933, repealed by 21st Amendment.

Support For Prohibition

• Reformers had long believed alcohol led to crime, child & wife abuse, and accidents.
• Supporters were largely from the rural south and west.
• The church affiliated Anti-Saloon League and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union helped push the 18th Amendment.

Speakeasies & Bootleggers

• Many Americans did not believe drinking was a sin.
• Most immigrant groups not willing to give up drinking.
• To obtain liquor illegally, drinkers went underground to hidden saloons, aka speakeasies.
• People bought liquor from bootleggers, smugglers of liquor from Canada, Cuba, & the West Indies.

Organized Crime

• Prohibition contributed to the growth of organized crime in every major city.
• Chicago became notorious as the home of Al Capone- a famous bootlegger.
• Capone took control of the Chicago liquor business by killing off his competition.

Government Fails To Control Liquor

• Eventually, Prohibition’s fate was sealed by the government, which failed to budget enough money to enforce the law.
• The task of enforcing Prohibition fell to 1,500 poorly paid federal agents- clearly an impossible task.

Support Fades, Prohibition Repealed

• By the mid-1920s, only 19% of Americans supported Prohibition.
• Many felt Prohibition caused more problems than it solved.
• 21st Amendment repealed Prohibition in 1933.

So Much Hate

• Segregation was not enforced by law in the northern cities, but was widely practiced.
• African Americans were often the last hired and the first fired.
• After World War I, some riots in the cities targeted African Americans due to unemployment and racial tensions.
• White Americans in both North and South were determined to reduce African American dreams of equality even though they had fought in the “war to make the world safe for democracy”.
• Anti-immigrant feelings towards Catholics and Jewish immigrants from the southern and eastern parts of Europe became targets of a new Ku Klux Klan.
• Immigration quotas were designed to limit the number of immigrants from eastern and southern Europe.

Science & Religion Clash

• Another battleground during the 1920s was between fundamentalist religious groups & secular thinkers over the truths of science.
• Protestant movement grounded in the literal interpretation of the Bible is known as fundamentalism.
• Fundamentalists found all truth in the Bible- including science & evolution.

Scopes Trial

• In March 1925, Tennessee passed the nation’s first law that made it a crime to teach evolution.
• The ACLU promised to defend any teacher willing to challenge the law- John Scopes did.
• Scopes was a biology teacher who dared to teach his students that man derived from lower species.
• The ACLU hired Clarence Darrow, the most famous trial lawyer of the era, to defend Scopes.
• The prosecution countered with William Jennings Bryan, the three-time Democratic presidential nominee.
• Trial opened 7/10/1925 became national sensation.
• In an unusual move, Darrow called Bryan to the stand expert on the Bible- key question: Should the Bible be interpreted literally?
• Under intense questioning, Darrow got Bryan to admit the Bible can be interpreted in different ways.
• Nonetheless, Scopes was found guilty & fined $100.
• Despite the guilty verdict, Darrow got the upper hand during his questioning of Bryan.

The Twenties Women

• After the turmoil of World War I, Americans were looking for a little fun in the 1920s.
• Women were becoming more independent and achieving greater freedoms (right to vote, more employment, freedom of the auto).

The Flapper

• During the 1920s, a new ideal emerged for some women: The Flapper.
• Flapper was an emancipated young woman who embraced the new fashions & urban attitudes.

New Roles For Women

• Fast-changing world of the 1920s produces new roles for women.
• Many women entered the workplace as nurses, teachers, librarians, & secretaries.
• However, women earned less than men & were kept out of many traditional male jobs (mgmt) & faced discrimination.

Women’s Suffrage- 19th Amendment

• The Nineteenth Amendment, passed in 1920 after the government acknowledge the contributions of women during World War I, removed gender restrictions for voting by allowing women to vote.
• Except in the western states where they were a cherished minority, women rarely had a “voice” in their government.
• More people (women) were represented after the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment created a more democratic government.

American Consumer Society

• Welfare Capitalism
  • Real income increases
  • Higher rate for owners, managers, skilled labor
  • Minimal increased rates for unskilled labor and working class
  • Insurance, profit-sharing, worker safety
  • Decreased influence of unions
• Mass Production
  • Wide variety and availability of consumer products at affordable prices
  • Model T
  • Domestic appliances
• Installment Plans
• Impact of the Automobile

Going Electric

• Access to electricity provided American households the power to run all sorts of new labor saving devices.
• Advertisements in magazines and newspapers pushed new products like:
  • Refrigerators
  • Washers
  • Irons
  • Toasters

Technology- The Automobile

• The popularity and affordability of the automobile changed the face of America.
• Families moved to suburbs and could contaminate to work in the cities.
• Doctors could use automobiles to make house calls.
• Police departments retired their horses and bought cars.
• Driving vacations became popular, resulting in thousands of restaurants and ice cream parlors opening across the U.S.
• “Auto-related” industries like gas, steel, glass, tires, and other car parts and services started to grow to support the increasing success of automobiles.

Changing Family

• American birth rates declined for several decades before the 1920s.
• During the 1920s that trend increased as birth control information became widely available.
• Birth control clinics opened and the American Birth Control League was founded in 1921.
• Margaret Sanger and other founders of the ABCL (1921)

Modern Family Emerges

• As the 1920s unfolded, many features of the modern family emerged.
• Marriage based on romantic love, women managed household & finances, children not considered laborers/ wage earners but rather developing children who needed nurturing & education.

Education & Popular Culture

• During the 1920s, developments in education had a powerful impact on the nation.
• Enrollment in high schools quadrupled between 1914 and 1926.
• Public schools met the challenge of educating millions of immigrants.

Expanding News Coverage

• As literacy increased, circulation rose and mass-circulation magazines flourished.
• By the end of the 1920s, ten American magazines- including Reader’s Digest and Time- boasted circulations of over 2 million.

Radio Comes of Age

• Although print media was popular, radio was the most powerful communications medium to emerge in the 1920s.
• News was delivered faster and to a larger audience.
• Americans could hear the voice of the president or listen to the World Series live.

American Heroes of the 20s

• In 1929, Americans spent $45 billion on entertainment (includes sports).
• People crowded into baseball games to see their heroes.
• Babe Ruth was a larger than life American hero who played for Yankees.
• He hit 60 homers in 1927.

Lindbergh’s Flight

• America’s most beloved hero of the time wasn’t an athlete but a small-town pilot named Charles Lindbergh.
• Lindbergh made the first nonstop solo transatlantic flight.
• He took off from NYC in the Spirit of St. Louis & arrived in Paris 33 hours later to a hero’s welcome.

Entertainment and Arts

• Even before sound, movies offered a means of escape through romance and comedy.
• First sound movies: Jazz Singer (1927)
• First animated with sound: Steamboat Willie (1928)
  • Walt Disney’s animated Steamboat Willie marked the debut of Mickey Mouse. It was a seven minute long black and white cartoon.
• By 1930 millions of Americans went to the movies each week.

Writers of the 1920s

• Writer F. Scott Fitzgerald coined the phrase “Jazz Age” to describe the 1920s.
• Fitzgerald wrote Paradise Lost and The Great Gatsby.
• The Great Gatsby reflected the emptiness of New York elite society.
• Edith Warton’s Age of Innocence dramatized the clash between traditional and modern values.
• Willa Cather celebrated the simple, dignified lives of immigrant farmers in Nebraska in My Antonia.

The Great Migration

• The Great Migration of African Americans from southern rural (country) to northern urban (city) areas was the result of push and pull factors.
• Jim Crow laws and lynchings, as well as economic hardship of sharecropping, the effects of the boll weevil, and the lack of alternative economic opportunities prompted many to leave the South.
• Job opportunities in the factories, especially during World War I, brought African Americans to the cities of the North and Midwest.

Harlem Renaissance

• Between 1910 and 1920, the Great Migration saw hundreds of thousands of African Americans move north to big cities.
• By 1920 over 5 million of the nation’s 12 million blacks (over 40%) lived in cities.

African American Goals

• Founded in 1909, the NAACP urged African Americans to protest racial violence.
• W.E.B Dubois, a founding member, led a march of 10,000 black men in NY to protest violence.

Marcus Garvey- UNIA

• Marcus Garvey believed that African Americans should build a separate society (Africa).
• In 1914, Garvey founded the Universal negro Improvement Association (UNIA).
• Garvey claimed a million members by the mid-1920s.
• He left a powerful legacy of black pride, economic independence and Pan-Africanism.
• Garvey represented a more radical approach.

Harlem, New York

• Harlem, NY became the largest black urban community.
• Harlem suffered from overcrowding, unemployment, and poverty.
• However, in the 1920s it was home to a literary and artistic revival known as the Harlem Renaissance.

African American Writers

• The Harlem Renaissance was primarily a literary movement.
• Led by well-educated blacks with a new sense of pride in the African-American experience.
• Claude McKay’s poems expressed the pain of life in the ghetto.

Langston Hughes

• Missouri-born Langston Hughes was the movement’s best known poet.
• Many of his poems described the difficult lives of working-class blacks.
• Some of his poems were put to music, especially jazz and blues.

Louis Armstrong

• Jazz was born in the early 20th century.
• In 1922, a young trumpet player named Louis Armstrong joined the Creole Jazz Band.
• Later he joined Fletcher Henderson’s band in NYC.
• Armstrong is considered the most important and influential musician in the history of jazz.

Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington

• In the late 1920s, Duke Ellington, a jazz pianist and composer, led his ten-piece orchestra at the famous Cotton Club.
• Ellington won renown as one of America’s greatest composers.

Besse Smith

• Besse Smith, blues singer, was perhaps the most outstanding vocalist of the decade.
• She achieved enormous popularity and by 1927 she became the highest-paid black artist in the world.