Part III america in the 1920-s

World War I brought about many changes in American ways of thinking and ways of life. The majority of Americans did not mourn the defeated treaty as they had grown disillusioned with the results of the war. After 1920, the US turned inward and withdrew from European affairs. It also made some Americans suspicious of and hostile toward foreigners. Part of the intolerance of the 1920s grew out of a fear of communism. In 1919, a series of terrorist bombing produced what became known as the “Red Scare”. People who criticized the way American society was organized risked being accused of disloyalty. Under the authority of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, raids of political meetings were conducted, arrests were made and about 500 foreign-born political radicals – anarchists, socialists and communists – were deported, although most of them were innocent of any crime. Other groups such as Jews, Catholics and blacks also were the targets of prejudice in the 1920s. The Ku Klux Klan, revived in 1915, attracted millions of followers.

The growth of intolerance and fear led to a new immigration policy. In 1921, the Congress passed a law which set up a quota for people who wanted to move to the United States. It limited the number of new immigrants from any country to 3 percent of the number from that country who had been living in the United States in 1910. These restrictions favored immigrants from Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia, and Germany. Small quotas were reserved for eastern and southern Europeans, none at all for Asians.

For many Americans, the 1920s became years of prosperity. The end of the war brought an end to government restrictions on business. It also brought a move away from regulations such as those of the Progressive Era. Business people pushed hard for free enterprise. They worked mostly through the Republican Party. All three Presidents who held office in the 1920s were Republicans and supported the ideas of the business leaders.

In the election of 1920, the Republican Party nominated Warren G. Harding for president. He promised the voters a return to “normalcy” and won a landslide victory. After years of reform, high taxes and war the majority of Americans voted for a candidate who seemed to embody old-fashioned American values. This election was also the first in which women throughout the nation voted for a presidential candidate. In 1920 the Congress passed and the states ratified the Nineteenth Amendment which gave women that right.

Harding stated that there should be “less government in business, and more business in government”. He was a well-liked president, but on August 2, 1923 while returning from the trip Harding died in San Francisco. Upon his death, Vice-President Calvin Coolidge became President. Coolidge was liked by business people and the Republican Party. When he ran for presidency in 1924, he won the election. Coolidge believed in thrift, hard work and honesty and was known as a man of few words. Business did well under Coolidge and the newspapers spoke of “Coolidge Prosperity”. He believed that “the chief business of the American people is business” and government should not interfere with private enterprise. Although Coolidge was an immensely popular president he decided not to run for the 1928 election, so Americans voted for another Republican Herbert Hoover who promised them “a chicken in every pot and two cars in every garage”.

The United States was very rich in the 1920s. More goods were produced than in any other time before in the country’s history. A major fact in the boom was the growth of new industries. One of the most important of these was the automobile industry. By 1930 3 million Americans were making or selling automobiles. There were 23 million cars and 4 million trucks and buses in the USA. Another industry that grew in the 1920s was aviation, or air transportation.

Other factors also helped bring about a boom economy. The United States was now a consumer society with a booming market for electric appliances (radios, washing machines, refrigerators, ovens, vacuum cleaners, etc.), synthetic textiles and plastics. To make enough electricity to meet the needs of all these new goods, the electric power industry grew greatly.

The United States became the first nation in history to build its way of life in selling vast quantities of goods that gave ordinary people easier and more enjoyable lives. Many Americans bought cars, radios and other new products, often they obtained these goods by paying a small deposit and agreeing to pay the rest of the cost through an “installment plan”. Their motto was “Live now, pay tomorrow”. Business leaders wanted more people to buy more goods and advertising became another factor in the growth of industry in the 1920s.

The businessman became a popular hero. One of the most admired men of the decade was Henry Ford, who had introduced the assembly line into automobile production. Ford was able to pay high wages and still earn enormous profits by manufacturing the Model T – a simple basic car that millions of buyers could afford. “The man who builds a factory builds a temple,” said Calvin Coolidge. “The man who works there worships there.”

To help businessmen the Congress placed high import taxes on goods from abroad. The aim was to make imported goods more expensive, so that American manufacturer would have less competition from foreign rivals. At the same time the Congress reduced taxes on high incomes and company profits. This gave rich men more money to invest.

Some parts of the economy did not do as well as other however. Farmers had produced large quantities of food during World War I. By 1921, however, the countries of Europe no longer needed so much American food. This caused problems for farmers who found themselves growing products they could not sell. By 1924 600, 000 of them were bankrupt.

Business fared well in the 1920s but the labor unions did not. Because workers were badly needed for the war effort during World War I, the government had backed their efforts to organize. Wages rose, and the number of workers in the AFL (the American Federation of Labor) grew from 2 million to 4 million. Once the war was over, businesses wanted to hold costs down. But 1919 there was serious trouble between business and labor. That year nearly 4 million workers took part in strikes or work-stoppages.

The 1920s was a time of sharp contrasts. This could be seen in the different life styles of the American people. Many Americans did not accept the new ideas, and their lives went on much as before. Other welcomed the chance for a change to a less-ordered life. Many women worked outside the home, went to college, and entered professions. More Americans seemed to be doing things for fun. Stunts performed in automobiles and airplanes drew a lot of attention. Hollywood movies filled the cinema screens of the world. They showed people a world that was more exciting than their own. A new kind of music called jazz became popular. It had syncopated rhythms and developed from ragtime and blues music. However many Americans did not follow the new styles of living. People who lived in rural areas still felt that hard work, thrift and religion were the best American values. Many were shocked by the changes in the manners, morals and fashion of American youth, especially on college campuses.

Both the excitement and the problems of the changing times could be seen in the literature of the 1920s. Many authors such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Sinclair Lewis who wrote about the sadness of modern life, the carefree lives of the young and the wealthy, criticized people’s dullness and their narrow views. Many intellectuals of that time were dissatisfied with the materialism and the spiritual emptiness of life.

The 1920s also brought a change in attitudes and laws about drinking alcohol. The Eighteenth Amendment (1919) prohibited the manufacture, transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages. People who supported Prohibition claimed that it would stop alcoholism and drunkenness and make the US a healthier and happier country. But many Americans were not willing to give up alcoholic drinks. Millions began to break the prohibition law, making beer and liquor at home or smuggling it into the United States from Canada and Mexico. Disregard of Prohibition was universal, even President Harding drank in the White House. Illegal drinking places called “speakeasies” opened in basements and backrooms all over the country. Speakeasies obtained their alcohol drinks from bootleggers. Bootleggers worked together in gangs, the best known gang was one in Chicago led by the gangster Al Capone. Gangsters fought with one another for control. Much of the profit they made was used to help them take over other kinds of businesses. Gangsters used their wealth to bribe police and other public officials. Al Capone became the real ruler of Chicago. He had a private army of nearly a thousand thugs equipped with machine guns. His income was over 100 million dollars a year.

By the end of the 1920s, most Americans regarded Prohibition as half scandal, half joke. The dishonesty and corruption made them lose their respect both for the law and for the people who were supposed to enforce it. Prohibition was finally given up in 1933, but it had done the United States lasting harm.

The 1920s in the United States are called the Jazz Age because of the popularity of jazz music or the Roaring Twenties because of the exuberant, freewheeling culture of the decade. It is no exaggeration to say that the 1920s formed modern America in many ways, particularly in the field of culture.

DISCUSSION

1. How did the attitude towards foreigners change after World War I? Did it influence American immigration policy?

2. What is the “Red Scare”?

3. Which of the political parties did all the 1920s Presidents represent?

4. What branches industry got rapid development in the 1920s?

5. What was the motto of many consumers in the 1920s?

6. How did the situation in American farming industry change after World War I?

7. Did all Americans accept the new ideas and the new life styles of the Roaring Twenties?

8. What is the Prohibition?

9. Did it bring more good or harm to American Society?

10. Why is this decade often referred to as the Jazz Age or the Roaring Twenties?