Chapter 22 Module 6 Notes
Commercial Aviation:
-The economic boom was the result of many thing, but the4 main one was
technology.
-Things like the assembly line led to other innovations like automobiles (the most
important industry at the time). It produced more demand for suburban housing
-Radio is invented. Theory of modulation by Fessenden
-Commercial aviation developed slowly, it started to use planes to deliver mail.
-Airplanes became like a source of entertainment.
-tech advances like the radical engine and pressurized cabins laid groundwork for
increase in commercial travel
Welfare Capitalism
-despite growth many Americans in 1929 lived better than “minimum comfort
level.” Half were at/below “subsistence and poverty.”
-Some employers adopted paternalistic techniques that came to be known as
welfare capitalism. Henry Ford for example shortened the workweek, raised
wages, and instituted paid vacations.
-By 1926 3 mil industrial workers were eligible for pensions upon retirement
-labor grievances could be solved by workers voicing them through company
unions-But, welfare capitalism in the end gave workers no real control over their
fates. It lived until the industry died.
-It only affected a few firms
-wages were below growth of economy with average income at 1500-1800
-American Federation of Labor by William Green sought peaceful cooperation
with employers
American Plan
-the strength of corporations was the principle reason for the absence of effective
labor organization
-corporate leaders spread idea that a crucial element of democratic capitalism was
the protection of the “open shop” where no worker could be required to join a
union. The crusade for open shop was named the American Plan. It became the
pretext for a harsh campaign of union-busting. Union membership dropped for 5 to
3 million in 1929
A Philip Randolph
-a growing proportion of the workface consisted of women “pink Collar”
-these positions were not industrial jobs (secretary, clerk, telephone, etc.) so the
AFL were uninterested in organizing them.
-Similarly, the half million African Americans who came from south during great
migration had few opportunities for union representation and the AFL excluded
them
-because of exclusion most blacks worked in jobs the AFL had no interest in like
janitors, dishwashers, garbage men, etc.
-A. Philip Randolph’s Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was one of the few
important unions dominates and led by African Americans
Issei and Nisei
-In the West/Southwest unskilled workers were mainly Asians and Hispanics.
After the Chinese Exclusion Act, Japanese immigrants replaced Chinese jobs on
railroads, construction, farms, and other low-paying jobs.
-Some Japanese managed to escape the ranks of unskilled by forming their own
small businesses or setting themselves up as truck farmers.
-Issei = Japanese immigrants
-Nisei = Japanese immigrants’ American-born children
-Many Issei and Nisei enjoyed economic success, so much so that California
passed laws in 1913 and 1920 to make it difficult for them to buy land.
-Other Asians (like Filipinos) remained in unskilled and became hostile, leading to
riots.
Parity
-American agriculture embraced new technologies (tractor use quadrupled
allowing a clearing of 35 million new acres. Combines and harvesters made it
possible for more crops/less workers
-invention of hybrid corn = genetic research
-creation of pesticide and fertilizer
-the new technologies increased leading to outpaced demand for good. As a result,
there was a surplus, decline in food prices, and drop in farmer incomes. More than
3 mil left agriculture. Those who stayed some lost ownership of land and had to
rent from banks
-In response some farmers began demand relief in the form of government price
supports. One price-raising scheme in particular came to dominate agrarian
demands: the idea of parity.
-Parity was a complicated formula for setting up an adequate price for farm good
and ensuring that farmers would earn back at least their production costs no matter
how the national or world agriculture fluctuated. Champions of parity urged high
tariffs against foreign agricultural goods and government would but surplus
domestic crops at parity and sell them abroad
-demand for parity was expressed in the McNary-Haugen Bill, which required
government to support prices at parity for grain, tobacco, cotton, and rice. It was
approved twice by congress but vetoed by president Calvin Coolidge both times.
Advertising Industry
-In the 1920s the US was a consumer society. People now bought item not just
because of need but also for convenience and pleasure. Middle class bought
fridges, washing machines, and vacuums. People wore watches and smoked
cigarettes, as well as wore makeup and fashionable clothes. Most importantly
people bought automobiles. By the end of the decade there were 30 mil cars on
American roads.
-The advertising industry was responsible for creating this emergence of
consumerism.
-Publicists no longer just conveyed information but tried to identify products with
certain lifestyles. They also encouraged public to absorb values of promotion and
salesmanship.
- “The Man Nobody Knows” was a successful book with advertising executive
Bruce Barton, who portrayed Jesus as a religious prophet but also super salesman.
-The advertising industry used all new communication. Newspapers were national
chains and well as mass circulation magazines for national audience.
The Jazz Singer
-Movies became very popular and powerful for mass communication.
-The addition of sound to motion pictures, beginning in 1927 with the first feature
length “talkie,” The Jazz Singer.
-A series of scandals led to the creation of the new Motion Picture Association,
which imposed control of content of films for safer and conventionally accepted
films, which broadened appeal.
Companionate Marriages
-Redefinition of motherhood. Mothers should rely on advice of experts like doctors
and trained educators
-these changes devalued what had been important. Many attempted to compensate
by “companionate marriages” which elevated the importance of compatibility and
love between partners. Relations with Husband were not just to procreate but out
of romantic love and pleasure.
Margaret Sanger
-One result of the new era for women was the growing interest in birth control.
-Margaret Sanger was the pioneer of the American birth control movement.
-began her career as a promoter of the diaphragm and other birth-control devices
out of a concern for working class women. She believed large families contributed
to poverty and distress in poor communities.
-By the 1920s she was more effective at persuading middle class women to see
benefits of birth control, yet birth control remained illegal in many states.
Flappers
-After many longtime women reformers and suffragists, some women concluded
that in the New Era it was no longer necessary to maintain a rigid Victorian female
respectability. They could smoke, drink, dance, go to parties, and dress
seductively.
-These ideas were reflected in the emergence of Flappers
-Flappers were modern women whose liberated lifestyle found expression in dress,
hair, speech, and behavior.
-impact on middle class and working-class single women.
-at night women went to clubs and dances for excitement and companionship.
-National Women’s Party under Alice Paul for equal rights (not effective)
The “Lost Generation”
-After WW1 many young people disenchanted with the war led to disenchantment
with the US.
-the new era seemed meaningless and vulgar to artists in particular
-They isolated themselves and embarked on a search for personal fulfillment
-The American writer Gertrude Stein once referred to the young Americans
emerging from WW1 as the Lost Generation. Though they faced a consistent
counternarrative, pushed by veteran’s groups, that emphasized the war’s glorious
character
-Journalist H.L. Mencken experienced disenchantment and delighted in ridiculing
religion, art, politics, and democracy itself. Wrote Main street, Babbit, Arrowsmith
that lashed out against modern bourgeois society. Rejected “success ethic”
-F. Scott Fitzgerald attacked American obsession with material success in The
Great Gatsby
Harlem Renaissance
-In New York City a new generation of black intellectuals created a flourishing
artistic life widely described as the Harlem Renaissance
-poets, novelists, and artists drew from African roots to prove richness of their own
heritage and go against white racism and stereotyping.
-Langston Hughes: “I am Negro-and beautiful.”
-Other black writers (Johnson, Cullen, Hurtson, McKay, Locke) as well as artists
and musicians helped establish a thriving and highly politicized culture.
Noble Experiment
-modern culture vs traditional culture
-Prohibition of the sale of alcohol in January 1920 had support of middle class and
progressives
-Within a year it became clear that the “noble experiment” as its defenders called
it, was not working well.
-At first prohibition reduced drinking, but over time it became easy to obtain
illegal alcohol, which led to organized crime taking over.
-Many people who supported soured over it
National Origins Act of 1924
-agitation for foreign immigration
-In 1921 Congress passed emergency immigration act that established a quota
system where annual immigration could not exceed 3%
-Nativists were unsatisfied
The National Origins Act of 1924 banned immigration from East Asia entirely and
reduced quota to 2%
-5 years later rigid limit of 150,000 immigrants a year
KKK
-nativism helped revitalize the Ku Klux Klan as a major force in society.
-A new group of white southerners met on Stone Mountain near Atlanta and
established modern version.
-premiere of D W Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation which glorified the early Klan
helped inspire a new one.
-At first the Klan was after Blacks, but after WW1 became concerned with
Catholics, Jews, and foreigners as well.
-largest Klan was not in south but Indiana. Total 4 million members 1924
-Most unit (klaverns) tried to present as patriots/defenders of morality (not true)
-Klan feared not just foreign/racially impure, but those opposing traditional values
Fundamentalism
-American Protestantism was divided into two sides, modernists (middle-
class/uran-wanted to adapt teachings of modern science and secular forces into
society), and Fundamentalists (rural men trying to preserve traditional faith and
centrality of religion)
-Fundamentalists insisted Bible was literal and opposed Darwin
-evangelical fundamentalist Billy Sunday attracted crowds with fiery delivery of
exhortations to follow the bible to face Hell.
John T. Scopes
-The TN law caught attention from American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU),
founded to defend pacifists and radicals.
-The ACLU offered free counsel to any TN educator willing to defy the law and
become the defendant in a test case
-A 24 y/o BIO teacher in Dayton, John T. Scopes, agreed to have himself arrested
-The ACLU sent Clarence Darrow to defend Scopes and William Jennings Bryan
announced he would come.
-Scopes deliberately violated the law and the verdict of guulty eventually went
away
-Scopes was fined $100 but case was dismissed in higher court
-Darrow scored an important victory for modernists by calling Bryan to stand and
testify as an “expert on the Bible” Made possibility that religious dogma was open
to interpretation even if judge refused to permit it.
Alfred E. Smith
-Democrats consisted of diverse coalition of interest.
-At the Democratic National Convention in New York City a conflict broke out
over the platform when the party was a deadlock in the balloting for a presidential
candidate.
-Urban Democrats supported Alfred E. Smith, the Irish Catholic governor of NY.
While rural democrats backed William McAdoo, Wilson’s Treasury secretary.
-For 103 ballots the convention lasted. The Smith supporters chanted “No oil on
Al” until finally both Smith and McAdoo withdrew, who lost decisively to Calvin
Coolidge
-in 1928 Al Smith finally secured his party nomination for president but was
unable to unite his party \.
He was the first Democrat since the Civil War not to carry the entire South.
Warren Harding
-elected as president in 1920 (was a senator from Ohio)
-Received Republican presidential nomination for him being a “good second-
rater.”
- “I am a man of limited talents from a small town” “I don’t seem to grasp I am
President”
-intellectual limits from gambling, illegal alcohol, and women
-American membership in the League of Nations was not possible
-Washington Conference of 1921 to get rid of naval armaments race among US,
Britain, and Japan.
-Harding, as a reward to his party, elected other republicans, Daugherty and Fall,
(as well as others) who were involved in corruption
-suffered two major heart attacks (thought it was food poisoning) and dies in 1923
Teapot Dome
-most spectacular scandal involved the rich naval oil reserves at the Teapot Dome,
Wyoming and Elk Hills, CA.
-Albert B. Fall told Harding to move control of reserves from Navy to Interior. Fall
then secretly leased them to wealth businessmen and received half a million in loan
for his financial troubles.
Calvin Coolidge
-succeeded Harding in the presidency
-believed government should interfere as little as possible in life of the nation
-could have run again but did not want to
-governed amid economic fallout of Great War
-Dawes Plan meant American banks would provide loans to Germany to pay
reparations to France and Britain
Andrew Mellon
-close relationship between private sector and federal government continued to
help business and industry operate with maximum efficiency and productivity
-Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon, a wealthy steel and aluminum tycoon,
worked to achieve substantial reductions in taxes on corporate profits, personal
incomes, and inheritances. Because of his efforts Congress cut them all by more
than half.
-managed to retire half the nation’s WW1 debt
Herbert Hoover
-most prominent member of the cabinet was commerce secretary Herbert Hoover
-over 8 years constantly encourages voluntary cooperation in the private sector as
the best way to stability, but this did not require government to stay passive but
help create order.
-defeated AL Smith in election
-during his presidency the economy plunged
Associationalism
-Hoover became the champion of the concept of business associationalism. It was a
concept that envisioned the creation of national organizations of businessmen in
particular industries.
-Hoover believed entrepreneurs could study and stabilize industries for efficiency.
General notes:
1920s (“New Era”) becoming a modern nation
-After a recession in 1921-1922 the US began a period of prosperity
-The nation’s manufacturing output rose with little inflation
-Vannevar Bush from MIT created first analog computer
-Genetic research in Austria (Mendel)
-large scale mass production dependent= consolidation
-less dependent= less susceptible to great economy of scale /less consolidation
-Mexican immigrants formed major part of unskilled workforce. Most lived in CA,
TE, AR, and NM in cities. Large Barrios grew in Los Angeles. They faced hostility
but not exclusion
-College educated women were no longer pioneers
- “new professional woman” idea was not completely true. Lower class workers
and unprofessional while middle class stayed home
-Women activists won brief triumph with secure passage of the Sheppard Towner
Act which provided funds to states to establish prenatal and child health-care
programs, but later Congress terminated the program
-Important American writers of the time were Fitzgerald, Lewis, Hemingway<
Wolfe, Passos, Ezra Pound< T S Elliot< Stein. Ferber, Faulkner, and O’Neill