Transcript POLITICS OF THE 1920S

POLITICS OF THE 1920S
ISOLATIONISM
NEUTRALITY
NORMALCY
RETURN TO NORMALCY
• After WWI- America wanted to RETURN
TO NORMALCY, Warren G. Harding used
this as his political platform
• He promised to return the nation to the way
it was before war consumed the nation
RED SCARE
• Lenin and the Bolsheviks threatened to
spread communism around the globe
• Americans did not want to lose their
independence
• Americans were terrified of the spread of
communism to their country
• The RED SCARE resulted from this fear.
Schenck vs. US
• Charles Schenek was convicted during
WWI under the Espionage Act.
• This act made it illegal to spy or speak
against the country during wartime.
• Schenek was sending letters to men letting
telling them to NOT report for the draft
Schenk v. United States
Clear and Present Danger
• The Supreme Court ruled that when the
country is in “Clear and Present Danger”
the freedoms promised in the 1st
Amendment can be removed
• You cannot scream “FIRE” in a crowded
theater.
Pure Americanism
• After the Great War, Americans wanted to
return to normalcy and remove anything
from their culture that threatened their way
of life
• That included anything that
was “UN-American”
What was Un-American?
• Immigrants– Nativism grew quickly in the
country and the KKK quickly jumped at the
attack on immigrants
• Anarchist: people that did not believe in
any form of government were not
welcomed
• Atheists
Palmer Raids
• Attorney general, A.
Mitchell Palmer, was
allowed to arrest
approximately 6000
people that were
suspected not proven
just suspected of being
anarchist
• Anarchist: people who
oppose all government
SACCO & VANZETTI
• Were accused of
robbing a payroll
truck and
murdering the
driver
• Were they guilty?
• Was the trial fair?
• People argued around the globe that the only things that
the two men were guilty of were:
• Being Italian
• Being Anarchist
• Being Atheist
• All of the things that were unacceptable in the US after
WWI
FATE of SACCO & VANZETTI
Crowd outside courthouse after sentence. Raised hands
signify approval for verdict and death sentence.
Jury for Saccao and Vanzetti trial, plus three sheriffs.
Communist promises
• Equality between the rich and the poor
• Equal representation in governmental
decisions
• Government ownership of land so ALL own
the land
How does Communism effect
Union membership?
• When workers went on strike after WWI, they
were labeled as communist when that was not
always the case
• Actually, the cost of living was rising faster than
worker’s wages and they needed more money to
pay bills
• Because of the communist label on unions, Union enrollment
dropped and so did protection of the worker
Republican Presidents after WWI
Warren G. Harding
Herbert Hoover
Calvin Coolidge
The Republican Presidents
believed in supporting
Business
• businesses get back to work and create jobs for
the Americans
• The government returned to a policy of
“Laissez Fair”
• Coolidge said, “The chief business of
American people is business”
Foreign Policy
• Isolationism was Harding and Coolidge’s
stand after WWI and the US Congress
supported him
• The Congress continued to vote NOT to
join the League of Nations
Kellogg-Briand Pact
• In this agreement, 15 nations agreed NOT
to use the threat of going to war in dealing
with one another
• OF COURSE, this was a PACT, (a
handshake) and there was no way to enforce
this pact
United States
The Dawes Plan was a 2.5
billion dollar loan to
Germany so that they
could pay on their war
debt and war could maybe
avoided
Germany
Fordney McCumber Tariff
Raised the tariff on goods
coming into the US
Great Britain and France
counted on the sale
Of their goods to pay off
their war debt
Germany owed $33 Billion to Great
Britain and France for war damages
Great
Britain &
France
Harding’s Term was plagued with
scandal and corruption!!
• Harding got America entangled in an
economic triangle that would cause us
problems
• Harding placed his untrustworthy friends in
high positions in Washington
Teapot Dome Scandal
• Albert Falls, Sec. of the Interior, secretly
sold oil rights on public land in Elk Hills,
California and Teapot Dome, Wyoming
• Harding died from a heart attack in 1923
probably due to stress
• "I have no trouble with my enemies. I can
take care of my enemies all right. But my
damn friends. They're the ones that keep me
walking the floor nights!"
Why does a slow economy start
growing?
• Wages increasing (28 percent from 1914 to
1926)
• Advertisements encouraged the consumer to
spend, spend, spend
• Purchasing on credit- if you can’t pay now
then you can pay later and still have the
goods NOW
CONSUMER ECONOMY
TO HAVE A STRONG ECONOMY THE NATION HAS
TO HAVE
• SPENDING
• SPENDING
• SPENDING
Our economy depends of consumer spending!!
BUYING ON CREDIT
• Installment plans encouraged the consumer
to buy
• If they could not pay in full they could make
partial payments over a period of time until
the debt was paid
• Interest was charged of COURSE to the cost
of the item
• Buying on installment fueled the growth of
the economy
Advertising Changed…
• Consumers worried
more about looks that
quality
• Emphasis went from
quality to consumer
image
Ford’s automobile– A Must Have
• produced automobile that everyone could
afford
• MODEL T was the answer
• Ford made assembly line more efficient
• job is boring, but worker is more efficient
• The more cars made, the less each vehicle
cost
• The assembly line made the car cheaper
• Increase in number of cars caused increase
in gas stations, highways, traffic lights,
hotels and motels, restaurants
• People no longer confined to their city or
state
• Between 1908 and 1927 Ford built more
than 15 million cars
Some groups suffered in this decade
despite the prosperity!
• The unskilled workers and African Americans
remained poor and wages were limited
• The farmers suffered from prices dropping after
the war
• The demand for food dropped from Europe and
the need to supply food to troops was removed
• Prices dropped drastically after the war
• Cotton textile workers and steel mill workers
suffered after the demand for their product was
reduced
• Although a few groups of society were
having financial trouble, business was still
booming when Hoover took office and
America expected it to continue
SIGNS OF DANGER
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UNEQUAL DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME
overproduction
Buying on credit
Buying on margin
Farm prices low
1920’s stock prices
• Stock prices continued to rise, despite the
warning signs