Zusammenfassung der Ressource
America: Boom,
Bust & Recovery
Part I: 1917-1929
- Impact of WWI
(1917-1920)
- Social
- 112,000
American
soldiers were
killed in
action in
Europe
- 1919 – race riots in 23
cities, blacks discriminated
in white communities
- Prices doubled
between 1914-19
- Wages hardly rose
- 250,000 to 3
million employed
in the army
- Economic
- All immigration from Europe was stopped.
Blacks moved to north where wages were
higher = increased racial tension resulted
- 4 million soldiers were demobbed
in 1919 = unemployment high
- American banks profited from lending
money to the Allies during the war, in the
1920s this was being paid back with interest
- War-torn Europe became reliant on
American grain export = more money
- Income tax rose to 6% and a
surtax of 77% was placed on
incomes of over 1 million per year
- Allies supplied with food and
munitions = industry and
agriculture prospered
- Advances in technology
e.g. mechanisation and new
materials like plastics =
better and more industry
- Political
- Espionage Act (1917)
made it a crime to criticise
the government for its
conduct in the war
- Immigration (1917-1929)
- Reasons for Immigration Policies:
- Factor 1: WWI
- Rise of socialists and anarchists;
began organising strikes and
demands for higher wages
- Immigrants workers were being drawn to urban
areas for work, 500,000 African Americans
moved to big cities = increased racial tension
- Factor 2: Fear of
Communism/The Red
Scare
- Emerged because democratic states
feared the spread of Communism
sparked by the Bolshevik revolution in
1917, resulting in Lenin taking over
Russia and introducing Socialism
- Palmer Raids; General Palmer felt he
needed to “purge the land of the
foreign-born subversives and agitators.”
He ordered raids on magazine offices,
union headquarters and public meetings.
- Factor 3: Attitudes of
White Protestant
America
- White Protestant males were able to
influence governments and in Congress.
Many were fundamentalist, believing the
Bible is literal truth. Mainly in Southern
states or backward, small communities.
- Scopes Monkey Trial; man prosecuted for
teaching evolution in a school when it was
banned, had to pay a fine of $100
- Factor 4: Trial of
Sacco and Vanzetti
- Robbed and murdered two
men, conservative judge
wanted them executed.
- Were Italian immigrant
anarchists = racially
discriminated against and denied
rights
- Coolidge: “America must
be kept American”
- Acts to Limit Immigration:
- 1921, The Emergency Quota Act; reduced
and restricted number of immigrants to
357,000 per year, 3% quota of population
- 1924, National Origins Act;
150,000 per year, 2% quota
- Consequently, immigration
fell from 2,000,000 to
350,000 from 1920-1930
- Influence of the KKK:
- Factor 1: Yes
- 40,000-strong parade in
Washington = showing support
- In Denver, Dallas and Detriot, not just Southern states;
elected Congressmen. Al Smith (ran for Congressman)
faced a vicious campaign of anti-Catholicism, causing
him to lose the presidential campaign
- Factor 2: Yes
- 100,000 members in 1921
to 5,000,000 in 1925
- Was difficult for the government to change
the attitudes of the whites in the south - and
politicians were scared of losing votes
- Factor 3: No
- David Stevenson raped a
woman, committed suicide,
charged with 2nd degree murder
- Support dropped to
200,000 members by 1929
- Factor 4: No
- Hiram Wesley-Evans decided to organise
camping trips to reduce radical methods
e.g. lynching = lost radical members
- Financial scandals, people not agreeing
with radical methods e.g. women
- The Golden Twenties
- Causes of the Boom:
- Factor 1: Motor
Manufacturing Industry
- Henry Ford started mass-production, and wanted
everyone to be able to afford a car. Mass production
enabled 1 Model-T car to be produced every 60
seconds by 192 and every 10 seconds by 1925
- Due to the roads being
constructed, an increase of 23
million cars began, making it the
biggest industry in the USA. Ford
produced 1,250,000 cars per year
- Ford’s production improved
transportation and gave new opportunities
for industry e.g. easier to move goods
- Factor 2:
Laissez-Faire
Attitude
- MOST IMPORTANT
REASON FOR THE BOOM
- Lack of business regulations enabled
mass production to take place
- If not for the laissez-faire attitude, then
easy credit would’ve been less popular, and
the 75% of cars bought on easy credit
would’ve been far less = less boom
- Factor 3: Technical
Advances
- Demand from easy credit
pushed through tech advances
and mass production
- Built roads at the rate of 10,000
miles per year by 1929 (highways)
- By the end of the 20s
everyone who could
afford it had electricity
- Petrol stations and motels
- Factor 4: Easy Credit
- Enabled people to afford
things they previously couldn’t
- By 1929, 75% of cars on easy credit
- However, was not regulated, causing
problems in the future, did not check if
borrowers could afford to pay back loans etc.
- If not for the laissez-faire attitude,
easy credit would be less popular =
less of an economic boom
- Were the 20s really roaring?
- Factor 1: Yes
(motor
manufacturing
industry)
- Motor manufacturing
industry produced 1
Model-T car every 10
seconds by 1925
- Produced
1,250,000 cars
per year
- 75% of cars bought on easy credit by 1929
- Factor 2: Yes
(technical advances)
- 10,000 miles per year
by 1929 (highways)
- Everyone who could afford it had
electricity by the end of the 20s
- Factor 3: No
(uneven
distribution of
wealth)
- Women received less
pay than men
- Women made up
24% of the working
population
- Poor conditions for
factory workers
- Lack of stability in
employment, 72% had been
unemployed at some point
- Factor 4: No
(lack of
economic
stability)
- Fordney-Mccumber Act
1922; high tariffs on
foreign export = farmers
could not sell aroad
- 66% of farms operated on a loss
- Prohibition cut
grain demand
- Problems in the Economy:
- Factor 1: Uneven
Distribution of Wealth
- Industry was uneven throughout
the US, meaning many areas
missed out on the prosperity
- Women received
less pay than men
- Women made up 24% of
the working population
- Lack of stability in
employment, 72% had been
unemployed at some point
- Factor 2: Rural
Poverty
- Fordney-Mccumber Act 1922;
high tariffs on foreign export =
farmers could not sell abroad
- 66% of farms
operated on a loss
- Prohibition cut grain demand
- Technical advances like
tractors decreased need for
as many farm workers
- Overproduction
- Factor 3: The
Banking System
- FRB (Federal Reserve Board) was a
centralised system that allowed banks to
run their own affairs with only limited
government interference
- Small banks were unable to
cope with financial problems
- 75% of cars
bought on easy
credit by 1929
- 50,000 shares by
1928 were bought
on the margin
- Factor 4:
Slowing of the
Boom
- Boom was dependent on
continuing domestic
consumption
- Small businesses failed
- Domestic demand fell
leading to
overproduction
- Prohibition
- Outcomes of Prohibition:
- Factor 1: The Illegal
Liquor Business
- 1925 more
speakeasies
than saloons
in 1919.
- ‘Medicinal whiskey.’
- Izzy Einstein was in a taxi for 35
seconds and got offered a bottle of
whiskey. Prohibition agents seized over
15,000 distilleries. Al Capone made $60
million from speakeasies
- Factor 2:
Corruption and
Bribery
- 1/12 agents were
dismissed for corruption
- Breweries stayed open by bribing
government officials
- Hoover himself had
parties with ‘every type
of liquor imaginable’
- Factor 3: Reduced
Alcohol
Consumption
- Consumption fell by 30%
- Izzy Einstein and Moe Smith
were really successful
- Factor 4: Growth of the
soft drinks industry
- Coca Cola increased from an output
of 17 million cases to 182 million by
1933