PowerPoint for Topic.06

1. Topic.06 Part I: The Roaring Twenties Mr. Michael Meechin Celebration High School Social Science Dept.

2. Culture of Slang During the 1920s, United States society developed a culture of “slang”; Write down what you believe each of these words/phrases mean. Cat’s Meow Crush Gatecrasher Blind Date Big Cheese Bump Off GamsHeebieJeebies High Hat Flapper Gyp Darb Gin Mill Bees Knees [Topic.10 The Roaring 20s]

3. Two Americas The United States was not a harmonious society in the 1920s; We were divided over social and cultural issues such as religion, race, moral values, and lifestyles; New Americans Urban based, indifferent to religion, and generally liberal; In favor of freer sexual standards and were “wet” [against the prohibition of alcoholic beverages]; Old Americans Small town and rural based, conservative; Rejected freer sexual standards and considered drinking a sin that had to be outlawed by the government… [Topic.10 The Roaring 20s]

4. Harding’s Crooks Qualifications for Administration jobs didn’t matter to Harding; Appointee be a “regular guy”, fun to talk with, fun to drink with, and fun to play cards with; As a result, he hired a lot of crooks The Attorney General sold pardons, paroles, and jobs to the highest bidder; Director of the VA stole supplies intended for VA hospitals and sold them under-the-table; Secretary of Interior, tried to swindle the country out of its military oil reserves; Teapot Dome Scandal [Topic.10 The Roaring 20s]

5. Silent Cal In 1923, Harding died suddenly from a stroke, unaware of any corruption in his administration; The VP, Calvin Coolidge took office; Fired and prosecuted the Harding crooks, restoring public confidence; His motto was “do nothing”, sleeping away most of his five years in office; Big business was able to do as they pleased, setting up financial policies that will lead to the Great Depression… [Topic.10 The Roaring 20s]

6. “Soak the Poor” Policy Secretary of the Treasury, Andrew Mellon, launched his “soak the poor” policy; Convinced that high taxes of WWI era hampered business growth, he eliminated wartime profits tax and reduced tax rates for upper brackets; He left rates for lower brackets at wartime levels; Mellon attempted to shift the bulk of the national tax burden on to the backs of ordinary wage earners and away from the wealthy… [Topic.10 The Roaring 20s]

7. “Soak the Poor” Policy Comparison of Mellon’s Tax Plan with the Obama Tax Plan… [Topic.10 The Roaring 20s]

8. Prosperity of the 1920s During the 20s there was a tremendous demand for consumer products; Reasons included the availability of credit to the consumer; Low interest rates; Invention of the “installment plan”; Another reason was increase in “discretionary income”; Money left over after necessities were paid for; Used to buy “durable items” (radios, vacuum cleaners, washing machines, refrigerators, and automobiles)… [Topic.10 The Roaring 20s]

9. Restrictions on Immigration World War I limited immigration to the United States; This also proved that the US could thrive without help from foreign immigrants; Opposition to immigration quotas disappeared; Labor unions feared an immigrant workforce; The belief was if immigrants came to the US, then it would drive American worker wages down… [Topic.10 The Roaring 20s]

10. Restrictions on Immigration The United States set up immigration quotas in order to regulate the flow of immigrants; Quotas were set-up based on the current proportion of immigrants groups; This system would ensure that the ethnic make-up would remain the same; In 1924, Congress reduced immigration to the United States greatly; Each ethnic group was limited to 2% each year as counted from the 1890 census; It also banned Asians entirely… [Topic.10 The Roaring 20s]

11. Restrictions on Immigration Based on the 2% immigration quotas: [Topic.10 The Roaring 20s]

12. The “Red Scare” The United States was put on edge following World War I; The “Red Scare” took hold in the United States; People feared people who showed anti-American behavior [especially those whom were foreign]; Indiana killer was acquitted in two minutes for shooting a man who had yelled “to hell with the United States”; In DC, a sailor shot a man who refused to stand for the National Anthem as a crowd cheered… [Topic.10 The Roaring 20s]

13. The “Red Scare” In 1920, the US Atty. Gen. Mitchell Palmer led raids on leftist organizations; The raids became known as the Palmer Raids; By doing so he created the groundwork for what will become the Federal Bureau of Investigation; They collected names of thousands of people suspected to be Communists… [Topic.10 The Roaring 20s]

14. The United States Goes Dry At midnight on January 16, 1920 the United States went dry… Prohibition had gone into effect; Prohibition was led by many women’s organizations; Alcohol was linked to domestic violence and child abuse; Henry Ford argued that drinking had effects on labor productivity; The anti-alcohol movement had dubbed alcohol the “Kaiser's Brew” and the “Devil’s Brew”… [Topic.10 The Roaring 20s]

15. The United States Goes Dry [Topic.10 The Roaring 20s]

16. The United States Goes Dry The wording of the 18th Amendment banned the manufacture and sale of “intoxicating liquors”; It did not, however, ban possession, consumption or transportation; Enforcing the laws was almost impossible and smuggling and bootlegging were widespread; It was the Internal Revenue Service who was originally assigned with the task of enforcing the law… [Topic.10 The Roaring 20s]

17. The United States Goes Dry Prohibition produced bootleggers, speakeasies, moonshine, bathtub gin, and rum runners; Prohibition doubled the number of bars that there were before the law was passed; Franklin Delano Roosevelt [FDR], who ran for President in 1932, pushed for the repeal of the 18th Amendment… [Topic.10 The Roaring 20s]

18. Problems with Prohibition Federal gov’t never provided city and state governments with the funds necessary to enforce the new law; Many Americans simply liked to drink; Supported Prohibition publicly for the sake of appearances but continued to drink on the sly… [Topic.10 The Roaring 20s]

19. Problems with Prohibition Prior to Prohibition middle and upper-class people seldom drank more than a little wine with supper; Hard liquor now became a part of middle-class life and the “cocktail party” replaces the tea party as the most popular form of middle-class entertainment; Lawbreaking increased; Liquor transported by truck across the Canadian or Mexican border, or brought by boat from Europe, produced huge profits for rum runners… [Topic.10 The Roaring 20s]

20. Organized Crime Prohibition created modern organized crime; To meet needs of people who wanted liquor… enterprising men organized liquor distribution networks that rivaled legitimate businesses in their complexity and efficiency; Then used profits to diversify into prostitution, gambling, extortion, etc… [Topic.10 The Roaring 20s]

21. Organized Crime Authorities would occasionally try to crack down on organized crime; But convictions were hard to obtain because rival gangs refused to testify against each other, witnesses were intimidated or killed, and police and judges were bribed; It was connection between Prohibition and organized crime that led to repeal of 18th Amendment in 1932… [Topic.10 The Roaring 20s]

22. Race Becomes an Issue… Again Some of the most vicious racial violence in this country’s history took place in the early 1920s; A shift in demography of minorities caused racial tensions in parts of the country that had never had to face these issues; Rosewood, Florida, a small community of 150 was burned to the ground while whites were trying to find an a man accused of rape; The only house standing was the house of the only white resident; In 1994, the State of Florida paid $2.1 million in reparations… [Topic.10 The Roaring 20s]

23. Race Becomes an Issue… Again A new version of the Ku Klux Klan appeared in the 1920s; This new Klan did not only target African Americans; They also went after Jews, Catholics, immigrants, divorcees, and bootleggers; The Klan considered themselves defenders of Prohibition, true morality, and true Americanism… [Topic.10 The Roaring 20s]

24. Race Becomes an Issue… Again In the 1920s, the Klan helped 16 Senators get elected as well as numerous Representatives; In 1923, there were 3,000,000 Klan members in the United States; In 1925, the leader of the Klan was sentenced to life in prison, the Klan fell apart; In 1930… they just had 45,000 members nationwide… [Topic.10 The Roaring 20s]

25. The Scopes Trial In 1925, John Scopes was tried in Tennessee, for teaching evolution, which was a violation of state law; Darwin’s Theory of Evolution: “at some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace the savage races” Survival of the Fittest Theory; Scopes pleaded guilty… and was fined $100; In 1967, the Tennessee Supreme Court struck down the law… [Topic.10 The Roaring 20s]

26. Restrictions on Immigration [Topic.10 The Roaring 20s]

42. Topic.06 Part II: A Depression In the US “Take a method and try it. If it fails, try another. But above all, do something.” - Franklin Delano Roosevelt Mr. Michael Meechin Celebration High School Department of Social Science

43. The Stock Market The stock market was established as a system of buying and selling shares of companies; Prosperous times of the 1920s caused many Americans to invest heavily in the market… When one buys a share, they basically own a “piece” of the company purchased…

44. Market Crash The stock market soared throughout most of the 1920s, and the more it grew, the more people were eager to pour money into it; Most people bought on margin, paying for only part of the stock when they bought, paying the rest when selling; Margin works great… if the stock prices go up… The market crashed in late October 1929, and people who had bought on margin were forced to pay on stocks worth nothing…

45. Causes for the Crash Who told them anyone could be rich? People were risking their money by playing the Stock Market; Speculation; The process of buying stocks that were thought to rise quickly in price and then selling them for a profit; Buying on Margin; Buying a stock by only paying a percentage of the price, the stock itself is used as collateral…

46. Causes for the Crash We’re in the money! With too many people; Huge numbers of people investing causes saturated market; Sell, Sell, Sell Brokers begin to call in their margins or loans, and people did not have the money to pay; Prices Down = Panic Those who noticed the downturn in the market panicked and sold their stocks…

47. Causes for the Crash Where’s the Bank? Banks lent money to brokers; brokers lost all their money to those who borrowed on margin; FDIC Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; Who’s Depressed? Anyone who had a savings account had been wiped out…

48. Bank Failures Many banks, especially smaller ones, had overextended credit to farmers; Farmers had not shared in the prosperity of the 1920s and could not repay their loans… Bigger banks had blown all their money lending to foreign countries after WWI; European countries defaulted and banks went bankrupt…

49. Too Many Poor People While the overall economy soared in the 1920s, most of the wealth was not spread out; In 1929, over half of American families were living under the poverty line… These people had no money to buy products or pay off debt; With less consumers, manufacturers were forced to lay off tens of thousands of workers…

50. Going From Plus to Minus 5,000 banks closed; 9 million savings accounts were wiped out… Unemployment: Less than 1 million (1929) Over 12 million (1933)

51. Whatever the Cause … the consequences were staggering; Thousands were left unemployed and out of a job; It would not be uncommon for 2,000 to 3,000 applicants to show up for one or two openings…

53. Whatever the Cause If they weren’t looking for work, they were looking for food; Bread lines were est. to keep people from starving… Over 1 million families losttheir homes; They took up residence in shantytowns made up of tents, packing crates and old cars; These places were called “Hoovervilles”, a reference to President Hoover, who was blamed for the mess… Bread line in Louisville, Kentucky; 1930s

54. Radio Will Get Us By

55. The “Depression” Cycle Automobile sales declined. This loss of demand meant less demand for: Which contributes back to: Oil Steel Rubber Textiles Lower Wages Unemployment Industry slowed, which caused:

56. Keeping Women at Home With jobs scarce, a strong feeling prevailed that women should stay at home and let the men have the jobs; There was even a federal “rule” that two people in the same family could not both be on the gov’t payroll… Two things actually increased the # of women workers; Families could not survive w/o extra income; Men became ashamed they could not find work and abandoned their families…

57. FDR Roosevelt was elected in 1932, with people hoping he could pull them from “Depression”; In 1935, Roosevelt got Congress to pass the Social Security Act; This provided unemployment insurance and retirement pensions paid by both employer and employee through payroll taxes; Later in the 30s, he signed a law which created a national minimum wage of 25 cents/hour…

58. FDR By the time the 1936 elections rolled around, things were beginning to look up; FDR was easily re-elected… 12 million 9 million $22 $17 Unemployment Weekly earnings

59. FDR Roosevelt’s New Deal, his plan to get the country out of the Depression, brought gov’t into peoples lives; It offered a variety of programs that tried to keep people working, fed, and happy; In 1940, most people were indeed happy, at least happier than they were in 1932… In an unprecedented move, Americans gave FDR a third term as President…

60. Keeping People Safe

61. Bad Guys DO NOT TAKE While politicians were coming up with ways to create more wealth, others came up with other ways… they stole it! Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd; 30 banks; killed 10… Arizona “Ma” Barker Gang of four sons; died in a shootout… John Dillinger 14-month crime spree; 3 jail breaks; 2 shootouts; stole $265,000…

62. G-Men DO NOT TAKE Fighting the bad guys were the G-Men, a nickname given to FBI agents by George “Machine Gun” Kelly; The “G” stood for government… Head of the G-Men was J. Edgar Hoover, who served as director of the FBI from 1924 until his death in 1972; His dictatorial leadership, unethical and quite possibly illegal use of the bureau against personal enemies have stained his name; But in the 1930s, millions ofAmerican boys wanted to be him… Hoover on the left