Chapter 32 – American Life in the “Roaring Twenties”

1. Seeing Red
a. Americans became paranoid about the influence of Bolshevik Russia in America. Communists were blamed for the
epidemic of strikes at war’s end. Evangelist Billy Sunday proselytized about the horrible communists.
b. The “red scare” from 1910-1920 was a crusade against those whose Americanism was suspect. Attorney General A.
Mitchell Palmer was dubbed the “Fighting Quaker” for his overzealous accusations. In June 1919, Palmer’s home
was blown up, earning him the name “Quaking Fighter.”
c. In December 1919, 249 radicals were deported on the Buford. In September 1920, a bomb went off on Wall Street.
d. A number of states passed anti-red statutes that made illegal the mere advocacy of violence for social change. Critcs
argued that words did not equal actions, but various radicals were persecuted.
e. Conservative people used the scare to persecute fledgling unions. The “closed” shop was denounced as socialism in
disguise whereas the “open” shop was the American plan.
f. Antiforeignism was regarded as “judicial lynching,” where juries were prejudiced against defendants. Nicola Sacco
and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were convicted of murder, partially because they were foreign. Liberals and radicals all
over the world rallied to these men for six years until they were electrocuted. Radicals were then provided with a
martyr for the cause.
2. Hooded Hoodlums of the KKK
a. The Ku Klux Klan morphed into a “nativist” movement. They were the extremist, ultraconservative uprising against
the forces changing America.
b. The KKK spread easily through the Midwest and the “Bible Belt” South. At their peak, they wielded enormous
political influence. Their symbol was the blazing cross and their weapon was the bloody lash.
c. In the late 1920s, the KKK collapsed suddenly from a mix of scandalous embezzling by Klan officials and decent
people recoiling from the blood and violence.
3. Stemming the Foreign Flood
a. Isolationist America recoiled from the influx of immigrants, a majority of them from southern and eastern Europe.
Nativists protested against the “New Immigration.”
b. The Emergency Quota of 1921 by Congress restricted immigration to 3% of the people of their nationality already
living in America. The Immigration Act of 1924 cut the quota to 2%. The national-origin base was also shifted from
1910 to 1890, when few southern Europeans arrived. This system was clearly favorable to northern Europeans and
the southern Europeans complained. The Immigration Act also completely shut out Japanese immigrants, causing
hate riots in Japan. Canadians and Latin Americans were exempt because they were easy to draw when times were
good and equally easy to send back when they weren’t.
c. The quota system changed the foreign policy towards immigrants. It caused America to sacrifice some of its
tradition of freedom and future ethnic diversity.
d. It marked the end of unrestricted immigration. The ethnic communities were separated from outsiders. Efforts to
organize labor were hampered by differences in language.
4. The Prohibition “Experiment”
a. The 18th amendment is authorized in 1919 as implemented by the Volstead Act by Congress.
b. Southern whites were happy to keep alcohol out of black hands so they would stay in their place. Westerners saw
this as an attack on all vices: public drunkenness, prostitution, corruption, and crime. Larger eastern cities however
were dominated by Old World immigrants whose social structure was based on alcohol.
c. Prohibitionists forgot that American tradition of drink was strong and weak control by the central government.
d. Ardent wets believed the way to bring about repeal was to violate the law on a large enough scale. Legislators voted
dry while drinking wet. Soldiers returned believed that the prohibition had been pulled over their eyes.
e. Federal and state agencies were understaffed and underpaid – susceptible to bribes. The public was distressed as
people were killed by quick-triggered dry agents.
f. Corner saloons were replaced by “speakeasies” in which both men and women drank to excess. Foreign runners
from the West Indies and Canada strained relations with their neighbor.
g. “Home brew” and “bathtub gin” was made by law evading adults; their alcohol sometimes produced death.
h. Bank savings increased and absenteeism decreased, but alcohol consumption increased.
5. The Golden Age of Gangsterism
a. The profits of illegal alcohol were used to bribe police. Fights broke out among rival gangs who sought to corner the
market. Rivals used “typewriters” (machine guns) to get rid of competitors.
b. In 1925, “Scarface” Al Capone of Chicago created gang warfare, gaining him millions. However, Capone could not
be convicted of the Valentine’s Day massacre in 1929, but he was sent to prison for tax evasion.
c. Gangster moved on to activities like prostitution, gambling, and narcotics. Merchants were forced to pay protection
money to organized crime. Racketeers invaded the ranks of labor unions. Organized crime was of the nation’s
biggest businesses.
d. When the infant son of aviator-hero Charles A. Lindbergh was kidnapped for ransom then murdered, Congress
passed the Lindbergh Law, making interstate abduction a criminal offense.
6. Monkey Business in Tennessee
a. Education took enormous strides: more states were requiring school attendance until age 16, 18, or graduation.
b. Professor John Dewey from Columbia University set forth the principle of “learning by doing.” He believed that
“education for life” should be a primary goal of the teacher.
c. The public-health program launched by Rockefeller Foundation in 1909 wiped out hookworm by the 1920s. Better
nutrition and healthcare extended the lives of newborns.
d. Science and progressive education were critiqued by Fundamentalists who cared that Darwinian evolution was
destroying faith in God and the Bible while contributing to the moral breakdown of youth. They tried to secure laws
that forbid the teaching of evolution in public schools; three southern states complied, including Tennessee.
e. The “Monkey Trial” of Dayton, Tennessee charged John T. Scopes with teaching evolution. William Jennings
Bryan took the stand against Scopes as an ardent Fundamentalist. He was made foolish by Clarence Darrow. Five
days later, Bryan died of a stroke.
f. Scopes was found guilty and set a fine, but the fine was waived on a technicality. Fundamentalists won a hollow
victory because made their cause seem absurd. Fundamentalism remained a vibrant force, esp. in the Baptist Church
and the rapidly growing Churches of Christ.
7. The Mass-Consumption Economy
a. Prosperity was aided by the recent war and the Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon’s tax policies that favored
expansion of capital. Machines, run by cheap oil from fields, increased productivity. Henry Ford perfected
assembly-line production at the Rouge River plant near Detroit.
b. Supplying electrical power became a big business in the 1920s. The automobile became the transportation of the
commoner. Automobile manufacturers now had to find markets for their products.
c. Advertising now became an arm of American commerce. In 1925, Barton published The Man Nobody Knows that
said that Jesus Christ was the greatest adman of all time.
d. Sports became a big business in the 1920s. Image-makers like Babe Ruth drew in millions of fans. In 1921, Jack
Dempsey knocked out Georges Carpentier. The audience paid 1 million – the first of many.
e. Buying on credit was created after WWI. People went into debt buying new inventions. The economy became
increasingly vulnerable to disruptions of the credit structure.
8. Putting America on Rubber Tires
a. Americans adapted the gasoline engine from Europe. By the 1890s, American promoters like Henry Ford and
Ransom E. Olds were developing the automotive industry. The early inventions weren’t reliable or speedy.
b. Detroit became the motorcar capital of America, mostly because of the Father of Scientific Management, Frederick
W. Taylor. He wanted to eliminate wasted motion.
c. The most well-known was Henry Ford for his Model T car. It was more reliable and standardized, but still mocked.
d. Ford devoted himself to standardization and assembly-line production – “Fordism.” By the mid-1920s, he was
selling his cars for cheap, and well within the reach of the standard worker.
e. Ford produced massive amount of products – more automobile than existed in the rest of the world.
9. The Advent of the Gasoline Age
a. The industry was dependent on steel, but replaced railroads – it provided most of the jobs, as well as jobs from
supporting industries. The nation’s wealth could be attributed to it.
b. The petroleum business boomed in states such as Texas, California, and Oklahoma and developed the frontier. The
railroad business was replaced by passenger cars, buses and trucks.
c. Farmers experienced new prosperity as their perishables were taken to market quicker and city dwellers could buy
fresh food cheaply. New roads were developed to compensation, paid for by taxes on gas. Lured by advertising and
installment plans, Americans bought cars on credit.
d. Motorcars became a necessity and a prop for self-respect. Free hours could be spent on vacation. Women were freed
from the influence of men. Less attractive states lost population.
e. Buses meant that schools and churches were consolidated. The suburbs spread out farther from cities – commuters.
f. The automobile was now a cause for major deaths on the highway.
g. Home life was abandoned as people could escape. The morals of youth lagged as they abandoned the home. Crime
increased as mobsters could make a quick getaway.
h. The automobile replaced horse manure – improved air and environmental quality.
10. Humans Develop Wings
a. Orville and Wilbur Wright performed the “Miracle at Kitty Hawk,” North Carolina in 1903 – began age of airplane
b. The public was made aware of air travel by stunt flyers at fairs. Airplanes were used in the Great War of 1914-1918.
Private companies began to operate passenger lines with airmail contracts (a subsidy from Washington).
c. In 1927, Charles A. Lindbergh piloted the Atlantic in the Spirit of St. Louis for the first time.
d. Americans were fed up with the debunking of the jazz age – they sought optimism. They showered praise on Lindy
– his achievement popularized flying and gave a boost to the infant aviation industry.
e. Aviation gave birth to a new industry. The mortality rates were high, but no higher that the railroad at the beginning.
It was eventually safer to ride a plane than drive on overcrowded highways.
 f. The railroad was again displaced by another industry. A new weapon was developed for war. The size of the
Atlantic Ocean shrank and isolationism became a long-gone dream.
11. The Radio Revolution
a. Gugleilmo Marconi invented wireless telegraphy in the 1890s – used for long-range communication in WWI.
b. The voice-carrying radio became popular, at first only locally since they couldn’t be transmitted over long distances.
By the late 1920s, long-distance broadcasting became possible and national networks drowned out local ones. Radio
commercials became another vehicle for free enterprise.
c. Radio began drawing people back to the home – gathered around it. Various regions tuned into programs and
programs sponsored by manufactures helped sales and made products household names.
d. Sports and music received an impetus. Politicians had to adjust their rhetoric and many more heard their message.
12. Hollywood’s Filmland Fantasies
a. Thomas Edison contributed to it – it had gained popularity through peep show arcades. However, the first story
sequence The Great Train Robbery in 1903 was showed in five-cent theaters called “nickelodeons.” D.W. Griffith’s
The Birth of a Nation was one of the most famous – it glorified the KKK of the Reconstruction days.
b. Hollywood in southern California was the movie capital of the world because it enjoyed the most sunshine. Early
producers featured nudity and female vampires that prompted viewers to protest for codes of censorship. During
WWI it was used as a vehicle for “hang the Kaiser” sentiments.
c. In 1927, the first “talkie” was shown, The Jazz Singer. Both sound and color was ushered in.
d. Movies became the primary source of amusement. Movie stars were both more popular and paid more than
politicians or the President.
e. Critics bemoaned the erosion of popular tastes. However, the ethnic communities were displaced as youth began to
go to the local theater or listen to the radio. Much of the immigrant diversity was lost, but the standardization would
speed Americanization and overcome ethnic diversities.
13. The Dynamic Decade
a. Americans no longer lived mostly in the countryside. Women began to attain jobs, but mostly clustered in low-
paying jobs that were classified as “women’s work.” Margaret Sanger led an organized birth control movement.
Alice Paul’s National Women’s party advocated an equal rights amendment to the constitution.
b. The Fundamentalists were replaced with Modernists who believed God was a good guy and the universe chummy.
c. Churches competed with mainstream entertainment with quality entertainment of their own.
d. Advertisers used sex to sell, and young women had a “devil-may-care” attitude as flappers.
e. Sigmund Freud argued that sexual repression was responsible for a variety of nervous and emotional ills.
f. Teenagers pioneered sexual reform. They danced close to jazz music and kissed each other freely.
g. Jazz music moved up from New Orleans with the black migration of WWI. W.C. Handy, “Jelly Roll” Morton and
Joseph (“Joe”) King Oliver. All white bands like Paul Whiteman’s took all the profits, but not the soul.
h. Racial pride blossomed from northern Black communities like Harlem. Langston Hughes published The Weary
Blues. Marcus Garvey founded the United Negro Improvement Association that promoted the return of blacks to
their native African homeland. Financially, UNIA sponsored businesses to keep black money in black pockets. In
1927, he was convicted of mail fraud and deported.
14. Cultural Liberation
a. By the 1920s, most of the popular authors of the earlier generation had died. Edith Wharton, cosmopolitan New
Yorker, and Willa Cather, portrayer of pioneering prairies, still made money off their popularity.
b. New artists burst on the scene that were immigrant-based and excluded outsiders.
c. H.L. Mencken wrote American Mercury, in which he assailed marriage, patriotism, democracy, prohibition,
Rotarians, middle-class American “booboisie,” the South and do-gooders, calling them “Puritans.”
d. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote This Side of Paradise that became a Bible for the young. He later published The Great
Gatsby that warned of the cruelty in an achievement oriented society. Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy
described a pregnant working girl’s murder by her socially ambitious lover.
e. Ernest Hemingway responded to WWI by publishing The Sun Also Rises about disillusioned American expatriates in
Europe. A Farewell to Arms described the war experience. He shot himself in 1961.
f. Sherwood Anderson described warped small-town life personalities in Winesburg, Ohio. Sinclair Lewis wrote Main
Street that described a woman’s war against provincialism. He also wrote Babbitt that described a real estate broker
that conforms to society’s preconceptions.
g. William Faulkner wrote Soldier’s Pay about WWI. He described the ingrown souls of the South with The Sound
and the Fury and As I Lay Dying.
h. Ezra Pound and T.S. Elliot (“The Waste Land”) scorned America for Europe. Robert Frost wrote poems about his
adopted New England. e.e. cummings relied on unorthodox diction in his poetry.
i. Eugene O’Neill wrote about Freudian notions of sex in Strange Interlude. He won the Nobel Prize in 1936.
j. “New Negro” attitudes arose where the black man was equal to the white.
k. Frank Lloyd Wright advanced the theory that buildings should grow from their sites and not slavishly imitate Greek
and Roman importations. New York City produced the Empire State Building.
15. Wall Street’s Big Bull Market
a. The “something for nothing” craze was established with the estate speculation. The stock market was a gambling
den as speculation in stocks when wild. Everybody bought stocks “on margin” with little down payment. The
impetus to gain quick profits was crazy.
b. Washington refused to curb speculators. The national debt rose to epic proportions – money management principles
dictated that surplus be directed to paying off the debt.
c. Congress created the Bureau of the Budget meant to advise the President in creating the budget for Congress. It was
meant to prevent haphazard spending.
d. Secretary of the Treasury Mellon and his millionaires disliked the war taxes. They believed that the high taxes
forced the rich to invest in tax-exempt measures rather than profitable business. They argued that high taxes
discouraged business and brought a smaller net of return to the Treasury.
e. Mellon helped secure a series of tax reductions from 1921 to 1926; Congress repealed the excess-profits tax and the
gift tax. They reduced the income tax, the excise tax and the surtax. Mellon’s policies shifted the tax burden from
the wealthy to the middle-class.
f. Mellon’s foes argued that, while he reduced the national debt, he could have reduced it more in the time of
economic prosperity. He was also accused of encouraging speculation by reducing taxes. If he had kept them the
way they were, people would have had less money for speculation.