Figure 1, The three leading lights of
the Republican Party, photographed after a long conference at the Executive
Offices in Washington, President
Coolidge, standing with Andrew Mellon and Herbert Hoover, 1928, Library of
Congress
One
of the interesting elements of United States History in the twentieth century
is that many of the decades really seem to have there own character and neatly
encapsulate unique categories of related events. No decades demonstrate this more than the 1920s and
1930s. The "Roaring Twenties" rose from the ashes of the Progressive Era, a time when Presidents were leaders of reform who had projected American power and influence onto the world stage and they were replaced with business as usual caretaker presidents. The nation
and its leaders seemed to have returned to isolationism closing the door on
immigrants and rediscovered the laissez-faire attitude of an earlier
generation. After World War One
ended the economy was a bit shaky but soon as Jazz blazed form the first
commercial radio stations the decade enjoyed a steady bull market and it seemed
that the entire nation was dancing and drinking in speakeasies paying the bills
with easy fortunes made on Wall Street.
But when the crash came in 1929 the party ended not with a bang but with
a whimper as the nation awoke to a ten-year hangover and an un-payable bar tab.
The
decade of the 1930s also has a unique character, which was essentially the
opposite of what had come before.
The October 1929 stock market crash followed on the heels of almost a
decade of alpine economic growth.
This event heralded a precipitous decline and years of glacial
recovery. If America had spent the 1920s in a rented penthouse it passed the 1930s in a flophouse, on the street, or the ubiquitous "Hoover Ville."
Figure 2, Hooverville near Bakersfield, California,
Approximately one thousand people lived in this camp,1936, Library of Congress
Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC
When Warren G. Harding had announced the return to "normalcy" he might have said an abandonment of the ideas of the progressive, either Republican or Democrat, and a return to the pro-business, isolationist, protectionist, high tariff and sound money Republican administrations of the previous century. The 1920s might be called America's decade because during his time not only did the old pattern of corporate consolidation return making this a great period for the growth of big business but it was also a time when American popular culture began to fan out across the globe which helped to mask what was actually wrong about the country's and the world's economies. With high tariffs, which culminated with Hawley-Smoot in
1930, American business had less and less competition internally and was also
able to export massive amounts of goods to the rest of the world. Inexpensive American made radios
carried American entertainment across the world and while three American
automobile firms controlled over 90% of the American home market even more
telling was that in the early 1920s over half the automobiles in the entire
world were all Model T Fords. If
you include other key American export products such as Jazz and motion
pictures, which carried iconic images of Rudolph Valentino or Louis Armstrong,
American economic and cultural penetration had reached a zenith despite
isolationism.
Figure 3, Lillian Runyon, Amali Runyon, William Thornton Runyon, and others in Robert Runyon's Model T, c. 1920s, The Center for American History and General Libraries, University of Texas at Austin
The economic boom
masked a great deal of weakness that many simply misidentified as American
business triumphant. The world market's ability to absorb American goods was resting on a rickety foundation of American loans and war debt, America's huge manufacturing base that allowed low prices, easy credit, and high employment needed these foreign markets to sustain itself.
Americans may not have seen the need for the rest of the world but it
was nonetheless there. And there
many sectors of the economy that were simply not healthy, areas such as farming
and older industries such as coal and natural fiber based textiles. The Presidents of the period all seemed
incredibly blind to these impending problems and the dark side of
business’s self interest, the profit motive is not based on
altruism. And the signs should
have been clear. Between the
demands of veterans for an early bonus and the greed and influence based
scandals of the Harding administration the writing was on the wall that all was
not well. By the end of the 1920s the federal regulatory agencies, which had grown in prominence through the Roosevelt and Wilson administrations, had become inactive and ineffectual bureaucracies. President Hoover thought that regulation simply unnecessary as he put on his rose colored glasses and imagined the America's business leaders had finally learned to cooperate with themselves and labor unions and that self imposed "codes of conduct" would insure honestly and healthy competition.
Figure 4, Democratic Presidential candidate Alfred Smith waving and his wife riding in a touring car past crowds lining both sides of the street, 1928, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago Historical Society.
The economy of the
United States had always weathered periods of boom and bust. The historic difference between the
boom of the twenties and the bust of the thirties was their severity and this
may have been simply related to the unregulated nature of the American economy
and its sheer size coupled with the volatility of world economic
conditions. But this would change, for these decades were the last when the economy would be left to its own devices for ever since the American entrance into World War Two the U.S. government has attempted to control and influence the cycles of bust and boom. But these changes would come in the future, on the eve of Franklin Roosevelt's inauguration many thought that the system was on brink of complete collapse and genuine revolution might be just around the corner.
Figure 5, Mary Pickford and the costume that could not be
duplicated, a major movie star endorses a commercial product, 1925, Rare Book,
Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Duke University
In
this unit you will be reading Chapters twenty-six and twenty-seven from The
American Nation, which cover American politics in the 1920s and the rude
awakening of the collapse of the economy starting in 1929 to the pit of 1933
followed by the long slow crawl out of the Great Depression. Even though the concept of decades is
just a convenience of the calendar and the idea of attaching era to these time
periods is in reality artificial the 1920s and the 1930s do really seem to be
eras framed by their years and great events. The connections and contrasts of
these two decades make them fascinating historical subjects.
There will be five threaded discussions included in this module. All students must actively participate in all the threaded discussions; the due dates of the threaded discussions are listed in the syllabus.
All
issues discussed in the text are important for this class as well as the years
in which events took place. After reading the assigned chapters student needs
to be able to answer the following questions and discuss related topics:
Chapter 26 Questions:
1.
What job did Herbert Hoover hold during the Harding
and Coolidge administrations?
2.
Which president talked about a return to "Normalcy?"
3.
How did Andrew Mellon plan to improve the economy?
4.
What was the "Farm bloc?"
5.
What did the American Legion want?
6.
Who said, "the business of the United States is business?"
7.
Who was Andrew Mellon?
8.
During the1920s what can be said about the Interstate
Commerce Commission, The Federal Trade Commission, and the Federal Reserve
Board?
9.
During the 1920s farmers:
10.
How had the ICC and FTC changed during the 1920s?
11.
What was the "Ohio Gang?"
12.
How did President Harding die?
13.
Who were Harry M. Daughtery, Albert B. Fall, and
Charles R. Forbes?
14.
What did the Harding Scandals involve:
15.
Who were Edward Doheny and Harry Sinclair?
16.
What was the issue surrounding Teapot Dome and Elk
Hills?
17.
Who was thought to have suffered a death by Japanese
crab?
18.
In the 1920s what happened to the old idea of "laissez-faire?"
19.
Who said, "the man who builds a factory builds a temple."
20.
What was "Coolidge Prosperity?"
21.
Who were the nominees for President in 1924?
22.
Who was William G. McAdoo and Alfred E. Smith?
23.
Which party ran Robert M. La Follette for President?
24.
What was the New Progressive Party's platform in 1924?
25.
What does "peace without a sword" mean?
26.
What did Jefferson and Washington have to do
isolationism?
27.
What was the "Open Door" concept?
28.
Why was the United States concerned about Japan, China
and Manchuria?
29.
What was the Washington Naval Conference?
30.
What was the Four-Power Treaty?
31.
What was the Five-Power Treaty?
32.
What nations signed The Four-Power Treaty?
33.
What was the Nine-Power Treaty?
34.
What did 5:5:3 relate to?
35.
What did the Ladies' Home Journal have to do with the peace movement?
36.
Did the Peace Movement have any significance in the
1920s?
37.
What was the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom?
38.
Who said "The people have had all the war, all the taxation, and all the military service that they want?"
39.
What was the United State's position regarding the World Court?
40.
What was the Kellogg-Briand Pact?
41.
What was the Clark Memorandum and how was
it related to Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt?
42.
How did the Clark Memoranum change
American policy regarding the Roosevelt
Corollary to the Monroe doctrine?
43.
Why were Japan and the United states moving towards
conflict regarding Manchuko in 1931?
44.
Why did Chiang Kai-shek appeal to the League of
Nations and the U.S.?
45.
What was the "Stimson Doctrine?"
46.
What was the significance of Shanghai in 1932?
47.
What was the connection between the League of Nations
and Japan?
48.
What was the significance of World War I debts and
reparations?
49.
How much did the Allies owe to the United States after
World War I?
50.
What was the German reparation debt to the Allies?
51.
What was the purpose of the Dawes Plan and the Young
Plan?
52.
Who was elected President in 1928?
53.
What was Herbert Hoover's idea regarding businessmen?
54.
How did Herbert Hoover contrast with Alfred E. Smith?
55.
How did the major American political parties begin to
realign after the election of 1928?
56.
What changes were occurring in the American industry
in the late 1920s?
57.
What sectors of the American economy were weak in the
1920s?
58.
What was the general condition of the economy in the
1920s?
59.
What was weakness of the manufacturing sector in the
1920s?
60.
How was excessive consolidation a weakness in the
American economy of the 1920s?
61.
What were Trade Associations?
62.
How did the Justice Department Anti-Trust Division
regard Trade Associations in the 1920s?
63.
How was the lot of Farmers in the 1920?
64.
Who said "Every farmer is a captain of
industry?"
65.
Were farmers given direct aid during the 1920s?
66.
What difficulties did the International market present
farmers in the 1920s?
67.
How had the Stock Market changed in the 1920s?
68.
Who were the primary beneficiaries of the bull market
of the 1920s?
69.
In 1928 what happened to the U.S. Stock Market?
70.
What were "glamour stocks?"
71.
What did it mean to say that the Stock Market had reached a "permanently high plateau?"
72.
What are margin calls?
73.
In October of 1929 what did J.P. Morgan Jr. attempt?
74.
What happened in October of1929?
75.
What was Herbert Hoover's opinion of business conditions in 1929?
76.
How did annual investment in the economy change
between 1929 and 1932?
77.
How did automobile production change between 1929 and
1932?
78.
What was the Secretary of the Treasury's solution to the economy's problems in 1929?
79.
Who was President in 1929?
80.
What were some of the Presidents solutions to the country's economic problems following the Crash?
81.
What was the Hawley-Smoot Tariff? How did Europe react to this?
82.
What was the Reconstruction Finance Corporation?
83.
What was the Glass-Steagall Act?
84.
What was the Agricultural Marketing Act?
85.
How bad was unemployment during the Great Depression?
86.
How did families cope with the Great Depression?
87.
What were "Farmers Holidays?"
88.
Was a revolution possible in America in 1932?
89.
What was the "Bonus Army?"
90.
Who said "All roads lead to Moscow?"
91.
How did Franklin Roosevelt approach the depression at
his inauguration?
Chapter 27 Questions:
1.
What was the "Hundred Days?
2.
What did the Twenty-first amendment do?
3.
What did governors and the president mean by declaring a "bank holiday?"
4.
What was the H.O.L.C.?
5.
What was the F.D.I.C.?
6.
What did the National Industrial Recovery Act do?
7.
What did unions and business leaders like and dislike
about the National Industrial Recovery Act?
8.
What was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)?
9.
What was the Agricultural Adjustment Act
(AAA)?
10.
What was the TVA?
11.
How did the New Deal affect the Executive
Branch?
12.
How many people were unemployed in 1934?
13.
What percentage of Americans were
unemployed in 1933?
14.
How did unemployment change between Franklin Roosevelt's inauguration and the time of the United States' entry into World War II,?
15.
Which federal programs were used to
directly create employment?
16.
Who were John Dos Passos Steinbeck,
Faulkner, and Thomas Wolfe
17.
How does one describe the work of Dos
Passos and John Steinbeck?
18.
Which American writer who first came to
prominence during the Great Depression later won the Nobel prize for
literature?
19.
Who was Charles Coughlin?
20.
Who was Francis Townsend?
21.
Who was Huey Long?
22.
What was the importance of Schecter v.
United States (1934)?
23.
Why did the Second New Deal seem necessary
to Roosevelt?
24.
What did the Second New Deal include?
25.
Which part of the Second New Deal was similar to a program advocated by Francis
Townsend?
26.
What was the National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act)?
27.
Who supported the Roosevelt in 1936?
28.
What was the importance of United States v. Butler (1936)?
29.
What did Roosevelt proposed to Congress regarding the Supreme Court?
30.
Why did Roosevelt seek to change the makeup of the
Supreme Court?
31.
What was
the "Court-packing" plan?
32.
Why did Roosevelt's problems with the Supreme Court end?
33.
How did union success of unions in the late 1930s
affect some members of the middleclass?
34.
How were business conditions in1937?
35.
How did spending cuts affect the economy in 1937?
36.
What was the Fair Labor Standards Act?
37.
What was the significance of the New Deal?
38.
Who was Lucy Mercer?
39.
Who was Molly Dewson?
40.
Who was Frances Perkins?
41.
Who was Marian Anderson?
42.
How did New Deal programs treat African
Americans?
43.
How did African Americans regard the New
Deal?
44.
What was the Indian Reorganization Act?
45.
How is Franklin Roosevelt's role as the leader of the New Deal best described?
46.
What
was the thesis of The Road to War: America. 1914-1917?
47.
What was the Neutrality Act of 1934?
48.
What happened in Ethiopia and Spain?
49.
What were the Japanese doing in 1937?
50.
What was isolationism? Why was it important?
51.
What was the "quarantine speech?"
52.
What happened in Austria?
53.
What was the Committee to Defend America?
54.
What happened in Poland and Czechoslovakia?
55.
What was the "phony war?"
56.
What was Blitzkrieg?
57.
What happened in France?
58.
What happened at Dunkirk?
59.
What was the connection between destroyers and the
Caribbean?
60.
What unprecedented action did congress take in 1940?
61.
Who was Wendell L. Willkie?
62.
What was Roosevelt's campaign position on war in 1940?
63.
What were "cash-and-carry" and "lend-lease?"
64.
What were the U-652, the Greer
and the Reuben James?
Figure 6, Franklin Delano and Eleanor Roosevelt, possible
campaign appearance, c. 1936, Western History/Genealogy Department, Denver
Public Library
The 1930s have
clearly left many indelible marks on U. S. History and while the theory the
nation might switch to a new calendar based on B. C. (before crash) and A. D.
(after depression) did not literally happen the affect is there all the
same. Nothing has affected modern American politics and the public's conception of the purpose of the national government as much as this time.
Consider the two party system, both of the major parties were reshaped
by the Great Depression and New Deal programs. The Democrats had always been the party that catered to more
diverse political groups than the Republicans but as a result of the New Deal
African Americans switched en mass to the Democratic Party, the party of the
old Confederacy and abandoned the party of Lincoln. A few years earlier such a change would have seemed beyond
impossible. The Republican have
also changed and initiated significant change. While the Republicans have remained the business friendly
party they are very different in the A. D. world. Even though they resisted most New Deal programs and
attitudes they now have long accepted the usefulness of some and the political
necessity of defending others. The
Republicans will seek to modify banking and business regulation but they do not
propose their removal. They have learned the importance of an influential Federal Reserve and the public's support for surviving New Deal programs such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Social Security.
No Republican presidential candidate would campaign to remove all
government influence, it is very doubtful the laissez-faire will ever make
another come back and all campaigns since World War Two have focused to some
degree on what the major candidates will do to improve the economy. And this always means some sort
promised of action.
Figure 7, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gives a speech
from his touring car on his way to the Fitzsimons General Hospital, Denver,
Colorado, during his 1936 presidential campaign. Unable to walk unassisted
Roosevelt often met the public from an automobile, Western History/Genealogy
Department, Denver Public Library, 10 W. 14th Avenue Parkway, Denver, Colorado
The Great Depression
also motivated the Republicans to seize the opportunity to amend the
Constitution. Fearful that another
Democrat president might arise from the mold of Franklin Roosevelt, the only
president to win the presidency four times, they initiated the effort to pass
and ratify the twenty-second amendment, which limited anyone, except Harry
Truman, to only two terms as president.
Since historically the Republicans had possessed this high office the lion's share of the time, it is hard this amendment being passed under any other conditions.
Figure 8, One of
Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother" Photographs taken in Nipomo, Calif.
Mar. 1936 for the Farm Security Administration Collection, Library of Congress
Collections