Rundown of the good times before the crash

1. TheThe
RoaringRoaring
TwentiesTwenties

2. World War One was a shocking
experience for the country

3. • After seeing the horrors of a European war,
most Americans wanted to return to the
isolationism Washington spoke of in his
farewell address.

4. Wilson & Democrats
rejected!
• Senate refused to sign
Treaty of Versailles
• Senate refused to join
League of Nations
• Voters elect Republican
Warren Gamaliel
Harding

5. “Back to ‘Normalcy’”
 Harding wanted
America to return
to life and work
without a war to
fight or sacrifice
for…”normality”
 Harding was
extremely pro-
business

6. Post war ProblemsPost war Problems
 Recession: Factories stopped making warRecession: Factories stopped making war
supplies and 2 million soldiers came home fromsupplies and 2 million soldiers came home from
Europe looking for work.Europe looking for work.
Closed factoriesClosed factories
++
High UnemploymentHigh Unemployment
==
Recession (no one wants to buy anything)Recession (no one wants to buy anything)

7. Post war Problems
• Corruption & Scandals!
• Harding was yet another president who
appointed his buddies to important
government jobs
• Charles Forbes head of the Veterans
Bureau, convicted of stealing MILLIONS
from that bureau – that’s right, he was
stealing money from veterans right after a
WAR

8. Corruption & Scandals
• Albert Fall, Secretary of the interior leased
government land in CA & WY for oil
companies to drill on
• Teapot Dome Scandal

9. Scandals & Betrayals lead to Heart
Attack!
• Harding dies in
office 1923.
• Vice President
Calvin
Coolidge takes
over as
President

10. ““Silent Cal” CoolidgeSilent Cal” Coolidge
The business
of America is
business.

11. The Coolidge Administration
• Coolidge VERY pro-business
• He cut regulations on businesses
• Coolidge appointed business leaders to
head government agencies
Hypothetical Example: the owner of the
biggest slaughterhouses in the US being
put in charge of
the USDA

12. Coolidge Economy
• By 1923, Factories switched from making
weapons to making consumer goods
• more people had $ from jobs in factories,
those people started buying goods,
demand went up so factories hired more
people, those people started buying
goods, factories hired more people, and
on and on…

13. Automobiles Spur Industry
Car
Body
Tires Windshield Power Assembly
How manyHow many
different jobsdifferent jobs
can you comecan you come
up with?up with?

14. • The boom of the 1920’s was called
“Coolidge Prosperity”
• More and more Americans were buying
consumer goods
• More and more Americans were using
CREDIT to buy these goods
• Stock prices continued to rise
Economic Boom!

15. Bull Market
• When the stock
market goes through a
period of increased
trading & rising stock
prices, it is known as a
Bull Market
• The opposite is known
as a Bear Market
• Bull Market = good
• Bear Market = bad

16. Headed for Disaster
• Many investors were
borrowing $ to buy
stocks (buying on
margin)
• Stocks became
overvalued (not worth
the $ that people
bought them for)
• Many consumers
were borrowing $ to
buy consumer goods
(buying on credit)

17. Foreign Policy in the 1920’s
• Isolationism (Europe): United States still
refused to join League of Nations
• Interventionism (Latin America): 1926
Marines sent to Nicaragua to oversee
elections. 1927 US diplomats convince
Mexico not to take over foreign owned oil
& mining companies

18. The Soviet Union
• Americans did not support communism in
the Soviet Union (Russia)
• Communism is an economic system where
all wealth & property are owned by the
community
• Despite dislike of communism, Americans
sent tons of food to Soviet Union, saving
millions of lives
• Fear of communists (The Red Scare) will
soon grip USA

19. Visualize Whirled Peas
• 1928 – United States & 61 other nations
sign Kellog-Briand Pact
• The pact outlawed war
• There was no way to enforce the pact
• It will soon fail

20. Homework
•724-729
•Question 5 (a & b)

21. 1920’s Culture
• Lots of crazy fads;
–Flagpole sitting
–The Charleston
–Flappers

22. Jazz
• Jazz music became very popular during
the 1920’s
• It was a blend of the blues and European
classical music (Ragtime)
• At the time jazz was considered a bad
influence on young people
• An original art form created by African
Americans

23. Louis Armstrong
• Jazz Ambassador; trumpet/coronet

24. Bessie Smith
• One of the greatest Jazz/Blues singers of all time

25. Duke Ellington
• Composer, pianist, bandleader

26. Writers
• Ernest “Papa”
Hemmingway
• Wrote of his wartime
experiences as
ambulance driver in
Europe
• Powerful writer of
short, declarative
sentences

27. F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Wrote The Great
Gatsby
• Novel about
wealthy partiers
unable to find
happiness

28. Langston Hughes
• Poet & author
– The younger Negro
artists who create
now intend to express
our individual dark-
skinned selves
without fear or
shame. If white
people are pleased
we are glad. If they
are not, it doesn't
matter. We know we
are beautiful. And
ugly, too.

29. Zora Neal Hurston
• Writer who traveled
through the South
collecting African
American folktales

30. Heroes
• George Herman
“Babe” Ruth
• Orphan from
Baltimore
• Pitcher & power-hitter
for the New York
Yankees
• Hit 60 Home Runs in
one season

31. Charles “Lucky” Lindbergh
• 1st
solo transatlantic
flight
• Plane called “The
Spirit of St. Louis”
• Later became vocal
supporter of Hitler
and the Nazis

32. Red Scare

33. The Soviet Union was successful!
• A worker-based communist government
had been created and was thriving

34. Communism demands an
international worker revolution
“Workers of all countries unite,
you have nothing to lose but
your chains.” Karl Marx

35. Our 1st
Question:
• At the time (1920’s) was this
international revolution a threat to
the US government?

36. How would you describe the
Harding & Coolidge
Administrations?
• Pro-business generally means anti-
labor

37. Were the Republican
administrations of the 1920’s anti-
labor?
• During WWI, the War Industries Board
was generally pro-labor.
• After the war, workers wanted higher
wages
• Management said “NO!”
• What do workers do when they don’t like
the way they’re being treated?

38. Were the Republican administrations of
the 1920’s anti-labor?
• Strikes were
broken using
the police
and private
detectives
(Pinkertons)

39. Bad times for working people
• Few strikes were successful
• Many workers badly beaten
• Company Unions formed
• Union membership declines
significantly

40. How do workers feel about the
government?
• Their wages have
not gone up
• Their strikes have
been violently
attacked
• The government has
not helped them at
all

41. Birth of the Red Scare
• If American
workers are
unhappy, what
might they do?
• What kind of
people might
influence them to
do that?

42. Foreign Radicals!Foreign Radicals!
• Fear of foreign radicals leads to unfairFear of foreign radicals leads to unfair
trial & execution of Sacco & Vanzettitrial & execution of Sacco & Vanzetti
• Fear of foreign radicals leads toFear of foreign radicals leads to
resurgence of the KKKresurgence of the KKK
• Fear of foreign radicals leads toFear of foreign radicals leads to QuotaQuota
SystemSystem (limits on immigration)(limits on immigration)

43. Final Question
• What are two events that contributed
to the Red Scare?