The New Era

Brinkley Text Chapter 22

The New Economy

Technology and Economic Growth After 1921-1922 recession, there was tremendous

economic growth in output and income Growth result of collapse of European industry

after war

The New Economy

An era of important technological advances: Rise of auto manufacturing (and in turn gas

production, road construction, assembly line) Rise of radio and commercial broadcasting Advances in air travel Development of electronics and synthetic materials

The New Economy

Maturation of electricity and telecommunications fields

Work during 1920s and 1930s on primitive computer technologies

The New Economy

Economic Organization Certain industries (e.g. steel) continued toward

national organization and consolidation These companies adopted new modern

administrative systems, with efficient division structures to allow subsidiary control and easier expansion

The New Economy

In industries with more competition, stabilization reached thru cooperation

Rise of trade association to coordinate production and marketing

The New Economy

Industrialists feared overproduction and recession Efforts to curb competition thru either

consolidation or cooperation reflected this

The New Economy

Labor in the New Era Some employers 1920s used “welfare capitalism” Gave workers more rights, improved safety Raised wages in order to avoid labor unrest and

independent union growth System survived only if industry prospered Economy collapsed in 1929

The New Economy

Welfare capitalism helped only a few workers Employers wage increases disproportional to their

increase in profits Ultimately workers still mainly impoverished and

powerless Families relied on multiple wage earners

The New Economy

Organized labor and independent unions often failed to adapt to changing nature of modern economy

American Federation of Labor still used craft union system based on skills

Did not allow membership to growing pool of unskilled industrial workers

The New Economy

Women and Minorities in the Work ForceNumber of women in workforce increased,

especially in “pink-collar” jobsLow-paying service jobsMost unions refused to organize them

The New Economy

African-Americans in cities after 1914 “Great Migration” were largely excluded from unions

A. Philip Randolph’s Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was a notable exception

The New Economy

In West and Southwest unskilled and unorganized workers were mainly Hispanics and Mexican immigrants

Also Asians (mainly Japanese who replaced Chinese after Exclusion Acts in menial jobs)

The New Economy

The “American” PlanAfter 1919, economic uneasiness

corporations rallied strongly against “subversive” unionism and wanted to protect idea of “Open Shop” (in which workers not forced to join union)

This was known as the “American Plan”

The New Economy

Government intervened on behalf of management

Courts often ruled against striking workersBetween this and corporate efforts union

membership saw large decline

The New Economy

Agricultural Technology and the Plight of the Farmer

American agriculture adopted new technologies (e.g. tractor, combine)

Allowed more crops with fewer workers Hybrid corn and fertilizers also increased

productivity

The New Economy

But improved technology also led to overproduction and collapse in food prices

Farmers called on government price support Idea of “parity” (government set price, farmers

reimbursed if good sold for less in fluctuating market)

High foreign crop tariffs introduced in Congress (McNary-Haugen Bill, vetoed by Coolidge)

The New Culture

Consumerism Industrial growth led to rise of consumer culture in

which people had discretionary funds to buy items for pleasure (appliances, fashion)

Most revolutionary product was automobile Allowed rural people to escape isolation, city

people to escape crowded urban life; rise of vacation traveling

The New Culture

Advertising Techniques first used in wartime propaganda came of

age in new age of advertising and work of publicists Famous book of time The Man Nobody Knows by

Bruce Burton about Jesus as “salesman” Ads possible because of mass audience in national

chains of newspapers, mass-circulation magazine growth

The New Culture

The Movies and Broadcasting 1920s saw rise of Hollywood Creation of Motion Picture Association The Hays Code as industry self-ban on

objectionable material

The New Culture

Phenomenal rise of radio beginning with first commercial station broadcasting in 1920

By 1929, 12 million families owned radio sets

The New Culture

Modernist Religion Growing consumer culture with emphasis on

immediate self-fulfillment had influence on religion Some abandoned “traditional” and literal Harry Emerson Fosdick spokesman for new liberal

Protestantism of 1920s

The New Culture

Professional Women Most employed women were working class

because of professional struggle between career and family.

Few professional women limited to mainly “feminine” fields of fashion, education, social work, nursing

The New Culture

Changing Ideas of MotherhoodBelief grew that maternal affection was not

adequate preparation for child rearingAdvice and help of professionals needed

instead

The New Culture

Motherhood increasingly relied on institutions out of home

Allowing time to devote to “companionate marriage”

More involved more as wives, in social life Growth of birth control related to sense of sex as

“recreation” vs. only procreation

The New Culture

The “Flapper”: Image and Reality Some women came to believe rigid and Victorian

“feminism” unnecessary “Flapper” women expressed themselves freely thru

dress, speech, behavior

The New Culture

Pressing for Women’s RightsWomen formed League of Women Voters,

many women helped growing consumer groups

The New Culture

Sheppard-Towner Act (1921) gave federal funds to states for prenatal and child healthcare

Opposed by the American Medical Association, and others

Repealed in 1929 Showed that women didn’t vote as single block,

even on “female” issues

The New Culture

Education and Youth Growing secularism Emphasis on training and expertise manifested

itself in growing upper education attendance rates, teaching of technical skills

The New Culture

Emergence of distinct youth culture with growing idea of adolescence

Belief this was time for child to develop institutions with peers separate from family

The New Culture

The Decline of the “Self-Made Man” Myth of “self-made man” who could gain wealth

and fame thru hard work and natural talent gave way to belief that nothing was possible without education and training

The New Culture

Men felt losing independence, control, “masculinity”

Idolized self-made men such as Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh

The New Culture

The Disenchanted The “Lost Generation” New generation of artists and intellectuals Viewed society with contempt Instead of playing a “reform” role, they isolated

themselves

The New Culture

Lost Generation critical of the American system The individual had no means of personal fulfillment This rose out of the experience of “The World War,”

and the sense that many had died in vain Also the end of Wilsonian idealism, growing

business and consumerism

The New Culture

Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms (1929) expressed contempt of war

Other “debunkers” critical of society included H.L. Mencken, Sinclair Lewis

Many of these critics who rejected the “success ethics” of America became expatriates living abroad

Paris was center of American artistic life

The New Culture

The Harlem RenaissanceOther intellectuals saw solution to problems

in exploration of own culture and its originsA great example was Harlem during “Harlem

Renaissance”

The New Culture

Harlem (in New York City) was a center of black artists and intellectuals

Literature, poetry , and art drew on African roots

Most famously, Alan Locke, Langston Hughes

The New Culture

The Southern Agrarians Group of Southern intellectuals and poets known as

the Fugitives Rebelled against depersonalization and materialism

due to industrialization by recalling the Southern nonindustrial, agrarian way of life

Wrote reactionary ideas in their 1930 agrarian manifesto I’ll Take My Stand

A Conflict of Cultures

Prohibition Volstead Act (18th Amendment) ratified in 1918 Prohibition took effect in 1920 Within a year, the “noble experiment” was failing Even though some drinking rates fell, alcohol was

still widely available

A Conflict of Cultures

Legitimate businesses were being replaced by organized crime (famous gangster Al Capone)

Prohibition was supported by women, and by rural Protestants

They associated drinking with Catholic immigrants and the new valueless culture

A Conflict of Cultures

A Conflict of Cultures Nativism and the Klan After the Great War, many Americans associated

immigration with radicalism Efforts to restrict influx grew In 1921, Congress passed emergency immigration

law with a quota system

A Conflict of Cultures

The Nativists wanted harsher law National Origins Act of 1924 banned all east Asian

immigration Also reduced especially eastern European quotas

A Conflict of Cultures

Ku Klux Klan re-emerged as force because of fear by some older Americans of disruption of culture by new peoples

“New Klan” emerged in 1915 after meeting in Stone Mountain, GA

A Conflict of Cultures

At first targeted blacks After the war, targeted Catholics, Jews, and

foreigners Sought to purge “alien” influences Membership grew in South, but also in Northern

industrial cities

A Conflict of Cultures

The “New Klan” wanted to threaten anyone who challenged “traditional values”

Targets were irreligion, drunkenness, etc. Defended racial homogeneity and the “traditional”

culture against modernity Provided disenfranchised with sense of community,

power

A Conflict of Cultures

Religious Fundamentalism Fight over role of religion in modern society Split in Protestantism Between urban, middle-class people who wanted

to adapt religion to modern science, and Secular society vs. traditional rural people who

wanted to retain religious import

A Conflict of Cultures

Fundamentalists wanted traditional interpretation of bible

Opposed Darwinism

A Conflict of Cultures

Evangelical movement wanting to spread doctrine (famous preacher Billy Sunday)

Teaching Darwinism outlawed in Tennessee Teacher John Scopes defied the law ACLU promised to defend him Scopes trial isolated Fundamentalists from

mainstream Protestants, ended their growing political activism

A Conflict of Cultures

The Democrat’s Ordeal Democrats split between urban and rural factions Party included prohibitionists, Klansmen,

fundamentalists But also Catholics, urban workers, immigrants

A Conflict of Cultures

1924 Democratic National Convention in NY Conflict between urban wing and West/South Urban wing wanted prohibition repealed Denounced the Klan Supported Alfred Smith (a Catholic) as nominee

A Conflict of Cultures

West and South supported William McAdoo After deadlock, both withdrew; John Davis chosen

as nominee In 1928 Al Smith won nomination But party still divided because of southern anti-

Catholicism Smith lost 1928 election to Herbert Hoover

Republican Government

Harding and Coolidge Pres Warren Harding elected 1920; appointed party

elite who had helped win him nomination to positions in administration, ultimately this corrupt “Ohio Gang” committed fraud and corruption in Teapot Dome oil reserve scandal

Harding died of a heart attack 1923, VP Calvin Coolidge ascended to presidency (known for crushing Boston Police riot)

Republican Government

Coolidge a passive president like Harding Believed government should not interfere in life of

nation Won re-election 1924 but did not seek office in

1928 “I do not choose to run again.” Nickname: “Silent Cal”

Republican Government

Government and Business Even though New Era presidents were mostly

passive, federal government as a whole worked to helped business and industry operate efficient and productively

Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon reduced tax on corporate profits, personal incomes, inheritances, and cut federal budget

Republican Government

Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover favored voluntary cooperation of businesses in private sector for stability

Supported business “Associationalism” in which businessmen in an industry worked together to promote stability, efficient production, and marketing

Hoover won the Presidential election of 1928 But the nation entered Depression in 1929