Economic Conditions

Signs of Prosperity During the 1920s, the standard of living rose, and more and more people moved to urban centers. All of the following provided evidence of economic prosperity during the 1920s: –Larger numbers of women and men working in office jobs (white collar) –Growing investment in the stock market

Signs of Prosperity The assembly-line production of Henry Ford’s Model T enabled average American families to purchase automobiles. Beginning in 1920, the number of children aged ten to fifteen who were in the industrial workforce began to decline.

Signs of Trouble The least-prosperous group in the 1920s consisted of farmers in the Midwest and South. For American farmers, the years 1921 to 1929 were a period of falling prices for agricultural products.

Republican Politics: Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover Republican Prosperity –Republican presidents of the 1920s favored tax cuts for wealthy Americans –During the presidencies of Harding and Coolidge, the federal agencies created during the Progressive Era aided business.

Foreign Policy Despite its isolationist position in the 1920s, the US government actively participated in decisions regarding international finance and the payment of war reparations. With a partner, summarize the following: –Kellogg-Briand Pact –Washington Naval Conference –Dawes Plan

The Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928 was an international agreement in which 62 nations pledged to not use war as an instrument of policy. The Washington Naval Conference of was called to restrain the naval arms race among the US, Britain, Japan, Italy, and France. These nations agreed to specific limitations on the number of battleships each could build. The US responded to the economic crisis in Germany during the 1920s by adopting the Dawes Plan. The plan rescheduled German reparation payments and opened the way for American private loans to Germany.