1920 S CULTURE CLASH John Ermer U.S. History Honors Miami Beach Senior High LACC.1112.RH.1.9, SS.912.A , SS.912.A.1-7, SS.912.G.1-3, SS.912.G.4-3

PROHIBITION  1920: Eighteenth Amendment prohibits the manufacture, transport, sale, and consumption of “intoxicating liquors” Congress passes the Volstead Act to enforce Prohibition Only 1,500 federal prohibition agents hired to enforce law, local cops help little Law not enforced well, illegal alcohol is widely available Criminals now make fortunes in trade of illegal alcohol, rise in crime  Prohibition loses support of urban middle class due to organized crime Many rural, Protestant “drys” fight back against “wet” urbanites  Prohibition repealed in 1933 by the Nineteenth Amendment

IMMIGRATION  After WWI, immigrants associated with radicalism (Sacco & Vanzetti) Many nativists use this perception to fight for immigration control Emergency Immigration Act of 1921 sets quotas on immigration  National Origins Act of 1924 strengthens 1921 quotas Quotas based on 1890 census population (3% of 1890 numbers) Angers Japanese who understood selves as targets (Chinese already illegal) Law favors immigration by northern Europeans

NATIVISM  1915: New Ku Klux Klan established at Stone Mountain, Georgia D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation helps KKK’s cause, recruiting At first, Klan most concerned with “insubordinate” African-Americans  Primary targets of 1920s Klan = Catholics, Jews, and “foreigners” New focus makes Klan popular outside the South, moves North & West Defended what it called “traditional values” Worked for Bible readings in schools, terrorized divorced women/men  Klan membership in declines after 1925 due to scandals & infighting

RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM  American Protestantism divided b/w modernists & fundamentalists Fundamentalists insisted on literal translation of the Bible Fundamentalists fight against teaching of Evolution in schools  Fundamentalist evangelists spread message to new groups w/ revivals In some Southern and Western states, Fundamentalists gain political power Some states (including Tenn.) outlaw the teaching of Evolution in public schools  The Scopes “Monkey” Trial ACLU and Tenn. biology teacher John Scopes fight against Tenn. Law Famous attorney Clarence Darrow defends Scopes against W. J. Bryan Scopes loses the trial, but fundamentalists were made to look foolish  Fundamentalists marginalized from mainstream churches & politics, start own churches

DEMOCRATIC POLITICS  Democratic Party really a loose coalition of groups with different ideas Rural prohibitionists, Klansmen, and fundamentalists Urban immigrants, urban workers, and Catholics  1924 Democratic convention shows disunity of party, lose election  1928: Al Smith, northern Irish Catholic, wins Democratic nomination First democrat since Civil War not to win entire South  Republican Herbert Hoover wins Election of 1928

REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENT  : Republicans hold both the Presidency and Congress  Warren G. Harding is “man of limited talents from a small town” Limited intellect, uneventful political career, gambler, drinker, womanizer William Daugherty and the Ohio Gang—party cronyism Teapot Dome Scandal Sec. of Interior Albert Hall extorts money from naval oil reserves—convicted Harding dies in San Francisco, succeeded by Calvin Coolidge Coolidge is opposite of Harding, known as “Silent Cal,” but takes same passive approach to the presidency—wins reelection in 1924

GOVERNMENT & BUSINESS  Goal of Harding and Coolidge administrations = help business efficiency Secretary of Treasury Andrew Mellon enacts plan toward this goal Lower taxes on corporate profits, personal income, and inheritance Shrinks the federal budget Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, views self as a progressive Believes corporations should cooperate with one another with gov’t help Concept known as “Associationalism” Businesses help other businesses to stabilize and promote efficiency Elected president in 1928 on a progressive platform