1. Politics in the Roaring 20s U.S. History & The Constitution
Unit 8 (Ch. 20) Notes:
Politics in the Roaring 20s
U.S. History & The Constitution
Coach Weathers

2. 20.1: Americans Struggle with Postwar Issues
- The 1920s are often thought of as a care-free boom time, American society was divided by the trauma of change & not everyone experienced prosperity. The social changes were the result of industrialization, immigration & urbanization.
- By 1920, more than half of the American population lived in cities.
- The increasing emphasis on science
& the experiences of the war years also
contributed to social change. The result
of these changes was often social
conflict between traditional American
conservatism & modern scientific
liberalism.

3. 20.1: Americans Struggle with Postwar Issues
- The propaganda of ‘100 percent Americanism’ during the war years exacerbated traditional American nativism & turned it into xenophobia.
In the postwar period, high inflation,
competition from returning veterans &
the end of wartime concessions to
workers led to labor unrest.
- Strikes frightened middle & upper class
Americans as did the growing
socialist movement in Europe.
Anarchist bombs exploded in eight
American cities in Fear caused
by workers’ strikes, bolshevism &
bombs led to a Red Scare.

4. 20.1: Americans Struggle with Postwar Issues
- The U.S. Attorney General [A. Mitchell Palmer] hoped to gain public support
for a bid for the presidency in 1920.
- In a series of raids which came to be known as the Palmer Raids, the federal
government under the direction of J. Edgar Hoover, arrested 4,000 alleged
communists who were held without bond. Later 600 were deported.
- Palmer predicted a series of anarchist attacks that did not materialize & he
was discredited, but not before arousing feeling against dangerous foreigners.

5. 20.1: Americans Struggle with Postwar Issues
This new wave of nativism was furthered by the trial of Italian immigrants Sacco & Vanzetti.
These avowed anarchists were accused of robbing an armored car & killing a guard. Their case became a cause celebre among liberals & civil rights advocates who claimed they were being prosecuted for their immigrant status and radical views.
- Although the prosecution had clearly not made the case against them, they were convicted & executed. Historical evidence indicates that they were most likely guilty.

6. 20.1: Americans Struggle with Postwar Issues
- Anti-immigrant sentiment became part of the rationale for a resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.
- In 1915, the movie “The Birth of a Nation” aroused
racist sentiments against African Americans.
- The Red Scare and the Sacco & Vanzetti case added
radicals, immigrants & Catholics to the list of groups
targeted by the new Klan.
- The business climate of the 1920s also contributed
to the Klan’s resurgence as they used advertising &
business organization to promote membership. It was
a national organization with a strong following in the
small towns & cities of the Midwest as well as in the
South.
- Seeing themselves as a moral regulators, Klansmen
targeted bootleggers & gamblers with cross burnings,
public beatings & lynchings. However, Klan leaders Involved
in sex scandals & corruption undermined these claims to
moral leadership & the Klan faded from public view.

7. 20.1: Americans Struggle with Postwar Issues
- As anti-immigrant sentiment turned to xenophobia, it also resulted in the
passage of immigration quotas in the National Origins Act of 1924.
- This had been a goal of conservatives since the end of the 19th century & was supported by arguments based on Social Darwinism & Anglo Saxon superiority.
Immigration from Eastern & Southern Europe
was severely limited & Asians were barred
entirely.
This was a continuation of limitations on
immigration from Asia of the 19th century
[Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882].
End of 20.1 Notes

8. 20.2: The Harding Presidency
Presidential Candidate Warren G. Harding campaigned in the 1920 election under his slogan of “A Return to Normalcy.”
- What do you think Harding was trying to emphasize in his slogan?
- Think about the events that led up to the 1920s.

9. 20.2: The Harding Presidency
- Presidential Candidate Warren G. Harding campaigned in the 1920 election under his slogan of “A Return to Normalcy.”
- After WWI, problems surfaced relating to arms control, war debts, & the reconstruction of war-torn countries.
In 1921, Pres. Harding invited several major powers (not Russia) to the Washington Naval Conference.
- At the conference, five major naval
powers - the U.S., Great Britain, Japan,
France, & Italy, agreed to scrap many
of their warships.
In 1928, 15 countries signed the
Kellogg-Briand Pact, which renounced
war as a national policy. The pact was
futile, as it provided no means of
enforcement.

10. 20.2: The Harding Presidency
- Conflicts arose when it came time for Britain & France to pay back the $10 billion they had borrowed from America.
They could do this in two ways: by selling goods to the U.S. or by collecting reparations from Germany.
However, in 1922, America adopted the Fordney-McCumber Tariff, which raised taxes on U.S. imports to 60 percent - the highest level ever.
The tax protected U.S. businesses
from foreign competition, but made
it impossible for Britain & France to
sell enough goods in the U.S. to repay
debts.

11. 20.2: The Harding Presidency
President Harding’s cabinet included the so-called Ohio gang, the president’s poker-playing cronies.
They caused a great deal of embarrassment for Harding’s administration as his corrupt friends used their offices to become wealthy through graft.
This corruption included the Teapot Dome scandal.
The government had set aside oil-rich public lands at Teapot Dome, WY, & Elk Hills, CA, for use by the U.S. Navy.
Sec. of the Interior Albert B. Fall, managed to
get the oil reserves transferred from the navy
to the Interior Department.
Fall secretly leased the land to two private oil
companies, resulting in more than $400,000 in
“loans, bonds, & cash.”
He was later found guilty of bribery & became
the first American to be convicted of a felony
while holding a cabinet post.

12. 20.2: The Harding Presidency
- In the summer of 1923, Harding declared,
“I have no trouble with my enemies But my friends, they’re the ones that keep me walking the floor nights!”
- Shortly thereafter, on August 2, 1923, he died suddenly, probably from a heart attack or stroke.
- Vice-President Calvin Coolidge then assumed the presidency.
End of 20.2 Notes

13. 20.3: The Business of America
- Economic growth had both positive & negative consequences for society
& the expansion of economic opportunity in the 1920s did not extend to all Americans.
- Economic boom of the 1920s had negative consequences for some segments of the economy.

14. 20.3: The Business of America
- By the end of the 1920s, electric energy fueled most of American industry which brought economic hardship to the coal industry.
- Mass production techniques such as the assembly line, introduced by Henry Ford in 1913, brought radios, refrigerators, & many other new products to the marketplace, but also further marginalized the skilled worker.
- Techniques of efficiency practiced in the 1920s furthered the loss of individuality for the worker.

15. 20.3: The Business of America
- Workers were still underpaid & labor unions were unable to protect their members because of the anti-union attitude of the Republican administrations.
- Farmers suffered economic depression when the end of World War I brought a loss of markets & surpluses led to low prices & foreclosures, as it had in the late 19th century (USHC 5.3). This led to a widening gap between the ‘haves’ & the ‘have-nots.’

16. 20.3: The Business of America
- The mass media exacerbated these differences by advertising the goods that many could not afford to buy.
- The expansion of the consumer financing option of installment buying ( plans) encouraged consumers to change their attitudes about debt. The ‘buy now, pay later’ philosophy stimulated the economy but later proved harmful.
The availability of new home appliances such as the washing machine, electric irons & vacuum cleaners led to some social change as women were able to do their households chores more
easily. However, it led to no significant
change in their position in the society
or the economy.

17. 20.3: The Business of America
- Although the flapper was an icon of the 1920s & her freedom helped to change attitudes towards the role of women, most women continued the traditional roles as wife & mother. This traditional role was reinforced by advertising.

18. 20.3: The Business of America
- Transportation helped to change urban life.
- The automobile changed living and dating patterns for those who could
afford to buy a car.
- Transportation within the cities led to a further differentiation in living &
working neighborhoods that further divided the urban community. Suburbs
grew (but not as much as in the 1950s).

19. 20.3: The Business of America
- The advent of aviation was exciting & produced cultural icons such as
Charles Lindberg but had little impact on the average American who could
not afford to fly.
End of 20.3 Notes