1. CHAPTER 11
SECTION 1
A BOOMING ECONOMY

2. Vocabulary:
Henry Ford
mass production
assembly line
consumer revolution
installment buying
bull market
buying on margin
Model T
Scientific management

3. IN THE DECADES THAT FOLLOWED
WORLD WAR I THE AMERICAN ECONOMY
EXPERIENCED TREMENDOUS GROWTH
– USING REVOLUTIONARY MASS-PRODUCTION
TECHNIQUES, AMERICAN WORKERS
PRODUCED MORE GOODS IN LESS TIME THAN
EVER BEFORE
– HELPED CREAT THE MODERN CONSUMER
ECONOMY

4. AUTOMOBILES
MOST OF THE GROWTH WAS CAUSED BY THE
AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY
– HENRY FORD INTRODUCED A SERIES OF METHODS AND
IDEAS THAT REVOLUTIONIZED PRODUCTION, WAGES,
WORKING CONDITIONS AND DAILY LIFE
FORD DID NOT COME UP WITH THE IDEA OF
MASS PRODUCTION – THE RAPID MANUFACTURE OF
LARGE NUMBERS OF IDENTICAL PRODUCTS
– HE EXPANDED IT

5. EARLY ON ONLY WEALTHY CITY DWELLERS
COULD AFFORD CARS
– AUTOMOBILES WERE SEEN AS A SYMBOL OF
THE CLASS DIVISIONS IN THE COUNTRY
RANSOM OLDS INTRODUCED A LESS EXPENSIVE
CAR IN 1901
– THE OLDSMOBILE BUT
HENRY FORD INTRODUCED THE MODEL T
– A RELIABLE CAR THAT AVERAGE AMERICANS
COULD AFFORD
– FIRST ONE SOLD FOR $850

6. FORD OPENED A PLANT IN DETROIT, MI AND
HIRED SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT EXPERTS TO
IMPROVE HIS MASS-PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT WAS A METHOD OF
IMPROVING EFFICIENCY WHERE EXPERTS
LOOKED AT EVERY STEP OF PRODUCTION TO
FIND WAYS TO REDUCE TIME, EFFORT AND
EXPENSE

7. FORD PUT HIS CARS ON A MOVING
ASSEMBLY LINE – WHERE AT EACH STEP A
WORKER ADDED SOMETHING TO CONSTRUCT
THE AUTOMOBILE
– REDUCED TIME TO MAKING THE MODEL T TO
ONLY 90 MINUTES
THE ASSEMBLY LINE ALLOWED FORD TO
DROP THE SALES PRICE OF A MODEL T
– BY 1927 IT ONLY COST $290

8. THE MODEL T WAS SLOW AND ONLY AVAILABLE IN BLACK
– IT WAS THE FIRST CAR ORDINARY
PEOPLE COULD AFFORD
– BY % OF AMERICAN FAMILIES
OWNED AN AUTOMOBILE

9. FORD AND HIS WORKERS
HE MORE THAN DOUBLED THEIR WGES FROM $2.35
TO $5.00 PER DAY AND REDUCED THEIR WORKDAY
FROM 9 TO 8 HOURS
FORD BECAME THE FIRST INDUSTRIALIST TO GIVE
HIS WORKERS SATURDAY AND SUNDAY OFF
– HE REALIZED THAT IF WORKERS HAD MORE
MONEY AND MORE TIME OFF THEY MIGHT
BECOME POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS
FORD ENGLISH SCHOOL*******

10. Ford English School
Established in 1914, the Ford English School taught the company’s immigrant workers more than just how to speak English. It taught them about American culture and history and instilled the importance of such virtues as thriftiness, cleanliness, good manners, and timeliness. Pictured below are a classroom at the Ford English School (top) and the school’s graduating class emerging from the "Melting Pot" (bottom), a symbol of their having put aside their ethnic identity and become good Americans, on July 4, 1917.

11. Impact of the Automobile
By the 1920’s, the growing “car culture” was changing the nation in deeper ways than even Ford might have imagined.
Automobiles encouraged the growth of related industries
-especially the oil industry
The gas station and gas fumes became
a permanent part of the US landscape

12. Impact of the Automobile
The Highway System
By 1925, states had built hundreds of highways, and the federal government organized them into a numbered system.
One of the first federal highways was Route 66, which ran from Illinois to California.

13. Impact of the Automobile
Advertising
Ads stressed what cars gave their owners
- speed, status, and a new sense of freedom.

14. Impact of the Automobile
Vacation Industry
Americans used their new cars and expanded leisure time to travel.
Motels and motors camps sprung up all over the nation.

15. Automobile Changes America
THE AUTO INDUSTRY STIMULATED GROWTH IN OTHER INDUSTRIES RELATING TO CAR MANUFACTURING:
1. STEEL-about one-seventh of all output was used to make cars
2. GLASS
3. RUBBER
4. ASPHALT
5. WOOD
6. GASOLINE
7. INSURANCE
ROAD CONSTRUCTION
– BOOMED WHEN THE FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT INRODUCED THE
SYSTEM OF NUMBERED HIGHWAYS
IN 1926

16. Automobile Changes America
THE MILLIONS OF CARS ON THE ROAD LED TO THE NEED
FOR OTHER INDUSTRIES:
GAS STATIONS
DINERS
MOTOR HOTELS
– LATER SHORTENED TO MOTELS
THESE CONTRIBUTED TO NATIONAL PROSPERITY
THE AUTOMOBILE HURT RAILROADS AND TROLLEYS
– BIG DECLINE IN USE
– PEOPLE COULD TRAVEL ON THEIR OWN TIME INSTEAD
OF ON A SCHEDULE
AUTOMOBILES LED TO CHANGING RESIDENTIAL
PATTERNS
– PEOPLE COULD LIVE FURTHER AWAY FROM THEIR JOB
– LED TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF SUBURBAN
COMMUNITIES

17. Economy THE 1920’s SAW A CONSUMER REVOLUTION – IN WHICH A FLOOD OF
NEW, AFFORDABLE
GOODS BECAME
AVAILABLE TO THE
PUBLIC
– SUPPORTED BY ELECTRICAL
POWER
– ELECTRIC WASHING MACHINES,
VACUUM CLEANERS AND IRONS
– ALSO RADIO AND REFRIGERATORS

18. Economy ADVERTISING HELPED CREATE THE CONSUMER REVOLUTION
– MAGAZINE AND NEWSPAPER
ADS OFTEN FOCUSED ON
THE DESIRES AND FEARS OF
AMERICANS MORE THAN ON
WHAT PEOPLE REALLY
NEEDED
– CONVINCED PEOPLE THEY
COULD BE WHAT THEY
WANTED TO BE IF THEY
WOULD BUY THE RIGHT
PRODUCT

19. Economy NEW WAYS OF BUYING HELPED TO CREATE THE CONSUMER REVOLUTION
– PEOPLE DID NOT ALWAYS
HAVE THE MONEY TO BUY
SOMETHING COULD BUY ON
CREDIT
– INSTALLMENT PLAN
– ALFRED P. SLOAN
– ALLOWED PEOPLE TO MAKE A
DOWN PAYMENT AND THEN
PAY OFF THE REST IN
REGULAR MONTHLY PAYMENTS

20. BULL MARKET DURING THE 1920’S THE STOCK MARKET ENJOYED THE BULL MARKET
– A PERIOD OF RISING STOCK PRICES
– MORE PEOPLE PUT THEIR MONEY IN THE
STOCK MARKET TO GET RICH QUICK
AS THE MARKET ROSE PEOPLE BEGAN
BUYING ON MARGIN
– A BUYER PAID AS LITTLE AS 10 PERCENT OF
THE STOCK
– ONLY WORKED AS LONG AS PRICES REMAINED
HIGH
– HAD TO PAY OFF DEBT REGARDLESS OF PRICE
UPFRONT TO A BROKER AND THEN PAYED FOR THE
REST OF THE STOCK OVER A PERIOD OF MONTHS

21. Cities,Suburbs, and Country
NOT ALL PARTS OF THE NATION WERE PROSPEROUS
– RURAL AMERICANS FACES HARD TIMES
PEOPLE BEGAN TO GO TO THE BIG CITIES
– AFRICAN AMERICANS MOVED NORTH DURING THE
GREAT MIGRATION
– MEXICAN AMERICANS MOVED TO SOUTHWESTERN
CITIES

22. Cities, Suburbs, and Country
CITIES BEGAN TO TAKE ON A
DIFFERENT LOOK BECAUSE OF ALL
THE PEOPLE MOVING THERE
– BEGAN BUILDING SKYSCRAPERS
– EMPIRE STATE BUILDING IN
NEW YORK
– FINISHED IN 1931
– CHRYSLER BUILDING 1928
– WORLD’S TALLEST BUILDING
DURING THIS TIME (PAGE 328)

23. Cities, Suburbs, and Country
BECAUSE OF TRANSPORTATION
SUBURBS BEGAN TO GROW
– DRAINED PEOPLE AND
RESOURCES FROM THE CITIES
– SUBURBS CATERED TO MIDDLE
AND UPPER CLASS CITIZENS
– MOST TENDED TO BE
CONSERVATIVE AND REPUBLICAN
AMERICA’S WEALTH WAS
UNEQUALLY DISTRIBUTED
– INDUSTRIAL WAGES ROSE
SLOWLY AND FARMERS INCOMES
DECLINED (PAGE 329)