America Opportunity and Inequality Flashcards
(51 cards)
How was the American population made up?
- Native Americans massacred and forced onto reservations, population from 5 million to 250,000.
- WASPs 1600+. American war of independence 1775-1783. 10% of the population had 90% of the wealth, they were WASPs.
- African Americans. 1865 Slavery abolished, sharecropping continued. 1920- population = 10 million.
- New immigrants, 1850+ from Eastern/Southern Europe, many Jewish/Catholic to industrial cities. Chinese + Japanese to west coast working on railroad construction. Hispanic to cattle ranches in the West.
What were the causes of the boom in brief?
WW1, Republican policies, consumerism and production.
How did WW1 cause the boom?
- Stayed out of war until 1917, due to isolationism so they were stonger. Only lost 117,000 soldiers so much larger workforce.
- Loans repaid by Britain and France.
- Didn’t join LoN so free to focus on exploiting their raw materials to create huge industries: steel, chemicals, glass, machinery.
How did Republican policies lead to the boom?
- Laissez Faire = not much legislation controlling business, so allowed rapid uncontrolled growth, like how low taxation gave individuals and businesses more spare money.
- Rugged individualism = individuals expected to be entrepreneurial and create and contribute to the economy.
- Tariffs:
May 1921 Emergency Tariff Act: increased import taxes on wheat, sugar, meat, wool.
September 1922 Fordney and McCumber Tariff Act: raised tariffs and extended them industrial goods.
How did consumerism lead to the boom?
- Advertising: billboards, newspapers, magazines, WW1 propogandists, colour, catchphrases, travelling salesmen.
- Hire purchase schemes, Sears mail-order catalogue 1/3 of all goods 1928, 6/10 cars in 1920s.
- Clothing sales up 427% with standardised sizing.
How did production lead to the boom?
- Cycle of prosperity: supply increases with more production; more workers with higher wages; consumerism and more spending; and more sales, demand increases.
- Ford Motor Company, Henry Ford, assembly lines, mass production, get to leisure activities, road construction largest employer by 1930 x2 miles of paved road.
- 1913 first assembly line, 1927 1 car per 10 seconds, $1200 first model to 1928 $295.
- Motor Car Industry: 20% of America’s steel; 65% of leather; and 75% and rubber and glass.
- Radio production: 1920: 60,000 to 1929: 10 million.
- Car production: 1919: 9 million to 1929: 26 million.
Which groups in society economically prospered and which floundered?
- Millionaires: 7000 to 32,000. Unemployment 1921: 10% to 1928: 3%. Average wages increased 11%. More free time.
- Farmers. 1919: 22 billion to 1928: 13 billion, barley income down due to prohibition. 1928 1/2 living in poverty. 3 million earning less than $1000/ year.
- Old industry like shut coal mines, synthetic fibres like rayon instead of wool and cotton.
- African Americans, sharecropping so paying to use land and giving some produce to land owner, 25% in Northern cities, 6 million migration, 1920s population 150,000 to 300,000.
- Immigrants, 1920 to 1929 5% unemployed.
How did the entertainment industry change?
- Radio. 1930 40% owned radios. 1920: 1 Station KDKA to 1922: 508 radio stations.
- Sport. Baseball: Yankees, Red Sox, Babe Ruth $80,000/year; Boxing: Jack Dempsey; Golf: Bobby Jones.
- Music. Jazz: Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Bessie Smith, led to Charleston, Tango. 60 communities banned it in public dance halls.
- Film. 1919 35 million/week to 1930 100 million/week. 1920s Hollywood Studios 500+ films/ year. 1929 Oscar Charlie Chaplinn, Buster Keaton, Rudolf Valentino.
How did women’s lives change?
- 19th Ammendment gave women the right to vote, societal rules relaxed, 1929 10.5 million women with jobs, divorce rate doubled in 1920s.
- Flappers, short hair, short skirts, smoke, no chaperones, dancing, high heels.
- Anti-Flirt League.
Why was prohibition introduced?
- Temperance movement.
Anti-saloon League: rural north and south protestants against importing alcohol, women’s liberation, minors being intoxicated, viewed urban areas as full of alcohol-induced violence and crime, linked to prejudice against immigrants. - WW1, many big brands were German, so the beer was unpatriotic, e.g. Budweiser.
- Business. Henry Ford said it was inefficient and it was linked to absenteeism.
- Religion. Billy Sunday preacher and methodists and baptists said it caused violence, ill-health.
What was the prohibition legislation?
18th Ammendment Midnight 16th January 1920. Bans manufacturing, sale and transportation of intoxicating liquors.
Describe the defiance of prohibition.
- Speakeasies. 1919 15000 to 1920 32000.
- Bootlegging. Rum from west indies, whiskey from Canada, JFK’s dad was a bootlegger.
- Moonshine. Most alcohol by late 1920s made in stills, bath-tub gin.
- Organized crime. Al Capone made 105 million, arrested for tax evasion 1931, hi-jacked supply lines and murdered to fight for demand, 130 gangland murders 26-27.
Bugs Moran’s irish gang versus Al Capone’s italian gang led to 7 dead in the Valentine’s Day Massacre.
Describe the upholding of prohibition.
Positives:
1930 282,122 illegal stills siezed.
Negatives:
1 in 12 officers sacked for bribery.
Only paid $2,500/year.
200,000^2 miles/officer.
$2 million to enforce it across entire Murica.
What are the positives and negatives of prohibition?
Positives:
Alcohol consumption decreased by 30%.
Liver disease decreased.
Breweries and saloons closed.
Success stories with Izzy Einstein and Moe Smith.
Negatives:
Government lost income from alcohol tax, $11 billion.
Farmers barley income.
1929 alcohol consumption increased by 70% of the 1914 level.
Rise of organised crime.
Describe racial tension at this time.
Jim Crow laws since 1846: power dynamic between races.
Segregation: separate transport, restrooms, water fountains, swimming pools, restaurants.
‘Grandfather clause’ no voting if their grandfather was enslaved.
KKK: began 1864-65, 1920 100,000 to 1925 5 million.
Cause: blamed poverty on communists, AAs, Jews, Catholics, foreigners. 1915 Wilson’s favourite film The Birth of a Nation about klansmen saving white families from AA gangs.
Actions:
Power as included powerful members like Governor of Alabama and Texas senator.
Violence: whipping, branding, kidnapping, acid burning, castration, 3000 lynchings, 581 in Mississippi.
Non-violent: petitions, bribes as a result 1923 Texan schools hired no catholics, 1924 newspaper.
Downfall:
Grand Dragon of Indiana D.C.Stevenson raped and mulitlated female assistant, she gave sworn testimony, public trial secrets exposed membership down 30,000 by 1930.
Why immigrate? Immigration stats.
Why immigrate:
1. Land, natural resources that in Europe was already owned by the rich; was actually in remote west and south, dangerous journey.
2. Work, machinery replaced workers in Europe so unemployment was high, better wages, labour demand from rapid industrialisation.
3. Freedom with Bill of Rights granting freedom of religion, speech and press plus Jews faced discrimination in Eastern Europe; religious and political prejudice.
Through Ellis Island.
1920, over 40% on NY, Chicago and San Francisco born abroad.
1900-20 14 million immigrants.
Why did immigration start to be opposed? What legislation opposed it? What were examples of dicrimination against immigration?
Why: mechanised industry, isolationism, communism, immigrants blamed for social problems.
How: 1917 literacy tests; $8 immigration fee; 1921: immigration quota act, 3% of people from an ethnic group present in US in 1910.
Discrimination: Sacco and Vanzetti, anarchist italian immigrants.
1. Paymaster carrying 15,776.51$ shot on April 7th 1920.
2. Defended at 7 week trial by Moore radical, found guilty.
3. Innocent: 107 eyewitnesses providing alibi, bullet not from Sacco’s pistol, Sacco at Italian Consulate, government and legal system bias.
4. Guilty: italian eye witnesses; forensic link to Sacco pistol; carrying loaded guns.
What was the first red scare?
Cause: 1919 riots caused by economic hardship, 100,000 members of Boston police force striked and communists were blamed; many immigrants were anarchists that distributed pamphlets calling for an overthrow of government; 1919 American Communist Party set up; 1919 june bombs in 7 cities nearly killing Michael Palmer the US attorney general.
Events: Palmer Raids 4000-6000 suspected communists arrested and 556 immigrants deported.
What caused the Great Depression?
October 1929: The Wall Street Crash. September 1929 economy slowed down so investors started selling. October 29th 16 million shares sold, market collapses, shares sold at very low prices, people lost all the money they had.
1. Overproduction of argicultural goods and commerical modcons which 60% of people still couldn’t buy.
2. Share prices unrealistically increased, 20 million people invested in shares by 1929, in 4 years stock market value increased by $40b.
3. 1926 house prices fell so people couldn’t repay loans from banks as their houses were worth less than when they bought them.
How did the Great Depression affect farmers?
- Surplus of product so spiralling prices.
- 1929: $10bn to 1932: 3bn, 750,000 farms lost due to bankruptcy, dustbowl drought made farming impossible.
How did the Great Depression affect the rich and businessmen?
- 1929-33: 100,000 businesses bankrupted,
- By 1933, 5000 banks shut.
- Factory production fell 45%, car production fell 80%.
How did the Great Depression affect the poor and unemployed?
- Hoovervilles, mass homelessness, 250,000 people lost their homes in 1932, hoover blankets.
- Unemployment. 1932 Toledo unemployment was at 80%. 1932 unemployment 14 million people.
- 1932 1/5 of children were malnourished in New York, 45 people died from malnutrition out of 238 admitted to NY hospital, 3000 people visited soup kitchens per day, ‘breadlines’.
- New immigrants worked in road building and construction, these industries fell 92%.
How did Hoover try to combat the effects of the Depression?
- 1932 Hoover dam project, providing work for 21,000 on infrastructure.
- 1930 Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act raising customs tax on foreign imports 50%.
- 1929 Farm Board bought farm surplus.
- Bonus Marches, tear gasses veterans to demand pensions, 1 veteran and 2 babies dead.
What happened in the 1932 election?
42/48 states Roosevelt won.
FDR: ‘prime the pump’ and ‘Relief, recovery and reform’.
