THE ERA OF THE "TWENTIES"
A. The Return to Normalcy: In the decade following WWI, the Republican party and new-found conservatism held the loyalty of most Americans. The people of the U.S. desired to return to peacetime pursuits, and there were some serious economic and social problems to be solved: achieving a balance among the demands of business, labor, and agriculture; coping with imminent large-scale immigration; controlling the prohibition experiment; and combating radicalism without destroying civil liberties. Americans were tired of war and disillusioned by the treaty-making that followed, the people attempted to withdraw from international commitments. With the defeat of the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations in the Senate on March 19, 1920, Americans turned inward in isolation, once again. In addition, politics in the 1920s saw the old issues go. Progressive reform, imperialism, war, treaty-making--were all forgotten. The vast majority of voters were anxious to escape from Wilsonian idealism and the responsibilities of world leadership. In the presidential campaign of 1920, Republican Senator Warren G. Harding called for "a return to normalcy," a slogan which appealed to war-weary Americans enough that they voted him into ofice by a landslide, and restored the Republican party to the cockpit. But, in spite of America's disgust for events overseas, the country would not be able to isolate itself from the dangerous aftermath of the Versailles Treaty.
1. The Harding Administration: The issue dealt with most extensively in the 1920 campaign was American entry into the League of Nations, but the essence of the election was an expression of disapproval of the Wilson administration, arising out of the animosities of the war years and the disappointments of the postwar period. Harding was personally a handsome man with a lighthearted and warm disposition--quite a change from the cold and righteous Wilson--and he was very aware of his own limited abilities. Decisionmaking, for him, was sheer torture. He enjoyed the pomp, circumstance, and ceremonial functions of the presidency, but he was willing to allow Congress and the Cabinet to provide the country with the leadership it needed.
a. Scandals in High Places: Harding could recognize his own limitations, and so, he wisely chose from among the best minds of his times to staff his cabinet. He chose Charles Evans Hughes, former governor of NY and Supreme Court justice, as his Secretary of State; and Andrew Mellon, a Pittsburgh industrialist and financier, as his Secretary of Treasury. But Harding also appointed men like Albert B. Fall of NM as Secretary of Interior, and Harry Daugherty of Ohio as attorney general. Both of these men were friends of the president, and they would bring disgrace and scandal to the administration. There were a number of scandals, alá Grant, but the most spectacular was the Teapot Dome Scandal. Albert Fall convinced Harding to transfer naval oil reserve land at Teapot Dome, WY from the Navy department to the Interior department, where he secretly granted drilling rights to private companies in return for "loans" and "gifts" totalling around $425,000 dollars. The Senate began investigating the incident, and Fall was finally indicted and convicted of bribery, and thus became the first cabinet official in the nation's history to go to jail for dishonoring his office.
b. The Washington Conference: The most outstanding achievement of the Harding years was the Washington Conference, organized by Charles Evans Hughes. At the invitation of Harding the five leading naval powers (the U.S., Britain, France, Italy, and Japan) met in 1921 to discuss the reduction of naval armaments, the arms race which had been a leading factor contributing to WWI. However, the emerging agressor in the Pacific by this time was Japan. The most nagging problem was how to curb Japan's expansionism, while reducing military spending so that the national debt could be paid off. Three treaties were to emerge from the Washington Conference: The Five Power Pact--the U.S. made tremendous concessions in this treaty. A ratio of naval tonnage was drawn up and the U.S. and G.B. were allowed 500,000 tons apiece; Japan, 315,000 tons, while France and Italy were allowed 172,000 tons each. The Four Power Pact--Japan, China, England, and the U.S. agreed to maintain the status quo in fortifying insular possessions; to respect each others possessions, and to consult if a conflict broke out among the signers. Practically, because the U.S. kept its pledge, this meant that American defenses in the Pacific from Samoa to the Aleutians remained unfortified, while Japan fortified its mandate islands to the teeth. The U.S. was not able to check on Japan's compliance because it hadn't joined the League of Nations. The Nine Power Pact--All the powers (the U.S., G.B., France, Italy, Japan, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, and China) all agreed to respect the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independence of China; to help China set up a stable government, and to guarantee equal commercial opportunity for all in China. These open door sentiments were fine, just as long as they were enforced, but the U.S., by withdrawing into isolation, was withdrawing from enforcement, and no country knew this better than Japan.
2. The Coolidge Administration: On August 2, 1923, Harding died suddenly of a stroke, and was replaced by his vice-president, "Silent Cal" Coolidge of Vermont, who ran for the presidency in his own right in 1924. The U.S. was at the peak of its postwar prosperity under Coolidge's administration. But, all was not well in the world. WWI had left many issued unresolved, and those which had been attacked, were mismanaged, and thus, the post-war peace was unstable at best, and the breeding ground for smoldering resentment, future aggression, nationalistic fanaticism.
a. The Weaknesses of the League: Part of the problem lay with the League of Nations itself. The organization suffered from a loss of prestige at the start when the parent of the idea, the U.S., one of the world's leading powers, failed to become a member of its own brainchild. In addition, the League lacked the means to punish or to take action against transgressors. Those nations which drew criticism from the League simply withdrew, as Germany would do in 1933. Finally, the leading League nations were unwilling to undertake concerted actions against transgressors when their own interests weren't directly at stake. The U.S. did manage to get involved with the League through the backdoor, by joining in non-political activities.
b. The Failure of the Treaty of Lausanne: The other part of the problem lay with the Lausanne system itself. All the major powers were bent on making Germany suffer for WWI, and had heaped tremedous reparations bills on it following the war. Germany had also been made to accept a "guilt" clause for starting the war. Like the other Powers, the U.S. was committed to collecting its war debts from Germany, but from the Allies, as well. But the Allies made their debt payments contingent on whatever they were able to get from Germany. Therefore to collect its debts, the U.S. was forced to undertake the financing of Germany's reparations payments. Germany's economy was enslaved to the repayment of reparations, while the society was obliged to accept full responsibility for even the secret agreements of others! Between the monster inflation of the early 20s and the disastrous stockmarket crash in 29, the German people proved to be fertile ground for the rise of Adolf Hitler and his brand of fascism. At Lausanne, in 1933, Hitler repudiated all reparations payments; and, since the Allies had hitched their own debt payments to the reparations they received, they likewise repudiated their debts. This then, was the ironic situation that the U.S. found itself in: as a victor in WWI, the U.S. footed both the German reparations bill as well as the Allied debts! The only country to repay its debts to the U.S. in full was Finland.
c. The Kellogg-Briand Pact: Under the sponsorship of Secretary of State Kellogg and French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand, a remarkable pact was drawn up in 1928 and signed by most nations of the world. They all agreed to outlaw war as a means of settling international disputes! The Kellogg-Briand Pact's chief weakness, however, was that it provided no means of enforcement (that's why it was so easy to get 62 nations, armed to the teeth, to agree to the document). They all hoped that public opinion would provide the coercion necessary. Anyway, the pact proved to be an idealistic and empty gesture.
THE 'ROARING" TWENTIES
A. The Prosperous Twenties: Calvin Coolidge's motto was that "the business of America is business," so his administration from 1924-28 saw the country enjoying an unprecendented business boom. Industrial activity rose to all-time highs, and the national wealth soared. Wages were high, and the average family enjoyed a larger income than ever before. The nation went on a buying spree. Cars, radios, new homes, and furniture were in tremendous demand. Not happy with buying with cash, many people bought on the installment plan. That is, they paid a small sum down and promised to pay the bablance in the future. Many also used their savings to speculate wildly on the stock market in order to get rich quick. Optimism ran riot, and people expected prosperity to last forever (a natural idea, since it took so much heartache to bring it about). The era was a bundle of contradictions, continuous ferment, and trial and error.
1. Culture(?): Unfortunately, the seamy side of the Twenties was also the interesting side.
a. Political Intolerance: The era saw the rise of political intolerance in the form of the "Red Scare" and the Sacco and Vanzetti trial. Hysterical fears of Bolshevik revolution in Russia in 1917, which led to the formation of a tiny communist party in the U.S., continued to have a tremendous effect of American thinking. This national paranoia was heightened by an epidemic of strikes following the war's end. Americans denounced "radical" foreign ideas, condemned "un-American" lifestyles, and led a nation-wide crusade against suspected left-wingers under the direction of A. Mitchell Palmer. Thousands of radicals were rounded up in these "Palmer Raids," and hundreds found guilty were deported. In the (Nicola) Sacco and (Bartolomeo) Vanzetti Trial, two Italian immigrant atheists, anarchists, and draft dodgers were convicted of a payroll robbery-murder that they didn't commit. What was really on trial was their anarchist and pacifist sentiments.
b. Xenophobia: Xenophobic intolerance was also on the rise. Henry Ford sponsored the publication of a vicious and obviously forged tract called "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" which tried to prove that the Jews were plotting to take over the world. Ford later retracted his support and apoligised for his actions. Ku Klux Klan membership mushroomed and was anti- everything: anti-black, anti-Catholic, anti-foreign, anti-Jewish, anti-pacifist, anti-gambling, anti-adultery, etc. Congress responded to Americans' anti-immigrant feelings by passing the Emergency Quota Act (1921) which set the quota at 3% and later the Immigration Act of 1924, which set the quota at 2%.
c. Religion and Sex: The "Scopes Monkey Trial" (1924) divided the country, and showed how deep fundamentalism ran in American society, especially the South. John T. Scopes answered an ad placed in a Tennessee newspaper by the ACLU in 1925, which asked for a teacher who would volunteer to teach the theory of evolution in public schools, and thus become a legal test-case guinea pig. Church membership grew and people like Billy Sunday and Aimee Semple MacPherson became the celebrities of their day by attracting thousands to tent revivals all over the country. The clash of the skeptical spirit of science as represented by Clarence Darrow and dogmatic faith in the form of William Jennings Bryan attracted international attention. Paradoxically, the Twenties were also a period of feminine revolt against puritan restraints. Young women flocked to become "flappers." They worked for their own money at hundreds of new jobs, wore short skirts, cloche hats, and lots of makeup, smoked openly, hung out with young men, and emulated the big movie star of the era, Clara Bow, the "It" girl.
d. Lawlessness: Much of the degeneration of the Twenties was the result of the 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act which enforced national prohibition. Bootlegging became a shadow industry, and gangsterism flourished. No one could obey such an obviously idealistic, moralistic law and, as a result, general respect for the law in other areas began to erode, followed in close turn by the erosion of morality. The protection racket, the numbers racket, loan-sharking, prostitution, narcotics, and vendetta-style gangland murders became common. Unfortunately, many Americans became secretly sympathetic to to the gangsters, who fostered this attitude by appearing as latter-day Robin Hoods to the general public. Thus it was, that the 18th Amendment had precisely the opposite effect of its intention.
e. The Renaissance of Black Culture: Music entered the "Jazz Age," and composers of every flavor began to exploit its possibilities. Blacks, who were segregated in nearly every other facet of public life, found themselves in great demand as jazz musicians, enjoyed by all races. One theory why Blacks were so productive during the Twenties may be attributed to segregation itself, ironically. "Jim Crow" laws tended to keep Black society cohesive and whole, not subject to the inroads of the general, "white" culture surrounding them. It's a sad commentary that Black society was probably never healthier before or since. They were no longer subject either to the whims and vagaries of their masters (as they had been under slavery), or to the cultural degredation imposed by force-draft integration of the 1960s, Black families could now stay together; while the isolations imposed by segregation encouraged Blacks to go into all manner of professions to meet their own needs. They were an island unto themselves in the 1920s--and they were flourishing. White composers such as George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and Hoagy Carmichael; and, musicians such as Glenn Miller, Bix Beiderbecke, Benny Goodman, Jimmy & Tommy Dorsey, Harry James, Gene Krupa, and Artie Shaw could only imitate the great creative genius of the Black musicians who typically couldn't even read music. Within jazz, there are many different permutations: blues, ragtime, New Orleans (or Dixieland), swing, bebop, and progressive. Sadly, this uniquely American contribution to world music has found a more appreciative audience abroad than at home. Some Black performers, such as Josephine Baker, were so disillusioned by their better foreign reception that they emigrated to Europe and spent their careers there.
B. Herbert Hoover's Administration: When Coolidge refused to run for a second term in 1928, the Republicans nominated Herbert Hoover, a mining engineer and businessman from California. He had organized war relief in Europe during the War, and had also served as Secretary of Commerce under both Harding and Coolidge. He came to the White House promising to continue the "Coolidge Prosperity," but four years later he was cursed and rejected by the whole nation.
1. The Stock Market Crash--October 24, 1929: The frenetic all-night party atmosphere of the Roaring Twenties came to an abrupt end on October 24, 1929 with the Stock Market crash which ushered in the Great Depression. Historians and economists have been able to pinpoint several reasons why the market crashed so hard. First, the prosperity of the Twenties was unevenly distributed among the various parts of the American economy--farmers and unskilled workers were excluded with the result that the nation's productive capacity was greater than its capacity to consume. Second, the tariff and war debt policies of the Republican administrations of the 1920s had cut down the foreign market for American goods. Third, many Americans had bought on a 10% margin; that is, they put up part of the price of the stock and owed the balance. When their margin was lost, they were forced to sell their stock at whatever price they could get for it. And finally, easy money policies led to an inordinate expansion of credit and installment buying and fantastic speculation in the stock market, especially in the highly speculative enterprises. The depression stateside produced severe effects abroad, especially in Europe, where many countries had not fully recovered from the aftermath of WWI. In the U.S., during the depth of the depression (1933), there were 16 million unemployed--or about 1/3 of the workforce.
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT AND THE "NEW DEAL"
A. Hoover Tries to Fight the Depression: When the economy was hit by the stock market crash, it was Herbert Hoover's misfortune to be in the White House during the most difficult phase of the ensuing depression. Throughout his tenure, he continued to voice optimism because he sincerely believed that periodic depressions were a natural part of the business cycle. "Prosperity is just around the corner," he would always say; and he always refused to allow the government to help the jobless, homeless, and starving through relief programs because he saw these as socialistic or communistic. Furthermore, no one could envision at the time just how long the depression would last. And thus, in spite of the "too-little, too-late" public works program that he created, the growing misery, lengthening bread lines, and "Hoovervilles" of cardboard shacks, all left the lasting impression of Hoover as some kind of latter-day Nero who fiddled while Rome burned.
1. Some Sobering Statistics: Between 1929 and 1932, some 85,000 businesses failed, with assets totalling about $4.5 billion; and, by 1932, more than 14 million people were unemployed. The nation's income in 1929 was $81 billion, by 1932 in had dropped to $41 billion, while the savings in 9 million bank accounts were wiped out to meet household expenses. Ironically, Bernard E. Smith make a fortune in the stock market by following the rule of thumb that the market would decline every time Hoover appeared in public saying that "prosperity is just around the corner."
2. The "Bonus Army": In May, 1932, approximately 1000 unemployed ex-servicemen from WWI marched to Washington, D.C., declaring that they would remain there until Congress authorized the immediate cash payment of of the 20 year bonus voted in 1924 for WWI vets. This "Bonus Army" was joined by yet more vets until there were about 15 thousand of them in the city. Most eventually disbanded and went home but there were still a hard core of them who refused to go home. Hoover believed these men might resort to some kind of violence and so he ordered the infantry, cavalry, and tank corps to drive them out.
B. Franklin D. Roosevelt and the First New Deal: The Republican party was blamed for the depression and this paved the way for the election of the Democratic candidate of 1932--F.D.R., who stressed "a new deal" for the "forgotten man," while emphasizing that the Democrats believed it to be the responsibility of the federal government to promote the welfare and well-being of the great masses of the people. As a result, the Democrats were voted into office with a landslide: 42 states to 4. In his first inaugural address, Roosevelt declared that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself," and pledged strong executive leadership to resolve the Depression. In spite of his handicap (stricken with Polio in 1921), Roosevelt was an activist, and set out to deal with the Depression almost as soon as he was elected. From March to June, 1933, during "The Hundred Days" Roosevelt launched the First New Deal program, whose two-fold object was relief, recovery, and reform, and the prevention of future depressions.
1. Financial Reforms to End the Banking Crisis: Roosevelt's first official act was to declare a national banking holiday. All banks were closed until the Treasury department could investigate the financial condition of the nation's banks. This had the effect of stopping further bank "runs." (which happens when depositors lose confidence in a bank, become panicky, and rush to withdraw their money) Only healthy banks were allowed to reopen. In the first of Roosevelt's many radio broadcasts, or fireside chats, he reassured the public that the reopened banks were backed by the resources of the Federal government and were "safe." This helped to restore confidence and ended the banking crisis. In addition, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was established in 1933 to insure depositors' bank accounts. This measure protects bank depositors from the loss of their savings up to $100,000 at present in the event of a bank failure.
2. Relief for the Unemployed: The Federal government undertook the creation of many agencies and bureaus during the 30s for relief and assistance. These were sarcastically known as the "Alphabet Soup Agencies" for the proliferation of their acronyms. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), established in 1933 made large sums of taxpayers' dollars available to local and state agencies for direct relief to the unemployed. Millions of families received cash to help pay for food, clothing, and shelter. The Public Works Administration (PWA) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) put millions of jobless to work on building highways, bridges, schools, hospitals, parks, and severs. Artists, writers, actors, musicians, and white-collar workers were employed on projects suited to their talents. (the slave narratives) The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) provided jobs for men between the ages of 18 and 25, who worked on such conservation projects as reforestation, soil conservation, flood control, and road construction. By 1941, more than 2 million young men had been employed by the CCC.
3. Aid for the Recovery of Industry: Roosevelt also created the Export-Import Bank to extend loans to American manufacturers and exporters wanting to do business with foreign countries; while the Trade Agreements Act (1934) authorized the president to negotiate reciprocal trade agreements with other nations.
4. Conservation of the Nation's Resources: The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was established in 1933 to develop the resources of the Tennessee River Valley, which includes parts of seven states (TN, VA, KY, NC, GA, AL, MS). The agency erected dams and power plants along the Tennessee River and its tributaries, built power lines, and provided low-cost electric power to farms, industries, and communities of the region. As a result of the TVA, the standard of living of the appx. 3 million inhabitants of the Tennessee Valley were quickly raised. During WWII, the TVA provided a vital military service by providing electricity to the atomic energy plant at Oak Ridge, TN, which was, at the time, working on the development of the Atomic bomb. In other parts of the country, the Federal government also built huge dams, among them Hoover Dam on the Colorado (it was begun during Hoover's administration and completed in 1936, but because of Hoover's unpopularity, it was originally named Boulder Dam); Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River; and the Shasta Dam on the Sacramento River.
5. The Second New Deal: In the off-year congressional elections of 1934, the Roosevelt administration received a vote of confidence from the public by bringing more New Deal committed Democrats to office. This encouraged Roosevelt to expand his program to include a new group of projects to help the underprivileged throughout the country. In 1935, he began to implement a comprehensive program of social reform, having as its basic objective to provide security against unemployment, illness, the cares of old age, and the uncertainty of dependency upon family or friends. This plan was known as the Second New Deal, and targeted laborers and farmers, almost exclusively. The Social Security Act (1935) provided for the payment of pensions to elderly persons and established a cooperative federal-state plan of unemployment insurance; while, the Fair Labor Standards Act (1938) established minimum wages and maximum working hours for labor. One of the reasons Roosevelt's policies swung toward the leftist extreme was the appeal of other, even more radical advocates such as Louisiana's Democratic governor and U.S. senator, Huey P. Long, who advocated the "Share our Wealth" movement to guarantee every family of the nation a homestead worth $5000 and a minimum annual income of $2000!
6. Roosevelt and the Supreme Court: Following the 1936 elections against Kansas Governor Alf Landon, F.D.R. seemed to be at the peak of his power and prestige. But after the elections, many of his most progressive ideas, such as the National Recovery Administration, the Agricultural Administration, the Securities and Exchange Commission, a coal act and a bankruptcy act, were ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, which was dominated by aging, conservative Republicans. In all, they shot down 11 of Roosevelt's New Deal measures, to the delight of conservative Wall Street executives and corporate leaders. At any rate, Roosevelt believed he had a mandate in his reelection, and so went on the offensive against the Supreme Court by sponsoring the Reorganization Plan, a bill which would allow the president to appoint an additional justice for each member reaching the age of 70 (of whom there were 6). Thus Roosevelt tried to "pack" the Supreme Court with judges who would be sympathetic to New Deal legislation.
C. Evaluation and Critique of the New Deal: The years of the
New Deal constituted one of the most controversial periods in the nation's
history. Its critics believed that it was destroying the traditional American
way of life by encouraging government intrusiveness and by making traditionally
independent and self-reliant Americans dependent upon government largesse.
The conservatives, especially in the business arena, argued that the New
Deal was undermining the spirit of free enterprise that had made the country
great, and was contributing to accustoming Americans to walking down the
primrose path to socialism. Protests became louder as the costs of the
program contributed tremendously to the national debt, which rose from $19
1/2 billion in 1932 to $49 billion in 1941; and, especially when Roosevelt
broke the two term tradition. On the other hand, the supporters of the
New Deal claimed that the program had saved the country from economic and
social disaster, restored the confidence of the public, spurred the nation's
progress toward economic and social democracy, and may have even staved
off communist takeover.