America: Pathways to the Present: Cambridge Ed.

1920-1930

Copyright 2005 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as

Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. All rights reserved.

America: Pathways to the Present: Cambridge Ed.

Theme 1: A Republican Decade

Theme 2: Society in the 1920s

Mass Media and the Jazz Age

Theme 3: A Business Boom
The Economy in the Late 1920s
Cultural Conflicts
Theme 4: Worker Rights
International Peace
Copyright 2005 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as
Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. All rights reserved.

America: Pathways to the Present: Cambridge Ed.

Theme 1
Government and the People

Copyright 2005 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as

Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. All rights reserved.

A Republican Decade
Chapter 21, Section 1

What events fueled the Red Scare of the early 1920s?

What conflicts led to the major labor strikes of 1919?
How did Republican leadership during the Harding
and Coolidge presidencies shape the 1920s?
What issues influenced the presidential election of
1928?

The Red Scare

Chapter 21, Section 1

Issues of concern in the presidential election of 1920:

Emerging from the shadow of World War I
Putting the economy back on track
Republican Warren G. Harding called for a return to normalcy.
Many Americans hoped that Hardings normalcy would protect
them from the spread of Russias communism, an ideology openly
hostile to capitalism and First Amendment freedoms.
Some Americans were concerned that the European immigrants
entering the United States were Communists or other radicals.
Events at home and abroad brought about a Red Scare, an intense
fear of communism and other radical ideas.

Red Scare Events

Chapter 21, Section 1

Schenck v. U.S.

Charles Schenck mailed letters urging men to avoid military service.

Schenck was convicted of breaking the Espionage Act. In his appeals, Schenck
said he was exercising his freedom of speech.
The Supreme Court said that the government is justified in silencing free
speech when there is a clear and present danger.
Gitlow v. New
York

Socialist Bernard Gitlow published calls for the violent overthrow of the
government. He was convicted of criminal anarchy. The Supreme Court upheld
his conviction, stating that he had urged people to engage in violent revolution.

The Palmer Raids

Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer ordered the arrest of thousands of

suspected subversives (people trying to overthrow the government) without
evidence. Many were innocent, yet more than 500 were deported.

Sacco and
Vanzetti

Two anarchists were accused of a robbery and murder. Many people believed
that they were singled out because they were both radicals and immigrants.
After a trial that many believed was unfair, the jury found them guilty and
sentenced them to death.

Labor Strikes
Chapter 21, Section 1

The Harding Presidency

Chapter 21, Section 1

Foreign Policy

Domestic Issues

The Teapot
Dome Scandal

Harding and many Americans wanted a policy of isolationism,

avoiding political or economic alliances with foreign countries.
Harding called for international disarmament, a program in which
nations voluntarily give up their weapons.
He promoted the expansion of trade and acted to protect business
at home.
As Americans became more isolationist during the Red Scare, they
also became more nativist. Nativism is a movement favoring
native-born Americans over immigrants.
In 1921, Congress passed a law restricting immigration. The law
included a quota, or a numerical limit imposed on immigrants.
In 1923, corruption scandals rocked Hardings administration.
The worst was the Teapot Dome Scandal. Hardings Secretary of
the Interior secretly gave drilling rights on government land to two
private oil companies in return for illegal payments.
There was no evidence that Harding was involved in the scandals.
He died while still in office.

The Coolidge Presidency

Chapter 21, Section 1

Coolidge assumed the presidency after Harding died.

He summed up a major theme of the Republican decade: The
chief business of the American people is business.
Coolidge supported a laissez-faire approach to business. His
economic policies helped fuel the economic boom of the 1920s.
Coolidge wanted peace and stability without getting the United States too deeply
involved in other nations.
Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg worked with the French foreign minister to create
the Kellogg-Briand Pact. Under this pact more than 60 nations agreed not to threaten
each other with war. Unfortunately, there were no provisions for enforcement, and
many of the countries that had signed the pact would be at war with each other by
1941.

A Republican DecadeAssessment
Chapter 21, Section 1

How did the Red Scare contribute to Americas policy of isolationism in the 1920s?
(A) It made Americans more nativist.
(B) It caused a significant American military increase.
(C) It helped Americans form stronger relationships with non-Communist
countries.
(D) It decreased U.S. involvement in Latin America.
Teapot Dome refers to a scandal in the Harding administration involving
(A) Indian reservations.
(B) Oil leases.
(C) Government sale of western lands.
(D) Veterans hospitals

A Republican DecadeAssessment
Chapter 21, Section 1

How did the Red Scare contribute to Americas policy of isolationism in the 1920s?
(A) It made Americans more nativist.
(B) It caused a significant American military increase.
(C) It helped Americans form stronger relationships with non-Communist
countries.
(D) It decreased U.S. involvement in Latin America.
Teapot Dome refers to a scandal in the Harding administration involving
(A) Indian reservations.
(B) Oil leases.
(C) Government sale of western lands.
(D) Veterans hospitals

America: Pathways to the Present: Cambridge Ed.

Theme 2
Who are the Americans

Copyright 2005 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as

Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. All rights reserved.

Society in the 1920s

Chapter 20, Section 1

How were womens roles changing during the 1920s?

How were the nations cities and suburbs affected by
Americans on the move from rural areas?
Who were some American heroes of the 1920s? What
made them popular with the American public?

Womens Changing Roles

Chapter 20, Section 1

The Flapper Image

The flapper, a type of bold,
fun-loving young woman,
came to symbolize a
revolution in manners and
morals that took place in the
1920s.
Flappers challenged
conventions of dress,
hairstyle, and behavior.
Many Americans disapproved
of flappers free manners as
well as the departure from
traditional morals that they
represented.

Women Working and Voting

Although many women held
jobs in the 1920s, businesses
remained prejudiced against
women seeking professional
positions.
The Nineteenth Amendment
gave women the right to vote
in all elections beginning in
1920. At first, many women
did not exercise their right to
vote. It took time for womens
votes to make an impact.

Americans on the Move

Chapter 20, Section 1

Rural-Urban Split
Although the economy in the
cities expanded in the 1920s,
many farmers found
themselves economically
stressed. This resulted in a
migration from rural to urban
areas.
Rural and urban Americans
were also split over cultural
issues. While many in the
cities were abandoning some
traditional values, rural
populations generally wanted
to preserve these values.

Growth of the Suburbs

While cities continued to
grow, many Americans
moved from cities to suburbs.
Improvements in
transportation made travel
between the cities and
suburbs increasingly easy.
This shift in population was
one example of changing
demographics, or statistics
that describe a group of
people, during the 1920s.

Waves of Migration
Chapter 20, Section 1

During the Great Migration, which lasted through World War I,

many African Americans had moved from the rural South to take
jobs in northern cities. Industrial expansion during the 1920s also
encouraged African American migration to the North. However,
they often faced discrimination in both the North and the South.
After World War I, masses of refugees applied for entry into the
United States. Immigration from China, Japan, and southern and
eastern Europe was limited; however, many immigrants from
Mexico and Canada filled low-paying jobs in the United States.
Certain areas became magnets for immigrants. A barrio, or
Spanish-speaking neighborhood, developed in Los Angeles,
California; New York also attracted numerous Spanish-speaking
immigrants.

Immigration Act of 1924

The Immigration Act of 1924 limited the number of immigrants

allowed entry into the United States through a national origins
quota. The quota provided immigration visas to two percent of the
total number of people of each nationality in the United States as
of the 1890 national census. It completely excluded immigrants
from Asia.
The Act excluded from entry anyone born in a geographically
defined Asiatic Barred Zone except for Japanese and Filipinos.
In 1907, the Japanese Government had voluntarily limited
Japanese immigration to the United States in the Gentlemens
Agreement. The Philippines was a U.S. colony, so its citizens were
U.S. nationals and could travel freely to the United States. China
was not included in the Barred Zone, but the Chinese were already
denied immigration visas under the Chinese Exclusion Act.

1924 Indian Citizenship Act

Until the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, Indians occupied an

unusual status under federal law. Some had acquired citizenship
by marrying white men. Others received citizenship through
military service, by receipt of allotments, or through special
treaties or special statutes. But many were still not citizens, and
they were barred from the ordinary processes of naturalization
open to foreigners. Congress took what some saw as the final
step on June 2, 1924 and granted citizenship to all Native
Americans born in the United States.
The granting of citizenship was not a response to some universal
petition by American Indian groups. Rather, it was a move by the
federal government to absorb Indians into the mainstream of
American life. No doubt Indian participation in World War I
accelerated the granting of citizenship to all Indians, but it seems
more likely to have been the logical extension and culmination of
the assimilation policy.

Society in the 1920sAssessment

Chapter 20 Section 1

Why were some Americans opposed to flappers?

(A) Flappers opposed the Nineteenth Amendment.
(B) Flappers challenged traditional values.
(C) Americans preferred sports heroes.
(D) Americans thought that flappers encouraged immigration.
Which of the following was a migration pattern in the 1920s?
(A) From cities to suburbs
(B) From suburbs to cities
(C) From suburbs to rural areas
(D) From the United States to Canada and Mexico

Society in the 1920sAssessment

Chapter 20, Section 1

Why were some Americans opposed to flappers?

(A) Flappers opposed the Nineteenth Amendment.
(B) Flappers challenged traditional values.
(C) Americans preferred sports heroes.
(D) Americans thought that flappers encouraged immigration.
Which of the following was a migration pattern in the 1920s?
(A) From cities to suburbs
(B) From suburbs to cities
(C) From suburbs to rural areas
(D) From the United States to Canada and Mexico

Mass Media and the Jazz Age

Chapter 20, Section 2

How did the mass media help create common cultural

experiences?
Why are the 1920s called the Jazz Age, and how did
the jazz spirit affect the arts?
How did the writers of the Lost Generation respond to
the popular culture?
What subjects did the Harlem Renaissance writers
explore?

The Mass Media

Chapter 13, Section 2

Growth of the mass media, instruments for communicating with

large numbers of people, helped form a common American
popular culture during the 1920s.
The popularity of motion pictures grew throughout the 1920s;
talkies, or movies with sound, were introduced in 1927.
Newspapers grew in both size and circulation. Tabloids, compact
papers which replaced serious news with entertainment, became
popular. Magazines also became widely read.
Although radio barely existed as a mass medium until the 1920s, it
soon enjoyed tremendous growth. Networks linked many stations
together, sending the same music, news, and commercials to
Americans around the country.

The Jazz Age

Chapter 13, Section 2

Jazz, a style of music that grew out of the African American

music of the South, became highly popular during the
1920s. Characterized by improvisation and syncopation,
jazz became so strongly linked to the culture of the 1920s
that the decade came to be known as the Jazz Age.
Harlem, a district in Manhattan, New York, became a center
of jazz music. Flappers and others heard jazz in clubs and
dance halls; the Charleston, considered by some to be a
wild and reckless dance, embodied the Jazz Age.
Jazz pioneers Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong made
important contributions to jazz music.

The Jazz Spirit

Chapter 13, Section 2

Other Art Inspired by Jazz

Painting

Like jazz musicians, painters in the 1920s took the pulse of

American life. Painters such as Edward Hopper and
Rockwell Kent showed the nations rougher side; Georgia
OKeeffes paintings of natural objects suggested something
larger than themselves.

Literature

Novelist Sinclair Lewis attacked American society with

savage irony; playwright Eugene ONeill proved that
American plays could hold their own against those from
Europe.

The Lost
Generation

Gertrude Stein remarked to Ernest Hemingway that he and

other American writers were all a Lost Generation, a group
of people disconnected from their country and its values.
Soon, this term was taken up by the flappers as well.

The Harlem Renaissance

Chapter 13, Section 2

In addition to being a center of jazz, Harlem emerged

as an overall cultural center for African Americans. A
literary awakening took place in Harlem in the 1920s
that was known as the Harlem Renaissance.
Expressing the joys and challenges of being African
American, writers such as James Weldon Johnson,
Zora Neale Hurston, and Langston Hughes enriched
African American culture as well as American culture
as a whole.

Mass Media and the Jazz AgeAssessment

Chapter 20, Section 2

Which of these best describes how the growth of mass media affected
American culture?
(A) It allowed local cultural traditions to flourish.
(B) It made learning the Charleston easier.
(C) It spread the work of Lost Generation writers.
(D) It helped create a common American popular culture.
What was the Harlem Renaissance?
(A) A style of jazz music
(B) An African American literary awakening
(C) An increase in the popularity of newspapers and magazines
(D) A type of jazz club found in Harlem

Mass Media and the Jazz AgeAssessment

Chapter 20, Section 2

Which of these best describes how the growth of mass media affected
American culture?
(A) It allowed local cultural traditions to flourish.
(B) It made learning the Charleston easier.
(C) It spread the work of Lost Generation writers.
(D) It helped create a common American popular culture.
What was the Harlem Renaissance?
(A) A style of jazz music
(B) An African American literary awakening
(C) An increase in the popularity of newspapers and magazines
(D) A type of jazz club found in Harlem

America: Pathways to the Present: Cambridge Ed.

Theme 3
Economic and Social Change

Copyright 2005 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as

Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. All rights reserved.

A Business Boom
Chapter 21, Section 2

What role do businesses and consumers play in a

consumer economy?
How were Henry Ford and the automobile important to
the 1920s?
In what ways did industrial growth affect the economy
of the 1920s?
Why did the economic boom bypass some people and
benefit others?

A Consumer Economy
Chapter 21, Section 2

The 1920s saw the development of a consumer economy, one that

depends on a large amount of spending by consumers.
Until the 1920s, middle-class Americans generally paid cash for
everything. Manufacturers developed installment plans and clever
advertising to encourage consumers to buy on credit.
Many new electric appliances created a surge in demand for electricity.
Between 1913 and 1927, the number of electric power customers
quadrupled.
By the 1920s, marketers developed a new approach to advertising.
Advertisers used psychology to appeal to consumers emotions and
insecurities to sell products.
As consumption rose so did productivity. A measure of productivity is the
Gross National Product (GNP). The GNP is the total value of goods and
services a country produces annually.
Productivity rose to meet consumer demand, but it also rose because the
nation developed new resources, new management methods, and new
technologies.

Ford and the Automobile

Chapter 21, Section 2

In 1896, Henry Ford perfected his first version of a lightweight

gas-powered car. He called it the quadricycle. The improved
version was the Model T.
Ford wanted to produce a large number of cars and sell them at
prices ordinary people could afford.
To sell less expensive cars, he adapted the assembly line for his
factories. An assembly line is a process in which each worker
does one specialized task in the construction of a final product.
Fords success came partly from vertical consolidation
controlling the businesses that make up the phases of production.
Ford was a complex businessman. His pay rate was very
generous, but he used violence to fight unions.

Industrial Growth and Bypassed by the Boom

Chapter 21, Section 2

Industrial Growth
Automobile making became the
nations largest industry.
Thousands of new businesses
arose to serve automobile travel.
Other non-automobile-related
industries grew as well.
Limited government regulation
(laissez-faire policies) helped the
value of businesses to soar.
Rapid business expansion
opened up opportunities for
small companies.

Bypassed by the Boom

Some Americans struggled to
survive during the 1920s.
Many unskilled laborers remained
poor, and their wages and
working conditions did not
improve with the boom.
Agricultural industries had
expanded to meet wartime needs
but later failed to uncover new
markets.
Railroads suffered from shrinking
demand, mismanagement,
competition from trucking firms,
and labor unions that fought
against layoffs and wage cuts.

A Business BoomAssessment
Chapter 21, Section 2

What was the new approach to advertising in the 1920s?

(A) It informed the consumer about the quality of the product.
(B) It showed the products superiority over the competition.
(C) It appealed to the emotions and insecurities of the consumer.
(D) It helped the consumer to identify the manufacturer.
In the United States which group suffered economically in the 1920s?
(A) Unskilled laborers
(B) Agricultural workers
(C) Railroad companies
(D) All of the above

A Business BoomAssessment
Chapter 21, Section 2

What was the new approach to advertising in the 1920s?

(A) It informed the consumer about the quality of the product.
(B) It showed the products superiority over the competition.
(C) It appealed to the emotions and insecurities of the consumer.
(D) It helped the consumer to identify the manufacturer.
In the United States which group suffered economically in the 1920s?
(A) Unskilled laborers
(B) Agricultural workers
(C) Railroad companies
(D) All of the above

The Economy in the Late 1920s

Chapter 21, Section 3

Why did the economy of the late 1920s appear healthy

to most Americans?
What danger signs were present in the economy of
the late 1920s?

Economy Appears Healthy

Chapter 21, Section 3

Herbert Hoover won the 1928 election, benefiting from the years of
prosperity under previous Republican presidents.
Americans had unusually high confidence in the economy in the
1920s. People made risky investments based on the popular
notion that everyone ought to be rich.
Many employers believed that they could prevent strikes and keep
their productivity high with benefits that would meet and exceed
the demands of workers. This approach to labor relations is
called welfare capitalism.
Under welfare capitalism employers raised wages, provided paid
vacations, health plans, recreation programs, and English classes
for recent immigrants. They even set up company unions to
hear the concerns of their workers.
As a result of welfare capitalism, organized labor lost members
during the 1920s.

Economic Danger Signs

Chapter 21, Section 3

Uneven
Prosperity

The rich got richer

Huge corporations rather than small business dominated industry.

Personal Debt

Many Americans believed that they could count on future income to cover debt.
They bought on installment plans boasting easy terms.

Playing the Stock

Market

The rapid increase of stock prices encouraged:

Speculation, the practice of making high-risk investments in hopes of
getting a huge return, and
Buying on margin, the practice of allowing investors to purchase a stock for
only a fraction of its price and borrow the rest at high interest rates.

Too Many Goods,

Too Little
Demand

Rising productivity had brought prosperity, but it also created a surplus of

goods. Manufacturers had more product than consumers could buy.

Trouble for
Farmers and
Workers

Farmers unable to pay their debts defaulted on bank loans, which caused rural
banks to fail. Coolidge vetoed a farm relief bill.
While companies grew wealthy, many factory workers remained poor, especially
in distressed industries.

Personal Debt and Income Distribution

in the 1920s
Chapter 21, Section 3

The Economy in the Late 1920sAssessment

Chapter 21, Section 3

Why did employers practice welfare capitalism?

(A) To create false demand for goods
(B) To prevent strikes and keep productivity high
(C) To encourage stock market investment
(D) To raise tariffs
What is buying on margin?
(A) Making high risk investments in hopes of getting a huge return
(B) Causing a decrease in the price of a stock by spreading rumors
about a company
(C) Allowing certain investors to buy stock at a lower price
(D) Allowing investors to purchase a stock for a fraction of its price and
borrow the rest

The Economy in the Late 1920sAssessment

Chapter 21, Section 3

Why did employers practice welfare capitalism?

(A) To create false demand for goods
(B) To prevent strikes and keep productivity high
(C) To encourage stock market investment
(D) To raise tariffs
What is buying on margin?
(A) Making high risk investments in hopes of getting a huge return
(B) Causing a decrease in the price of a stock by spreading rumors
about a company
(C) Allowing certain investors to buy stock at a lower price
(D) Allowing investors to purchase a stock for a fraction of its price and
borrow the rest

Cultural Conflicts
Chapter 20, Section 3

What were the effects of Prohibition on society?

What issues of religion were at the core of the Scopes
trial?
How did racial tensions change after World War I?

Prohibition
Chapter 20, Section 3

The Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which took

effect on January 16, 1920, made the manufacture, sale, and
transport of liquor, beer, and wine illegal.
As a result, many Americans turned to bootleggers, or
suppliers of illegal alcohol. Bars that operated illegally,
known as speakeasies, were either disguised as legitimate
businesses or hidden in some way, often behind heavy
gates.
Prohibition sharpened the contrast between rural and urban
areas, since urban areas were more likely to ignore the law.
Additionally, it increased the number of liquor-serving
establishments in some major cities to far above preProhibition levels.

Organized Crime
Chapter 20, Section 3

The tremendous profit resulting from the sale of illegal

liquor, as well as the complex organization involved, helped
lead to the development of organized crime.
Successful bootlegging organizations often moved into
other illegal activities as well, including gambling,
prostitution, and racketeering. As rival groups fought for
control in some American cities, gang wars and murders
became commonplace.
One of the most notorious criminals of this time was Al
Capone, nicknamed Scarface, a gangster who rose to the
top of Chicagos organized crime network. Capone proved
talented at avoiding jail but was finally imprisoned in 1931.

Issues of Religion
Chapter 20, Section 3

Fundamentalism
As science, technology, modern
social issues, and new Biblical
scholarship challenged
traditional religious beliefs, a
religious movement called
fundamentalism gained
popularity.
Fundamentalism supported
traditional Christian ideas and
argued for a literal interpretation
of the Bible.
Billy Sunday and other famous
fundamentalist preachers drew
large audiences.

Evolution and the Scopes Trail

Fundamentalists worked to pass
laws against teaching the theory
of evolution in public schools. A
science teacher named John T.
Scopes agreed to challenge such
a law in Tennessee. His arrest
led to what was called the Scopes
trial.
The Scopes trial became the first
trial to be broadcast over
American radio.
The case became a public debate
between fundamentalists and
modernists.

Racial Tensions
Chapter 20, Section 3

Violence Against African Americans

Mob violence between white and
black Americans erupted in about
25 cities during the summer of
1919.
The worst of these race riots
occurred in Chicago, where the
African American population had
doubled since 1910. A white man
threw a rock at a black teenager
swimming in Lake Michigan, and
the boy drowned. The incident
touched off riots that lasted
several days, destroyed many
homes, killed several people and
wounded many more.

Revival of the Klan

Although it had been largely
eliminated during
Reconstruction, the Ku Klux Klan
regained power during the 1920s
and greatly increased its
membership outside the South.
The Klans focus shifted to
include terrorizing not just
African Americans but also
Catholics, Jews, immigrants, and
others.
After the arrest of a major Klan
leader in 1925, Klan membership
diminished once again.

Fighting Discrimination
Chapter 20, Section 3

During the 1920s, the NAACP fought for anti-lynching laws and
worked to promote the voting rights of African Americans. These
efforts, however, met with limited success.
A movement led by Marcus Garvey, an immigrant from Jamaica,
became popular with many African Americans. Garvey, who
created the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA),
sought to build up African Americans self-respect and economic
power, encouraging them to buy shares in his Negro Factories
Corporation.
Garvey also encouraged his followers to return to Africa and
create a self-governing nation there. Although corruption and
mismanagement resulted in the collapse of the UNIA, Garveys
ideas of racial pride and independence would affect future black
pride movements.

Cultural ConflictsAssessment
Chapter 20, Section 3

How did Prohibition reinforce the division between urban and rural areas?
(A) Speakeasies only replaced legal saloons in urban areas.
(B) Rural areas were more likely to obey Prohibition.
(C) Urban areas were more likely to obey Prohibition.
(D) Bootleggers only worked in rural areas.
Which of the following best describes Marcus Garveys goals for African
Americans?
(A) Religious fundamentalism and an end to teaching evolution
(B) Equality with Catholics, Jews, and immigrants
(C) Universal suffrage and an end to lynchings
(D) Self-respect, economic power, and independence

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Cultural ConflictsAssessment
Chapter 20, Section 3

How did Prohibition reinforce the division between urban and rural areas?
(A) Speakeasies only replaced legal saloons in urban areas.
(B) Rural areas were more likely to obey Prohibition.
(C) Urban areas were more likely to obey Prohibition.
(D) Bootleggers only worked in rural areas.
Which of the following best describes Marcus Garveys goals for African
Americans?
(A) Religious fundamentalism and an end to teaching evolution
(B) Equality with Catholics, Jews, and immigrants
(C) Universal suffrage and an end to lynchings
(D) Self-respect, economic power, and independence

America: Pathways to the Present: Cambridge Ed.

Theme 4
The U.S.A. and the World

Copyright 2005 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as

Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. All rights reserved.

Worker Rights

What were the effects of WWI on worker rights?

What factors lead to the fall of worker rights?
How did the US government react to strikes?
What events fueled the Red Scare of the early 1920s?

International Labour Organization

The ILO was created in 1919, as part of the Treaty of Versailles

that ended World War I, to reflect the belief that universal and
lasting peace can be accomplished only if it is based on social
justice.

There was keen appreciation of the importance of social justice in

securing peace, against a background of exploitation of workers
in the industrializing nations of that time. There was also
increasing understanding of the world's economic
interdependence and the need for cooperation to obtain similarity
of working conditions in countries competing for markets.

American Workers

The war's end, however, was accompanied by labor turmoil, as labor

demanded union recognition, shorter hours, and raises exceeding the
inflation rate. Over 4 million workers--one fifth of the nation's
workforce--participated in strikes in 1919, including 365,000
steelworkers and 400,000 miners. The number of striking workers
would not be matched until the Depression year of 1937.

Workers who avoided striking during the war were now demanding
wage increases to keep pace with spiraling inflation. Over 3,300
postwar strikes swept the land. A small group of radicals formed
the COMMUNIST LABOR PARTY in 1919. Progressive and
conservative Americans believed that labor activism was a menace to
American society and must be squelched. The hatchetman against
American radicals was President Wilson's Attorney General, A.
MITCHELL PALMER. Palmer was determined that no Bolshevik
Revolution would happen in the United States.

Palmer Raids

From 1919 to 1920, Palmer conducted a series of raids on individuals

he believed were dangerous to American security. He deported
249 RUSSIAN IMMIGRANTS without just cause. The so-called
"SOVIET ARK" was sent back to Mother Russia. With Palmer's
sponsorship, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was created under
the leadership of J. Edgar Hoover. In January of 1920, federal agents
broke into the homes of suspected anarchists without search
warrants, jailed labor leaders, and held about 5,000 citizens without
respecting their right to legal counsel. Palmer felt that American civil
liberties were less important than rooting out potential wrongdoers.
Eventually most of the detainees were released, but some were
deported.
During the 1920s, many of labor's gains during World War I and the
Progressive era were rolled back. Membership in labor unions fell
from 5 million to 3 million. The U.S. Supreme Court outlawed
picketing, overturned national child labor laws, and abolished
minimum wage laws for women.

Worker RightsAssessment
Which Factors were the major causes of the Red Scare and the Palmer Raids,
which followed World War I?
(A) Success of the Communist Party in congressional and Presidential
elections.
(B) Race riots in Los Angeles and the revival of the Ku Klux Klan.
(C) Failure of the United States to join the League of Nations and the
unpaid German War Debts.
(D) The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 in Russia and workers strikes in
the United States.
The International Labor Organization was formulated in
(A) 1925
(B) 1939
(C) 1919
(D) 1929

Worker RightsAssessment
Which Factors were the major causes of the Red Scare and the Palmer Raids,
which followed World War I?
(A) Success of the Communist Party in congressional and Presidential
elections.
(B) Race riots in Los Angeles and the revival of the Ku Klux Klan.
(C) Failure of the United States to join the League of Nations and the
unpaid German War Debts.
(D) The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 in Russia and workers strikes in
the United States.
The International Labor Organization was formulated in
(A) 1925
(B) 1939
(C) 1919
(D) 1929

International Peace
Did the U.S.A follow a policy of isolation in the 1920s?
How did loans by the U.S. both help and hurt German
recovery?
What was the intent of the Kellogg-Briand Pact?

The Washington Naval Conference, 1921-22

Between 1921 and 1922, the worlds largest naval powers gathered in Washington,
D.C. for a conference to discuss naval disarmament and ways to relieve growing
tensions in East Asia.
In the wake of World War I, leaders in the international community sought to prevent
the possibility of another war. Rising Japanese militarism and an international arms
race heightened these concerns. As a result, policymakers worked to reduce the
rising threat. Senator William E. Borah (RIdaho) led a congressional effort to
demand that the United States engage its two principal competitors in the naval
arms race, Japan and the United Kingdom, in negotiations for disarmament.
In 1921, U.S. Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes invited nine nations to
Washington, D.C. to discuss naval reductions and the situation in the Far East. The
United Kingdom, Japan, France and Italy were invited to take part in talks on
reducing naval capacity, while Belgium, China, Portugal, and the Netherlands were
invited to join in discussions on the situation in the Far East. Three major treaties
emerged out of the Washington Naval Conference: the Five-Power Treaty, the FourPower Treaty, and the Nine-Power Treaty.

https://history.state.gov/milestones/1921-1936/naval-conference

Debt Repayment and Reparations

In the years following the First World War, issues of debt repayment and
reparations troubled relations between the Allies and the now defeated
Germany. The U.S.-sponsored Dawes and Young Plans offered a possible
solution to these challenges.
At the end of the First World War, the victorious European powers demanded
that Germany compensate them for the devastation wrought by the four-year
conflict, for which they held Germany and its allies responsible. Unable to agree
upon the amount that Germany should pay at the Paris Peace Conference in
1919, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and the other Allies
established a Reparation Commission to settle the question. In the spring of
1921, the Commission set the final bill at 132 billion gold marks, approximately
$31.5 billion. When Germany defaulted on a payment in January 1923, France
and Belgium occupied the Ruhr in an effort to force payment. Instead, they met
a government-backed campaign of passive resistance. Inflation in Germany,
which had begun to accelerate in 1922, spiraled into hyperinflation. The value of
the German currency collapsed; the battle over reparations had reached an
impasse.

Dawes Plan

In late 1923, with the European powers stalemated over German reparations,
the Reparation Commission formed a committee to review the situation. The
committee presented its proposal in April 1924. Under the Dawes Plan,
Germanys annual reparation payments would be reduced, increasing over time
as its economy improved; the full amount to be paid, however, was left
undetermined. Economic policy making in Berlin would be reorganized under
foreign supervision and a new currency, the Reichsmark, adopted. France and
Belgium would evacuate the Ruhr and foreign banks would loan the German
government $200 million to help encourage economic stabilization. U.S.
financier J. P. Morgan floated the loan on the U.S. market, which was quickly
oversubscribed. Over the next four years, U.S. banks continued to lend
Germany enough money to enable it to meet its reparation payments to
countries such as France and the United Kingdom. These countries, in turn,
used their reparation payments from Germany to service their war debts to the
United States. In 1925, Dawes was a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in
recognition of his plans contribution to the resolution of the crisis over
reparations.

The Coolidge Presidency

Coolidge assumed the presidency after Harding died.

He summed up a major theme of the Republican decade: The chief business of the
American people is business.
Coolidge supported a laissez-faire approach to business. His economic policies
helped fuel the economic boom of the 1920s.

Coolidge wanted peace and stability without getting the United

States too deeply involved in other nations.
Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg worked with the French
foreign minister to create the Kellogg-Briand Pact of1928. Under
this pact more than 60 nations agreed not to threaten each other
with war. Unfortunately, there were no provisions for
enforcement, and many of the countries that had signed the pact
would be at war with each other by 1941.

Young Plan

In the autumn of 1928, another committee devised a final settlement of the

German reparations problem. In 1929, the Young committee proposed a
plan that reduced the total amount of reparations demanded of Germany to
121 billion gold marks, almost $29 billion, payable over 58 years. Another
loan would be floated in foreign markets, this one totaling $300 million.
Foreign supervision of German finances would cease and the last of the
occupying troops would leave German soil.
The advent of the Great Depression doomed the Young Plan from the start.
Loans from U.S. banks had helped prop up the German economy until
1928; when these loans dried up, Germanys economy floundered. In 1931,
as the world sunk ever deeper into depression, a one-year moratorium on
all debt and reparation payments was declared at the behest of President
Herbert Hoover; an effort to renew the moratorium the following year failed.

International PeaceAssessment
The Dawes Plan
(A) Allowed the U.S. to forgive German war debts from WWI.
(B) Gave Germany American loans so it could pay its war debts to France and
England.
(C) Significantly improved the economic problems in Europe.
(D) Forced Germany to pay its reparations to the U.S. on a quicker schedule.
What was the Kellogg-Briand Pact?
(A) A treaty outlawing war
(B) A treaty outlawing trade with Communist countries
(C) A treaty supporting war against Communist countries
(D) A treaty supporting international civil liberties

International PeaceAssessment
The Dawes Plan
(A) Allowed the U.S. to forgive German war debts from WWI.
(B) Gave Germany American loans so it could pay its war debts to France and
England.
(C) Significantly improved the economic problems in Europe.
(D) Forced Germany to pay its reparations to the U.S. on a quicker schedule.
What was the Kellogg-Briand Pact?
(A) A treaty outlawing war
(B) A treaty outlawing trade with Communist countries
(C) A treaty supporting war against Communist countries
(D) A treaty supporting international civil liberties