Summaries

Business-Government Partnership of the 1920s In the 1920 election, Republicans Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge promised a return to "normalcy," which meant a strong probusiness stance and conservative cultural values. Central to what Republicans termed the "New Era" was businessgovernment cooperation. The Department of Commerce, headed by Herbert Hoover, assisted private trade associations by cooperating in such areas as product standardization and wage and price controls. Many women tried to break into party politics, but Democrats and Republicans granted them only token positions on party committees; women were more influential as lobbyists. Americans were unenthusiastic about increased taxation and more governmental bureaucracy after enduring years of progressive reforms and an expanded federal presence in World War I. In the immediate postwar years, the nation suffered rampant inflation accompanied by intense business activity; federal efforts to halt inflation produced the recession of 1920 to 1921. In 1922, stimulated by an abundance of consumer products, the economy began a recovery that continued through 1929. The federal government was soon recording a budget surplus, and this economic expansion provided the backdrop for the partnership between business and government. New techniques of management and mass production led to growth in manufacturing output; demand for goods and services kept unemployment low. Oligopolies became the norm in manufacturing, and financial institutions also expanded and consolidated. Members of the working class enjoyed higher wages and a better standard of living, but scientific management techniques reduced workers' control over their labor. The United States was the most productive country in the world and competed in foreign markets that eagerly desired American consumer products. European countries had difficulty repaying their war debts to the United States due to tariffs such as the Fordney-McCumber Tariff of 1922 and the Hawley-Smoot Tariff of 1930. The Dawes Plan of 1924 offered Germany substantial loans from American banks and a reduction in the amount of reparations owed to the Allies. U.S. officials continued the quest for peaceful ways to dominate the Western Hemisphere but retreated slightly from military intervention in Latin America. International cooperation on the American side came through forums such as the 1921 Washington Naval Arms Conference. U.S. policymakers vacillated between wanting to play a larger role in world events and fearing that treaties and responsibilities would limit their ability to act unilaterally. Politics in the Republican "New Era" The electorate turned away from progressivism in 1920 and elected the Republican Warren G. Harding to the presidency, guaranteeing the return of a probusiness conservative administration. The most active member of the administration was Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, who set about organizing a voluntary government-business relationship. His plan was to provide information and support to businesses with the assumption that they would voluntarily work on behalf of the public interest. Government and big business often ignored antitrust laws, and corporations used government assistance to enlarge their economic power. Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall was sent to prison for bribery in connection with the Teapot Dome scandal, and when Harding died suddenly in August 1923, Vice President Calvin Coolidge became president, promising an honest administration; he won the election of 1924 handily. By the 1920s, the progressive spirit of reform had declined in the face of government-business cooperation, Republican Party dominance, and a prosperous economy.

The Economy The runaway inflation that followed World War I was countered by tight money policies, which in turn plunged the nation into a recession in 1920 to 1921. But by 1922 the economy began to recover, and the gross national product grew approximately 40 percent over the next seven years. New consumer products, most notably the automobile, spurred this growth. Changes in industrial management and mass-production techniques led to a 40 percent increase in worker productivity. Agriculture, along with textiles and coal mining, did not, however, recover from the recession. The increased production of coal and textiles during the war led to overcapacity, and European agricultural production glutted the world market. The farmers' share of the national income declined sharply, foreshadowing the depression of the 1930s. The Heyday of Big Business Throughout the 1920s, business leaders enjoyed public acclaim. The most revered businessman of the decade was Henry Ford. Business consolidation occurred in many industries, especially in the realm of manufacturing, transportation, and banking. The 1920s saw large-scale corporate reorganizations with bureaucratic structures of authority replacing family-run enterprises. While working men and women enjoyed higher wages and an overall improved standard of living, techniques of scientific management and rationalization of workers' routines reduced laborers' control over their work and time. Concurrently, the strength of unions eroded as businesses promoted "welfare capitalism" and the American Plan (or nonunion shop). Supreme Court decisions that limited workers' ability to strike further strengthened the hand of business owners and weakened workers' autonomy. Economic Expansion Abroad During the 1920s, American companies such as General Electric, Ford, and Standard Oil aggressively sought investment opportunities abroad. Other American companies invested internationally during the 1920s to take advantage of lower production costs or to produce raw materials and supplies, concentrating mainly on Latin America. As the world's largest creditor nation, European countries had difficulty repaying their war debts to the United States. American tariffs, such as the Fordney-McCumber Tariff of 1922 and the Hawley-Smoot Tariff of 1930, further hampered European payments. Germany especially faced extremely trying circumstances at home. The Dawes Plan of 1924 offered Germany substantial loans from American banks and a reduction in the amount of reparations owed to the Allies. Another aspect of international cooperation undertaken by American negotiators occurred through forums such as the 1921 Washington Naval Arms Conference. By placing limits on naval expansion, policymakers hoped to encourage stability in areas such as the Far East and to protect the fragile postwar economy from an expensive arms race. In the Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact, the United States joined other nations in condemning militarism. But critics complained that the act lacked mechanisms for enforcement. Throughout the 1920s, U.S. policymakers were hamstrung by domestic politics. Americans vacillated between wanting to play a larger role in world events and fearing that treaties and responsibilities would limit their nation's ability to act unilaterally.

Foreign Policy in the 1920s Isolationism appeared to be the mood in the country during this decade. But this interpretation overlooks the rapidly increasing involvement of American industry in countries around the world. In the Western Hemisphere, the United States continued to intervene in the internal affairs of Latin America. There was neither public nor political support for entangling diplomatic relationships with foreign countries, and the United States never joined organizations such as the League of Nations and the World Court. There were, however, exceptions to this policy. The United States joined with other powers in an attempt to limit the buildup of naval forces and to establish some parity among the major naval powers. The Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact of 1928 rejected military force as a way of settling disputes among nations and reflected a widespread desire for peace among the signatories. The U.S. government remained divided over the future role of the nation in world affairs; it wanted to be a major player on the world scene but was reluctant to engage in diplomatic negotiations that would limit its ability to act unilaterally.

Summary 2 A New National Culture During the 1920s, most Americans—especially the middle class—increasingly defined the quality of their lives by the products that they were able to buy, products that they learned about through massive advertising in the national media, and which they paid for through the expanded use of debt. The advertising developed for these products simultaneously represented and heavily influenced the rapid change of social values that characterized the decade. The national communications media, especially radio and the movies, also played a significant role in diminishing distinctions between regions in the country and establishing nationwide cultural standards of leisure, taste, and style. A Consumer Culture The American consumer culture came into its own in the 1920s. The homogenization of culture that had begun in the late nineteenth century proceeded apace in the 1920s, influenced by radio, nationally circulated general-purpose magazines, and movies. The advertising industry spent billions of dollars annually to entice consumers into buying their goods; advertisers made consumption a cultural ideal for most of the middle class, bringing psychology into play to create demand for a certain product or to direct consumers to one brand rather than another. The development of consumer credit—buying on the installment plan—greatly enhanced the process, although even with credit not all Americans had the resources to participate equally in the new consumer society. The invention of electric home appliances had a significant impact on the lives of women. Domestic chores were no longer the backbreaking labor they had been, although paradoxically, the new products did not dramatically increase women's leisure time because more middleclass housewives began to do their own housework and laundry rather than hiring household servants. The new technology also established new standards of cleanliness. The Automobile Culture The automobile served as the icon of the consumer culture of the 1920s. Few inventions so altered the way of life of so many people. Automobile manufacturing had a broad effect on the American economy. Many new industries sprang up in response to this development, not the least of these being the leisure business. Auto

production stimulated the steel, petroleum, chemical, rubber, and glass industries and caused an increase in highway construction. Car ownership spurred the growth of suburbs, contributed to real estate speculation, and spawned the first shopping center. Americans became devoted tourists, and almost one-third of the population took a vacation by car in 1929. Young people were particularly delighted with the automobile because it freed them from parental supervision and changed the dating patterns of the past. Mass Media and New Patterns of Leisure Leisure became increasingly tied to consumption and mass media, as Americans had more time and energy to spend on recreation. The movies made a great contribution to the creation of mass culture. People all across the country saw the same movies and sought to copy the values and attitudes that the movies held out to them. The lucrative American movie industry, increasingly concentrated in southern California, came to dominate American culture and the world's film industry. Movies became even more powerful cultural influences with the advent of "talkies." "Flappers" burst onto the American scene to represent emancipated womanhood, although in actuality they reflected only a tiny minority of women. The development of the recording industry made it possible for new forms of musical entertainment to be widely available. The popularity of jazz in the 1920s was so great that the era is known as the Jazz Age. Jazz, which had its roots in earlier African American rhythms and music, became a distinctive American art form and brought African American musicians and singers, both male and female, into the limelight. Jazz often expressed black dissent in the face of mainstream white values. Journalism provided another source for mass culture. Popular magazines and tabloid newspapers enabled people from all walks of life and all areas of the country to share the information provided by these outlets of mass media. The new instrument of radio completed this picture. No longer was it enough to read about the world; now one could listen to it. Americans took to radio with a vengeance; 40 percent of the nation's homes had one by 1929. Unlike European countries where the airwaves were considered a government monopoly, American broadcasting was in the hands of private industry, and profit making propelled it forward. As more American workers worked fewer hours and took paid vacations, leisure also became tied to mass culture. Cities and small towns of America developed public recreation facilities where people could swim, picnic, or otherwise enjoy themselves. Spectator sports became big business in the 1920s with the increasing commercialization of baseball and boxing. Newspapers began to focus on sports and sports figures, and many of the most popular heroes of the period, such as Babe Ruth and Jack Dempsey, came from the sports world. Baseball stars and aviation pioneers captivated the attention of Americans with their demonstration of virtues of individualism, self-reliance, and hard work. Individual attainment was the hallmark of fame in the 1920s, and the most acclaimed American of the period was Charles Lindbergh, who flew his airplane on the first solo nonstop flight from New York to Paris in 1927. Summary 3 Dissenting Values and Cultural Conflict Even in this age of prosperity for most working Americans, some of the economic and cultural harbingers of the new era worried more tradition-minded people, as deeply felt tensions surfaced in conflicts over immigration, religion, Prohibition, and race relations. Many Americans whose ancestors had come from abroad despised

newcomers and sought to limit their influence by restricting immigration, especially from southeastern Europe, Russia, and Asia. A revived Ku Klux Klan targeted minorities, and religious fundamentalists protested the teaching of scientific ideas, such as evolution, that did not conform to their religious doctrines. These largely Protestant efforts at social control faced vocal opposition, however. Americans successfully defied and finally repealed Prohibition after thirteen years. The modernist movement in the arts, which was marked by skepticism and technical experimentation in literature, invigorated American writing abroad and at home. The Harlem Renaissance was a movement among young writers and artists who broke with older genteel traditions of black literature to reclaim a cultural identity with African roots. Despite cultural conflicts and workplace issues, Americans were generally optimistic and expected prosperity and progress to continue as Herbert Hoover began his presidency in 1929. The Rise of Nativism As farmers struggled with severe economic problems, rural communities lost residents to the cities at an alarming rate. The 1920 census indicated that there had been a sharp decline in the relative size of the rural population since 1870. Urban America (defined as towns of more than 2,500) had surpassed rural America. There were ninety-three cities with populations greater than 100,000 by 1929. The mass media generally reflected the cosmopolitan values of cities, and many Americans worried that the cities, and the immigrants living there, would soon dominate the culture. Many native-born white Protestant Americans did not like what they saw happening to "their" country. They regarded Catholics and Jews of the more recent immigrant generation as being incapable of adopting what were seen as traditional American values. The result of this perception was an attempt to place limitations on immigration. Laws had already barred the Chinese from entering the United States, and many thought that the time had come to further reduce the level of immigration of "undesirables." One of the mechanisms devised to accomplish this task was the 1924 National Origins Act, which based the number of immigrants to the United States from any country in a given year on the number of people from that country residing in the United States in 1890. After 1927, the law set a cap of 150,000 immigrants per year and tied admission into the United States to a quota system. While limiting all immigration, the act and its amendments clearly privileged older immigrant groups whose "national origins" were northern and Western European, at the expense of more recent southern and Eastern Europeans. Japanese immigrants were excluded entirely. Puerto Ricans, after the Jones Act of 1917 conferred U.S. citizenship, continued to travel to the mainland, particularly to New York City. The Ku Klux Klan experienced a resurgence in the aftermath of the 1915 release of the film Birth of a Nation, which celebrated the activities of the Klan. In keeping with the changing times, the new Klan thrived largely in urban areas and added antagonism to its racial hostility, directed at Jews and Catholics. The Klan attracted widespread support for a brief period of time but collapsed as a result of internal conflict, corruption, and the immoral acts of its leadership. Legislating Values: The Scopes Trial and Prohibition The conflict between religious modernism, which tried to reconcile religion and science, and religious fundamentalism, which held to a literal interpretation of the Bible, came to a head in the 1920s over the issue of evolution. When the Tennessee legislature passed a law forbidding the teaching of evolution, the newly formed

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) persuaded John Scopes, a high school biology teacher in Dayton, Tennessee, to break the law in an attempt to challenge its constitutionality. In the trial of the decade, William Jennings Bryan served as prosecutor, and the famous criminal lawyer Clarence Darrow led the defense. Even though Darrow seemed to have the better of the debate, the jury found Scopes guilty. The verdict was overturned on a technicality, thereby preventing a Supreme Court test. The law remained on the books, unenforced, for the next several decades. The law prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages contributed to the lawless reputation of the 1920s. Many people continued to drink liquor, and Prohibition led to the creation of a new criminal class—the bootleggers— and a new underground institution—the speakeasy. Since Prohibition was in the Constitution, it took time for the "wets" to organize sufficiently to gain the necessary support in Congress to repeal the Eighteenth Amendment. Intellectual Crosscurrents Many American writers felt alienated by the materialistic culture of the 1920s. The disillusionment with the ravages of World War I affected the works of such writers as Ernest Hemingway, T. S. Eliot, and John Dos Passos. The modernist literary movement, centered in Paris, drew Americans into its orbit and energized their art. At home, the narrowness of the business culture was exposed by Sinclair Lewis and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Freudian psychology influenced the complex novels of William Faulkner and plays of Eugene O'Neill. Black America also went through a cultural renaissance in the 1920s. Pride in (and ambivalence about) their heritage drove African American literary artists to publish novels and poetry that moved to establish their racial and cultural identity in a predominately white world. Jean Toomer, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and others produced literary works of merit. Although this movement waned in the Great Depression, a new generation of black writers rediscovered its works during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Although the Harlem Renaissance had little impact on the masses of African Americans, the organization of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), led by the Jamaican immigrant Marcus Garvey, built racial pride and challenged white political and cultural hegemony. Garvey's message focused on the relationship between black Americans and Africa. He claimed that no black person would ever be welcome in the white world and urged African Americans to consider returning to their ancestral homeland. Irregular business dealings led to Garvey's conviction and deportation. Cultural Clash in the Election of 1928 The election of 1928 can be seen as a referendum on the diverse culture of the 1920s. The Democrats nominated the governor of New York, Alfred E. Smith—an urban Catholic son of Irish immigrants and a product of Tammany Hall politics. To his supporters, he embodied the new, diverse America, but his urban working-class origins, stance on enforcing Prohibition, and Catholic beliefs alienated voters. The Republican candidate was the former secretary of commerce, Herbert Hoover. Although Hoover had never held elective office, his administrative skills and record of public service recommended him, and as an engineer, he represented the new ideals of a managerial and technological elite. The Republicans won a decisive victory, but the growing support for the Democratic candidate in the cities foreshadowed what would become a major element in the coalition of urban voters that was completed by the New Deal.

Chapter 24 Summary 1 The Coming of the Great Depression Many histories point to the stock market crash of October 1929 as the beginning of the Great Depression, but that long economic crisis had actually begun much earlier, before people took notice. Its roots were in the structural weaknesses of the economy, the failing agricultural economy of the 1920s, and the unequal distribution of wealth. The collapse of stock prices injured thousands directly, but it also destroyed the unwavering belief in business success and created a crisis of confidence that lengthened the depression and contributed to its severity. International factors, notably the dependence of Europe on the flow of capital from the United States, also contributed to the depth, severity, and worldwide character of the crisis. Causes of the Depression The depression did not begin suddenly; parts of the country's economy began to show clear signs of weakness beginning in 1927. The economy had several structural weaknesses in the 1920s; agriculture had never recovered from the post-World War I recession, and other basic industries were either stagnant or declining. The Republican administration had changed the tax structure to favor the wealthy and business, bringing about increasing economic inequality. The stock market crash in 1929 did not cause the collapse of the economy, but it did hasten and intensify it. The speculation that drove stock prices up did not reflect real economic value, and, when productive enterprises faltered, panic selling led to the crash. The Deepening Economic Crisis The more the economy contracted, the more people expected the depression to last; the longer they expected it to last, the more afraid they became to spend or invest their money. In 1930, many farmers went bankrupt, which caused many rural banks to fail. In turn, failing rural banks defaulted on their obligations to urban banks, which then also began to collapse. In 1931 the Federal Reserve System significantly increased the discount rate, squeezing the money supply and forcing prices down thus depriving businesses of funds for investment. Amidst the crisis and waning confidence in the banks, Americans kept their dollars stashed away rather than depositing them, further tightening the money supply. The Worldwide Depression Weakness in the American economy created a ripple effect internationally so that when the United States plunged into the Great Depression, it created economic hardship in the rest of the world as the nation's international trade plummeted and mutual tariff barriers intensified the worldwide depression. The worse the depression became, the more reluctant people were to engage in activity that would lead to recovery; the fear of a worsening economic climate led Americans to spend less and business to invest less, just the opposite of what would have stimulated recovery. The deepening agricultural crisis contributed to the rash of bank failures in 1930 and 1931. Between 1929 and 1933, the gross national product (GNP) was cut in half, and 100,000 businesses failed; by 1933, a quarter of the population was unemployed. Summary 2 Hard Times Much of the human impact of the depression was hard to see, despite the vivid imagery recorded in contemporary photographs. Most middle-class Americans

measured hard times by the sacrifices of keeping things together and the humiliations of downward mobility rather than by utter destitution. Traditional gender roles frequently contributed to the way men and women responded to their individual troubles, and even as financial distress forced many women to become family breadwinners, the crisis actually reinforced the identification of women with the responsibilities of maintaining a home and family. Statistically, significant numbers of people postponed marriage, and the depression altered parenting practices as well as patterns of education. Cheap mass entertainment thrived, however, as people found an escape from their troubles in books, magazines, movies, or an evening at home around the radio. The Invisible Scar People reacted to the depression in a variety of ways. Most families were not totally devastated, only damaged. Some reacted with despair but kept their anxiety bottled up within themselves and their households. The prevailing myths about American economic life held all people individually responsible for their economic fate. Many people in the 1930s blamed themselves for their situation and felt humiliated by their poverty. The key to surviving the Great Depression was to maintain self-respect. It became particularly humiliating, therefore, when a middle-class family found it necessary to apply for relief. Families Face the Depression The depression tended to reinforce existing family relationships. Strong families grew stronger; weak families deteriorated. Women found their lives less disrupted than men's because unemployment weakened the self-respect of the husband, whereas the role of the wife remained more constant. Women increased their importance to family economic survival by making clothes, preserving food, and carefully monitoring family finances. Americans managed to keep up a fairly high level of consumption during the depression. Costs had come down, and installment buying continued to encourage consumer spending. There were fewer marriages or divorces during the depression. The birthrate dropped as well. In the 1930s, information about contraception became widely available. Although abortion remained illegal, many women underwent the process to prevent unwanted births, and many died because of improper procedures or unsanitary conditions. Largely owing to the work of Margaret Sanger, the medical profession began to educate the public about proper contraceptive techniques and became involved in advising family planning. The number of married women in the workforce increased by 50 percent in the 1930s. With the traditional breadwinners being unemployed or underemployed, wives sought jobs in order for the family to survive. Strong opposition to this practice led many states to prohibit married women from working, and the federal government would not allow both husband and wife to hold federal jobs at the same time. Sextyped employment often worked to the advantage of women in this period because lower-paying "female" jobs suffered less from the economic decline than did those of men. The lack of economic opportunity meant that some young people stayed in school for more years than had previously been the case; others took to the roads as hobos. The distinct minority who went to college faced a financial sacrifice that encouraged seriousness of purpose. Many of these students became involved in political and social movements.

Popular Culture Views the Depression The mass culture that emerged in the 1930s helped the people to survive the depression years by providing a variety of emotional outlets. Movies were perhaps the most important source of escapism during this period, simultaneously reaffirming traditional values and criticizing political corruption. The overt sexuality of many films led the movie industry to adopt a censorship code in 1934. Newsreels informed filmgoers about the world, and newspapers focused attention on sensational events in daily life. Radio continued to fascinate, and daytime serials brought drama to lessen the tedium of work and housework. The economic constraints of the 1930s made the family the center of leisure activities and in some ways strengthened traditional values. Summary 3 Harder Times For such groups as African Americans, farmers, Mexican Americans, and Asian Americans, times had always been hard, and during the 1930s, they became harder. Conditions were bleak everywhere, and competition for what work still existed aggravated racism and other expressions of ethnic and community hostility, even against midwestern Okie migrants, who were white and Protestant. Yet the pursuit of individual dignity in the face of hardship laid the groundwork for change when times improved. The legacy of the depression experience included demands for civil rights on the part of blacks, a new militancy in the Mexican American labor movement, and the enduring impact of the midwestern migration on the culture and economy of California. African Americans in the Depression The fact that most blacks were already poor meant that they hardly felt new psychological stress from the national economic collapse. The 75 percent of African Americans who lived in the South had scarcely improved their economic position since Reconstruction. The agricultural depression that had been upon the nation since the early 1920s only made the situation worse for black tenant farmers. The Scottsboro case brought into sharper focus the pattern of racial discrimination characteristic of southern law enforcement. In the North, Harlem served as a mecca for migrating blacks. The depression led to a deterioration of urban centers, however, and this decline transformed middle-class black neighborhoods into slums. Urban blacks began to support the Democratic Party in the 1930s and, in return, New Deal programs provided relief money to blacks living outside the South. Dust Bowl Migrations The continuing agricultural depression and widespread drought on the Great Plains aggravated an already suffering agricultural sector and drove many farm families out of the area. The destination of many of them was California, where large-scale, intensive agriculture had opened up vast new areas of farmland. California growers had depended on a series of cheap, immigrant farm workers to work their fields, but native-born migrant white farm workers increasingly supplanted these workers in the 1930s. Mexican American Communities During the depression, about one-third of the Mexican Americans went back to Mexico. Some returned to Mexico voluntarily when employment in the United States became difficult to find, while others were deported by the Hoover administration to prevent their becoming a drain on the system of relief when farmwork ran out.

Activists in the Mexican American community were involved in attempts to organize unions among their fellow workers. Women were particularly active in the successful formation of labor unions for cannery workers in 1939. The activism in the fields and canneries foreshadowed the later, somewhat more successful, attempts by Mexican Americans to establish farmworkers' unions. Asian Americans Face the Depression Men and women of Asian descent constituted a minority that was concentrated primarily in the western states. Although all were subject to a pervasive anti-Asian racism, Asian Americans had carved out a modest success by the time of the depression. American prejudices against Asians were compounded by the economic anxieties of the depression, leaving many families to return to Asia or to find assistance in America through traditional Asian social organizations and kin networks. The New Deal also aided Asians, but only those who were American citizens; for instance, until the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943, many Chinese immigrants were ineligible for New Deal programs, as they had not yet been granted American citizenship. Filipinos were not affected by the ban on Asian immigration passed in 1924 because the Philippines were a U.S. territory. Consequently, their numbers swelled during the 1920s. When the depression struck, Filipinos were among the most militant of United States agricultural workers, and they organized for better wages. In 1936, Filipinos and Mexican workers came together in a Field Workers Union chartered by the American Federation of Labor. Racial hostility mounted against Filipinos, leading to the Tydings-McDuffie Act, which classified all Filipinos in the United States as aliens and restricted immigration. As aliens, Filipinos were not eligible for citizenship or most assistance programs. Summary 4 Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression President Herbert Hoover tried to organize the business community to maintain wages and production, and he supported an unprecedented campaign of public works construction to provide employment. He also inaugurated the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) (modeled on the War Finance Corporation of World War I experience) to lend federal money to businesses in order to stimulate investment. None of it managed to overcome the depression, and along with Hoover's adamant refusal to support direct federal relief payments to the unemployed, his administration's failure to beat the depression contributed to his reputation for being coldhearted toward those in distress and to his political repudiation in 1932. Many citizens began to harbor hard feelings against Hoover; his willingness to bailout banks and businesses, though not individuals, added to his reputation of being a harsh man. As the depression went on, bitterness and discontent increased and flared up in a variety of agricultural and industrial strikes, in food and rent riots in major cities, and in the "Bonus March" of World War I veterans that the army dispersed in the summer of 1932. Apathy and despair, more than anger or revolution, characterized the elections that year. The Republicans nominated Hoover once again for president, and the Democrats nominated Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt of New York. Roosevelt won the election, yet in his campaign, he hinted only vaguely at new approaches to alleviate the depression. People voted as much against Hoover as for Roosevelt. The significance of the 1932 election was that it marked the emergence of a Democratic coalition that would help to shape national politics for the next four decades. Hoover Responds

Hoover's response to the depression was slow because he failed to view the situation realistically. Hoping to avoid coercive measures on the part of the federal government, Herbert Hoover asked businesses to maintain wages and production levels voluntarily during the depression. Hoover asked governments to increase public construction projects, signed the Agricultural Marketing Act, and declared a moratorium on payment of the Allied debts. A 33-percent tax increase designed to balance the budget choked investment and contributed significantly to the continuation of the depression. Hoover successfully pushed Congress to create a system of government home-loan banks and supported the Glass-Steagall Banking Act, which temporarily propped up the ailing banking system. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation was the first federal institution created to intervene directly in the economy during peacetime. Although the RFC's trickle-down effect was minimal, it represented a watershed in American political history and the growth of the federal government. Hoover simply believed that, in the long term, privately organized charities were sufficient to meet the nation's social welfare needs, and he refused to consider plans for direct federal relief for those out of work. Rising Discontent As the depression deepened, many citizens came to hate Herbert Hoover. His apparent lack of sensitivity brought him scorn and mockery. Violent opposition to foreclosures energized farmers to organize demonstrations in which they destroyed crops in protest against low prices. Strikes broke out in the mines and factories when employers cut wages or laid off workers. Employers responded to protest with violent suppression through the use of the National Guard and private security forces. Food riots and hunger marches struck the cities, where Communists organized "unemployment councils" to agitate for food and jobs. But the most dramatic and widely publicized protest involved the "Bonus Army," a gathering in Washington, D.C., of World War I veterans who sought immediate payment of the pension due to them in 1945. When the U.S. Army, acting under orders of the president, drove them out of the nation's capital, Hoover's popularity plunged to a new low. The 1932 Election: A New Order Without another viable candidate, the Republicans nominated Hoover again in 1932. He found himself facing Franklin D. Roosevelt, the governor of New York. Roosevelt's campaign rested on his belief that the solution to the economic crisis in the United States required bold experimentation. Roosevelt's election, a turning point in American political history, created a new and very powerful political coalition within the Democratic Party, but his victory was as much a denunciation of Hoover as it was support for Roosevelt. After the election, the economy continued to plunge downward, and the winter of 1932-33 proved to be the lowest point in the depression cycle. The people could do little but wait to see what bold new programs the new president had to offer. Chapter 25 Summary 1 The New Deal Takes Over, 1933-1935 Franklin Roosevelt's willingness to experiment with solutions, along with his remarkable rapport with the masses of the American people, allowed the New Deal to start off with a remarkable flurry of legislation that provided for relief, limited

recovery, and reform in a wide variety of areas. A legislative session, known as the "Hundred Days," saw fifteen pieces of major legislation enacted and remains one of the most productive legislative sessions ever. Roosevelt intended to be the savior of capitalism rather than a threat to it, but the dramatic expansion of government power and intervention in the economy nevertheless drew criticism from the right that the New Deal was doing too much. At the same time, as the crisis eased but did not end, others criticized the New Deal for not going far enough. As the election of 1936 approached, Roosevelt and the Democrats were afraid that critics of the New Deal might split the vote and permit the Republicans to retake the White House. The Roosevelt Style of Leadership Roosevelt crafted his administration's programs in response to shifting political and economic conditions rather than according to an established blueprint. He established a close rapport with the American people through his use of radio-broadcasted "fireside chats" that fostered a sense of intimacy. Contributing to his success was the president's willingness to experiment, fail, and experiment again. Roosevelt turned to advisors and administrators scattered throughout the New Deal bureaucracy when searching for new ideas and fresh faces; it was said to have been "a glorious time for obscure people." The public perceived Roosevelt as being genuine and warm. The power of the executive branch of government greatly expanded under his leadership. Roosevelt relied heavily on the advice of his cabinet and his "Brain Trust" of professors to formulate policy. The Hundred Days The Roosevelt administration commenced by confronting and defusing the banking crisis. The executive branch then proposed, and Congress enacted, fifteen major pieces of legislation in the first months of 1933. Among these were laws to reform the banking system and a conservation program, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), that put unemployed young men to work. The overall goal of administration policy was to reduce agricultural overproduction, stimulate industrial recovery, and relieve unemployment. The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) established cash subsidies for farmers who promised to reduce their production of certain farm commodities. This measure, however, had the undesirable effect of driving many tenant farmers, including many black farmers in the South, off their lands. The National Recovery Administration (NRA) aided in industrial recovery through a complicated series of quotas. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) provided money for state relief organizations that could be given directly to the needy. Work relief programs supplemented direct relief and provided federally funded jobs. Although these programs did not even begin to end the depression, the fact that the Roosevelt administration was doing something offered Americans a sense of hope where there had been only despair. When it became clear that the depression persisted, the administration sought to bring about structural reform, including greater federal control of the value of the dollar, new stock market regulations, and a more centralized Federal Reserve bank system. The New Deal under Attack Wealthy businessmen accused Roosevelt of being a "traitor to his class" and, along with conservative Democrats, lobbied against his New Deal programs. The conservative Supreme Court decreed some major elements of the "Hundred Days"

legislation to be unconstitutional, including the National Recovery Administration (NRA). Roosevelt was concerned that the Supreme Court might invalidate his entire New Deal program. Under the leadership of a retired doctor, Francis Townsend, the elderly began to mount a campaign for some kind of government-sponsored old-age pension. Father Charles Coughlin, a Catholic priest from Michigan who had been an early supporter of the president, began to call for the nationalization of the banking system and the expansion of the money supply. The priest's weekly radio program reached millions of listeners and posed a threat to the president's reelection in 1936. The major threat to Roosevelt's leadership, however, came from another early supporter who had turned against him, Senator Huey Long of Louisiana. After breaking with Roosevelt because of what he considered the timidity of New Deal reform, Long appeared to be a potential competitor to Roosevelt for national leadership. Summary 2 The Second New Deal, 1935-1938 As the depression continued and attacks on the New Deal mounted, Roosevelt-with his eye on the 1936 election-began to construct a new coalition and broaden the scope of his response to the depression. The Second New Deal emphasized reform and promoted legislation to increase the role of the federal government in providing for the welfare of citizens. Because he felt that his opponents might refashion the future of New Deal reforms, Roosevelt sought fundamental changes in the structure of the Supreme Court. Roosevelt proposed the addition of one new justice for each sitting justice over the age of seventy, but opponents protested that he was trying to "pack" the Court. His handling of the Court issue undermined his credibility. By 1935, Roosevelt had abandoned his hope of building a classless coalition. Pushed from both the left and right, he reluctantly abandoned what he conceived as the middle ground and moved to the left. Motivated by politics as much as by ideology, to support the rights of organized labor, institute Social Security, and create a muchexpanded program of work relief for the still unemployed millions, these programs continued to expand the federal presence in the economy and the daily life of Americans. And as a matter of politics, they succeeded brilliantly. Roosevelt and the Democrats won the 1936 election by one of the largest landslides in American history. However, Roosevelt's second term was marked by increased opposition in Congress, from conservative Democrats as well as from Republicans, and by political stalemate. Legislative Accomplishments Pushed from the left and criticized by the right, Roosevelt decided by 1935 to abandon the middle and shift dramatically to the left. Labor was given the legal right to organize unions by the Wagner Act, which also forbade employers to discriminate against union members. The Social Security Act provided for federal pensions and also for unemployment insurance. With this legislation, the United States began its development into a modern welfare state, joining with other industrial nations in taking responsibility for the basic needs of its citizens. Although Roosevelt had hoped to bring federal work relief programs to an end, persistent massive unemployment required that they continue. For the rest of the depression, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was the major source of federal jobs for the unemployed, providing a marginal income for millions of Americans. Even at that, it never reached more than one-third of the unemployed and ended only when the wartime economy brought an end to the depression. The Revenue Act of 1935, which its conservative opponents called the "soak the rich" bill, increased the tax burden of the upper class

and helped consolidate Roosevelt's support among the poor. The 1936 Election In the election of 1936, Roosevelt won the support of a coalition of voters who had benefited from the New Deal programs. Huey Long's assassination in September 1935 removed the threat of a serious third-party challenge and contributed to Roosevelt's overwhelming victory at the polls. Stalemate Because he felt the future of New Deal reforms might be in doubt, Roosevelt asked for fundamental changes in the structure of the Supreme Court only two weeks after his inauguration. Roosevelt proposed the addition of one new justice for each sitting justice over the age of seventy; opponents protested that he was trying to "pack" the Court with justices who favored the New Deal. The issue became a moot point when the Supreme Court upheld several key pieces of New Deal legislation, and a series of resignations created vacancies on the Court. Roosevelt managed to reshape the Supreme Court to suit his liberal philosophy through seven new appointments, but his handling of the Court issue was a costly blunder. The economic crisis gave the president influence in proposing and passing legislation, and the executive branch's influence was also expanded by the administration of the New Deal programs; Congress resisted this accrual of power. A bill passed in 1939 allowed Roosevelt to create the Executive Office of the President and name six administrative assistants to the White House staff. The White House also took control of the budget process. The slight economic recovery between 1933 and 1937 turned into the "Roosevelt recession" of 1937 and 1938 when the president sharply cut the federal budget and reduced WPA funding. The government spent its way out of recession in 1938, but the Republicans increased their power in the congressional elections of that year, weakening the president's mandate. By 1938, the New Deal had run out of steam. Roosevelt's basic conservatism became clear; he was willing to experiment with the system in order to maintain it but not to make revolutionary changes. Only the severity and persistence of the depression had allowed the New Deal to go as far as it had. Summary 3 The New Deal's Impact on Society The New Deal accelerated the expansion of the federal bureaucracy, and power was increasingly centered in the nation's capital, not in the states. During the 1930s the federal government operated as a broker state, mediating between contending pressure groups seeking power and benefits. Organized labor won the battle for recognition, higher wages, seniority systems, and grievance procedures. The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) served as the cutting edge of the union movement by promoting "industrial unionism"—organizing all the workers in one industry, both skilled and unskilled, into one union. The CIO recognized that to succeed, unions had to become more inclusive, and they worked deliberately to attract new groups to the labor movement. The CIO quickly allied itself with the Democratic Party, hoping to use its influence to elect candidates who were sympathetic to labor and social justice. The labor movement never developed into a dominant force in American life, and many workers remained indifferent or even hostile to unionization.

Under the experimental climate of the New Deal, Roosevelt appointed the first female cabinet member, the first female director of the mint, and a female judge on the court of appeals. Eleanor Roosevelt had worked to increase women's power in political parties, labor unions, and education; as first lady, she pushed the president and the New Deal to do more. Although some New Deal programs reflected prevailing racist attitudes, blacks received significant benefits from programs that were for the poor regardless of race. The Resettlement Act fought for the rights of black farmers, and many blacks reasoned that the aid from Washington outweighed the discrimination present in many federal programs. Blacks had voted Republican since the Civil War, but in 1936, blacks outside the South gave Roosevelt 71 percent of their votes. Blacks have remained overwhelmingly Democratic ever since. The expansion of federal responsibilities in the 1930s created a climate conducive to conservation efforts, as did public concern heightened by the devastation in the dust bowl. The New Deal was ahead of its time in attention to conservation, but many of the tactics used in its projects are now considered to have been intrusive. The arts flourished during the 1930s. For instance, the documentary—probably the decade's most distinctive genre—influenced practically every aspect of American culture: literature, photography, art, music, film, dance, theater, and radio. In sum, the New Deal brought the federal government into the everyday lives of American citizens through Social Security payments, farm loans, work relief, mortgage guarantees, and conservation and cultural programs. New Deal Constituencies and the Broker State Government bureaucracy expanded sharply in the 1930s, with power being ever more centralized in Washington. The intervention of the federal government on behalf of organized labor led to a resurgence of union activity. By 1940, 23 percent of the nonfarm workforce was unionized. The Congress of Industrial Organizations led in the expansion. Workers in the automobile and steel industry achieved union recognition. Blacks and women found a place in the industrial unions of the CIO, although rarely did they achieve leadership positions. Unlike the nonpartisan American Federation of Labor, the CIO quickly allied itself with the Democratic Party, providing both funds and political support for New Deal programs. In spite of these gains, organized labor never played as large a role in American political life as some in the movement might have anticipated. Several women held high office in government during the Roosevelt administration, including the first female cabinet member, Frances Perkins. The president's wife, Eleanor, became a significant figure in her own right. Pushing for reform in the areas of labor, education, and women's issues, Eleanor Roosevelt has been called the conscience of the New Deal. Even with such visibility, women faced discrimination in many of the "alphabet soup agencies" including the NRA and the CCC. New Deal programs treated blacks in similar ways. The fact that they were included at all was partly the result of the intervention of Eleanor Roosevelt, as civil rights were not on the national agenda in the 1930s. Most programs that aided blacks did so on a segregated basis, and President Roosevelt refused to support a federal antilynching bill for fear that it would weaken his support among southern members

of Congress. But because the majority of African Americans were poor, they benefited from programs designed to ease poverty. The perception that they had a friend in the White House caused blacks to shift their political allegiance. No longer did they support the Republican Party of Lincoln; the Democrats now had the loyalty of African Americans. Mexican Americans stood to gain from New Deal programs that offered a variety of relief possibilities. As they became more active in politics and union affairs, Mexican Americans became an important part of the New Deal coalition. Though not a constituency, the federal government treated American Indians more sympathetically during the 1930s. Attempts to force Indians into American mainstream culture declined, but minimal federal reform efforts had little effect on the abject poverty of the reservations. The New Deal and the Land The New Deal was active in supporting conservation policies. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) built a number of dams to control erosion in the vast Tennessee River Basin and to produce cheap hydroelectric power. Attempts to bring the dust bowl under control led to the planting of millions of trees to serve as windbreaks on the plains. Agents from the Department of Agriculture taught farmers how to till hillsides and plant marginal areas to prevent soil erosion. CCC and WPA workers helped construct scenic highways and make wilderness areas available to the public by cutting trails and building shelters, many of which still exist today. Later, environmentalist sensibilities would prevent the creation of such massive and intrusive projects. The New Deal and the Arts Numerous federally sponsored cultural programs operated during the depression. A WPA project known as "Federal One" put unemployed artists, actors, and writers to work; "art for the millions" became a popular New Deal slogan. The Federal Art Project commissioned murals for public buildings and post offices across the country. Under the Federal Music Project, government-sponsored orchestras toured the country and presented free concerts that emphasized American themes. The Federal Writer's Project, at its height, employed about 5,000 writers, some of whom later achieved great fame. The only time that America had a federally supported national theater was during the Federal Theatre Project. The accomplishments of the artists, producers, and writers involved in these programs were substantial. The documentary, probably the decade's most distinctive genre, influenced practically every aspect of American culture: literature, photography, art, music, film, dance, theater, and radio. The work of 1930s artists, writers, photographers, and musicians created evocative images of life in the United States during the depression years. The Legacies of the New Deal For the first time in American history, the federal government became a factor in almost every citizen's life. The New Deal laid the foundations of the modern welfare state when the federal government accepted some responsibility for the basic welfare of the nation's citizens, setting a precedent of government action to counter economic instability. While the New Deal offered more benefits to American citizens than they had ever

been given before, its safety net was not comprehensive. For instance, the welfare system was predicated on the ideal of "family wage," which assumed that men were workers and women were homemakers. The New Deal political coalition formed in the depression consisted of ethnic groups, city dwellers, organized labor, blacks, and a broad section of the middle class. This coalition would keep the Democrats as the majority party in the United States until the contradictions of racial policy would help bring about the coalition's dissolution.