Roaring 20's - Thursday 2/12

AMERICAN PROSPERITY

On balance WWI was good for the American economy

• Industries were stronger
• Manufacturers and bankers had exported so many goods and made so many loans, the US became the worlds leading creditor nation.

Consumer Products were plentiful after the war

• Americans owned 8 million automobiles in 1920
• Tractors, washing machines, refrigerators, electric irons, radios & vacuum cleaners became available
• Fresh fruits and vegetables made it into grocery stores
• Paved roads made day long excursions a common event
• Camping trips and long distance vacations became routine
• Farmers could easily head to town for shopping and entertainment
• By 1929, as many as 7 million Americans owned stock in American corporations

-Still the working class family that bought a car often lacked money to do much else.

Consumer credit was introduced

• Car dealers, home installment merchants began offering installment plans

Middle class buyers had to be recruited

• Car owners had to be persuaded to buy a new model only  a few years after buying the first.  

- This caused general motors to introduce the idea of the annual model change

-The strategy worked sending General Motors sales past Ford

- Ford reluctantly came out with a model "A" to compete with this model T

The advertising company came into being

• Advertisers were knowledgeable in phycology
• Ad campaigns played on people emotions
• American consumers responded enthusiastically showing:

- an interest in fashion

- a desire for the latest product

- a weakness for the craze of the moment

• Advertisers focused a lot of attention on women

Husband and Wifer went to:

• Be friends
• Pursue sexual satisfaction together
• Dine out
• Play cards with friends
• Go to movies
• Read and discuss books from the new book of the month clubs

Young Single, Middle-class Women

• Put on short dresses
• Rolled there stockings down
• Wore red lipstick and smoked in public
• Aimed to creat a new female personality with

-Self reliance

-Outspokenness

-An appreciation for life's pleasures

It was an Age of Celebrity

• Mega events were staged in baseball and boxing

-Babe Ruth and Jack Dempsey, were overwhelmingly popular

- So were movie stars like Charlie Chaplin and Rudy Valentino 

• Charles A Lindbergh, lucky lindy, became the first person to fly solo across the atlantic on a monoplane.

To build employee loyalty and protest against strikes, some employers set up

• Work place cafeterias
• Hired doctors and nurses to staff on site clinics
• Built Ball fields for industry supported leagues
• Set up profit sharing plans
• Offered stock options

Skilled craftsmen in construction, railroads, and printing saw their real wages rise considerably.

• Large industries paid employees relatively well

Semiskilled and Unskilled workers had to contend with labor surplus that left them unable to share their prosperity. 

Coal mining and textiles suffered from sever overcapacity

Courts turned againts workers

• A conservative Supreme court whittled away at laborers legal protections

-In 1921 it raved that lower courts could issue injunctions against union members to 

  prohibit them from striking or picketing

• State courts enforced "Yellow Dog Contract" in which employees promised not to join unions if they got a job.

Women were largely excluded from skilled craft jobs

• They were often put into segregated departments to do "womens work" and were paid less
• White collar jobs for women grew in the 1920's

HARDING AND COOLIDGE

Harding was supported by the Ohio republican party

• He released Eugene Debs from prison
• He placed Herbert Hoover, Charles Evens Hughes, and Andrew Mellon in his cabinet. All talented men.

Harding found jobs for many of the Ohio boys

• He could be found drinking, gambling, and womanizing
• The Ohio gang became rich selling govt appointements.

Continued...