Two Wars and a Depression

The United States, 1912-1939

Woodrow Wilson

Elected in 1912 (because the Republican Party had been split by the Roosevelt-Taft feud) Woodrow Wilson was only the second Democratic President since Lincoln. Wilson was a southerner by birth, a former college professor of history and government, and, as governor of New Jersey, a moderate reformer.

He was also unwilling to admit he could ever be mistaken.

The Money Issue and Taxation

Wilson put his support behind a number of issues that would raise more revenue for the government, prevent major financial panics in the future, and help consumers:

•The Underwood Tariff lowered rates on many imported items.

•The Federal Reserve System created a group of Federal banks that would handle the flow of currency, regulate other banks through loans, and try to maintain a steady economy.

•A Federal Trade Commission that could use a tougher anti-trust process to encourage competition in business.

•The 16th Amendment to the Constitution, which permitted the Federal government to collect income taxes.

Civil Rights

Wilson also did not have any interests in civil rights (as a child in Virginia in the 1860s he resented the defeat of the Confederacy by Lincoln’s armies). While Roosevelt and Taft had invited African-Americans like George Washington Carver to dinner at the White House, Wilson ended the practice and refused to meet with any civil rights leaders.

Rivals to Carver

Other Black leaders criticized Carver’s unwillingness to challenge segregation. W.E.B. DuBois (left) argued that African-Americans should enter the professions of law and medicine, and reject a segregated society. Marcus Garvey (right) called for a separate Black state,

Trouble AbroadWar in Europe in 1914 threatened to interfere with American trade.

The U.S. declared it would be neutral in the war, and Wilson promised that Americans would not get involved.

War and Propaganda

Every nation had secret treaties for obtaining territory from the losers

Every nation sought to convince world opinion that the war was the fault of someone else

US neutrality (until 1917) based of view that all were at fault

US businesses were selling arms to Britain and France

US Sympathy for Victims

U.S. groups organized aid for Serbia, Belgium, and other smaller nations caught up in the Great War.

Sinking of the SS Lusitania, 1915

Wartime PropagandaActress Geraldine Farrar strikes a pose as Joan of Arc in “Joan the Woman,” Cecil B. DeMille’s 1916 film. Critics charged that the French lily and the actress’s raised arms suggested that France was being crucified by German invaders.

In 1916, Woodrow Wilson won re-election on the slogan that he had “kept us out of war.” But even then Wilson knew that America might have to fight to keep Germany from dominating European trade and the Atlantic sea lanes over which American products were shipped.

American Entry into War, 1917

U.S. public increasingly angry over German atrocities in Belgium, France

Zimmerman telegram proposes German alliance with Mexico against U.S.

German’s decide to again unleash “unrestricted” submarine warfare

The Fourteen Points

When the US entered the war, Wilson made the main American war aim a “world safe for democracy.”

The Fourteen Points No secret treaties Freedom of the seas Free trade Armament reductions Self determination of peoples, based on cultural values of

nationality (including an independent Poland, breakup of Turkish empire, adjustment of Austrian empire, restoration of Belgium, and replacement of European colonies by “territories” to be given independence).

An international organization for maintaining peace and preventing future wars by negotiations – Wilson called it a “League of nations.”

U.S. in France

Because they entered the war 3 years after it began, US casualties were far less that those of other nations.

Enlisting the Movie Stars

Actress Mary Pickford give a pep talk to the “troops” in her 1918 summer hit “Johanna Enlists.”

The Hun

When a German officer makes improper advances to civilian Mary Pickford, another German officer intervenes.

“The Little American” (1917) like so many films of the time, depicted many of the German soldiers as beasts who would kill and rape at the slightest provocation.

In truth, German soldiers did execute Belgian civilians in order to enforce obedience.

Hate the HunUtilizing the style of political cartoonists, William Fox had this marquee poster designed to promote his 1918 action film, “The Prussian Cur,” directed by Raoul Walsh.

The Espionage Act of 1917 complemented the wartime propaganda by suppressing the speech of dissidents. Socialists, labor leaders and pacifists, who spoke out against the war, were arrested and jailed.

To Hell With the Kaiser

After the U.S. entered the war, this feature literally showed German Emperor Wilhelm and the emperor of Austria enter into a pact with the devil to “rule the world.”

Hoover and Food

As the head of the War Food Administration Board, Herbert Hoover became an international figure for his efficiency in sending food to war-torn Europe.

Hoover, a millionaire-engineer, promised to be part of a new breed of political leaders, skilled in administration and progressive in outlook.

Victory

After 4 years of war and economic blockade, Germany asked for an armistice. By then, the Russian empire had collapsed in revolution, Germany’s allies were ruined, and Britain and France were exhausted. This left America the richest and most powerful nature on earth.

Wilson wanted a peace that would prevent future wars and counter the attractions of the Communist revolution in Russia. But the Treaty of Versailles did little to promote peace in the future.

Revolution at HomeThe 19th Amendment to the Constitution gave the right to vote to all American women aged 21 and older. Not every woman accepted that this would provide full equality. Alice Paul, a suffragette, called for an “equal rights amendment” to prevent any discrimination against women in business or society.

Throughout the 1920s, women would enter business in a number of “new” professions – law, journalism, medicine. But the majority still worked in nursing, clerical jobs or teaching (and teachers who married were fired in most states).

Treaty Rejected

After Wilson (left, with the French and English leaders) returned to the U.S., the Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles. The U.S. never joined the League of Nations as Wilson had intended.

U.S. Regrets Role in War

In 1920, American voters elected Warren Harding as President. Because Harding had opposed the Treaty of Versailles, this vote was taken as a rejection of America’s role in the Great War. By the mid-1920s, U.S. history books called American entry in the war “a mistake.”

He said it was time to return to “normalcy.”

The End of Reform

The 1920 presidential election demonstrated that the public had become tired of reform movements. The Democratic candidates, James B. Cox and his running mate Franklin D. Roosevelt, campaigned for the U.S. joining League of Nations. But the Republican candidate, Warren Harding, running on the slogan “Back to Normalcy,” opposed the League. He won an overwhelming victory.

“Normalcy” Returns Election of Harding in 1920 opened an era of

U.S. withdrawal from most world affairs. Americans were angry that most European

nations were not repaying their war debts. U.S. politics was dominated by prohibition and

and rising power of Wall Street. Farmers had a very hard time, because the

wartime prices of grain and cotton fell as Europe recovered in 1921-22.

The Business of America – is business

Harding, a small town businessman, took a pro-business view toward his role, and thus did not favor support of unions or regulation of corporations. But friends and advisors plunged his administration into scandal. Attorney General Harry Daugherty (right) of Hardin’s “Ohio Gang,” narrowly missed being convicted for accepting bribes and was forced to resign; other scandals erupted in the Veterans’ Bureau.

Prohibition

After a nationwide campaign by the Women’s Christian Temperance Unions and other anti-liquor groups, the 18th amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1920, prohibited the sale of any alcoholic beverages in the U.S. The Volsted Act enforced it (people could make a limited amount of “home brew” beer of 3.2% or less alcohol content).

Prohibition was poorly received by much of America, and criminal gangs quickly expanded to supply the booze buyers wanted.

Booze and Corruption

Bribery and corruption flowed as heavily as booze in the 1920s, with one group of state and Federal law enforcers working to discover and destroy illegal liquor (left) and other groups of local and even Federal police taking millions of dollars to “look the other way.”

Along the Minnesota-North Dakota border certain county sheriffs assisted the smuggling of liquor from Canada into the U.S.

Racism Revival

As had happened after previous eras of reform, the 1920s saw a revival of racism and anti-foreignism. The Ku Klux Klan grew up again, in the South, but also in many cities.

In Congress, a National Origins Act altered the immigration rules to reduce the number of immigrants from eastern and southern Europe.

The New Prosperity

Postwar prosperity in urban America helped make the early 1920s – with new advertising through the radio and magazines, and with profits from overseas trade. Rural America did not obtain much of this “easy money” but still wanted the comforts advertised in publications like the Sears Catalog.

The Jazz Age The prosperity characterized the “Roaring Twenties,” where “flappers” smoked in public, youth enjoyed their own status as a “market,” movies with titles like “Flaming Youth” suggested an end to “old fashioned” morals, and writers like Fitzgerald and Lewis deride the old ways of life.

But the prosperity rested on shaky ground – people did not make enough money to buy all that was being manufactured. By 1927, many industries were reducing staff and cutting wages. All that was required was a shock to create a financial panic.

The bubble burst in 1929.

The “Teapot Dome”

The most infamous scandal of the Harding Administration, known as the “Teapot Dome,” involved payment of $360,000 in bribes to high federal officials to arrange for the leasing of oil drilling rights on federal naval reserves to favored companies. Albert B. Fall (far left), the secretary of the interior, was much involved and became the first Cabinet member in history to be convicted for crimes while in office.

Coolidge Takes Over

His administration ruined by the scandals, Harding died of a cerebral hemorrhage on August 2, 1923. His successor, Calvin Coolidge, was able to distance himself from the scandals by moving swiftly to bring indictments against those who had abused the public trust. And, like Harding, this Vermont Republican believed that the presidency should encourage prosperity by supporting big corporations.

Low taxes, small budgets

Coolidge promised to keep Federal taxes low and the Federal budget balanced. As this newspaper cartoon suggests, Coolidge and his Treasury Secretary, Andrew Mellon, trimmed Federal expenses by closing down some of the Progressive era regulatory agencies that had fought against child labor, while supporting factory safety, and other pro-worker actions. This helped increased the prosperity of the decade.

Easy Money

Cars, radios, and movies also helped increase national income and national spending. Advertising, presumably the job of the man in the Abraham Lincoln costume, played an important role in selling luxury model autos such as this 1923 Lincoln touring car.

Consumers and Producers

Registration of vehicles rose in the ’20s from 9.2 million to 26.7 million. General Motors dominated cars by 1930. Unlike Ford, which concentrated on the "no-frills" inexpensive "Model T," GM executives each year introduced a variety of models that made earlier ones obsolete. With many models and many “luxuries,” they increased their sales each year.

The “Silver Screen”

The “movies” added to a “national culture” by teaching young men and women how to dress, look, and behave. Rudolph Valentino’s most famous film, The Sheik, left women swooning and men copying his Latin "machismo" hair style. When he died in 1925 of complications following an ulcer attack, his funeral became one of the public events of the decade.

“Wild Youth”

The movies, combined with the incomes of working women to give young women liberties they had not previously had. They could purchase new and more daring fashions featured on the screen – shorter hemlines, more casual designs, less constrictive undergarments, and brighter colors. This financial independence, when mixed with short or “bobbed” hair, created the look of the “flapper” generation. Women smoking in public shocked older Americans.

Changes in behavior

Advertising urged both men and women to smoke cigarettes as a “modern” expression of good taste. Many companies paid radio and movie stars to publicly smoke their brands. Previously unacceptable behavior for women – smoking, swearing, frank discussion of sex – became “smart,” with movies, new “Confession” magazines, popular novels, and celebrities providing role models for new behaviors.

Mass Communications and Celebrity

Radio also added to the advertising aimed at consumers. This 1924 Freed-Eisemann radio receiver, with a separate loud-speaker, illustrates the way in which many Americans would have heard the radio programs of the day. Dominated by large networks, radio programs broke down local barriers, created national celebrities among sports figures and performers, z=and paved the way for a nation-wide “consumer culture.”

Restoring World Trade

An Assurance of Peace?

In the late 1920s, U.S. Secretary of State Frank Kellogg joined the French foreign minister in persuading world leaders to sign a pact promising to “settle all differences without resorting to war.” Every major nation signed it – and then ignored it.

Prosperity on shaky ground

•Despite the rising stock market, American (and world) prosperity rested on very little more than public confidence; this declined as dictatorships took hold in Europe and Asia•World trade declined as many nations imposed high tariffs (taxes on imported foreign goods)•The world’s gold supply was not stabilizing prices•Unemployment was slowly growing, as fewer people could afford modern luxury goods•As sales of cars, radios, and other “durable goods” (refrigerators, washing machines, etc.) slowed down, American factories laid off workers.

THE CRASH

Over speculation in the stock market led to wild swings in stock prices. In October 1929, the overall market fell to less than 50% of its previous value. Hundreds of thousands loss their jobs and the financial depression began.

Bank Failures – 9000 banks holding $7 billion closed in 1 year (no deposit insurance existed)

One in four workers were unemployed by 1933

A BREAD LINE In NYC, 1930

Hunger in a food-rich nation

Herbert Hoover’s response

As the president in 1929, Herbert Hoover (left) was faced with the crisis. He had been elected in 1928 as a “problem solver” who had provided aid to Europe after the Great war and helped the South recover from the devastating 1927 flood.But Hoover refused to expand the Federal government’s debt in order to provide direct aid. He and the Congress created the National Recovery Administration (NRA) – which would lend money to corporations. He assured people that the NRA would “engineer” recovery “in the long run.” One economist replied, “People don’t eat in the long run, they eat every day. And they’re hungry now.”

The Bonus March – 1932

The hard times dragged on. In 1932, thousands of veterans from the Great War of 1917-18 went to Washington to ask Congress to advance them money from the bonus promised to them in 1945. Several economists argued that advance payments of the bonus would stimulate economic recovery.

Crushing the Bonus MarchCongress refused to advance the bonus payments, while Hoover, worried about rumors that the marchers were being influenced by communist agents, ordered the U.S. army to “guide” the marchers out of Washington. Army chief Douglas MacArthur (left) exceeded his orders, using cavalry and tanks to drive them out.When the veterans were gone, chased out by tear gas, MacArthur ordered the burning of their camp at the city’s edge. Many in the nation were outraged at this treatment of hungry former soldiers at a time when Federal funds were being spent to save large corporations from bankruptcy

Election of 1932 -- Franklin D. Roosevelt

“It’s time for the American people to get a new deal – FDR, 1932

Crippled by polio in the 1920s, Franklin Roosevelt had managed to disguise the fact that he spent most of his waking hours in a wheel chair. A master at public speaking, he also knew how to use radio more effectively than most politicians of the day.

Eleanor Roosevelt – The Nation’s Conscience

“She is the greatest argument for mercy killing I know. She should have been shot as a child” – NY banker.

“If Democracy had saints . . . Mrs. Roosevelt would be one” – poet laureate Archibald MacLeish.

Because FDR had only limited mobility, his wife served as his eyes and ears, traveling to meet party leaders and supporters during his New York governorship, then during his presidency. She most enjoyed meeting with ordinary citizens. Criticized for her active role as First Lady, most Americans responded to her open warmth and obvious sympathy for their hardships.

Elements of the New Deal

1. Relief -- Jobs for the unemployed.2. Recovery -- Restoring the economy.3. Reform -- Preventing abuses in banking, etc., with new regulations.

“Alphabet Soup”

In the first “hundred days” of FDR’s presidency, Congress passed virtually every bill he asked them to, creating new agencies to create jobs, regulate banking, help farmers, and assist people with emergency goods and services. All of these agencies were soon referred to by their initials (Agricultural Adjustment Administration – AAA; Securities Exchange Commission – SEC).

Forms of deficit spending paid for most new programs.

Nation Recovery Administration

The most controversial new agency was the NRA, which suspended the enforcement of anti-trust laws for two years, and encouraged every industry to bring its members together to agree on standards of quality, set prices, allocate production quotas, and agree on codes of fair competition. Labor leaders were supposed to be part of the teams setting the codes for each industry, and management-labor disputes were to be referred to the newly created National Labor Board. The idea was to increase jobs by reducing competition.

Business hated to “pro-labor” aspects of the NRA, and the Supreme Court ruled that its “price-fixing” steps were unconstitutional.

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

In contrast to the NRA, the CC was extremely popular with liberal and conservative alike. By enrolling young men in CCC to do conservation-related work in special CCC camps (modeled on US Army barracks), the Corps put these men to work, made them send some of the pay to their family, and helped restore the declining environment.

New Deal for the Farmer

The AAA was also controversial. In its first form, it paid farmers a subsidy to REDUCE farm production. News photos and films created a storm of anger by showing farmers plowing under crops, killing livestock, and dumping milk into ditches (all to raise prices by reducing supply). The Supreme Cory ruled parts of the AAA’s activities to be unconstitutional, and FDR had to reinvent the program in 1935-36.

The New Deal and Its Critics

“[Many] had never done an honest day’s work in their life and I don’t think ever intended to if they could get out of it. Loafers, you know, that’s all they were.”

Pennsylvania mailman on depression work relief programs.

“Every time [Roosevelt] said ‘my friends,’ with that superior tone of his, it was all I could do to keep from kicking the hell out of the radio.”

NY businessman on FDR’s fireside chats

The wealthy considered FDR (who was also rich) a “traitor to his class.” Employed workers frequently criticized the New Deal for allowing the unemployed to “pick up a check for doing nothing.”

Works Progress Administration -- WPA

The WPA was viewed as an expensive “make work” agency that paid men to “lean on a shovel.” Yet, WPA workers built dams, highways, pots offices, parks, and other public facilities that are still in use today.

WPA – Wasting the Taxpayer’s $

When you look at things today

Like Boulder Dam and TVA And all those playgroundswhere kids can play

We did it--by leaning on ashovel!

“Sing for Your Supper” -- a WPA Musical written to respond to its critics.

WPA – Federal Writer’s Project and Arts Projects

The most controversial part of WPA was its employment of teachers, writers and artists in non-construction work. Unemployed painters made murals in public building, writers created plays and musicals that were performed by out-of-work actors, historians interviewed former slaves, farms workers, and ordinary folks, creating in the process a set of state guides.

Critics hated this forerunner to today’s NEA and NEH, claiming that the works were “anti-business,” anti-American, and “communist propaganda.”

WPA – Federal Art Project –

Paul Kelpe – History of S. Illinois Mural (painted in a state building, in Illinois, ca. 1937)

WPA -- Federal Theater Project

A performance of “It Can’t Happen Here” (written by Sinclair Lewis, warning of the growth of fascism), in Chicago, 1936.

American Communism and the Depression

When the American Communist Party’s presidential candidate received 103,000 votes (a record high) in the 1932 election, conservatives feared that the New Deal could use big government to take control of the economy and all wealth. “We are walking the same road Russia did in 1918,” warned a radio speaker in 1933.

Communism offered hope to some

Communist Party pickets outside the White House, 1930.

“The battle is on! Go this morning to the nearest picket line and put up a united front, mass struggle against the greedy landlords of New York.” This call from the Daily Worker (newspaper of the Communist party) in 1933 lent weight to the belief that some Americans wanted a class war.

Huey Long – Share the WealthThe closest thing to communism that

drew any large numbers of followers was the “share the wealth” plan of Louisiana governor Huey Long. Long called for the government to confiscate all personal wealth over $100,000, with the funds then distributed among the people in services and jobs. “The fortune-holders of America grew powerful enough that one per cent of the people owned nearly everything, ninety-nine per cent of the people owned practically nothing,” Long told his listeners.

FDR considered Long the “most dangerous threat” to free government.

Father Charles E. CoughlinAnother possible threat was father

Charles Coughlin, a priest whose weekly radio broadcasts from Michigan reached millions. “Shall we suffer while this [America] money remains idle to fatten the wallets of the bankers or shall we employ it to create employment for the underprivileged?” Coughlin asked in 1935.

Most ominous were Coughlin’s expressions of admiration for European dictators and his anti-Semitic remarks that mirrored the Nazi movement in Germany.

The American Nazi Movement

The American-German Bund (here at a 1938 rally) was quite small, but it had its admirers among the German-American populations of the upper Midwest. After a Minnesota Senator died in an air crash in 1940, it was discovered that he (or someone in his office) had permitted thousands of pro-Nazi pamphlets to be mailed out using his Federal postal privileges.

Francis Townsend – Father of Social Security

Social Security, created in 1935 from an idea floated by a social worker, was one of the most permanent reforms of the New Deal.

Accepting Help --Work Ethic Guilt

“Yes I’m out of work. I’m fifty-two you see and I used to make good wages. I was proud, sure of myself, I thought things would always go on as they were. When I did make good money I spent it. Now I can’t find a job. So it’s my own fault.”

Told to Sherwood Anderson, in Puzzled America (1935)

Writers of Protest

“Mother’s hands were always puckered and grey while she was washing [clothes for the town butcher, to whom she owed money]. Her head was enveloped in a cloud of steam all day [and] the washboard kept her dress waist frayed.”

The Disinherited (1933), a novel by Jack Conroy, who flirted with communism

Urban Protest and Ethical Dilemmas

“[After waking on a park bench] I reached Fifth Avenue. Near Madison my eyes lit on two bottles of milk on a doorstep. I took one and ducked into an alley to drink it. The doorways of grocery stores were just beginning to fill [with deliveries]. Drivers were leaving bread and rolls tied into gunny sacks. I found a chain store, made as though I were looking to see if they had opened, and tucked away a sweet rye.” Edward Newhouse (New Masses staff writer) “You Can’t Sleep Here”(1934)

Corruption in Business and Government

“Heroes” attacked crooked businessmen and politicians -- those who had been respected before 1929 were now seen as greedy and dishonest.

Film and the American Dream

Frank Capra (center), an immigrant from Russia, perfected the “American Dream” story in movies like “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town,” “Meet John Doe” and “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” Using “everyman” actors like James Stewart (right) and suave stars like Cary Grant (right), Capra portrayed ordinary Americans as decent folk who just wanted a “fair shake” in life.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

“I want to make [the promise of America] come to life–yes, and lighted up like that [the capital dome], too–for every boy in the land. Boys forget what their country means –just reading "land of the free" in history books. And they get to be men–and forget even more. Liberty is too precious to get buried in books, Miss Saunders. Men ought to hold it up in front of them–every day of their lives and say: "I am free–to think–to speak. My ancestors couldn't. I can. My children will.“

Newly selected Senator Jefferson Smith (Stewart) on arrival in Washington DC.

“You look like a stowaway to me”-- Ship captain to Marx“Remember, the stockholder of yesterday is the stowaway of today” – Marx, “Night at the Opera”

“There is no sweeter sound than the crumbling of your fellow man.”Groucho Marx

Cynical Comedy

War, September 1939

German invasion of Poland ignited war in Europe as Britain and France honored it treaty with Poland.

Frames from film showing German army advancing into Poland. Nazi tanks (panzers) and aircraft were then superior to those of the Allies

Isolationism

Neutrality Laws in 1935-1936, written by Gerald Nye of North Dakota (below), restricted American business with nations at war and prevent American citizens from being endangered.

•As U.S. journalists begin covering the war in Europe their stories would have an impact on how Americans regard the war and its likely influence on American policies.

William L. Shirer

Vienna “looked like any German city in the Reich – red, white and black Swastika flags hung from the balconies of most of the homes. And in the streets people raised their hands in Nazi salute and greeted each other with ‘Heil Hitler!’”

CBS radio correspondent William L. Shirer on the German annexation of Austria, March 1937.

America is NeutralThis picture of downtown Moorhead, December 1939, shows citizens enjoying an unseasonably warm day as Christmas approaches. Americans hoped that “this time” they would not become involved in the war in Europe. The U.S. had also steered clear of the war between Japan and China, raging since 1937.

Public opinion polls showed that while about 3 of 4 Americans sympathized with China, Britain and France, 4 out of 5 wanted to remain neutral in the conflicts.