Learn AP® U.S. History - Harding to Hoover 1921 - 1932 Part 2

Billy Sunday
Sunday was a former baseball player who became an evangelical preacher. Sunday's colloquial preaching and his powerful invective proved popular with audiences nationwide.

Modernists sought to break with traditional forms of art, architecture, literature, religious faith, social organization, and daily life, feeling that these traditions had become outdated in a fully industrialized society.

Unlike Fundamentalists, Modernists sought to minimize the role of religion in everyday life, and emphasized science, including teaching evolution.

In the Scopes Monkey Trial, John Scopes was on trial for teaching evolution, which was illegal under Tennessee law. The trial pitted legendary lawyer Clarence Darrow against William Jennings Bryan, who represented the prosecution.

The trial quickly gained nationwide attention as a battle between modernists and fundamentalists.

Scopes lost the trial and was fined $100, but his conviction was overturned on a technicality.

Nativism is the policy of protecting the interests of "natives," or the established inhabitants of a country against outsiders or immigrants. Nativists feared that new immigrants would compete for jobs.

Fueled by nativist and fundamentalist sentiments, the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s developed a significant following in the Midwest. Rather than being directed solely at blacks, the Klan also espoused nativist ideology against Catholics and Jews.

For the first time, women also played a large role in the Klan, and Women of the Ku Klux Klan (WKKK) auxiliaries existed in every state.

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were Italian immigrants and Anarchists who were arrested, tried and convicted for the murder of a payroll clerk in 1927. Many believed that Sacco and Vanzetti were innocent and the case generated public protest.

Even today, many historians contend that the men's conviction resulted from anti-immigrant sentiment rather than an impartial jury verdict.

The Harlem Renaissance

Harlem Renaissance artists and intellectuals expressed both African American pride and the pain of racism in their artistic, literary, and musical works.

The Harlem Renaissance included prominent artists like musicians Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, writers such as James Weldon Johnson, and poets such as Langston Hughes.

Marcus Garvey was a Jamaican immigrant who became one of the most influential African American leaders. He created the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in the 1920s to further black pride and to promote black separatism and a return to Africa.

Garvey founded a shipping line known as the Black Star Line, to transport goods and settlers back to Africa.

Popularized during the Harlem Renaissance, the term "New Negro" implied a refusal to submit to racial segregation and an advocacy of black dignity and equality. The term arose out of the self-confidence and pride of blacks gained during the Great Migration and service during World War I.

Kellogg-Briand

The signatories of the Pact, including the United States, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and dozens of other nations, pledged not to use war to resolve disputes with other nations, and pledged collective action to intervene against aggressor nations.

The Republican campaign centered upon continued prosperity and economic growth, promising a "chicken in every pot, and an automobile in every garage."

Many Republicans also took advantage of growing nativist sentiment to castigate Alfred E. Smith, Hoover's opponent and an Irish Roman Catholic.

Smith, nicknamed The Happy Warrior by Franklin Roosevelt, was an Irish Roman Catholic, the first Catholic to run for the Presidency on a major party ticket. He was also a wet, committed to ending Prohibition.

Smith lost the 1928 campaign, in part because of anti-Catholic sentiment.

By 1929, half of all American families had automobiles, and its impact was widespread. Suburbanization rose, as people took advantage of increased mobility to move to more bucolic areas.

As they became more reliable, automobiles became an integral part of the vacation experience, as Americans took their first "road trips." Even romance changed, as dates in cars replaced courting in the family living room.

When an investor buys on margin, the investor puts up a portion of the price for a stock and a broker advances the rest of the money. The wide availability of margin credit fueled an environment of stock market speculation, and stock prices skyrocketed throughout 1928 and 1929.

Banks don't keep all customer deposits on hand; rather they lend out the funds to individuals or companies. A bank run takes place when many customers withdraw their money simultaneously, out of fear the bank may become insolvent, and was a common feature of the early 1930s.

As money is withdrawn the likelihood of default increases, thus triggering further withdrawals. When the Bank runs out of money it closes down.

"Black Thursday"

Several leading bankers stabilized the market on Friday, October 25, but the sell-off resumed on Monday, October 28, when the market collapsed 13%, a day known as "Black Monday."

During the pre-crash boom, many speculators had purchased stocks on margin. As the stock market began to fall, brokers were forced to sell off the stocks purchased for their customers on margin. This created a snowball effect; as stocks continued to fall, more speculators were sold out.

Already slowed by the 1929 Stock Market Crash, the increased tariff led to retaliation by foreign countries, which raised their own tariffs. As a consequence, U.S. exports dropped by 66%, devastating the U.S. economy.

Established in 1932, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation was one of Herbert Hoover's attempts to aid the ailing U.S. economy. The agency gave $2 billion in aid to state and local governments, railroad companies, banks, and other businesses. The Corporation was a model for several of the New Deal agencies.

Signed into law during the Hoover Administration, the Federal Home Loan Bank Act sought to lower the cost of home ownership by providing funds to federal savings and loans to be used to fund home mortgages.

The Act's purpose was to reduce home foreclosures during the early years of the Great Depression. While foreclosures were reduced, it had little effect on the economy as a whole.

The Emergency Relief Act was the first ever federal relief act, which released funds for public works projects (such as highways and building projects) throughout the country.

The Emergency Relief Act was expanded by President Roosevelt as part of his New Deal line of programs.

The Moratorium prompted a number of bank defaults in Europe and the United States, as customers withdrew their funds. Designed to stave off a depression in Europe, the Moratorium had only a negligible effect on the world economy.

Founded shortly before the 1929 Stock Market Crash, the Farm Board was greatly expanded in response to the drop in crop prices in 1930 and 1931. The Federal Farm Board attempted to drive up prices by holding cotton and grain in storage, reducing the supply.

Unfortunately the Board's efforts were too modest to have much of an effect on the economy.

In 1932, thousands of unemployed World War I veterans marched on Washington and demanded immediate payment of bonus certificates that had been awarded to them in acknowledgment of their service, but which weren't cashable until 1945.

The Bonus Army, as it came to be called, arrived en masse at the U.S. Capitol, demanding that Congress enact the Bonus Bill, providing them with their bonuses.

After the Bonus Army attacked police following the failure of Congress to pass the Bonus Bill, Hoover ordered out the U.S. Army. Douglas MacArthur used troops, tanks, and tear gas to drive the veterans from Washington.

Roosevelt sharply critiqued Hoover's deficit spending, contending that government extravagance had led to the worsening Depression. Roosevelt promised to streamline the government, cut government expenditures by 25%, and balance the budget.

In addition, Roosevelt supported repealing Prohibition, hoping that grain purchases by brewers and distillers would raise crop prices.