1. POLITICS OF THE
1920’S
DAVID RANGEL

2. AMERICAN POSTWAR ISSUES
• The American public was exhausted from World War I. Public debate over the League of Nations had
divided America.

3. CONGRESS LIMITS ON IMMIGRATION
• Congress decided to limit immigration from southern and eastern Europe.
• The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 established a quota system to control and restrict immigration.
• America changed its formally permissive immigration policy.

4. QUOTA SYSTEM
• Limiting by nationality the number of immigrants who may enter the U.S. each year.
• Workers worried about competition for jobs lower wages Fear of communists and anarchists 1921 –
quota system set up 3% of any national group (1910) would be admitted Latin America not included in
quotas

5. SACCO & VANZETTI
• Fear of Communism took the form of a Red Scare (anti-communist hysteria) and fed nativism in
America. Italian anarchists Sacco & Vanzetti, a shoemaker and a fish peddler, were convicted of robbery
and murder, despite flimsy evidence.
• Their execution was symbolic of discrimination against radical beliefs during the Red Scare.

6. STRIKES
• Strikes were outlawed during WWI, however, in 1919 there were more than 3,000 strikes involving 4
million workers.
• Boston Police Strike Boston police had not received a raise in years and were denied the right to
unionize. In response to the strike, the city called the National Guard and hired new policemen
• Steel Mill Strike In September, 1919, the United States Steel Corporation refused to meet with union
representatives. In response, over 300,000 workers went on strike. Scabs were hired and strikers were
beaten by police and federal troops. The strike was settled in 1920 with an 8-hour day but no union.
• Coal Miners’ Strike In 1919, United Mine Workers led by John L. Lewis called a strike. Lewis met with an
arbitrator appointed by President Wilson. Lewis won a 27% pay raise and was hailed a hero. Lewis

7. AUTOMOBILES CHANGES
INFRASTRUCTURE
• Roads, traffic lights, motels, billboards Home design (garages, driveways) Gas stations, repair shops,
shopping centers Freedom for rural families Independence for women and young people Cities like
Detroit, Flint, Akron grew By 1920 80% of world’s vehicles in U.S.

8. ELECTRICITY
• While gasoline powered much of the economic boom of the 1920s, the use of electricity also
transformed the nation. Electric refrigerators, stoves, irons, toasters, vacuums, washing machines, and
sewing machines were all available

9. PRESIDENTS
• Woodrow Wilson - March 1913 to March 1921-
• New Freedom (stressed individualism and states' rights)
• Lower tariff, the Underwood Act
• Federal Reserve Act- provided the Nation with the more elastic money supply it badly needed
• Established a Federal Trade Commission to prohibit unfair business practices.
• He asked Congress for a declaration of war on Germany.
• Warren G Harding - March 1921 to August 1923-
• Gave a new surge of prosperity to the postwar depression
• Eliminated wartime controls and slashed taxes, established a Federal budget system, restored the high
protective tariff, and imposed tight limitations upon immigration.
• Herbert Hoover- March 1929 to March 1933 –
• Demonstrated his determination to preserve the old moral and economic precepts
• He twice vetoed farm relief bills, and killed a plan to produce cheap Federal electric power on the Tennessee
River.
• Did nothing