Peterson A.T., Hewitt V., Vaughan H., Kellogg A.T. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Clothing through American History, 1900 to the Present. Volume 1: 1900-1949
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which outlawed monopolies, and the Federal Trade Commission, which
investigated and enforced the Clayton Antitrust Act.
Taft was president when the Sixteenth Amendment was ratified.
Through the amendment, a federal income tax could be established, and
everyone, theoretically, would be taxed fairly, by rules established by Con-
gress. Although overshadowed to some degree by the political situation in
Europe and the eventual start of WWI, the federal income tax would
have an economic impact on the country that no one could recognize at
that time.
Another seemingly small change that would have major repercussions
was the status of women. At the beginning of the century, it was expected
that the lives of women would continue much as they had always been,
centered on the home. The country’s economic development changed rap-
idly as the situation in Europe deteriorated. Once war was declared, the
economy became driven by the need to provide American fighting men
the tools they needed. The war was larger than any war man had experi-
enced up to that time. So many American men were sent overseas that
women volunteered to do the tasks that men had been doing. For the first
time in history, American women were working in numbers no one had
ever imagined. If many men expected women to return to the domestic
roles they had before the war, they were surprised. Women had entered
the American workforce. The initial effects on the economy would not be
seen until the 1920s.
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS
In 1914, a Bosnia nationalist assassinated the Archduke Franz Ferdinand,
heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Sarajevo, Bosnia. The assassina-
tion most likely was intended to be a message to the Austro-Hungarians
that the area wanted its independence. The empire declared war on Ser-
bia, because the country was seen as being responsible for the duke’s
murder.
What had been a ‘‘simple’’ assassination triggered the alliances that
had been established in the preceding years. Countries who were
obligated by their treaties to protect Serbia declared war on the Austro-
Hungarians. Countries that had treaties with the Austro-Hungarians
declared war on Serbia and its allies. It was not long before all of Europe,
as well as Russia and the Ottoman Empire, was involved in the largest
war seen in the world up to that time. The two sides were evenly
matched, so the war dragged on for years. Each side tried to acquire more
allies to tip the balance of power in its favor.
30
POLITICAL AND CULTURAL EVENTS
Although Theodore Roosevelt might have gotten the country involved
in the war earlier, he was no longer president. Woodrow Wilson did his
best to maintain the neutrality of the United States. This was not an
absolute neutrality because the United States had become closely tied to
England and France by trade agreements. The ‘‘neutral’’ president allowed
shipments of goods and supplies to be shipped to England and France.
When the British blockaded American ports to prevent the Germans
from entering, Wilson protested, but he never suspended trade.
Germany, in its attempt to tip the balance of power, began to use the
first effective submarine, or U-boat. The most famous sinking by a
U-boat may be that of the Lusitania on May 7, 1915 (Murrin et al.
2004). The lives of 1,198 people were lost, including 128 Americans. The
Lusitania was a passenger ship, and its sinking shifted the tide of Ameri-
can thinking away from neutrality. Wilson protested and Germans agreed
not to torpedo passenger ships, especially ships of neutral countries, but
that was a promise that Germany did not keep. Wilson maintained
American neutrality, against much criticism, until the publication of the
Zimmermann telegram, which reportedly came from the German minister
to Mexico. The telegram requested that the Mexican government attack
the United States in the event that the United States declared war on
Germany. Mexico’s reward for this ‘‘favor’’ would be the return of lands
that the United States had obtained from Mexico over the years. That
land included Texas, Ariz ona, and New Mexico. This telegram, as well as
the overthrow of the czarist regime by the Bolsheviks, forced Wilson to
ask Congress to declare war on Germany, which it did on April 6, 1917.
After the war, Wilson worked for a just peace and the development of
the League of Nations. He presented his plan, called W ilson’s Fourteen
Points, for what he believed was an appropriate resolution for all of the
countries involved. He also hoped that a global organization would help
prevent other wars, but his efforts to broker a peace that satisfied every-
one and a long-term global organization were not successful. Many others
felt that Germany should be severely punished for its behavior in the war.
Wilson’s critics did not realize that the so-called peace treaty and the lack
of a global organization that would work for peace would plant the seeds
for an even greater war.
ETHNICITY
Over the first two decades of the twentieth century, Americans saw an
increase in the number of immigrants of all nationalities. The 1910s were
the last major phase of immigrants from eastern and southern Europe,
The 1910s
31
and they fed into America’s burgeoning economy. When America left its
isolationism and began to trade heavily with other countries, goods
needed to be produced for trade. Manufacturing and industry needed
cheap labor, and much of it came from new immigrants. New immigrants
needed work, and they were willing to take the dirty and dangerous jobs
that most Americans did not want. These jobs were frequently found in
coal mines, steel mills, the railroads, and slaughterhouses.
Slowly, many Americans began to resent the presence of these immi-
grants. Hostility intensified during WWI when latent fears rose to the
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Tragedy. In
the 1900s and early 1910s, it was com-
mon for young women to work in factory
jobs, especially in the garment manufac-
turing industry. They usually worked
long hours for low wages in unsafe con-
ditions. It was typical for a woman to
work from 7:30 in the morning to 6:00
at night six or seven days a week.
These working conditions existed at
the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in Man-
hattan. The company employed 500
people, mostly young women between
the ages of 16 and 23. Most were recent
Italian and European Jewish immigrants
who spoke little English. They sewed
garments by hand and on sewing
machines and cut fabric from tissue pat-
terns that were suspended above the
work areas on lines. Their factory was
illuminated with open gas lighting. Fab-
ric scraps littered the floors, and smok-
ing in the work space was common
among the few male workers.
On March 25, 1911, just before clos-
ing time, a deadly fire broke out near the
top of the ten-story building that held
the factory. As the fire blazed through
the top three floors, the employees tried
to flee the building. Some were able to
escape using the exterior fire escape
before it collapsed, and others were able
to make it to the roof and climb onto
adjacent buildings. One hundred forty-
six were trapped inside the building and
burned, suffocated, or jumped to their
deaths.
There was immediate public outrage,
and the factory owners were brought to
trial to determine whether they had pur-
posefully locked the exits, trapping the
employees inside. Although they were
acquitted, the resulting anger and protest
had long-reaching effects. It solidified
the influence and support of the Interna-
tional Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union,
who organized aid and relief for the vic-
tims and their families. In addition, it
spurred the growth of the organization.
Within a month, New York S tate
appointed a Factory Investigating Com-
mission to conduct hearings about fac-
tory safety, which led to factory safety
regulations in the state.
32
POLITICAL AND CULTURAL EVENTS
surface. German Americans were a focus of these fears, because they were
associated with America’s primary enemy in the war.
African Americans suffered from hostility as well. During the war,
they moved north for the higher wages being paid by industries suffering
from the labor shortage. As they migrated to cities in large numbers,
racial violence flared. Chicago, Houston, St. Louis, and Washington, DC,
all experienced race riots. Even in the south, people were angry that Afri-
can Americans were moving north and creating a labor shortage.
Some Americans organized around their fears and resentment, resulting
in the reemergence of the Ku Klux Klan, which had lain dormant for nearly
fifty years. The Klan took advantage of some of the rhetoric of WWI and
reestablished itself under the guise of Americans First. Klan members
tended to be white, Anglo-Saxon Protestants, and their hatred extended
beyond African Americans to include Jews, Catholics, and many people
who did not speak English, which in some communities meant immigrants
of any nationality. The war itself tended to limit the growth of the Klan
because most Americans were united in the war effort. After the war, issues
relating to discrimination did not get national attention until the 1920s.
THE
1920S
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICAL MOVEMENTS
The 1920s will be remembered for many things, not the least of which
will be the fact that Warren Gamaliel Harding was the first president of
the decade. Harding, a passive man who would do whatever the Republi-
can Party bosses told him to do, helped his friends and paid off political
debts by appointing people to government offices whether or not they
had any skills or knowledge of the office. Harding must have been a trust-
ing person, because he only seemed to have realized late in his presidency
that most of his ‘‘friends’’ had used their offices to gain money and enjoy
the ‘‘perks’’ their positions could get them. One of the scandals uncovered
by the press was the fact that Albert B. Fall, the Secretary of the Interior,
leased the navy’s petroleum reserves in Teapot Dome, Wyoming, to two
oilmen. The oilmen, Harry Sinclair and Edward L. Doheny, showed their
appreciation by ‘‘loaning’’ Fall hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Harding also had several adulterous affairs while in office, which the
press did not make public until after his death. Harding died of massive
heart failure before his term was completed, and the American public
learned the full extent of the improprieties of his administration after his
The 1920s
33
death. Many historians have considered Harding one of the worst presi-
dents, if not the worst, the country ever had.
Calvin Coolidge became president upon Harding’s death and quickly
replaced the cronies and incompetents that he inherited from Harding.
Known for his own personal honesty, Coolidge won the next election on
his own, with some help from a Democratic Party that was split over
politics.
Coolidge’s Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover, was considered
the man best educated and qualified to succeed Coolidge. Seen as one of
the architects of the apparent prosperity of the 1920s, Hoover won the
1928 election easily. Alhough he wanted to end poverty and improve the
status of the working man, Hoover believed that the economy would be
maximized if businesses learned to associate and communicate with each
other. Like earlier Republicans, he believed that the best government was
one that did not interact with individuals. He encouraged corporations to
talk to each other and learn to solve problems so that all business would
help each other, instead of meeting in competition. Although he was
unable to achieve this ideal, Hoover’s popularity was high for his first year
in office.
After the stock market crash in 1929, Hoover began to realize that
corporations would not communicate as he had hoped they would. He
still believed that limited government was the best way to help the coun-
try and refused to consider anything that seemed to be a government
handout. He might have wanted to help the poor and homeless, but his
policies were mostly aimed at helping businesses and the wealthy grow
stronger. Many Americans lost faith in him after the crash, and many
others strongly disapproved of his management of the Great War veterans
who came to Washington, DC, seeking financial assistance. Many Ameri-
cans considered Hoover indifferent to the ‘‘little man’’ and state of the
national economy. He never regained the popularity he had in his first
year. Although he was not individually responsible for the economic
downturn, many Americans blamed him for it, and he was overwhelm-
ingly defeated in the 1932 elections.
ECONOMIC TRENDS
Coolidge and the leading Republicans believed that business was the key
to American prosperity, so his presidency was kind to big business and the
already rich entrepreneurs. Coolidge’s administration was close to bankers
and tended to advocate policies that benefited only those who worked on
Wall Street.
34
POLITICAL AND CULTURAL EVENTS
The administration would slash taxes for the very rich, increase the
taxes on the middle class, raise tariffs on imports, and would not consider
canceling the reparations from any of the European countries that owed
the United States money as a result of the Great War. The country began
to isolate itself from Europe and Asia but would be aggressive for Ameri-
can investors in Latin America. Coolidge would even station marines in a
variety of Latin American countries if local uprisings threatened any
American investments in those countries.
Farmers had a difficult time during the 1920s. During WWI, farmers
increased their production to meet the demands of the war. When the
war was over, they were left with few buyers and surplus crops. Food pri-
ces plummeted, and many farmers and young people who had grown up
on farms moved to the city to find factory work.
With the proliferation of factory work, young people moved into cities
to get the high-paying factory jobs. Usually little experience or education
was required for this type of work, so apprenticeships and schooling were
no longer part of a young person’s career path. Although the factory jobs
paid well, they were mundane, and there were few opportunities for
advancement.
Factories produced goods and Americans bought them. The idea of
‘‘buy now, pay later’’ became popular, not simply to start a crop or begin a
business but to buy goods that a family might want. Many families began to
go into debt to buy consumer goods such as washing or sewing machines.
Advertisers began learning the psychology of advertising, and they began
campaigns that told people they ‘‘couldn’t live without’’ their products. Peo-
ple who never thought of athlete’s foot, bad breath, or any of a number of
problems suddenly felt a compulsion to buy products to prevent whatever
problem the advertisers from Madison Avenue convinced them they
needed. Businesses grew, but so did the debt incurred by most Americans.
The economy was stoked by new technologies. Industries welcomed
faster, more efficient machinery into their factories. Consumers purchased
modern ‘‘labor-saving’’ devices as well as items that had been extravagant
luxury items, such as automobiles, a decade earlier. Prices were good and
people became focused on consumption. The focus on saving money was
replaced with spending it.
A new scientific approach was applied to business management. Fred-
erick Taylor, as former machinist, studied the interaction between workers
and machines to determine how to get them to work together best. Dur-
ing the 1920s, business was now considered a profession, and the study of
business was legitimized by the emergence of business schools such as the
Harvard Graduate School of Business, which was established in 1924.
The 1920s
35
The passion that Americans acquired for consumerism was equal to
their enthusiasm for the stock market. During the 1920s, ordinary people
began investing in the stock market, an activity that they rarely did before.
Some borrowed money or paid ‘‘on margin’’ to acquire stocks. Both meth-
ods indebted the shareholder and set the scene for devastating financial
losses later in the decade.
The Republicans, assured of continued success, nominated Herbert
Hoover for president in 1928, and he won 58 percent of the vote (Ca mpbell
2000, 66). Hoover rode a tide of popularity until the fall of 1929. At that
time, shares on the New York Stock Exchange started fluctuating wildly.
Finally, on Tuesday, October 29, 1929, shares dropped and stayed low.
Money that had been invested in stocks evaporated. Many big businessmen
and middle-class people saw their life savings disappear.
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS
After the Great War, President Woodrow Wilson wanted the United
States to participate in a League of Nations. The League would be an or-
ganization of the nations of the world that, in theory, would be able to
settle disputes and prevent future wars. The League was largely developed
by Wilson. He had idealistic plans for the organization, but he had to
modify those plans when the leaders of other countries insisted on a vari-
ety of changes. Most of those changes were based in the antagonism and
biases that that helped to start the Great War, but Wilson had to modify
his plans or risk having the entire idea destroyed. Wilson battled to get
the Congress to allow the United States to become a member of the
League, but Congress refused. The League, an idea born before its time,
was never able to live up to the ideals of Wilson’s vision.
The United States had become a world power after the country helped
win the Great War. Most European countries, even those who had not
been defeated, had to rebuild their economies after the war. The defeated
countries, Germany especially, were required to pay reparations to the
countries that had conquered them. These reparations were frequently
major problems for a growing economy. As the years progressed, the pay-
ments were adjusted and were less of a problem economically, but they
became a point of contention. Hitler, for example, used the payments
to incite hatred of those who won the war. These people, according to
Hitler, were the western countries who were ‘‘run by the very rich Jewish
bankers.’’
After WWI, the people of Germany and Italy both felt that they had
been wronged by the outcome of the war. This established the
36
POLITICAL AND CULTURAL EVENTS
environment for two men, Adolf Hitler in Germany and Benito Mussolini
in Italy, to enter politics with the idea that their countries should return
to their glory days and rule Europe and the rest of the world. Mussolini
was able to assume control of Italy during the 1920s because of an absence
of any other leader. Hitler’s rise to power took several years; he took
advantage of the time by increasing his power base slowly but surely.
Ironically, he assumed the chancellorship of Germany in 1932, the same
year that FDR became president of the United States. Both Hitler and
Mussolini took advantage of the fears and discriminatory beliefs of their
people and pledged that their countries would become ‘‘pure,’’ without the
ethnicities that had helped to destroy their countries in the past. These
leaders c laimed that Jews were responsible for the economic woes of both
countries and therefore had to leave or otherwise be eliminated.
ETHNICITY IN AMERICA
After the Great War, the United States seemed to socially withdraw unto
itself. It did not want to become entangled with the affairs of nations out-
side of the two American continents. Many Americans seemed to think
that the war was a ‘‘foreign’’ problem and that ‘‘foreigners’’ should solve
their own problems in the future. The country was willing to trade with
other countries, as long as American businesses were not economically
hurt, but the country seemed to want to isolate itself from the problems
of the rest of the world. This isolationism helped create a sense of ‘‘Amer-
ica First,’’ which in turn contributed to the idea that foreigners were not
always wanted in the United States.
This anti-foreigner attitude was not against all foreign-born people.
The popular concept was that anyone who was not white, Anglo-Saxon,
and Protestant was not really welcome any longer. In 1924, the Johnson-
Reed Act was passed, restricting the number of immigrants who could
come from outside the western hemisphere. Those immigrants, especially
those from southern Europe, Asia, or Africa, who were already in the
country, were not readily accepted into American communities. These
ethnic groups tended therefore to cluster together in enclaves that became
ghettos in many large cities.
The Ku Klux Klan saw a rebirth after the Great War. Originally a
white supremacist group that wanted to suppress African Americans, the
Klan grew in the 1920s into an organization that wanted to restore a
so-called Anglo-Saxon ‘‘purity.’’ The organization targeted specifically
African Americans, Jews, and Catholics, although Klans in individual
communities might have targeted other ethnic groups.
The 1920s
37
In some communities, especially in rural areas, there was a rebirth of
fundamentalist Protestant beliefs. More liberal Protestants were consid-
ered impure and an indication of how urban areas could corr upt and
destroy American society. Many fundamentalists believed that science, lib-
eral ideas, and the different cultures that had ‘‘invaded’’ the country were
destroying the ideals that made America a powerful nation that could win
the Great War.
This fear of ideas outside of fundamentalist belief was nationally pub-
licized in Dayton, Tennessee, in 1925 when a young biology teacher, John
Scopes, defied fundamentalist teachings by teaching Charles Darwin’s
Theory of Evolution in his classes. William Jennings Bryan, who had run
unsuccessfully for the American presidency, was the lawyer who prose-
cuted Scopes. Clarence Darrow, a famous liberal trial lawyer of the era,
came to Dayton to defend Scopes. The trial riveted the American popula-
tion. Many Americans rejected the fundamentalist argument, and many
fundamentalists retreated from the political arena. Scopes was convicted
of violating school policy and accepted standards. Many publishers of
textbooks noticed the trial publicity and removed references to Darwin
and evolution from their texts. This policy remained in effect until the
1960s.
Immigrants from Mexico became the new ‘‘cheap labor’’ in the 1920s,
especially after the passage of the Johnson-Reed Act. They migrated pri-
marily into the southwestern states, with a large influx into southern Cali-
fornia. Many California cities grew rapidly during the 1920s as their
Mexican communities grew. There were so many Mexicans in the south-
west that they were able to develop their own radio stations as well as
newspapers and even their own movies and theatres.
Eastern Europeans tended to remain in the northeastern and midwest-
ern states. Large cities such as New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago saw
a rapid increase in ethnic communities. Like the Mexican communities in
the southwest, these ethnic communities developed many subcultures that
included their own radio stations and other activities. These ethnicities
tended to adapt to the larger culture, learning English and being accepted
as part of the larger American culture, but that usually occurred in the
second and third generations of individual families. These ethnic groups
were ostracized and restricted to low-wage jobs with poor working condi-
tions. The Republicans were seen to be responsible for this discrimination,
so many ethnic groups began a push to register their members in
the Democratic party. This surge of ethnic Democrats could not help the
part y win the 1924 presidential election, but they did contribute to
Hoover’s defeat in the 1928 election.
38
POLITICAL AND CULTURAL EVENTS
Many African Americans had left the south after the Civil War, but they
did not find the freedom and equality that they had hoped to find. African
Americans were usually only allowed to live in areas that were specifically
designated for them. These areas tended to be the poorer areas of a town or
city, with limited city services such as sanitatio n. Given the high concentra-
tion of African America ns in these areas, many died because of disease.
One of the largest and probably the best-known African-American
communitties was Harlem, in New York City. Harlem was ideally located
to benefit from all the new ideas, fads, and trends that came to New York
City. Many talented and educated African Americans moved to Harlem
to participate in this activity. The area prospered and attracted even more
talented and educated African Americans. The Harlem Renaissance was a
result of this influx of talent and creativity.
The Harlem clubs became hotbeds of activity around the popular
forms of music that had been mostly confined to the smaller African-
American communities. Jazz, the blues, and ragtime became popular in
the larger, white community. Many white New Yorkers would come to
the Harlem clubs to hear bands play the new music and hear the new
musicians, such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Billie Holliday.
Poets such as Langston Hughes would also be featured at these clubs to
read their poetry while the music played and whites danced. Ironicall y,
the clubs that fostered the African-American culture were often owned
by whites. African Americans were only allowed into the clubs if they
worked there; they were not allowed admission to the clubs, even if they
could afford the entry price.
During the Great Depression, ethnicities were discriminated against
as they had been in previous decades. It would not be until the later part
of the twentieth century that the civil rights movement would begin to
address some of the blatant discrimination ethnicities suffered during the
early part of the century.
THE
1930S
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICAL MOVEMENTS
Hoover’s successor, FDR, was a wealthy man from a patrician family who
managed to be seen as a man of and for the people. Stricken with polio as
a young man, FDR sent his wife, Eleanor, around the country to visit a
variety of people in a variety of circumstances. She was his eyes and ears
and she reported what she encountered on her trips. She was the first
The 1930s
39