America - quizlet

• hire purchase(1920s)


  6/10 cars bought this way
• Model T(ford car)

  - Cost $295 in 1920 - 15 million bought between 1911-1929- by 1920 a Model T was made every 10 seconds- Ford paid same to black and white people
• Car statistic

  By 1929 26 million cars registered in USA (1/2 were Ford)
• Wages statistic

  Real wages for industrial workers grey by 26% during 1920s
• Unemployment in boom statistic

  Unemployment fell from 11.9% in 1921 to 3.2% in 1929
• Fordney-McCumber Tariff

  1922 - taxed foreign goods into encourage buying of American goods
• Roaring twenties statistic

  - 1927 Charles Lindbergh 1st person to fly nonstop from America to Paris- 1929, there were 400 skyscrapers - 1931, Empire State Building finished - 102 stories - tallest building in world - in 1926, 120,000 people watched Jack Dempsey fight
• Farmers (loser of boom)

  - 600,000 farmers lost their farms in 1924- lives on $89 a year
• Millionaires statistic


  Around 15,000 US millionaire by 1927
• Poverty Statistics

  - 6 million families had a an income of less than $1000 a year by 1927- in 1920s, 60% lived below poverty line
• Cinema statistic

  In 1927 around 60 million Americans went to cinema weekly and 110 million by 1929
• Radio statistic

  - By the end of 1920s 50 million had a radio set- 40% of households had radio- 1926 MBC set up first national radio network
• 19th Ammendment of the US Constitution

  In 1920 women got the right to vote
• Women working statistic

  - 25% increase in women working during 1920s - By 1929 10.6 million women working
• Black people statistics

  - 10% of population- 1 million lost their jobs in 1920s - Chicago June 1919 - race riots - 23 black people and 15 white people killed
• 18th Ammendment of the US Constitution

  In 1919 alcohol became illegal to make and sell ( prohibition)
• Gangland murders and bribery statistic

  - Between 1927-30 more than 500 gangland murders- one gang regularly bribed 400 police men
• Al Capone statistics

  - controlled 700 men - 1927, annual income was $60 million- 1931, imprisoned for 11 years for tax evasion
• Saint Valentine's Day Massacre

  14th February 1929- Al Capone killed 7 of the Bugs Moran gang
• 21st amendment of the US constitution


  In 1933 prohibition ended
• enforce prohibition statistic

  - only 1500 enforcers in 1920- cost 13.4 million to enforce prohibition - government lost $11 billion on alcohol tax- in 1930, 30,000 speakeasies in New a York - 10% agents sacked for taking bribes
• Open Door Policy

  End of nineteenth century, policy encouraged immigrants - by 1920 over 40 million had arrived - at busy time 5000 a day
• Literacy test 1917

  Immigrants had to do reading and writing tests
• Emergency quota act - 1921


  Restricted immigrants to 357,000 a year
• National Origins Act - 1924


  Reduced number of immigrants to 150,000 a year
• Red scare heightened by

  - Industrial unrest 1919- Race riots in 23 cities in 1919- 36 mail bombs in April 1919 at Mitchell Palmer house- Bomb exploding on wall street killing 38 September 1920
• Palmer raids statistic


  - claimed there were 150,000 communists- 6000 people arrested and held in prison- 556 were deported
• Sacco and Vanzetti


  In may 1920 arrested on suspicion(seen by 60 witnesses) In may 1921 they were convicted In august 1927 they were executedIn 1977 verdict was declared unjust
• African American discrimination is 1920


  Jim Crow lawsPay a poll tax to voteTake a literacy test to vote1 million migrated northIn 1919 70 lynchings
• KKK statistic

  - started in 1865 and revived in 1915- in 1921 had 100,000 members- By mid 1920s had 5 million members- lynched 135 people in Georgia in 1924-25- lynched 400 African Americans in total
• Black Thursday

  October 24, 1929 - 12.8 million shares sold
• Black tuesday

  October 29, 1929 - 16 million shares sold - market crashed
• Banks statistic

  659 banks closed in 1929 2,294 in 1931
• Unemployment statistic(1920-30s)

  - 14 million of National force unemployed - 277/ 14000 people had jobs in denora, Pennsylvania in 1932- unemployment rose to 1.6 million in 1929, to 14 million in 1933- 13 million unemployed in 1932- 6 million still unemployed in 1941
• Industry statistics


  - industrial production fell by 45% - house building feel by 82% - 100,000 companies closed
• Homelessness statistic

  - 1932, 1/4 of million lot homes
• hunger statistics

  - 110 people died of starvation
• Hawley-Smoot Tariff


  In 1930 increased tariffs by 50% on foreign goods
• RFC (Reconstruction Finance Corporation)

  Established in 1932 - provided $1500 million in loans for businesses and banks
• Emergency Relief Act(1932)


  Gave $300 million to individual states to help unemployed but only $30 million got given out