Taking a Snapshot of American Life from the 1870s
through the 1920s
CP = Consumer Price Index equivalent SP = Stock price index equivalent
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Traits |
1870s to 1890s |
1895 to about 1920 |
1920s – The Jazz Age |
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Economic Reminders General changes |
¾ |
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From 1920 to1930 these trends: § 200% Ý Corporate profits § 65% Ý Dividends |
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1872 – Mail order – Montgomery Ward 1880 – Woolworth – “Five and Ten Cent Store” 1880s – Mail order – Sears, Roebuck, and Company |
Mail order, retail chains continue More mass market food products – new examples: Coca Cola and Crisco 1900 9 of 10 males wear “ready to wear” |
Trends continue |
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1910-1920 factory production 12% Ý |
1920-1930 factory production 64 % Ý |
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1908 Ford Model T – 5, 986 1912 78,611 |
1920 - 10M cars; 1920s General Motors (GM) – over Ford 1927 Ford Model A – new car design 1930 26M cars |
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1867 – $50M in advertising 1900 – $500M |
Psychological study/sampling for advertising $ spent - 1900 $95M |
1920 $500M Ý |
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New technology |
Railroads: 1870s+ – Government aid (all levels) $500M + $179M acres 1883 – 4 standard time zones |
New production methods Scientific Management (Frederick W. Taylor) New middle class of experts – engineers, bankers, managers |
Marketing/advertising becomes “as crucial as production.” |
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General |
1894 – ¼ railroads bankrupt 1893 – 15,000 businesses closed 1894 – 2.5M unemployed (17-19% of work force) |
General economic recovery except for panics – 1903, 1907, and just before WWI |
CP: 1923 100.6 1929 95.3 SP: 1922 67.7 1929 190.3 Compare CP and SP. |
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South’s per |
1860 – 60% of North’s 1900 – 40% of North’s |
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South’s |
From1880 to 1900, climb of 2 X In % = Climb to 10% of total US manufacturing |
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What’s happening to workers? Averages, national |
Pre-1900 - 60-hr., 6 day/week 20 cents/hr. if skilled 10 cents/hr. if not |
1900 – 48-54 – 5.5 day/week IF white collar/managerial class 1914 – Ford - $5.00/8-hr. day |
1920- 51 hr /week ß |
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Average income – $400-$500/yr. Minimum cost of living – family of 4 = $600/yr. |
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11% Ý Wages – factory (higher for managerial class) |
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1880-1914 - Real wages Ý $7/yr – that’s about a 1% Ý (for $400, .0175; for $500, .0104) |
1899 58% of income for food/clothes |
1920s 44%ß of income for food/clothes Dropping prices on key goods yielded more consumerism. |
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Labor, general |
1890s, end of - 300,000 American Federation of Labor (AFL) – skilled laborers |
1904 AFL - 1.7M Ý 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Co. fire - Women’s Trade Union 1919 Violent strikes (steel) |
1920s AFL - one remaining – did not unionize factories Business - positioned unions as radical/anarchist: 1920 5M 1929 3M |
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Factory, |
12 hrs/day – frequently women/children ½ pay rate of North |
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Tobacco $100/yr. in NC Cotton 60 hrs/week – 15 cents/day |
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Children, |
1880s – Drop from 17% to 12% of children (over age 10) employed 1890s – Climb to 18%. |
1900 20% 5-15 years worked full-time 20K girls under 12 still in mills 1911 Bureau of Labor investigation (pushed by Women’s Trade Union) |
Decline in child labor Adolescence without having to work to eat HS enrollment 400% Ý; junior colleges |
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1900 – 1 in 10 girls employed 1900 – 1 in 5 boys employed |
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Women, employed |
1870 – 15% over age 16 employed 1890s – Climb from 3.7M to 5M women employed 1900 – 20% of white women (5.3M); 25% of black women |
1900 1/5 adults; 1/3 of 14-24 worked By 1920 1/4 of those working are clerical |
1920 to 1930 - only 1% more in workforce – low-paying jobs |
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wage = average ½ of men |
Wage = 55% of men |
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Traits |
1870s to 1890s |
1895 to about 1920 |
1920s – The Jazz Age |
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What’s happening to workers? Cattle |
1867 – 1st drive to railhead 1871 – 700,000 (peak) 1886-87 – blizzard |
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Trail boss $125/month – white Hands – average 8 men – ½ black or Mexican |
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Miners, |
Corporate mines in the post-boom period 1870s – 1/30 disabled, 1/80 dead Anti-Chinese movement |
1913 Ludlow (CO) strike - fire & gunfire on strikers - 11 kids among the dead |
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Miners, Midwest |
14 hrs/day; 1/3 injured, 1/12 died in mines |
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Pre-1890 – English and Irish Post-1890 – SE Europeans |
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1894 – strikes in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio |
1900 – 25,000 boys under 16 still in mining |
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What’s happening to farming? Mid-West |
1873 $1.16/bushel - wheat 1874 $0.95/bushel 1889 $0.70/bushel 1874 $0.64/bushel - corn 1875 $0.42/bushel |
Declining population on farm, but: § 1900-1913 Rural Free Delivery, US Parcel Post § 1900-1920 irrigation in CA § End of WWI farm prices ß |
1920 $0.10/pound – wheat 1924 $0.0926/pound 1925 $1.437/pound |
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South |
1867 – 33% farms – tenancy 1900 – 70% farms – tenancy |
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tenant – tenant “owned” crop sharecropper – owner “owned” crop furnish merchant – interest to 50% |
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1870 – 3.1M cotton bales 1880 – 5.7M cotton bales |
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1881 - $0.11/pound - cotton (10 cents/pound break even) 1890 - $0.085/pound 1894 - $0.046/pound |
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1920 $0.40/pound – cotton 1921 $0.10/pound |
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Averages |
1/2 ß Per capita farm income compared to general income |
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What’s happening in the professions? |
Doctors, lawyers, and historians start their associations in this period. |
Organize and establish credentialing in education. Examples: § Business 1912-Chamber of Commerce § Doctors 1901-American Medical Association (reorganization) § Teachers 1905-National Education Association § Social workers 1911-National Federation of Social Workers |
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Traits |
1870s to 1890s |
1895 to about 1920 |
1920s – The Jazz Age |
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Political Reminders |
1877-1887 – 8 of 10 voters voted 1890s – city reform – Examples: Chicago Civic Federation; National Municipal League |
1917 Russian Revolution – communism 1919 communist 60K max—cities 1919 bombings (one identified Italian anarchist) 1919 Palmer Raids – Red Scare 1920 Palmer forecasts May 1 takeover, but doesn’t happen |
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What is the urban/rural pattern? |
Cities: Over 80% immigrant in Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, New York City 1869 – 9 cities 100,000+ 1890 – 28 cities 100,000+ |
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1920 –FIRST time over ½ Americans in cities (2500+) Result: § Land price Ý Skyscraper Ý § Group activities with strangers § Anonymous |
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Central core = skyscraper + elevator + tenement + settlement house + parks - working class Suburbs = subways + streetcars - middle class |
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Rural response: Populism |
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KKK Ku Klux Klan – anti-Jew, Catholic, aliens, blacks, new women; Controlled legislature – TX, OK, OR, IN |
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What migrations are occurring? |
1877-1890 – 6.3 M immigrants |
1900-1920 § 14.5M Catholic/Jewish; Italian/Serbs; Japanese § Mexican-SW (TX, AZ, NM, CA) 2XÝ EACH decade § African Americans-N |
Anti-immigrant legislation 1921; 1924 (no Asians; mainly N Europe; a quota system)—rural support in Congress |
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1880-1917 – 17.9M immigrants – mainly Catholics and Jews and unskilled - 20.2% from NW Europe - 18.5% from E Europe - 27.1% from Central Europe - 24.3% from S Europe |
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What’s the response? |
Examples: 1882 Chinese Exclusion 1887 American Protective Association formed – Clinton, La. |
1906 San Francisco school segregation of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean children 1907 Intervention by TR and “Gentlemen’s Agreement” with Japan blocking immigration from its side |
1920-1927 Sacco & Vanzetti (MA) – worldwide response |
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What’s the black situation? |
1879 Exodusters 1880s Some Southern blacks to industrial cities |
White South = Jim Crow + § 1900-1914 1000 blacks dead, killed by white mobs §
White attacks, race riot - Atlanta-1906;
Springfield-1908; Washington D.C.-1919; Chicago-1919 |
Migration African Americans—1M Ý |
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1881 Tuskegee Institute – Alabama – Booker T. Washington 1883 Civil
Rights Cases – not on individual actions 1895 Atlanta
Exposition speech - Washington 1896 Plessy v.
Ferguson 1896 National Association of Colored Women |
1900 Booker T. Washington rejected - W.E.B. Du Bois Souls of Black Folk - “talented 10th” (1903) 1905 Niagara Movement – NAACP; publication The Crisis 1911 National Urban League |
Harlem Renaissance § W.E.B. Du Bois—editor NAACP’s The Crisis § Langston Hughes |
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1916 Marcus Garvey and Pan-Africanism |
1925 Garvey convicted of fraud |
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What’s happening to prohibition? |
1873 – women’s march against saloons, dealers 1874 – Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) – 1000 organizations, 26K members 1888+ - Republicans, state-level, social activists – prohibition laws 1895 – Anti-Saloon League (uniting Protestant churches) |
1916 19 states forbade alcohol 1918 18th Amendment- Prohibition (1920 Volstead) |
Rural dry; cities (upper) drank; speakeasies; bootleggers; Al Capone |
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Traits |
1870s to 1890s |
1895 to about 1920 |
1920s – The Jazz Age |
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What’s happening to family and role of women? |
Birth control – 1870s – laws to restrict sale of devices/abortions Divorce – 1880 – 1/21 marriages |
Birth control Ý (Margaret Sanger) Divorce Ý from 1/21 marriages-1880; 1/12-1900; 1/9-1916 IMAGE: Gibson girl (1890-95); later suffragette |
1928 – 1 divorce/6 marriages IMAGE: flapper |
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1870 – 7,000 high school graduates 1872 – 100 colleges, universities admit 1873 – Supreme Court – A degree did not guarantee right to apply to be admitted to the bar (Myra Bradwell case). 1875 – Supreme Court – Citizenship did not guarantee right to vote (Minor v. Happersett). 1890 – General Federation of Women’s Clubs 1890 – National American Woman Suffrage Association – re-merged |
1910 Petition for women’s suffrage for Congress to start the Constitutional Amendment process (400,000 signatures – by National American Women’s Association) 1913 Suffrage parade in Washington 1914 Formation of more radical group – Congressional Union (Alice Paul) 1918+ Suffrage positioned as “war measure” |
1920 19th Amendment passed 1923 National Woman’s Party (Alice Paul) - Equal Rights Amendment |
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1890 – 4 states women’s suffrage – WY, UT, CO, ID |
1910-1912 States grant women’s suffrage –WA, CA, AZ, KS, OR |
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What’s leisure? |
1883 – 3-ring circus |
Amusement parks (Coney Island); vaudeville |
1920-1930 – 300% Ý $s on leisure |
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1876 – National League – baseball |
Sports – baseball, football |
1921 World Series broadcast 1927 20M attended (year of Babe Ruth) |
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1879-1885 – museums – St. Louis, Detroit, Cincinnati |
1910 Movies – 10M people watching/week (of 91M people) 1914 Birth of a Nation- D.W. Griffith |
1929 - “Talkies” 100M watching/week (of 122M, 1930) |
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Music Ragtime + dancing (and beginnings of jazz and the blues) 1919 Phonographs 2.25M |
Jazz – Louis Armstrong 1921 Phonographs 100M |
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1920 800 independent radio stations; 1926-NBC; 1927-CBS; 1929 Amos ‘n’ Andy 1930 Radio owned by 12M families |
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What are people reading? |
1866 – Horatio Alger – Ragged Dick: or, Street Life in New York (total 106 books) 1868-69 – Louisa May Alcott – Little Women 1876 – Mark Twain – The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 1877 – Anna Sewell – Black Beauty 1880 – Lew Wallace – Ben Hur 1883 – Ladies’ Home Journal 1885 – Good Housekeeping 1900 – Theodore Dreiser – Sister Carrie |
1908 - Anne of Green Gables - Lucy M. Montgomery Bobbsey Twins Series Muckrakers: § Jacob Riis – on the ghettos § Ida Tarbell – McClure magazine series on Standard Oil § Lincoln Steffens – McClure’s on city corruption § The Jungle – Upton Sinclair |
1920 - Main Street – Sinclair Lewis 1921 Reader’s Digest 1923 H.L. Mencken American Mercury magazine 1925 The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald 1926 Book of Month Club 1929 Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway - |
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What is happening with religion? |
Social Darwinism Social Gospel |
1919 World’s Christian Fundamentals Association § Block teaching of evolution in schools § Block new theology in churches Church membership: 1916 – 41.9 M |
Scopes Trial – guilty but token fine Clarence Darrow, William Jennings Bryan, H.L. Mencken Church membership: 1926 – 54.5 M but # of churches down |
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What is happening with theories of society? |
1879 Progress and Poverty – Henry George – “single tax” 1880s Social Darwinism - William Graham Sumner, Andrew Carnegie 1881 A Century of Dishonor – Helen Hunt Jackson 1883 Dynamic Sociology – Lester Frank Ward 1888 Looking Backward – Edward Bellamy 1890s Social Gospel 1890s Pragmatism – William James 1893 Frederick Jackson Turner – “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” 1901 Frank Norris – The Octopus (railroad) |
Eugenics –
positioned as a science (continues through Nazi era and beyond) |
See religion and
reading. |
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The data in the tables is from:
§ Robert A. Divine’s The American Story
§ Alan Brinkley’s The Unfinished Nation
§ Edward L. Ayers’ American Passages
§ General
reference books, including the Encyclopedia of American History (edited
by
Jeffery B. Morris and Richard B. Morris)
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Copyright C. J. Bibus, Ed.D. 2004 |
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WCJC Department: |
History – Dr. Bibus |
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Contact Information: |
281.239.1577 or mailto:cjb_classes@yahoo.com |
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Last Updated: |
2004 |
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