An Overview of 1900 to 1929

It is hard to overestimate the changes we saw in the first decades of the 20th century: we went from a largely agrarian country to the fastest growing nation on Earth, with technological improvements that were breath-taking!

If you want to have a fuller background to the material in our series, please consider purchasing the workbook I wrote for my high school history classes, Modern United States History, published by Canon Press, in Moscow, Idaho. But whether you get the workbook or just listen, I think you will enjoy the stories and hopefully gain some insights into U.S. history, which is indeed His story!

Thanks for listening - Tom Garfield
www.haamoscow.com

Transcript

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Overview of 1900-1929 America

Speaker 1 0:06

Heritage Arts Academy presents Heritage of Us . I'm Tom Garfield . Thanks for listening . Episode 5 . An overview of 1900 to 1929 .

Speaker 1 0:26

Where were your forebearers at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century ? In a New York ethnic ghetto ? In a backwater town somewhere in the south , some other city on the east coast ? Or maybe they were being herded through Ellis Island in New York after a rough Atlantic crossing , from the old country , scotland , ireland , norway , russia , germany , france , maybe the Netherlands ? Who were they and what were they doing ? Were they believers , praying for the generations to follow them , such as you ?

Speaker 1 1:04

As the 19th century ended , president McKinley was in office , close to completing his first term and anticipating an easy victory in November of 1900 for a second term . Considering the popularity of his new vice president , theodore Roosevelt , he had every reason to believe the election would be his , and it was by a broad margin . Mckinley was a humble , godly man who gently cared for his invalid wife , as demonstrated by his immediate concern for her as he lay bleeding from gunshot wounds in September of 1901 . The country was still largely agrarian in 1900 . The country was still largely agrarian in 1900 . There were about 75-78 million Americans , up from about 31 million at the close of the war between the states . Of that number , about 60% were still living on farms , while the other 40% had moved to the cities for work .

Speaker 1 2:09

The last significant Indian battle had occurred only 10 years before . Electric lights and power were still somewhat limited to city use and not present in most of the rural areas . Indoor plumbing for most people was still about 20 years away . Random cars of various sorts could be seen chuffing and puffing , always a unique sight . Rail travel was still the preferred option for any trip of any distance . Telephone service was becoming widespread , but still had a lot of bugs to work out . Technology had taken a huge leap , inspired and spurred on by the war between the states just 35 years past . But medicine and life expectancy were still at about the same level they were when the first pilgrims landed in Plymouth . Primitive and relatively short about 45 years , the mercy of anesthetics was still a ways off .

Speaker 1 2:56

Christianity was still the predominant worldview in the United States , but the church was taking on water from liberal attacks on every side . Darwin's world origins , finney's popular form of the gospel and secular public education were gaining widespread acceptance . In 1925 , at the Scopes trial , pitting the teaching of the theory of evolution against the mainstay of creation . The defender of the faith in that trial , william Jennings Bryan , would technically win , but biblical faith in creation was definitely the loser .

Speaker 1 3:34

In the first decades of the new 20th century , america went from a third-rate power to arguably the most prosperous and powerful nation on earth . By 1901 , we had finished off Spain's last weak hold on its centuries-old power . We obtained many of its former holdings a portion of Cuba , the Philippines and the islands of Wake , guam and Midway names that would play a huge role in a war about 40 years away Names that would play a huge role in a war about 40 years away . Now here's a brief summary of some of the major events of that approximately 30-year period from 1900 to 1930 . Some of them we will go into in future episodes . Just kind of depends on what grabs us . So Theodore Roosevelt , as you heard last time , was a hero of the Spanish-American War and the vice president under William McKinley's second term .

Speaker 1 4:36

Mckinley was sadly shot in September of 1901 while attending basically a World's Fair fair , an exposition in New York , Buffalo , new York . He basically died , like Garfield did , of infection . The doctors , still by 1901 , were not entirely convinced of the legitimacy of the germ theory as it it was called then and so they didn't always use clean or , you know , antiseptically prepared tools , scalpels , even their own hands . So McKinley seemed to be rallying . After the gunshot wounds the first one , by the way he was shot twice in the stomach , the first one . The first bullet , actually went off his button on his vest . The second bullet did go deep into his stomach area .

Speaker 1 5:35

You should read about the account , by the way , wherever you can . I'm sure you can Google it . But it was amazing . He was shaking hands with people and this man came through with a cloth over his one hand and obviously had not been checked . The security was around , but the security detail at that point wasn't checking people and they certainly didn't have metal detectors .

Speaker 1 5:57

Anyway , he shot McKinley in the stomach . He was immediately , of course , arrested . In fact he was beat up a bit and McKinley told the guys to lay off him . But McKinley's other comment was be careful , how you tell my wife , when he lay dying from a fever and infection about a week to 10 days later , he was singing hymns . According to the people that were standing by , he was humming hymns . You can't plan that sort of thing . Anyway , very sad indeed .

Speaker 1 6:27

Theodore Roosevelt , of course , as the vice president was contacted , he was up camping with his family in the hills of New York and came racing back to New York where Mr McKinley had passed away . Theodore Roosevelt became the 26th president upon McKinley's death , the third president to be assassinated . Roosevelt was a godly dynamo of a man . He used the presidency to do much that was good for the country , but some of it would be undone by his distant cousin that would be FDR and others to follow . Nevertheless , theodore Roosevelt's legacy , particularly his building the Panama Canal , would ensure his standing as some people consider being the greatest 20th century president . Then , in 1906 , san Francisco experienced the worst earthquake in history of the United States , killing thousands , particularly in the fires that followed . Again , highly recommend reading more about that . The earthquake severed gas lines they had actually back then they actually had natural gas being used , and so when those lines were broken by the earthquake , immediately fires broke out and killed many , many people .

Speaker 1 7:50

In 1903 , the Wright brothers do their amazing flight , which , frankly , not many people noticed . They were in , of course , kitty Hawk , north Carolina , and they had been working on it for years . Again , highly recommend reading a book about the Wright brothers . They were Christians and worked very hard in their bicycle shop , but they had this idea of getting motor-driven flight . Of course , people had been using hot air balloons and other kinds of things for quite some time all the way back to the war between the states , as a matter of fact but and even man-powered flight , the idea of pedaling or something had been done somewhat successfully , but the idea of a motor-driven plane that could basically operate under its own power , yeah , not so much . So they did their successful flight in 1903 . And , honestly , most newspapers didn't even pick up on the story . It wasn't until about 1909 that , as the military , was paying attention now , finally , to many successful flights that the Wright brothers had , even flying around Washington DC . They figured maybe this thing could be used for , who knows , military purposes in a war .

Speaker 1 9:10

Hmm , maybe Henry Ford comes up with his Model T in the same decade , a no-frills , affordable car . It becomes the first car that vast numbers of Americans millions fall in love with and can afford , and it makes for a marriage that will last for a long , long time , leading to interstate highways all the way up into the 50s , motels , the idea of staying overnight on the road , gas stations , refilling on the road and , of course the family vacation , the idea of going in a car to somewhere else that we take for granted , of course , but back then was unheard of until they got their Model T . Ford again is a fascinating character . He was pretty fixated on the Model T and used that same model of a car for about 20 years , and in that time other men decided that you know , the cars could be a little bit more interesting than the T was , and so men like Chrysler and Dodge those were real guys decided to add a little bit more refinement to some of their cars , and those became popular as well and almost surpassed Ford in sales . But Ford managed to keep the Model T very affordable , and so that's why millions and millions were sold .

America in the Early 1900s

Speaker 1 10:38

The luxury liners RMS Titanic and the Lusitania were both sunk within three years of each other , in 1912 for the Titanic and 1915 for the Lusitania . Two different causes , of course . We'll spend some time in a future episode talking about the actual story of the Titanic , but it went down , as you no doubt know , from hitting an iceberg , and the possible avoidance of it and the subsequent bad decisions that were made led to a loss of life that was just inexcusable . But the Lusitania , on the other hand , three years later . It was during wartime , after the breakout of the Great War in 1914 . In 1915 , it was sailing into waters of the British Isles near Ireland and was sunk by a German U-boat commander who felt that it was fair game . He knew it was a passenger liner , but the Germans had warned all the nations around , including the United States , that any ships in that area would be considered basically fair game , so he put a torpedo into it .

Speaker 1 11:59

Now again , a fascinating story . Many people , of course , were shocked , appropriately , and many people died . It went down much faster than the Titanic did , within a matter of 20 minutes or so . They hardly had any time to get people died . It went down much faster than the Titanic did , within a matter of 20 minutes or so . They hardly had any time to get people off and there was , according to survivors , a subsequent secondary explosion after the one torpedo hit . Well , we know from further investigation years later it was carrying ammunition . That's not funny , but it was suspected by the Germans that they would do that and they were carrying . The British had arranged for ammunition to be hauled by this passenger liner , so that led to further loss of life and the Germans weren't completely out of line in terms of suspecting that , but again , innocent people died as a result . So together , more than 2,600 people between the two ships died in those two horrible events .

Speaker 1 13:00

William Taft takes over after Theodore Roosevelt and he is also our largest president , as you may have heard . He was well over 300 pounds . And no , he didn't get stuck in a bathtub in the White House . He did have a special bathtub brought in for him and there's a fun photograph of four men sitting in it before it's brought into the White House for installation . Anyway , he's kind of a nondescript character . His main goal was he wanted to be a Supreme Court justice and it turned out that the Lord allowed him to do that later in life .

Speaker 1 13:37

Well , 1912 , we have a very hotly contested election . Tr throws his hat back into the ring , as he says . So it's TR as kind of an independent . The Republicans wouldn't support him again , so they supported Taft and then Wilson , woodrow Wilson as the Democratic candidate and because of the split between the two Republican candidates if you will , taft and Roosevelt Wilson wins . That was really bad for the country . Wilson was actually a very terrible man . He was racist and had very poor ideas about the Constitution . But he was very smart , he'd been the president of Princeton .

Speaker 1 14:25

Well , he promises to stay out of the war that breaks out in Europe a couple years after he's in , in 1914 . And he vows to the American people that we are too proud to fight . And the theme for his second inaugural is he kept us out of war . Well , very shortly after his second inaugural , we do go to war in Europe against Germany , and Wilson blithely declares it's going to be the war that ends all wars , right ? Well , the Great War , which we will spend several episodes on later , lasts from 1914 to 1918 and takes well over 20 million lives around the world , many of them , at least half of them , civilians . So the face of war is changing . The nature of war is changing . About 140,000 Americans die in this war . That's a lot of men . Now . It's not nearly the price that the European nations paid . They had entire generations of young men lost , well over a million , for instance , with Russia , and well over a million million in Germany , and almost that many from Great Britain .

Speaker 1 15:34

The political face of Europe changes completely after the war . Centuries , old kingdoms , presidents excuse me , kings and emperors are dethroned and political lines change . New countries arise where there were not countries before in terms and political lines change . New countries arise where there were not countries before in terms of political lines they're changed , moved , vast numbers of people are moved around . We'll talk more about that . But mostly the war ends with the bitterness of Germany toward the allied powers and there's some reason for their bitterness and we'll get into that . And sadly that leads to the greater and horrific sequel of the war in about 20 years .

Speaker 1 16:20

But America emerges from the war richer , stronger , larger . Even the horrible influenza outbreak of 1918 , which killed half a million people in the United States alone , five million around the world , doesn't throw us off stride too much . We grow to 48 states , double our population . Even our economy is strong , in spite of the fact that in 1913 , the 17th Amendment is the income tax that gets put on Americans , so we didn't have one before then . In the early 20s we see some amazing innovations and some reckless but brave , daring , do kind of people . We see Charles Lindbergh coming into the national acclaim for his solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927 . And it's thrilling , he gets a ticker tape parade in Paris as well as in New York .

Speaker 1 17:22

President Calvin Coolidge comes into office after Warren G Harding , a Republican , takes over from Wilson in 1920 . And Harding , as they said back then , had the good sense to die in office . Now that sounds kind of harsh , and it is , but he did die in office , and shortly before they say he had good sense , because it was shortly before a lot of corruption of his administration was revealed . Not necessarily that he was , he just was not the brightest tool , shall we say , to be the president , but he had Coolidge as vice president and Coolidge . I would highly encourage you to read some more about Coolidge . He was a godly man . He was very wise in terms of how he handled the nation's business . He felt that the nation's business was business , that it was to let people have a lot of say in how they ran their companies , how they ran their private property , and he kind of got out of the way instead of having the government get in the way .

Speaker 1 18:28

And so the 20s were actually quite a prosperous time economically . Don't let people tell you , oh well , it was right before the Great Depression . Well , yes , it was , but it wasn't like the strong economy caused the Great Depression . There were other reasons , so we'll get into that as well . So the Roaring Twenties are a thing they're called Roaring , of course because of , well , a lot of , shall we say , immoral behavior among , especially , the younger generation at that time , even in spite of prohibition being a thing since 1918 . And again , we'll spend a little time on that .

Speaker 1 19:04

But that meant there was supposed to be no sale or use trade drinking of alcohol . As you can appreciate , that's a moral decision and of course people are going to violate anything like that that they want to do , uh , as a choice in terms of what pleases them . So there was a lot of illegal bars , there were a lot of speakeasies , as they were called , there was a lot of illegal production of booze , gin , rum and criminal forces organized we have organized crime kind of becoming a thing in the 1920s to provide this illegal alcohol . So it's quite an exciting time if you look at it that way . You have gangsters and mobs and all sorts of things breaking out in some of the bigger cities , gangsters and mobs and all sorts of things breaking out in some of the bigger cities , and that's going to last basically on into the 20th century and beyond . But we'll get again a little bit more into that .

Speaker 1 20:04

Right after the prohibition determination of the 19th Amendment , you have the 20th Amendment , which allows for women's suffrage . Now , lest I get myself in trouble , it's good to note how that began . Not that women the head of households , for instance don't deserve a vote , but in this case , if you look at the people that promoted it , it was really the first wave of feminism which undercut biblical covenantal marriage and homes and ultimately led to some pretty awful things . But that again was a change for the country and the outcome is going to be something seen way down the road . So credit spending became a thing . People were investing in the stock market , thinking that it would only go up and up and up , as it seemed to be doing , and people were reckless with their money and it became rather a dangerous sport , because they were not really a sport but an investment . Not everybody was looking into the wisdom of every investment . The farmers , for instance , were overlooked in all this because they were overproducing , largely because of technological innovations like the tractor , the tractor which helped produce great crops . But that meant lower prices . So things were helping in some ways with making life easier , but it also had a downside , and that was lowering the prices for the farmers in terms of what they got for their goods .

Speaker 1 21:41

Well , by the end of the decade , coolidge decides he doesn't want to run for a third term , which he could have . There was no prohibition of that in terms of constitutional amendments . So he could have gone on for another four years . But he bowed out , and Herbert Hoover , who had been a kind of a hero during the war the Great War by helping with some relief efforts in Belgium particularly so . He was a good engineer and a good man . But he becomes the Republican nominee and wins quite handily because people like Republicans at that time after the 20s . And he wins and takes office in March of 29 .

Impactful Figures in Early 20th Century

Speaker 1 22:21

Well , as you might know , things are not looking too good in terms of what happens in October of 1929 with the collapse of the stock market . But obviously that was not something everybody foresaw , or very few people foresaw . And yet Hoover eventually is going to be blamed for the worst effects of what became known as the Great Depression . So we are going to spend some time on some of these events , but we first need to look at the life and times of Theodore Roosevelt . He's going to have a huge impact on what follows in the 20th century , and so I thought it'd be fun to examine his life and give you a little bit more background on him than you might already know . So we'll look to doing that in the next episode . See you then .