Thomas's Podcast

An Overview of 1900 to 1929

August 21, 2024 • Thomas • Season 1 • Episode 5

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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!

Thanks for listening - Tom Garfield
www.haamoscow.com

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

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.