A Clash of Values

Chapter 20 Section 1

The Sacco-Vanzetti Case• Sacco and Vanzetti were immigrants and

anarchists• Anarchists oppose all forms of govt.

• Convicted of killing two workers and robbing the company of its $15,000 payroll• They were sentenced to death

• This case showed and added to the feeling of nativism w/i this country after WWI

Sacco & Vanzetti

Pseudo-Scientific Racism

• Eugenics – pseudo-science (false science) that deals w/ improving hereditary traits• Human inequalities were inherited• Warned against breeding the unfit or inferior• Superiority of the original American stock

• White Protestants of northern European descent

• Supported the nativists argument for strict immigration control

KKK Reemerges

• The KKK were at the front of the mvmt to restrict immigration

• This was a new Klan that had targets not limited to black people, they were…• Anti-immigration, anti-Catholic, anti-black,

anti-Jewish, anti-pacifist, anti-Communist, anti-evolutionist, anti-bootlegging, anti-gambling, anti-adultery, and anti-birth control

Re-birth of the Ku Klux Klan

The New Klan• William J. Simmons – founded the new Klan

in Atlanta, GA• A former Methodist preacher• Pledged to preserve America’s white Protestant

civilization• Claimed the Klan was fighting for

“Americanism”

• Membership in the Klan exploded reaching nearly 4 million• It spread beyond the South into Northern cities

Marching in DC 1925

K.K.K. in New Jersey

Controlling Immigration• Emergency Quota Act 1921

• Only 3% of the total # of people in any ethnic group already living in the US could be admitted in a single year

• According to the 1910 census

• National Origins Act 1924• Lessened the number of immigrants allowed

from the 1921 act to 2%• According to 1890 census

• In 1929 only 150,000 admitted per year

A New Morality• Women started to glorify…

• Youth and personal freedom• Financial independence • A personal identity

• Flapper – young, dramatic, and stylish woman• Smoked cigarettes• Drank prohibited liquor• Dressed in revealing clothes

The New Woman

• Women were cutting their hair, cutting their skirts, drinking gin, smoking cigarettes, cursed like sailors, enjoyed sex, and daringly rolled their stockings to the knee!

D.C. cop enforces the city’s decency code: no more than 6 inches above the knee. (1922)

Fundamentalism• A religious mvmt that was against the new

consumer culture and relaxed ethics

• Rejected Darwin’s theory of evolution• Humans had developed from lower forms of

life over the course of millions of years

• Believed in creationism• God created the world as described in the Bible

Evangelical Preachers• Billy Sunday

• A former professional baseball player• Drew huge crowds w/ his rapid-fire sermons

and on-stage showmanship

• Aimee Semple McPherson• Conducted revivals and faith healings• Very theatrical – used stage sets and costumes• Highly emotional sermons

"Whiskey and beer are all right in their place, but their place is in hell." – Rev. Billy Sunday

Aimee Semple McPherson“Sister Aimee”

The Scopes Monkey TrialDayton, Tennessee - 1925

The Scopes Trial

• Evolutionists vs. Creationists• Science vs. Fundamentalists

• Science was under fire from fundamentalists• Fundamentalist churches charged that the

teaching of Darwinian evolution was destroying faith in God and the Bible

The Scopes Trial

• 1925 Tennessee passed the Butler Act• Butler Act outlawed any teaching that

denied Creationism as taught in the Bible

• ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union)• Advertised for a teacher who would be willing

to be arrested for teaching the Evolutionist point of view

The Scopes Trial

• John T. Scopes• Taught evolution in

Dayton, TN• Arrested and put on

trial

• Scopes was found guilty and fined $100

• Verdict was later overturned

• Scope’s trial became a national sensation, popularly known as the Scopes Monkey Trial.

• Huge crowds of curiosity seekers went to the country town of Dayton.

• Rural preachers set up revival tents.

• Over 100 reporters arrived from across the nation.

• Western Union hired 20 telegraph operators to relay the story to awaiting editors.

• Radios stations broadcasted live reports.

The DefenseI am an agnostic; I do not pretend to know what

many ignorant men are sure of. -Clarence Darrow

•Clarence Darrow

He was America’s foremost defense attorney and represented John Scopes.

The ProsecutionI am more interested in the Rock of Ages than in the

age of rocks.”-W.J. Bryan

Rev. William Jennings Bryan

Bryan served as U.S. Secretary of State under President Wilson. He ran for President in different elections.

Man or Monkey?

Putting God on Trial

The Verdict

Prohibition

• 18th Amendment – took effect January 1920• Prohibited the manufacture and sale of alcohol

• To enforce the amendment Congress passed the National Prohibition Act (Volstead Act)• US Treasury Dept. was responsible for

enforcing prohibition

• Americans ignored prohibition• People flocked to speakeasies – secret bars

where people could buy alcohol

The Speakeasy• The “cocktail” was born out of the speakeasy

b/c bartenders had to make due w/ what they had• They b/g mixing drinks to provide different

tastes

• Three Social Revolutions of the Speakeasy• Introduced “decent” women to bars• Formed an alliance w/ proprietors and gangsters• Lead to night clubs

The Speakeasy

Dry vs. Wet

• Drys – b/l that drinking had been reduced under prohibition

• Wets – b/l prohibition made drinking more fashionable than ever• Black market liquor

• Profits of organized crime

Organized Crime• Al Capone

• One of the most successful and violent gangsters of the day

• Bootlegging business grossed more than $60 million a year

• Had police officers, judges, and other officials on his payroll

• Dominated Chicago• Eliot Ness brought Capone to justice on a tax

evasion charge

Alphonse “Al” Capone“You can go a long way with a smile.

You can go a lot farther with a smile and a gun.”

•Capone maintained a five-room suite and four guest rooms at the Metropole Hotel (2300 S.Michigan Avenue). The hotel served as his base operations until 1928.

•Capone with deputy chief of police, John Stege,who eventually asked Capone to leave Chicago.

I have built my organization upon fear. -Al Capone

“I am like any other man. All I do is supply a demand. - Al Capone

A line outside Capone's "Free Lunch" restaurant, a soup kitchen he ran during the Depression.

Capone at Comisky Park 1931

St. Valentine’s Day MassacreChicago – 1929

• Chicago witnessed over 200 gang related killings as rival mobs struggled for control

• The worst event took place when Capone’s Italian-dominated mob machine-gunned seven members of a rival Irish gang.

Machine Gun Jack McGurn

• Chief of Capon’s gunners

• Masterminded the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in 1929

George “Bugs” Moran

• An archrival of Capone

• His gang fell in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre

Convicted!• Federal authorities finally

sent Capone to prison for income tax evasion, but by then he had achieved hero status in the eyes of many people

• Capone was a gangster, but he was also a resourceful entrepreneur and businessman

Tragedy of Prohibition• It did not work

• It created new problems that had to be dealt with

• Prohibitionists were naïve• They ignored the fact that one cannot make a

crime overnight out of something that millions have never regarded as a crime in the past

• 1933 – the 21st Amendment repealed the 18th Amendment of Prohibition.