- 22 - -
T HE R OARING T WENTIE S
Girls d ancing th eCharlesto n.Gan g sters carryin g
m ach ine gun s. CharlieChaplinp lay ingcom ical
tricks. T hesearcsom eofthe p ictu resthatcomeint o
peo ple'smindsw hen theythinko f th eUnited States
in th e 19205.The " ro ari ng twe nties, "Go od times.
Wildtimes.
T he Un i tedStateswasvcryrich in th eseyears.
HCl "a USl'oftheFir stWorldWar, other cou n tr ies
o w editJloto f mon cy.lr hadplent y o f raw materials
andplen tyoffactories.Its natio n al in come -theto tal
earningsofallits citizen s - w asm u chhig her .thanth at
ofHritain ,Fra nce,Ccnuan va ndjapanpmrc gceher.
Americanfactoriesp ro d ucedmorcgo o dseveryyt"ar.
T h e bus iesr wereth osem akin g aut om o bi les.
Bcrw ccu 1922 and 1927. the num ber o f car so n the
ro ad s rosefromunderelevenmillio n toovertwenty
million.T he elect ri cal in dust ry alsop rospered. It
92
m ade hu ndredsofth ou san d s of refrigerator s.
vacuumcleane rs,stovesand radios.
TheUnitedSta tesbecam ethefirst natio nin history
tobu ildits w ayoflifeonsellin gvast qu antitiesof
goods that g aveo rd in ar y peo p le easieran d mo re
enj o yable lives.T hese"consu m er goods"pouredo ff
the assem blylinesofbignewfac to ries.Bet ween
1 IJI9and 1929 suc hmass-productionfactories
dou bledth eiroutput.
The grow th o f indust rymade-man yAme rica nswell-
o ff.Millio ns earnedgoodwages.Thou sand s
in vest ed mo neyinsuccessfulfirms so[hatthey could
sh ar e intheirp ro fits.Man ybough tcars,rad io sand
ot her newproductswiththeir m oney.Oftenth ey
obtain edthe seg oo d s by payin g a small deposit and
agreeing to paythe restofthecost th roughan
" instalmentp lan." T hei r mo n o was"Live now, pay
to m o rr o w "- a to morro ww hi chmostw er t'
convincedwould be liketodayonlybetter , witheven
more mo ncyswellingtheir wallets.
Businessm enbecamepopularheroesinthe1920s.
M enlikeI Icnr v Ford werew idel yad miredasthe
creatorso f th e natio n 'sp ro sperit y. "Themanwho
b u ildsa facrorvb uild s ate-mple,"saidCalvin
Cool idge,thePr esident from 1923 to1929. "The
m an w ho work s th ere.worship s there."
Coo lid ge'swordsh elpto exp lainthe policieso f
Americango vernment sill the 19205.T hese
g o ve rn me-nt sw ere cont roll ed b y th e Republican
Part y.Repu blicans believ ed thati frhc go vernment
looked after theInt eres ts o f the bus iness man.
everybody wouldbecome richer.Bus ine ssm en
Wh O Sl'firm sw ere d oi ng well .th ey clai me d,would
ta ke o nmoreworker s andp.aym o rewagt's.In this
waytheirgrowmg w ealt hwou ldbenefitcvcrvbod v.T o hel pb usinessmenCongre-ssplacedhighim port
taxes ongoods fromabroad. The armwastonuke
Impo rted go odsm o reexpensive.soth atAmerican
man u facturerswou ldhaveless competitionfrom
fo reignrivals. At thesametimeCon gressred uced
ta xes o n highinco mesand com p anyp rofits.This
gaverichm en more mone ytoin vest.