The Importance of Business Interests in the Roaring Twenties
Media outlets started to grow larger and become more prominent towards the end of the 19th century. Many of the most popular magazines and newspapers of this time, however, were dedicated to scandal and the derisive “yellow” journalism. This was not necessarily remedied by the 1920s, but there were more items to choose from. This proliferation of media sources was important to business because it allowed the growth of advertising campaigns on a national level. Companies selling cosmetics, automobiles, and novelties grew in number, with a corresponding rise in consumer activity. There were more ads in magazines and newspapers than ever before, eschewing substantive news stories to meet the financial bottom line.
The media campaigns of businesses throughout the United States would not have been possible without a growth in technology. Several specific technologies were responsible for business growth in the 1920s. Henry Ford’s automobiles and mass production system not only allowed business to flourish in the 1920s but are still valuable at present. Ford’s approach to the automobile was a blueprint for success in the American economy. Making affordable vehicles while paying a decent wage (or decent enough to buy a Ford) was a goal of the Ford Company. The motivation of incentives and the fact that employees had at least a small stake in the company’s success have been widely copied in businesses throughout the world. Henry Ford’s contribution must be seen as vital to the prosperity of the Twenties.
The creation and popularization of radio in the 1920s allowed a new form of entertainment for families, a new source of news mor current than papers, and a new market for advertisers. Starting out in a small Pittsburgh station, radio programs covered the range from music to comedy and news. Programs were sponsored by advertisers and commercials were regular fare during radio programs. As the radio became more affordable, more families bought into the new age of radio and took to the fact that they could hear music, election results, musicals, and stock quotes all in one day. Businesses latched on strongly to this new market and not only sponsored programs but were active in lobbying the United States government for helping out with the direction of radio technology and markets in the future. The Harding and Coolidge administrations were responsible for legislation that assigned stations specific frequencies, as well as oversight functions for the federal government over the radio industry.
Other technologies that were spawned in the 1920s include the talking movie (“Jazz Singer” with Al Jolson, 1927), the airplane (though its usefulness came more fully after World War II) and more efficient manners of farming. All of these technologies contributed to the prosperity of the 1920s, either by direct appeals to the consumer (radio and newspaper) or by indirect means (use of inspiring events such as Lindburgh’s flight and sporting events to evoke strength by different companies).
Another reason why business was so prominent in the 1920s was the political environment. Three Republican presidents were elected in the 1920s, all with conservative pro-business agendas and an agreeable populace. Woodrow Wilson’s moralistic campaigns in Europe during the war and in the treaty negotiations at Versailles damaged Democratic credibility until the Great Depression. While none of these candidates seemed to be anyone’s first choice, they caught a good many breaks during the decade to maintain conservatism in America.
It was not enough to say they were pro-business and hope for the best; they needed substantive plans to win over Congress and policy wonks. The Republican agenda during the 1920s included several important steps to ensure economic prosperity. One step was to decrease taxes and relieve the burden of an overspent economy by balancing budgets. Andrew Mellon as Treasury Secretary for Harding and Coolidge, as well as Hoover’s terms as Commerce secretary and President believed in these bedrock principles.
Another important policy of the Republicans was to take business as their partner against labor. Coolidge’s famous retort to Samuel Gompers while governor of Massachusetts (that no one would hold up the business of the state and the public for any reason at any time) was symbolic of the conservative approach to labor issues. Strikes at steel plants, railroads, and other important points of commerce were crushed by police and National Guardsmen. Another aspect of this strife was the incursion of apparent anti-capitalist ideals via immigration. The Emergency Immigration Act of 1921 created a quota system of 3% immigration of each nationality based on the 1900 census. Ridding the country of “Bolsheviks” via extralegal methods was the task of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer and was seen by many Americans as an important solution to labor problems.
Republicans, especially Coolidge, sought to protect American markets by raising tariffs for competitors. The Haugney-McCaren tariff bill raised tariffs to their highest point and hurt farmers the most, who were not really competing with other nations before the bill. This strategy of higher tariffs was perhaps their most negative effect on business in the 1920s.
A final strategy by the Republican presidents of the 1920s was to appoint pro-business judges to the Supreme Court. The most significant example of this was the appointment of William Howard Taft as Chief Justice of the Court by the Harding administration. Taft was a staunch supporter of pro-business laws, private property rights, and the free flow of interstate commerce. With Taft and four other appointees during the decade, Republicans had a lasting legacy through the early 1940s.
One last important factor made business significant in the Twenties. Religion began to be co-opted by business as a subtle means of advertising business ideals. Bruce Barton’s “The Man Nobody Knows” exemplified this point. Barton, the son of a minister and an advertising agent, sought to make Jesus more relatable to Americans in the 1920s. In this book, Barton uses stories from the Bible to illustrate why Jesus was the world’s first businessman. Instead of being deemed sacrilege by the American public, millions of copies were sold by a public eager for a good story and a way to embrace tradition while making progress.
The 1920s can be characterized by several items: flappers, gangsters, speak easies, and automobiles. The overriding theme of the 1920s, however, is the growth of a business culture. This culture was adopted in all aspects of life because it provided a simple, proven method to success. For many, disillusionments were stemmed by the reliability of business and advertising to always give them an answer. This answer, however, would only be temporary with the tragic events of the 1930s and 1940s. This proves how weak the hold of business was and how fragile the American public proved to be by 1929.
