America at the beginning of the 20th century and economy

Progressivism

Progressive Era dates from 1890s to 1920s and the USA entered the new century as the world’s richest and most productive economic power. Within two decades, progressivism had touched nearly every aspect of American life: cities, corporations and trade unions, the education of children and the interpretation of laws, the conservation of natural resources and the socialization of immigrants, the status of women and the labour of children, the quality of food and the content of magazines.

However, Progressivism did not touch people’s lives in these areas: discrimination against Afro-Americans, the poverty of tenant farmers and immigrant workers. The government made an effort in restrictions of alcohol consumption with Amendment 18 of prohibition of liquor in 1919 but it only meant raise of organized crime mafia with Al Capone in Chicago. The critics of Progressivism were so called Muckrakers, with Upton Sinclair, a naturalist writer.

Theodore Roosevelt was 26^th President and a great reformator. He was a Republican, elected twice. Panama Canal was build during his administration and his face sculptured in the Mount Rushmore in South Dakota together with George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. He established 8 hour working day, made railroad regulations, protection of consumers, conservation of natural resources, banned children labour and The Pure Food and Drug Act check on the quality of meat.

While Roosevelt was for regulated monopoly, 28^th President Woodrow Wilson was for regulated competition. His administration included legislation designed to control child labour and Underwood Act in 1913 which was the first satisfactory revision of tariffs since the Civil War. Wilson was in favour of neutrality and isolation during when it came to European affair, that’s why USA joined WW2 later.

The Progressivism is also an era of the women’s movement and the number of women graduating from college and entering the work force increased. Women refused to accept second-class citizenship as their legal status and domesticity as their sole vocation. In 1920, women gain right to vote with Amendment 19 about women’s suffrage.

Progressivism was the worst period with racial relations. White South manifested itself racial segregation and violence. Popular culture established the image of a race of half-wits and savages, sometimes comic or bestial, but in either case less than human. In 1909 the group of black and white Progressives organized the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People NAACP to protect civil rights. As Progressive advancement failed to stop the wave of lynching and riots, Afro-Americans sought refuge in their own institutions and own distinctive forms of expression (blues) and created their own increasingly separate world.

American Empire

From the revolution till the end of the 19^th century the westward expansion was brought so far that the frontier actually vanished. The chance came after the easy victory in Spanish-American War in 1898 where Theodore Roosevelt became a hero and after which the USA became the major colonial power. Weakened Spain ceded Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam. At the same time the Union tightened its grip on other Pacific possessions such as Hawaii and Samoa. Open Door Policy was a proposal that each imperialist nation would take its share of the Chinese trade but not poach on the share of others.

President Roosevelt gained Panama Canal and made arrangement to build the canal connecting Atlantic and Pacific coast. The Panama Canal broadened American involvement in the Caribbean. The political and financial instability in these small republics was an especially touchy problem. Roosevelt set forth the his logical consequence to the Monroe’s Doctrine that in the need of outside intervention to set matters right, the US however reluctantly, would undertake the necessary exercise of international police power. Thus the US had established themselves protectorates over the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Panama and Cuba and president Wilson had to overcome a painful adventure in Mexico to restore order an stability.

Roaring Twenties

After WW1 came naturally a recession but economy started to recover and followed by boom years of the Roaring Twenties. It was an era of great economic prosperity, rapid growth of cars (Ford), oil, glass industries, road building (build by Chinese immigrants), mass production, large cities, telephones, mass media, Charles Lindberg made his transatlantic flight and electricity. The USA gained dominance in the world of finance. The 2^nd half of this decade is called Golden Twenties or Crazy Years.

Popular motto was live now, pay tomorrow so people obtained goods by paying a small deposit and agreeing to pay the rest of the cost through an Instalment plan. However, there were still a lot of poor people, mainly farmers who did not own their land but the government adopted laissez-faire = hands off policy. When in 1929 Herbert Hoover was elected as 31th President, he even promised that “there would soon be a chicken in every pot and two cars in every garage.” But the Great Depression came and people were saying “In Hoover we trusted; now we are busted.”

Buying and selling shares was a national hobby but profits by many American firms had been decreasing for some time and people began to sell their shares so prices started to fall. It resulted in collapse of American share prices = Wall Street Crash on October 24th 1929 Black Thursday. Not enough people were buying the products of America's expanded industries and too few Americans were earning enough money to buy the goods that they themselves were producing. Goods piled up unsold in factory warehouses. Employers stopped employing workers and reduced production - silent factories, closed shops and slowly moving breadlines. Even rich people lost everything. And Prohibition of alcohol led to organized crime.

30s after Great Depression

Economy needed to be recovered after Great Depression so in 1932 32th President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, presented New Deal = economical policy to counter the Great depression. It was based on three R's: Relief of the Distressed, Recovery of the Economy and Reform of the Industry and Commerce.

Neal Deal established the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) and the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA). For unemployment it was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Eventually, people were able to support themselves once more, shops had customers, factories became busy once more and farmers had someone to buy their products. Prohibition of liquor ended 1933 with Amendment 21.

Economy

Agriculture in the United States has changed dramatically over the last 200 years. At the time of the American Revolution, 95% was engaged in farming = it was a nation of farmers. Today that figure is less than 2%, although individuals or families own 85% of all farms, they own only 64% of the farmland, remainder is owned by corporations as agribusiness.

Farmers have never been as self-sufficient as myth would have it, dependent as they are on the uncertainties of weather and the marketplace. Nonetheless, they have exhibited individualism. As settlement advanced from east to west, U.S. agriculture attained a richness and variety unmatched in most other parts of the world. This is true still today, in large part owing to the quantity of land and the generosity of nature.

North American agriculture came to be based on a multitude of family farms. Moreover, these farms tended to be scattered and isolated, rather than clustered around villages, thus enhancing the farmer's individualism and self-reliance. Readiness to embrace new technology has been characteristic of American farmers. Another factor in the rise of agricultural output was the rapid flow of settlers, promoted by Homestead Act.

Government’s involvement starts with the creation of the Department of Agriculture in 1862. After a period of prosperity in the early 20^th century, farm prices declined and the Great Depression of the 1930s drove prices even lower. Farmers went bankrupt, rescue effort contained the New Deal. On the theory that overproduction is a chief cause of low farm prices, in some circumstances the government pays farmers to plant fewer crops. Certain commodities can be used as to secure federal loans or price supports. Farm programs have been criticized on the grounds that they benefit large farms most.

Overall, American agriculture has been a notable success story. American consumers pay less for their food than those in many other industrial countries but agricultural success has had its price. Conservationists assert that American farmers have damaged the environment by excessive use of artificial fertilizers and chemicals to kill weeds and pests.

Industry: Thanks to several waves of immigration, America gained population rapidly when business and industry were expanding. Population grew fast enough to provide a steady stream of workers, but not so fast as to overwhelm the economy. In the late 18th century, American manufacturers adopted the factory system, which gathered many workers together in one place. To this was added something new, the American system of mass production. The construction of railroads, beginning in the 1830s, marked the start of a new era but such construction also generated a demand for coal, iron and steel, heavy industries that expanded rapidly after the Civil War.

In 1913, automaker Henry Ford introduced the moving assembly line, a method in which conveyor belts brought car parts to workers. By improving efficiency, this innovation made possible large savings in labour costs. Lower costs made possible both higher wages for workers and lower prices for consumers. More and more Americans became able to afford products made in their own country. During the first half of the 20th century, mass production of consumer goods such as cars, refrigerators and kitchen stoves helped to revolutionize the American way of life.

It was America's good fortune to be spared the devastation suffered by other nations during the 20th century's two world wars. By the end of World War II, the United States had the greatest productive capacity of any country in the world, and the words "Made in the U.S.A." were a seal of high quality. The auto industry has struggled to meet the challenge of foreign competition, clothes industry has declined in the face of competition from countries where labour is cheaper but other manufacturing industries flourished, including airplanes and cell telephones, microchips, space satellites, microwave ovens and computers.

Current economy

Inflation 3.9% = for more money you buy less. Unemployment rate 9% is quite a lot for such a huge country. National debt is almost whole GDP (Gross Domestic Product) 90.7%. Federal spending: 23% on medical care, 20% social security, 20% defence.

Industry: cars, ipods, computers (Microsoft: Bill Gates, Apple: Steve Jobs), medicine, army, chemical substances.

Agriculture: cotton, soya beans, tobacco, dairy products, meat, fur, turkey, chicken, fishing.

Import: toys, furniture, clothes (also export). 5% of agriculture, 30% of industry.

Export: weapons (but components come from China), computers, ipods, iphones.

Business partners: Canada, Mexico, China, Japan, Germany.