FREE ESSAY ON AN AGE OF PROSPERITY AND CONFLICTS

AN AGE OF PROSPERITY AND CONFLICTS

The 20's was a decade of prosperity and entertainment as well as conflicts. Historians
emphasize how Americans were living a life of wealth, but forget to mention the problems
of society. Cultural, economic, racial, social, religious and political conflicts that
plagued America remain unnoticeable and silent in its history. Amongst the life of
prosperity and entertainment of the 1920's, the Americans suffered a life of unending
conflicts. 
Prosperity of the 1920's affected many Americans improve their lives. Many middle-class
citizens improved their standard of living by purchasing new products such as electric
irons, vacuum cleaners, washing machines, toasters, fans, and refrigerators. They were
now able to purchase these consumer goods because companies began to reward and pay their
workers more money. These companies, such as Ford cars, doubled the wages of the workers
at the plant in Highland Park, Michigan. Since wages increased, purchasing goods and cars
became affordable. The increase in America's wealth shifted the economy because
businesses flourished to serve the needs of the consumers. Not only were the consumers
prosperous, but so were the business owners. Since Henry Ford offered a 5 dollar wage a
day to workers of thrifty habits, his company earned an estimated $264,000 per day
because of the sales so many different companies started to follow Ford's reasoning of
increasing wages. Not only did prosperity of Americans bring new consumer goods
affordable, it also brought education to children and credit to shoppers. Most people
could afford to keep their children in school longer because they were finally prosperous
enough to survive without the children's wages. By the end of the decade, 51 percent of
all high school age youth were in school. Credit was brought to shoppers because they
were starting put money down and paying the balance in installments. Americans bought
with credit because they regarded it as an easy way to raise their standard of living.
The increase of wealth in the American society brought great change and benefits to the
people. 
The prosperity of Americans reduced the time for jobs and housework, and gave them more
leisure time for entertainment. Since Americans were able to afford a motor vehicle, it
created a convenient way to get from one place to another. The creation and sales of cars
actually changed American culture in numerous ways. Teenagers were able to go to the
movies for dates, families hopped into their cars for short day-trips, and people
traveled to far distant places. New creations such as movies, sports, and jazz music
promoted entertainment in the 20's. The movies were a place that Americans escaped to a
different world by watching others on motion pictures for the first time. Because people
had the time, energy, and money to play sports, playing and watching it became widely
popular. Entertainment in the 20s included listening to two types of African American
music, which were the blues and the jazz music. The style and culture of America changed
from a life of hard labor and work to one of entertainment and high wages. Many people
were able to enjoy recreation for the first time because of the entertainment the decade
provided.
Even though Americans prospered with lives of wealth and entertainment, economic
conflicts drove many families to a life of poverty. Not all Americans were prosperous,
such as farmers, miners, and textile workers. Farmers had replaced their workhorses with
tractors that produced more wheat and corn than America would consume. Because supply
exceeded demand, farm prices declined and left the farmers poverty-stricken. The era of
the 20's brought hardships to coal miners because industries began to use electricity and
no longer needed coal to run their machinery. Due to the changes in fashion, Americans
were buying less cotton and the prices of them plunged. The decade also brought new
technology that the family-run firms could not afford nor compete with the big business.
Therefore, thousands of small firms went out of business or were absorbed into larger
companies of corporations. The act of merging resulted in unemployment and job loss of
many family-run firms and the establishment of oligopolies. The oligopolies carried out
unreasonable actions such as the American Plan and the Ford Treatment. The American Plan
was a variety of plans for the large companies to demoralize and destroy unions. They
employed workers with only yellow-dog contracts and spies who joined unions and then
informed employers about labor discontent and identified labor organizers. Companies such
as Ford demanded discipline and prohibited many actions. Not only did the poor experience
conflicts, but the wealthy stock buyers did as well. The investors believed in
speculation, which was buying on margin and paying the brokers back later. The stock
market crashed and people failed to repay their loans. The conflicts of the 1920's were
just as important or even more than the prosperity. There were conflicts that existed in
the midst of all the wealth the Americans obtained. 
Conflicts other than economic related consisted of racial, social, religious, and
political differences. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) were a group of people who contributed to
the racial, religious, and cultural conflicts by believing as pure Americans, and that
they should be the guardians of society's behavior and morals. The Klan prided itself on
pureblooded Americanism and stressed nationalism and racial purity. Even though the
government was against its racial views, the government itself carried out laws that
showed racism. An immigration act of 1921 limited the number of immigrants by applying a
quota system and it favored immigrants from northern and western Europe. In addition to
the quota, the 1924 National Origins Act reduced the number of immigrants and excluded
Asians altogether. These laws attempted to maintain its Americanism but American was not
as perfect as the government thought. Literary critics of the Lost Generation and the
Harlem Renaissance criticized American society of its materialism and racism against
African Americans. The culture was heavily criticized because it contained many flaws.
Another flaw consisted of the conflict between fundamentalism verses Darwin. The Scopes
trial was when John Scopes agreed to go on trial because he taught evolution that denied
the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible. Another conflict between
sides was the prohibition controversy of rural verses urban. The rural citizens opposed
prohibition while the urban citizens supported. Disputes between two different ideas were
common and America became a country of arguments and controversy. Many different
conflicts existed in society of the 1920's that contrasted from the entertainment and
prosperity. 
The 1920's was a decade of advantages as well as disadvantages. America was an improving
as a nation, but halted by its many conflicts. The nation's fate depends on the
prosperity of the people, and if it can resolve their problems of cultural, economic,
racial, social, religious and political conflicts, the future may look bright. The
entertainment and prosperity changes were new trends that benefited American life, and
hopefully changes by settling disputes will benefit American life as well.