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Date Posted: 18:44:46 02/04/03 Tue
Author: Hilary
Subject: Ch.24 All my sections

Woman and Minorities in the work force.

A growing proportion of the work force consisted of women, who were part of a job class known as “Pink Collar” Low paying service occupations with many of the same problems as manufacturing employment. Large numbers of women worked as secretaries, salesclerks, telephone operators, and other, similarly underpaid jobs. Because of the lower amount of labor required for these jobs unions were unwilling to organize them.
Also, the half million African Americans who migrated from the south during the Great Migration had few opportunities for union representation. The AFL often worked actively to make sure that African Americans were unable to attain organization for their trades. The jobs they did take, the AFL had no interest in at all such as Janitors, Dishwashers, Garbage collectors, commercial laundry attendants, domestics and more. But there was The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, founded in 1925 and led by A. Philip Randolph, a vigorous union, led by an African American, and representing almost an all black work force. Over time Randolph did gain increased wages, shorter working hours, and other stuff for his working class.
All over the ranks of the unskilled included massive amounts of Asians and Hispanics, few of them organized, most actively excluded from white dominated unions. During the Chinese exclusion act the Japanese immigrants increasing took the place of the Chinese in menial jobs. They worked on railroads, construction sites, farms and in many other low paying workplaces. Some were able to escape the ranks of the unskilled by creating their own small businesses or becoming truck farmers. This led to California passing lows in 1913 and 1920 to make it more difficult for them to buy land. Other unskilled immigration led to riots which eventually forced the legislation to eliminate all immigration from the Philippines.
Nearly half a million Mexicans entered the United States in the 1920’s, increasing the already exhausting population to over a million. They found work locally in factories and shops, others traveled to mines or did migratory labor on farms, but returned to the cities between jobs. There was some hostility from the anglo’s but the low-paid, unskilled work force was needed in the west.

The Movies

Over 100 million people saw movies in the 1930’s as compared to the 40 million in 1922. The addition of sound to motion pictures, beginning in 1927 , created national excitement. A scandal in 1921 involving a comedian produced public outrage and forced film industries to create standards for their films. Studio owners created the Motion Picture Association. They viewed films and banned anything likely to offend viewers. The powers were exercised broadly and imposed on the film industry a safe, sanctimonious conformity for many years.
The most important communication invention of the 1920’s was the radio. The first commercial radio station in America, KDKA, began broadcasting. The first national radio network, The National Broadcasting Company, was formed in 1927. By 1923 there were more then 500 radio stations over the country. By 1929 more than 12 million families owned radios. Radio stations also feared government regulation and began monitoring all broadcasts. But unlike the films there were countless hours that could not be monitored. Radio programming, therefore, was more diverse and at time more controversial and ever subversive, that film.


Pressing For Woman’s Rights

The realization that the “New Woman” was as much myth as reality inspired some American feminists to continue their crusade for reform. The National Woman’s Party, pressed on with its campaign for the Equal Rights Amendment, although it found little support in congress. Women organized the League of Women Voters and the women’s auxiliaries of both the democratic and republican parties.
Women activists won a significant triumph in 1921 by securing protective legislation for women. The Sheppard-Towner Act. It provided federal funds to states to establish prenatal and child healthcare programs. From the start however the bill provoked controversy. People thought it classified all women as mothers, and many said it would stop the efforts of birth-control. The American Medical Association warned that it would bring untrained outsiders in the health-care field. In 1929 congress terminated the program. The demise of the act illustrated the power of the medical field. It also revealed how little woman suffrage had done to sustain the hopes of its supporters. They passed the act hoping it would cause more women to vote, but it was clear the women voters changed electoral outcomes hardly at all. The female vote distributed itself almost precisely the same as the male vote.

Government and Business

Andrew Melon a wealth steel and aluminum tycoon devoted himself to working for reduction in taxes. Congress cut them all by more than half. He worked with President Coolidge after 1924, to trim the already modest federal budget. The administration, even managed to retire half the nations world war one debt. The most prominent member of the cabinet was commerce secretary Herbert Hoover, a notable progressive. During his eight years, in the commerce department, Hoover constantly encourage voluntary cooperation in the private sector as the best avenue to stability. Public intuition had a duty to play an active role in creating the new cooperative order. Hoover became the champion of the concept of business “Assosiationalism” which is a concept that envisioned the creation of national organizations of business men in particular industries. Through these associations, private entrepreneurs could stabilize their industries and promote industry in production and marketing.

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