Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929

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1) Andrew Mellon and America's Economic Policy

A search on Accomplishments of the Coolidge Administration provides Andrew Mellon’s October 17, 1928 press release that highlights Republican accomplishments on behalf of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover’s 1928 presidential campaign. A search on Mellon yields details of his tax reduction plans as well as opposition to his policies.

You can read a letter sent to Hamilton Kean, the Republican National Committee member from New Jersey, criticizing Mellon’s plan as “satisfactory only to 330,000 taxpayers while it displeased 13,000,000 of the working class.” There is also an article in the February 8, 1928 issue of The New Republic claiming: “The power which Mr. Mellon now exercises is the most sinister single fact in American life.” After reviewing Andrew Mellon’s policies and the subsequent public reaction, consider the following questions.

• Who benefits from the tax reduction plans?
• Why does the letter to Hamilton Kean distinguish between “taxpayers” and “the working class”?
• Why would The New Republic make the preceding statement in 1928 if Mellon had been Secretary of the Treasury since 1921?

2) American Labor

Conditions described in the candy industry are probably more or less typical of those in all low-wage, seasonal industries in which the workers are young and unskilled. Evidently fair wages and fair conditions cannot be left to the altruism of the individual employer where the worker is unable to enforce her own demands. In some cases, fair wages and conditions are granted voluntarily by far-sighted and intelligent owners who realize that such conditions make for greater efficiency and bigger profits in the long run. But on the whole, the young unorganized worker must look to the public for some protection until she is able to protect herself. Page 60 Behind the Scenes at a Candy Factory

Candy Worker from Behind the Scenes.

For a comprehensive review of the position of labor in the 1920s, readers can also review Recent Social Trends in the United States, a research report commissioned by President Herbert Hoover and published in 1933.

3) The American Federation of Labor

President and Mrs. Coolidge, Mother Jones, and Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., 1924.

Other letters and articles chronicle the increasingly strained relations between Coolidge and the AFL. On November 14, 1923, Gompers sent the President resolutions recently adopted during the 43rd annual AFL convention calling for a reduction in living costs. In his letter, Gompers stated, “It is common knowledge that high living costs can be traced directly to profiteering.” During the 1924 election, the AFL solicited funds for Independent candidate Robert La Follette’s presidential campaign. On September 16, 1924, the AFL issued a press release stating that Coolidge and the Ku Klux Klan were “running neck and neck as the spokesmen of God and the Constitution.”

That same day, however, Mother Mary Jones, an outspoken proponent of organized labor, showed her support for President Coolidge by posing with him outside the White House. Use the preceding examples and following questions to better understand American labor and politics.

• Explain Gompers’ statement, “It is common knowledge that high living costs can be traced directly to profiteering.”
• Keeping in mind the Department of Labor’s report on working conditions, why would the AFL be interested in supporting an independent presidential candidate?
• What tactics does the AFL press release use to associate Coolidge with the KKK?
• What does the press release imply regarding organized labor’s regard for Coolidge?
• To what group or groups of voters was this press release directed?
• Why would some labor organizers such as Mary Jones support Coolidge in the election?

4) Immigration

Before discussing topics such as sewing, cooking, childcare, and motherhood (topics that the author acknowledges are applicable to all immigrant women), Ellis addresses the claim that the education of Mexican women will soon be irrelevant.

It has been said that since Mexico is developing irrigation projects to reclaim arid lands, building National highways, and about to furnish free textbooks to pupils, that immigration will decrease and the question of ‘restriction’ will regulate itself. Be that as it may, some will come and many will remain here. As an economic proposition in the Southwest they are a necessity. We who employ them are challenged to raise their standards of living, improve sanitation, and control disease. Strenuous efforts in that direction will redound to the public good. If we expect them to adopt our customs, our ideals, and our country, let us set them a most worthy example.

Preface
Americanization Through Homemaking

Compare this guide with A.C. Strange’s article, “Becoming an American” in The United American Magazine of Good Citizenship, a publication declaring itself "devoted to the cause of Americanization, assimilation and group elimination; pointing the way to a constitutional Americanism, to equality in citizenship, and a better understanding between native born and foreign born."

• What assumptions does Ellis make about Mexican-Americans?
• How does Ellis’ description of what it means to assimilate differ from Strange’s notions on citizenship?
• What is the reason for these differences?

5) Advertising

Although film and radio were in their infancy in the 1920s, advertising agencies embraced the media in an effort to reach new consumers. The science of print ads was applied to the new technology and a cross-promotional effort between print and radio advertising increased the strength of the agencies. This synchronicity between print and radio advertising is celebrated in two speeches by William Rankin in "Advertising and its Relation to the Public." While speaking before the Broadcasting Division of the New York Advertising Club, Rankin praises the value of newspapers:

It is the daily newspapers that have helped most to make the Radio the great success it is today. The splendid support that they have given the Radio since its beginning . . . and the fine things that they are doing for it every day of the week are the real reasons for Radio’s enormous popularity.

Page 5
Advertising and its Relation to the Public

Examine any number of periodicals available throughout Prosperity and Thrift to see if the print ads (and even a short film advertisement celebrating Werner’s rust-proof corsets) adhere to the claims made by Hopkins, Rankin, and others. What do newspapers gain from promoting radio? Is this relationship part of what Hopkins describes as “multiplying the value of our forces”? How does advertising respond to different media?

Frame from a Silent Film Celebrating Werner's Rust-Proof Corsets.

6) Thrift

It is not so much what we earn today as what we save today that determines our position tomorrow . . . No man is so poor that he cannot begin to be thrifty. No man is so rich that he does not need to be thrifty.

Page 7
Calvin Coolidge Papers

Also available are details about National Thrift Week, an economic movement beginning annually on January 17th with a celebration of Benjamin Franklin’s birthday and a discussion of a specific thrifty enterprise for each day of the week. You can also search on Anna Kelton Wiley Papers for the September 1928 newsletter with 10 Financial Commandments Still Going Strong for Thrift as well as copies of the National Thrift News and Thrift Week programs.

Ten Financial Commandments.

• Why does National Thrift Week begin on Benjamin Franklin’s birthday?
• Why would President Coolidge be interested in promoting thrift?
• Who is most likely to need the “10 Financial Commandments”?
• Are there specific “commandments” for different parts of society?
• How would you reorganize these “commandments”? Why?