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

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Go directly to the collection, Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929, in American Memory, or view a Summary of Resources related to the collection.

Chronological Thinking: Photographic Timelines

Mrs. Coolidge and Helen Keller, 1926.

Herbert Hoover Signing the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1929, Washington, DC, 1929.

Readers can examine Coolidge's speech before the National Grange Convention on November 16, 1928, to ascertain the President's stance on the McNary-Haugen Bill. They can then enhance their understanding with information on the history of the bill available by searching on McNary-Haugen. Prosperity and Thrift also contains letters, reports, articles, and editorials from newspapers and farm magazines regarding this legislation from Oregon Republican Senator Charles McNary and Iowa Republican Congressman Gilbert N. Haugen. The bill existed in various forms from 1924 to 1929 as it was debated, revised, vetoed twice by Coolidge, and ultimately signed into law by President Herbert Hoover as the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1929.

• How does the President regard the Granger Movement?
• What defense does he give of the administration’s agricultural policy?
• How persuasive is the President in defending his farm policies?

A search on farm can also provide additional information on farming life such as E.L. Kirkpatrick’s The Farmer’s Standard of Living. This socio-economic study surveyed almost 3,000 white farming families in eleven states. Kirkpatrick’s assessment might provide another dimension to the debate surrounding the proposed legislation.

One can perform similar examinations of other speeches and topics chosen from fifty-nine of Coolidge's formal addresses as preserved by one of his private secretaries, Everett Sanders. Search on Sanders Papers to locate these addresses.

Historical Analysis and Interpretation: Bruce Barton, Advertising, and the 1924 Presidential Campaign

In 1920, ad man Bruce Barton wrote an article entitled, "The Silent Man on Beacon Hill: An Appreciation of Calvin Coolidge." After declaring that Coolidge is a breath of fresh air on the political landscape, Barton emphasizes Coolidge’s frugality, modesty, and unpretentiousness. He claims that such “old-fashioned characteristics . . . are exceedingly refreshing in these ultra-modern days” as he invokes George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln. Barton also quotes Coolidge as saying: “The man who builds a factory builds a temple; the man who works there worships there, and to each is due, not scorn and blame, but reverence and praise.”

Calvin Coolidge Works on the Farm While Visitin' 'Round Coolidge Corners, 1929.

The two-part Pathe News film Visitin’ ‘Round Coolidge Corners also emphasized Coolidge’s character, containing statements such as: “Through New England meeting-houses like these, Pilgrims and Puritans taught the whole nation ideals, courage, honor, and devotion. They stand today for all that is finest in American character north, south, east and west.”

Compare this film and other election-year ad campaigns with Bruce Barton’s article, using the questions at the end of this section. Bring another dimension to this exercise by considering Sinclair Lewis’ “Publicity Gone Mad” in which the author claims:

the immemorial human desire for expressing one’s self is shown . . . in advertising and publicity. The man whose hat, religion, job, pay-check, house, and soul are completely standardized gains the ancient privilege of being different by reading of Chief Officer Manning’s ecstatic passion for Lucky Strikes [Cigarettes and] the lovely Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt’s adoration of Pond’s Cream. . . .

“Publicity Gone Mad”
The Nation

Lewis later writes: “For this is perhaps our greatest improvement over Europe . . . our changing of the ancient right of privacy so that the most secret and perhaps agonized thoughts of any human being are the property now of any swine who cares to read about them.”

• What does Lewis's statement mean in terms of Calvin Coolidge’s campaign?
• How do the articles and film emphasize Coolidge’s character? What is the importance of establishing such credibility?
• How does the depiction of Coolidge as “old-fashioned” relate to the quote, “The man who builds a factory builds a temple; the man who works there worships there, and to each is due, not scorn and blame, but reverence and praise.”?
• How does Coolidge’s quote compare to Lewis’ claim that the man’s “hat, religion, job, pay-check, house, and soul are completely standardized gains”?
• In 1925, Bruce Barton wrote the best-selling book, The Man Nobody Knows, an interpretation of Jesus Christ as a modern businessman and of Christianity as the basis for the modern business ethic. How does this interpretation relate to both Coolidge’s and Lewis’ statements?

Historical Issue-Analysis and Decision-Making

This collection provides a number of opportunities to identify issues and evaluate alternative courses of action. For example, a search on Stuart Chase Papers reveals an exchange between Chase and author Theodore Dreiser prompted by a critical review of Dreiser's Tragic America in which the consumer advocate questions the economic facts and figures in the book. Using data from the late 1920s, Chase deferentially debates the accuracy of Dreiser's statistics on unemployment and unchecked wealth, and takes issue with Dreiser's claim that "the [fluctuation of the business] cycle is deliberately fostered by bankers and great corporations, who welcome depressions because they find opportunity to cut wages and thus increase bank reserves and stockholders' profits."

Evaluate the two men's positions based on your understanding of the era and decide which position seems more accurate. You can also examine the more general economic concerns of the 1920s. A search on Anna Kelton Wiley Papers offers an overview of consumer issues including home economics, scientific management of the household, and thrift. A search of Recent Social Trends in the United States, a study commissioned by President Hoover and published in 1933, offers a number of possibilities. For example, users can read and discuss one section from the second volume of the study on the condition of labor in the 1920s:

So far as the essentials of life are concerned, the majority of workingmen are now farther removed from what may be regarded as the sources of their supplies and from their immediate power to secure them.

Page 806
Recent Social Trends in the United States

Use the following questions to examine these materials and to evaluate the economic issues and decisions of the 1920s:

• What were the underlying factors contributing to the high unemployment rate during the Great Depression?
• What course of action could have been taken during the Harding-Coolidge years that might have alleviated the high rate of unemployment?
• Considering the prevailing political and economic philosophy of the 1920s, how plausible would it have been to promote a policy more favorable to organized labor?

Historical Research Capabilities

Image from Selling Mrs. Consumer.

The collection also contains discussions of the African-American experience including Booker T. Washington’s opening address to the Cotton States and International Exposition on September 18, 1895. Searches on National Negro Business League and African-American Economic Issues allow readers to compare Washington’s so-called “Atlanta Compromise” speech of 1895 with documents in the collection relating to economic issues raised by African Americans in the 1920s. You may also examine Alain Locke’s summary of race relations from the 1928 National Interracial Conference and studies such as Fisk University’s The Southern Urban Negro as a Consumer.

In addition, readers can use the Guide to People, Organizations, and Topics in Prosperity and Thrift, with its concise descriptions and links to the collection, as a resource for understanding familiar references from traditional history books and textbooks. You can use the index to examine the collection for information on topics such as:

• Prominent individuals (e.g., Herbert Hoover, Andrew Mellon, A. Philip Randolph, Frederick Taylor, Mary Church Terrell)
• Organizations (e.g., American Federation of Labor, Federal Trade Commission, National Urban League, Universal Negro Improvement Association),
• Congressional legislation (e.g., Agricultural Credits Act, McNary-Haugen Bill),
• Industrial theories such as Time and Motion Studies (search on Taylorisms) and the Bedeaux Efficiency System.

Or, review the Guide to People, Organizations, and Topics in Prosperity and Thrift for unusual references such as Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and The Playground Movement.