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the Depression, President Hoover said,
"the overshadowing problem of al!
problems
is
crime, which bestrides our
nation like a colossus" ( Arthur M.
Schlesinger, Jr.,
The Cri.sis of the 0/d
Order, 1919-1933,
p. 177). It was the
age of Al Capone, the St. Valentine's
Day Massacre, Dutch Schultz, Pretty
Boy Floyd, ad infinitum. Once the
Depression hit full force, crime receded
- another indication that affiuence, not
poverty, is the greatest breeding ground
for crime! And we might add that
opportunists capitalizing on national
prohibition in America gave birth to
much of the crime and gangsterism of
those days.
Race Riots:
"lt
was during this very
period, the years just after World War
1,
that the first large-scale urban race
riots took place" (Snowman,
op. cit.
p.
38). The Ku Klux Klan flourished.
Mora/s:
"The decade was also charac–
terized by widespread disregard for law
and arder, for religious, conventional,
and even prudential morality" (p. 40).
Buy, Buy, BUY!
It was an age of living it up on the
installment plan. During the decade of
the 1920's, automobile sales tripled,
largely through the increasing use of
time payment plans!
Over 85 percent of
furniture sales, 75 percent of washers,
and over half of small items such as
radios, sewing machines, or vacuum
cleaners were, for the first time, bought
on credit.
In the Twenties, personal debt
increased over fifty percent. Ail this
spending fueled an unprecedented
growth of business expansion. Expendi–
tures on plant growth were only $11
billion in 1922, but $75 billion - a
sevenfold increase in seven years - by
1929!
What caused it
all?
To a large
extent,
media
-
the burgeoning adver–
tising and motion picture industries.
Like
television
in the Fifties and Sixties,
radio and motion pictures (with their
advertisements and subtle pressures to
buy) were the fad of the Twenties.
In motion pictures, "viewers saw
their favorite stars
cons11ming
goods -
at parties, on yachts, in plush apart–
ments - but rarely were screen plays
written to show
how they eamed their
money.
Motion picture heroes and
heroines were pre-eminentl}· consumcrs
of luxury itcms, not producers of the
necessities of life." (Robert Sobe!,
The
Great
B11ll
Markel,
W.
W. Norton,
1968, p.
44).
One could hardly expect
to see Rudolph Valentino in the role
of a poor clerk who struggled to make
his mark, or Jean Harlow as an urban
housewife, trying to stretch her budget.
Instead, both were exquisitely attired,
were chauffeured in expensive cars, and
resided in sumptuous surroundings.
"Their fans," continues Robert Sobe!,
"were often tempted to emulate them.
More than books or radio,
the motion
p¡cfllres set the style for aspiriug indi–
vidttals in the twenties.
Such pcople
could hardly afford the 'good li fc' on
their salaries, but
with the tlid of time
payments,
they could own sorne of
the items seen in advertisements and
movies."
GREED - the Root Cause
of the Crash
The true causes of the Depression are
still with us. Burgeoning personal debt,
workers demanding higher wages ( often
without producing any more), business
cutting cornees, employee theft, and
stock market speculation.
The question is:
HOW
will these