Problems during the Boom

The KKK tormented black people. Image credit Chicago Tribune

• Industries were monopolized by super-corporations and they kept trade unions weak as they forbade workers to join them
• Industrial workers were suppressed heavily by the industrialists
• Industrial workers were forbidden from conducting strikes
• Many discriminatory laws were brought in against the blacks such as:
  1. They could not get good jobs
  2. They had inferior educational system
  3. Their lives were characterized by poverty
  4. They were denied the right to vote
• The Ku Klux Klan also caused a lot of suffering as they tormented the black society as they performed many violent atrocities
• Farmers were also greatly affected by the Boom as they:
  1. Lost markets in Europe after WWI
  2. There was also overproduction as there was mechanization of agriculture
  3. Europe’s market was fast recovering and this posed great competition for the farmers
  4. Their income dropped from 22 billion to 13 billion by 1928
  5. Many rural labourers were removed from their land because they could not pay rentals as their wages became low
• Women faced a certain level of discrimination still after the boom in USA
• Unemployment still remained a problem during the period of the boom
• Many people began to immigrate to the USA due to reasons such as:
  1. Being attracted by jobs and better living conditions
  2. They were fleeing from persecution from Eastern Europe and Russia
  3. Many were fleeing from poverty from Italy
• The sex subject became common and behaviors which were regarded as taboo before WWI surfaced
• A law called the Prohibition Act was passed which banned the production, import and sale of alcohol

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