American Literature

Important People of the 1920's

 Henry Ford

• produced an affordable car, paid high wages and helped create a middle class.
• started the ford training course in September 1946, which was located at River Rouge plant near Detroit.
• he was of agrarian Michigan descent, and believed that the men making the cars should be able to afford one for themselves.
• he was the father of the 20th century American industry.
• the black Model T came out in 1908 and was named America's everyman car.
• he figured that everyone would buy the cars if he paid his workers a good living wage and produced more cars in less time for less money.
• Ford invented the dealer-franchise system to sell and service cars.
• there were about 7,000 ford dealers just in the country by 1912.
• he also made sure that he developed an automotive infrastructure with the cars and pushed for gas stations everywhere.
• Ford's cars are the reason for the creation of interstate-highway systems.
• when Ford was 16, he walked eight miles to his first job at a machine shop in Detroit.
• more than 15 million cars had been sold by 1927 when the production of the Model T ended.
• Thomas Alva Edison who invented the gas powered automobile, was the biggest inspirati on to Ford.
• Ford asked Edison to develop an electric storage battery for the car and funded $1.5 million.
• Ford was known for picking up loose scraps of metal and making it into machines even long before he started the company.
• by itself, Ford's assembly line put America's economy into overdrive.
• back then the average wage in the auto industry was $2.34 on an 9 hour shift. Ford made it $5 .00 on an 8 hour shift.
• It later incressed to $10 and proved to be necessary component for ford to make the automobile more accessible to all.
• by the late 1920s the company had become self-sufficient.
• Ford controlled rubber plants in brazil, a fleet of ships, a railroad, 16 coal mines, and thousand acres of timberlan and iron-orein Michigan and Minnesota.
• The problem became that Ford focused on making one model for too long.
• Ford only brought a new model to the market in 1927.
• The model A.
• Henry Ford became a prisoner of his own success.
• He made up a Sociological department to make sure the employees didn't blow their money on wasteful things.
• "I want the whole organization dominated by a just, generouse and humane policy."
• He viewed labor organizers as " the worst thing ever to strick the earth."
• He was struck with genral strick in the 1941 and the then finally agreed to allow United Auto Workers organize a plant.
• The 1932 engine is possibly Ford's last innovation.
• Ford died in his bed at fair lane mansion in the spring of 1947 at age 83 during a black out caused by a storm.

***A hundred years ago business was done by a virtual dictators-men so rich and so powerful could take over a country if they wanted. But if it hadn't been for Henry Ford's drive to creat a mass market or cars, there would be no middle class in america today.

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Charles Lindbergh

• he was an American aviator, who made the first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean 
• the press gave him nicknames such as "Lucky Lindy" and "Lone Eagle"
• before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Lindbergh campaigned against voluntary American involvement in World War II
• he was born on February 4, 1902, in Detroit
• at the age of 18, he entered the University of Wisconson to study engineering
• after 2 years, he left school to become a barnstormer, a pilot who performed daredevil stunts at fairs
• in 1924, Lindbergh enlisted in the army so that he could train as an Army Air Service Reserve pilot
• in 1925, he graduated from the Army's flight-training school
• in 1919, a hotel owner named Raymond Orteig offered $25,000 to the first aviator to make it across the Atlantic without stopping
• several pilots were killed or injured while competing for the Orteig prize
• Lindbergh won the Orteig prize 
• the flight took 20 hours and 21 minutes

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Alphonse Capone

• Better known as Al capone or scarface.
• He is known as the most famous gangster in the history of the USA.
• Al Capone was born in 1899 in Brooklyn, NY.
  • To two Italian immigrants.
• Had an attitude aganist authority.
• He dropped out of school in 6th grade after he hit his teacher.
• After he went through multiple low wage jobs he joined a street gang led by Johny Torrio and lucky Luciano.
• He was very violent;
  • In 1918, Capone got in an argument with a man and killed him because they didn't agree.
  • When he bartendered at a club owned by the gang leader he would break the bones and sometimes skulls of those who would get kicked out.
  • In May of 1920, Al Capone Killed Torrio's boss,
    • "Big Jim Colosimo", he was the most important person he killed , who ran Chicago's underground
• Instead of facing the charges, he ran away to Chicago to his old friend Johny Torrio.
• After "big jim" was killed, Torrio became the boss of Chicago and Capone became manager of alcohol for the city.
• Al Capone became Torrio's right hand man.
• Al Capone got the job of killing off everyone who was in their way of controling the city.
• In 1925, Capone took over Torrio's head spot after Torrio was seriously wounded in an murder attempt.
• After being caught by the IRS, Al Capone was sentenced to 11 years in prison, fined with $215,000 for tax evasion and $7,692 for court costs.
• His mental and physical condition were severly worsened after being released in 1939.
• After being released from a hospital for a brain treatment , he passed away of a stroke on January 25th, 1947.

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