1920s Symptoms of Moral Decline

The trend toward credit living may be a symptom of moral decline, an attempt to consume what you have not produced. At most times, of course, there are those who live beyond their means, but this does not necessarily become a matter of public morality.  There is greed involved in all cases, but it becomes institutionalized greed when government organs foster an ongoing credit expansion. But there were other symptoms in the 1920s.

One of the symptoms was the decline of the influence of the family in the bringing up of children. There were several sources of this declining influence. One was the separation of much of the family during a goodly portion of the day. As more and more men (and sometimes women as well) worked away from families in factory, mine, and office, they were separated from them during most of the waking hours. Compulsory school attendance took children away from the homes during longer and longer portions of the year, as the school year was extended. The automobile provided a means for young people to escape quickly from the watchful eyes of parents or people in the local community. The radio initially provided family entertainment and may even have enlivened family life, but movies provided a largely alien influence to that of the family. National radio networks and Hollywood-made movies were nationwide in scope and only limitedly subject to local and family influence. The emancipation of women, signaled by the 19th Amendment and ratified in the 1920s by “flappers,” and shortened hemlines, was registered by increasingly common divorces.

Clarence B. Carson, A Basic History of the United States, Vol. 4: The Growth of America 1878-1928, pg.264