Automobiles, Mass Production, and Assembly-Line Progress

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Section Chronology

The automobile industry emerged as the largest single manufacturing industry in the nation. The pioneer of the mass production of automobiles was Henry Ford. When the 1920s began, he had already produced six million automobiles; by 1927, the figure reached fifteen million. In 1920, a Ford car cost $845; in 1928, the price was less than $300, within range of most of the country’s skilled workingmen. Ford shrewdly located his company in Detroit, knowing that key materials for his automobiles were manufactured in nearby states (Map 23.1). Keystone of the American economy, the automobile industry not only employed hundreds of thousands of workers directly but also brought whole industries into being — filling stations, garages, fast-food restaurants, and “guest cottages” (motels). The need for tires, glass, steel, highways, oil, and refined gasoline for automobiles provided millions of related jobs. By 1929, one American in four found employment directly or indirectly in the automobile industry. “Give us our daily bread” was no longer addressed to the Almighty, one commentator quipped, but to Detroit.

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Figure false: MAP 23.1 Auto Manufacturing
Figure false: By the mid-1920s, the massive coal and steel industries of the Midwest had made that region the center of the new automobile industry. A major road-building program by the federal government carried the thousands of new cars produced each day to every corner of the country.
Figure false: MAP ACTIVITY
Figure false: READING THE MAP How many states had factories involved with the manufacture of automobiles? In what regions was auto manufacturing concentrated?
Figure false: CONNECTIONS On what related industries did auto manufacturing depend? How did the integration of the automobile into everyday life affect American society?
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Figure false: Detroit and the Automobile Industry in the 1920s

Automobiles changed where people lived, what work they did, how they spent their leisure, even how they thought. Hundreds of small towns decayed because the automobile enabled rural people to bypass them in favor of more distant cities and towns. In cities, streetcars began to disappear as workers moved to the suburbs and commuted to work along crowded highways. Nothing shaped modern America more than the automobile, and efficient mass production made the automobile revolution possible.

Mass production by the assembly-line technique became standard in almost every factory, from automobiles to meatpacking to cigarettes. To improve efficiency, corporations reduced assembly-line work to the simplest, most repetitive tasks. Changes on the assembly line and in management, along with technological advances, significantly boosted overall efficiency. Between 1922 and 1929, productivity in manufacturing increased 32 percent. Average wages, however, increased only 8 percent.

CHAPTER LOCATOR

How did big business shape the “New Era” of the 1920s?

In what ways did the Roaring Twenties challenge traditional values?

Why did the relationship between urban and rural America deteriorate in the 1920s?

How did President Hoover respond to the economic crash of 1929?

What was life like in the early years of the depression?

Conclusion: Why did the hope of the 1920s turn to despair?

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Industries also developed programs for workers that came to be called welfare capitalism. Some businesses improved safety and sanitation inside factories. They also instituted paid vacations and pension plans. Welfare capitalism encouraged loyalty to the company and discouraged traditional labor unions. One labor organizer in the steel industry bemoaned the success of welfare capitalism. “So many workmen here had been lulled to sleep by the company union, the welfare plans, the social organizations fostered by the employer,” he declared, “that they had come to look upon the employer as their protector, and had believed vigorous trade union organization unnecessary for their welfare.”

welfare capitalism

image Industrial programs for workers that became popular in the 1920s. Some businesses improved safety and sanitation inside factories. They also instituted paid vacations and pension plans. This encouraged loyalty to companies and discouraged independent labor unions.

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Figure false: Colorado Filling Station and Gas Pump
Figure false: By 1929, when Conoco (Continental Oil Company) produced this lavish map featuring Colorado’s spectacular mountains, nearly every oil company was supplying road maps as part of its campaign to boost tourism. This appealing drive-through station is a far cry from the first retail outlets for gas — blacksmith shops and hardware stores, the same places individuals bought kerosene for their lamps. Because motorists did not trust what they could not see, companies in the 1910s introduced glass-cylinder, gravity-flow gas pumps. Courtesy, Colorado Historical Society.
Figure false: VISUAL ACTIVITY
Figure false: READING THE MAP: What do this road map and accompanying image of a gravity-flow gasoline pump tell us about American consumer culture on the eve of the Great Depression?
Figure false: CONNECTIONS: Does the road map accurately reflect the economic direction of the U.S. economy in 1929?