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The Roaring 20's and the Great DepressionFollowing World War I, the shift of Illinois' population from rural to urban became more pronounced. During the 1920's, many miles of roads in Illinois were paved providing easier means of travel. The large number of immigrants caused overcrowding and an oversupply of workers in many cities. In response, the United States Congress passed laws in the early 1920's that drastically reduced the number of immigrants allowed to enter the country. Poor working conditions and low wages continued to plague many industries. These issues caused the union at a strip mine of the Southern Illinois Coal Company to go on strike in April of 1922. The company fired its union employees in June and imported strikebreakers from Chicago. On June 22, 1922, union members killed 19 strikebreakers and guards in what became known as the "Herrin Massacre". National developments also affected Illinois after World War I. The women's suffrage movement was rewarded with the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920, giving women the right to vote in all elections. The women's temperance movements found success with the passage of the 18th Amendment in 1919. The passage of the 18th Amendment began the era of prohibition. While the intentions of this amendment may have been good, the results proved ineffective. The ban on drinking was a benefit to organized crime. The social changes, technological advances and illegal trade in alcohol during the 1920's resulted in that decade being known as the Roaring 20's. Organized crime was particularly strong in Chicago with the rise of well-known gangster Al Capone. Gang warfare between factions was common. The violence engaged in by these individuals, such as the St. Valentines Day Massacre in 1929, turned most law-abiding citizens against them. Lawmen, such as Elliot Ness, gained fame from fighting these mobsters. Al Capone eventually met his downfall due to an income tax fraud conviction and was sent to prison. Organized crime also flourished in southern Illinois and East Saint Louis during this time, as the Birger gang, led by Charlie Birger, and the Shelton gang battled for control of the illegal alcohol trade. These gangs also fought with the Ku Klux Klan in the southern Illinois area known as "Little Egypt." The Klan, a racist organization that advocated white supremacy, often harassed and attacked African-Americans, Roman Catholics, Jews and other minorities. The competition for a limited number of good jobs, a distrust by many of anyone of different ethnic or racial backgrounds and the general lawlessness of the times contributed to the Klan's rise during this time. In May of 1923, 2,000 Klansmen attended a rally near Marion. In December of 1923 and January of 1924, hundreds of Klansmen led by S. Glenn Young, a former U.S. Treasury Agent, conducted numerous raids on bootlegging establishments. The Klan attacked a hospital in Herrin in February, where an injured county deputy had been taken, after a Klansman was killed in a shootout. A county militia was called out to end the Klan's siege on the hospital. The militia routed the Klan and a grand jury indicted Young and other Klan members on a number of felony charges. Three days later, the Klan held a large parade through Herrin to protest the charges. Several thousand more Klansmen met at a barbecue in Herrin in May of 1924. Young was eventually killed in a confrontation with a deputy sheriff in Herrin in January of 1925. The Stock Market Crash in October of 1929 marked the beginning of the Great Depression of the 1930's. The effects of this economic calamity hit manufacturing industries in Illinois hard. Farmers also suffered from declining crop prices as well as a drought in western Illinois. Despite these difficult times, Illinois continued to look forward. The Illinois Waterway, connecting Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River, was completed in 1933. The Century of Progress World's Fair was held in Chicago in 1933-34. Both the Republican and Democratic parties held their national conventions in Chicago in 1932. The incumbent President, Herbert Hoover, was the nominee of the Republican Party. Burdened by the effects of the Great Depression, he lost the election to the Democratic nominee, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
An aerial view of the Century of Progress World's Fair Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) promised to help people deal with the depression with his New Deal programs. Examples of these programs included: The Public Works Administration (PWA); the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) for young people not in school; The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA); the Works Progress Administration (WPA); the National Youth Administration (NYA) for young students; and the social security program for the elderly. In the mid 1930's, attempts were made to organize the steel industry by the Committee of Industrial Organizations (CIO). A nationwide shutdown of steel companies was organized in 1937. The Republic Steel Company in south Chicago defied the union and remained open. During a march on the plant by union organizers, a fight broke out and off-duty policemen hired by the company killed ten men participating in the march. This event became known as the Memorial Day massacre. In the late 1930's, new techniques in exploring deep fissures in the earth discovered oil in central and southern Illinois. By 1940, oil production in Illinois had increased to more than 147 million barrels annually, the largest production of oil in the state's history. As the 1930's drew to a close, the Great Depression was ending. Soon, the United States would be presented with an even greater challenge, the beginning of World War II.
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