Editing History of Missouri (section)

==Expansion, recession, and war (1920–1945)==

===Economic growth during the 1920s===
The Hall brothers, Joyce, Rollie, and William, emerged from poverty in Nebraska in the 1900s by opening a bookstore. When the European craze for sending postcards reached America, the brothers quickly began merchandizing them and became the postcard jobber for the Great Plains. As business boomed they relocated to Kansas City in 1910 and eventually founded the [[Hallmark Cards]] gift card company, which soon came to dominate a national market.<ref name="puschendorf 2008 2-13">Puschendorf (2008), 2–13.</ref> Allen Percival "Percy" Green operated the A. P. Green Company in Mexico, Missouri. Green bought a struggling brickworks in 1910 and found a national market by transforming it into a leading manufacturer of "fire bricks," bricks designed to withstand high temperatures for use in steel plants and lining the boilers of ships.<ref name="moore 2006 174-177">Moore (2006), 174–177.</ref> In 1913, in the town of Clinton, Royal Booth, then a high school junior, began a business breeding purebred chickens. After serving in the Army in World War I, Booth returned to his booming enterprise. The growth of his Booth Farms and Hatchery had encouraged other area entrepreneurs to enter the poultry breeding business. Booth rebuilt his operation after a 1924 fire, and concentrated on breeding hens that laid eggs all year long. By 1930, Clinton's hatcheries had an annual capacity of over three million eggs, making Clinton the "Baby Chick Capital of the World" and benefiting thousands of farmers throughout the region; however, the industry declined and the hatchery closed in 1967.<ref name="gordon 2003 190-203">Gordon (2003), 190–203.</ref>

Edward Leavy, head of Pierce Petroleum company, identified the potential of the Ozark region as a tourist attraction in the 1920s. Pierce Petroleum opened roadside taverns and expanded to include gas stations, hotels, restaurants, and a variety of services for automobile travelers. [[Great Depression in the United States|The Great Depression]] forced Pierce Petroleum to sell out to Sinclair Consolidated Oil Corporation, but by then many other entrepreneurs saw the opportunity for tours expansion in the Ozarks.<ref name="sculle 1999 293-307">Sculle (1999), 293–307.</ref>

===Pendergast machine===
Political machines had operated for generations in St. Louis and Kansas City, but the Pendergast machine in Kansas City, formed in 1925, achieved nationwide notoriety that ended in the boss going to federal prison.<ref>Lawrence H. Larsen and Nancy J. Hulston, "Criminal Aspects Of The Pendergast Machine," ''Missouri Historical Review'' (91#2) (1997) pp 168–180.</ref> [[Tom Pendergast]] (1872–1945) learned his skills from the Irish Democratic political workers in his older brother's inner-city ward. He was never mayor, but held the more powerful post of Democratic Party chairman in Jackson County, including Kansas City and its suburbs. He artfully used the city's new 1925 charter, in alliance with crime leader Johnny Lanzia. They recruited from criminals to transform his local Democratic Club into a criminal enterprise. In control of the city government, Pendergast picked candidates, distributed government jobs, and collected a percentage of some city revenues through a system of monopolies, tributes, kickbacks, and bribes. The federal Treasury Department stepped on orders from the Secretary, even though Pendergast was a loyal Democrat. Federal prosecutors brought hundreds of criminal indictments, convicted the leaders and destroyed the machine. Pendergast himself pleaded guilty to income tax evasion. He was sentenced to 15 months in the Leavenworth prison, and prohibited from further political involvement. His health collapsed and he died in 1945.<ref>Lyle W. Dorsett, ''The Pendergast Machine'' (1968).</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=Lawrence H. Larsen|author2=Nancy J. Hulston|title=Pendergast!|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I71jRdKLdwsC&pg=PR9|year=1997|publisher=U of Missouri Press|isbn=9780826211453}}</ref>

===The Great Depression and the New Deal===
The [[Great Depression]] affected nearly every aspect of Missouri's economy, particularly mining, railroading, and retailing.<ref name="kirkendall 133">Kirkendall (2004), 133.</ref> In 1933, the [[Missouri Pacific]] railroad declared bankruptcy; retail sales declined statewide by 50 percent, and more than 300 Missouri banks failed in the early 1930s.<ref name="kirkendall 133"/> St. Louis manufacturing declined in value from more than $600&nbsp;million in 1929 to $339&nbsp;million in 1935; despite industrial diversification in the city, output fell more and unemployment was greater than the rest of country by the mid-1930s.<ref name="kirkendall 133"/> The brick and tile industry of St. Louis virtually collapsed, dramatically altering the economic conditions of neighborhoods such as [[The Hill, St. Louis|The Hill]].<ref name="kirkendall 134">Kirkendall (2004), 134.</ref> In response to rising discontent with the economy, the St. Louis police surveilled and harassed unemployed leftist workers, and in July 1932, a protest by the unemployed was violently broken up by police.<ref name="kirkendall 134"/> The Depression also threatened Missouri cultural institutions such as the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, which nearly folded in 1933.<ref name="kirkendall 138">Kirkendall (2004), 138.</ref> Kansas City suffered from the Depression as well, although not as severely as St. Louis.<ref name="kirkendall 140">Kirkendall (2004), 140.</ref> Manufacturing fell in value from $220&nbsp;million in 1929 to $122&nbsp;million in 1935; charities were feeding 10 percent of the population by late 1932.<ref name="kirkendall 140"/> Unlike St. Louis, Kansas City was able to supply work to many of its unemployed citizens via a $50&nbsp;million bond issue that allowed for several large public works projects.<ref name="kirkendall 140"/>

Rural Missouri suffered under the economic effects of both the Depression of natural forces.<ref name="kirkendall 132">Kirkendall (2004), 132.</ref> In 1930, a statewide drought struck the Ozarks and the Bootheel regions particularly hard, followed by equally deleterious droughts in 1934 and 1936.<ref name="kirkendall 132"/> In addition, grasshoppers attacked Missouri cropland in 1936, destroying nearly a million acres of corn and other crops.<ref name="kirkendall 132"/> Farm prices declined, and banks and insurance companies took ownership of foreclosed farmland in the Ozarks.<ref name="kirkendall 132"/><ref name="stepenoff 1995 61-78">Stepenoff (1995), 61–78.</ref> Despite these hardships, the farm population of Missouri increased during the early years of the Depression, and unemployed urban workers sought subsistence farms throughout the state and particularly in the Ozarks.<ref name="kirkendall 133"/>

Banks in the Ozarks frequently arranged rentals to tenant farmers, who in turn hired their [[sharecroppers]] for labor. The tenant-sharecropper system began before the Great Depression, but by 1938, there was increasing mechanization on farms. This shift allowed a single farmer to work more land, putting the sharecroppers out of work. Left-wing elements from the local Socialist movement, and from St. Louis, moved in to organize the sharecroppers into the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union. They had a highly visible, violent confrontation with state authorities in 1939.<ref name="stepenoff 1995 61-78"/><ref name="williams and brassieur 1996 52-85">Williams and Brassieur (1996), 52–85.</ref>

By the late 1930s some of the industries of the state had recovered, although not to their pre-1929 levels. Both Anheuser-Busch and the St. Louis Car Company had resumed profitable operations, and clothing and electrical product manufacturing were expanding. By 1938, the St. Louis airport handled nearly double the passengers it had in 1932, while the Kraft Cheese Company established a milk processing plant in Springfield in 1939. Recovery seemed at hand. However, in 1939, manufacturing as a whole remained 25 percent below its 1929 level, wholesaling was 32 percent below the 1929 level, and retail sales were 22 percent lower than they were in 1929. In early 1940, the Missouri unemployment rate remained higher than 8 percent, while urban areas had a rate at higher than 10 percent. Both St. Louis and Kansas City lost ground as industrial producers in the country.<ref>Kirkendall (2004), 224–27.</ref>

===World War II===
More than 450,000 Missouri residents served in the military during [[World War II]], and roughly two-thirds were conscripted.<ref name="kirkendall 250">Kirkendall (2004), 250.</ref> More than 8,000 Missourians died serving in the conflict, the first of whom was George Whitman, killed during the [[Attack on Pearl Harbor]]. Hospitals such as O'Reilly General in Springfield, were used as military hospitals.<ref name="kirkendall 250"/> Several Missouri soldiers became prominent during the war, such as [[Mildred H. McAfee]], commander of the [[WAVES]], [[Dorothy C. Stratton]], commander of the [[SPARS]], [[Walter Krueger]], commander of the [[Sixth United States Army]], [[Jimmy Doolittle]], leader of the [[Doolittle Raid]], and [[Maxwell D. Taylor]], commander of the [[101st Airborne Division]].<ref name="kirkendall 250"/> The most well-known of the 89 generals and admirals from Missouri was [[Omar Bradley]], who led combat forces in Europe and led the single largest field command in U.S. history.<ref name="kirkendall 251">Kirkendall (2004), 251.</ref>

At home, Missouri residents organized air raid drills and participated in rationing and scrap drives.<ref name="kirkendall 252">Kirkendall (2004), 252.</ref> Missourians also purchased more than $3&nbsp;billion in [[war bonds]] during the eight drives conducted for the war.<ref name="kirkendall 252"/> Local groups and well-known figures supported the war effort as well.<ref name="kirkendall 253">Kirkendall (2004), 253.</ref> Missouri painter [[Thomas Hart Benton (painter)|Thomas Hart Benton]] created a mural series known as ''The Year of Peril'', and the [[St. Louis Symphony Orchestra]] performed at concerts sponsored by the [[United Service Organizations]] (USO).<ref name="kirkendall 253"/>

[[File:A Rural Electrification Administration cooperative lineman at work in Hayti, Missouri.jpg|thumbnail|right|upright|A [[Rural Electrification Administration]] lineman at work in [[Hayti, Missouri]] in 1942.]]
The economy of Missouri was dramatically affected by the war: unemployment virtually disappeared during the early years of the war, and both St. Louis and Kansas City took steps to ensure workers were involved in essential industries.<ref name="kirkendall 256">Kirkendall (2004), 256.</ref> Rural areas lost population as underemployed workers, especially Southern African Americans, moved to cities to find jobs.<ref name="kirkendall 256"/> Both teenagers and women also entered the labor force in greater numbers, as many men were serving overseas. In Jackson County, Missouri, roughly half of the workers at an ordnance factory and an aircraft plant were women.<ref name="kirkendall 256"/> As a result of the departure of soldiers and higher employment rates among adults, [[juvenile delinquency]] increased, leading many Missouri communities to establish curfews and build recreational facilities for youth.<ref name="kirkendall 257">Kirkendall (2004), 257.</ref>

The war brought a surge of prosperity to Missouri agriculture, and farming became a major war industry in the state.<ref name="kirkendall 257"/> Farmers were encouraged to increase food production and to conserve other materials as much as possible, and rationing of machinery, tires, and other equipment.<ref name="kirkendall 258">Kirkendall (2004), 258.</ref> Despite these difficulties, many farmers modernized and learned new techniques due to the efforts of federal programs such as the [[Cooperative Extension Service]], the [[Soil Conservation Service]], and the [[Rural Electrification Administration]].<ref name="kirkendall 258"/> The [[Farm Security Administration]] provided loans and information to low-income farmers, and it also recruited and trained farm laborers in Missouri.<ref name="kirkendall 258"/> Despite the significance of the agricultural industry, the population of Missouri working on farms declined 59 percent from 1939 to 1945, and the overall rural population declined 24 percent, a continuation of the trend toward urbanization in the state.<ref name="kirkendall 258"/> The greatest declines in farm population were in agriculturally poor regions of the state, and in more suitable areas, remaining farm populations increased their mechanization of agriculture.<ref name="kirkendall 259">Kirkendall (2004), 259.</ref>

Manufacturing in Missouri also benefited from the war; both St. Louis and Kansas City were home to major war industries, particularly aviation in St. Louis.<ref name="kirkendall 260-262">Kirkendall (2004), 260–262.</ref> Kansas City also was a hub of aircraft manufacturing and development, although the city also produced a variety of military equipment as well.<ref name="kirkendall 263">Kirkendall (2004), 263.</ref> Railroading experienced a revival statewide with an increase in passenger and freight traffic; more than 300 freight trains and 200 passenger or troop trains transited Kansas City daily by the beginning of 1945.<ref name="kirkendall 263"/>

The state also became home to a large military installation, [[Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri|Fort Leonard Wood]], construction of which began in 1940 near the town of [[Waynesville, Missouri|Waynesville]].<ref name="kirkendall 264">Kirkendall (2004), 264.</ref> Construction of the base displaced rural families, but it ultimately brought thousands of workers and economic stimulus to the area.<ref name="kirkendall 264"/> After its construction, Fort Leonard Wood operated as a training facility for [[combat engineer]]s and as a base of operations for several infantry and artillery units.<ref name="kirkendall 264"/>

===Race and society (1920–1945)===
[[Chester A. Franklin]] (1880–1955) was one of the leading black spokesmen in the state. He founded the leading black newspaper, [[The Call (Kansas City)|''The Kansas City Call'']] in 1919, building a regional circulation, and good advertising support from the business community. Franklin was a deeply committed conservative Republican, who slashed away every week at the corrupt Pendergast machine. However he was on good terms with one of Pendergast's top associates, Harry Truman. Franklin admired Truman's honesty and integrity—indeed, that was the reason Pendergast promoted him, since he needed to appease the good government forces.<ref>Gene Schmidtlein, "Harry S. Truman and the Pendergast Machine." ''Midcontinent American Studies Journal'' 7#.2 (1966): 28–35. [https://journals.ku.edu/index.php/amerstud/article/viewFile/2201/2160 Online]</ref> Truman was a rare Democrat who gave significant support for the black community, so Franklin recommend voting for him in the 1934 in 1940 Senate elections. The two broke politically in 1941 over domestic issues; Franklin refused to join most black leaders in switching to the Democratic Party. However Franklin's cordial dealings with Truman over the years encouraged Truman to announce his unexpectedly strong support for civil rights in 1948.<ref>Thomas D. Wilson, "Chester A. Franklin and Harry S. Truman: An African-American Conservative and the 'Conversion' of the Future President." ''Missouri Historical Review'' 88 (1993): 48–76.</ref>

The Great Depression undermined the economic and social opportunities of Missouri blacks. Unskilled jobs disappeared; some black workers were replaced by whites. White housewives could no longer afford black domestic service workers. By 1933, 60 percent of the black workers in St. Louis were unemployed, and wage cuts further hurt the economic position of blacks. Black businesses were weakened by the Depression, while black churches could only provide limited assistance to the needy. The black press and the [[National Urban League]] continued to pressure local governments for equal treatment and an end to discrimination. The Communist Party made a major effort to enroll black activists, with minimal success.<ref name="kirkendall 134"/> The [[New Deal]] operated numerous large-scale welfare programs for all impoverished Americans, including blacks. The big-city machines flourished as never before, as they directed unemployed families to The numerous alphabetical welfare programs, such as the CWA, FERA, CCC and WPA. New Deal farm programs Restored prosperity to agriculture. Many black politicians switched their allegiances to the Democratic party and in Missouri (unlike the South) The blacks could vote and made a major difference at the polls.

The economy rebounded sharply during the rearmament of 1940–41, and grew very rapidly during the war years. Jobs were plentiful in most urban areas, and farmers flocked to the cities.

During World War II racial tension increased in both rural and urban Missouri; in early 1942 in [[Sikeston, Missouri|Sikeston]], a white mob [[Lynching of Cleo Wright|lynched Cleo Wright]] in public. The [[United States Department of Justice]] investigated the lynching, the first time since Reconstruction that the federal government had tried to prosecute such a case. Despite the investigation, the government did not file indictments, as witnesses refused to cooperate. In summer 1943 in Kansas City, a race riot nearly broke out after a white city police officer killed a black man.<ref name="kirkendall 269">Kirkendall (2004), 269.</ref>