Postwar: Brief Respite and Resurgent High Cost of Living, 1919–1920

The November 11 armistice brought Americans great relief, muted by the ongoing influenza pandemic as well as economic discontents and worries about postwar readjustment. Even some well-paid war workers had trouble believing their income gains equaled their losses to profiteering and rising prices. On average, the middle class had lost real income. Although salaried employees enjoyed greater job security during the brief postwar recession, their relative income losses continued through 1919 and into 1920. Many farmers had enhanced real incomes, but their spokesmen charged that still larger gains had been forfeited to government measures or the exactions of food processors and middlemen.