PROSPERITY FOR AMERICA, BUT NOT FOR ALL AMERICANS

World War I impacts all Americans, but the United States' great productive powers enable its fundamental and established businesses to survive. The victory over a mighty enemy in Europe delivers a sense of invulnerability that sets the stage for the Roaring Twenties, imbalance and excess.

Ralston Purina, in fact, emerges from the Great War relatively unscathed, reporting "sound, sensible, conservative growth." But American farmers are soon caught in a pricing whipsaw. During the war, government price supports enabled farmers to reinvest profits and buy land. When post-war farm prices plummet in 1920 and 1921, farm foreclosures skyrocket.

The roar in the Twenties actually begins in 1922, as a consumer-durables boom sparks industrial production and lifts the nation's economy. From 1922 through 1929, the gross national product rises every year except 1927. Unemployment is a mere 1.6 percent in 1926, and consumer confidence soars. Baseball is America's pastime. Prohibition paves the way for gangsters and bootleg liquor. Women's suffrage and the temperance movement translate to a new social environment.

The auto industry, driven by Henry Ford, continues to grow and refine its assembly line cars and trucks. Electrification leads to a variety of new consumer products, including electric refrigerators, washing machines and other household gadgets. Radio broadcasts and film "talkies" entertain Americans.

Ralston feels the roar too, and reports "phenomenal growth" after 1923, opening new mills in Minneapolis, Kansas City, Buffalo, and Woodstock, Ontario. Ralston purchases the Ry-Krisp® plant in Minneapolis, opens a cereal mill at Battle Creek, Mich., and a Purity Oats plant at Davenport, Iowa.