The politics of the 1920s - APUSH 2010-2011



The politics of the 1920s

I. Bad Presidents- The three Republican regimes of the 1920s can in many ways be looked at as a solid twelve year block of Republican control. These three presidents had many things in common.

❖ They all served one term

❖ The were all Laissez-Faire

❖ Two of them served in the predecessor’s administration

A. Warren G. Harding- In 1920, an Ohio political operator named Harry Daugherty offered a prediction about what would happen at that year’s Republican presidential nominating convention:

The convention will be deadlocked, and after the other candidates have gone their limit, some 12 or 15 men, worn our and bleary eyed for lack of sleep, will sit down about 2 o’clock in the morning around a table in a smoke filled room in some hotel and decide the nomination. When the time comes (Warren) Harding will be nominated.

Daugherty was right. In 1920, a divided Republican convention selected Harding, a U.S. Senator from Ohio, as its presidential nominee.

1. On the campaign trail- Harding made a few major pronouncements during the campaign. The Republican party followed an associate’s advice: “Keep Warren at home. If he goes out on tour, somebody’s sure to ask him questions, and Warren’s just the sort of damned fool that will try to answer them.” Harding largely confined his speeches to uncontroversial platitudes about the need to avoid moral crusades and to “return to normalcy.”

“America’s present need is not heroics but healing: not nostrums but normalcy; not revolution but restoration; not agitation, but adjustment; not surgery, but serenity.”

2. Harding’s presidency was characterized by a lack of achievement. He pardoned Eugene V. Debs from prison, he negotiated the 8 hour work day for steel workers, and negotiated the Washington Naval Conference of 1923 to reduce the size of Naval forces.

3. Harding’s presidency was notoriously corrupt. The Ohio Gang, aka the K-Street gang was one of his largest problems. Harding was quoted as saying:

“This is a hell of a job. I have no problems with my enemies, it is my friends that keep me up at night.”

a. The Teapot Dome Scandal.- Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall convinced Harding to allow the oil reserves in Teapot Dome, Wyoming to be leased at discount prices to private oil companies.

b. Veteran’s Hospital Conspiracy- over much of the $250 million that was appropriated for Veterans Hospitals was absorbed by administrators.

c. Hypocrisy

4. Harding hired men for the cabinet who had acquired large fortunes. This he believed was the criteria for finding the best minds.

Cabinet- Secretary of Commerce- Herbert Hoover

Secretary of the Treasury- Andrew Mellon- Wall Street Millionaire-

-“The Government is just a business, and can and should be run on business principles.”

Mellon believed in laissez faire government. He worked for tax cuts and a reduction of federal expenditures. He also believed in tax cuts for the most wealthy citizens

Secretary of State- Charles Evans Hughes-

5. Fordney-McCumber Tariff- raised tariff rates back to their prewar levels.

B. Calvin Coolidge- “The Business of America is business.” “The man who builds a factory builds a temple.” His well deserved nickname was “Silent Cal.” Some acquaintances wagered whether they could make him say more than two words. His answer was “You lose.” During the 1924 presidential race reporters asked him if he had any comment about the campaign. “No.” was his reply. He was then asked whether he had anything to say about the world situation, “No.” he answered. Did he have anything to say about Prohibition? “No.” he answered. Then he told the reporters, “Now remember, don’t quote me.” At the end of his presidency he was asked whether he had a farewell message for the American people, he paused and said, “Good Bye.”

1. Coolidge vetoed a bill to fund construction of hydroelectric plants along the Tennessee River.

2. He did sign the Kellogg Briand Pact.

3. Signed and passed the national origins act of 1924. It limited European immigration and ended Asian and African immigration. An example of the level of nativism from this time period came in the 1924 Congressional Debate over the national origins act. Senator Heflin from Alabama stated

Mr. President, down at Fort Mims, in my state…there was a fort at which the white people of that section dwelt…There was a big gate in the wall around the fort, and when they closed the gate to this walled-in place they were safe from the Indians. But they grew careless and indifferent, as some Americans have done on this question. One day…one of the girls living in the houses within this inclosure, looked down and saw the big gate open, and she said, “who left the gate open?” They said “That don’t make any difference. There isn’t an Indian in 50 miles of here.” Just then a little white boy ran through the gates and said “I saw a man. I saw a man down by the river with red paint on his face and feathers in his hair. They screamed with one voice, “Indians! Close the gates!” They started with a rush to the gate, but the Red Eagle with his Creek warriors had already entered. It was too late! Too late! With the exception of two or three prisoners, they massacred the whole white population at Fort Mims.

I am appealing to the Senate of the United States to close the gates, close them now while we can. If we do not close them now the time will come when we will be unable to close them at all. And in that sad day we will cry in vain, “close the gates!”

4. Intervention in Latin America- Marines were Haiti, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, and Panama during the 1920s. This was an era of American intervention in the region. In 1927, Mexico attempted to nationalize American interests in Mexico. This was prevented by the sending of Dwight Morrow (father of Anne Morrow Lindbergh) to Mexico city to prevent conflict with Mexico.

5. Dawes Plan- Loan program to Germany to allow Germany to pay reparations back to Britain/France and to develop their own infrastructure during the 1920s. America loaned $2.6 Billion to Germany during the 1920s.

C. Herbert Hoover-

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