Politics and Presidents of the 1920s

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Politics and Presidents of the 1920s
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A Republican Era

• A coalition of northern farmers, corporate
  leaders, small businessmen, skilled workers
• Republican Progressives had fallen out of favor
  for supporting TRs 3rd party run in 1912
  conservatives ruled the party again.
• Warren G. Harding (1921-1923)
• Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929)
• Herbert Hoover (1929-1933)

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The Election of 1920

• There aint any first raters this year we got a
  lot of second raters, and Harding is the best of
  the second raters.
• What was his background and personality like?

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Warren G. Harding

• Leadership style
• Well-qualified Cabinet members

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Conservative policies

• Andrew Mellon, Secretary of Treasury

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Some bad choices for top positions

• This is a hell of a job! I have no trouble with
  my enemies But my damned friends, theyre the
  ones that keep me walking the floor nights.
• The Ohio Gang

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The Ohio Gang

• 1924 Senate investigation reveals
• Daugherty
• Forbes

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Teapot Dome
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Foreign affairs under Harding

• An isolationist age US did not join League,
  World Court, etc.
• Washington Naval Conference, 1921
• February, 1922 treaty
• US, Britain, Japan, Italy, France reduce
  battleships, 10 year building halt

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Calvin Coolidge

• What was his background and personality? What
  was his nickname?
• The chief business of America is business.

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Coolidges Policies

• Fordney-McCumber and Smoot-Hawley Tariffs

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1924 Election

• Coolidge wins in a landslide vs. deeply divided
  Democrats and Progressive Party
• Cultural conflicts

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Foreign policy under Coolidge

• Isolationism continues
• Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928) 60 nations sign a
  pact renouncing aggression and calling for the
  outlawing of war
• WWI debts Coolidge insists that the US be repaid
  in full
• Dawes Plan eventually scales it back

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Herbert Hoover

• Elected President in 1928 over Democrat Al Smith
  in a landslide
• What was his background and personality?
• We in America today are nearer to the final
  triumph over poverty than ever before in the
  history of any land.

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Hoovers Social Thought

• The Associative State

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