Politics of the Roaring Twenties

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Politics of the Roaring Twenties
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A Return to Normalcy

• Warren G. Harding
• 1920 election promised a Return to Normalcy
  life as it was before WWI.
• Wanted to return America to simpler days before
  the Progressive Era

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Harding Administration

• He surrounded himself with friends
• Most appointment came from Ohio became known as
  the Ohio Gang

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Harding Cabinet

• Secretary of State
• Charles Evans Hughes
• Later became Chief Justice of the Supreme court

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Harding Cabinet

• Secretary of Commerce
• Herbert Hoover
• Later President Hoover
• Hoover masterful job handling food distribution
  and refugee problems during WWI

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Harding Cabinet

• Secretary of the Treasury
• Andrew Mellon
• Wished to reduce national debt by cutting income
  taxes and reducing public spending
• Debt fell by about 1/3 by 1923

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The Ohio Gang

• Harding former Ohio Senator
• Cabinet included rowdy, poker playing cronies
• As Director of the Mint he named a small-town
  sheriff from Ohio
• His brother-in-law became Superintendent of
  Federal Prisons

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The Ohio Gang

• A boyhood friend was appointed head of the
  Federal Reserve System
• Attorney General Harry Daugherty
• Became involved in a number of questionable deals
  that lead to his forced resignation

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Ohio Gang

• Charles R. Forbes - he met on vacation in Hawaii
• Head of the Veterans Bureau
• Allowed operators of veterans hospitals to
  overcharge the government by 250 million

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Ohio Gang

• Colonel Thomas W. Miller
• Head of the Office of Alien Property
• Sold seized German chemical patents

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Teapot Dome Scandal

• Secretary of the Interior
• Albert B. Fall
• A close friend of various oil executives
• Chief figure in the Teapot Dome scandal

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Teapot Dome Scandal

• Two oil promoters gave Fall 400,000 in loans and
  bribes
• Fall helped them secure leases on naval oil
  reserves in Elk Hills, Ca and Tea Pot Dome, WY

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Teapot Dome Scandal

• Fall claimed actions were in the best interests
  of the govt.
• Fall accepted huge bribes, caught, tried, found
  guilty
• 1st cabinet member to be sent to prison

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Harding Administration

• Harding's administration was marked by corruption
  and scandal, although most of the scandals did
  not become public knowledge until after he died
  of a stroke in office in August 1923.

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Collection of War Debt

• Britain and France borrowed more than 10 billion
  from American bankers during WWI
• Difficulty repaying loans and rebuilding war torn
  country

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War Debts

• UK and France demanded Germany pay promised
  reparations
• Germany defaulted on payments because of bad
  economy

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War Debts

• 1922 French occupy the Germanys main industrial
  region

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Dawes Plan

• To avoid war, US became involved in the situation
• American banker, Charles G. Dawes was sent to
  negotiate loans from American investors to Germany

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Dawes Plan

• Dawes Plan US banks loaned Germany 2.5 billion
• Allies were to evacuate Germany's industrial
  heartland and allow German industry to redevelop

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Dawes Plan

• Germany paid reparations to UK and France
• UK and France paid war debts to the US

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Dawes Plan
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Working for Peace

• In the 1920s the US promoted world peace and
  disarmament

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Kellogg-Briand Pact

• 1928 US Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg and
  French Foreign Minister Aristide Braind met in
  Paris to sign a treaty outlawing war
• Included nearly every nation of the world

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Kellogg-Briand Pact

• Problem - No way to enforce the pact
• Kellogg-Briand Pact is an example of US
  Isolationist
• US tried to keep away from foreign entanglements

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Limiting Immigration

• Broad based movement to limit the number of
  people from Europe
• Many people thought the immigrants were
  revolutionaries and communists

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Emergency Quota Act of 1921

• Congress passes an emergency immigration act.
• Quota System
• Restricting immigration

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Emergency Quota Act of 1921

• Amended in 1924
• Limited immigration from each European nation to
  2 of the number of its nationals living in the
  US in 1890

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Normalcy and IsolationismDaily Quiz
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What was established to limit the number of
immigrants into the US?

• Quota System

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What is the policy to avoid entanglements with
other nations?

• isolation

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Which scandal involved the Albert Fall selling
oil on public land?

• Teapot Dome Scandal

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Whose inability to recognize corruption among his
associates led to his death?

• Warren G. Harding

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Business of America
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Business of America

• How did the nation's lasting love affair with the
  automobile affect American society? The American
  economy?

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Business of America

• President Calvin Coolidge stated, The chief
  business of America is businessThe man who
  builds a factory builds a temple- the man who
  works there worships there.

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Calvin Coolidge

• He assumed the presidency after Harding's death,
  he acted quickly to repair the damage of the
  Harding administrations scandals and to secure
  the 1924 presidential nomination.
• Coolidge thought that a government that governs
  the least is best

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American Standard of Living

• American business was transforming American
  society, and the automobile led the way

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American Standard of Living

• United States economy experienced steady growth
  and expansion during the 1920s. Three factors
  fueled this economic growth
• Machines
• Factories
• The Process of Standardized Mass Production

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American Standard of Living

• These factors created a
• self perpetuating cycle
• standardized mass production led to
• better machinery in factories, which led to
• higher production and higher wages, which led to

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American Standard of Living

• more demand for consumer goods
• which led back to more standardized mass
  production
• This upward spiral continued until 1929

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Impact of the Car

• Henry Ford (1863-1947) was the chief figure in
  this expanding industry
• promote the car by developing more efficient and
  cheaper means of production

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Impact of the Car

• Two factors led to the rising popularity of cars
• Cost-- The price of automobiles declined steadily
  so that many well-paid working families could now
  afford to purchase a car.
• The Model T Ford, cost just 290 in 1926.

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Impact of the Car

• Credit-- In 1925, Americans made 75 of all
  automobile purchases on the installment plan.
• The installment plan, which encouraged Americans
  to build up debt in order to buy consumer goods.

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Economic Effects of the Automobile

1. Promoted growth of other industries. Especially
   petroleum, rubber, and steel.
2. Helped fuel the creation of a national system of
   highways.

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Economic Effects of the Automobile

• Created new service facilities. Filling stations,
  garages, and roadside restaurants
• Motels catering to the needs of motorists began
  to replace hotels.

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Social Effects of the Automobile

• Created a more mobile society.
• Cars broke down the distinctions between urban
  and rural America.
• "Sunday drive," many city folks got their first
  chance to tour the rural countryside.

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Social Effects of the Automobile

• Rural Americans, on the other hand, drove into
  cities to shop and to be entertained.
• Broke down the stability of family life.
• Now it was far easier for individual family
  members to go their own way

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Social Effects of the Automobile

• Broke down traditional morality.
• Children could escape parental supervision
• Middle Town Study 1924- 1925 found that people
  of every income level considered the automobile a
  necessity rather than an luxury

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Superficial Prosperity

• Most Americans thought prosperity would go on
  forever
• Factory production increased 50
• National income continued to grow

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Superficial Prosperity

• Prosperity masked problems
• The business scene was not completely healthy
• Production out paced consumption
• Consumer debt rose to alarming levels

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Business of America

• Daily Quiz

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Business of America

• How did the nation's lasting love affair with the
  automobile affect American society? The American
  economy?

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Coolidge believed which government governs best?

• The government that governs least.