Politics of the

Twenties

•1. To expand its membership in the 1920s, the KKK engaged in all of the following EXCEPT

•a. Blaming national problems on immigrants

•b. Encouraging white women to join the organization

•c. Playing on people’s fears of political radicals

•d. Allowing members to profit from recruiting new members

•2. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer believed he needed to protect the American people from

•a. Big business

•b. Political radicals

•c. Corruption and fraud

•d. Labor union members

•The decade of the 1920's stands as a complex, contradictory and compelling transition period between America's Victorian past and its modern future. This decade saw the development of conspicuous consumption while at the same

•time, the United States launched crusades against intemperance, war, and militarism.

Warren G. HardingCalvin CoolidgeHerbert Hoover

Interpretative Commentary

•Republican presidents retreated from Progressive reforms. They didn’t believe in direct gov’t action to serve the public good but rather they thought cooperation with big business would serve the public good.

•Economic prosperity seemed to be a right during the 1920's. Political campaign slogans promised two chickens in every pot and an automobile in every garage.

•The stock market prices soared through the roof yet by 1927 over 60% of the nation was in financial trouble. How did this happen, why were elements of the American society left in the dust?

Foreign Policy Tensions

InterventionismInterventionism DisarmamentDisarmament

•• IsolationismIsolationism

••NativistsNativists

••Anti-War movementAnti-War movement

••ConservativeConservativeRepublicansRepublicans

•• Collective securityCollective security

•• ““WilsonianismWilsonianism””

••Business interestsBusiness interests

•Look at the strategies contained in the

•Kellogg-Briad Pact

•Washington Naval Conference

•Treaty of Mutual Assistance.

•* yes it is true - by this point the first battleships are obsolete so an arms reduction of those items is hollow, but this is a bold suggestion to stop military build up in order to pull those funds and spend them on civilization.

•*1st time military build up becomes an international matter

•Washington Naval Conference

1921-1922

Long-standing Anglo-Japanese alliance (1902) obligated Britain to aid Japan in the event of a Japanese war with the United States

Goal - naval disarmament and the political situation in the Far East.

•Five Powers Treaty

1922

A battleship ratio was achieved through this ratio: US Britain Japan France Italy 5 5 3 1.67 1.67

Japan got a guarantee that the U.S. and Britain would stop fortifying territories (including the Philippines).Loophole - no restrictions on small warships

•Kellogg-Briand Pact

1928

15 nations dedicated to outlawing aggression and war as tools of foreign policy.

62 nations signed.

Problems - no means of actual enforcement - false sense of security

European Debts to the U.S.

Hyper-Inflation in Germany in 1923

Dawes Plan 1924

Clark Memorandum 1928

Secretary of StateRueben Clark

Clark pledged the the U.S. wouldnot intervene in Latin American affairs in order protect US property rights

This was a complete rebuke of theRoosevelt Corollary to the MonroeDoctrine

Japanese Attack Manchuria 1931

League of Nations condemned the action - but has no teeth

Japan leaves the League

Hoover wanted no part in an American military action in the Far East

US would not recognize any territorial acquisitions that were achieved by force

Japan was infuriated because the US had conquered new territories a few decades earlier.

Japan bombed Shanghai in 1932 - massive casualities

Hoover- Stimpson Doctrine 1932

What about the American domestic

issues?

Gov’t keeps hands off business and even helps businesses seek profits

Adkins v Children’s Hospital 1923 reverses Muller v Oregon 1908

IC: gender debate that continues today:

are women sufficiently different from men that they merit special legislative and social treatment orare women effectively equal in the eyes of the law and therefore undeserving of special protections?

Gov’t keeps hands off business and even helps businesses seek profits

Big indusrialists reduce competition through trade associations: “standardization of products,” publicity of campaigns, and a united front.

Encouraged by Secretary Hoover w/ commitment to voluntary cooperation

New philosophy in Esch-Cummins Transportation Act 1920 - unlike Populists it wasn’t to save the country from RR but save the RR for the country

Labor strikes of 1919: Steel, Police....unions wilt in this environment.

Scandals

Veterans Bureau 1923 Col. Charles Forbes

Teapot Dome Scandal 1921: Sec of Interior Albert Falls re: navy (Sinclair and Doheny acquitted but did the public really care about the nation’s resources?)

Harding dies...

Calvin Coolidge As Coolidge takes the oath of office....

Graphs of Post War decade show line of business prosperity rising in jagged peaks but rising all the same. It will reach a perfect Everest of prosperity in 1929 - only to plunge down at last into the bottomless abyss of 1930 and 1931 http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/a/ab/300px-Gdp20-40.jpg

Calvin Coolidge Coolidge like Harding was also pro-business but unlike Harding he was not very outgoing and was known as “Silent Cal.”

The republicans stuck behind the pro-business because the economy was doing well with the Harding’s policies.

Calvin Coolidge 1923-1929 times of unparalled plenty

or was it?

7 years in which men and women might be disillusioned about politics, religion, and love....but there seemed to be a real pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

The Businessman was the “dictator of our destinies” ousting the statesman, priest, or philosopher. Business man became the standard of American Society.

Only Yesterday - Frederick Lewis Allen

Calvin Coolidge 1923-1929 times of unparalled plenty

or was it?

Only Yesterday - Frederick Lewis Allen

Few farmers felt prosperous - only dairy farmers b/c inventions in refrigerated transportation & new marketing techniques.Acerage under plow (vegetables and fruits now) doubled. But growers of wheat and corn suffered. Women wearing less cotton (rayon stockings now)South - cotton sales Northwest - wheat sales New England - textiles sales

Weak Help for Farmers

•Capper-Volstead Act - farmers’ marketing cooperatives can’t be sued for violating antitrust issues (Sherman Anti-Trust Act)

•McNary-Haugen Bill - gov’t buys surplus and sell abroad....tried and tried but couldn’t get this one signed by Coolidge

Remember...FDR - AAA (1930s) and then Nixon and Earl Butz (1973) and now it is high fructose corn syrup in your sodas!

Election of 1924

Nominee Calvin Coolidge John W. Davis Robert M. La Follette, Sr.Party Republican Democratic ProgressiveHome state Massachusetts West Virginia WisconsinElectoral vote 382 136 13Popular vote 15,723,789 8,386,242 4,831,706Percentage 54.0% 28.8% 16.6%

•1. The Teapot Dome scandal centered around

•a. Gold mines

•b. Union members

•c. High tariffs

•d. Oil-rich lands

•2. The Fordney-McCumber Tariff was meant to

•a. Help Britain and France pay off their war debts

•b. Raise taxes on goods entering the US

•c. Help Germany pay off its war debts

•d. Raise taxes on goods leaving the US

Triumph of Herbert Hoover

http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/images/1048.jpg

Election of 1928

“Rum, Romanism, and Ruin”

Triumph of Herbert HooverElection of 1928

integriful efficient humanitarian great administrator ideal businessperson’s candidate self-made millionaire endoresed labor unions supported regulation of new radio

industry against socialism against “planned economy”

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are needed to see this picture.

President Hoover’s First Moves•Good times for all...except the farmers and

unorganized workers even with self-help Hoover

Agricultural Marketing Act 1929 - farmers help themselves through producers’ cooperatives

set up Federal Farm Board - $ $ $ lent to farm organizations seeking to buy/store surplus grain

Federal Farm Board set up

Grain Stabilization Corporation

Cotton Stabilization Corporation

President Hoover’s First Moves•Good times for all...except the farmers and

unorganized workers even with self-help Hoover

Fordney-McCumber Act of 1922- 38.5%

Hawley-Smoot Tariff 1930- 60%

http://www.mediabistro.com/unbeige/original/wishbone.jpg

Bonus Expeditionary Force

Spring and summer 1932

Douglas McArthur

The Great Crash• Buying on the margin - credit buying

• Speculation

• overproduction

• unemployment because of technological advancements

• international trade at standstill

• Dust Bowl

• America’s “uniqueness” no longer special

• *Hoover fears handouts from federal gov’t will only weaken the national fiber; we might become socialists or communists...

The Great Crash• Finally, as local effects break down he must accept

the welfare of the people is a national catastrophe

• *He assists the RR, banks, and rural credit corporations hoping it would trickle down to the people

• * criticism with hindsight vision but the truth is Hoover’s plans were quite radical for the day and paved the way for FDR’s success in getting similar measures passed

The Great Crash•Hoover Dam on Colorado River - improved irrigation, hydroelectric power but not a “make work program” like the Muscle Shoals Bill in Tn which he denied.

Created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) - gov’t lending bank. Indirect relief by lending to insurance/mortgage/RR/etc.

The Great Crash

Interpretive Commentary

Hoover began a significant shift in American history - before him Americans just “sweated it out” and the gov’t did nothing to tweak/assist in economic recovery. With Hoover that all changed.This is the beginning of a major shift (one FDR will carry much further) in the belief the Federal Gov’t does have the responsibility to take care of its citizens’ welfare.