The Republican Influence

Section 8.2

Today’s Agenda

• Presentations (Day 10)

• 8.2 Slide Show

• Homework

• Read 8.2 over the next few days

• Quiz Friday on Section 8.1, Sacco and Vanzetti & 8.2

The Roaring Twenties

1919 1920 1924 1928 1929

-Treaty of Versailles-Red Scare

-Harding Elected-Normalcy

Stock Market Crashes

Cool Cal Elected

-Hoover Elected- Kellogg-Briand

Pact

-Dawes Plan saves Germany

Return of Laissez-Faire

Describe the personalities of the 20s Presidents.

HardingGood Looking

AffableGambler/

GolferPhilanderer“Normalcy” Laissez-Faire

CoolidgeShy

HonestThriftyLaconic

“Silent Cal”Laissez-Faire

HooverHardworking

Self-madeHonest

Sensitive“Wonder Boy”Laissez-Faire

What did Harding mean by a ‘return to normalcy?’

• Election of 1920 – a referendum on

progressivism (1912)

• Public exhausted:– War – Progressivism– Red Scare (1919)

• Harding promised “Normalcy”– things would go back to

normal (Good Old Days)

Who was the Ohio Gang?• Harding’s old

corrupt friends from Ohio

• AKA “The Poker Cabinet”

• Head of Veteran’s Bureau sold hospital supplies for personal profit

What was the Teapot Dome Scandal?• Albert Fall (Secretary

of Interior)

• Leased Government Oil Reserves (Teapot Dome, Wyoming) to friends for $$$

• 1st public official to go to prison

• “Everyone is assumed guilty until proved rich.”

What was Coolidge’s attitude toward business?• Laissez-faire policies

– “The business of America is business”

• Mississippi River Flood

– “The government is not an insurer of its citizens against the hazards of the elements.”

• Appointed business people to regulatory commissions

– ICC, FTC

• Appointed Supreme Court justices who were against progressive legislation

– Struck down 12 laws (including child labor law)

Who was Andrew Mellon?• Secretary of Treasury

• 3rd wealthiest man in US

• Cut govt. spending

• Trickle Down Economics

– Cut taxes on business and the rich

– Eventually poor will benefit

• Millionaire in 1926 paid less 33% less than 1921

Coolidge, Mellon, Hoover

Why was Hoover known as the Wonder Boy?

• Mining engineer

• Managed US Food Administration during WWI

• Belgian Relief Committee

• Secretary of Commerce

• Coolidge coined “Wonder Boy” to sneer at his popularity

How would you rate Hoover as a president (and as Sec. of Commerce) before 1929?

• Supported creation of Bureau of Standards

• Expanded government control of airlines, radio stations

• Organized Trade Associations (to limit destructive competition)

• Pushed for 8 hr. workday, child nutrition, conservation, pollution control

• Believed in volunteerism & free enterprise

What was the Dawes Plan?• Allies owe US $10

billion• Germany owed Allies

$33 Billion• Germany defaulted in

late 1922-1923• Charles G. Dawes

– Wealthy banker– US loaned Germany

$2.5 billion so they could pay Allies so Allies could pay US

• Averts war

What was the Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928)?

• International agreement that declared war illegal

• Signed by 14 nations

• Ridiculed as a “parchment peace”

• Washington Conference (Nov 1921)

– US, England, Japan, France, Italy agreed to limit navy

Conclusion

• What is normalcy?

• Was Harding a good president?

• Coolidge?

• Hoover?

• Where is our government on the political spectrum?