Politics of the Roaring Twenties
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
Harding Administration
• He surrounded himself
with friends
• Most appointment
came from Ohio –
became known as the
“Ohio Gang”
Harding Cabinet
• Secretary of State
• Charles Evans Hughes
• Later became Chief
Justice of the Supreme
court
Harding Cabinet
•
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Secretary of Commerce
Herbert Hoover
Later President Hoover
Hoover masterful job
handling food
distribution and refugee
problems during WWI
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
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
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
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
Ohio Gang
• Colonel Thomas W.
Miller
• Head of the Office of
Alien Property
• Sold seized German
chemical patents
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
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
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.
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
War Debts
• UK and France
demanded Germany
pay promised
reparations
• Germany defaulted on
payments because of
bad economy
War Debts
• 1922 French occupy
the Germany’s main
industrial region
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
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
Dawes Plan
• Germany paid
reparations to UK and
France
• UK and France paid
war debts to the US
Dawes Plan
Working for Peace
• In the 1920’s the US
promoted world peace
and disarmament
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
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
Limiting Immigration
• Broad based movement
to limit the number of
people from Europe
• Many people thought
the immigrants were
revolutionaries and
communists
Emergency Quota Act of 1921
• Congress passes an
emergency immigration
act.
• Quota System
• Restricting immigration
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
Normalcy and Isolationism
Daily Quiz
What was established to limit the
number of immigrants into the
US?
Quota
System
What is the policy to avoid
entanglements with other
nations?
isolation
Which scandal involved the
Albert Fall selling oil on public
land?
Teapot
Dome
Scandal
Whose inability to recognize
corruption among his associates
led to his death?
Warren G.
Harding
Business of America
Business of America
•
How did the nation's lasting love affair
with the automobile affect American
society? The American economy?
Business of America
• President Calvin
Coolidge stated, “The
chief business of
America is
business…The man
who builds a factory
builds a temple- the
man who works there
worships there.”
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
American Standard of Living
• American business was
transforming American
society, and the
automobile led the way
American Standard of Living
•
United States economy
experienced steady
growth and expansion
during the 1920s. Three
factors fueled this
economic growth:
1. Machines
2. Factories
3. The Process of
Standardized Mass
Production
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
American Standard of Living
• more demand for
consumer goods
• which led back to
more standardized
mass production
• This upward spiral
continued until 1929
Impact of the Car
• Henry Ford (18631947) was the chief
figure in this
expanding industry
• promote the car by
developing more
efficient and cheaper
means of production
Impact of the Car
• Two factors led to the
rising popularity of cars:
1. 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.
Impact of the Car
2. 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.
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.
Economic Effects of the
Automobile
3. Created new service
facilities. Filling
stations, garages, and
roadside restaurants
• Motels catering to the
needs of motorists
began to replace
hotels.
Social Effects of the Automobile
1. 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.
Social Effects of the Automobile
•
Rural Americans, on
the other hand, drove
into cities to shop and
to be entertained.
2. Broke down the
stability of family
life.
• Now it was far easier
for individual family
members to go their
own way
Social Effects of the Automobile
3. 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
Superficial Prosperity
• Most Americans
thought prosperity
would go on forever
• Factory production
increased 50%
• National income
continued to grow
Superficial Prosperity
•
Prosperity masked
problems
1. The business scene was
not completely healthy
• Production out paced
consumption
2. Consumer debt rose to
alarming levels
Business of America
Daily Quiz
Business of America
1. How did the nation's lasting love affair
with the automobile affect American
society? The American economy?
Coolidge believed which
government governs best?
The
government
that governs
least.