CHAPTER 16
THE DECADE OF NORMALCY
1920-1928
FOCUS
- The decade that followed WWI differed considerably from the
Progressive years that came before it. Voters turned to
conservative leaders who promised to turn the country away from
European affairs and inward to “normalcy”. For many Americans
this shift meant preserving the values of rural America and
enjoying prosperity. For others it meant a fascination with a
dazzling new assortment of consumer goods, entertainment, and
changing fashion.
CHAPTER 16-1
THE HARDING YEARS
- New problems for the US after WWI
o Businesses lost profitable military contracts
o 4 million demobilized men and women from the military
o 1920-21
 Unemployment soared
 Prices soared
 Strikes increased
 US Steel
 Boston Police Strike
THE ELECTION OF 1920
- Republican nominations
o Sought by many
o Warren G. Harding
 Portrait Warren G Harding
 Ohio businessman
 Running mate – Calvin Coolidge
Democratic nominations
o Ohio Governor James M. Cox
 Loyal Wilson supporter
 Running mate – FDR
 Distant cousin of Teddy
 Assistant Sec of Navy
- Campaign strategy
o Campaign for the League of Nations
- Republicans divided on issue of the League
o Harding favored “a society of free nations”
o Left uncertain whether Harding supported the “League” or
not
 Harding wins support from both those for and against
the “League”
- Overwhelming republican victory
o Harding wins every northern and western state
 Also carried Tenn
 Broke the “Solid South” of the Democrats
- Campaigned on the slogan of a “return to normalcy”
o A return to the “good old days” before WWI
POSTWAR FOREIGN POLICY
- Post election
- Harding announced he would not lead the US into the “League”
- US did however participate in many “League” conferences
War Debt
- International problem
- Allies owed $10.3 billion to US for food and war materials
- Debtors had difficulty meeting payments
o Argued that US high tariff limited what they could sell to
US thus slowing their economic recovery
o They argued that the US lost less men thus should shoulder
more of the cost of the war
o US argues that the Allies had gained territory and
reparations while US had claimed no reward
o US says canceling the debt would destroy faith in
international agreements
- US makes agreements with 17 of 20 debtor countries
o Reduce debt 30 – 80 per cent
o Most of Allies money was that which came from German
reparations
 Germany had to get loans from private banks
 Most banks were from the US
Washington Conference
- 8 nation conference in held in DC – November 1921 – February
1922
- US, GB, Japan all experiencing costly naval buildups
- Friction in East Asia
o Mainly over commercial rights in China
o Also over suspicions of Japanese intentions
 Post WWI
 Japan acquired all of Germany’s Pacific islands
north of the equator
 Japan acquired Chinese port of Kiaochow
 Japan treated the rest of the province of
Shantung as its own.
- Three important treaties come from this conference
The Four-Power Treaty
- Signed by US, GB, France and Japan
o Agreement to respect each other’s Pacific holdings
o In case of a disagreement or threat from another nation the
signers would to confer “ fully and frankly”
The Five-Power Treaty
- Signed by 5 naval powers
- US, GB, Japan, France and Italy
- Agreement to freeze navies at 1921 levels
o Avoid financial strain of further buildup
- Agreed to halt building warships for 10 years
o Some ships under construction scrapped
- US and GB agree to not build naval fortifications in western
Pacific
o Gave Japan control of nearby waters in exchange for inferior
naval strength
The Nine-Power Treaty
- US, GB, France, Japan, Italy, Belgium, China, Netherlands, and
Portugal
- Put in Jon Hay’s “Open Door” policy toward China into a treaty
o Signers agree to preserve equal commercial rights in China
o Refrain from taking advantage of conditions in China to
seek special rights or privileges
- Immediate results of Washington conference encouraging
o Failed to reach agreement limiting military forces on land
o Notable shortcomings
 5 Power Treaty
 Nations could still build smaller naval vessels
o Submarines
o Destroyers
- 4 Power Treaty
o did not commit signers to active military defense of their
allies
o Would have been unacceptable to the US
- 9 Power Treaty
o Made no provision for enforcement of the Open Door policy
BUSINESS NORMALCY
- Harding’s actions on domestic problems made it apparent that
normalcy meant government retreat from regulation of business
o It did aid business by
 Levying protective tariffs
 Promoting foreign trade
 Breaking strikes
- Other policies were “laissez-faire”
o Little effort in antitrust law enforcement
o Businesses allowed to merge
o ICC and FTC largely unsympathetic to policies restricting
private enterprise
Fordney-McCumber Tariff
- 1922
- Raised import duties to high levels
- Authorized the president to raise duties 50% or higher
- Protected ag and other young industries
o Rayon, china, optical glass, chemical patents
 Seized from Germany during the war
Creating the Bureau of the Budget
- Created in 1921 within the Treasury Dept
- WWI raised national debt from $10/person to $200/person
o U.S. National Debt Clock
- Harding and Coolidge attempt to lower it by making government
more fiscally responsible
- Efforts to induce saving
- Coolidge emphatic about the issue
o Attention paid to minor details
 Lead pencils
 Typewriter ribbons
- Military expenditures were also greatly reduced
Change in Taxation
- 1921 – 1932
- Andrew Mellon – Sec of Treas
o Believed that heavy taxes on excess profits “penalized
success” and discouraged investment in productive
enterprise
o Congress abolishes wartime excise and excess profits taxes
 Reduces income taxes by 2/3
- Nation’s prosperity reduced the national debt by $8 billion
between 1921 and 1929
LABOR AND LABOR UNIONS
- 1921 – 1928
- Annual salary rose
o $1,277 to $1,384
- New manufacturing caused technological unemployment
o Jobs lost when occupations become obsolete
o People usually find jobs elsewhere
 Transition sometimes difficult
 Often forced to leave home to find a job
 Frequently lost benefits from old job
 Example
 Introduction of jukeboxes and sound films
o Widespread unemployment among
musicians
- Many workers could not stand the monotony and nervous tension
of working at a speed set by a machine.
Union Decline
- “Prosperity decade” lowered union membership
- AFL even had difficulty holding members
- Employers promote open shop
o Shop where workers do not have to join a union
o Labeled the “American Plan”
 Closed to union members
- Companies promote welfare capitalism
o A system to make employees feel more a part of the
business by enabling them to…
o Buy shares of stock,
o By instituting profit sharing
o By providing such fringe benefits as medical care,
retirement pensions and recreational facilities
- Wages and conditions improved somewhat during the 1920s
- Improvements in their standard of living
- Weakness of unions
- Striking seemed useless to many workers
Strikebreaking
- Herbert Hoover
o Sec of commerce
o Persuaded Harding to appeal to the leaders of the steel
industry to abandon the 12-hour work day
- Attorney General Harry Daugtherty helped brake railroad and coal
strikes in 1922
o Obtains injunctions that prohibit every conceivable union
activity
 Picketing
 Making public statements to the press
 Jeering at strikebreakers
- 1919
o Indiana State guard and federal troops
 Protected strike breakers at US Steel
- Supreme Court continually whittled away at the protections that
unions thought they had secured by the Clayton Act of 1914
- Injunctions freely used to stop strikes and boycotts
RESTSRICTING IMMIGRATION
- PRE WWI
o 1 million immigrants a year
o 2/3 come from southern and eastern Europe
o Congress passes laws to slow down immigration
 Required a literacy
 Excluded large number of immigrants
 Act had little effect
- Immigrants congregate in NY and Chicago
o Employment opportunities
- Established immigrants resented new immigrants
o Feared newcomers
 Most of whom were Catholic
 Feared they would overthrow Protestant values
- Conservative labor unions angered by willingness of poor
immigrants to work for very low wages
- Even employers were turning against new immigrants
- Fear new immigrants were radicals
o Feared they would fight for communist revolution
National Origins Act 1924
- Many after WWI have harsh feelings toward “hyphenatedAmericans”
- Stimulated by
o Anti-German hysteria
o Red Scare
o KKK
- 1921
o Harding signs Emergency Quota Act
 Cut the number of immigrants admitted to 3 percent
of the base year of 1910 per year
- 1924 Nat Origins Act
o Made restriction permanent policy
o Would allow only 150,000 immigrants a year
o Base year changed to 1920
o 85 percent of immigrants would be coming from GB,
Ireland, Germany, Scandinavia
 Clearly demonstrates discrimination toward certain
nationalities and races
 Some Asians and Africans restricted even more and
even barred entirely
 Especially harmful to Japanese
o Declared a national day of mourning and
humiliation in Japan
o Helped advance the cause of reactionary
militarists in Japan
Sacco and Vanzetti 1921
- 2 Italian Immigrants
- Admitted anarchists
- Accused of killing 2 men during a robbery in Mass
- Convicted
- Many think they do not receive a fair trial
o Accuse the judge of being prejudice against foreigners
- Executed in 1927
o Many unsuccessful attempts for a retrial
o Quote from Vanzetti page 490
- People around the world criticized the decision
- 1961 ballistics info did link Sacco’s gun to the murder victims
SCANDALS AMONG HARDING’S ADVISORS
- Harding personally honest
- His friends “Ohio Gang” – poker playing partners
o Used their ties to Harding and the attorney general
 Sold government appointments
 Sold pardons
 Sold immunity from prosecution
 Examples
 Charles Forbes
o Director of Vets Bureau
o Made illegal deals
o Netted $100,000 in commissions
o Info became public
 Attorney also involved committed
suicide
 Jesse Smith also committed
suicide
 A close friend of AG
Daugherty
o Also accused of
corruption while in
office
- Worst scandal
o Sec of Interior Albert Fall
o Secretly leased government oil lands set aside for the navy
o Known as the Teapot Dome scandal
 Fall receives $300,000 in the deal
 Later convicted and sent to prison
- Harding
o “I have no trouble with my enemies, it’s my friends that
keep me awake at night”
- Summer 1923
o Harding travels to Alaska
o Becomes ill upon his return trip
o His physician – US Surgeon General – diagnosed his illness
as food poisoning
 Harding dies 2 days later of a massive heart attack
 Harding dies shortly before the news of the scandals is
made known to the public.
- 1920s History
- Food Groceries and Toiletries in the 1920's
VISUALIZING HISTORY PAGE 485
USING GRAPHS PAGE 486
SIDELIGHT: PRESIDENTIAL GAFFES PAGE 486
CURRICULUM CONNECTION PAGE 487
VISUALIZING HISTORY PAGE 487
DID YOU KNOW? PAGE 487 LINKING ACROSS TIME PAGE 488
GRAPH STUDY PAGE 488
HISTORY AND ART PAGE 489
LINKING ACROSS TIME PAGE 489
SIDELIGHT: RELIGION AND BUSINESS PAGE 489
SECTION 1 ASSESSMENT PAGE 490
HISTORY AND SCIENCE PAGE 491