Chapter 22 section 1
Adjusting to peace time
By: Hannah Bos
Return to normalcy
 When Wilson returned from Paris he might of thought he would return as a popular hero but
instead him and democrats were denied at the next election
 By 1920 between the mishandling of the peace treaty at Versailles and a failing economy Wilson
and the democrats were not liked very much
 During the great war our domestic economy had expanded greatly to produce enough supplies
that were needed by the military
 Then the war ended and munitions factories shut down and many people lost their jobs
 So when the soldiers returned it was very difficult to find a job
 Labor unions had made a no-strike pledge as a patriotic gesture in wartime
 But when the was ended labor disputes led to many people going on strike
Return to normalcy continued
 By 1919 four million workers equivalent to one fifth of the labor force took a part in the
strikes
 The newspapers were filled with violence caused by the strikes
 America also feared the communists would over throw the government like Russia did
 Some were also afraid of radical violence
 Americans hoped that change in leadership would bring peace and prosperity back
The Harding Administration
 The election of 1920 Warren Harding of Ohio was the republican nominee
 Harding promised the public “a return to normalcy” which is what we wanted
 He won by a landslide
 Harding was a strong supporter of business and he filled his administration with people of the
same mind set
 For secretary of treasury Harding choose one of the nations richest men Andrew Mellon
 Mellon was a banker and a industrialist
 Mellon got congress to lower taxes on businesses and the wealthy
 He also helped “splash the federal buget”
The Harding Administration cont.
 Some other people Harding appointed were personal friends
 Some saw their government jobs to make personal fortunes whether they were made legally or
illegally
 Harding's presidency was marred by several major scandals involving these men
 One case Charles Forbes the head of the veterans Bureau was convicted of taking bribes totaling
about $200 million
 The biggest scandal was the scandal at Teapot Dome ,Wyoming a government owned oil reserve
when the secretary of the department of the interior, Albert B. Fall received a bribe of $400 million
 Fall was the first cabinet member ever sent to prison
 Harding was never linked to any of the crimes
 Harding did not live to see if he would be linked to the crimes because in 1923 he died from a
massive heart attack leaving vice president Calvin Coolidge to deal with all the scandal of
Teapot Dome and many other crimes
The Coolidge Administration
 Coolidge was very different from Harding
 Coolidge was soft-spoken, serious guy from new England who was know for his integrity
and honesty
 Coolidge helped to restore trust in the white house
 In the 1924 election Coolidge was elected president
 As the 1920’s started to “roar” voters wanted to keep republicans in power
Foreign policy
 World war one made the united states an international power
 Many people did not want their nation to play a lead role world affairs this sentiment was
known as isolation throughout the 1920’s the united states participated in national
conferences intended to promote world peace and disarmament
 The united states joined the Washington Naval Arms Conference of 1921
 The conference resulted in a treaty limiting the navies of the united states, Britain ,France
,Italy ,and japan
 In 1928 the untied states joined France in sponsoring the Kellogg-Braid Pact
 This pact condemned military aggression and outlawed war
Foreign policy cont.
 However it imposed no punishment on a country that acted aggressively on so it was
ineffective at preventing war
 President Coolidge believed that the government had a right to intervene in foreign
matters that affected American business
 In 1926 a revolution broke out in Nicaragua, Coolidge sent American troops to protect
American business interests there
 The following year Mexico announced plans to take over all foreign oil owned lands
including those owned by the united states
 Many people wanted to send troops but Coolidge managed to resolve it with a different
method
Foreign policy cont. 2
 In the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 communists had taken power in Russia
 They created the Soviet Union which is the worlds first communist state
 In an effort to weaken the Soviet government the United States refused to grant it diplopic
recognition
 In 1918 president Wilson sent troops to aid the opponents of communism
 In 1921 a famine hit Russia
 Wilson sent troops
 The troops saved 10 million from starving to death
The red scare
 Alarm about communist affected not only the Foreign Policy but also things people did on daily
basis
 The postwar strikes made some Americans fear that a revolution was about to start in the United
states
 The fears reached a fever pitch in the spring and summer of 1919 when a series of bombings
occurred
 The bombings were the work of anarchist or someone who opposes the government many of
the bombers were foreign born and the bombing sled to an outcry against foreigners
 During the red scare thousands of anarchists and communists or “Reds” were hunted down and
arrested
 Once they were caught they were deported from the country
Sacco and Vanzetti
 In may 1920 at the height of the Red Scare two Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and
Bartolomeo Vanzetti were arrested
 They were charged with robbing and murdering two payroll employees in Massachusetts
 At the trial there was little evidence that they were guilty of the charges
 But the judge didn’t care if they were guilty or not he only focused on that they were
anarchists and immigrants
 They were convicted in 1921 and executed in 1927
Limiting immigrants
 Many Americans worried that the cultures of immigrants was overwhelming to American
culture as well as the finding jobs with immigrants was hard
 An emergency immigration law was passed in 1921that only limited how many immigrants
could be in the united states
 In 1924 and 1925 congressed made the number of immigrants even smaller
 But that did not include Canada or Mexico because in the 1920’s 500,000 from Mexico
and 950,000 from Canada