POLITICS OF BOOM AND BUST. The 1920s through the Great Crash APUSH Chapter 32

Transcription

1 POLITICS OF BOOM AND BUST The 1920s through the Great Crash APUSH Chapter 32

2 ELECTION OF 1920 This was the first election in which women could vote nationwide. James Cox (and Franklin Roosevelt) urged the adoption of the League of Nations Warren Harding (and Calvin Coolidge) was focused on a return to normalcy but never really defined what that meant. Harding won with the largest popular vote landslide in presidential history 60% to 34% Electoral vote was 404 to 127

3 SCANDALS Loose morality and get-richquickism of the Harding era resulted in a series of scandals: Veterans Bureau: 1923 Colonel Charles R. Forbes, caught with hand in the till, was forced to resign as head of the Veterans Bureau Looted the government of $200 million, chiefly in the building of veterans hospitals He was sentenced to two years in a federal penitentiary

4 SCANDALS Teapot Dome scandal: Involved priceless naval oil reserves at Teapot Dome (Wyoming) and Elk Hills (California) Secretary of the interior Albert B. Fall induced his careless colleague, the secretary of the navy, to transfer these valuable properties to the Interior Department Harding indiscreetly signed the secret order

5 SCANDALS Teapot Dome scandal: Fall quietly leased the lands to oilmen Harry F. Sinclair and Edward L. Doheny, But not until he received a bribe ( loan ) of $100,000 from Doheny and gifts worth over $400,000 from Doheny and Sinclair The leases weren t illegal but the bribes and gifts (the exchange of money) was

6

7 SCANDALS Teapot Dome scandal: Teapot Dome finally came to a whistling boil Fall, Sinclair, and Doheny were indicated 1924 Case dragged on until 1929 Fall was found guilty of taking a bribe, sentenced to one year in jail Doheny was acquitted twice of offering the bribe that Fall was found guilty of accepting.

8 SCANDALS Scandal of Attorney General Daugherty: A Senate investigation (1924) of illegal sale of pardons and liquor permits Forced to resign, tried in 1927, but released after the jury twice failed to agree. Mistresses Carrie Fulton Phillips ( ) Nan Britton (1918?-1923) Elizabeth Ann Blaesing

9 HARDING S PRO-BUSINESS POLICIES Corporations could once more relax and expand: Antitrust laws were often ignored, circumvented, or feebly enforced by friendly prosecutors The Interstate Commerce Commission came to be dominated by men who were personally sympathetic to the managers of the railroads Big industrialists strived to reduce the rigors of competition Associations that ran counter to the spirit of existing antitrust legislation, their formation was encouraged by Hoover

10 A NEW ERA FOR BUSINESS Businesspeople sought to keep the market to themselves by throwing up tariff walls: Fordney-McCumber Tariff Law: Lobbyists wanted to bust the average from 27% to 38.5%, almost as high as Taft s Payne Aldrich Tariff of 1909 Duties on farm produce were increased Flexibility: the president could increase or decrease duties as much as 50% Harding was more friendly to increases than reductions. In six years they authorized 32 upward charges During this same time, the White House ordered only 5 reductions

11 A NEW ERA FOR BUSINESS The high-tariff course set off a chain reaction: European producers felt the squeeze Impoverished Europe needed to sell its manufactured goods to the United States America needed to give foreign countries a chance to make a profit International trade, Americans were slow to learn, is a twoway street. They could not sell to others in quantity unless they bought from them in quantity or lent them more U.S. dollars Erecting tariff walls was a game that two could play The whole European-American tariff situation further deepened the international economic distress, providing one more rung on the ladder by which Adolf Hitler scrambled to power.

12 ADDITIONAL DOMESTIC POLICY He also signed the Federal Highway Act of 1921 to give federal aid to states for highway building. Part of the justification was for military transport since railways alone might not be sufficient. Eventually more than 78,000 miles of roads would be constructed. **NOTE This is NOT the Interstate Highway System**

13 ADDITIONAL DOMESTIC POLICY Harding did little more than sign into law measures that were passed by the isolationist and business friendly Congress He approved a reduction in the income tax for all income classifications but the wealthiest received the biggest benefits He established a Bureau of the Budget which placed all government expenditures in a single budget for Congress to review and vote on. He also slashed federal spending and reduced the national debt by one third.

14 AN IMPACT ON THE COURT Harding lived less than three years as president: But appointed four of the nine justices (most of whom served into the 1930s): His fortunate choice for chief justice was ex-president Taft, who performed his duties ably but was more liberal than some of his cautious associates The Supreme Court axed progressive legislation: It killed a federal child-labor law Stripped away many of labor s hard-won gains Rigidly restricted government intervention in the economy

15 ISOLATIONISM REIGNS SUPREME Making peace with the fallen foe: The United States, having rejected the Treaty of Versailles, was technically at war with Germany, Austria, and Hungary: In July Congress passed a simple joint resolution that declared the war officially over Isolation was enthroned in Washington Continued to regard the League as an unclean thing Harding at first even refused to support the League s world health program

16 BENEFITS WITHOUT BURDENS Disarmament was an issue for Harding: Had businessmen to finance the ambitious naval building program during the war Washington Disarmament Conference : Invitations went out to all but Bolshevik Russia The double agenda included naval disarmament; The situation in the Far East

17 BENEFITS WITHOUT BURDENS Five Power Treaty Hughes declared a ten-year holiday on the construction of battleships, battlecruisers, and aircraft carriers He proposed scaled-down navies of America, Britain & Japan: ratio 5:5:3. France and Italy were also part of the 5 power treaty, receiving a still smaller allotment of ships (1.75 each)

18 BENEFITS WITHOUT BURDENS No restrictions placed on number of small warships, just size Congress made no commitment to the use of armed force. A Four-Power Treaty the pact bound Britain, Japan, France and the US to preserve the status quo in the Pacific no territorial expansion; also cancelled a Anglo-Japanese alliance. Gave China the Nine-Power Treaty (1922), kept territorial and integrity and sovereignty in China (all conference attendees signed: the US, Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Belgium, China, the Netherlands, and Portugal) Peace was an illusion: Defensive wars were still permitted It reflected the American mind (1920s): Willing to be lulled into a false sense of security This same attitude showed up in the neutralism of the 1930s.

19 BENEFITS WITHOUT BURDENS Kellogg-Briand Pact: Secretary of state Frank B. Kellogg won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role; Kellogg signed the Pact with the French foreign minister. It effectively outlawed the use of war as a diplomatic policy but there was still no means of enforcement.

20 COOLIDGE FOREIGN POLICY Isolation continued to reign in the Coolidge era: The Senate would not allow America to adhere to the World Court Coolidge only halfheartedly and unsuccessfully pursued further naval disarmament American outward looking: The armed interventionism in the Caribbean and Central America American troops were withdrawn (after an eight-year stay) from the Dominican Republic in 1924 They remained in Haiti ( ). America was in Nicaragua intermittently since 1909; Coolidge briefly removed them in 1925; in 1926 he sent them back where they stayed until 1933 American oil companies clamored for a military expedition to Mexico in 1926

21 COOLIDGE FOREIGN POLICY Overshadowing all other foreign-policy problems in 1920s was the issue of international debts: Complicated tangle of private loans; Allied war debts and German reparations payments (see Figure 32.2) In 1914 America had been a debtor nation to the sum of $4 billion By 1922, it had become a creditor nation to the sum of $16 billion. American investors loaned some $10 billion to foreigners in the 1920s

22 COOLIDGE FOREIGN POLICY The key knot in the debt tangle was the $10 billion that the U.S. Treasury had loaned to the Allies Uncle Sam held their IOUs and he wanted to be paid The Allies protested that the demand for repayment was grossly unfair The French and the British pointed out their losses waiting for America to join in Their borrowed dollars had fueled America s economic boom, where nearly all the purchases had been made And America s postwar tariff walls made it almost impossible for them to sell their goods to earn the dollars to pay their debts.

23 WAR DEBT CRISIS Germany s war debts: America insisted on getting its money back The French and British demanded $32 billion in reparations payments The Allies hoped to settle their debt with the United States Debt cancellations: Some statesmen wanted the debts to be scaled down or even canceled Calvin Coolidge turned aside any suggestions of debt cancellation.

24 WAR DEBT CRISIS The Dawes Plan (1924): Was largely negotiated by Charles Dawes, about to be Coolidge s running mate It rescheduled German reparations payments And opened the way for further American private loans to Germany The whole financial cycle now became still more complicated: As U.S. bankers loaned money to Germany, Germany paid reparations to France and Britain, And the former Allies paid war debts to the United States.

25 WAR DEBT CRISIS When that well dried up after the great crash of 1929, the jungle of international finance quickly turned into a desert President Herbert Hoover declared a one-year moratorium in 1931 except honest little Finland, which struggled along making payments until the last of its debt was discharged in 1976 The United States never did get its money, but it harvested a bumper crop of ill will.

26 HARDING S DEATH In June 1923, Harding set out on a cross-country Voyage of Understanding to reconnect with the people and explain his policies. Before the trip, Harding had looked very ill and tired, even complaining of chest pains, and it was thought getting away from the stress of Washington would do him some good. He even traveled throughout Alaska (above)!

27 HARDING S DEATH Upon arrival to San Francisco, he was taken ill and died suddenly on August 2, It is believed that he died from congestive heart failure and either a heart attack or stroke. No autopsy was performed at the request of his family.

28 SILENT CAL BECOMES PRESIDENT Vice President Coolidge was sworn into office by his father: He embodied the New England virtues of honesty, morality, industry, and frugality He otherwise seemed to be commonplace, with mediocre powers of leadership and gave invariably boring speeches True to Republican philosophy, he became the high priest of the great god Business

29 SILENT CAL BECOMES PRESIDENT His philosophy was a hands-off temperament His thrifty nature caused him to sympathize with Secretary of the Treasury Mellon s effort to reduce taxes and debts Coolidge slowly gave the Harding regime a badly needed moral fumigation Coolidge was not touched by the scandals.

30 COOLIDGE S DOMESTIC POLICY Farmers beginning a prolonged downturn European recovery meant less demand for US goods Machines helped to increase output which in turn, lowered prices 25% of farms were sold for debt or taxes Bipartisan efforts from Congress to help farmers by raising prices were met with presidential vetoes. Farm prices continued to stay low, adding to the resentment many felt towards city dwellers Farmers determined to make a difference at the polls.

31 A THREE WAY RACE Election of 1924: Nominated Silent Cal at their convention in Cleveland in the summer of 1924 And Charles G. Dawes for Vice President Democrats had more difficulty choosing a candidate at their convention in New York. The party was split between: Wets and Drys Urbanites and farmers Fundamentalists and Modernists Northern liberals and southern stand-patters, immigrants and oldstock Americans.

32 A THREE WAY RACE The Democrats failed by one vote to pass a resolution condemning the Ku Klux Klan Deadlocked for an unprecedented 102 ballots, the convention turned to John W. Davis Now wide-open for a liberal candidate: Senator Robert ( Fighting Bob ) La Follette sprang forth to lead a new Progressive party He gained the endorsement of the American Federation of Labor He enjoyed the support of the shrinking Socialist party, But his majority constituency were the price-pinched farmers

33 A THREE WAY RACE La Follette s new Progressive party: Fielding only a presidential ticket, with no candidates for local office Proved only a shadow of the robust Progressive coalition of prewar days Its platform called for government ownership of railroads and relief for farmers It lashed out at monopoly and anti-labor injunctions Urged a constitutional amendment to limit the Supreme Court s power to invalidate laws passed by Congress.

34 A THREE WAY RACE Election returns: La Follette polled nearly 5 million votes Cautious Cal and the oil-smeared Republicans over-whelmed Davis, 15,718,211 to 8,385,283 The electoral count stood at 382 for Coolidge, 136 for Davis, and 13 for La Follette, all from his home state of Wisconsin

35 ELECTION OF presidential race: Coolidge decided not to run again Herbert Hoover became the candidate: Nominated on a platform of both prosperity and prohibition Democrats nominated Alfred C. Smith Al(cohol) Smith, soakingly and drippingly wet when the country was devoted to the noble experiment of prohibition He seemed to be abrasively urban He was Roman Catholic This would hurt him in the Protestant dominated South and rural areas

36 ELECTION OF 1928 Radio played prominently in this campaign for the first time: It helped Hoover more than Smith Hoover decried un-american socialism And preached rugged individualism Never having been elected to public office, he was thin-skinned in the face of criticism He did not adapt readily to necessary give-and-take of political accommodation

37 ELECTION OF 1928 His real power lay in his integrity His humanitarianism His passion for assembling the facts His efficiency His talent for administration His ability to inspire loyalty in close associates They called him the Chief.

38 ELECTION OF 1928 He was the best businessperson s candidate: Self-made millionaire, he recoiled from anything suggesting socialism, paternalism, or planned economy, Yet as secretary of commerce, he had exhibited some progressive instincts: He endorsed labor unions He supported federal regulation of the new radio broadcasting industry He flirted with the idea of government-owned radio.

39 ELECTION OF 1928 Election returns: Hoover triumphed in a landslide: He bagged 21,391,993 popular votes, to 15,016,169 for Smith Hoover electoral count of 444 to Smith s 87. Big Republican victory; Hoover swept five former Confederacy states and all Border States

40 FOREIGN POLICY UNDER HOOVER Japan attacked Manchuria in 1931 In violation of the League of Nations Condemned and so left the League Hoover-Stimson Doctrine (1932) The US would nor recognize territory acquired by force Japan angry because of double standard for US Philippines, Cuba, Puerto Rico, etc. Many historians see this as beginning of WWII League couldn t stop aggression Hitler & Mussolini would soon have Europe at war