1

1920S POLITICS

Reactions to Change

2

OPENING QUESTIONS

What was the nature of politics

and the role of government

between 1900 and 1916?

How and why did WWI create a

resistance to change?

3

QUESTION FOR THOUGHT…

How did 1920s politics illustrate a backlash to

the War and Progressive Politics?

4

19th Amendment

Women’s organizations

Women’s causes

Jeannette Rankin

(1916)

I. WOMEN IN POLITICS

5

SHEPPARD-TOWNER ACT

Subsidized medical

clinics

State welfare

Significantly lowered

infant mortality

By late 1920s, program

ended

6

PEACE & FREEDOM

Mobilized during the war, though ignored

WILPF (Peace & Freedom)

Causes:• Denounced imperialism• Proposed social justics• Opposed militarism

Came under fire during the First Red Scare

7

WOMEN VOTERS

Lobbyists: temperance, child welfare, workers’

rights

Difficulty gaining access to positions in either

Republican or Democratic parties

Did not vote as a bloc

8

II . REPUBLICAN NORMALCY

Backlash against Progressivism

Hoover’s Commerce Dept• Trade assoc.• Industry standards• Stable prices/wages

Fewer Anti-trust cases (Taft)

Evade international affairs

Isolationist Trade Policies

9

BUSINESS & GOVERNMENT

TheBusinessOfAmerica is Business

10

FAILURE OF GOV ’T ASSISTANCE

Farm prices fell

Cut in taxes = cut in government spending

McNary-Haugen farm bills (1927 and 1928)

vetoed by Coolidge

States still sought progressive solutions, but

federal gov’t resisted

11

Harding’s Death

Cronyism• Ohio Gang

Teapot Dome Scandal

Charles Forbes

Harry Daugherty

Prohibition

III . POLITICAL CORRUPTION

12

IV. DOLLAR DIPLOMACY

Private banks made foreign loans

U.S. continues dominance in Latin America—bank loans in

El Salvador and Bolivia

U.S. intervened militarily to defend business interests

Dollar Diplomacy questioned by missionary-Samuel Inman

By late 1920s, benefits difficult to recognize=isolationism

13

POLITICS & CULTURE

As you view “Boom & Bust” consider the following:• How were developments of the 1920s illustrative of

a backlash to the Progressivism and international idealism that had characterized politics of the first two decades of the 20th Century?

• What culture clashes developed?