THE POLITICS OF NORMALCY

20 November

Warren G. Harding Senator from Ohio who

promised to bring America “back to normalcy.” This Promise would lead him right

to the White House Normalcy meant a return to life

as it was in prewar America. Less government in business

and more business in government.

First President to have his inauguration speech amplified through loudspeakers.

First President since Washington to personally nominate his cabinet members.

Opened the White House to the public.

Harding on Business

Firmly believed in the free enterprise system Free enterprise system – private ownership of

property, including land and resources; relies on competition for profits and the forces of supply and demand to determine what goods and services should be produced and at what price.

Repealed taxes that had been raised under Wilson. Reduced federal spending

Made the government operate in a more efficient way and used a $1 billion surplus to pay down the national debt.

Efforts brought renewed prosperity. Unemployment went from 12% to 2%.

Scandals in the Harding Administration

Harding filled several government positions with old friends. Harry Daugherty – Attorney General

and Senator Albert B. Fall (NM) – Secretary of the Interior.

Daugherty took bribes from suspects accused of crimes.

TEAPOT DOME SCANDAL – Fall persuaded Harding to give him control over the national oil reserves in Elk Hills, CA; and Teapot Dome, WY. Fall leased the oil reserves to two

companies that had paid him $360,000 in bribes.

Scandal rocked the public confidence in the government.

Calvin Coolidge

Harding will suffer a massive heart attack and die on August 2, 1923.

Coolidge believed “the chief business of the American people is business.”

Coolidge cut taxes and eliminated unnecessary spending. Reductions in corporate

taxes, income taxes, and inheritance taxes.

Hoover

A true rags to riches story.

Believed in promoting business encouraged associationalism. Involved bringing

industry leaders together to improve economic efficiency.

Hoped that as businesses flourished, poverty, would disappear.

Foreign policy in the 1920s Isolationism - the policy or doctrine of isolating one's country

from the affairs of other nations by declining to enter into alliances, foreign economic commitments, international agreements, etc., seeking to devote the entire efforts of one's country to its own advancement and remain at peace by avoiding foreign entanglements and responsibilities.

Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover recognized that foreign trade connected American farmers and businesspeople to the rest of the world.

Supported entry to the World Court Washington Navel Conference - to avoid future wars, the U.S. and other countries agreed to

limit the size of their navies Kellogg-Briand Pact – Treaty that outlawed war between countries.

Dawes Plan Great Britain and France owed U.S. lenders $11 Billion. Germany stopped paying reparations in 1923; GB and

France relied on these reparations to repay the U.S. banks. American Banks would loan money to Germany; Germany

would use this money to pay reparations to GB and France; GB and France would then repay what they owned American lenders.

Hoover rejects the Roosevelt Corollary by announcing that the U.S. did not have the right to intervene militarily in Latin America.

Kellogg-Briand Pact Nations

III. The Republican Boom Years

Business expanded, productivity increased, unemployment fell, wages increased, U.S. produced 40% of world’s manufactured goods

Henry Ford’s assembly line allowed for mass production; lowered prices made cars affordable

Cars sparked new industries: steel, rubber, oil, highway construction, restaurants/hotels, gas stations, repair shops, (1 in 8 Americans worked in a job related to the auto industry)

Other industries: domestic airlines, plastics, radios

Middle class speculation: land, stocks

Airlines

Boom Years Productivity increased; unemployment plummeted;

wages doubled. Henry Ford – assembly line

Led to expansions in the steel, rubber, and oil industry. Restaurants, hotels, and repair shops sprang up along

new roads Boeing Airplane Company Synthetic fibers revolutionized the clothing industry. Cellophane first waterproof wrapping material Bakelite vital to production of radios Consolidation of businesses made the economy

more efficient Disregarded Progressive Era, antitrust laws