1920-1945 Domestic politics: Harding, Coolidge and Republican conservatism; Hoover and the depression Flashcards
Describe Warren Harding’s campaign.
Harding was a surprising choice as Republican candidate for the presidential election campaign of 1920 but won a landslide victory. Harding’s victory remains the largest popular-vote percentage margin in presidential election.
What were Harding’s achievements?
The Sheppard-Towner Maternity Aid Act was passed which provided federal aid to states to encourage them to build infant and maternity health centres.
Harding was successful in making cuts to government spending. For example, the Budget and Accounting Act made departments present budgets to the president for approval. Government spending, which totalled $5,000 million in 1920, had fallen to $3,333 million by 1922.
He did try to make government more efficient. For example, he addressed Congress on several occasions calling for an increased federal government role in the economic and social life of the nation.
His belief in very limited federal government intervention reflected the popular mood of the nation at that time.
Harding also achieved his aim, which was to return to a situation where there was as little government as possible - the return to normalcy.
What were Harding’s Shortcomings?
Harding is, however, often described as one of the weakest and least effective presidents.
He achieved very little due to his belief in ‘normalcy’ and a return to the very limited government intervention of the nineteenth century.
Harding made some very dubious appointments including some of his ‘Ohio Gang’ cronies. In 1923, it emerged that there had been extensive corruption during Harding’s administration.
For example, the Head of the Veterans’ Bureau had misappropriated or wasted $250 million and the Alien Property Custodian had accepted bribes. The most infamous example was the Teapot Dome scandal.
Who was Calvin Coolidge and what did he do?
Harding died on 2 August 1923 and Coolidge, who had been his vice-president, was sworn in as president.
In the presidential election of the following year, Coolidge won a decisive victory. He was given credit for a booming economy at home and isolationist policy abroad which had begun under Harding and continued under Coolidge in his first year as president.
What were Coolidge’s qualities?
Coolidge liked to be thought of as a man of the people, especially those of small-town America. He had very nineteenth-century views, believing in as little government intervention as possible. ‘The business of America is business’, he said. Although criticised for doing and saying very little during his term in office, he made more speeches and met more people than any of his predecessors.
Coolidge enjoyed being seen in public and was a popular president because he exuded confidence and appeared calm and unflappable. He was honest and incorruptable, unlike other presidents, and did not smoke, drink or chase
women.
His election victory of 1924 led to an extension of Republican pro-business policies, with low taxation, low interest rates and minimum government spending.
What were Hoovers belief?
In the 1928 presidential election campaign, Hoover claimed that ‘the USA is nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land’? Within a few years, these words would come back to haunt him.
He believed that people should be responsible for their own welfare and that government should not intervene to try to solve people’s problems. The role of government was to give people the ability to solve their problems themselves. ‘Economic wounds must be healed by producers and consumers’, said Hoover.
Hoover was also a firm believer in ‘rugged individualism’, which he wrote about in his book American Individualism, published in 1922. He was a self-made man and felt that everyone could achieve what he had achieved through hard work and initiative. He placed great emphasis on the role of the individual.
Overall, he believed in self-help and voluntary co-operation to solve problems. People should help themselves and help each other.
However, voluntarism and self-help were never going to be enough to deal with the problems created by the Great Depression. Hoover’s problem was that he could never abandon these fundamental beliefs and accept a greater (if temporary) role for federal government. He was convinced that the economy would right itself. To be fair to Hoover, there were few theories at the time about how to solve the Depression.
What were Coolidge failings?
Historians have criticised Coolidge for his low work rate. He slept a lot and said very little, being nicknamed ‘Silent Cal’. Some believe that he suffered a severe depression in 1924 after the death of his son. To some he had a superiority complex and, although acknowledging that the USA had problems, did very little to address them. As president he was determined to do less, rather than more, than his predecessor. Coolidge refused to stand as president in 1928 due 10 health concerns.
How successful was Hoover in dealing with the Depression?
Herbert Hoover was president during the Depression. The traditional view, is that he did little to help, instead actually making the situation worse.
More recently historians have been more sympathetic to Hoover, believing he was a victim of his own beliefs and of a terrible crisis.
What were Hoover’s agricultural policies?
Hoover assisted farmers with the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1930. This Act enabled the government to lend money to farmers through special marketing groups which stabilised prices and tried to ensure that produce was sold at a profit.
The Grain Stabilisation Corporation, introduced in the same year, tried to guarantee fair prices by buying wheat so that it could be stored until the price went back up again. However, prices continued to plunge.
Hoover’s agricultural policies failed because he was paying farmers artificially high prices. In addition, farming was badly affected by the introduction of aris through the Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act of 1930. This protected US farmers by increasing import duties on foreign goods. In retaliation, other countries refused to trade with the USA.
What were Hoovers industrial policies?
Hover tried to balance the budget by reducing federal spending and opposing relief schemes that were suggested by Congress. Instead, he relied on voluntary action. He hoped to persuade businessmen and state governments to solve the Depression by voluntary eftorts.
He met businessmen and implored them not to cut their workforce or wages. He encouraged state governments to begin new public works programmes. In 1932, he gave an additional $500 million to help various agencies to provide relief.
The Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) of January 1932 was the most radical measure introduced by Hoover to deal with the Depression and was a forerunner of Roosevelt’s New Deal policies. It lent up to $2 billion to rescue banks, insurance companies, railroads and construction companies.
The Emergency Relief Act in July of the same year gave $300 million to state governments to help the unemployed.
The Home Loan Bank Act of 1932 was to stimulate house building and home ownership. Twelve regional banks were set up with a fund of $12 million.
What were the reasons for the Washington Conference?
The Washington Conference was attended by the United States, Great Britain, Japan, France and Italy. The USA was keen on this conference for several reasons:
The USA wanted to prevent the renewal of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance in 1922. Britain was keen to renew this to secure Japanese support for her interests in the Far East. The USA, however, feared the spread of Japanese influence in the Far East, especially China, and wanted to detach them from their ally.
The USA wished to maintain the status quo in China, particularly the Open Door policy which favoured US trading interests.
President Harding left foreign affairs in the control of Secretary of State, Charles Evans Hughes, who was a keen supporter of disarmament.
The most important reason was US fear of growing Japanese influence in the Far East. Japan had acquired German colonies in the Pacific and posed a potential threat to communication links between Hawaii and other US possessions in Guam and the Philippines. Moreover, Japan threatened China, which was increasingly vulnerable due to civil war.
What were the achievements of the Washington Conference?
On the one hand the conference appeared to be a great success. It was the first agreement on arms limitation and brought stability and peace in the Pacific.
The disarmament agreement was made between four powers: the USA, Britain, Japan and France, with Italy signing in 1922. Each agreed to reduce the tonnage of battleships for ten years, persuading Japan to accept less tonnage than Britain and the USA in an approximate ratio of five for USA and Britain, three for Japan and 1.75 for Italy and France respectively.
In addition, they signed the Four Power Treaty in which they agreed to respect each country’s interests in the Far East as well as to maintain the Open Door policy in China. Furthermore, Japan promised to remove its troops from the Chinese province of Shantung and the USA agreed not to strengthen its military presence in Guam.
Hovever, the conference had several limitations. It imposed no limits on the size of armies or air forces. The naval limitations only applied to battleships and alcratt cariers. The agreement was toothless’ with no method of enforcing the limitation agreement. No sanctions were to apply to those who broke the ament. While Japan abided by the treaty for several years, she began to expand her influence in the 1930s.
The Kellogg-Briand Pact, 1928
How did falling consumer demands for goods lead to economic downturn??
The construction boom of the 1920s came to an end in 1928. This had a knock-on effect, slowing down spending and investment. The great boom in car ownership slowed sharply. By 1929, most Americans who could afford a car already had one. Industrial production fell in the two months before the Wall Street Crash.
The fall in demand for consumer goods was partly due to the unequal distribution of wealth. The new-found wealth of the 1920s was not shared by everyone. Almost 50 per cent of American families had an income of less than $2,000 a year, the minimum needed to survive. They could not afford to buy the new consumer goods. Some manufacturers did not see that there was a limit to what could be bought, and so they continued to produce goods. The result was overproduction.
In addition, the USA could not sell its surplus products to other countries, especially in Europe. Some European countries owed the USA huge amounts of money and were struggling with repayments. The US government had put high tariffs on foreign goods in the 1920s. Many foreign governments responded by doing the same to American goods and consequently US businessmen found
overproduction was blocked.
it very difficult to sell their goods abroad. Therefore, an ideal outlet for overproduction was blocked.
How did instability in ‘get-rich-quick’ schemes lead to economic downturn in the 1920s?
‘Get rich quick’ was the aim of many Americans in the 1920s. They invested in hugely speculative ventures and inevitably many lost their money. This situation provided golden opportunities for confidence tricksters and crooks.
In the early 1920s, for example, Charles Ponzi, a former vegetable seller, conned thousands of gullible people into investing in his ventures. He promised a 50 per cent profit within 90 days.
When sentencing him to prison, the judge criticised his victims for their greed. Ponzi had not forced people to part with their money.
How did the Florida land boom lead to economic downturn in the 1920s?
While on bail awaiting trial, Ponzi found employment selling land in Florida.
This was a venture well suited to his talents. Until this time, Florida was a relatively undeveloped state with a small population. Between 1920 and 1925, the population of the state increased from 968,000 to 1.2 million.
There were large-scale coastal developments. Parcels of land began to be sold to wealthy Northerners on the basis of glossy brochures and salesmen’s patter. People began to invest their money in unseen developments, hoping to sell and make a quick profit. The land boom could be sustained only as long as there were more buyers than sellers. But demand tailed off in 1926. There were scandals of land advertised as within easy access of the sea that was really many miles inland or in the middle of swamps.
Then nature played its part, with hurricanes in 1926 killing 400 people and leaving 50,000 homeless. With thousands of people bankrupted, the Florida land boom collapsed, leaving a coastline strewn with half-finished and storm-battered developments.
