Domestic Politics

Question 1

What happened to politics after WWI?

Answer 1

• became more conservative + inwards
• beginning of a long period of Republican dominance
• the Democratic Party was divided + support for the ideas of progressivism was weak

Question 2

Presidencies 1920-1932

Answer 2

• Harding 1920-23 (died)
• Coolidge 1923-28 (won 1924 election easily)
• Hoover 1928-32 = Great Depression = end of Republican dominance —> Roosevelt begins 20 years of democratic dominance

Question 3

Why did republicans dominate the 1920s

Answer 3

prosperity of the 1920s boom meant Republican business friendly policies seemed to fit the natural order

Question 4

Harding’s presidency

Answer 4

• one of hardings political slogans was ‘less government in business, more business in government’
• appointed Andrew Mellon as Secretary of the Treasury = firm believer in free markets + minimal regulation of business
• Harding passed the Fordney-McCumber Act in 1922 pushing tariffs up to very high levels
• wide support for hardings pro-business policies because the brief post-war recession in 1920-21 was followed by years of prosperity + rising living standards

Question 5

Why did Harding having a bad reputation?

Answer 5

• well-known fact that Harding + his inner circle regularly ignored laws prohibiting alcoholic drink + rumours about affairs with other women
• most significant contribution was his involvement in political corruption —> 1922 teapot dome scandal
• the full truth of the scandal did not emerge until in 1931 after Harding was dead

Question 6

Teapot dome scandal

Answer 6

• 1922 = high officials in Harding’s administration (e.g. Albert Fall Secretary of interior) were accused of leasing oil reserves in return for bribes
• the truth of the scandal didn’t emerge until 1931, but Fall became the first US cabinet minister to be jailed for crimes in office

Question 7

Coolidge’s presidency

Answer 7

• was Harding’s vice-president - took over in 1923 + then won 1924 election
• believed in small government + low taxes —> retained Andrew Mellon as secretary of the treasury
• 1924 Coolidge’s Revenue Act = big cuts in income tax
• supported policies of the Mellon Plan = reducing taxes for businesses + high income earners

Question 8

1928 election

Answer 8

• Hoover decisively won 1928 election after Coolidge voluntarily stepped down —> Republican dominance stronger then ever with them having control of both the house + senate
• Al Smith was the democratic candidate = managed to win many states in the north + east but was rejected by rural Protestants around the country due to him being a catholic
• anti-Catholicism undermined smith within his own party = he lost the traditional democrat stronghold of the ‘solid south’

Question 9

Hoover’s presidency

Answer 9

• hoover had an impressive record in public life = praised greatly for organising emergency relief schemes during + after WWI, he was also the secretary of commerce from 1921 under Harding
• Hoover’s presidency was overshadowed by the financial crisis + Great Depression, leading to the republicans being catastrophically defeated in the 1932 elections
• by 1932 Hoover’s name had become a term of abuse —> ‘Hoover blankets’ were newspapers homeless people covered themselves with + ‘Hoovervilles’ were shanty towns of the unemployed

Question 10

What was Hoover’s initial response to the Great Depression?

Answer 10

• Hoover’s immediate response was the traditional conservative approach to leave business to sort itself out = Andrew Mellon believed the crash would have a beneficial effect as ‘enterprising people will pick up the wreckage from the less competent people’
• didn’t believe in the Keynesian approach of increasing government spending
• the fact that was no immediate economic collapse in 1930 seemed to prove them right but by 1931-32 hoover changed his mind + introduce interventionist policies

Question 11

Success of Hoover’s intervention in agriculture?

Answer 11

• Agriculutral Marketing Act = setting up the federal farm board to provide loans to farmers
• Grain Stabilisation Corporation set up in 1930 = tried to guarantee fair prices for farmers by buying up wheat, BUT prices fell even lower + farmers went broke
• farmers were severely harmed by protectionism —> Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act 1930 increased import duties in 20,000 commodities
• 1930-31 the Midwest was hit by terrible heat waves = beginning of ‘dust bowl’ conditions —> Hoover provided $47 million in federal loans but this wasn’t enough = 25% of farmers had lost their land by 1932

Question 12

Success of Hoover’s intervention in business?

Answer 12

• Hoover still believed in minimal govt intervention in business in 1931, with him opposing relief schemes proposed by congress - but by 1931 7 million people were unemployed + this could no longer be ignored
• 1932 Reconstruction Finance Corporation = offered hundred of millions of dollars in emergency loans to banks + corporations
• Federal Home Loan Bank Act = encouraged banks to provide more mortgages
• Emergency Relief + Construction Act = provided federal funding for states to run public works schemes to create jobs
• BUT Hoover’s Revenue Act sharply increased taxes on businesses thereby not aiding recovery + reducing consumer spending

Question 13

Overall success of how Hoover dealt with the depression?

Answer 13

• by 1932 the depression was reaching its lowest depths
• mass unemployment, banks + business failures, farm bankruptcies, lower living standards
• it was clear the Democratic Party was in a good position to win the 1932 election