Reaction Followed the War

To change

KKK rose in numbers

Resented small advances made by blacks

Felt moral values were being attacked by urban intellectuals (evolution, changing roles for women)

Feared job competition from foreigners

Convinced foreigners were going to overthrow American way of life (communism and other radical movements)

To Communism and other radical ideas

Communist attempts to overthrow Germany and Hungary in 1919

Meeting of Communist International (Comintern) in Moscow

Made up mostly of delegates from the Russian Communist Party

Encouraged worldwide revolutions and advocated the overthrow of the capitalist system and the abolition of private property and free enterprise

Unusual amount of strikes in 1919

Boston policemen

Broken by Governor Calvin Coolidge who became a hero as a result

Steel workers

Ended in violence with 18 workers being killed

Coal miners

John L. Lewis and the miners won

Unionism became associated with communism

Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer began conducting raids against radical sounding groups in 1919

Disregarded civil rights

No search warrants

People kept in jail for long periods without seeing a lawyer

Many arrested based on friendships with "suspicious people"

Kept claiming there would be riots

When they never came he lost credibility

Sacco and Vanzetti

Two anarchists who evaded the draft during WWI

Accused of committing a payroll robbery in Massachusetts in which two men were killed

Only circumstantial evidence

Found guilty and sentenced to death

Electrocuted in 1927

Warren Harding's Presidency

Election of 1920

Harding-Republican

Calvin Coolidge

James Cox-Democrat

Franklin Roosevelt

Anti-Progressive

Opposed federal government being involved in the economy

Disapproved of most social reforms

Disapproved of Wilson’s ideas about the League of Nations

Cabinet mixed

Charles Evans Hughes

Secretary of State

Well respected member of the Supreme Court

Herbert Hoover

Secretary of Commerce

Popular because of his handling of food supplies and refugee problems during WWI

Andrew Mellon

Secretary of Treasury

Served for 12 years

Henry Wallace

Secretary of Agriculture

Ohio Gang

President’s friends from home

Policies

Washington Naval Conference

Five Power Treaty

US, Great Britain, Japan, France, and Italy agreed to naval force reductions

Four Power Treaty

US, Great Britain, France, and Japan agreed to respect one another’s interests in the Pacific

Payment of war debts

Allies had borrowed over $10 billion from the US to help finance WWI

Britain and France expected part to be forgiven as a contribution to the war effort

US demanded full payment

Allies had two ways to repay debt

Reparations from Germany

Exporting more goods to US

US opposed both options

Urged France and Britain not to press Germany

Increased tariffs to extremely high levels

Dawes Plan

American investors lent money to Germany

Germany paid reparations to Britain and France

Britain and France paid US

Led to bitterness between Britain and France and the US

Limits on immigration

Emergency Quota Act of 1921 and the Immigration Act of 1924

Each European country given a quota of 2% of the number of people from that country living in the US in 1890

Discriminated against eastern and southern Europeans who did not start immigrating until after 1890

Excluded Japanese immigrants entirely

Destroyed any good will created by previous treaties

Scandals

Many of the Ohio Gang were caught accepting bribes

Tea Pot Dome

During the Progressive era oil rich land in Teapot Dome, Wyoming and Elk Hill, California had been set aside for use by the navy

Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall was able to get this land transferred to his control

Fall leased the land to oil companies

Suddenly Fall, who had been having financial problems, was found to have $325,000 in cash and bonds and a herd of cattle in his possession

By 1923 Harding was aware of the scandal and knew it would soon be made public

Harding went to Alaska and got sick on the return trip to San Francisco

Harding's death

Coolidge sworn in

Calvin Coolidge's Presidency

Seen as honest

Liked by business

Coolidge favored businessmen as the backbone of America

Kept Andrew Melon, who was very popular with business leaders, as Treasury Secretary

Favored keeping government spending down

Wanted lower taxes for the rich and higher for the poor

Business responded well

40% of the world’s wealth belonged to Americans

Number of millionaires rose from 4500 in 1914 to 11,000 in 1926

Low interest rates encouraged borrowing and construction

Empire State Building

Election of 1924

Coolidge won easily

Solid Democratic South

John W. Davis

Progressive Party

Disaffected Republicans

Robert M. La Follette

Prosperous times

Many thought it would last forever

Increased borrowing (Business and Consumer)

Business expansion

Increased production

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