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Goal Nine

Goal Nine. Prosperity and Depression 1919-1930 Economic, Social, and Political Changes of the Twenties and Thirties. Warren G. Harding. Born in Ohio Publisher of the Marion Daily Star , newspaper 1898 elected to Ohio state legislature, joined the powerful Ohio Republican political machine

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Goal Nine

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  1. Goal Nine Prosperity and Depression 1919-1930 Economic, Social, and Political Changes of the Twenties and Thirties

  2. Warren G. Harding

  3. Born in Ohio • Publisher of the Marion Daily Star, newspaper • 1898 elected to Ohio state legislature, joined the powerful Ohio Republican political machine • 1903 elected Lt. Governor of Ohio • 1910 lost election for Governor of Ohio • 1914 elected US Senator from Ohio

  4. Served one term in the US Senate, ran for president and won in 1920 • Harding questioned his intellectual ability to be president • Political philosophy fit with the time period’ • “return to normalcy” – return to normal life after the war • His charm and personality endeared Harding to the public- open and easy going

  5. Ohio Gang

  6. Harding’s cabinet • Former Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes as Secretary of State • Former Food Administrator Herbert Hoover as Secretary of Commerce • Successful businessman Andrew Mellon as Secretary of Treasury • The rest of the cabinet selections went to friends and politicians from Ohio

  7. Charles “Doc” Sawyer as White House physician • Daniel Crissinger chairman of the Federal Reserve Board • Colonel Charles R. Forbes as head of Veterans Affairs • Harding preferred to socialize with his poker playing friends the “Ohio Gang” than with serious men like Hoover

  8. The “Ohio Gang” in addition to playing cards, drinking, and smoking used their positions to sell government jobs, pardons, and protection from prosecution • Forbes sold medical supplies from veterans hospitals and kept the money • Cost the taxpayers around $250 million • Harding complained he had been betrayed, no trouble with enemies, but his friends kept him walking the floors at night

  9. June 1923, during the Veterans bureau scandal, Harding and wife left to tour the American West- Alaska to California • Fell ill, probably heart attack, died on August 2, 1923 in San Francisco- just before news of Forbes scandal became public

  10. Teapot Dome

  11. Secretary of Interior Albert B. Fall allowed private interests to lease lands containing US Navy oil reserves at Teapot Dome, Wyoming and Elk Hills, California • Fall received $300,000 in bribes from the private interests • Senate investigated what the papers called the Teapot Dome Scandal • Fall was the first cabinet member to go to prison in US history

  12. Daugherty Scandal • Last Harding administration scandal involved Attorney General Harry Daugherty • Concerned a German-owned American chemical company seized by the US government during WWI • A German agent bribed a go-between politician to obtain the company and it’s valuable chemical patents

  13. A portion of the bribe money ended up in an Ohio bank account controlled by Daugherty • Investigated by his own Justice Department, Daugherty refused to turn over files and bank records, refused to testify under oath, claimed immunity on the grounds he had confidential dealings with President Harding • Angered President Coolidge-request Daugherty resign • The Harding presidency dissolved into scandal and corruption

  14. Calvin Coolidge

  15. Honest, which appealed to the public after the corruption of the Harding years • Former governor of Massachusetts-national attention for his handling of the Boston Police Strike, 1919 • Ran as Harding’s Vice President in 1920 • Became president at Harding’s death • Called “Silent Cal”

  16. Coolidge was simple and frugal • His personality did not seem to fit with the era of the Roaring Twenties • Named Harlan Fiske as Attorney General, asked Hoover and Mellon to remain in their cabinet position • Governmental philosophy- prosperity rested on business leadership, as president make sure government interfered with government as little as possible

  17. Worked to restore integrity to the presidency, avoided crisis and worked to expand national prosperity • Won the Republican nomination in the 1924 election

  18. Election of 1924

  19. Democrats used Harding scandals as issues • Lost a chance to win the White House, the Democrats were divided, Eastern urban Democrats and rural Democrats from the South and West • Trouble selecting a nominee • Finally chose John W. Davis of West Virginia • Republicans chose Coolidge- slogan- “Keep Cool with Coolidge”

  20. Republicans asked Americans to keep the party that favored business • Republican economic policy- align government with prosperity and big business • New Progressive Party made up of Democrats, Republicans, labor, farmers, and religious activists, nominated Robert LaFollette • LaFollette got 16.6% of the popular vote

  21. LaFollette nor Davis could defeat Coolidge • Coolidge 1925 speech- “The chief business of America is business”, “a man who builds a factory builds a temple, the man who works there worships there” • Government solidly pro-business • Coolidge avoided war, reform and scandal • Promised return to normalcy Harding had not delivered

  22. Mellon’s Economic Program

  23. Secretary of Treasury for three successive Republican administrations • Developed an economic policy for the US that encouraged economic growth and a stock market boom • Government apply business principles to it’s operation • Got Congress to create the Bureau of the Budget to prepare a uniform federal budget and the General Accounting Office to track government spending in 1921

  24. Mellon had three goals: • 1. balance the federal budget • 2. reduce government debt • 3. cut taxes • Mellon believed these three goals would promote economic growth • Within 7 years government budget went from $6.4 billion to less than $3 billion

  25. Major budget item, national debt- WWI pushed national debt to $26 billion by 1920 • Refinanced the debt to lower interest owed on it • Pushed the Federal Reserve Board to lower interest rates • Debt reduction and increase in tax revenue due to economic growth reduced the debt by $7 billion 1921-1929

  26. Supply Side Economics

  27. High taxes reduced amount of money available for private investment, hurt business expansion • Mellon thought tax rates too high, reduced amount of tax revenue the government received • Lower taxes, businesses and consumers spend and invest excess monies which would lead to economic growth

  28. Economic growth = citizens earn more money = government would collect more tax revenue at a lower rate = SUPPLY SIDE ECONOMICS • Mellon convinced Congress to cut tax rates- 1920 taxpayers paid 4% federal income tax, the highest bracket paid 73% • By 1928 Congress cut rates to .5% and for the rich to 25%

  29. This would reduce costs and lead to economic efficiency • To help business Hoover created agencies • -expanded the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce to find new opportunities for American companies • -Bureau of Aviation to regulate and support the airline industry

  30. Hoover and Cooperative Individualism • Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover promoted economic stability in various industries • Wanted to balance government regulation with a philosophy of cooperative individualism • Encourage manufacturers and distributors to form trade associations, voluntarily share information with the federal government

  31. -the Federal Radio Commission to establish rules for the use of radio frequencies and the power of radio transmitters

  32. Trade and Arms Control

  33. Prior to WWI the US owed foreign investors billions more than foreigners owed the US • End of WWI the Allies owed the US over $10 billion in war debts for food and arms • 1920s the US emerged as a major world economic power

  34. Isolationism

  35. In his victory speech Harding told the nation that the US would avoid entangling relationships with other nations • Favored isolationism, US remain alone to pursue prosperity • Problem with isolationism • -US too powerful • -US too interconnected economically with other nations

  36. -US too involved in international affairs to retreat into isolationism • US delegates participated in many League of Nations conferences • US policy to promote peace through agreements with individual nations, instead of through the League of Nations

  37. Dawes Plan

  38. WWI Allies struggled to make debt payments to the US- claimed high American tariffs made economic recovery difficult- not able to sell products in US-not able to get money to make payments- US should take on some of the financial burden because they lost fewer men than the other Allie nations • US response-American taxpayer should not be asked to take on debts of other nations

  39. Allies got territory and reparations payments from Germany, not the US • Reparations payments were destroying the German economy • 1924- Charles G. Dawes, American banker and diplomat negotiated an agreement with France, Britain, and Germany • American banks lent money to Germany so Germany could make reparations payments

  40. Britain and France would accept less in reparations and pay more on their war debts • Plan did not help European economic problems • France, Britain, and Germany went through the motions of paying debt while going deeper and deeper into debt to American banks and corporations

  41. Washington Naval Conference

  42. European nations in debt, still continued to engage in a postwar naval arms race • To stop the arms race the US invited representatives from Great Britain, France, Italy, China, Japan, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Portugal to Washington to talk of disarmament • Washington Naval Conference opened November 12, 1921

  43. Sec. of State Hughes proposed a ten year moratorium on new major warship construction • List of warships to be dismantled by each nation, started with some US battleships • Delegates were open to the proposal and entered into talks • Result was three agreements

  44. 1. Five Power Naval Limitation Treaty- Britain, France, Italy, Japan, and US formalized Hughes’ proposal • 2. Four Power Treaty- US, Japan, France, and Britain recognized each other’s island possessions in the Pacific • 3. Nine Power Treaty- signed by all delegates, guaranteed China’s independence

  45. Fell short as a long term solution to prevent war • Did not limit land forces • Angered Japan, required Japan to maintain a naval force much smaller than the US or Great Britain • Did give the US cause to look forward to a period of peace, recovery, and prosperity

  46. Kellogg-Briand Pact

  47. Success of the Washington Conference led to a false sense that treaties and written agreements could end war • Kellogg-Briand Pact signed August 27, 1928 by the US and 14 other nations, eventually ratified by 62 nations • Stated that all nations would agree to abandon war and settle disputes peacefully

  48. No way to enforce the agreement • Was hailed as a victory for peace • The Kellogg-Briand Pact and the Dawes Plan was the most important foreign policy achievements of the Coolidge administration

  49. New Industries

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