Politics in the 1920’s

“A Return to Normalcy”

This became Warren G. Harding’s campaign slogan when he accidentally messed up the word, “Normality”

Americans loved it and elected him

Fighting the Recession After WWI, 2 million soldiers were looking for work

Factories were closing because they were no longer getting orders for wartime goods from European nations

The Teapot Dome Scandal

Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall accepted a bribe to lease government land to oil executives

One of these areas was called “Teapot Dome” in Wyoming

Fall was sent to prison

Warren G. Harding Very popular because he “didn’t do anything”

Let the country heal economically and emotionally Died two years into his term - August 2, 1923

Public mourning He was a very popular

president at that time

Vice President Calvin Coolidge Becomes

President “Silent Cal” spoke and spent little (Harding loved to throw parties and give long speeches)

He forced corrupt officials to resign

He was re-elected in 1924 with the slogan “Keep Cool With Coolidge”

Coolidge and Business Coolidge cut

regulations on businesses

Americans’ incomes rose

People began to buy refrigerators, radios, vacuums, and other appliances

Businesses began to advertise their products

“The business of America is business.”

+ + = $$REPUBLICAN ECONOMY SUPPORTED LAISSEZ FAIRE

AND BIG BUSINESS……….

Lower Taxes Less Federal Higher Strong Spending Tariffs National

Economy

Fordney-McCumber Tariff---1923Hawley-Smoot Tariff ---1930

raised the tariff to an unbelievable 60%!!!

American Foreign Policy in the 1920s

Most Americans (including Harding and Coolidge) wanted to remain “isolationist”

HOWEVER:

1. U.S. still needed to protect interests in Mexico

2. U.S. gave $10 million to aid Russia during a famine

3. U.S. still signed the “Kellogg-Briand Pact” with 61 other nations (which outlawed war)

Red Scare American fear that Communist

Revolution in Russia would spill into U.S.

Palmer Raids Americans were paranoid after the Russian Revolution in 1917.

Alexander Mitchell Palmer was appointed in 1919 to arrest communists, socialists, and anarchists.

Named J. Edgar Hoover as his Assistant 10,000 suspected communists were

arrested, many without warrants. 600 were deported.

Nativism

Anger against foreigners led to a new move to limit immigration.

Nativism: Anti-foreign feeling.

Quota System System that

limited immigration.

Allowed only a certain number of immigrants from certain countries.

“America must be kept American”

Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s Strongly

supported efforts to limit immigration.

The new Klan terrorized immigrants.

Klan membership was 3,000,000–6,000,000 in the 1920s Membership peaked in 1924–25

Women Gain the Right to Vote

19th Amendment in 1920 gave women the right to vote

Carrie Chapman Catt set up the League of Women Voters

This group tried to educate voters and ensure the right of women to serve on juries

“The Noble Experiment”Prohibition

A national(Constitutional) ban on the sale, production, and transport of alcohol,

from 1920 to 1933.

Effects of prohibition:-Consumption of alcohol may have increased

-Bootlegging/Organized Crime became problems

The Prohibition Experiment Reason it failed

Lacking of government enforcement

People wanted to enjoy their life

Most immigrants did not see it as a sin, but rather as a part of socializing

The Prohibition Experiment Speakeasies, Bootleggers and Organized Crime Drinking went undergrounds to Speakeasies

Bootleggers profit from selling illegal liquor

Helped contributed to the rise of organized crime Al Capone

Prohibition EndsThe 21st Ammendment Repealed

Prohibition in 1933.