1920s Politics Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover.
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Transcript of 1920s Politics Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover.
1920s Politics
Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover
• Attorney General = A. Mitchell Palmer
• Palmer Raids:– J. Edgar Hoover head of antiradical division
in the Justice Dept, later FBI
– Hunts suspected Communists, socialists and anarchists
– What did the gov’t find?
– May 1, 1920, May Day = suspected Comm. Plot to overthrow the gov’t; What happened?
Russian Revolution leads to Red Scare in US
What similarities do you see of this in today’s society?
• Anthrax?
• Profiling?
• Patriot Act?
KKK• “100 percent Americanism”
• Enforce prohibition, oppose unions, and drive Catholics, Jews and foreign-born out of the country
• Kleagles kept $4 out of every $10 initiation fee for ea. Member they recruited = kleagling
• Why was there a resurgence in the KKK in the 1920s?
• Why did the Klan’s power decrease significantly by the end of the 1920s?
Klan Wedding Washington State (1926)
• Membership of the NJ branch of the KKK was +50,000 w/ thousands more sympathetic to the Klan's mission. W/ this support, they’re ready to take over Protestant control in the state. They would openly attack corrupt politicians and take on the rumrunners
1915 Hollywood
film:
“The Birth of a Nation”
Re-invigorated the KKK
Sacco and Vanzetti Trial
Labor Unrest (pg 594-595)
Strike Problems ResultsBoston Police Strike
Steel Mill Strike
Coal Miners Strike
Strike Problems Results
Boston Police Strike
1919
Not had a raise since start of WWI, 1914 cost of living x2; everyone fired/went on strike
Coolidge called National Guard, police off strike; new police hired; can’t strike against public safety
Steel Mill Strike
9/1919
12 hr days, difficult/ dangerous work; US Steel hires strikebreakers uses force, 18 killed
Broken Jan 1920; 1923 report published showing conditions in steel mills, shocking, est. 8 hr days; no union
Coal Miners Strike
United Mine Workers head Lewis protest Nov 1, 1919 long hrs, low wages; Palmer sent members back 2 work
Lewis quietly gave word to continue strike, mines closed +1 month; won 27% wage increase, Lewis gained fame
• Overall, what can you conclude about labor unions in the 1920s? Were they successful?
• Why did membership in labor unions decline in the 1920s?
Labor unions declined b/c…• Much of the work force consisted of
immigrants who had to work in poor conditions
• Immigrants spoke different languages = hard to organize/communicate unions
• Farmers who moved to cities for factory jobs hard to unionize b/c used to relying on themselves
1920 Presidential Election
• Harding and Coolidge vs. James Cox and FDR
• Harding promoted a “return to normalcy” – America before the progressive reforms
Harding’s Return to “Normalcy”
• Isolationism
• Nativism
• Political Conservatism
• New threat to all this = Communism
Domestic and Foreign Policy
• Kellogg-Briand Pact Isolationist foreign policy
• Fordney-McCumber Tariff
• Dawes Plan
• Emergency Quota Act of 1921/Quota system
Harding’s Administration and Scandal
• Secretary of State = Charles Evans Hughes
• Secretary of Commerce = Herbert Hoover
• Secretary of Treasury = Andrew Mellon (one of the wealthiest men to try and reduce debt) – fell by 1923 by 1/3
• Ohio Gang: – Interior Secretary = Albert Fall
Teapot Dome Scandal
• Oil-rich public land set aside by gov’t in Teapot Dome, Wyoming and Elks Hills, CA under US Navy
• Fall got reserves transferred to interior dept.
• Secretly leased land to 2 private oil Co.’s; Fall became wealthy
• Harding died on Aug. 2, 1923, Coolidge becomes President and is reelected in 1924