The Roaring 20s:The Policies of Prosperity

Ch 8.3

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

• Daily goal: • Understand what government policies helped

grow the 1920s economy and how foreign policy changed.

The Mellon Program

• Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon thought his plan would keep the economy growing.

• The plan:1. Lower Taxes2. Balanced federal budget3. Lower gov’t debt

Hoover’s Cooperative Individualism

• Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover encouraged (not forced) businesses to work together to help grow the economy.

A World Power

• After WWI America now lent more money that it borrowed.

• It was also the largest economy in the World.

Isolationism

• Pres. Harding promised that America would avoid future cooperation with Europe.

• The US refused to join the League of Nations after WWI.

Dawes Plan

• The Dawes plan kept the European economies strong enough to keep buying American products.

• Lent Europeans enough money to repay American banks for WWI loans.

The Washington Naval Conference

• The US called a conference of the world’s military powers and gets them to agree to stop expanding their navies.

• Agreements signed:• 4-power naval agreement• 5-power naval agreement• 9-power naval agreement

The end of War?

• Americans hoped they could rid of war by getting 62 nations to sign the Kellogg-Briand Pact in which they all promised to never go to war again.