President Harding's Cabinet:
Secretary of State - Charles Evans Hughes
Secretary of Treasury - Andrew Mellon
Secretary of Commerce - Herbert Hoover
Secretary of Interior - Albert Fall
Harding's Domestic Policy:
Belief that government should help business
Appointed 4 conservative justices to the Supreme Court which often ruled against progressive legislation
Labor was no longer supported by a friendly government and was adversely affected by the demobilization policies after World War I > 30% drop in membership
Harding's Foreign Policy:
Isolationism - Never joined the League of Nations
Disarmament - Washington Conference (1921-22)
1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact - Outlawed war!
Fordney-McCumber Tariff law raised rates to 38.5%
Harding's Scandels:
$200 million was looted from the Veterans' Bureau by chief, Charles R. Forbes
Priceless naval oil reserves were leased to private oil companies by Sec. of Interior, Albert Fall, in return for a $100,000 bribe for which he was sentenced to jail
Attorney General Daugherty was accused of illegaly selling pardons and liquor permits
Harding died in San Francisco on August 2, 1923 and was succeeded by his Vice President, Calvin Coolidge, who was born in Vermont!
Calvin Coolidge: A weak leader who believed that "The business of America is business"
Government policy was largely set by interest and values of the business community
Once again, Framers were being hurt by overproduction but frugal Coolidge twice refused to sign legislation which proposed to subsidized farm prices (McNary-Haugen Bill)
1924 Election: Coolidge ( R ) v. Davis ( D ) v. LaFollette ( P )
"Keep cool and keep Coolidge!"
Democrats failed by one vote to condemn the K.K.K.
1924 Dawes Plan - Tried to solve the tangle of war-debt and war-reparations payments from World War I Note: chart on p. 731
1928 Election: Hoover ( R ) v. Smith ( D )
Self-made millionaire v. Wet, urban, Catholic N.Y. Gov.
Hoover's Domestic Policies:
1929 Agricultural Marketing Act created the Federal Farm Board which loaned money to farmers to help them organize producers' cooperatives
October 29, 1929 - Stockmarket Crash
Harley-Smoot Tariff of 1930 raised rates to 60%
Because of his belief in the "Trickle-Down Theory", he opposed direct relief for the people (the Dole)
But, he did adopt unprecedented federal iniatives to combat it including major public works projects and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation ( RFC ) which lent and event state and local governments
1932 Norris-LaGuardia Act outlawed antiunion contracts and legalized peaceful strikes, boycotts, and picketing
Hoover's Foreign Policy:
In 1932, he used federal troops (under Gen. Douglas MacArthur) to put down a protest by W.W. I vets who were demanding payment of a promised bonus > severe damage to Hoover's public image
Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 led to the Hoover-Stimson Doctrine (1932) which declared that the U.S. would not recognize any territorial acquisition by force of arms
"Good Neighbor" in Latin America