The Politics of Boom and Bust
Chapter 32
Andy Schrantz

Essential Questions ­In what ways were the 1920s a reaction against the progressive era? ­Was the American isolationism of the
1920s linked to the rise of movements such as the Ku Klux Klan? In what ways did movements such as fundamentalism reflect similar anti­modern outlooks, and in what ways did they reflect more basic religious disagreements? ­To what extent did the policies of the booming 1920s contribute to the depression?
Was the depression inevitable, or could it have been avoided. Why or why not?

Vocabulary
1. “Ohio Gang”
2. trade associations
3. American Legion
4. Washington Conference
5. Kellogg-Briand Pact
6. Fordney-McMumber Tariff
7. Teapot Dome Scandal
8. McNary-Haugen Bill
9. Progressive Party
10. Dawes plan
11. “Hoovercrats”
12. Hawley-Smoot Tariff
13. Black Friday
14. Muscle Shoals Bill
15. Reconstruction Finance Corporation
16. Bonus Army
Stimson doctrine

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11.

Warren G. Harding
Charles Evans Hughes
Andrew Mellon
Herbert Hoover
Albert B. Fall
Harry M. Daugherty
Charles R. Forbes
Calvin Coolidge
John W. Davis
Robert La Follette
Alfred E. Smith

I. The Republican “Old Guard” Returns

1. Newly elected President Warren G. Harding had a mediocre mind and he did not like to hurt people’s feelings. o Could not detect the corruption within his adminstration.
– His cabinet did have some good officials, though, such as
Secretary
of State Charles Evans Hughes, who was masterful, imperious, incisive, and brilliant, Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, and
Secretary of the Treasury Andrew W. Mellon.

1. However, people like Senator Albert B. Fall of New Mexico, a scheming anti­conservationist, became secretary of the interior, and Harry M. Daugherty took over the reigns as attorney general. o These two became the worst of the scandalous cabinet members. II. GOP Reaction at the Throttle
1. A good man but a weak one, Harding was the perfect front for old­fashioned politicians to set up for the nation a McKinley­style old order. o It hoped to further laissez­faire capitalism, and one of the examples of this was the Supreme Court, where Harding appointed four of the nine justices, including William H. Taft, former president of the United States.
– In the early 1920s, the Supreme Court killed a federal child­labor law. – ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

• In the case of Adkins v. Children’s Hospital, the court reversed its ruling in the Muller v. Oregon case by invalidating a minimum wage law for women.
• Under Harding, corporations could expand again, and anti­trust laws were not as enforced or downright ignored.
• Men sympathetic to railroads headed the Interstate Commerce
Commission.

III. The Aftermath of the War
1. Wartime government controls disappeared (i.e. the dismantling of the War Industries Board) and Washington returned control of railroads to private hands by the Esch­Cummins Transportation Act of
1920.
2. The Merchant Marine Act of 1920 authorized the Shipping
Board,
which controlled about 1,500 vessels, to get rid of a lot of ships at bargain prices, thus reducing the size of the navy.
3. Labor lost much of its power, as a strike was ruthlessly broken in
1919, and the Railway Labor Board ordered a wage cut of 12% in 1922.

• Labor membership shrank by 30% from 1920 to 1930.
• In 1921, the Veterans’ Bureau was created to operate hospitals and provide vocational rehabilitation for the disabled. o Many veterans wanted the monetary compensation promised to them for their services in the war. o The Adjusted Compensation Act gave every former soldier a paid­up insurance policy due in twenty years. It was passed by
Congress twice
(the second time to override president Calvin Coolidge’s veto).

IV. America Seeks Benefits Without
Burdens
1. Since America had never ratified the Treaty of Versailles, it was still technically at war with