Presidential PoliticsThursday November 14, 2013

Main Idea: Warren Harding’s administration suffered from several scandals. His successor, Calvin Coolidge, promised to support business.

Bell Ringer (No. 2)Dr. Seuss

on Prohibition

What is the message of this cartoon?

The Review is to be completed by 11/22 on your own time

Today’s ActivityComplete “Normalcy and Good Times”

Answer questions 10 and 11 with 3 sentences each.

Use your notes and the textbook

Warren G. Harding

Normalcy Campaign – promise to return to normal life after the war.

Cabinet – distinguished appointments Charles Evans Hughes as Secretary

of State Herbert Hoover as Secretary of

Commerce Andrew Mellon as secretary of the

Treasury

Harding appointed some friends/political allies to cabinet posts and high-level jobs The Ohio Gang “The air would be heavy with tobacco

smoke, trays with bottles containing every imaginable brand of whiskey…cards and poker chips at hand—a general atmosphere of waistcoat unbuttoned, feet on desk, and spittoons alongside.” (Alice Roosevelt Longworth)

Scandal

Forbes Scandal Charles Forbes head of

Veterans Bureau Sold medical supplies

and kept money for himself

Teapot Dome Scandal Albert B. Fall Secretary

of the Interior allowed private interests to lease lands containing US Navy oil reserves at Teapot Dome, Wyoming and Elk Hills, California

Fall received bribes of more than 300,000

The Fall of Fall: first cabinet member to go to prison

Calvin CoolidgeKept able cabinet members;

replaced the Ohio GangCalvin’s Philosophy: prosperity

rests on business leadership; president is to make sure that govt interferes with business and industry as little as possible. “Four-fifths of all our troubles in this

life would disappear if we would only sit down and keep still”

Election of 1924: “Keep Cool with Coolidge”

Andrew Mellon and Economic Prosperity

Secretary of the Treasury under Harding, Coolidge, and HooverChief architect of

economic policy in the 1920s

Policies encouraged growth and led to a stock market boom

Three goals: balance the budget, reduce govt debt, cut taxes

The Mellon ProgramGovt spending cut from 6.4

billion to 3 billion in 7 yearsDebt Reduction

Refinanced WWI debt to lower the interest

Persuaded the Fed to lower its interest rates as well

Increased tax revenue from the nation’s economic boom

Debt reduced by 7 billion from 1921-9

Mellon Program Cont. Reduced taxes

High taxes reduced the money available for private investment and prevented business expansion

High tax rates reduced the amount of money the govt collected

Supply-side economics - lower taxes = more govt revenue Businesses and consumers

spend and invest extra money causing the economy to grow

Americans earn more money Govt collects more taxes at a

lower tax rate

Tax Rate before Mellon: 4-73% Tax Rate in 1928: 0.5-25%

Hoover’s Cooperative Individualism

Secretary of Commerce Hoover balanced govt regulation with cooperative individualism Encouraged manufacturers and

distributors to form their own trade associations which would share information with the federal govt

Goal: reduce costs and promote economic efficiency

Expanded Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce Find new markets and business

opportunities for American companies Established

Bureau of Aviation Federal Radio Commission

Foreign Policy Isolationism -

Americans wanted to be left alone to pursue prosperity

US was too powerful and economically interconnected with other nations to retreat into isolationism

US promoted peace through agreements with individual countries rather than through the League

Dawes Plan Allies owed US 10 billion at the end of

WWI US needed Europe to be economically

stable to buy US exports and repay war debts

1924 Charles G Dawes (banker/diplomat) made a treaty with France, Britain, and Germany American banks would make loans to the

Germans that would enable them to meet their reparations payments

Britain and France would accept less in reparations and pay more on war debts

Thus, Europe became more indebted to American banks

Kellogg-Briand PactPact between 14

nations outlawing warSigned August 27,

192862 nations signed

eventually