Warren G. Harding
Warren G. Harding was a friendly and amiable fellow. He was handsome, and had an exuberant love of people. Though charming Harding may have been, he was weak willed and inept leader. He was a poor judge of character, unable to see corruption among his counterparts. He was too concerned with not offending people, which prevented him from rooting out corruption. It allowed duplicitous politicians to exploit Harding.
Harding admitted this weakness, and so attempted to fill his cabinet with the best men out there. It included men like Herbert Hoover, wartime food administrator, as secretary of commerce, and Charles Evans Hughes, a decisive leader who dominated the position of secretary of state. It also contained two dastardly politicians though, Albert B. Fall, a notorious Anti-conservationist, was appointed secretary of the interior, and Harry M. Daugherty, a member of the corrupt Ohio gang, was appointed attorney general.
As president, Harding allowed the return of laissez-faire politics. His hands-off policy for business allowed corporations to expand, and in doing so they often ignored anti-trust laws. Businesses often got together to set prices, fronts for dealing with their customers, and standardization of product, as well as many other things. Herbert Hoover saw potential good in this though, and encouraged it, hoping that businesses would regulate themselves.
Unfortunately, the lack of morality in politics under the Harding Administration created an atmosphere for scandal. In 1923, army deserter Charles R. Forbes was forced to resign from his position as head of the Veterans Bureau after stealing $200 million dollars. Most Famous was the Teapot Dome scandal, in which Albert B. Fall convinced his cohort, the Secretary of navy, to hand over control of two valuable navy oil reserves, Teapot Dome and Elk hill, and then leased the land to oil tycoons Harry F. Sinclair and Edward L. Doheny. In return, the men "loaned" Fall some money, about $400,000. The news broke in 1923, and in 1929, Fall was subjected to one year in prison for taking a bribe, but no other punishments were imposed on either Fall or the Bribe givers. Their acquittal helped define the corrupt aura of Harding's Presidency. Later, Attorney General Daugherty was accused of the illegal selling of liquor licenses and pardons.
While Harding was on a on his way back from a speech-making tour across the country, he died of pneumonia, possibly hastened by the betrayal of his associates.
Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge, Vice President of Warren G. Harding, was a quiet and simple man. He was conservative in both word and policy, and his brutal honesty freed him from the corruption of the Harding administration. He was not a champion of change, and often solidified the current state of affairs. Coolidge was a leader of only intermediate skill, whose crafty wit in private did not break through to the public scene; his speeches were often boring. He maintained the hands-off business policy of Harding, but was free from its vices. However, Coolidge’s Presidency had its own problems.
Coolidge Easily won reelection in 1924. The conservative democrat John W. Davis carried the south, but Silent Cal stole the Midwest. The Progressive democrat La Follette had no local and state support, and the head without a body stood no chance in the bid for the presidency.
Coolidge did much to cement the isolationist policy in America. He allowed Congress to remain aloof of world-uniting policies such as the League of Nations and its judicial branch, the world court. He rejected plans for scaling down the war debt, insisting that America be repaid. This penny-pinching strategy fostered resentment in the European nations. Charles Dawes, before he became Coolidge’s Vice President, drafted the Dawes Plan of 1924, which allowed American investors to loan money to Germany, who could then pay the Allied Powers, who then paid America. However, this whole system collapsed during the Great Depression.
Coolidge further aggravated foreign nations, mostly those in Latin America, through his militaristic actions. He put little effort into pursuit of naval disarmament, but sent more soldiers to countries in Central America. American troops were withdrawn from the Dominican Republic in 1924, but remained in Haiti for another ten years. He briefly removed soldiers from Nicaragua, but sent them back a year later. He managed skillfully negotiate disputes with Mexico over oil, but elsewhere the imperialistic designs of America were not appreciated, increasing Americas withdrawal into Isolationism.
Herbert Hoover:
When Calvin Coolidge decided against running for a second term, the Republican Party turned their attention to a leader with an unblemished record, secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover. After serving under the administrations of the last three presidents. Hoover, in 1928 became the Republican Presidential nominee. In the election he ran against Alfred E smith of New York, under the platform to extend the prosperity of the Coolidge Administration, by decrying un-american "socialism" and preaching "rugged individualism". Hoover won a landslide victory and even took a large number of electoral votes in the South. His victory was also a result of the religious prejudice against Smith from Protestants, which seemed to outweigh voters usual democratic allegiance. Hoover, who started as a poor orphan boy, that worked his way through Stanford University, he became fabulously successful as a mining engineer and brilliant businessman. He had also traveled aboard extensively, which strengthened his faith in American individualism, free enterprise, and small government,
During his presidency, to answer the outcry of the indebted farmers, Hoover passed the Agricultural Marketing Act, in a effort to help the farmers help themselves. It established Federal Farm Board, which would lend money to farm organizations seeking to buy or sell agricultural surpluses. To win the support of the suffering farmers, Hoover promised to call congress in to session to develop a plan for agricultural relief and to bring about changes in the tariff that farmers were clutching to. One works mistakes of Hoover's presidency was the signing of the Hawley-Smoot Tariff of 1930. Its original political purpose was to satisfy U.S Business leaders, who though a higher tariff who protect their markets from foreign competition, while also designed to assist indebted farmers. Instead, after many amendments placed by Republican senate, it became the highest protective tariff in national peacetime history. In reprisal the United States for this tariff, European countries established their own higher tariffs against their own U.S goods. As a result, a massive reduction in trade for all nations, plunging them deeper into the economic depression.
During the time of the great stock market crash, President Hoover was wrong to believe that the economy would soon stabilize and prosperity would return. While deeply concerned about the well being of the nation and distraught about the suffering of the people, Hoover believed that the government had no role to play in the welfare of the people. He urged businesses not to cut wages, unions not to go on strike, and private charities to increase their efforts for the needy and the jobless. As the economic depression continued he came to realize that government intervention was necessary. Hoover devised a plan in which the government would contribute to helping railroads, banks and credit corporations in the hope that financial health would help decrease unemployment rates by a "trickle down" basis. Hoover, with this system in mind recommended that Congress vote immense sums for public works. One example of these public works was the Hoover Dam, that was began and 1930 and was completed in 1936, which succeeded in creating a huge man made lake for purposes of irrigation, flood control, and electrical power. In 1932 Congress responded to Hoovers pleas by establishing the reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC). This agency provided indirect relief by assisting insurance companies, agricultural organizations and railroads. Hoover is often criticized for his efforts because of his refusal to fund the masses with government money, but instead give it to the big bankers who are responsible for the crash originally.