 NOTICE 

1.  NOTICE  These slides are provided to augment the lectures presented in Dr. Hatley’s History 2493-US Since 1877 course. If you miss class, you should not assume that merely perusing these will provide you with sufficient information to do well on examinations.

2. Presidential Election of 1920 • Warren G. Harding (R) (1865-1923) (1921-1923)

3. Presidential Election of 1920 • First presidential election in which all women at least 21 years of age and US citizens were allowed to vote (XIX Amendment 1920). • End of the Progressive Movement • Middle class lost interest in politics

4. Harding Administration (1921-23) • “a return to normalcy” • Drank bootleg liquor during Prohibition • Outstanding appointments: • Sec. of State—Charles Evans Hughes • Sec. of Treasury—Andrew Mellon

5. Harding Administration (1921-23) • Sec. of Commerce—Herbert Hoover • Questionable Appointments: • Sec. of Interior—Albert B. Fall • Veterans’ Bureau—Charles R. Forbes • Attorney General—Harry M. Daugherty

6. Harding Administration (1921-23) • Teapot Dome Scandal • Tax reductions: income, gift, and inheritance. • Federal regulatory commissions • Fordney-McCumber Tariff (1922) • Federal budget balanced

7. Harding Administration (1921-23) • Tremendous economic growth — Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

8. Harding Administration (1921-23) • Real Estate Boom • Harding died 2 August 1923 from a coronary thrombosis

9. Harding Administration (1921-23) • Harding’s wife, Florence, refused to permit an autopsy

10. Coolidge Administration (1923-29) • Calvin Coolidge (R) (1872-1933)

11. Coolidge Administration (1923-29) • Grace Goodhue Coolidge (1879-1957) Grace Coolidge and Rebecca

12. Coolidge Administration (1923-29) • Everyone talks of the restlessness of women since the war. . . . Of course they are restless. Soon there will not be an intelligent woman who is content to do nothing but live a social life. — Grace Coolidge (1921)

13. Presidential Election of 1928 • New York Governor Alfred E. Smith (D) (1873-1944)

14. Presidential Election of 1928 • Herbert C. Hoover (R) (1874-1964) (1929-1933)

15. Presidential Election of 1928 • Campaign Issues: • The Economy • Religion — Hoover (Quaker) Smith (Roman Catholic) • Prohibition

16. The Great Depression • Stock Market Crash (October 1929) • Average American’s income down 50% by 1932 • By 1932, the unemployment rate reached 25%

17. The Great Depression • Factories closed, family farms and home mortgages foreclosed, and small businesses went bankrupt • Over 9,000 banks closed • So what caused the Great Depression?

18. Causes of the Great Depression • Historians and Economists agree: Unregulated speculation or speculative madness • Theories: • Mal-distribution of wealth and overproduction of goods put 50% of nation’s wealth under the control of 200 corporations

19. Causes of the Great Depression • Monetarist theory • Economist Milton Friedman (1912-2006)

20. Causes of the Great Depression • Federal Reserve mismanaged the money supply. How? • Federal Reserve regulated the amount of money in circulation by controlling the prime rate • Prime rate reduced throughout the late 1920s

21. Causes of the Great Depression • Federal involvement in the economy such as the Fordney-McCumber Tariff (1922) and the Smoot-Hawley Tariff (1930) enacted during the Great Depression, contributed to the problem.

22. Hoover and the Great Depression • Attempted to restore confidence in the nation’s financial structure. • Challenged businesses to keep their doors open, maintain wage levels, and spread the work to avoid layoffs.

23. Hoover and the Great Depression • Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon (1855-1937) (1921-1932)

24. Hoover and the Great Depression • Reconstruction Finance Corporation (1932) • Funded $2.5 billion in Federal loans to: • banks, agricultural credit corporations, railroads, life insurance companies, land banks, et cetera.

25. Hoover and the Great Depression • Emergency Relief and Construction Act (1932) • Authorized the RFC over $2 billion in loans to the states for: • emergency relief • creation of jobs for public works • Bonus Marchers or Bonus Army

26. Presidential Election of 1932 • Franklin Delano Roosevelt (D) (1882-1945) (1933-1945) • FDR

27. Harvard Columbia Law School Roosevelt in 1917

28. The New Deal • Emergency Banking Relief Act (1933) stipulated that only solvent banks could reopen • Farm Credit Administration • Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) • Guaranteed all bank deposits up to $2,500.00

29. The New Deal • Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) • Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

30. The New Deal • Works Progress Administration (WPA) • Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) • National Recovery Administration (NRA)

31. Roosevelt’s Challengers Louisiana Senator Huey Long Fr. Charles E. Coughlin Dr. Francis F. Townsend

32. Second New Deal 1935 • Social Security Act (1935) • Roosevelt convened a special session of Congress in an attempt to pass “must legislation” (1937)

33. Second New Deal • FDR attempted to “pack” the US Supreme Court (1937)

34. “Ring Around a Roosevelt, Pockets Full of Dough!”

35. Evaluating the New Deal • Roosevelt’s efforts failed to pull the US out of the Great Depression • National Debt increased from $22.5 Billion in 1933 to $40.5 Billion by 1939 • Employment opportunities probably prevented civil unrest