Return to Normalcy

Normalcy in Government-1920 election of Warren G. Harding and

the simpler days before the war

-Isolationist Policies

-Washington Conferences – focused on naval armaments in the Pacific

proposed disarmament

• U.S., Britain, Japan, France, and Italy get rid of warships and not build more

-Kellogg-Briand TreatyKellogg-Briand Treaty,, 1929

outlawed war: 15 nations agree to renounce war as a national policy – could not enforce

-New high tariff returned U.S. to isolationist position

-Nativist policies

-discriminatory quota system established

-National Origins ActNational Origins Act, 1921

• Set maximum number of immigrants allowed in the U.S. each year – focused on Southern and Eastern Europe and excluded Asians

The Fordney-McCumber Tariff raised tariffs to the highest ever at 60%. The tax meant to protect American business from foreign competition, but it made it impossible for Britain and France to sell enough goods to the U.S. to repay their debts to the U.S. The two countries looked to

Germany for reparations payments. When Germany couldn’t pay, French troops marched into Germany and threatened another war. To stop

this, American banker Charles Dawes lent $2.5 billion to Germany to repay France and Britain, who in turn paid the U.S. Therefore, the

U.S. was repaid with their own money.

Labor Unrest-working conditions

• Strikes forbidden during war, but after, workers want shorter work days and better pay

-wartime inflation

• Prices increasing, pay is not

-technological unemployment

• Machines take jobs from people

-strikes (blamed on Communists)

Boston Police strike

U.S. Steel strike

Coal Miners Strike

John L. Lewis – defied court order to help coal miners gain 27% raise

-labor unions weaken

Open Shop system – do not require people to join a labor union

Welfare capitalism – workers happier

As the American people cried out for normalcy, labor unions lost

ground with their violent tactics. Most union strikes were not

successful.

The Red ScareRed Scare

• Afraid of the spread of communism

-Russian RevolutionRussian Revolution, 1917

Vladimir Lenin (Bolsheviks)

Communists

cry of worldwide revolution

• Want to end capitalism worldwide

-Red Scare

U.S. Communist Party, IWW

• 70,000 members of Communist Party

• Blamed for violent acts One perceived threat to American life was the spread of communism, an economic and political system based on a single-

party government ruled by a dictatorship. In order to equalize wealth and power,

communists would put an end to private property, substituting government

ownership of factories, railroads, and other businesses—ending capitalism.

The Red Scare

“Put Them Out and Keep Them Out”

The Red Scare-Palmer RaidsPalmer Raids Hunt for suspected

Communists, socialists, and anarchists

Mitchell Palmer

J.Edgar Hoover

violations of civil liberties

• Raided private homes and businesses, jailing suspects without legal counsel

-Sacco and VanzettiSacco and Vanzetti

anarchist immigrants accused of murder and executed

• Showed nativism and prejudice

• -Growth of the Klan

• Devoted to 100% Americanism

• Against blacks, Roman Catholics, Jews, and immigrants

“In all my life I have never stole, never killed, never spilled blood…We were tried during a time…when there was

hysteria of resentment and hate against the people of our principles, against the foreigner…I am suffering

because I am a radical and indeed I am a radical; I have suffered because I was an Italian and indeed I am an Italian…If you could execute me two times, and if

I could be reborn two times, I would live again to do what I have done

already.”

~Bartolomeo Vanzetti~

“The blaze of revolution was sweeping over every American institution…crawling into the sacred corners of American

homes,…burning up the foundations of American

society.”

A. Mitchell Palmer

In May 1920, Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested and charged with

the robbery and murder of a factory paymaster and his guard in Massachusetts. Witnesses had said the criminals appeared to be

Italians. The accused asserted their innocence and provided

alibis; the evidence against them was circumstantial; and the

presiding judge made prejudicial remarks. Nevertheless, the jury

still found them guilty and sentenced them to death.

Protests rang out in the U.S., Europe, and Latin America. Many

people thought Sacco and Vanzetti were mistreated because of their radical beliefs or because

they were immigrants. The government let the executions go forward. The two men died in the electric chair on August 23, 1927.

In 1961, new ballistics tests showed that the pistol found on

Sacco was in fact the one used to murder the guard. However, there was no proof that Sacco

actually pulled the trigger.

Sacco and Vanzetti > Funeral after the executions, Boston, August 1927Funeral Procession of Sacco and Vanzetti

August 1927 in Boston

Devoted to “100 percent Americanism,” Klan membership skyrocketed to over 4.5 million members in the United States during the 1920s. The new Klan was against everything that was not white Protestant

American. Here, the Klan marches on Washington, D.C. in 1925.

HardingHarding and and CoolidgeCoolidge

-Prosperity returns to the United States

• Increasing businesses, standard of living

-Harding made some good and bad appointment choices

Herbert Hoover – secretary of Commerce

Ohio Gang – Harding’s poker-player friends who used their offices for graft

-Teapot Dome ScandalTeapot Dome Scandal

gov’t owned oil rich lands leased out to private oil companies for far less than their value – those who lease take bribes

-Harding and administration are embarrassed and several officials sent to prison

-Harding dies in Office and Calvin Coolidge replaces him and wins re-election

• Crimes come to light as Coolidge assumes office; restores people’s faith in President and Republicans

“Keep Cool with Coolidge”

“Do Nothing Cal”

Albert Fall secretly leased government land to private oil companies. Although he claimed these contracts were in the

government’s best interest, he suddenly received more than $400,000

in “loans, bonds, and cash.”

“I have no trouble with my enemies…But my…friends, they’re the ones that

keep me walking the floor nights!” ~ Warren G. Harding~