Politics of the 1920’s

Scandals• Veteran’s Affairs

– Charles Forbes: sold medical supplies, pocketed money, $250 million

• Dept. of Interior– Teapot Dome– Albert Fall

• Accepted bribes of $300K• U.S. Navy Oil Reserves

• Attorney General– Harry Daugherty– Investigated for taking bribes

from a German company

• Harding dies of heart attack in San Francisco

• 1st term Senator from Ohio• Cronyism used to elect cabinet– Ohio Gang

• Notables– Charles Evans Hughes: Sec. of

State– Herbert Hoover: Sec. of Commerce– Andrew Mellon: Sec. of Treasury

• Kept : Hughes, Mellon and Hoover on in their positions

• Laissez Faire Policy• Keep America

prosperous• Vice-President for Harding• Sworn-in after Harding dies• Known as Silent Cal

Dawes Plan• In late 1923, with the European powers stalemated over German reparations, the

Reparation Commission formed a committee to review the situation. Headed by Charles G. Dawes (Chicago banker, former Director of the Bureau of the Budget, and future Vice President), the committee presented its proposal in April 1924. Under the Dawes Plan, Germany’s annual reparation payments would be reduced, increasing over time as its economy improved; the full amount to be paid, however, was left undetermined. Economic policy making in Berlin would be reorganized under foreign supervision and a new currency, the Reichsmark, adopted. France and Belgium would evacuate the Ruhr and foreign banks would loan the German government $200 million to help encourage economic stabilization. U.S. financier J. P. Morgan floated the loan on the U.S. market, which was quickly oversubscribed. Over the next four years, U.S. banks continued to lend Germany enough money to enable it to meet its reparation payments to countries such as France and the United Kingdom. These countries, in turn, used their reparation payments from Germany to service their war debts to the United States. In 1925, Dawes was a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his plan’s contribution to the resolution of the crisis over reparations.

Dawes PlanThis is a crude example,Don’t forget the UK also received payments from Germany, and made them to the United States.

Washington Naval Conference

• Between 1921 and 1922, the world’s largest naval powers gathered in Washington, D.C. for a conference to discuss naval disarmament and ways to relieve growing tensions in East Asia.

• In the wake of World War I, leaders in the international community sought to prevent the possibility of another war. Rising Japanese militarism and an international arms race heightened these concerns. As a result, policymakers worked to reduce the rising threat. Senator William E. Borah (R–Idaho) led a congressional effort to demand that the United States engage its two principal competitors in the naval arms race, Japan and the United Kingdom, in negotiations for disarmament.

Washington Naval Conference• The Five-Power Treaty, signed by the United States, the United

Kingdom, Japan, France and Italy was the cornerstone of the naval disarmament program. It called for each of the countries involved to maintain a set ratio of warship tonnage which allowed the United States and the United Kingdom 500,000 tons, Japan 300,000 tons, and France and Italy each 175,000 tons. Japan preferred that tonnage be allotted at a 10:10:7 ratio, while the U.S. Navy preferred a 10:10:5 ratio. The conference ultimately adopted the 5:5:3 ratio limits. Since the United States and the United Kingdom maintained navies in both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans to support their colonial territories, the Five-Power Treaty allotted both countries the highest tonnage allowances. The treaty also called on all five signatories to stop building capital ships and reduce the size of their navies by scrapping older ships.

Kellogg-Briand Pact

The Kellogg-Briand Pact was an agreement to outlaw war signed on August 27, 1928. Sometimes called the Pact of Paris for the city in which it was signed, the pact was one of many international efforts to prevent another World War, but it had little effect in stopping the rising militarism of the 1930s or preventing World War II.

London Naval Treaties

In 1935, the powers met for a second London Naval Conference to renegotiate the Washington and London treaties before their expiration the following year. The Japanese walked out of that conference, but Great Britain, France, and the United States signed an agreement declaring a six-year holiday on building large light cruisers in the 8,000 to 10,000 ton range. That final decision marked the end to the decade-long controversy over cruisers.

Quiz 1 will be on the above material

Charles Lindbergh

• Pilot who was the first to fly non-stop across the Atlantic from New York to Paris. He became an American Icon.

Amelia Earhart

• Aviator• First woman to fly across the

Atlantic Ocean• Mysteriously disappeared

while attempting to be the first woman to fly around the world

• Her remains were never found

Duke Ellington

• Piano player and band leader of the Harlem Renaissance

Louis Armstrong

• Jazz trumpet player of the Harlem Renaissance

Bessie Smith

• Empress of the Blues, jazz singer of the Harlem Renaissance

F. Scott Fitzgerald

• a prominent American writer of the "Lost Generation," the author of novels including This Side of Paradise, Tender is the Night, and—most famously—The Great Gatsby.

Al Capone

Click on the two links for Al Capone to learn about him. It is a rather short article.• 8 Facts about Al• St. Valentine’s Day

Constitutional Amendments

18th Amendment• Prohibition

19th Amendment• Woman’s Suffrage

Babe Ruth

• Professional Baseball player who saved the professional game with his amazing feats on the field

Albert Einstein

Sacco and Vanzetti

• Italian Anarchists executed for murdering a store clerk

Marcus Garvey

• African-American leader who led the Back-to-Africa Movement and the UNIA

• Formed the Black Star Line

Henry Ford

• Automobile maker who helped revolutionize American industry by pioneering the use of the moving assembly line.

George Washington Carver

• As an agricultural chemist, Carver discovered three hundred uses for peanuts and hundreds more uses for soybeans, pecans and sweet potatoes.

• Changed farming in the south

Langston Hughes

Arguably the best known poet of the Harlem Renaissance

Norman Rockwell

William Jennings Bryan

• Prosecutor during the *Scopes Monkey Trial

• Wanted to ban teaching of evolution in school

Clarence Darrow

• Defense lawyer during the Scopes Monkey Trial

Herbert Hoover• Self-made millionaire in the

mining industry, a very successful Secretary of Commerce from 1921-28, and a very unsuccessful president of the U.S. from 1929 to 1933. His term saw the onset of the Great Depression, which began with the stock market crash just a few months after he took office.

Walt Disney

Charlie Chaplin

• Hollywood comedic actor who created the character "The Little Tramp"

Alexander Fleming

• Scientist who discovered penicillin