1. The Good Old Days- 1920s America
 A Return to Normalcy
 Rejection of Woodrow Wilson and his international
policies
 Election of Republican presidents
 Return of scandal and corruption
 Isolationist policies
 High tariffs
 Wide-scale prosperity
 Prohibition Era
 Rise in organized crime (the mob)
 Jazz Age

2. Harding Administration
 Republican Warren G. Harding was elected
President in 1920
 Surrounded himself with the “best minds”
(reality was that they were his “cronies”
known as the Ohio Gang)
 Secretary of State- Charles Evans Hughes
 Secretary of Commerce- Herbert Hoover
 Secretary of the Treasury- Andrew Melon
 Secretary of Agriculture- Henry Wallace
 Secretary of the Interior- Albert Fall
 Attorney General- Harry Daugherty

3. Harding’s Foreign Policy
 1921- Ignored the Treaty of Versailles and signed
a separate peace with Germany
 1921- Washington Naval Conference
 Armaments reduction meeting of major countries
 Five Power Treaty- England, Japan, US, France, and Italy
 Agreed to limit the number of war ships being produced and
scrap existing ships and to not build forts or naval bases in
the Pacific
 Nine Power Treaty- US, Japan, China, France, England,
Italy, Belgium, Holland, and Portugal
 Agreed to observe the Open Door in China and to respect
China’s integrity
 Four Power Treaty- US, England, Japan, and France
 Agreed to respect one another’s possessions in the Pacific

4. Harding’s Domestic Policy
 Republican Platform under Harding
 Higher tariffs
 Lower taxes
 Less government spending
 Aid to disabled soldiers
 Aid to farmers

5. Harding’s Domestic Policy
 Budget and Accounting Act
 Set up the Bureau of the Budget and a General
Accounting Office
 Allowed US citizens to see how the government
intended to spend their money
 Fordney-McCumber Tariff
 Raised duties on agricultural and industrial products
 Adversely affected the flow of foreign trade
 European nations responded with high tariffs of their
own

6. Harding’s Domestic Policy
 Congress repealed the wartime excess profits
tax on industry, reduced the top level of taxes
on the wealthy from 65 to 50% (eventually
down to 25%), and lowered taxes for middle
and lower-income people
 Bonus Bill
 War veterans asked for increased benefits
 Harding vetoed this bill and Congress could not
override
 Eventually passed during Coolidge’s administration
as the Adjusted Compensation Act

7. Harding’s Domestic Policy
 War debts and reparations
 Harding called for the repayment of war debts owed
by the Allies to be paid in installments
 1922- United States War Debt Commission
 Created to negotiate repayment plans with 17 Allied
nations who owed the US money due to WWI
 1924- The Dawes Plan
 Reduced Germany’s reparations and allowed for
payment over time
 US banks and financiers lent money to Germany to pay
their reparations

8. Scandal and Corruption
 Veteran’s Bureau
 Headed by Charles Forbes
 In charge of the hospitals and all other forms of
veterans’ relief
 $250 million wasted or stolen from this program
 Forbes left the country and resigned his position, but
later would serve 2 years in federal prison
 Charles Cramer, the Bureau’s legal advisor,
committed suicide
 Jesse Smith, Justice Department aid, was wrapped up
in this scandal and committed suicide as well

9. Scandal and Corruption
 Alien Property Custodian
 Headed by Thomas Miller
 In charge of taking and maintaining German property
in the US during WWI
 Miller sold much of this land and pocketed millions of
dollars

10. Scandal and Corruption
 Teapot Dome Scandal
 Involved Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall
 US had set aside oil fields as reserves and Fall leased
two of these fields (Teapot Dome in Wyoming and Elk
Hills in California) to private businesses in exchange
for $325,000
 Fall was imprisoned
 Supreme Court canceled the leases

11. Harding’s Death
 Warren Harding fell ill on a trip to the West
Coast and Alaska in the summer of 1923
 He succumbed to his illness and died on
August 2, 1923