The Republican Era From 1921 all the way to 1933, Republicans controlled the White House. However, the “R” beside their names on the voting stub did not mean that these men carried identical ideals. Warren Harding was a consummate people pleaser, Calvin Coolidge was dour and politically responsible, and Herbert Hoover took his form of government after the likes of the bombastic Theodore Roosevelt. The marked differences between these men shined a light on the values of the Republican party of the time, and of the 1920s itself. Pay to Play Harding Warren G. Harding started his rise as a newspaper editor in small town Ohio. Genial, attractive, and well connected, Harding rose quickly in the Republican party and attained a Senate seat. This wasn’t …show more content…
Often silent at dinner parties, he did not openly party or imbibe. Instead he was a dignified politician that believed in small government and in the people as the key to prosperity. He took great measures to reduce the control of government and reduced the power of the FTC and business regulations. His popularity was massive, but instead of seeking a second term, he quietly stepped away from politics after his first …show more content…
(Murrin et al., 2012) Having spent years as Secretary of Commerce under Harding and Coolidge, Hoover used his influence to help shape industry into a more productive and cooperating force. He saw that the economy and businesses would thrive if they worked together, sharing information to strengthen not only individual companies, but the entire market. This leadership style shone throughout his presidency, highlighted by his participation in the nation’s first television broadcast. Despite all three men being firmly Republicans, they each represented vastly different aspects of the party. Hoover was the face of business and innovation, Coolidge of dignity and small government, and Harding was the face of cronyism and pay to win politics. Even with the growth and change of the Republican Party throughout the years, these men still are highly representative of the Republican Party as a whole even to this day. References Murrin, J. M., Johnson, P. E., McPherson, J. M., Fahs, A., Gerstle, G., Rosenberg, E. S., & Rosenberg, N. L. (2012). Liberty, Equality and Power (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage.Last Name, F. M. (Year). Book Title. City Name: Publisher
During the election year of 1920, America wanted to relax and enjoy winning the war and American life, so people rallied behind Warren G. Harding of Ohio who promised to restore “normalcy” to the country. Though seen as a good man, he was corrupt, did not have strong principles, and scandals arose in his 3rd year of presidency. In 1923, he died of food poisoning while making a trip to the west coast to give speeches. Harding’s vice president, Calvin Coolidge of Massachusetts, took over and was very shy and laid-back approach to the presidency which was good because the economy was doing fine. He won again in 1924. However, there were still issues occurring in the nation such as the Prohibition, the decline of morality, and the rise of atheism.
Herbert Hoover was elected president of the United States on November 19, 1928; unfortunately, less than eight months later, the stock market crashed. Hoover mistakenly considered this crash as only a passing point for America. But it was only three years later when economic slowdown and over speculation brought America into an upcoming Great Depression. This was a devastating blow for Hoover, his administration, and the American people. President Hoover attempted many ways to fix the economy. He founded new government agencies and encouraged cooperation between government and business to try to stabilize prices as well as attempt to balance the budget. These relief attempts might have shown positive outcome in the early years of the depression, but as the economy worsened, calls for more government involvement increased.
During Harding's term, a couple of people on his administration were accused and arrested for bribery and corruption. The most well-known scandal was the Teapot Dome scandal were the Secretary of the Interior was arrested for accepting bribes to release government land to oil companies for their own personal reasons. Harding did good for America and its people, but because of the scandals he was not directly involved in, his good was no longer noticed. Harding did not last for long in his terms because he died due to illness, but there were speculations that he was murdered by his wife or that he killed himself. The next Republican president that caught the nation's eye was Calvin Coolidge. Calvin really got noticed when he used the National Guard to break up a strike in Boston. Coolidge reduced the federal debt, lowered income tax rates (mostly for the wealthy) with 3 Revenue Acts and began construction of a national highway system that was very useful for trading and such. The last Republican president of the 1920s was Herbert Hoover. Herbert Hoover was with what he liked to call “associationalism.” This meant seeing which association nationwide was first in commerce and industry. He enjoyed the association of business and government together. Hoover was president at the time of the Stock Market Crash in 1929. Hoover continued to say that the worst was over and that the economy was strong enough to hop up until the market was back on track, but he was completely wrong about this because a worldwide depression took place. The depression caused a huge impact on the American people. Families were unable to pay rent, lived off of potatoes, crackers, some even searched through garbage cans. Marriage was delayed, reproduction rate also decreased. The most impacted class was the farmers and the agricultural sector. Crop prices hit rock bottom and due to farmers trying to compensate for
In the years following World War I, the United States was comfortable with returning to its prior state of traditional values. In the government, this was reflected as the 1920 election was won by Republican candidate Harding, who ran with the slogan “A Return to Normalcy.” Americans simply wanted to recuperate after the intense global conflict that had just ended; however, changing and new attitudes were at battle with their desire of normalcy. It was movements like “New Morality” that contested traditional stances of those who sought security in their lives. As a result of the constant battle between old and new values, tensions were mounting between citizens. The Roaring Twenties was a time of innovation in American life; however, tensions surfaced between traditional and new values, shown through court rooms, national politics, grass roots campaigns, and media revolutions, due to a rise in differing theological views, women’s fight for independence, racial conflict, technology, and advertising.
The 1920 presidential election proved to be memorable as well as historically significant for a number of reasons. This time period is surrounded by important events in American history. It falls directly after World War I, starts the roaring twenties, and leads the United States into the Great Depression. Warren G. Harding was elected president over all other candidates, with promises of life going back to normal conditions. At this point in time, American citizens were desperate for one thing: their old “normal” life. The election of 1920 was important because our nation had just gotten out of World War I, the vote ended in a landslide, and Harding changed the United States for the worse.
Herbert Hoover was known as the great humanitarian who can solve any problem he faced. Later on, it turns out to be false which ends up hurting not only America but the people
President Herbert Hoover, a Republican, had control of the United States from 1929 to 1933, the beginning of the economic downfall. Hoover created a laissez-faire government; the government was not involved in everyday business, instead it was a very hands off approach and daily life just took its path. When Franklin D. Roosevelt became president in 1933 the economy was now deep in a huge downward spiral, and he raised a new Democratic approach to run the government and United States. The United States was in for a lot of reform movements being that a Democrat was president, and something needed to be done to prevent the status of the United States to fail even more. Franklin D. Roosevelt responded to the problems of the Great Depression
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the thirty-second president of the United States, was a central figure for the United States in the 20th Century. While leading his country out of The Great Depression, he also led the nation through World War II. Herbert Hoover, the thirty-first President, led the country during the Great Depression and his policies enforced at that time eventually led to his downfall because of their inability to end the downward economic spiral. Both of these Presidents greatly contributed to the nation by using different policies and tactics that classified them as either liberal or conservative. Although there are some exceptions because of the acts passed by Hoover, the characterizations of President D.
Hoover was beginning to demonstrate conservative beliefs even before the onset of the Great Depression. Document A shows Hoover’s wish to avoid being thought of as a complete supporter of laissez-faire ideas. He appeared irresolute when it came to preserving the capitalistic society of the 1920s. During this time, society was managed by corrupt political bosses, such as Tweed. The American economy had flourished under the private interest policies of Harding and Coolidge, which forced Hoover to promise the American people that he would not abandon the laissez-faire economics, which had been so successful during past presidencies. Hoover was sure, however, that working class Americans would not be opposed to restricting unfair business practices. Documents B and C depict Hoover’s lack of support for private interest or public purpose policies. In these documents, Hoover stresses the significance of individual interests
To Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover had been unwilling to deal with the crisis, the Great Depression, and failed to provide a solution. But these failings gave Roosevelt his chance to take action. He came up with new and bold ideas that was exactly what the country needed after the years of inaction by Hoover. For example, when the Stock Market had crashed in 1929, unlike Hoover, FDR recognized the flaws in it straightaway, the flaws that had allowed for the bank failings and the overall crash. And then immediately proposed ideas to do what was possible for a fix.
Compare and contrast Hoover and Roosevelt’s actions in the aftermath of the Crash of 1929. How did both administrations attempt to deal with the economic stagnation, social hardship and psychological impact of the depression? What needed to be fixed and which approach proved more successful? In your essay you should address not only the underlying economic and social problems that both administrations had to deal with and the various corrective measures they adopted, but also the underlying philosophical approaches of Hoover and Roosevelt and their supporters.
This lack of complete dedication to private interest or public purpose is further displayed in Documents B and C where Hoover stresses the importance of the individual in ending the Depression while also assuring government support for job production if the situation required it. Hoover's speeches are remarkably similar to Roosevelt's speech in Document E. Here, even during the Depression, Roosevelt stressed the importance of balancing the budget unless unemployment required the government to spend money stimulating the economy. Instead of Hoover's desire to continue restricting government, Roosevelt wanted to balance the budget. The Depression created the need for government intervention and an unbalanced budget as shown in Document F. However, despite a few efforts by Hoover to create jobs, he still seemed much different than Roosevelt who insisted in 1936 that America must not go back to supporting Conservatives who protected private interest unjustly. (Document G)
Because of the different meanings associated with the terms liberal and conservative, neither President Hoover nor President Roosevelt can strictly be characterized as one term or another. Today, President Herbert Hoover would likely be characterized as a conservative. He believed in less government participation in the people’s daily life. In his 1928 election speech, Hoover stated that “Every step of bureaucratizing of the business of our country poisons the very roots of liberalism.” As government gets bigger, more offices, agencies, and rules are needed to allow the government to run its affairs. This bureaucracy, he said, would necessarily take away the American people's freedom to rule themselves. He renounced the new liberalism because it set bounds to the liberties of the people. He want
The country was going through an ongoing rough depression that the previous President Hoover left in the road for his processor, President Roosevelt. Although not only President Hoover decisions and approval of laws added to the great depression, but the
Contrarily before the Depression, there were signs that pointed to President Herbert Hoover becoming more conservative. Document A suggests that Herbert Hoover didn't want' do be considered strictly laissez-faire. Document A proposes that Herbert Hoover wanted to liberalism to be found not " in striving to spread bureaucracy but striving to set its bounds, " but also wanted The United States to know that, " he doesn't want to be misinterpreted as believing that the Untied States ins a free for all, or system of laissez-faire." Hoover appeared as if he was less determined to preserve the capitalistic society of the 1920's seeing that he argued that capitalism also has social obligations. However, the success of the American economy under presidents Hading and Coolidge who believed in private interest beliefs required him to make sure that the lack of intervention in the economy would be maintained. Also Hoover began to sense of the public disapproval and transformation of the working masses and public views. The public mass began to start looking favorably on restriction of unfair business practices. This transformation of the public opinion gave president Hoover trouble since he wasn't completely dedicated to the private interest or public purpose.