United States presidential election, 1924
By the 1924 United States presidential election there were two major issues that the country focused onto. The first was the Teapot Dome Scandal and the second, the economy. The Republicans nominated President Calvin Coolidge because, as Chief Justice William Howard Taft said, "the Republican party has no chance without him." Coolidge had handled the scandal in the White House well and punished any of the guilty. Also, the economy was doing very well during those times and those years would be called the 'Roaring Twenties.' The Republican Platform included a call for tax reduction, United States participation in the World Court but not in the League of Nations, the creation of a cabinet-level department of education and relief, aid to farmers by broadening export markets, federal encouragement of commercial aviation, and a federal anti-lynching law.[1]
The Democrats went into a heated debate between two factions. One, which was for the Ku Klux Klan, another, which was for Prohibition. The convention turned into a brawl sometimes. It was only on the 103rd ballot that they agreed on compromise candidate, John W. Davis. However, some people believed that both candidates represented conservative, businessmen interests. The "bull-moose" party, which had been started by Theodore Roosevelt, nominated Wisconsin Senator Robert M. La Follette as their candidate. The election went up quickly. While Davis and La Follette went far and wide making speeches, Coolidge did very little to campaign.[2] The results of the election were:
| candidates | popular vote | electoral vote |
|---|---|---|
| Calvin Coolidge | 15,718,211 | 382 |
| John W. Davis | 8,385,283 | 136 |
| Robert M. La Follette | 4,831,289 | 13 |
| Herman P. Farris | 57,520 | 0 |
| Frank T. Johns | 36, 428 | 0 |
| William Z. Foster | 36,386 | 0 |
| Gilbert O. Nations | 23,967 | 0 |
References
- ↑ Republican National Political Conventions. 1856-2008.
- ↑ Encyclopedia of Presidents, Calvin Coolidge, by Zachary Kent, Children's Press, 1988.
- ↑ A Pictoral History of the U.S. Presidents, by Clare Gibson, Gramercy Books, 2001, p. 123.
