Difference between revisions of "American History Lecture Eleven"

[[American History Lecture Eleven|Lecture]] - [[American_History_Homework_Eleven|Questions]] - [[American History Homework Eleven Answers|Student Answers]]

This lecture we will cover up until about 1950.  The next lecture we'll cover until the election of [[Ronald Reagan]] in 1980, and then the last lecture will be the Reagan Administration and the subsequent Administrations.

First, let's review a bit. [[Imperialism]] (extending power over other peoples) around turn of the century (1900).  The Treaty of Paris at the end of the [[Spanish American War]] enabled the United States to annex the Philippine Islands and also Guam and Puerto Rico.  Spain had held the Philippines ever since explorer Ferdinand Magellan discovered it in 1521.  But after we took over, a bloody rebellion continued there by natives.  We sent 70,000 soldiers to suppress them.  Many Americans opposed this imperialism, including Mark Twain and Andrew Carnegie.  They said it was against our American tradition.  After we killed off many of the insurgents, Carnegie wrote to our government, "You seem to have about finished your work of civilizing the Filipinos.  About 8000 of them have been completely civilized and sent to Heaven.  I hope you like it." 

President Woodrow Wilson served out his two terms from 1913 through 1921, but was very sickly towards the end.  Perhaps due to overwork in his unsuccessful attempt to persuade the American public to support the League of Nations, which included a strenuous speaking tour, Wilson collapsed after one of his speeches on this topic in Pueblo, Colorado in the fall of 1919.  A week later, on Oct. 2, 1919, Wilson suffered a severe stroke that left him paralyzed and blind in one eye.  He never fully recovered, but the incapacity was hidden from the public and not even his Vice President, his cabinet or Congress was allowed to see him.  The Constitution provided no means for substituting for an incapacitated president (later the 25th Amendment was passed to authorize a passing of power to the Vice President even if the President is still alive).  Wilson's second wife (his first wife had died) essentially acted on behalf of the president for the more than a year that remained in his term.

 

The election of 1920 brought new faces to the White House, and a "dark horse" candidate won for the Republicans this time:  Warren G. Harding.

The Roaring Twenties was the period from 1920 to 1929 when there was tremendous economic growth ''and'' remarkable cultural progress.  It was a period of great excitement and accomplishing in our nation's history on many levels:  in politics, business, literature and music.  It was a great time to be an American and there was a vibrancy in the country rarely seen before or since.

 

Politically, the period started with the election of Warren Hardin as president.  He was a conservative who nominated four (4) conservative Justices to the Supreme Court, some of whom later invalidated key parts of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR)'s liberal New Deal.  Harding also supported Prohibition, which was a conservative Christian women's movement.  Harding opposed the League of Nations, which was a form of "world government" that conservatives today still dislike.  Harding opposed immigration, and with his support of the tightest restrictions on immigration in the nation's history.

Harding and his wife were colorful characters, opening the White House up to the public again (Wilson had closed it during his illness) and throwing regular garden parties for veterans.  The President and his wife relaxed at poker parties in the White House library, where liquor was available to guests despite being illegal during Prohibition.

Harding has some immediate political achievements.  The Federal Highway Act in 1921 provided $75 million to states in matching funds for state roads.  The Washington Naval Conference (1921-22) was an international treaty that limited arms in navies worldwide, delayed war in Pacific, and temporarily protected China against Japan.  The Fordney McCumber Act of 1922 increased tariffs to very high levels, but this was later criticized by historians for creating hardship for Europe after World War I, which had ended just a few years earlier.

Most of all, Harding laid the basis for a tremendous economic boom in America which lasted the entire decade of the 1920s.

But the Harding Administration was accused of scandals and corruption, such as the Teapot Dome Scandal.  It was observed that George Washington could never tell a lie, but Warren Harding could never tell (recognize) a liar! On April 14, 1922, the Wall Street Journal reported an unprecedented secret arrangement in which the secretary of the Interior, without competitive bidding, had leased the U.S. naval petroleum reserve at Wyoming's Teapot Dome to a private oil company.  Wisconsin Republican Senator Robert La Follette (remember this founder of the progressive movement!) arranged for the Senate Committee on Public Lands to investigate the matter. After his announcement, his quarters were mysteriously ransacked in the Senate Office Building!

The focus of the inquiry was this: "How did Interior Secretary Albert Fall get so rich so quickly?"  The result was that Fall became the first former cabinet officer to go to prison. The investigation resulted in the landmark 1927 Supreme Court decision of ''McGrain v. Daugherty'' which held, for the first time, that Congress had the right to compel witnesses to testify before its committees.

But the scandal did not detract from the continuing prosperity.  Just as the nation became very prosperous under the conservative president James Monroe, the 1920s (the "Roaring 20s") became a very prosperous time under Harding's initial leadership.  But unlike James Monroe, Harding did not live to enjoy it.  He died from a health problem while in office, leaving his Vice President (and former Massachusetts Governor) Calvin Coolidge to take over.  Coolidge was famous for breaking a strike in Massachusetts by public workers, declaring that "there is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, anytime."  Coolidge received the news that he was suddenly president at 2:30 am on Aug. 3, 1923. By the light of a kerosene lamp, his father (a notary public) administered the oath of office while Coolidge placed his hand on the family Bible.

Coolidge was a character who became famous for saying and doing nothing.  He was neither approve of regulations to control the economic boom, nor agree to funding for farmers to help their depressed conditions.  His first message to Congress in late 1923 was to limit aid to farmers, isolate the nation in foreign policy, and cut taxes.  His popularity increased and he won reelection with 54% of the vote, taking credit for "Coolidge prosperity."

He became so famous for is laconic style of few words, and a young woman a social event whispered to Coolidge's wife that the woman could cause Coolidge to say at least three words.  Coolidge must have overheard the whisper, because he then said, "You lose."  In 1928, Coolidge lived up to his reputation by giving the following statement to an anxious public, "I do not choose to run for President in 1928."  That was it.  In the 1980s conservative President Ronald Reagan infuriated liberals by finding a portrait of Coolidge in the White House attic and prominently displaying it along with Washington and famous presidents.

But during the Harding and Coolidge Administrations, the rest of the nation was saying and doing a great deal.  Great American authors developed who wrote tragedies about wealth (by F. Scott Fitzgerald), business and religion (by Sinclair Lewis, and war (by Ernest Hemingway).  William Faulkner became one of America's most acclaimed novelists by writing (1929-1932) the books "Sound & Fury," "As I Lay Dying," "Sanctuary," and "Light in August." Liberals praised Faulkner because he described the Christian South as poor and racist.  Eugene O'Neill was a playwright who became the Second American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature for in 1936; he was praised for bringing psychological realism to his plays.

Americans invented the music of jazz, and "Tin Pan Alley" was a portion of New York City known for its music culture.  There was a Harlem Renaissance that became the center of black culture, and a New Negro Movement emphasized learning and pride for African Americans.

Jazz clubs and silent movies began to have the same undesirable influence on morality that Hollywood brings to culture today.  The "flapper" was a new lifestyle for young ladies that encouraged smoking, shorter dresses, drinking alcohol (which was illegal), taking cocaine (which was then legal), and overall immorality.  The name comes from a silent movie called "The Flapper" that was produced in 1920, and today the name is often associated with the type of dress.  But an immoral lifestyle came along with it, and tobacco companies profiting from the increase in smoking by women helped promote it.

The first commercial radio broadcast was in 1920.  The "talking" movies came in 1927, with the first successful one being "The Jazz Singer." Also in 1927 Charles Lindbergh completed the first solo airplane flight from New York City to Paris to win a prize.  He named his small airplane the "Spirit of St. Louis."  On his takeoff he narrowly missed crashing, and he encountered problems like ice on his wings and getting lost along the way. He was greeted by a huge crowd and a hero's welcome when he landed in Paris.

One more key event happened in 1927: the Great Mississippi Flood was massive flooding of the river that displaced 700,000 persons.  This caused many African Americans to migrate from South to northern cities.  Oh, there was one other thing that happened that year:  Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs in one season!

If you like the excitement and mystery of court trials, the anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti were executed in 1927 despite having political support by liberals.  Their crime was to commit murder in 1920 during a bank robbery, and to this day some doubt their real guilt.  But reconsideration of their case by independent reviewers has concluded that, yes, they really committed the crime.