Warren G. Harding
| Warren G. Harding | |
|---|---|
| 200px | |
| 29th President of the United States | |
| Term of office March 4, 1921 - August 2, 1923 | |
| Political party | Republican |
| Vice President | Calvin Coolidge |
| Preceded by | Woodrow Wilson |
| Succeeded by | Calvin Coolidge |
| Born | November 2, 1865 Near Blooming Groove, Ohio |
| Died | August 2, 1923 San Francisco, California |
| Spouse | Florence Kling Harding |
| Religion | Baptist |
Warren G. (Gamaliel) Harding (November 2, 1865 - August 2, 1923) was an Ohio Senator and the 29th President of the United States of America. After the First World War, his presidency was marked as a "return to normalcy". Mr. Harding and his running mate Calvin Coolidge were elected by a large majority over James Cox and Franklin D. Roosevelt, in large part because of the American people's rejection of the internationalist policies of former President Woodrow Wilson, particularly the League of Nations. [1]
Harding's undeviating Republicanism and vibrant speaking voice, plus his willingness to let the machine bosses set policies, led him far in Ohio politics. He served in the state Senate and as Lieutenant Governor, and unsuccessfully ran for Governor. He delivered the nominating address for President Taft at the 1912 Republican Convention. In 1914 he was elected to the Senate. An Ohio admirer, Harry Daugherty, began to promote Harding for the 1920 Republican nomination because, he later explained, "He looked like a President." [1]
Contents
Key Accomplishments
- Eliminated wartime controls
- Slashed taxes
- Established a Federal budget system,
- Restored the high protective tariff
- Imposed tight limitations upon immigration
Immigration Control
Mr. Harding signed into law the Emergency Quota Act[2] which sought to control immigration following World War I and preserve the distinctive American culture by ensuring the majority of immigrants came from the historically compatible cultures of Northern Europe. This law aimed to bring wages of hard working Americans under control by limiting immigration to 3% of the 1910 census. It was followed on by a similar act in 1924, after Mr. Harding's death.[3]
Tulsa Race Riot
Harding sought to calm race relations during the Tulsa Race Riot and events that followed. His wise words helped to calm the nation especially in the Tulsa area at this time of disturbance. His press secretary also sent a telegram to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People offering the president's support. [4]
Justice
Harding pardoned the socialist Eugene Debs who was imprisoned during World War I for opposing the war. Despite their political differences, Harding was cordial to him and met with him in the White House, "I have heard so damned much about you, Mr Debs, that I am very glad to meet you personally."[5]
Harding defined the Supreme Court for two decades, appointing four solidly conservative justices. Harding's appointments included former President William Howard Taft to be Chief Justice (1921), George Sutherland (1922), Pierce Butler (1923) and Edward Terry Sanford (1923). Two of these justices (Taft and Sanford) served until 1930. The other two (Sutherland and Butler) served until the late 1930s and stood up to the liberal policies of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
In particular, Sutherland and Butler were the core of the conservative Four Horsemen who invalidated key aspects of the New Deal and drove President Roosevelt to propose his court-packing scheme, which caused him to lose his credibility with Congress and the public.
In selecting Pierce for the bench, Harding broke with tradition by picking a conservative Democrat even though Harding was a Republican.
Fiscal
The Bureau of the Budget was created during Harding's tenure. Harding attempted to restrain the federal budget and reduce expenses on wartime armaments. This stimulated the private economy and lead to a period of prosperity experienced in the United States during the 1920s known as the Roaring 20s. Shortly after taking office, Harding also successfully passed promotion of US Agriculture, repeal of the wartime "excess profits" tax and reduction of rail rates.[6] Due in part to Mr. Harding's conservative economic policies, the US experienced a period of profound economic growth in the early 1920s that continued through most of the decade.
Military
Harding presided over modernization of the U.S. forces including the addition of the experimental aircraft carrier Langley and the T-2 submarine, as well as the creation of a merchant marine which was critical in early US involvement in WWII via the Lend-Lease Act.[7]
Diplomatic
Harding avoided entangling alliances that lead to war and defended US interests. Mr. Harding outlined his policy in his inaugural address: "...every commitment must be made in the exercise of our national sovereignty. Since freedom impelled, and independence inspired, and nationality exalted, a world supergovernment is contrary to everything we cherish and can have no sanction by our Republic. This is not selfishness, it is sanctity. It is not aloofness, it is security. It is not suspicion of others, it is patriotic adherence to the things which made us what we are." [8]
Supported by his conservative colleagues in congress as well as the American people, Harding succeeded at continuing to keep the United States out of the League of Nations. [9]
Labor issues
Mr. Harding's administration helped bring about the 40-hour work week which restricted the economic output of the US and restricted small, medium and large businesses alike.
Teapot Dome incident
Mr. Harding, in a quest to help re-privatize land taken from the American people and industry by their own government, appointed Senator Albert B. Fall of New Mexico as his Secretary of the Interior. Falls misappropriated this effort for his own gain in an abuse of the public trust. Democrats in congress, lead by Senator Thomas J. Walsh and Republican Senator Robert M. LaFollette (a former progressive), began an investigation with the support of the conservationist interests that backed them. They found that Fall had used his privatization efforts to benefit himself to the tune of over $400,000. Mr. Fall also had entangled other businessmen and politicians into his wrongdoing which lead to other indictments of both Democrats and Republicans and continued into the Coolidge administration. Mr. Harding did not know about these dealings until shortly before his death. In later years the petroleum reserves would prove to be less valuable than initially overestimated by the government. [10]
"The President's Daughter"
In 1928, Nan Britton published a book entitled "The President's Daughter" claiming that she and Harding had been lovers and had conceived a child in 1919. According to her, the affair continued for six years, and the lovers' meeting-places included a coat closet in the executive offices of the White House.[11]
Death
The death of President Warren Harding is one of those enduring mysteries that will probably never be solved.
Shaken by the talk of corruption among the friends he had appointed to office, Warren and Florence Harding began a tour on June 20, 1923 of the West and Alaska. He hoped to get out and meet people, to shake hands and explain his policies. Although suffering from high blood pressure and an enlarged heart, he seemed to enjoy himself and the food -- especially the seafood in Alaska. On his return journey, he became ill with what was then attributed to food poisoning. The Presidential train rushed to San Francisco, where his condition worsened. He developed pneumonia, and complicated by his heart ailment, died suddenly on August 23, he suffered a heart attack in the evening, while his wife was reading to him. He died quietly and instantaneously.
Wild speculation spread when Mrs. Harding refused (on the advice of their Doctor) to allow an autopsy. California, where Harding's death took place, did not yet have a mandatory autopsy law. Several rumors started. One said that Harding, already depressed and facing impeachment, committed suicide. Another said that Mrs. Harding poisoned him, to prevent him from suffering the humiliation of impeachment and removal from office, or possibly as revenge for his cheating on her. A sensationalist book published in 1930 detailed the allegations against her. Harding left the bulk of his estate, valued at $850,000, to his wife. [2][3]
Criticism
Harding today has come under criticism by both liberal economists and free trade advocates for protectionist policies--restrictions on free trade--which resulted in the collapse of international trade and is widely considered a cause of the worldwide Great Depression that occurred later in the decade and throughout the 1930s. Most economic historians today, however, follow liberal economist John Kenneth Galbraith’s view that the Great Depression was primarily the result of a bank collapse due to a lack of effective regulation of the loan and credit market[12] Those economists who believe that high tariffs were an important cause of the Depression often note that the tariff made it harder for European nations to pay their war debts.
Trivia
- Out of all of the Presidents of the U.S. he had the largest feet.
- He was the first president to visit Alaska.
- He was the first President to speak on the radio and the first to have a radio in the White House.
- Harding and John F. Kennedy are the only two sitting United States Senators elected to the Presidency in the 20th century.
References
- ↑ http://ap.grolier.com/article?assetid=atb037b09&templatename=/article/article.html
- ↑ http://tucnak.fsv.cuni.cz/~calda/Documents/1920s/QuotaAct1918.html
- ↑ http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/faculty/hodgson/Courses/so11/Race/quota_acts.htm
- ↑ http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3812/is_199911/ai_n8854233
- ↑ http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/vodebs.htm
- ↑ http://ap.grolier.com/article?assetid=0193620-00
- ↑ http://ap.grolier.com/article?assetid=0193620-00
- ↑ http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/print.php?pid=25833
- ↑ http://ap.grolier.com/article?assetid=atb037b09&templatename=/article/article.html
- ↑ http://ap.grolier.com/article?assetid=0380900-00
- ↑ Allen, Frederick Lewis (1931), Only Yesterday, ch. VI, "Harding and the Scandals"
- ↑ Galbraith, John Kenneth (1954) The Great Crash 1929, Houghton Mifflin
