1. Politics of the Roaring Twenties
America Struggles With Postwar Issues
The Harding Presidency
The Business of America

2. POSTWAR TRENDS The Public Exhausted The Red Scare
The debate over the League of Nations had divided the country
Soldiers were returning to an adjusting economy, and therefore faced unemployment
Nativism – prejudice against foreign-born people
Isolationism – policy of pulling away from involvement in world affairs
The Red Scare
Communism – an economic and political system based on a single-party government ruled by a dictatorship
Panic began in 1919, when Lenin established a Communist Regime in an effort to abolish Capitalism everywhere; a communist party did form in the US
Palmer Raids – US Attorney General Palmer appoints J. Edgar Hoover to hunt down suspected communists, socialists and anarchists; failed to find conspiracy
Sacco and Vanzetti – 1920 Italian immigrants charged with robbery/murder
Limiting Immigration – “Keep America for Americans”

3. Nativist Sentiment The Klan Rises Again The Quota System
Showed up due to the rise in anti-immigrant sentiment and the Red Scare
Devoted to “100% Americanism”
Dominated state politics; opposed Roman Catholics, Jews, foreign-born people, and Unions
The Quota System
From 1919 to 1921 the number of immigrants 600 percent – from 141,000 to 805,000.
Congress implemented the quota system as a result of nativist sentiment – established the maximum number of people who could enter the United States from each foreign country
The Emergency Quota Act – amended in 1924, limited immigration from each European country to 2% of the number of nationals living in the United States; discriminated against people from eastern and southern Europe
Prohibited Japanese immigration which caused much tension between the United States and Japan

4. The Harding Presidency
Harding’s Administration
In terms of post-war issues, Harding struggled to maintain order in government
On domestic issues, Harding wanted to limit the role of government in business affairs and social reform
Harding’s Cabinet
Many of Warren G. Harding’s appointments were very wise, including the industrious Herbert Hoover as Secretary of Commerce
His cabinet did include the so-called Ohio Gang, the President’s poker-playing buddies who’s inability to properly do their jobs would prove to be a black mark on Harding’s presidency
Harding admitted to not understanding many of the issues that he had to
deal with as president
Many of his cabinet members used the graft system to become wealthy;
some were even caught taking bribes
Teapot Dome Scandal – Secretary of Interior Albert B. Fall secretly
leases oil-rich public land to private companies in return for money
and land of his own.
Harding would die of a heart attack in 1923; many of his illegal actions
would not come to light until his VP Calvin Coolidge would take office