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US AP Calendar
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
11.5.1 - Harding, Coolidge and Hoover
Discuss the policies of Presidents Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover.
2 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Warren Harding's policies: Basically, Warren G. Harding had very few policies for his administration. A compromise candidate, the leaders of the Republican Party, especially Henry Cabot Lodge, probably believed that they could control Harding and his administration. The one thing Harding believed was that the public was tired of the war and President Wilson's idealism. After decades of attempted reform, war, and crusading for the Treaty of Versaille, the American voters seemed to agree as Harding was elected. Many historians consider the administration of Harding as one of the worst in American history. While Harding himself was not dishonest, he appointed many of his "old cronies" who did turn out to be dishonest. There were major scandals during the administration. Perhaps the best two appointments Harding made were Herbert Hoover as his Secretary of Commerce, and Charles Evans Hughes as his Secretary of State. While the US under Harding ignored the League of Nations, Hughes did gather some of the worlds most important naval powers to Washington where treaties were agreed upon to limit the size of the navies. This was one of the first major attemps at military reduction and lessening the threat of future wars.
Calvin Coolidge's policies: Unfortunately for the American people, Coolidge's policies helped contribute to the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. Coolidge preferred a laissez faire approach for the federal government. While many groups prospered in the 1920s, others suffered, especially farmers. Coolidge refused to provide government assistance for farmers, causing a division within the Republican Party during his second term in office. Coolidge also failed to create banking restrictions. Due to bad investments on the part of banks, numerous Americans lost their life savings during the late 1920s and the 1930s, contributing to a weakened economy and the Great Depression.
Herbert Hoover's policies: With the nation unprecedentedly prosperous and with large Republican majorities in Congress, Hoover began his administration under auspicious circumstances. In his campaign he had promised to call Congress into special session to consider farm relief and limited changes in the tariff. He called Congress into special session on April 15, 1929, and on June 15 it passed the Agricultural Marketing Act, designed to help farmers suffering from low incomes in an era of prosperity.
Hoover's recommendation for tariff revision, an increase in agricultural duties also designed to help the farmer, became the Hawley-Smoot Tariff, the highest peacetime tariff in the nation's history. Although the bill was not what he wanted, Hoover signed it on June 17, 1930, justifying his act on the ground that the flexible provision, permitting him to change rates within a compass of 50% on the advice of the tariff commission, would enable him to remedy injustices in the law.
Early in his administration Hoover attacked the problem of enforcing prohibition. On May 28, 1929, he announced that he had appointed the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement, with George W. Wickersham as chairman, to investigate the problem. The commission made its report nearly two years later. The report was self-contradictory, and nothing came of it.
The Depression: Hoover's administration, like that of Martin Van Buren almost a century earlier, was dominated by one development—an economic depression. The disastrous slump that began when the stock market crashed on Oct. 29, 1929, left from 12 to 14 million Americans unemployed before the end of Hoover's term. In the 1930 congressional elections the weak Democratic minority in the House of Representatives became a majority, and the Republican majority in the Senate dwindled to a plurality of one.
Hoover believed that aid to the hungry and the deserving unemployed should come from local governments in the states and counties, not from the federal government. Yet he recommended and Congress appropriated funds for huge public works. On Hoover's recommendation, Congress established the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, approved Jan. 22, 1932, with an initial working capital of $500 million. It tried to provide indirect relief to the unemployed by lending insurance companies, banks, farm organizations, railroads, and state, county, and city governments money to stimulate economic activity and employment. His opponents criticized him for this "trickle down" theory, based on the idea that if the government aided big business at the top of the nation's financial structure, business would then create more jobs and relieve unemployment at the bottom. Yet, he inaugurated a new policy of government assistance to those in need in time of economic crisis, though not directly to the masses of unemployed.
Foreign Policy: Peace, Hoover said, was the basis of his foreign policy. Although opposed to joining the League of Nations, he cooperated with it, urged American adherence to the World Court, and supported disarmament. The naval treaty of April 22, 1930, signed at the London Naval Conference of 1930, was the outstanding achievement of his administration in this field. It placed limits on the number of small naval vessels each nation might construct as well as on battleships and cruisers.
Like his three predecessors, Hoover insisted that the European nations pay their war debts to the United States. But he helped temporarily to relieve their distress with his Hoover moratorium, whereby the depression-hit European debtors suspended payments of their intergovernmental debts for one year, beginning July 1, 1931.
When Japan invaded Manchuria in September 1931, Hoover's major crisis in foreign policy began. On Jan. 7, 1932, his administration announced the "Stimson doctrine," declaring that the United States would not recognize territorial conquest. More successful was Hoover's Latin American policy, where he reversed the interventionist policies of predecessors and laid the foundation for the later Good Neighbor policy.
2 comments:
Warren Harding's policies:
Basically, Warren G. Harding had very few policies for his administration. A compromise candidate, the leaders of the Republican Party, especially Henry Cabot Lodge, probably believed that they could control Harding and his administration. The one thing Harding believed was that the public was tired of the war and President Wilson's idealism. After decades of attempted reform, war, and crusading for the Treaty of Versaille, the American voters seemed to agree as Harding was elected. Many historians consider the administration of Harding as one of the worst in American history. While Harding himself was not dishonest, he appointed many of his "old cronies" who did turn out to be dishonest. There were major scandals during the administration. Perhaps the best two appointments Harding made were Herbert Hoover as his Secretary of Commerce, and Charles Evans Hughes as his Secretary of State. While the US under Harding ignored the League of Nations, Hughes did gather some of the worlds most important naval powers to Washington where treaties were agreed upon to limit the size of the navies. This was one of the first major attemps at military reduction and lessening the threat of future wars.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_were_the_major_policies_of_Warren_Harding
Calvin Coolidge's policies:
Unfortunately for the American people, Coolidge's policies helped contribute to the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. Coolidge preferred a laissez faire approach for the federal government. While many groups prospered in the 1920s, others suffered, especially farmers. Coolidge refused to provide government assistance for farmers, causing a division within the Republican Party during his second term in office. Coolidge also failed to create banking restrictions. Due to bad investments on the part of banks, numerous Americans lost their life savings during the late 1920s and the 1930s, contributing to a weakened economy and the Great Depression.
http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=80
Herbert Hoover's policies:
With the nation unprecedentedly prosperous and with large Republican majorities in Congress, Hoover began his administration under auspicious circumstances. In his campaign he had promised to call Congress into special session to consider farm relief and limited changes in the tariff. He called Congress into special session on April 15, 1929, and on June 15 it passed the Agricultural Marketing Act, designed to help farmers suffering from low incomes in an era of prosperity.
Hoover's recommendation for tariff revision, an increase in agricultural duties also designed to help the farmer, became the Hawley-Smoot Tariff, the highest peacetime tariff in the nation's history. Although the bill was not what he wanted, Hoover signed it on June 17, 1930, justifying his act on the ground that the flexible provision, permitting him to change rates within a compass of 50% on the advice of the tariff commission, would enable him to remedy injustices in the law.
Early in his administration Hoover attacked the problem of enforcing prohibition. On May 28, 1929, he announced that he had appointed the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement, with George W. Wickersham as chairman, to investigate the problem. The commission made its report nearly two years later. The report was self-contradictory, and nothing came of it.
The Depression: Hoover's administration, like that of Martin Van Buren almost a century earlier, was dominated by one development—an economic depression. The disastrous slump that began when the stock market crashed on Oct. 29, 1929, left from 12 to 14 million Americans unemployed before the end of Hoover's term. In the 1930 congressional elections the weak Democratic minority in the House of Representatives became a majority, and the Republican majority in the Senate dwindled to a plurality of one.
Hoover believed that aid to the hungry and the deserving unemployed should come from local governments in the states and counties, not from the federal government. Yet he recommended and Congress appropriated funds for huge public works. On Hoover's recommendation, Congress established the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, approved Jan. 22, 1932, with an initial working capital of $500 million. It tried to provide indirect relief to the unemployed by lending insurance companies, banks, farm organizations, railroads, and state, county, and city governments money to stimulate economic activity and employment. His opponents criticized him for this "trickle down" theory, based on the idea that if the government aided big business at the top of the nation's financial structure, business would then create more jobs and relieve unemployment at the bottom. Yet, he inaugurated a new policy of government assistance to those in need in time of economic crisis, though not directly to the masses of unemployed.
Foreign Policy: Peace, Hoover said, was the basis of his foreign policy. Although opposed to joining the League of Nations, he cooperated with it, urged American adherence to the World Court, and supported disarmament. The naval treaty of April 22, 1930, signed at the London Naval Conference of 1930, was the outstanding achievement of his administration in this field. It placed limits on the number of small naval vessels each nation might construct as well as on battleships and cruisers.
Like his three predecessors, Hoover insisted that the European nations pay their war debts to the United States. But he helped temporarily to relieve their distress with his Hoover moratorium, whereby the depression-hit European debtors suspended payments of their intergovernmental debts for one year, beginning July 1, 1931.
When Japan invaded Manchuria in September 1931, Hoover's major crisis in foreign policy began. On Jan. 7, 1932, his administration announced the "Stimson doctrine," declaring that the United States would not recognize territorial conquest. More successful was Hoover's Latin American policy, where he reversed the interventionist policies of predecessors and laid the foundation for the later Good Neighbor policy.
http://ap.grolier.com/article?assetid=0205570-00
Hung T. P.1
Great base of text... use your own words though! Hung we need quote marks around citations. More self generated text please...
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