1. Outcome: Presidential Leadership
The 1920’s
Outcome: Presidential Leadership

2. Woodrow Wilson

3. Presidential Leadership
Woodrow Wilson (D) ( )
Sickly during the 20s due to stroke suffered in 1919 while on a speaking tour trying to promote the League of Nations directly to the U.S. people
Wilson’s wife Edith unofficially took over the reigns of power
Wilson died 3 years after leaving office in 1924

4. Presidential Leadership
1920 Election
(D) James Cox, Wilson’s choice, with V.P. running mate F. Roosevelt
(R) Warren Harding and V.P. running mate Calvin Coolidge
Harding’s win suggested that:
Isolationist desire was strong!!
The League of Nations was dead

5. Warren Harding

6. Presidential Leadership
Warren G. Harding (R) ( ) *1st president to receive votes cast by females
Background
Small town, rural Ohio; former teacher & newspaper editor
Lt. Governor 1902, U.S. Senator ---> average politician
Described as trusting (to a fault), honest, and handsome

7. Presidential Leadership
Accomplishments/Strengths
Promised a return to “normalcy” = peace + prosperity
Signed a separate peace treaty with Germany in July, 1921
1st to limit U.S. arms through treaties (1921 Washington Naval Conf.)
Signed strict immigration quota law

8. Presidential Leadership
Controversy/Weaknesses
Had a loose leadership-Mgt. style and was a poor public speaker
Choose some corrupt cabinet members ---> His “Ohio Gang”
His Secretary of the Interior, Albert B. Fall was responsible for the “Teapot Dome Scandal” (illegal sale of gov’t oil)
Fall became 1st Cabinet member to go to jail
Charles Forbes, head of the Veteran’s Bureau, stole $$
“Its my friends that keep me walking the floors all night!”
Supported high tariffs, making it difficult for allies to pay war debts
Never controlled Congress like strong presidents do

9. Teapot Dome Scandal

10. Teapot Dome Naval Oil Reserve, WY

11. Presidential Leadership
Died in office ---> stroke (1923)
He was genuinely mourned; the scandals surfaced later
Died popular
Remembered now as a failure & disgrace (friends ruined him)
V.P Calvin Coolidge took over the office

12. Calvin Coolidge

13. Presidential Leadership
Calvin Coolidge (R) ( )
Background
Poor from Vermont was a self-made man
Lawyer ---> politician ---> Governor of Massachusetts; made famous through his actions in the Boston Police Strike (broke the union)

14. Presidential Leadership
Accomplishments/Strengths
Industrial prosperity is priority #1 ---> Believed in laissez-faire policy
Called the 20’s the “Business Decade”
Equated business and religion
Believed in “Trickle-Down” Economic Theory (Take care of the “top” and they’ll take care of the “bottom”)
Kellogg-Briand Pace ---> outlawed war (eventually signed by 62 nations)

15. Trickle Down Economics

16. Presidential Leadership
Failures/Weaknesses
Ignored farmers & labor (working class)
Poor public relation skills; “Silent Cal”
Anti-progressive; failed to regulate the stock market and industries
Lazy; “Snored as America headed toward the Great Depression”
Declined his party’s offer for nomination in 1928 (Did he foresee problems ahead?)

17. Herbert Hoover

18. Presidential Leadership
Herbert Hoover (R) ( )
Background
Iowa farm boy; orphaned at age 8 (poor)
Stanford College (engineer); Headed WWI hunger relief in Belgium
Self-made millionaire by age 40; nickname “Boy Wonder”
Served as Harding’s Secretary of Commerce

19. Presidential Leadership
Won the Election of 1928 (won 42 of 48 states)
(R) Hoover = rural, conservative, dry, protestant
(D) Alfred Smith = urban, liberal, wet, catholic

20. Presidential Leadership
Accomplishments/Strengths (During the 1920’s)
Created Federal Farm Board ---> coordinated crop production
Positive thinker; spoke often of prosperity (even after the “crash”)

21. Presidential Leadership
Failures/Weaknesses
Timing ---> stock market crashed 8 months into presidency
Appeared inactive & insensitive during Depression; Poor P.R. (newsreels)
Preached “Rugged Individualism” ---> “No Gov’t Handouts” (relief)
Served until > ended “Republican Era” (next elected (R) = Eisenhower in ’52)