1. AP U.S. History

2. What were the causes and consequences of the Great Depression?

3. The good times are back!! Warren Harding Teddy Roosevelt Wow, not cool. The general policy of the federal government toward industry in the early 1920s was a weakening of federal regulation and encouragement of trade associations (trusts and monopolies). As president, Warren G. Harding proved to be weak-willed and tolerant of corruption among his friends The central scandal of Teapot Dome involved members of Harding’s cabinet who took bribes for leasing federal oil lands. That’s the first thing we’ve agreed on in a long time. Progressivism is dead. Woodrow Wilson William McKinley

4. Isolationism rules! Two terms that describe the Harding and Coolidge administrations’ approach to foreign policy are isolationism and disarmament The proposed ratio of “5-5-3” in the Washington Disarmament Conference of 1921-1922 referred to the allowable ratio of battleships and carriers among the United States, Britain, and Japan. Amen brother While Japan was not happy with the battleships and carriers ratio, America and Europe promised to avoid fortifying its colonies in the Pacific as compensation to the Japanese. Japan took advantage of this by invading Manchuria, which violated the Open Door Policy. The League of Nations did nothing because the U.S. wasn’t a part of it. It didn’t help that Europe and America were in the midst of a Great Depression also. Angry Japanese baby Calvin Coolidge

5. The very high tariff rates of the 1920s had the economic effect of causing the Europeans to erect their own tariff barriers and thus severely reduce international trade (can you say Great Depression?). You help big business, but not us! The “farm bloc’s” favorite solution to the severe drop in prices that caused farmers’ economic suffering in the 1920s was for the federal government to buy up agricultural surpluses at higher prices and sell them abroad. I would rather benefit big business than farmers. Me likey the money. Two can play that game! Angry European guy

6. Two groups who suffered severe political setbacks in the immediate post-World War I environment were organized labor and blacks. Four of the nine Justices on the Supreme Court were appointed by Harding. They ruled against progressive reforms. Adkins v. Childrens Hospital Reversed Muller v. Oregon. Anti-trust laws were ignored. Instead, businesses were encouraged to regulate themselves Government actively sought to protect big business. Union membership withered as they came under attack from business and the federal government. Women can vote, so they don’t need special protections anymore. Save the railroads! Where’s Teddy when you need him? Samuel Gompers

7. Besides deep divisions within the Democratic party, the elections of 1924 revealed The weakness of profarmer and prolabor Progressive reform. Al Smith’s Roman Catholicism and opposition to prohibition hurt him, especially in the South. The election of Hoover over Smith in 1928 seemed to represent a victory of big business and efficiency over urban and Catholic values. Al Smith, the Democratic candidate, ran against Herbert Hoover in the election of 1924. I spank Al Smith.

8. One important cause of the great stock market crash of 1929 was overexpansion of production and credit beyond the ability to pay for them. England and France, who had weak economies, demanded more money from Germany so that they could pay back their loans to America. The U.S. not only demanded repayment of war debt, but the U.S. also instituted the sky-high Hawley-Smoot Tariff of 1930, which had the economic effect of crippling international trade and deepening the depression. Germany was blamed for the war and was forced to pay war damages under the Treaty of Versailles. The problem was that Germany had no money to pay war damages. When Germany’s economy looked like it was about to collapse private American bank loans to Germany avoided a global depression (for a while anyway).

9. Nonetheless, Hoover did try to help get America out of the Great Depression. He created a federal agency that provided “pump-priming” loans to business; known as the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. He thought the money would “trickle down” to the average person. Herbert Hoover Attacking the Bonus Army didn’t help me one bit. President Hoover preferred limited government and self-reliance. He felt if government gave people hand- outs it would erode peoples’ work ethic and independence. Hoover promoted the construction of a dam, later called Hoover dam, on the border of Nevada and Arizona, as a way to get people to work. All of his efforts were too little, too late.

10. 1. What were the causes of the Great Depression? 2. What were some of the signs that another world war was approaching? 3. How did Hoover attempt address the economic depression?