president calvin coolidge
TRANSCRIPT
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Obj SWBAT Analyze the growth of the American economy in the 1920's
DO NOW You are a soldier returning home from the trenches after WWI. What is the thing you are most looking forward to?
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Presidential Leadership in the 1920’s
• President Warren G. Harding
> Harding wins landslide election promising a “Return to Normalcy”
– Return to isolationism
– Probusiness policies
– Make economy grow and create jobs
– Americans were war weary & wanted a return to prewar days
"Return to Normalcy"
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Foreign Affairs• Presidents Harding and Coolidge kept the U.S. out of European affairs (Isolation)
• US remained out of the League of Nations
• The US intervened in Latin America when American business interests were threatened
• US signed the KelloggBriand Pact
> This treaty outlawed war, but had no means of keeping the peace
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How did Harding Disappoint the People?
• Political Scandals
> Harding’s political appointees were corrupt
> Cabinet secretary Albert Fall was bribed and secretly leased land to oil companies at Teapot Dome, Wyoming
> First time a cabinet secretary was sent to prison
> Harding dies in office of a heart attack before scandals are connected directly to him
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1) What is the object used to represent the scandal?
2) According to the cartoon, what is the impact of the scandal?
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President Calvin Coolidge
Both his dry Yankee wit and his frugality with words became legendary. His wife, Grace Goodhue Coolidge, recounted that a young
woman sitting next to Coolidge at a dinner party confided to him she had bet she could get at least three words of conversation from him. Without looking at her he quietly retorted, "You lose."
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Calvin Coolidge Takes Office• “Silent Cal”
> Sworn in after Harding’s death
> Coolidge was different from Harding
– Not a big speech maker or party thrower
• Coolidge repaired damage caused by scandals
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Coolidge Prosperity
• What was Coolidge’s priority as president?
> Pro big business
> Business was the most important part in creating the American way of life
> Began a period of rapid economic growth
Silent Cal
“The business of America is business. The man who builds a factory builds a temple. The man who works there worships there”
Calvin Coolidge
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Coolidge Prosperity• Industry Booms
> Quantity of goods made by industry doubled
> More jobs were made and incomes rose
> People spent money on new products
– Refrigerators, radios, phonographs, vacuum cleaners
> Installment buying (credit) allowed people to spend more money than they could afford
> Overspending became a serious economic problem
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Coolidge Prosperity• A Soaring Stock Market
> More people invested in the stock market than ever before. (Bull Market)
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Auto Industry Fuels Growth• Car sales grew rapidly creating growth in other fields such as steel and rubber
• Ripple effect by 1929, 4 million Americans owed their jobs to cars, directly or indirectly
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Conclusion• How did presidential leadership influence US policy during the 1920’s?
> Presidential leadership:
– Created a strong economy
– Created a bull market
– Returned the nation to preWW1 isolation
– Increased jobs and family income
– Created an era of peace & prosperity