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Roaring 20's Harding to Hoover · Saberian History Lectures

0:00
So, we were talking about reactions to the abrupt
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and decisive changes that occurred in American
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society in the period from 1910 to 1920. Now,
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I kind of want to get ahead of myself here, is
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America goes through a whole bunch of changes.
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You go through commercial changes with the rise
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of the consumer economy. where you are buying
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things for them to eventually lose value and
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be disposed of. By the way, what is the major
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consumable good that people were making payments
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on and lost value over time? Automobiles. Automobiles.
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That was the article I gave you where you want
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to leave the customer just a little bit unsatisfied
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so that they will buy the next model. Sound familiar?
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Actually... The debt cycle of automotive, how
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many of you drive? How many of you are making
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a car payment of a type? Many of you, and don't
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worry, when you're in the big bad world, you
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will. We even see this peppering our culture
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so much that, okay, how many of you saw the film
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Frozen? Do you remember the scene where the sled
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goes into the ravine? I just paid it off, where
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Christoph's sled goes into the ravine because
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they're being chased by wolves. And he said,
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but I just paid it off with a whimper. You get
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the idea. That idea... Well, that the idea of
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credit economy has so peppered our culture that
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it even made its way into a child's fairy tale.
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Now, I submit to you, in a post -medieval fantasy
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world like that, you don't make payments on a
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sled. Actually, that would be, well, yes. Anyway,
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so you have a consumer economy. You also have
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changes to the demography of the United States
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as immigration resumes. So you have the cultural
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conflict between immigrants from southern and
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eastern Europe and what we would call nativist
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Americans. This would be... your white Anglo
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-Saxon Protestant people from the hinterland
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who had been here for multiple generations. And
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one of the places where that plays out, and then
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you also have the shift in the intellectual culture,
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where you have biblical fundamentalists. in conflict
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with interpretationists and secular humanists.
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So we'll just say fundamentalists versus the
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academy, or versus academics, although there
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are plenty of academics that have sprung up around
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biblical fundamentalism now. And so each of these
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becomes sort of a battleground. And so we think
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of this in terms of prohibition and immigration
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acts in the demographics as an abrupt and decisive
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change in immigration law. In the intellectual
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history, all of a sudden, the schools become
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a battleground. And even you see the rise of
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the new Klan as a response to immigration. And,
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of course, the Klan was anti -Catholic, anti
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-Jewish, and anti -Darwin. So, here's a photo
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from the Scopes Monkey Trial. John T. Scopes
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had the revolutionary audacity to teach... Evolution
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in a Biology Class in Dayton, Tennessee. Now,
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why was it against the law for John T. Scopes
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to teach evolution in biology in the state of
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Tennessee? Not just Christianity. There was another
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implied idea that the book doesn't fully flesh
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out. This was not an issue of free speech. This
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was an issue of free intellectual thought, except
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who was John T. Scopes working for? The school,
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which was being funded by what? The state. Previously,
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had a state any compunction to interfere in an
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instructor's purview? But now it's the state's
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money, and now it's the state that is imposing
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the obligation upon the children to be educated.
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Would such a criminal prosecution have occurred
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even a hundred years earlier? No, because who
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funded education back then? Nope. No one. You
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had private tutors or you went to private school
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or you were being educated through the church
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apparatus. You were under no obligation in the
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18th or even into the early 19th century to attend
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school beyond fourth grade. And so you have the
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progressive idea of compulsory education running
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into the fundamentalist idea of teaching the
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biblical truth. And so John T. Scopes broke the
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law. He was put on trial. He did, of course,
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lose his teaching position. It was a test case
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for the ACLU. The ACLU puts up Clarence Darrow,
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a New York attorney, and the state of Tennessee
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got William Jennings Bryan to prosecute the case.
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Now, of course, William Jennings Bryan had at
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that time run for president at least twice, was
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a darling of the Democratic Party, was a darling
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of the populist movement, was an orator of no
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ill repute, but... It was branded the trial of
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the century, broadcast over radio and over newspapers.
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It was a spectacle. Scopes was found guilty,
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was made to pay a fine, and the fine was waived.
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The fine was waived by the judge because the
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question for the jury was, did Scopes teach evolution?
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Yes. What was being argued? Was that actually
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a crime? And so really what the defense was asking
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for was jury nullification. For those of you
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who are unfamiliar with the concept, jury nullification
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is where a jury finds a person not guilty of
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a crime even though they had broken the law.
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because the law is somehow considered inappropriate
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or immoral. That's jury nullification. In this
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case, the Tennessee jury did not wish to nullify
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the law, but the judge set aside the consequences.
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Now, just as if you thought your world wasn't
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ending already... You had in 1918, you had the
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world at war, you had the flu pandemic, and then
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you have the passage of prohibition. Prohibition
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comes into effect. Now, I don't know about you,
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but maybe after the war and the flu pandemic,
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and maybe when the guys found out that the women
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were voting, maybe some people could have used
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a good stiff drink, but that wasn't going to
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happen. No? Too soon? Alright. So, you have,
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now think about this for a moment. Prohibition
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was prohibiting the consumption and sale, but
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primarily the sale, not the consumption, of alcohol.
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Prohibiting the sale of alcohol, not prohibiting
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the consumption. What could possibly go wrong?
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Is it actually against the law to consume? Only
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to what? to sell under the auspices of the government's
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power of interstate commerce. Now here's the
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thing that's kind of fun. Where do people drink?
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Where else? Everywhere, yes. At home and in saloons.
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In cars, not so much. I mean, automobiles are
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not so prolific. But... If you think about it
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as a law, if you're going to get people to stop
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drinking, all of a sudden you are interfering
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with what aspect of their life? Everything. Both
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private and social. Now I say this in a community
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that actually has deep German roots. Would it
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be taboo in a German family for your child to
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have a beer with dinner? Or wine with dinner?
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That actually is quite frequent in the old country.
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So you're not just closing down the bars, you're
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getting into people's homes. Now, who else drinks
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alcohol as a matter of religious practice? The
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Roman Catholic Church. Now, they had to make
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special dispensation so that the body and blood
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of Christ, according to their religious tradition,
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could be maintained. Not that the government
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was about to have the ATF bust into the chapel
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and put the bishop in a chokehold, although some
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of you are visualizing that, and that's one of
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the virtues of visual language, and some of you
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think it's funny. That tells me that some of
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you have an appetite for human cruelty. But anyway.
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In response, you have the rise of organized crime
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syndicate that were running booze into the country
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because it was not illegal to drink in Canada.
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It was not illegal to drink in Mexico. It was
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not illegal to drink in other parts of the world.
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And so you have... And also, how else can you
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have alcohol just because maybe Anheuser -Busch
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took a break and some of your other major alcoholic
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producers took a break because of the prohibition?
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What else can you do? Sneak it, but also... How
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many of you know people who brew at home? It's
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a... Well, there's moonshine and there's a home
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improvement for beer in this area. It's rather
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sort of a hipster thing to do now. I know people
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who were doing it before it was cool. I just
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realized I just became the hipster meme. All
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I needed were the glasses. But anyway. But yeah,
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you have people making their own. Actually, nowadays,
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moonshine has become a regulated trade in the
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United States, which... There are now hipster
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connoisseurs for moonshine. But anyway. So, organized
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crime is often a response to it. Now, here's
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a thing that you need to keep in mind. So, if
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I'm looking at the Wilson administration from
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1916 to 1920, what are the hallmarks of the Wilson
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regime? What was Wilson? Politically. Wilson
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was a Democrat. He was a progressive Democrat.
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Now what's interesting about Wilson's progressivism,
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he was progressive, he was a Democrat, and he
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was a Southern Democrat. From Virginia, originally.
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Taught at Princeton. He was a... Professor of
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political science, which at the time was a relatively
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speaking new discipline. What were the aspects
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of the progressive agenda? Well, you have women's
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suffrage. What else? You have... Regulation of
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business, both before the war and after. And
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what else do you have? The war itself. What did
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the war require? You have an increase in taxes.
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And you have the government of the United States
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getting into industry production, running a propaganda
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arm, turning itself on the communists. You have
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a massive expansion of the government apparatus,
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both in terms of... the domestic apparatus in
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the form of the War Industries Board, in the
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form of other rationing programs, and also in
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the security apparatus as you are funding the
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Army and Navy of the United States to be a world
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power. But here is the thing. What did the United
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States get out of the war? For all the blood,
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for all the treasure, for all the people who
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had died, what did they have to show for it?
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Did they have an additional state? Did they have
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an additional territory? Did they have tribute
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coming in from France or from England as a show
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of admiration or gratitude? What did the United
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States get out of their intervention into the
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world? Nothing. Instead, out of the war comes
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Wilson's 14 points. Now I'm going to recap. The
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14 points, just for a moment and with just enough
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snark that you would actually feel the disdain
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because in many ways you are living in the legacy
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of that man and your world burns for it. You
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have the creation of weak states in Europe. Weak
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states become the kindling for fascism. Wilson
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didn't know. You have the demilitarization of
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Germany, which seemed like a good idea at the
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time. Unfortunately, that made Germany a weak
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state for the kindling of fascism. You have the
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dismemberment. of the Ottoman Empire. Let me
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give you some country names that were divvied
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up among the imperial powers of France and Britain.
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Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Saudi Arabia.
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All but one of those is a war zone right now.
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Because when they drew the maps, they drew the
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maps for the imperial powers of Europe. They
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didn't draw the maps according to the ethnic
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lines of the people. The subject peoples were
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deliberately left out. But that wasn't why the
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American people were upset. The American people
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were dissatisfied because there was one last
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point in the philosopher king's panoply of brilliant
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ideas. What was the last point? The League of
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Nations. So the United States spent blood and
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treasure to fight a war over there, suffered
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the taxation, suffered the bureaucracy, suffered
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the expansion of the government, all to create
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a one -world government that would tell the American
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people how they should govern their own country.
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That's what many would say in the 1920s. Now
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the thing that's actually funny is, after this
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adventure with this philosopher king, the Republican
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argument was fairly simple. Make America normal
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again. So here's Harding. Harding was a pro -business
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Republican. I'm going to put that over here.
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He was an Ohio senator. He was the son of a farmer.
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And he... Basically, his fundamental argument
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was America needs a return to normalcy. No nostrums,
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no great adventures, no great, brilliant philosophical
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points. It was very much to have some type of
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return to normalcy after a tumultuous decade
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that had preceded it. So let's get to... Oh,
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by the way, what happened to Wilson? Did he run
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for re -election? No, he had his two terms. Who
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ran? Cox, a person of very little repute, I mean
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very little name recognition, and FDR. I wasn't
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laughing, I'm talking about, but FDR was, I know,
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and that's more to cut out of the tape. Cox and
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FDR. So FDR ran for the VP slot, and then Harding
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ran with Coolidge. Coolidge, in many ways, was
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unremarkable. Arding prevails. Like I said, people
17:31
were tired. Okay. Andrew Mellon is tapped to
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run either Treasury or Commerce. It's off the
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top of my head right now. So now let's talk about
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the legacy. Because really, this contrast between
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progressives and conservatives is laid bare.
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in the 1920s. So let's talk about this for a
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moment. So under Wilson, and I put Wilson up
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there not as he advocated a position, but as
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the government was left off when he left off.
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So you have taxes. So both to fund the war and
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to fund the expansion of the government apparatus,
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the highest tax break in the United States was
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73%. I mean, 73 % of your income you gave to
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the government of the United States. So that's
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your top bracket. Under Harding, by the end of
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the Harding -Coolidge administration, I put this
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as a single period, at the end of Harding -Coolidge,
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by 1929, the lowest tax rate was down to 24.
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What does that do? If you're Harding, why? Why
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do you lower taxes? There is an ethical reason
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and there is a political reason. And there is
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a commercial reason. True. Economically. Economically,
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if the government is not taxing it, that money
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goes back into circulation, right? If people
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aren't taxed, what do they presumably do with
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the money that they do not have to pay in taxes?
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They either buy consumer goods, or they invest
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it in stock, or they somehow otherwise put it
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back into the economy. So actually, the tax cuts
19:29
in the 1920s are a source of capital that funds
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the economic boom. The other source of capital
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is credit. Credit, what am I talking about? Talked
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about it on Friday. Layaway. You don't have to
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pay for it all up front. That means you can actually
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extend your loans and buy more things. So you
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have the tax cuts, which means you're not paying
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as much in taxes. You have the credit economy
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that allows you to put things on layaway. This
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is part of the reason why you had such robust
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economic growth in the 1920s. Does that make
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sense? So it's not just layaway. It's also the
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tax cuts. Now, what's the moral reason for cutting
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taxes? What is taxation? If you really think
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about it, you work, you get paid, and the government
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takes it. One sociologist once said, taxation
20:27
is merely pro -social theft. You get the idea.
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Now, I'm going to keep going real quick. How
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much does the government take out of our... Have
20:44
you looked at your last paycheck? I would say
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they usually take about one -fourth and then
20:49
you get it back in the form of a tax return.
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By the way, don't forget to file your tax returns.
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Alright. Now, another aspect of the Wilsonian
21:04
progressive agenda was regulating corporations.
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Now, so you have the creation of a number of
21:13
government entities for regulating corporations
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under the Wilson regime. Now, those regulatory
21:22
agencies are authorized by Congress. As a president,
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can you dismantle a regulatory agency? No, Congress
21:31
has to do that if you're going to can a regulatory
21:32
agency. And as Ronald Reagan once said, a regulatory
21:36
agency is the closest thing that one will have
21:38
to eternal life in this world. But what can you
21:44
do as president? You can appoint pro -business
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regulators to head up those agencies. Business
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is the business of the government of these United
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States. Actually, kind of interesting, Harding
22:11
begins a desegregation process in the Civil Service.
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Who had segregated the Civil Service? Wilson,
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son of the South. Used the domestic law enforcement
22:40
apparatus to attack the Klan, whereas previously
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the Klan had been part of Woodrow Wilson's political
22:45
coalition. And The Birth of a Nation was one
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of Wilson's favorite movies. Okay, a couple of
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things in the Harding administration. You actually
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have the lowest unemployment rate in American
23:03
history. Unemployment was 2 .4. That's full employment.
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You go south of 5, you're considered at full
23:11
employment. Okay. One other thing that you need
23:19
to keep in mind. What's one thing that Wilson...
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the Wilson administration had to pay a very large
23:26
sum of money on. Military spending. You had to
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fund the troops in the field. Also, there were
23:39
designs to expand the United States as a naval
23:41
power. If you are Warren G. Harding and you're
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trying to cut taxes, you also know that you have
23:49
to cut spending. And so one of the things that
23:52
Harding actually does is he changes the foreign
23:55
policy from an interventionist one to an isolationist
23:58
one. And his State Department actually engages
24:06
in arms control. Now remember, when I'm talking
24:10
arms control in the 1920s, I'm talking about
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naval tonnage ships, battleships, dreadnoughts,
24:16
that sort of thing. So you have what's called
24:19
the Five Power Treaty. between the U .S., the
24:24
U .K., France, Italy, and Japan. But the primary
24:35
driver behind that is battleships cost money
24:37
to build, to deploy, and you have to pay for
24:42
the crews. By the way, what are some world powers
24:46
that are not on the list of the five power talks?
24:52
Why isn't Germany on the list for the Five Power
24:54
Talk? It was demilitarized under the Treaty of
24:57
Versailles. Why is Russia on the list of the
25:01
Five Power Talks? Because of Bolshevik Revolution.
25:07
Also, was Russia a major naval power after the
25:09
Russo -Japanese War? No. So it's, we don't want
25:13
to talk to you because you're communist and you're
25:15
not a great naval power anymore. Russia won't
25:19
be a great naval power until the middle of the
25:22
Cold War, and even then. Okay, so those are the
25:28
three major points of the Harding agenda. Do
25:34
we still hear the echo in some of the policies
25:37
we have now? I mean, in the last presidential
25:41
election, both of the major candidates thought
25:44
that the Iraq intervention was a bad idea. Kind
25:49
of interesting. But, anyway. Okay. Setbacks for
25:55
the unions. I'm going to go back to... So, one
26:00
of the things that was part of the Wilson Progressivist
26:06
Coalition was the unions. Okay? Now, when I'm
26:16
talking about unions, you actually have two employment
26:19
situations. You have what's called a closed shop
26:21
and an open shop. An open shop means you can
26:25
work there at will. Closed shop means you must
26:32
be a union member to work. How many of you currently
26:44
work a wage job? And you have somewhere where
26:49
you sign the papers that you work for the company
26:51
at will that you have to provide two weeks' notice.
26:53
You are not subject to collective bargaining,
26:55
yes? Did you know that actually in parts of the
27:00
Northeast, even the grocery store sackers are
27:02
unionized? Now, unions, in addition to being
27:09
part of the Democratic coalition, are, what do
27:15
they do? What do they do? They advocate for the
27:21
workers. What is their principal means of advocation?
27:25
The most painful. Strikes. What do strikes do?
27:31
Stops work, yes? So, if I look at the party labels
27:34
for a moment, in the Democratic Coalition, I
27:36
have immigrants, I have unions, And then down
27:44
south, I have southern agrarians. We'll just
27:49
call them southern conservatives. And I'm going
27:51
to put the Klan in parentheses because if you
27:54
were a southern conservative Democrat by day,
27:56
you might have been wearing a white hood and
27:57
riding around at night. In the Republican coalition,
28:00
you have western farmers. And business interest.
28:10
If I am a businessman, do I like unions? Because
28:16
they slow down the work, they demand more money,
28:18
they're agitators, they may have socialist sympathies.
28:20
Yes? So if I'm Harding or Coolidge, I like open
28:26
shop because if you don't have to join a union
28:28
in order to work, what happens to the union?
28:31
It falls apart, it loses its power. So that's
28:35
what I call the tactical reason. behind Republican
28:39
opposition to unions. There's also a moral reason
28:42
behind it. What do you pay in order to be in
28:49
a union? What do you pay? Union dues. What does
28:54
union dues then become if you think about it?
28:58
A tax on working. And the Republicans have already
29:02
demonstrated an antipathy towards taxation. And
29:06
also, if I continue it as a line of intellectual
29:09
thought, abolition was about the freedom to work
29:15
and the freedom to be compensated for the fruits
29:19
of your labor. If you're paying union dues, that
29:21
union all of a sudden just became a parasite
29:24
leeching off of the sustenance of the working
29:27
man. So it fits their ethos tactically, it fits
29:32
their ethos politically, morally, and so they
29:36
pushed for open shop work in the United States.
29:39
There was a push to make closed shop work a federal
29:41
thing, and then they pushed against it. isolation
29:48
in foreign affairs, attempted disarmament. I
29:50
talked about that already. So here's the thing.
29:52
A number of Harding's people were kind of on
29:56
the take. There was a scandal at the VA where
29:58
the VA secretary was filching and reselling medical
30:00
supplies. There was a scandal about who was getting
30:04
a pardon and who wasn't. And then you have the
30:05
Teapot Dome scandal. Basically, the secretary
30:08
of the Navy had leased federal oil contracts
30:11
in Wyoming to a personal friend in exchange for
30:15
kickbacks. So the Teapot Dome scandal was the
30:18
first major scandal that actually implicated
30:20
the White House. There were pressures. It became
30:23
sort of the epitome of a White House gone wrong.
30:29
Also kind of interesting, Warren Harding was
30:32
actually a very charismatic person and he was
30:34
very good with people, especially women. Man
30:38
had quite a few extramarital affairs and loved
30:40
children and was blackmailed on more than one
30:42
occasion. Now, kind of interesting. Warren Harding,
30:47
shortly at the tail end of his presidential term,
30:50
is staying in a hotel in San Francisco where
30:52
he dies of a heart attack. No foul play. His
30:58
vice president, Silent Cal Coolidge, succeeds
31:01
him and actually wins in the election of 1924.
31:06
Now, the election of 1924... It was kind of a
31:11
lackluster election. You have the economy popping,
31:14
and so nobody wanted to change horses in the
31:16
middle of the game. You get the idea. And actually,
31:21
I believe it's during this election that FDR
31:24
posits that the only way the Republicans would
31:27
actually lose their control on power would be
31:29
an abrupt and decisive economic depression. Actually,
31:37
FDR said some very interesting things. Coolidge
31:44
himself was not implicated in any of the scandals.
31:46
One of the things that we don't really appreciate
31:48
in modern times is just how detached the vice
31:51
president is from the president. Now we have
31:54
presidents choosing them as running mates and
31:56
having them at the White House key in policy
31:59
decision making. At the time, not really. It
32:04
was just sort of, oh, show up to the Senate when
32:06
we need you. Oh, there it is. Moving on. So,
32:10
1924 to 1928, you have the Coolidge administration
32:16
mainly continuing Harding's tradition of cutting
32:20
taxes and reducing spending. Then you have the
32:23
next big election, 1928. This one is interesting
32:27
in two ways. So, Hoover is a progressive Republican.
32:36
He admired Woodrow Wilson. Hoover was himself
32:40
an intellectual. He was a mining engineer and
32:46
an oil tycoon. He spoke to the virtues of American
32:54
individualism. He did think that there was good
32:58
to be done in the government to help the people.
33:02
Now, but if you're Herbert Hoover, who is in
33:04
your electoral coalition? If you're a Republican,
33:10
who's in your electoral coalition? Western farmers,
33:13
who else? Businessmen, which includes progressives.
33:26
So if you're Hoover, do you upset your electoral
33:29
coalition? Democrats put up Al Smith. Now, Al
33:32
Smith deserves a lot more credit than simply
33:35
losing the 1928 election to Herbert Hoover. Al
33:40
Smith is a Catholic. He is the first Catholic
33:44
candidate for president. And in many ways, his
33:49
nomination breaks the Democratic Party coalition.
33:52
And so you have... who is representing the interests
33:57
of northern immigrants as the Democratic nominee.
34:05
But this breaks the two -fold block of the Democratic
34:09
Party. Northern immigrants are part of the voting
34:12
bloc, but the other part of the voting bloc is
34:14
the southern conservatives. Now, the southern
34:17
conservatives are... the ones that I've linked
34:20
to the Klan. If you're part of the Klan, you
34:23
are anti -Catholic. And so Smith's nomination
34:27
as the Democratic nominee causes the Southern
34:33
Democrats to either stay at home or to vote against
34:36
him. And so in 1928, Hoover wins in a landslide.
34:41
Now, one of the things that's kind of interesting
34:43
is later on in 1932, the Democratic Party and
34:49
the presidency fall to Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
34:53
and Al Smith walks away from the Democratic Party.
35:00
becoming dissatisfied with the direction the
35:04
party had taken in the face of Roosevelt's New
35:07
Deal. It is Al Smith who Reagan quoted as saying
35:12
that I have seen the Democratic transform from
35:15
the party of Jackson and Jefferson to the party
35:19
of Marx and Lenin. And so Reagan looked to Al
35:23
Smith as an example of one who had walked away
35:26
from the Democratic Party. Reagan himself was
35:28
originally a Democratic. who became a Republican.
35:31
And actually, sort of a little tidbit from history
35:33
for those of you who were following the presidential
35:35
campaign. The last campaign, and it wasn't really
35:38
a campaign event, but the last major event before
35:41
Election Day. was the Al Smith dinner in New
35:46
York, which was sponsored by the Catholic Archdiocese
35:48
of New York City. That was the last time that
35:51
the two major presidential candidates, Donald
35:53
Trump and Hillary Clinton, were in the same space.
35:56
It was after the debates, and it was kind of
35:58
a celebrity roast. But what most people didn't
36:01
tell you, what most media types left out, was
36:04
Al Smith spoke. out against the socialist tendencies
36:10
that had come out of the Democratic Party in
36:13
the New Deal. Questions, problems, concerns,
36:15
or revelations?