Chapter 12

Installment Plan

An arrangement in which a purchaser pays over an extended time, without having to put down much money at the time of purchase.

Communism

An economic and political system based on one-party government and state ownership of property.

Charles Evans Hughes

At the conference, Secretary of the state urged that no more warships be built for ten years. He suggested that the five major naval powers-the United States, Great Britain, Japan, France, and Italy-scrap many of their largest warships.

Nativism

Favoring the interests of native-born people over foreign-born people.

John L. Lewis

In 1919, the United Mine Workers of America, got a new leader. In protest of low wages and long workdays he called his union's members out on strike on November 1, 1919. Coal miners received a 27% wage increase due to him.

Isolationism

Opposition to political and economic entanglements with other countries.

Teapot Dome Scandal

Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall's secret leasing of oil-rich public land to private companies in return for money and land.

Albert B. Fall

The government had set aside oil-rich public lands at Teapot Dome, Wyoming, and Elk Hills, California, for use by the U.S. Navy. Secretary of the interior and a close friend of various oil execuatives, managed to get the oil reserves transferred from the navy to the interior department. He then secretly leased the land to two private oil companies. He was later found guilty of bribery and became the first American to be convicted of a felony while holding a cabinet post.

Sacco and Vanzetti

The two most famous victims of the nativist attitude. A shoemaker and fish peddler. Italian immigrants and anarchists. In May 1920, arrested and charged with the robery and murder of a factory paymaster and his guard in South Braintree, Massachusetts. Jury found guilty and sentenced to death.

Urban Sprawl

The unplanned and uncontrolled spreading of cities into surrounding regions.

Warren G. Harding

A good-natured man who "looked like a president ought to look." When the silver-haired Ohio senator assumed the presidency in 1921, the public yearned for normalcy the simpler days before the Progressive Era and Great War.

Ohio Gang

A group of close friends and political supporters whom President Warren G. Harding appointed to his cabinet.

Anarchists

A person who opposes all forms of government.

Calvin Coolidge

A respected man of integrity, helped to restore people's faith in their government and in the Republican Party. The next year he was elected president. Favored government policies that would keep taxes down and businesses profits up

Fordney-McCumber Tariff

A set of regulations, enacted by Congress in 1922, that raised taxes on imports to record levels in order to protect American businesses against foreign competition.

Quota System

A system that sets limits on how many immigrants from various countries a nation will admit each year.