History 2, Unit 3

World War I debt-Coolidge quote

"They hired the money didn't they?"

Gertrude Stein-

"you are all a lost generation"

Jesse Smith

(1871 - May 30, 1923)[1] was a member of President Warren G. Harding's Ohio Gang. He was born and raised in Washington Court House, Ohio, where he became a friend of Harry M. Daugherty.[2] There, Daugherty helped him to become the successful owner of a department store. Smith became Daugherty's gofer during the 1920 campaign.[2]

Charles R. Forbes

(February 14, 1878 - April 10, 1952) was appointed the first Director of the Veterans' Bureau by President Warren G. Harding on August 9, 1921 and served until February 28, 1923. Caught for Army desertion in 1900, he went on to serve in the military and was a decorated World War I veteran. He first became active in politics in the Pacific Northwest. In 1912, Forbes moved to Hawaii and served as chairman on various federal commissions. While Senator Warren G. Harding was on vacation in Hawaii the two met by chance and became friends. After the 1920 U.S. Presidential election, President Harding appointed Forbes director to the newly created Veterans Bureau, a powerful position in charge of millions of dollars in government expenditures and supplies. His tenure as the first Veterans Bureau Director was characterized by corruption and scandal. Forbes was considered the "dashing playboy" of Washington and a favorite of President Harding.[1] Having returned to the United States after fleeing to Europe in 1923, he was convicted of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Government and sent to federal prison in 1926, where he was cell mates with Frederick Cook, the person who is often credited with being the first to reach the North Pole. Forbes was released 8 months later in 1927. He died in 1952.

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti

(June 11, 1888 - August 23, 1927) were anarchists who were convicted of murdering two men during a 1920 armed robbery in South Braintree, Massachusetts, United States. After a controversial trial and a series of appeals, the two Italian immigrants were executed on August 23, 1927.[1] There is a highly politicized dispute over their guilt or innocence, as well as whether or not the trials were fair.[2][3] The dispute focuses on contradictory evidence. As a result, historians have not reached a consensus.

Thomas W. Miller

(June 26, 1886 - May 5, 1973) was an American businessman, lawyer and politician, from Wilmington, Delaware, and Reno, Nevada. He was a veteran of World War I and a member of the Republican Party, who served as U. S. Representative from Delaware.

Albert B. Fall-Teapot Dome Affair

(November 26, 1861 - November 30, 1944) was a United States Senator from New Mexico and the Secretary of the Interior under President Warren G. Harding, infamous for his involvement in the Teapot Dome scandal.

Marcus Garvey

(Universal Negro Improvement Association

Dawes Plan

(as proposed by the Dawes Committee, chaired by Charles G. Dawes) was an attempt in 1924 to solve the reparations problem, which had bedeviled international politics, in the wake of the Ruhr occupation and the hyperinflation crisis. It provided for the Allies to collect war reparations debt from Germany. Intended as an interim measure, the Young Plan was adopted in 1929 to replace it.

Clarence Darrow

(defense attorney)

William Jennings Bryan

(special prosecutor)

John T. Scopes

(teacher)

Charles and Mary Beard

-The Rise of American Civilization

H. L. Mencken-

-The Smart Set and The American Mercury

"Red Scare"

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$1.5 billion local relief projects

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$1.5 billion-banks, insurance companies, and railroads

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$300 million local relief projects

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1920 urban population greater than rural for the first time

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Causes of the Great Depression

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Charles A. Lindbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis

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Economic Trends

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Labor opposed the concept of "open shop"

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National Origins Act, 1924

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National Origins Plan, 1927

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Overturned in appeal-fine was too great ($100)

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Political Trends

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Stock Market Crash-The Great Crash, 1929-John Kenneth Galbraith (i) "The bad distribution of income." (ii) "The bad corporate structure." (iii) "The bad banking structure." (iv) "The dubious state of the foreign balance." (v) "The poor state of economic intelligence."

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The New Deal-"a new deal for the American people"

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• "Bonus Army" (15,000 World War I veterans)

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• Agricultural over expansion

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• Automobile Industry-Model T and Henry Ford

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• Consumer credit

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• Distribution of income

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• Economic Problems

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• Farm Holiday Movement-Milo Reno

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• Financial ethics

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• Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) created the "Roosevelt Coalition"

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• Herbert Hoover (R)

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• Immigration

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• Overproduction of manufactured goods

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• Prosperity of the 1920s- USA became-creditor nation-had a pro-business government-developed new technologies

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• Religion-"Monkey Trial"

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• Technological unemployment

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• "Keep cool with Coolidge"

Coolidge's campaign slogan

Election of 1932

FRD vs. Hoover took place in the midst of the Great Depression that had ruined the promises of incumbent President Herbert Hoover to bring about a new era of prosperity. Economics was dominant, and the sort of cultural issues that had dominated previous elections including Catholicism and the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) were dormant. Prohibition was a favorite Democratic target, as few Republicans tried to defend it. There was a mounting demand to end prohibition and bring back beer, liquor, and the resulting tax revenues.[1] The Democratic nomination went to the well known governor of the largest state, New York's Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR). He had been reelected governor in a landslide in 1930. People still remembered his cousin, the first president Roosevelt, and FDR had been the losing vice presidential nominee in 1920. This time, Roosevelt united all wings of the party, avoided divisive cultural issues such as religion and the KKK, and brought in a leading southern conservative as his running mate, House Speaker John Nance Garner. The theme of the campaign was an all-out attack on Hoover's economic failures, with the incumbent hard pressed to defend himself. Roosevelt blamed the Great Depression on Hoover, and his protectionist policies. Roosevelt lashed out at Hoover: "I accuse the present Administration of being the greatest spending Administration in peacetime in all our history."[2] Garner accused Hoover of "leading the country down the path of socialism."[3] Roosevelt himself did not have a clear idea of the New Deal at this point, so he promised no specific programs and tried to appeal to practically all groups of voters, even Republicans. Roosevelt won by a landslide, and this critical election marked the collapse of the Fourth Party System or Progressive Era. With another landslide in the 1934 off-year elections, the electorate was realigned into the Fifth Party System, dominated by Roosevelt's New Deal Coalition.

"Brown Derby Campaign of 1928"-

Herbert Hoover (R) and Alfred E. Smith (D)-"the happy warrior"

Sinclair Lewis-Main Street, Babbitt, Arrowsmith, Elmer Gantry

Main Street, Babbitt, Arrowsmith, Elmer Gantry

Ernest Hemingway-

The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms

F. Scott Fitzgerald-

This Side of Paradise, The Great Gatsby

Wickersham Commission, 1931

U.S. President Herbert Hoover established this Commission, officially called the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement, on May 20, 1929. Former Attorney General George W. Wickersham (1858-1936) headed the 11-member group charged with identifying the causes of criminal activity and to make recommendations for appropriate public policy. During the 1928 presidential campaign Herbert Hoover supported the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution but recognized that evasion was widespread and that prohibition had fueled the growth of organized crime.

• "Return to normalcy" and Warren G. Harding

Warren Harding's main campaign slogan was a "return to normalcy", playing upon the weariness of the American public after the social upheaval of the Progressive Era. Additionally, World War I and the Treaty of Versailles proved deeply unpopular, causing a reaction against Wilson, who had pushed especially hard for the latter.

• Washington Naval Conference, 1921

also called the Washington Arms Conference, was a military conference called by President Warren G. Harding and held in Washington from 12 November 1921 to 6 February 1922. Conducted outside the auspices of the League of Nations, it was attended by nine nations, the United States, Japan, China, France, Britain, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, and Portugal,[1] having interests in the Pacific Ocean and East Asia. Soviet Russia was not invited to the conference. It was the first international conference held in the United States and the first disarmament conference in history, and as Kaufman, 1990 shows, it is studied by political scientists as a model for a successful disarmament movement. Held at Memorial Continental Hall in downtown Washington,[2] it resulted in three major treaties: Four-Power Treaty, Five-Power Treaty (more commonly known as the Washington Naval Treaty), the Nine-Power Treaty, and a number of smaller agreements. These treaties preserved peace during the 1920s but are also credited with enabling the rise of the Japanese Empire as a naval power leading up to World War II.

Emergency Quota Act, 1921

also known as the Emergency Immigration Act of 1921, the Immigration Restriction Act of 1921, the Per Centum Law, and the Johnson Quota Act (ch. 8, 42 Stat. 5 of May 19, 1921) restricted immigration into the United States. Although intended as temporary legislation, the Act "proved in the long run the most important turning-point in American immigration policy"[1] because it added 2 new features to American immigration law: numerical limits on immigration from Europe and the use of a quota system for establishing those limits. The Act restricted the number of immigrants admitted from any country annually to 3% of the number of residents from that same country living in the United States as of the U.S. Census of 1910.[2] Based on that formula, the number of new immigrants admitted fell from 805,228 in 1920 to 309,556 in 1921-22.[3] The act meant that only people of Northern Europe who had similar cultures to that of America were likely to get in. The excuse was the American government wanted to protect its culture when this act was introduced, however some[who?] felt it was mainly in response to the millions of Jews who begun fleeing the terrible persecution they were facing in Western Europe starting in 1890.[citation needed] The fact that the quotas were to be based on the 1890 census, immediately prior to the influx of those Jews, rather then the 1920 census, lends credence to that accusation.

• "Red Scare"

denotes two distinct periods of strong Anti-Communism in the United States: the First Red Scare, from 1919 to 1921, and the Second Red Scare,

Harold Ickes organized liberal Democrats for FDR.

false

The Atlantic Charter was signed by the US and Russia.

false

The Battle of the Bulge called attention to the need for American soldiers to loose weight.

false

The Social Security Act stands out for its failure to pass Congress in 1934.

false

• "The Lost Generation"

is a term used to refer to the generation, actually a cohort, that came of age during World War I. The term was popularized by Ernest Hemingway who used it as one of two contrasting epigraphs for his novel, The Sun Also Rises. In that volume Hemingway credits the phrase to Gertrude Stein, who was then his mentor and patron. In A Moveable Feast, which was published after both Hemingway and Stein were dead and after a literary feud that lasted much of their life, Hemingway reveals that the phrase was actually originated by the garage owner who serviced Stein's car. When a young mechanic failed to repair the car in a way satisfactory to Stein, the garage owner shouted at the boy, "You are all a "génération perdue."[1]:29 Stein, in telling Hemingway the story, added, "That is what you are. That's what you all are ... all of you young people who served in the war. You are a lost generation."[1]:29 This generation included distinguished artists such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, T. S. Eliot, John Dos Passos, Waldo Peirce, Isadora Duncan, Abraham Walkowitz, Alan Seeger, and Erich Maria Remarque.

International Workers of the World (IWW) "Wobblies"

is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after severe government repression as part of the first Red Scare and a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict. IWW membership does not require that one work in a represented workplace,[3] nor does it exclude membership in another labor union.[4] The IWW contends that all workers should be united as a class and that the wage system should be abolished.[5] They are known for the Wobbly Shop model of workplace democracy, in which workers elect their managers[6] and other forms of grassroots democracy (self-management) are implemented. In 2012 the IWW moved its General Headquarters offices to 2036 West Montrose, Chicago.[7] The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain.[8]

• Prohibition

is the legal act of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation and sale of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the prohibition of alcohol was enforced. Use of the term as applicable to a historical period is typically applied to countries of European culture.

Ku Klux Klan,1915

is the name of three distinct past and present far-right[5][6][7][8] organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically expressed through terrorism.[9] Since the mid-20th century, the KKK has also been anti-communist.[9] The current manifestation is splintered into several chapters with no connections between each other; it is classified as a hate group by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center.[10] It is estimated to have between 3,000 and 5,000 members as of 2012.[11] The first Klan flourished in the Southern United States in the late 1860s, then died out by the early 1870s. Members adopted white costumes: robes, masks, and conical hats, designed to be outlandish and terrifying, and to hide their identities.[12] The second KKK flourished nationwide in the early and mid 1920s, and adopted the same costumes and code words as the first Klan, while introducing cross burnings.[13] The third KKK emerged after World War II and was associated with opposing the Civil Rights Movement and progress among minorities. The second and third incarnations of the Ku Klux Klan made frequent reference to the USA's "Anglo-Saxon" and "Celtic" blood, harking back to 19th-century nativism and claiming descent from the original 18th-century British colonial revolutionaries.[14] The first and third incarnations of the Klan have well-established records of engaging in terrorism and political violence, though historians debate whether or not the tactic was supported by the second KKK.

Fordney-McCumber Act

of 1922 raised American tariffs in order to protect factories and farms. Congress displayed a pro-business attitude in passing the ad valorem tariff and in promoting foreign trade through providing huge loans to Europe, which in turn bought more American goods.[1] The Roaring Twenties brought a period of sustained economic prosperity with an end to the Depression of 1920-21. As a result of the war, Americans had two main concerns. First, they wanted to ensure economic self-sufficiency so that no future enemy could manipulate the American economy. Second, many industries wanted to preserve the benefits of the increased wartime demand.

World War Foreign Debt Commission

of February 9, 1922 authorized the creation of a commission, working under Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon, to negotiate repayment agreements with Great Britain and France in the aftermath of World War I. The Commission placed the Allied debt principal to the United States at $11 billion; payments were to be made in graduated 62 annual installments; however, the accrued interest on these payments over a period of 62 years would have increased the debt to approximately $22 billion, although the U.S. did agree to lowered interest rates. Great Britain's debt was reduced 19.7% to $4.6 billion with the interest rate reduced from 5% to 3% for the first ten years of payment to be raised to 3½% thereafter. France's debt was reduced by 52.8% to $4 billion, without any interest for the first five years of payment. It was then to be increased gradually to 3½%.

eighteenth amendment

of the United States Constitution established prohibition in the United States. The separate Volstead Act set down methods of enforcing the Eighteenth Amendment, and defined which "intoxicating liquors" were prohibited, and which were excluded from prohibition (e.g., for medical and religious purposes). The Amendment was unique in setting a time delay before it would take effect following ratification, and in setting a time limit for its ratification by the states. Its ratification was certified on January 16, 1919, with the law taking effect on January 17, 1920. Demand for liquor continued, and the law resulted in the criminalization of producers, suppliers, transporters and consumers. The police, courts and prisons were overwhelmed with new cases; organized crime increased in power, and corruption extended among law enforcement officials. The amendment was repealed in 1933 by ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment, the only instance in United States history of repeal of a constitutional amendment.

Hawley-Smoot Tariff (1930)

otherwise known as the Smoot-Hawley Tariff or Hawley-Smoot Tariff,[1] was an act, sponsored by Senator Reed Smoot and Representative Willis C. Hawley, and signed into law on June 17, 1930, that raised U.S. tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods to record levels.[2] The overall level tariffs under the Tariff were the second-highest in U.S. history, exceeded by a small margin only by the Tariff of 1828.[3] The act, and the ensuing retaliatory tariffs by U.S. trading partners, reduced American exports and imports by more than half.

Cultural Trends-"new era"

roaring 20s.

Boston police strike, 1919-Governor Calvin Coolidge

the Boston police rank and file went out on strike on September 9, 1919, in order to achieve recognition for their trade union and improvements in wages and working conditions. They faced an implacable opponent in Police Commissioner Edwin Upton Curtis, who denied that police officers had any right to form a union, much less one affiliated with a larger organization like the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Attempts at reconciliation between the Commissioner and the police officers, particularly on the part of Boston's Mayor Andrew James Peters, failed. During the strike, Boston experienced several nights of lawlessness, although property damage was not extensive. Several thousand members of the State Guard, supported by volunteers, restored order. Press reaction both locally and nationally described the strike as Bolshevik-inspired and directed at the destruction of civil society. The strikers were called "deserters" and "agents of Lenin."[1] Samuel Gompers of the AFL recognized that the strike was damaging the cause of labor in the public mind and advised the strikers to return to work. The Police Commissioner remained adamant and refused to re-hire the striking policemen. He was supported by Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge, whose rebuke of Gompers earned him a national reputation. The strike proved a setback for labor, and the AFL reversed its attempts to organize police officers for another two decades. Coolidge won the Republican nomination for vice-president of the US in the 1920 presidential election.

Twenty-first Amendment

to the United States Constitution repealed the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which had mandated nationwide Prohibition on alcohol on January 17, 1920. The Twenty-first amendment was ratified on December 5, 1933. It is unique among the 27 Amendments of the U.S. Constitution for being the only one to repeal a previous Amendment, and for being the only one to have been ratified by the method of the state ratifying convention.

A. Philip Randolph was the president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.

true

Congress set up the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to make loans to financially troubled businesses.

true

In 1935-1937 a series of Neutrality Acts were passed by Congress.

true

In 1937-1938 the "Roosevelt Recession" took the economy into a downturn.

true

Japanese internment reflected forty years of racial prejudice and econmic rivalry

true

Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins was the first woman cabinet member.

true

The British Prime Minister Winston Churchill pleaded for American aid.

true

The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 banned child labor and set a national minimum wage and a maximum workweek.

true

The Indian Reorganization of 1934 halted tribal land sales and allowed tribes to regain title to unallocated lands.

true

The Manhattan Project was the code name for the building of the atomic bomb.

true

The Potsdam Declaration warned the Japanese to surrender or face destruction.

true

The War Production Board allocated materials, limited production of civilian goods, and distributed contracts.

true

The Works Progress Administration funneled assistance directly to the jobless.

true

The image of "Rosie the Riveter" became the symbol of the woman war worker.

true

The most innovative program of the Hundred Days was the Tennessee Valley Authority.

true

The principal relief measure of the Hundred Days was the Federal Emergency Relief Act.

true

A. Mitchell Palmer

was Attorney General of the United States from 1919 to 1921. He directed the controversial Palmer Raids. Contents [hide] 1 Congressional career 2 Alien Property Custodian 3 Attorney general 3.1 Palmer Raids 3.2 Labor and Business 3.2.1 Coal strike 3.3 May Day warnings 4 Later years 5 Notes 6 References 7 Sources 8 External links

• "Ohio Gang"

was a good ol' boy network of politicians and industry leaders closely surrounding Warren G. Harding, the 29th President of the United States of America. Many of these individuals came into Harding's personal orbit during his tenure as a state-level politician in Ohio, thus the name. During the Harding administration several of the so-called Ohio Gang became involved in financial scandals, including the Teapot Dome scandal and apparent malfeasance at the U.S. Department of Justice, ending in prison terms and suicides. Following Harding's sudden death of a heart attack in 1923, the Ohio Gang were effectively removed from the corridors of power by Harding's Vice President and successor, Calvin Coolidge.

• Glass-Steagall Act (1932)

was a law enacted by the United States Congress in 1932. It was the first time that currency (non-specie, paper currency etc.) was permitted to be allocated for the Federal Reserve System. It was passed in February 1932 in an effort to stop deflation and expanded the Federal Reserve's ability to offer rediscounts[clarification needed] on more types of assets such as government bonds as well as commercial paper.[1] The "Glass-Steagall Act" is not the official title of the law; it is a colloquialism that refers to its legislative sponsors, Carter Glass, a US Senator from Virginia and Henry B. Steagall, the Congressman from Alabama's 3rd congressional district.

Young Plan

was a program for settlement of German reparations debts after World War I written in 1929 and formally adopted in 1930. It was presented by the committee headed (1929-30) by American Owen D. Young. The reparations, set in January 1921 by an Inter-Allied Reparations Commission at 269 billion gold marks (the equivalent of around 100,000 tonnes of pure gold) were deliberately crushing. This 100,000 tonnes of gold is equivalent to more than 50% of all the gold ever mined in history (est. 165000 tonnes), which many economists at the time including John Maynard Keynes deemed to be irrational and excessive. After the Dawes Plan was put into operation (1924), it became apparent that Germany could not meet the annual payments, especially over an indefinite period of time. The Young Plan reduced further payments to 112 billion Gold Marks, US $8 billion in 1929 (US$ 108 billion in 2012) over a period of 59 years (1988).[1] In addition, the Young Plan divided the annual payment, set at two billion Gold Marks, US $473 million, into two components, one unconditional part equal to one third of the sum and a postponable part, incurring interest and financed by a consortium of American investment banks coordinated by the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company, for the remaining two-thirds.

Nine-Power Naval Treaty

was a treaty affirming the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China as per the Open Door Policy, signed by all of the attendees to the Washington Naval Conference on 6 February 1922. United States Secretary of State John Hay had issued the "Open Door Notes" of September-November 1899, followed by a diplomatic circular in July 1900, asking that all of the major world powers with vested interests in China declare formally that they would maintain an 'open door' to allow all nations equal rights and equal access to the treaty ports within their spheres of influence in China. Fearing that the European powers and Japan were preparing to carve China up into colonies, Hay also added provisions that Chinese territorial and administrative integrity should be maintained. Although no nation specifically affirmed Hay's proposal, Hay announced that each of the powers had granted consent in principle and treaties made after 1900 make reference to the Open Door Policy. Nonetheless, competition between the various powers for special concessions within China for railroad rights, mining rights, loans, foreign trade ports, etc. continued unabated. The United States was especially leery of Japanese designs on China after the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) and the Twenty-One Demands (1915) and repeatedly signed agreements with the Japanese government pledging to maintain a policy of equality in Manchuria and China. These agreements concluded with Lansing-Ishii Agreement in 1917, which was soon shown to be completely ineffective. During the Washington Naval Conference of 1921-1922, the United States government again raised the Open Door Policy as an international issue, and had all of the attendees (United States, Japan, China, France, Great Britain, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, and Portugal) sign a new treaty which intended to make the Open Door Policy international law. However, the Nine-Power Treaty lacked any enforcement regulations, and when violated by Japan during its invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and creation of Manchukuo, the United States could do little more than issue protests and impose economic sanctions. World War II effectively nullified the Nine-Power Treaty. The Nine-Power Treaty was one of several treaties concluded at the Washington Naval Conference. Other major agreements included the Four-Power Treaty and the Five-Power Treaty.

Four-Power Naval Treat

was a treaty signed by the United States, Great Britain, France and Japan at the Washington Naval Conference on 13 December 1921. It was partly a follow-on to the Lansing-Ishii Treaty, signed between the U.S. and Japan. By the Four-Power Treaty, all parties agreement to maintain the status quo in the Pacific, by respecting the Pacific holdings of the other countries signing the agreement, not seeking further territorial expansion, and mutual consultation with each other in the event of a dispute over territorial possessions. However, the main result of the Four-Power Treaty was the termination of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902.

Five-Power Naval Treaty

was a treaty to limit naval construction and prevent an arms race among the victorious powers in the wake of World War I. The treaty was negotiated at the Washington Naval Conference, which was held in Washington, D.C. from November 1921 to February 1922, and signed by Britain, the US, Japan, France and Italy. It limited the construction of battleships, battlecruisers and aircraft carriers by the signatories. The numbers of other categories of warships, including cruisers, destroyers and submarines, were not limited by the treaty but were limited to 10,000 tons displacement. The treaty was followed by a number of other naval arms limitation conferences, which sought to extend or tighten limitations on warship building. The terms of the treaty were modified by the London Naval Treaty of 1930 and the Second London Naval Treaty of 1936. However, by the mid-1930s, Japan and Italy had indicated their withdrawal from the Treaties, and naval arms limitation increasingly became a dead letter.

• Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC)

was an independent agency of the United States government, established and chartered by the US Congress in 1932, Act of January 22, 1932, c. 8, 47 Stat. 5, during the administration of President Herbert Hoover. It was modeled after the War Finance Corporation of World War I. The agency gave $2 billion in aid to state and local governments and made loans to banks, railroads, mortgage associations and other businesses. The loans were nearly all repaid. It was continued by the New Deal and played a major role in handling the Great Depression in the United States and setting up the relief programs that were taken over by the New Deal in 1933.[1]

Kellogg-Briand Pact (Pact of Paris)

was an international agreement in which signatory states promised not to use war to resolve "disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise among them".[1] Parties failing to abide by this promise "should be denied the benefits furnished by this treaty". It was signed by Germany, France and the United States on August 27, 1928. The Kellogg-Briand Pact is named after its authors: Frank B. Kellogg and French foreign minister Aristide Briand.

Budget and Accounting Act of 1921

was landmark legislation that established the framework for the modern federal budget. The act was approved by President Warren G. Harding to provide a national budget system and an independent audit of government accounts. The official title of this act is "The General Accounting Act of 1921," but is frequently referred to as "the budget act," or "the Budget and Accounting Act."[1] This act meant that for the first time, the president would be required to submit an annual budget for the entire federal government to Congress.[2] The object of the budget bill was to consolidate the spending agencies in both the executive and legislative branches of the government.[1]The act created the Bureau of the Budget, now called the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), to review funding requests from government departments and to assist the president in formulating the budget. The OMB mandates that all government estimates, receipts, and expenditures be cleared by the director of the budget. From the director, the estimates go directly to the president and from the president, directly to Congress.[1] In addition, the act created the General Accounting Office, now known as the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the non-partisan audit, evaluation, and investigative arm of Congress, and an agency in the legislative branch of the United States Government. The act required the head of the GAO, to "investigate, at the seat of government or elsewhere, all matters in relation to the receipt, disbursement, and application of public funds, and shall make to the President ... and to Congress ... reports [and] recommendations looking to greater economy or efficiency in public expenditures".[3] The name of the General Accounting Office was changed to Government Accountability Office in 2004 to better reflects the mission of the office.[4]

American Federation of Labor

was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio in December 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers of the Cigar Makers' International Union was elected president of the Federation at its founding convention and was reelected every year except one until his death in 1924. The AFL was the largest union grouping in the United States for the first half of the 20th century, even after the creation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) by unions that were expelled by the AFL in 1935 over its opposition to industrial unionism. While the Federation was founded and dominated by craft unions throughout the first fifty years of its existence, many of its craft union affiliates turned to organizing on an industrial union basis to meet the challenge from the CIO in the 1940s. In 1955, the AFL merged with its longtime rival, the Congress of Industrial Organizations, to form the AFL-CIO, a federation which remains in place to this day. Together with its offspring, the AFL has comprised the longest lasting and most influential labor federation in the United States.

Volstead Act, 1919

was the enabling legislation for the Eighteenth Amendment which established prohibition in the United States. The Anti-Saloon League's Wayne Wheeler conceived and drafted the bill, which was named for Andrew Volstead, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, who managed the legislation.

Revenue Act of 1921

was the first Republican tax reduction following their landslide victory in the 1920 federal elections. New Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon argued that significant tax reduction was necessary in order to spur economic expansion and restore prosperity. Mellon obtained repeal of the wartime excess profits tax. The top marginal rate on individuals fell from 73 to 58 percent by 1922, and preferential treatment for capital gains was introduced at a rate of 12.5 percent. Mellon had hoped for more significant tax reduction.

McNary-Haugen Bill (1927 and 1928)

which never became law, was a highly controversial plan in the 1920s to subsidize American agriculture by raising the domestic prices of farm products. The plan was for the government to buy the wheat, and either store it or export it at a loss. It was co-authored by Charles L. McNary (R-Oregon) and Gilbert N. Haugen (R-Iowa). Despite attempts in 1924, 1926, 1927, and 1928 to pass the bill — it was vetoed by President Calvin Coolidge, and never approved. It was supported by then-Secretary of Agriculture Henry C. Wallace. According to the bill, a federal agency would be created to support and protect domestic farm prices by attempting to maintain price levels that existed before the First World War. By purchasing surpluses and selling them overseas, the federal government would take losses that would be paid for through fees against farm producers.