Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Shadow of War

1. The London Conference
   1. With the goal of coming up with an international fix to the Great Depression, the London Conference was set up in 1933.
   2. FDR initially planned to send Sec. of State Cordell Hull. Later he changed his mind and reprimanded Europe for trying to stabilize currencies.
   3. Without America's participation, the London Conference got nothing accomplished (like the League of Nations).
      1. More importantly, America's non-participation in the conference solidified U.S. isolationist policies. In war and in the economy, the U.S. would go at it alone.
2. Freedom for (from?) the Filipinos and Recognition for the Russians
   1. The Philippines had been a headache ever since the U.S. took over the islands. With times hard, Americans were eager to let the Filipinos go.
      1. American sugar growers also wanted to cut free from Filipino sugar.
      2. Congress passed the Tydings-McDuffie Act (1934) that said the Philippines would become independent after 12 years (in 1946).
   2. FDR formally recognized the Soviet Union in 1933.
      1. His move was not popular with many Americans who didn't like acknowledging the communist nation. His motive was hopes of trade with the huge nation and perhaps check the growing power of Germany and Japan.
3. Becoming a Good Neighbor
   1. In his inaugural address, FDR affirmed America's ambition to be a "Good Neighbor" with Latin America.
   2. At the Pan-American Conference, FDR announced that the U.S. would no longer use military strength in Latin America. He singled out Teddy Roosevelt's "Big Stick Policy" as particularly bad.
      1. The next year, 1934, the last of the U.S. Marines left Haiti. America lessened her influence in Cuba and Panama as well.
   3. Mexico, however, seized American oil properties. This was a test to see if the Good Neighbor policy was the "Push-over Policy."
      1. Oil companies wanted armed intervention. FDR held back and came to a settlement in 1941 (though U.S. oil companies did suffer losses).
   4. All told, the Good Neighbor policy was very successful in improving America's image to Latin America.
4. Secretary Hull’s Reciprocal Trade Agreement
   1. Sec. of State Cordell Hull believed in low tariffs. He felt low tariffs mean higher trade. He and FDR felt trade was a two-way street. Congress passed the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act which set up low tariff policies.
      1. The act cut down the most offensive parts of the Hawley-Smoot tariff law merely amending them. In some instances, tariff rates were cut in half (provided the other nation did the same).
   2. The Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act started to reverse the high-tariff trend and started a low-tariff trend that would dominate the post-WWII period.
5. Storm-Cellar Isolationism
   1. Post WWI chaos and the Great Depression helped spawn totalitarian regimes (dictatorships with total power), notably Joseph Stalin in the USSR, Benito Mussolini in Italy, and Adolf Hitler in Germany.
      1. In a totalitarian nation, the individual and his or her rights are nothing; the only thing that matters is the state.
      2. Hitler was the most dangerous. He was a fantastic speaker who told the "big lie" often enough that people started believing it. The big lie was that German problems were caused by the Jews and that he could lead Germany back to greatness which ran in their blood.
   2. Germany and Italy linked up when Hitler and Mussolini agreed on the Rome-Berlin Axis (1936).
   3. Japan was becoming a military dictatorship, turning super isolationist, and seeking to create a mighty Japanese empire for their god/emperor. This was a deadly mix.
      1. Like a rebel teen determined to go bad, they ignored the Washington Naval Treaty and rearmed their nation. They walked out of the London Conference and quit the League of Nations.
      2. In 1940, Japan joined Germany and Italy with the Tripartite Pact.
   4. Under Mussolini, more show than substance, Italy attacked and beat Ethiopia in 1935. Fascist nations love prepping for war, fighting, then championing their victories, even if it means beating up on a very poor nation like Ethiopia (they'd fought with spears).
      1. The League of Nations did nothing, not even cutting oil to Italy, and the League died as a nice idea that was powerless.
   5. America simply stayed isolationist. The events were an ocean away, or more, the U.S. had her own problems, and America didn't want to get drawn into Europe's problems like with WWI.
      1. Trying to avoid getting sucked further into foreign problems, Congress passed the Johnson Debt Default Act which forbade countries that owed money to the U.S. from getting any more loans.
6. Congress Legislates Neutrality
   1. The Nye Committee was set up (1934) to study the idea that munitions producers only helped start wars and thus earn profits. This was one of the ideas as to the causes of WWI.
   2. Determined to not get into a war, Congress passed the Neutrality Acts in 1935, 36, and 37. They said that when the president declared a foreign war existed, certain restrictions would start.
      1. The restrictions were: (1) Americans could not sail on a belligerent (nation-at-war) ship, sell/haul munitions, or make loans to belligerents.
   3. These were clearly to avoid the same mistakes that had occurred at the outset of WWI. WWII, however, would have different circumstances. The U.S. declared absolute neutrality, no matter how hideous one side would be.
7. America Dooms Loyalist Spain
   1. The Spanish Civil War (1936-39) was a mini-WWII. It saw a fascist government led by Gen. Francisco Franco fight a republican democratic government.
      1. Naturally, the U.S. wanted the republican government to win. But, isolationism ruling, the U.S. offered no help. It was their war. America did start an oil embargo.
      2. Italy and Germany did help Franco. Knowing he'd soon put them to use, Hitler used the Spanish Civil War as a testing ground for his tanks and planes. Franco and the fascists won and this helped embolden the dictators, especially Hitler.
   2. Though neutral, America didn't build up her military for defense. America actually let the navy get weaker.
      1. Congress passed a law to build up the navy in 1938, very late in the game and only one year before WWII broke open.
8. Appeasing Japan and Germany This content copyright © 2010 by WikiNotes.wikidot.com
   1. Japan invaded China in 1937. FDR did not name the action a war, however, so the Neutrality Acts were not invoked and both China and Japan could still buy American war-stuffs.
   2. In 1937, FDR gave his “Quarantine Speech." In it he asked for America to quarantine the aggressors (Italy and Japan) and to morally side against them.
      1. This was a step away from isolationism. When isolationists complained, FDR backed off a bit in his words.
   3. Japan went at it again when they bombed and sank the American gunboat the Panay. Two were killed, 30 wounded—possible grounds for war.
      1. Japan apologized, paid an indemnity, and the situation cooled.
      2. Americans in China, however, were jailed and beaten as the Japanese took out anti-American frustrations.
      3. The "Panay Incident" further supported American isolationism.
   4. Back in Europe, Hitler was taking increasingly bold steps.
      1. He broke the Treaty of Versailles by (1) making military service mandatory and (2) marching troops into the Rhineland region by France. Britain and France watched, but did nothing.
      2. Drunk on Hitler's book Mein Kampf about a German "master race", Nazi Germany began persecuting the Jews.
         1. Persecution started out with restrictions on Jews, then corralling into "ghettos", then relocation into labor camps, then to death camps to carry out the "final solution."
         2. All told, about 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, about 11 million people total.
      3. Hitler kept up his march by taking his birth nation of Austria in 1938.
      4. Next he declared he wanted the Sudetenland, a section of Czechoslovakia inhabited mostly by Germans.
         1. At each step, Hitler said this would be his last. Naively, Britain and France were eager to appease (give in) to Hitler.
         2. At the Munich Conference (Sept. 1938) British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain fell victim to Hitler's lies. Chamberlain agreed to let Hitler have the Sudetenland.
         3. Chamberlain returned and gave his infamous claim that he’d achieved “peace in our time.” True, but it proved to be a very short time.
         4. Hitler broke his promise and took over all of Czechoslovakia in March of 1939.
9. Hitler’s Belligerency and U.S. Neutrality
   1. The world was stunned on Aug. 23, 1939 when Russia and Germany signed the Russo-German Nonaggression Pact. In it, Stalin and Hitler promised to not fight one another. (Believing Hitler was becoming foolish and Russia got suckered here—Hitler would later break this pact.)
      1. Without having to fear a two-front war like in WWI, the nonaggression pact opened the door for Germany attack Poland.
      2. Still, little was done to halt Hitler. Britain and France did finally draw one last line-in-the-sand, saying that if Poland was taken, war would start.
   2. Hitler attacked Poland anyway on September 1, 1939, and overran the nation in only two weeks. Britain and France did declare war and WWII had begun.
   3. America rooted for Britain and France, but was committed to neutrality.
      1. The Neutrality Acts were invoked which cut supplies to belligerents. Wanting to help Britain and France, FDR and Congress passed the Neutrality Act of 1939 which said the U.S. would sell war materials on a "cash-and-carry" basis.
         1. Cash-and-carry meant no credit and no U.S. ships hauled the stuff.
         2. Though technically open to Germany too, the British and French navies could keep the Germans away.
         3. The U.S. improved her moral standing with the law, but also made some bucks.
10. The Fall of France
    1. When Poland was fully under German power, there was a pause in the war as Hitler moved troops and supplies to the west for an attack on France.
       1. The only action was when the USSR attacked Finland. The U.S. gave Finland $30 million for nonmilitary supplies; Finland lost to Russia.
    2. The so-called "phony war" ended when Hitler suddenly (April 1940) attacked and conquered Denmark and Norway, then the Netherlands and Belgium.
       1. The Germans used blitzkrieg ("lightning warfare") and hit with planes, tanks and ground troops very fast.
    3. The attack on France came very quickly and surrender came quickly, by late June of 1940.
       1. Mussolini attacked France while she was down to get some of the booty.
       2. The only good news was a miraculous evacuation at Dunkirk. Pinned against the English Channel, a waters suddenly settled to an unusual calm and small boats were able to cross the channel and evacuate the troops.
    4. Americans how realized Britain was now the only major European country left standing between the U.S. and Nazi Germany.
       1. FDR called for America to build up the military. Congress appropriated $37 billion, a huge number.
       2. A conscription law was passed—America's first peacetime draft. It would train 1.2 million troops yearly and 800,000 reserves.
    5. There was concern that Germany may take the orphaned Dutch, Danish, and French colonies in Latin America. At the Havana Conference, it was agreed that the Europe-stay-away policy of the Monroe Doctrine would be shared by 21 American countries.
11. Bolstering Britain with the Destroyer Deal (1940)
    1. Britain was next on Hitler's list. To attack Britain, Hitler first needed air superiority. He began bombing, but the British Royal Air Force fought back and halted Germany in the world's first all-air war, the Battle of Britain.
    2. In America, two voices spoke to FDR on whether the U.S. should get involved:
       1. Isolationists set up the America First Committee. Charles Lindbergh was a member.
       2. Interventionists set up the Committee to Defend the Allies.
    3. Both sides campaigned their positions; FDR chose a middle route at this time.
       1. In the Destroyer Deal (1940), America transferred 50 old destroyers from WWI days to Britain. In return, the U.S. got eight defensive bases in the Americas, from Newfoundland down to South America.
       2. The pattern (Quarantine speech, Neutrality Acts, cash-and-carry, Destroyer Deal) showed the U.S. was clearly taking steps from isolation toward intervention.
12. FDR Shatters the Two-Term Tradition (1940)
    1. 1940 was also an election year. Wendell L. Willkie came out of nowhere to capture the Republican nomination. Franklin Roosevelt set aside the two-term tradition, and was nominated for a third term.
       1. Willkie criticized some of the New Deal mishandlings, but the New Deal was not the big issue anymore, the war was. On foreign affairs, there wasn't much difference between the candidates. Willkie's main point of attack was the two-term tradition which was around since George Washington.
       2. FDR's camp came back with, "Better a third term a third-rater" and Lincoln's old adage to not change horses midstream was still strong. FDR also promised to not send "boys" to "any foreign war" (which haunted him).
    2. FDR won big again, 449 to 82.
13. Congress Passes the Landmark Lend-Lease Law
    1. Britain needed money. FDR wanted to help, but also didn't want another WWI-like debt mess. FDR's solution would be to simply loan weapons and ships to the British. They can use them, them return them.
       1. Senator Taft countered lending tanks would be like lending chewing gum—you don't want it back afterward.
    2. The Lend-Lease Bill passed and the U.S. would become the "arsenal of democracy." By 1945, America had sent about $50 billion worth of arms and material to the Allies.
    3. Lend-Lease marked an almost official abandonment of isolation. Everyone realized this, from Mainstreet America to Adolf Hitler. Germany had avoided American ships 'til this point. On May 21, 1941, a German sub destroyed an American ship, the Robin Moor.
14. Hitler’s Assault on the Soviet Union Spawns the Atlantic Charter
    1. In June of 1941, Hitler broke his pact with Russia and invaded the USSR. Neither trusted the other, so Hitler moved to double-cross Stalin first. This was great news for the democracies. Now those two could beat up on one another.
    2. The thinking was that the Germans would quickly defeat the Russians.
       1. FDR sent $1 billion to Russia to help defend Moscow. Germany made quick and early gains, but the red army slowed the Nazis until the winter set in. The Germans literally froze at the gates of Moscow.
    3. The Atlantic Conference (Aug 1941) saw Winston Churchill of England meet with FDR in Newfoundland.
    4. The Atlantic Charter was formed at the meeting and was later okayed by the Soviet Union. Oddly with the U.S. not even in the war, the Charter set up goals for after the war was won. The main points of the Charter were reflective of Wilson's Fourteen Points of WWI…
       1. There would be no territorial or government changes without the people's vote (self-determination).
       2. Disarmament would be sought.
       3. A new peace-keeping organization, like the League of Nations, would be set up.
    5. Isolationists criticized the Atlantic Conference and Charter. They simply failed to see that the U.S. was no neutral anymore.
15. U.S. Destroyers and Hitler’s U-Boats Clash
    1. Sending war materials to Britain would be risky with German sub "wolfpacks" prowling around. FDR concluded that a convoy system would be used—merchant ships would be escorted by U.S. warships to Iceland. Then the British would take over the escorting.
    2. Incidents happened, including German attacks on the American destroyer Greer. FDR declared a shoot-on-sight policy.
       1. The American Kearny saw 11 men killed and was damaged.
       2. The destroyer Reuben James was torpedoed and sunk off of Iceland, killing over 100 Americans.
       3. In November of 1941, Congress stopped pretending and pulled the plug on the outdated Neutrality Act of 1939. Merchant ships could arm and enter combat zones.
16. Surprise Assault at Pearl Harbor
    1. Meanwhile, Japan was marching toward their vision of an empire of the rising sun. They were still beating the Chinese.
    2. In protest of Japan's actions in China, the U.S. put an embargo on Japan. The main blow was cutting off oil, which Japan needed for its sprawling empire. Japan's solution was to attack.
    3. American code-breakers knew the Japanese were up to some no-good. The best thinking was that Japan would attack British Malaya or the Philippines.
       1. Japan certainly wouldn't try to hit Hawaii, maybe a sneak sabotage attack, but nothing foolish like an all-out attack.
    4. An all-out attack on Hawaii is what came. The attack on Pearl Harbor was one of the most surprising in history.
       1. The attack came in the morning of December 7, 1941 (FDR's "date which will live in infamy"). Japanese bombers caught the Americans sleepy.
       2. Several ships were sunk or damaged including the U.S.S. Arizona. 3,000 Americans were killed or wounded.
       3. The only good news was that the American aircraft carriers were out at sea. If they'd been destroyed, the American naval situation would've been hopeless.
    5. On December 8, the United States declared war on Japan. On December 11, Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S. and the U.S. declared war right back. War was now official.
17. America’s Transformation from Bystander to Belligerent
    1. Pearl Harbor galvanized the will of America. On December 8, 1941, there was no disagreement on isolationism.
    2. America had been riding a teeter-totter for several years: wanting to stop Germany and Japan, but wanting to do it from a convenient distance. Those days were over.

Chapter 33 - The Great Depression and the New Deal

I. FDR: A Politician in a Wheelchair

1. In 1932, the American people wanted a new president.
2. Hebert Hoover ran again, but people were not crazy about him.
3. The Democrats nominated Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  
4. FDR had polio so his wife helped him out.
5. Eleanor became a popular First Lady.

Hopefuls of 1932

1. Roosevelt was determined to overcome his polio and campaigned heavily, criticizing Hoover’s spending.
2. “Happy Day are Here Again” was about him.

III. Hoover's Humiliation in 1932

1. Hoover was defeated 472 to 59.
2. There was a transition of the Black vote from the Republican to the Democratic Party.
3. Hoover tried to initiate some of Roosevelt’s plans, but no one wanted to help him out.

IV. FDR and the Three R’s: Relief, Recovery, and Reform

1. He called for a nationwide bank holiday that lasted a week.
2. He had the Three R’s.
3. The Democratic-controlled Congress was willing to do as FDR said,
   and the first Hundred Days of FDR’s administration were busy.

V. Roosevelt Manages the Money

1. Then, Roosevelt had “Fireside Chats” with America on the Radio.
2. The “Hundred Days Congress” passed the Glass-Steagall
   Banking Reform Act which insured deposits of at least $5,000.
3. FDR then took the nation off of the gold standard.
4. Roosevely announced that the U.S. would pay foreign gold at a rate of one ounce of gold per every $35 due.

VI. Roosevelt Manages the Money
The Emergency Banking Relief Act gave FDR the authority to manage banks.

1. He wanted people to turn in gold for paper money and had the Treasuru buy gold with paper money.

VII. A Day for Every Demagogue

1. Roosevelt created the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) But not a lot of people liked that idea, and thought of it as undemocratic.
2. He created the Emergency Relief Act and its Federal Emergency Relief
   Administration (FERA) was headed by the Harry L. Hopkins.
3. The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) made available many millions of dollars to help farmers meet their mortgages.
4. The Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) refinanced mortgages
   on non-farm homes and bolted down the loyalties of middle class,
   Democratic homeowners.
5. The Civil Works Administration (CWA) was established late in 1933,
   and it was designed to provide purely temporary jobs during the winter
   emergency.
6. The New Deal had its critics.
• One FDR spokesperson was Father Charles Coughlin, a Catholic priest
  in Michigan who at first was with FDR then disliked the New Deal and
  voiced his opinions on radio.
• Senator Huey P. Long of Louisiana was popular for his “Share
  the Wealth” program. Proposing “every man a king,”
  each family was to receive $5000, allegedly from the rich, but the plan was ridiculous.
7. Congress also authorized the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in
   1935, which put $11 million on thousands of public buildings, bridges,
   and hard-surfaced roads and gave 9 million people jobs in its eight
   years of existence.

VIII. New Visibility for Women

1. Woman had had the opportunity to vote and many thrived.
2. Pearl S. Buck wrote a beautiful and timeless novel, The Good Earth,
   about a simple Chinese farmer
3. She received a Nobel Prize for it.

IX. Helping Industry and Labor

1.      The National Recovery Administration (NRA) included a maximum hours of labor, minimum wages, and more rights
for labor union members, including the right to choose their own
representatives in bargaining.

X. Paying Farmers Not to Farm .

1.      The AAA evened the balance of supply and demand for farm commodities so that prices would support a decent purchasing power for farmers. This concept was known as "parity."

2.      AAA controlled the supply of seven "basic crops" — corn, wheat, cotton, rice, peanuts, tobacco, and milk — by offering payments to farmers in return for farmers not planting those crops.

3.      The AAA also became involved in assisting farmers ruined by the advent of the Dust Bowl in 1934.

XI. Dust Bowls and Black Blizzards

1.      the depths of the Depression, it seemed things couldn't get worse. But they did. In 1931, drought began to dry out the land. Great Plains farmers saw their crops shrivel up in the fields. The sun burned relentlessly day after day. Temperatures stayed at record highs, and rain was but a memory. The American Midwest was becoming a desert

2.        Decades earlier, farmers had come to the bountiful Plains in droves. They had plowed up the prairie grasses and shrubs. Year after year, they had planted millions of acres of crops. And each year the land had yielded bushel upon bushel. The soil was a rich, dark chocolate color. The climate was moderate, ideal for wheat and other grain crops. It was like farming the Garden of Eden

3.        Now, suddenly, Eden was dying. A hundred million acres of land in the heart of America were no longer growing anything. Parts of five states were black where they should have been golden with ripening wheat. The drought went on and on. Wise growing practices were not yet widely known, so the land was overused and open to erosion. In the hot sun, the soil baked and crumbled into a fine dust.

4.      In 1932, the dust storms started. Raging winds blew across the dry land, gathering up topsoil. The clouds of dust boiled and rolled through the sky, depositing dirt everywhere. People thought the storms were a freak of nature. Surely they would soon end. But year after year, conditions worsened. There were fourteen dust storms in 1932. In 1933, there were thirty-eight. A reporter traveling through the region dubbed it the Dust Bowl.

XII. Battling Bankers and Big Business

1. The Federal Securities Act (“Truth in Securities Act”) forced honest reporting on stocks.
   The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) made sure that stocks were not carelessly gambled.
2. In 1932, Chicagoan Samuel Insull’s empire crash had led to the
   Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935.

XIII. The TVA Harnesses the Tennessee River

1. Thus, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) (1933) wanted to produce its own electricity.

XIV. Housing Reform and Social Security

1. FDR set up the Federal Housing Administration to bring money and homes for those who needed it.
2. They came up with USHA to aid the economy.
3. The Social Security Act of 1935 created a pension for all American which would be funded with taxes.

XV. A New Deal for Labor

1. The Wagner Act allowed Unions to organize.
2. In 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act (AKA the “Wages and
   Hours Bill”) was passed, setting up minimum wage and maximum
   hours standards and forbidding children under the age of sixteen from
   working.

1. Roosevelt enjoyed immense support from the labor unions.
2. In 1938, the CIO broke completely with the AF of L and renamed itself the Congress of Industrial Organizations (the new CIO).

XVI. Landon Challenges “the Champ”

1. The Republicans nominated Kansas Governor Alfred M. Landon to run against FDR.
2. Roosevelt won in a huge landslide, getting 523 electoral votes to Landon’s 8.
3. FDR won primarily because of the poor he helped out.

XVII. Nine Old Men on the Bench

1. He controlled Congress, but the Supreme Court kept blocking his
   programs.
2. He suggested that for every Congress member over 70, a new one would take their place.
• For once, Congress voted against him because it did not want to lose its power.

.

XVIII. The Court Changes Course

1. The Supreme Court did start cooperating though.
2. So, FDR did achieve his purpose of getting the Supreme Court to vote his way.
3. Americans still did not wish to tamper with the sacred justice system.

XIX. Twilight of the New Deal

1. During Roosevelt’s he brought down unemployment from 25% to 15%.
2. The Hatch Act of 1939 barred federal administrative officials,
   except the highest policy-making officers, from active political
   campaigning and soliciting.

XX. New Deal or Raw Deal?

1. FDR had increased the federal debt from 13 to 40 million.
2. It took World War II, though, to really lower unemployment.

XXI. FDR’s Balance Sheet

1. New Dealers claimed that the New Deal had alleviated the worst of the Great Depression.
2. Later, he would guide the nation through a titanic war in which the democracy of the world would be at stake.

Chapter 32 - The Politics of Boom and Bust

I. The Republican “Old Guard” Returns

1. President Warren G. Harding was popular, but he was a pushover and didn’t know how to lead.
2. His cabinet helped: Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes, smart and tactical and Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, and Secretary of
   the Treasury Andrew W. Mellon.
3. However, they had some bad apples, such as, Senator Albert B. Fall of New Mexico, secretary of the interior, who was against the movement of conservation and Harry M. Daugherty who became attorney general.

II. GOP Reaction at the Throttle

1. A good man but a pushover, Harding \was old fashioned.
2. He wanted to laissez-faire capitalism.
3. He appointed four of the nine justices, including William H. Taft.
4. In the 1920s, the Supreme Court stopped a federal child-labor law and In the case of Adkins v. Children’s Hospital, the court
   reversed its ruling in the Muller v. Oregon case by taking away a minimum wage law for women.
5. Under Harding, corporations benefitted and grew.
6. Interstate Commerce Commission.

III. The Aftermath of the War

1. Wartime government controls disappeared completely.
2. Government returned control of railroads
   to corporations with the the Esch-Cummins Transportation Act of 1920.
3. The Merchant Marine Act of 1920 got rid of ships which reduced the Navy.
4. Labor Unions lost a lot of their power.
5. In 1921, the Veterans’ Bureau was created to help disabled and struggling veterans.

IV. America Seeks Benefits Without Burdens

1. America never ratified the Treaty of Versailles, until July of 1921.
2. The U.S. did not participate in the League of Nations.
3. In the Middle East, Secretary Hughes allowed American oil
   companies the right to use the large amounts of oil there.
4. The Washington “Disarmament” Conference of 1921-22
   resulted in a plan that kept a 5:5:3 ratio of ships that could be held
   by the U.S., Britain, and Japan.
5. The Soviet Union was not invited.
6. The Nine-Power Treaty of 1922 allowed the open door in China to remain open.
7. Frank B. Kellogg, Calvin Coolidge’s Secretary of State, won
   the Nobel Peace Prize.
8.  Kellog-Briand Pact; all nations that signed would no longer use war as offensive means.

V. Hiking the Tariff Higher

1. Congress passed the Fordney-McCumber
   Tariff Law, which raised the tariff from 27% to 35%.
2. This sucked for Europe because they were not receiving money from the States that was essential in paying them back for war costs.

VI. The Stench of Scandal

1. Charles R. Forbes was caught stealing over 200 million and resigned as the leader of the Veterans’ Bureau.
2. Albert B. Fall leased land in Teapot Dome, Wyoming, and Elk Hills,
   California, to oilmen Harry F. Sinclair and Edward L. Doheny, and received a bribe of $100,000 from Doheny and about $300,000 from Sinclair.
3. President Harding died in San Francisco on August 2,
   1923, of pneumonia and thrombosis

VII. “Silent Cal” Coolidge

1. Calvin Coolidge was part of the Republican Party.
2. He was a clean start for most Americans who were just too tired of Harding’s presidency and the scandal it brought.

VIII. Frustrated Farmers

1. World War I had given the farmers the opportunity to produce much food for the soldiers.
2. But after the War, a lot of production was not needed.
3. Capper-Volstead Act exempted farmers’ marketing cooperatives from antitrust
   prosecution
4.  McNary-Haugen Bill, which kept produce prices high and allowed government to but surpluses and sell them to other countries for profit (Coolidge vetoed the second bill, twice.)

IX. A Three-Way Race for the White House in 1924

1. Coolidge was chosen by the Republicans again in 1924.
2. Klu Klux Klan was not persecuted by Democrats.
3. Senator Robert La Follette led the Progressive Party as the third party candidate.

X. Foreign-Policy Flounderings

1. Senate did not allow the U.S. to obey to the World Court (the judicial sector
   of the League of Nations)
2. In the Caribbean and Latin America, U.S. troops were withdrawn from
   the Dominican Republic in 1924, but remained in Haiti from 1914 to
   1934.
3. he mediated a situation with Mexico where the Mexicans were claiming sovereignty over oil resources.

XI. Unraveling the Debt Knot

1. Because America demanded that Britain and France pay their debts,
   those two nations forced Germany to pay.
2. This caused Germany to have extremely high inflation.
3. In 1924, Charles Dawes engineered the Dawes Plan which made the German debt a little bit more manageable.
4. The money was basically circulated and the United States was never truly paid back in full.

XII. The Triumph of Herbert Hoover, 1928

1. Hoover believed in “Rugged Individualism” which said that America could only be fixed by the strong and determined.
2. Hoover campaigned on the Radio and thrived with it.
3. Hoover had never been elected to public office before.

XIII. President Hoover’s First Moves

1. Hoover’s Agricultural Marketing Act which included: the 1930, the Farm Board created the Grain Stabilization Corporation and the Cotton Stabilization Corporation to imprve prices and control surpluses.
2. The Hawley-Smoot Tariff of 1930 raised the tariff to 60%!

XIV.The Great Crash Ends the Golden Twenties

1. October 29, 1929, a devastating stock market crash caused by
   over-speculation and overly high stock prices built only upon
   non-existent credit struck the nation.
2. 40 million had been lost in total.
3. By the end of 1930, 4 million Americans were jobless, and two years later, that number shot up to 12 million.
4. Over 5,000 banks collapsed in the first three years of the Great Depression.
5. Lines formed exponentially at soup kitchens and at homeless shelters.

XV. Hooked on the Horn of Plenty

1. The nation’s capacity to produce goods had overestimated what consumers wanted.
2. Also, an over-expansion of credit allowed a lot of debt.
3. In 1930, a terrible drought scorched the Mississippi Valley and thousands of farms were sold to pay for debts.
4. Villages of shanties and ragged shacks were called Hoovervilles and
   were inhabited by the people who had lost their jobs

XVI. Rugged Times for Rugged Individualists

1. Hoover was blamed for things that were not his fault, but he could have done more.
2. He believed in laissez-faire economics and felt that through the business cycle, the economy would work itself out.

XVII. Hoover Battles the Great Depression

1. Finally, Hoover voted to withdraw $2.25 billion to start projects to alleviate the suffering of the depression.
• The Hoover Dam of the Colorado River was one such project.
2. The Muscle Shoals Bill, which was designed to dam the Tennessee
   River and was ultimately embraced by the Tennessee Valley Authority,
   was vetoed by Hoover.
3. In 1932, Congress passed the Norris-La Guardia Anti-Injection Act,
   which outlawed anti-union contracts and forbade the federal courts to
   issue injunctions to restrain strikes, boycotts, and peaceful picketing

XVIII. Routing the Bonus Army in Washington

1. Many veterans, whom had not been paid their compensation for WWI, marched to Washington, D.C. to demand their entire bonus.
2. But they made a mess and were mostly just disliked.

XIX. Japanese Militarists Attack China

1. In September 1931, Japan, alleging provocation, invaded Manchuria and shut the Open Door.
2. The League of Nations met, but it simply drove Japan out of the League.
3. Secretary of State Henry Stimson did indicate that the U.S.
   probably would not interfere with a League of Nations embargo on Japan but did not actually do anything.
4. The lack of action allowed Japan to bomb Shanghai.

XX. Hoover Pioneers the Good Neighbor Policy

1. Hoover was deeply interested in relations south of the border, and
   during his term, U.S. relations with Latin America and the Caribbean
   improved greatly.
2. The lack of money decreased American imperialism.

Pro-Life

This is what I believe in as an advocate of pro-choice: Celibacy and abstinence ; Contraception use ; Emergency contraception use ; Abortion, for the first two trimesters of pregnancy ; and Childbirth. It's an individual's body, and as long as they do not hurt any one else in the process,than there should be no reason as to why they can stop them. It's a theory called autonomy, only I can control what I do to myself. Forcing a person to not get an abortion violates their rights and is unconstitutional. Most people believe that being pro-choice means we think abortion, contraceptives, and even assisted suicide is a good thing to do. It most definitely is not, and if person is to consider those options, they should thoroughly think about it and make sure that they aware about how permanent, serious, and painful it can be. But if at the end, a person decides they want to go through with an abortion, I feel no should have the power to stop them. In China, overpopulation has led the government to mandate abortion when they feel it is necessary, I completely disagree with this practice because it impedes a person's autonomy. Pro-choice is more about the right to make our own choices than it is the practices it entails.

The Panama Canal

The Panama Canal.pptx by

World War I

What was the conflict?
 World War One had been a fuse waiting to explode; the spark was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. Ferdinand's death at the hands of the Black Hand, a Serbian insurgency group, started series of events that culminated in the world's first world war.
Austria-Hungary's reaction to the death of their not so beloved heir was three weeks in coming.  Arguing that the Serbian government was implicated in the machinations of the Black Hand , the Austro-Hungarians opted to take the opportunity to stamp its authority upon the Serbians, destroying the nationalist movement there and brutally reinforcing Austria-Hungary's influence.

The country decreed an ultimatum to Serbia which, in the extent of its demand that the assassins be brought to justice effectively nullified Serbia's sovereignty. Austria-Hungary's expectation was that Serbia would reject terms of the ultimatum, thereby giving them a pretext for launching a war against them.
However, Serbia had long had  ties with Russia, an altogether different proposition for Austria-Hungary.  While not really expecting that Russia would be drawn into the dispute to any great extent other than through words of diplomatic protest, the Austro-Hungarian government sought assurances from her ally, Germany, that the country would come to their aid if necessary.
Who were the parties involved?
The Triple Alliance:

Austria-Hungary

Germany

Italy

The Triple Entente

Russia

France

Britain

For an authentic video that shows you Franz Ferdinand arriving at the Sarajevo Town Hall

http://www.firstworldwar.com/video/ferdinand.htm

William Howard Taft

    I was born as William Howard Taft, a scion of a long-prominent family,  in Cincinnati on September 15, 1857. My father, Alphonso Taft, had a distinguished career in law and foreign service. Alphonso Taft was a state judge from 1865-72, U.S. Secretary of War in 1876 (a position his son would later hold), U.S. Attorney General from 1876-77, Minister to Austria-Hungary from 1882-1884, and Minister to Russia from 1884-1885.
      Then, at age 30, I served as judge on the Superior Court in Cincinnati for three years, before being appointed Solicitor General of the United States in 1890.Continuing my rather meteoric rise in the legal profession, I was appointed by President Benjamin Harrison as a judge of the newly created Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, at age 34. I served on that court from 1892-1900. My hard work would eventually lead me to become President after Roosevelt, though it was a rather uneventful term.
       I was widely praised for my work in the Philippines, in sponsoring land reform, road building, and honest and efficient government. In the Philippines, I demonstrated that my talent as an administrator was equal to his prowess as a jurist. As Chief of the Supreme Court I was concerned about the delay and inefficiency in the federal court system. My first task was to secure the passage of The Judges Act in 1922. The act was the first major reform of the federal judiciary since 1789. It gave the Chief Justice more power over the federal courts-I used it to reduce delay and streamline operations.
       Most legal scholars rate me as a good, if conservative, Chief Justice. I would usually side with "property rights" over labor and government power over civil rights. These views were generally shared by my colleagues on the court at the time, with the notable exceptions of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., and Louis D. Brandeis, who often dissented.
Link To video: http://www.history.com/topics/william-howard-taft/speeches#william-howard-taft-on-healthy-agriculture
Primary Sources:  http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/presidents/taft/memory.html