Thomas Woodrow Wilson and Warren Gamaliel Harding 2
Further information: Jazz Age, Prohibition in the United States, and Roaring Twenties
Inauguration of Warren G. Harding, March 4, 1921.
Harding preferred a low-key inauguration, without the customary parade, leaving only the swearing-in ceremony and a brief reception at the White House.[86] In his inaugural speech he declared,
HP Pavilion dv7-4248ca Battery "Our most dangerous tendency is to expect too much from the government and at the same time do too little for it."[87] The Hardings also brought a different style to the running of the White House. HP Pavilion dv7-4154ca Battery
HP Pavilion dv7-4223ca Battery Though Mrs. Harding did keep a little red book of those who had offended her, the executive mansion was now once again open to the public, including the annual Easter egg roll.[88]
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The administration of Warren G. Harding followed the Republican platform approved at the 1920 Republican National Convention, which was held in Chicago. Harding, who had been elected by a landslide, felt the "pulse" of the nation and for the 28 months in office he remained popular both nationally and internationally. HP Pavilion dv7-4167ca Battery
HP Pavilion dv7-4177ca BatteryHarding's administration has been critically viewed due to multiple scandals, while his successes in office were often given credit to his capable cabinet appointments that included future President Herbert Hoover. HP Pavilion dv6-3008ca Battery
HP Pavilion dv6-4048ca Battery Author Wayne Lutton asked, "Was Harding really a failure?" Historian and former White House Counsel John Dean's reassessment of Harding stated his accomplishments included income tax and federal spending reductions, economic policies that reduced "stagflation", HP Pavilion dv6-3023ca Battery
HP Pavilion dv6-4038ca Batterya reduction of unemployment by 10%, and a bold foreign policy that created peace with Germany, Japan, and Central America.[89] Herbert Hoover, while serving in Harding's cabinet, HP Pavilion dv6-3038ca Battery
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HP Pavilion dv6-3286ca Battery was confident the President would serve two terms and return the world to normality. Later, in his own memoirs, he stated that Harding had "neither the experience nor the intellect that the position needed."[90]
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President Warren G. Harding
1921–1923
Official White House Portrait
One of Harding's earlier decisions as President was the appointment of former President William Howard Taft as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, a position Taft had always coveted, more so than the Presidency.[91] HP Pavilion dv6-3040ca Battery
Harding pushed for the establishment of the Bureau of Veterans Affairs (later organized as the Department of Veterans Affairs), the first permanent attempt at answering the needs of those who had served the nation in time of war.[ HP Pavilion dv6-3043ca Battery
HP Pavilion dv6-3278ca Battery92] In April 1921, Harding spoke before a special joint session of Congress that he had called. He argued for peacemaking with Germany and Austria, emergency tariffs, new immigration laws, regulation of radio and trans-cable communications, retrenchment in government, tax reduction, HP Pavilion dv6-3050ca Battery
HP Pavilion dv6-3264ca Battery
HP Pavilion dv6-3268ca Batteryrepeal of wartime excess profits tax, reduction of railroad rates, promotion of agricultural interests, a national budget system, an enlarged merchant marine, and a department of public welfare.[9HP Pavilion dv6-3054ca Battery
HP Pavilion dv6-3240ca Battery3] He also called for measures to end lynching, but not wanting to make enemies in his own party and with the Democrats, he did not fight for his program.[94] Generally, there was a lack of strong leadership in the Congress and, unlike his predecessors Roosevelt and Wilson, Harding was not inclined to fill that void.[95] HP Pavilion dv6-3058ca Battery
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According to biographers, Harding got along better with the press than any other previous President, being a former newspaperman. Reporters admired his frankness, candor, and his confessed limitations. He took the press behind the scenes and showed them the inner circle of the presidency. Harding, in November 1921, HP Pavilion dv6-3064ca Battery
HP Pavilion dv6-3174ca Battery also implemented a policy of taking written questions from reporters during a press conference.[96] Harding's relationship with Congress, however, was strained and he did not receive the traditional honeymoon given to new Presidents. Before Harding's election, the nation had been adrift;
HP Pavilion dv6-3167ca BatteryPresident Woodrow Wilson had been ill by a debilitating stroke for 18 months and before that Wilson had been in Europe for several months attempting to negotiate a peace settlement after World War I. By contrast, at the March 4, HP Pavilion dv6-3070ca Battery
HP Pavilion dv6-3158ca Battery1921 Inaugural, Harding looked strong, with grey hair and a commanding physical presence.[96] Wilson's successor stressed the importance of the ceremonial aspects of the office of President. This emphasis fulfilled his desire to travel the breadth of the country to officiate at formal functions.[97] HP Pavilion dv6-3073ca Battery
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Although Harding was committed to putting the "best minds" on his cabinet, he often rewarded those persons who were active and contributed to his campaign by appointing them to high federal department positions. HP Pavilion dv6-3077ca Battery
HP Pavilion dv6-3134ca BatteryFor instance, Wayne Wheeler, leader of the Anti-Saloon League was literally allowed by Harding to dictate who would serve on the Prohibition Commission.[98] Graft and corruption charges permeated Harding's Department of Justice; HP Pavilion dv6-3084ca Battery
HP Pavilion dv6-3118ca Battery bootleggers confiscated tens of thousands cases of whiskey through bribery and kickbacks.[99] Harding, out of loyalty, appointed Harry M. Daugherty to U.S. Attorney General because he felt he owed Daugherty for running his 1920 campaign. After the election, many people from the Ohio area moved to Washington, HP Pavilion dv6-3090ca Battery
HP Pavilion dv6-3114ca Battery D.C., made their headquarters in a green house on K Street, and would be eventually known as the "Ohio Gang".[10HP Pavilion dv6-3093ca Battery
0] The financial and political scandals caused by these men, in addition to Harding's own personal controversies, severely damaged Harding's personal reputation and eclipsed his presidential accomplishments. HP Pavilion dv6-3108ca Battery
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In his most open challenge to Congress, Harding forced a deferral of a budget-busting World War I soldier's bonus in an effort to reduce costs.[101] A 2008 study of presidential rankings for The Times placed Harding at number 34[10HP Pavilion dm4-1050ca Battery
Sony VAIO VPCCA36FH Battery2] and a 2009 C-SPAN survey ranked Harding at 38.[103]
In 2010, a Siena College poll of Presidential scholars placed Harding at 41. The same poll ranked Harding 26 in the Ability to Compromise category.[104] HP Pavilion dm4-1150ca Battery
Harding presided over the nation's initial consecration of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. This followed similar commemorations established by Britain, France and Italy. The fallen hero was chosen from a group previously interred at Romagne Military Cemetery in France, and was re-interred at Arlington National Cemetery. HP Pavilion dm4-1273ca Battery
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Eugene Debs after release from prison by President Harding, visits the White House
On December 23, 1921 Harding calmed the 1919–1920 Bolshevik scare, and released an election opponent, socialist leader Eugene Debs, from prison. This was part of an effort to return the United States to "normalcy" after the Great War. Debs, HP Pavilion dm4-2053ca Battery
Sony VAIO VPCCA3SFX Battery a forceful World War I antiwar activist, had been convicted under sedition charges brought by the Wilson administration for his opposition to the draft during World War I.[1HP Pavilion dm4-2055ca Battery
Sony VAIO VPCCA3AJ Battery05] Despite many political differences between the two candidates Harding commuted Debs' sentence to time served; however, he was not granted an official Presidential pardon. Debs' failing health was a contributing factor for the release. Harding granted a general amnesty to 23 prisoners, alleged anarchists and socialists, active in the Red Scare.[106][107] HP Pavilion dm4-2058ca Battery
Harding's party suffered the loss of 79 seats in the House in the 1922 mid-term elections, leaving them with a razor thin majority.[108] The President determined to fill the void of leadership in the party and attempted to take a more aggressive role in setting the legislative agenda.[10
The Hardings visited their home community of Marion, Ohio once during the term, when the city celebrated its centennial during the first week of July. Harding arrived on July 3, gave a speech to the community at the Marion County Fairgrounds on July 4, and left the following morning for other speaking commitments. HP Pavilion dm4-3070ca Battery
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Joint Session of Congress 1921[edit]
On April 12, Harding called a joint session of Congress to address matters that he deemed of national and urgent importance. Sony VAIO VPCCA36FW Battery
Sony VAIO VPCCA35FN Battery That speech, considered his best, contained few political platitudes and was enthusiastically received by Congress. On the economic front, Harding urged Congress to create a Bureau of the Budget, Sony VAIO VPC CA Battery
Sony VAIO VPCCA35FH Battery cut expenditures, and revise federal tax laws. Harding urged increased protectionist tariffs, lower taxes, and agriculture legislation to help farmers. In the speech, Harding advocated aviation technology for civil and military purposes, development and regulation of radio technology, Sony VAIO VPCCA15FA Battery
Sony VAIO VPCCA35FG Battery and passage of a federal anti-lynching law to protect African Americans. Harding advocated, in terms of foreign affairs, a "conference and cooperation" of nations to prevent war—yet flatly stated that the U.S. should not enter the League of Nations. Sony VAIO VPCCA15FF Battery
Sony VAIO VPCCA35FF Battery Harding endorsed peace between all former enemy nations from World War I and the funding and liquidation of war debts.[110]
Domestic policies and economy[edit]
Bureau of the Budget and Veterans Bureau[edit]
Charles Dawes—the first budget director
Harding signed the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921, considered one of his greatest domestic and enduring achievements.[1Sony VAIO VPCCA15FH Battery
Sony VAIO VPCCA17FX Battery11] Harding got authorization from Congress for the country's first formal budgeting process—establishing of the Bureau of the Budget.[112] The law created the presidential budget director, who was directly responsible to the President rather than to the Secretary of Treasury.
Sony VAIO VPCCA16FW BatteryThe law also stipulated that the President must submit a budget annually to the U.S. Congress. All presidents since have had to submit an annual budget to Congress.[113]
Sony VAIO VPCCA16FH Battery The General Accounting Office was created to assure oversight in the federal budget expenditures. Harding appointed Charles Dawes, known for being an effective financier, as the first director of the Bureau of the Budget. Sony VAIO VPCCA15FW Battery
Sony VAIO VPCCA16FG BatteryDawes reduced government spending by $1.5 billion his first year as director, a 25% reduction, along with another 25% reduction the following year. In effect, the Government budget was nearly cut in half in just two years.[114] Sony VAIO VPCCB29FJ Battery
Harding believed the federal government should be fiscally managed in a way similar to private sector businesses. He had campaigned on the slogan, "Less government in business and more business in government."[1Sony VAIO VPCCB15FF Battery
Sony VAIO VPCCB48FJ Battery15] "Harding was true to his word, carrying on budget cuts that had begun under a debilitated Woodrow Wilson. Federal spending declined from $6.3 billion in 1920 to $5 billion in 1921 and $3.3 billion in 1922. Sony VAIO VPCCB15FG Battery
Sony VAIO VPCC47FDB Battery Tax rates, meanwhile, were slashed—for every income group. And over the course of the 1920s, the national debt was reduced by one third."[116] On August 9, 1921, Harding signed legislation known as the Sweet Bill, which established the Veterans Bureau as a new agency. Sony VAIO VPCCB15FW Battery
Sony VAIO VPCCB46FG BatteryAfter World War I, 300,000 wounded veterans were in need of hospitalization, medical care, and job training. To handle the needs of these veterans, the new Veterans Bureau incorporated the War Risk Insurance Bureau, the Brig. Gen. Charles E. Sawyer's Federal Hospitalization Bureau, Sony VAIO VPCCB16FG Battery
Sony VAIO VPCCB46FA Battery along with three other bureaus that dealt with veteran affairs.[117] Harding regrettably appointed Colonel Charles R. Forbes, albeit a decorated war veteran, as the Veteran Bureau's first director (see scandal below), Sony VAIO VPCCB17FG Battery
Sony VAIO VPCCB45FN Battery a position that reported directly to the President. The Veterans Bureau later was incorporated into the Veterans Administration and ultimately the Department of Veterans Affairs.[118] Sony VAIO VPCCB17FW Battery
Postwar recession and recovery[edit]
Main article: Depression of 1920–21
Secretary of Treasury Andrew W. Mellon
On March 4, Harding assumed office while the nation was in the midst of a postwar economic decline, known as the Depression of 1920–21. By summer of his first year in office, an economic recovery began. Sony VAIO VPCCB17FX Battery
Harding convened the Conference of Unemployment in 1921, headed by Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, that proactively advocated stimulating the economy with local public work projects and encouraged businesses to apply shared work programs.[119] Sony VAIO VPCCB28FJ Battery
Harding's Treasury Secretary, Andrew Mellon, ordered a study that claimed to demonstrate that as income tax rates were increased, Sony VAIO VPCCB2AFX Battery
Sony VAIO VPCCB38FJ Battery money was driven underground or abroad. Mellon concluded that lower rates would increase tax revenues. Based on this advice, Harding cut taxes, starting in 1922. The top marginal rate was reduced annually in four stages from 73% in 1921 to 25% in 1925. Taxes were cut for lower incomes starting in 1923.[120] Sony VAIO VPCCB2SFX Battery
Revenues to the treasury increased substantially. Unemployment also continued to fall. Libertarian historian Thomas Woods contends that the tax cuts ended the Depression of 1920–1921 and were responsible for creating a decade-long expansion.[116] Historians Schweikart and Allen attribute these changes to the tax cuts.[121Sony VAIO VPCCB3AJ Battery
Sony VAIO VPCCB37FDD Battery] Schweikart and Allen also argue that Harding's tax and economic policies in part "... produced the most vibrant eight year burst of manufacturing and innovation in the nation's history."[12
Sony VAIO VPCCB36FW Battery2] The combined declines in unemployment and inflation (later known as the Misery Index) were among the sharpest in U.S. history. Wages, profits, and productivity all made substantial gains during the 1920s. Sony VAIO VPCCB32FDB Battery
Daniel Kuehn attributes the improvement to the earlier monetary policy of the Federal Reserve, and notes that the changes in marginal tax rates were accompanied by an expansion in the tax base that could account for the increase in revenue.[123] However: Sony VAIO VPCCB32FDL Battery
Robert Gordon, a Keynesian, admits, "government policy to moderate the depression and speed recovery was minimal. The Federal Reserve authorities were largely passive. ... Despite the absence of a stimulative government policy, HP MU06 Battery
however, recovery was not long delayed." Kenneth Weiher, an economic historian, notes, "despite the severity of the contraction, the Fed did not move to use its powers to turn the money supply around and fight the contraction." He then briskly concedes that "the economy rebounded quickly from the 1920–1921 depression and entered a period of quite vigorous growth
However, Paul Krugman demonstrates that the monetary base expanded significantly from 1922 to 1925, and that this expansion was accompanied by a reduction in commercial paper rates.[124] Allan Meltzer agrees that the rising real money stock motivated wealth owners to invest.[125] ."[116] HP MU09 Battery
Recovery did not last long. Another economic contraction began near the end of Harding's presidency in 1923, while tax cuts were still underway. A third contraction followed in 1927 during the next presidential term.[126] HP RM08 Battery
Farm acts and Radio Conferences[edit]
Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover listening to a radio
In 1921 and 1922, Harding signed a series of bills regulating agriculture. The legislation emanated from President Woodrow Wilson's 1919 Federal Trade Commission report, which investigated and discovered "manipulations, HP RS06 Battery
HP HA03 Batterycontrols, trusts, combinations, or restraints out of harmony with the law or the public interest" in the meat packing industry. The first law was the Packers and Stockyards Act, prohibiting packers from engaging in unfair and deceptive practices. HP BS06 Battery
HP MT06 Battery Two amendments were made to the Farm Loan Act of 1916 that President Wilson had signed into law, which had expanded the maximum size of rural farm loans. The Emergency Agriculture Credit Act authorized new loans to farmers to help them sell and market livestock. The Capper–Volstead Act, HP VE06 Battery
HP BX06 Battery signed by Harding on February 18, 1922, protected farm cooperatives from anti-trust legislation. The Future Trading Act was also enacted, regulating puts and calls, bids, and offers on futures contracting. Later, on May 15, 1922, the Supreme Court ruled this legislation unconstitutional.[106]
On February 27, 1922, Harding implemented the first of a series of Radio Conferences headed by Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover. The last Radio Act of 1912 was considered "inadequate" and "chaotic"; change was necessary to help the fledgling radio industry. At the first meeting, 30 representatives—including amateurs, HP VE12 Battery
HP MN06 Batterygovernmental agencies, and the radio industry made "cooperative efforts" to ensure the public interest in broadcasting, who would broadcast, and for what purpose, and to curb direct advertising.
HP GB06 BatteryAlso discussed was how wattage power used by broadcasters would be distributed depending on the radio station's conditional use and location.[127] HP GA08 Battery
A second radio conference was called in 1923, and this time Secretary Hoover successful obtained radio regulation power without legislation. Hoover himself, in January 1923, told the press there was an, "...
HP CL09 Batteryurgent need for radio regulation." Large radio stations such as Westinghouse advocated that only 25 larger radio stations in large metropolitan areas be allowed to broadcast, while smaller stations would be given limited power. At the end of the meeting, the industrialists agreed to give Hoover the power to, HP MO06 Battery
HP EV12 Battery"...regulate hours and wave lengths of operation of stations when such action is necessary to prevent interference detrimental to the public good."[127]
Harding became the first president to have a radio in his office, when on February 8, 1922, he had a radio set installed in the White House so he could listen to news and music as his schedule permitted.[128HP MO09 Battery
HP EV06 Battery] On June 14, Harding was also the first president that the American public heard on the new mass medium. He spoke on radio at a dedication site in honor of Francis Scott Key, who wrote the words to the Star Spangled Banner.[79]
Revenue Act and Highway Act of 1921[edit]
Left to right, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Harding, and Harvey Firestone, 1921
On November 22, 1921, Harding signed the Revenue Act of 1921, which greatly reduced taxes for the wealthiest Americans. HP Envy 14-1000 Battery
Protests from Republican farmers caused the deductions to be less than Secretary of Treasury Andrew Mellon desired. The lengthy 96-page Act reduced the corporate tax from 65% to 50% and provided for ultimate elimination of the excess-profits tax during World War I.[129][130] HP Envy 17-1000 Battery
The 1920s were a time of modernization for America—with the advent of movies, flappers, and automobiles. To improve and expand the nation's highway system, Harding signed the Federal Highway Act of 1921. From 1921 to 1923, HP Envy 17-2000 Battery
HP pavilion DV7-2000 Battery the federal government spent $162 million on America's highway system, infusing the U.S. economy with a large amount of capital.[131] In 1922, Harding proclaimed that America was in the age of the "motor car". He stated that the automobile, "reflects our standard of living and gauges the speed of our present-day life."[132] HP Envy M6-1100 Battery
Fordney-McCumber Tariff[edit]
On September 21, 1922, Harding enthusiastically signed the Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act.[133] The protectionist legislation was sponsored by Representative Joseph W. Fordney and Senator Porter J. McCumber. HP Pavilion DV6-7200 Battery
HP pavilion DV7-1000 Battery It increased the tariff rates contained in the previous Underwood-Simmons Tariff Act of 1913, to the highest level in the nation's history. Harding became concerned when the agriculture business suffered economic hardship from the high tariffs. Previously, HP Pavilion DV7-4000 Battery
on May 21, 1921 Harding had signed emergency legislation that put tariffs on select foreign inputs. By 1922, Harding began to realize that the long-term effects of tariffs could be detrimental to national economy, despite the short-term benefits.[10HP Pavilion DV7-6000 Battery
HP pavilion DV6-7000 Battery8] Harding's successors, President Calvin Coolidge and President Herbert Hoover, also advocated tariff legislation. The tariffs established in the 1920s have historically been viewed as a contributing factor to causing the Wall Street Crash of 1929.[106][134
Foreign policies[edit]
Harding was very specific in commenting on the appointment of Secretary of State Charles E. Hughes, that the secretary would be the sole spokesman for the State Department (as opposed to the Wilson administration).[1HP Pavilion DV7-7200 Battery
HP pavilion DV6-3000 Battery35] The U.S. Senate had refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles in both 1919 and 1920 because it required the U.S. to endorse the League of Nations.[136] Hughes worked behind the scenes to formally make peace with former enemies Austria and Germany. HP Pavilion DV8-1000 Battery
This was known as the Knox–Porter Resolution; its peace treaties were signed with both countries, passed by Congress on July 1, and signed by Harding on July 2, 1921, officially ending World War I for the U.S. HP Pavilion DV2000 Battery
Washington arms conference and treaties 1921–1922[edit]
Main article: Washington Naval Conference
Charles Evans Hughes, former Supreme Court Justice and Harding's Secretary of State
Harding spearheaded, with the urging of the Senate, a monumental global conference, held in Washington, D.C., to limit the armaments of world powers, including the U.S., Japan, Great Britain, France, Italy, China, Belgium, Netherlands and Portugal.[1HP Pavilion DV6000 Battery
HP Pavilion DV9000 Battery37] Harding's Secretary of State, Charles E. Hughes, assumed a primary role in the conference and made the pivotal proposal—the U.S would reduce its number of warships by 30 if Great Britain decommissioned 19, and Japan 17 ships.[1HP pavilion DV4-4000 Battery
38] Starting on November 6, 1921 and ending February 6, 1922, world leaders met to control a naval arms race and to bring stability to East Asia. The conference enabled the great powers to potentially limit their large naval deployment and avoid conflict in the Pacific. HP pavilion DV6-13000 Battery
The delegation of nations also worked out security issues and promoted cooperation in the Far East.
The conference produced six treaties and twelve resolutions among the participating nations, which ranged from limiting the size or "tonnage" of naval ships to custom tariffs. The treaties, which easily passed the Senate, also included agreements regulating submarines, dominions in the Pacific, and dealings with China.[13HP pavilion DV5-1000 Battery
9] The treaties only remained in effect until the mid-1930s, however, and ultimately failed. Japan eventually invaded Manchuria and the arms limitations no longer had any effect. The building of "monster warships" resumed and the U.S. and Great Britain were unable to quickly rearm themselves to defend an international order and stop Japan from remilitarizing.[140][141]
Harding, in an effort to improve U.S. relations with Mexico, Latin America, and the Caribbean Islands implemented a program of military disengagement. On April 20, 1921, the Thomson–Urrutia Treaty with Colombia was ratified by the Senate and signed by Harding; that awarded $25,000,000 as indemnity payment for land used to make the Panama Canal.[129] HP pavilion DV6-2000 Battery
Harding stunned the capital when he sent to the Senate a message supporting the participation of the U.S. in the proposed Permanent Court of International Justice. This was not favorably received by Harding's colleagues; HP pavilion DM1-4000 Battery
HP pavilion DM1-2000 Battery a resolution was nevertheless drafted, in deference to the President, and then promptly buried in the Foreign Affairs Committee.[142] HP pavilion DV3-1000 Battery
Civil rights, labor disputes and strikes[edit]
Blair Mountain miner war[edit]
Main articles: Battle of Matewan and Battle of Blair Mountain
On May 12, 1921, HP pavilion DV4-100 Battery
HP pavilion DM1-1000 Battery just two months into Harding's presidency, violence was initiated near Matewan, West Virginia, between private detectives, on behalf of the Stone Mountain Coal Company, and United Mine Workers union members who had been fired from their jobs and were being evicted from company-owned housing. HP MINI 1000 Battery
The miners cut down telephone and telegraph lines and trained their guns on the mines, strikebreakers and buildings. The battle lasted three days and on the first day and night of the battle some 10,000 rounds were fired. Former Justice of the Peace Harry C. Staton was killed, and Ephraim Morgan, Governor of West Virginia, HP HDX16-1000 Battery
HP pavilion G71 Battery pleaded in person with Harding for federal military support. Harding, who was keeping track of the situation, would only send in troops if state militia could no longer handle the striking miners. On August 1, Sid Hatfield, a prominent Union organizer and Matewan chief of police, was assassinated by mining company agents. HP pavilion G4 Battery
HP pavilion TM2-2000 Battery On August 28, four days of fighting broke out on a 25 mi (40 km) front at Blair Mountain between coal company militia and thousands of Union miners led by Bill Blizzard. Both the miner and the strike buster armies were equipped with physicians, HP pavilion G6 Battery
HP pavilion TM2-1000 Batterynurses and chaplains. Harding, having issued two proclamations to keep the peace, finally used military force including Martin MB-1 bombers that deployed gas and explosive bombs. Federal troops arrived on September 2, forcing the miners to flee to their homes and hostilities ended on September 4; 50 to 100 miners had been killed, as well as 30 strike busters, HP pavilion G7 Battery
HP pavilion G7000 Battery in the fighting. After the battle, 985 miners were tried and imprisoned for crimes against the State of West Virginia. Bill Blizzard was indicted and tried for treason, but was acquitted.[143]
Strikes by the UMW were restarted again in 1922 when workers refused a wage reduction insisted upon by companies. Union wages apparently had risen far above others under the Wilson administration.[144HP pavilion G32 Battery
HP pavilion G72 Battery] After five months, the companies capitulated, and the wage reductions were tabled.[145] This was a Pyrrhic victory for Lewis and the UMW, HP pavilion G42 Battery
HP pavilion G70 Batteryas membership in the union would drop from 400K to 150K by 1930 as the nation transitioned to less costly petroleum.[146] HP pavilion G50 Battery
Great railway strike and repeal of 12-hour workday[edit]
Main article: Great Railroad Strike of 1922
A year after Harding contended with the 1921 mining labor war in West Virginia, a strike broke out during the summer of 1922 in the railroad industry. On July 1, 1922, 400,000 railroad workers and shopmen went on strike over hourly wages reduced by seven cents and a 12 hour-day workweek.[14HP pavilion G56 Battery
HP pavilion G60 Battery6] Strike busters were brought in to fill the positions. Harding proposed a settlement that gave the shop workers some concessions; however, the railroad owners objected. Harding sent out the National Guard and 2,200 deputy U.S. marshals to keep the peace. HP Presario CQ32 Battery
HP Presario CQ630 Battery Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty convinced Judge James H. Wilkerson to issue a broad sweeping injunction to break up the strike.[147] This was known as the "Wilkerson" or "Daugherty" injunction, which enraged the union as well as many in congress, as it prohibited First Amendment rights.[148HP Presario CQ42 Battery
HP Presario CQ430 Battery] Harding had Daugherty and Wilkerson withdraw the objectionable parts of the injunction. The injunction ultimately succeeded in ending the strike; however, tensions remained high between railroad workers and company men for years. HP Presario CQ56 Battery
HP Presario CQ72 Battery Daugherty's harsh injunction against labor created great discord in Harding's cabinet. This, along with Daugherty's other activities, prompted one congressman, Oscar Keller of Minnesota, to attempt, in vain, to bring impeachment charges against the Attorney General.[149] HP Presario CQ71 Battery
In 1922, Harding and Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover convened a White House conference with manufacturers and unions, to reduce the length of the 12-hour workday, in a move for the cause of labor. The labor movement supported an 8-hour day and a 6-day workweek. Harding wrote Judge Gary, HP Presario CQ40 Battery
HP Presario CQ62 Batterya steel industry leader who attended the meeting, advocating labor reform. The labor conference, however, decided against labor's demands in 1923. Both Harding and Hoover were disappointed with the committee's ruling. Harding wrote a second letter to Gary and with public support the steel industry repealed the 12-hour work day to an eight-hour work day.[150]
Anti-lynching movement and immigration[edit]
Leonidas C. Dyer
Notably in an age of severe racial intolerance during the 1920s, Harding did not hold any racial animosity, according to historian Carl S. Anthony.[151] In a speech on October 26, 1921, given in segregated Birmingham, Alabama Harding advocated civil rights for African Americans; the first President to openly advocate black political, educational, and economic equality during the 20th century.[151
HP Presario CQ60 Battery] Harding went further and viewed the race problem as a national and international issue and desired that the sectionalism of the Solid South and black membership of the Republican party be broken up.[1HP Presario CQ41 Battery
HP Presario CQ57 Battery52] Harding, however, openly stated that he was not for black social equality in terms of racial mixing or miscegenation.[152] Harding also spoke on the Great Migration, believing that blacks migrating to the north and west to find employment had actually tempered race relations between blacks and whites.[15HP Presario CQ45 Battery
According to the Louisiana Historical Association, he named some African Americans to federal positions, such as Walter L. Cohen of New Orleans, Louisiana, whom he named comptroller of customs. Harding also advocated the establishment of an international commission to improve race relations between whites and blacks; however, Sony PCG-41111M Keyboard
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strong political opposition by the Southern Democratic bloc prevented the commission. The Ku Klux Klan had its highest membership during its revival in the 1920s, when it expanded membership among urban populations of the Midwest and South who were concerned about job competition and immigration.[153] Sony PCG-41112M Keyboard
Harding supported Congressman Leonidas Dyer's federal anti-lynching bill, known as the Dyer Bill, which passed the House of Representatives on January 26, 1922. The bill was defeated in the Senate by a Democratic filibuster.[15Sony PCG-81111M Keyboard
Sony PCG-51211M Keyboard4] Harding had previously spoken out publicly against lynching on October 21, 1921. Congress had not debated a civil rights bill since the 1890 Federal Elections Bill.[155]
The Per Centum Act of 1921 signed by Harding on May 19, Sony PCG-81112M Keyboard
Sony PCG-51112M Keyboard 1921 severely reduced the amount of immigration into the U.S. to 3% of a country's represented population based on the 1910 census. The Act allowed unauthorized immigrants to be deported. Harding and Secretary of Labor James Davis believed that enforcement had to be humane. Harding often allowed exceptions granting reprieves to thousands of immigrants.[156] Sony PCG-81212M Keyboard
Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act[edit]
On November 21, 1921, Harding signed the Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act, the first major federal government social welfare program in the U.S. The law funded almost 3,000 child and health centers throughout the U.S. Medical doctors were spurred to offer preventative health care measures in addition to treating ill children. Sony PCG-81113M Keyboard
Sony PCG-51212M KeyboardDoctors were required to help healthy pregnant women and prevent healthy children from getting sick. Child welfare workers were sent out to make sure that parents were taking care of their children. Many minority groups, particularly African American, Native American, and foreign-born women, Sony PCG-81313M Keyboard
Sony PCG-51512M Keyboard resented the law and the welfare workers who visited their homes and intruded into their family's lives.[citation needed] The law was sponsored by a woman, Julia Lathrop, America's first director of the U.S. Children's Bureau. Sony PCG-21313M Keyboard
Sony PCG-31311M KeyboardAlthough the law remained in effect only eight years, it set the trend for New Deal social programs during the Great Depression. Many women who had been given the right to vote in 1920, were given career opportunities as welfare and social workers.[157][158]
Religious toleration[edit] Sony PCG-7195M Keyboard
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Harding was tolerant towards religious faiths. Harding appointed prominent Jewish leader, Rabbi Joseph S. Kornfeld, and Catholic leader, Father Joseph M. Dennig, to foreign diplomatic positions. Harding also appointed Albert Lasker, Sony PCG-7192M Keyboard
Sony PCG-7194M Keyboard
Sony PCG-71911M Keyboard a Jewish businessman and Harding's 1920 Presidential campaign manager, head of the Shipping Department. In an unpublished letter, Harding advocated the establishment and funding of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.[159]
Life at the White House[edit]
President Harding with his dog Laddie Boy. Photo: 1922
Katherine Marcia Forbes, wife of Harding's Veterans Bureau appointment Charles R. Forbes, had unprecedented access to the White House. Mrs. Harding and Katherine had become close friends since meeting in Hawaii, when Senator Harding and his wife were on vacation. In 1921, Sony PCG-7141M Keyboard
Sony PCG-71811M KeyboardKatherine Forbes wrote a series of articles for the Washington Post describing the daily life of President Harding and the First Lady. President Harding and Mrs. Harding wanted to be known as, ".Sony PCG-7151M Keyboard
Sony PCG-61611M Keyboard..just home folks." At dinners, Harding's dog Laddie Boy, was allowed to beg guests for food and play with children. Red velvet upholstery covered much of the furniture. Harding's informal dress included a plain tuxedo, plaited shirt, Sony PCG-7153M Keyboard
Sony PCG-61511M Keyboard and pearl studs. Mrs. Harding herself was able to talk with many guests at the same time. Inside the White House, the Hardings had a great grandfather clock, a gold fish bowl, a French vase with pussy willows, neutral color rugs, and a grand piano. Harding sometimes gave children private tours of the White House that included the conservatories and kennels.[160] Sony PCG-7154M Keyboard
Harding's lifestyle at the White House was fairly unconventional compared to his predecessor President Woodrow Wilson. Upstairs at the White House, in the Yellow Oval Room, Harding allowed bootleg whiskey to be freely served to his guests during after-dinner parties at a time when the President was supposed to enforce Prohibition. One witness, Alice Longworth, daughter of President Theodore Roosevelt, Sony PCG-7162M Keyboard
Sony PCG-71511M Keyboardclaimed that trays, "...with bottles containing every imaginable brand of whiskey stood about."[161] Some of this alcohol had been directly confiscated from the Prohibition department by Jess Smith, Sony PCG-7143M Keyboard
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Sony PCG-71411M Keyboard assistant to U.S. Attorney General Harry Daugherty. Mrs. Harding, also known as the "Duchess", mixed drinks for the guests.[162] Harding also indulged in poker playing twice a week, smoking, and chewing tobacco. Harding allegedly won a $4,000 pearl necktie pin at one White House poker game.[163Sony PCG-7161M Keyboard
Sony PCG-61212M Keyboard] Although criticized by Prohibitionist advocate Wayne B. Wheeler over Washington, D.C. rumors of these "wild parties", Harding claimed his personal drinking inside the White House was his own business.[164]
Administrative scandals[edit] Sony PCG-7181M Keyboard
Upon winning the election, Harding appointed many of his longtime allies and campaign contributors to prominent political positions in control of vast amounts of government money and resources. Known as the "Ohio Gang" Sony PCG-7186M Keyboard
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Sony PCG-71311M Keyboard (a term used by Charles Mee, Jr., in his book of the same name), some of the appointees used their new powers to exploit their positions for personal gain. Although Harding was responsible for making these appointments, it is unclear how much, if anything, Harding himself knew about his friends' illicit activities. Sony PCG-3H1M Keyboard
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No evidence to date suggests that Harding personally profited from such crimes, but he was apparently unable to prevent them. "I have no trouble with my enemies", Harding told journalist William Allen White late in his presidency, "but my damn friends, they're the ones that keep me walking the floor nights!"[165] Sony PCG-3C1M Keyboard
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The only scandal which was openly discovered during Harding's lifetime was in the Veteran's Bureau.[166] Yet the gossip became rampant after the suicides of Charles Cramer (Veterans Bureau) and Jess Smith (Justice Dept.) Harding responded aggressively to all of this with a mixture of grief, anger and perplexity. Sony PCG-3G2M Keyboard
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Before any of the scandalous activity became widely known, Harding's popularity began to ebb, but he responded with determination to run for re-election, despite strong support emerging for the very popular Henry Ford for the Democrats.[1Sony PCG-71211M Keyboard
67] While on his trip to Alaska in 1923, Harding asked reporters and Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, how he should respond to associates who may have betrayed him.[168] He also said at this time, according to Joe Mitchell Chapple, "Someday the people will understand all that some of my erstwhile friends have done for me."[169Sony PCG-71213M Keyboard
Sony PCG-71212M Keyboard] However much he did know at the time of his departure for Alaska, Russell concludes it did not include Fall and Daugherty.[170] Harding reformed the corrupt Veteran's Bureau in March, 1923.[6] Sony PCG-5P2m Keyboard
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Teapot Dome[edit]
Further information: Teapot Dome scandal
Albert B. Fall, Harding's first Secretary of the Interior and the first former Cabinet member sent to prison
The most notorious scandal was the Teapot Dome affair, most of which came to light long after Harding's death. This affair concerned an oil reserve in Wyoming that was covered by a teapot-shaped rock formation. For years, Sony PCG-5R1M Keyboard
Sony PCG-7186M Keyboard the country had taken measures to ensure the availability of petroleum reserves, particularly for the Navy's use.[171] On February 23, 1923, Harding issued Executive Order # 3797, which created the Naval Petroleum Reserve Number 4 in Alaska. By the 1920s, it was clear that petroleum was important to the national economy and security. The reserve system was to keep the oil under government jurisdiction rather than subject to private claims.[1Sony PCG-5R2M Keyboard
Sony PCG-7185M Keyboard72] Management of these reserves was the subject of multi-dimensional arguments—beginning with a turf battle between the Secretary of the Navy and the Interior Dept.[173
Sony PCG-7184M Keyboard] The strategic reserves issue was also a debate topic between conservationists and the petroleum industry, as well as those who favored public ownership versus private control.[174Sony PCG-5T1M Keyboard
Sony PCG-7183M Keyboard] Harding's Secretary of the Interior, Albert B. Fall, brought to that office a lot of political and legal experience—and also a lot of personal debt, incurred in his obsession to expand his personal estate, Three Rivers, in New Mexico. He also was an avid supporter of the private ownership and management of reserves.[175] Sony PCG-5T2M Keyboard
Fall contracted Edward Doheny of Pan American Corp. to build storage tanks in exchange for drilling rights. It later came to light that Doheny had made significant personal loans to Fall.[17Sony PCG-7181M Keyboard
Sony PCG-7182M Keyboard6] The Secretary also negotiated leases for the Teapot Dome reserves to Harry Sinclair of the Consolidated Oil Corp. in return for guaranteed oil reserves to the credit of the government. Again, it later emerged that Sinclair had personally made concurrent cash payments of over $400,000 to Fall.[175] Sony VGN-NW21MF Keyboard
Sony VGN-NW20SF Keyboard These activities took place under the unsuspecting watch of progressive and conservationist attorney, Harry Slattery, acting for Gifford Pinchot and Robert La Follete.[177] Fall was ultimately convicted in 1931 of accepting bribes and illegal no-interest personal loans in exchange for the leasing of public oil fields to business associates.[ Sony VGN-NW21EF Keyboard
Sony VGN-NW26JG Keyboard178] In 1931, Fall was the first cabinet member in history imprisoned for crimes committed while in office.[179] Paradoxically, while Fall was convicted for taking the bribe, Doheny was acquitted of paying it.[180]
Justice department[edit]
Harry M. Daugherty
U.S. Attorney General
Photo taken 1920.
Harding's appointment of Harry M. Daugherty as Attorney General received more criticism than any other. As Harding's campaign manager, Daugherty's Ohio lobbying and back room maneuvers with politicians were not considered the best qualifications.[181] Sony VGN-NW21JF Keyboard
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Sony VGN-NW24MR Keyboard Historian M. R. Werner referred to the Justice Department under Harding and Daugherty asm "...the den of a ward politician and the White House a night club." On September 16, 1922, Minnesota Congressman Oscar E. Keller brought impeachment charges against Daugherty. On December 4, Sony VGN-NW31ZF/S Keyboard
Sony VGN-NW24MG Keyboardformal investigation hearings, headed by congressman Andrew J. Volstead, began against Daugherty. The impeachment process, however, stopped, since Keller's charges that Daugherty protected interests in trust and war fraud cases could not be substantially proven.[182] Sony VGN-NW31JF Keyboard
One alleged scandal involving Daugherty concerned the Wright-Martin Aircraft Corp., which supposedly overcharged the Federal government by $2.3 M on war contracts.[ Sony VGN-NW31EF Keyboard
Sony VGN-NW24JG Keyboard183] Capt. Hazel Scaife tried to bring the company to trial, but was blocked by the Department of Justice. At this time, Daugherty was said to have owned stock in the company and was even adding to these holdings, though he was never charged in the matter.[184] Sony VGN-NW20EF Keyboard
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Daugherty remained in his position during the early days of the Calvin Coolidge administration, then resigned on March 28, 1924, amidst allegations that he accepted bribes from bootleggers. Daugherty was later tried and acquitted twice for corruption. Sony VGN-NW20EF/S Keyboard
Sony VGN-NW20SF Keyboard Both juries hung—in one case, after 65 hours of deliberation. Daugherty's famous defense attorney, Max D. Steuer, blamed all corruption allegations against Daugherty on Jess Smith, an aide at the Justice Department who had committed suicide.[185][18
Sony VGN-NW20EF Keyboard6]
Harding's Attorney General hired William J. Burns to run the Justice Dept.'s Bureau of Investigation,[ Sony VGN-NW20EF/W Keyboard
Sony VGN-NW26M Keyboard187] Burns was said to be unabashed in his willingness to conduct unauthorized searches and seizures of political enemies of the Justice Dept. A number of inquisitive congressmen or senators found themselves the object of wire taps, rifled files, and copied correspondence.[1
Sony VGN-NW24S Keyboard88] Burns' primary operative was Gaston B. Means, a reputed con man, who was known to have fixed prosecutions, sold favors, and manipulated files in the Justice Dept.[189]
Sony VGN-NW20ZF Keyboard Means, who acted independently, took direct instructions and payments from Jess Smith, without Burn's knowledge, to spy on Congressmen. Means hired a woman, Laura Jacobson, to spy on Senator Thaddeus Caraway, a critic of the Harding administration. Means also was involved with "roping" bootleggers.[190] Sony VGN-NW11Z/T Keyboard
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Narcotic trafficking was rampant at the Atlanta Penitentiary while Daugherty was Attorney General. The appointed warden, J.E. Dyche, made internal prison reforms by firing two guards while two other officers were indicted by the Justice Department. Daugherty, however, was slow to follow up on these indictments. Sony VGN-NW11Z/S Keyboard
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Sony VGN-NW11S/S Keyboard As Dyche began to investigate the drug supply ring outside the prison, Daugherty fired him and replaced him with a close friend, A. E. Sartain. Daugherty stopped the investigation into the drug ring until the two indicted officers were brought to trial. The Superintendent of Prisons, Heber Votaw, Sony VGN-NW21MF/P Keyboard
allegedly interfered and suppressed Dyche's attempted investigation into the narcotic ring outside the prison. Votaw, was Harding's brother-in-law, and had been appointed by the President in April 1921. Sony VGN-NW31EF Keyboard
Sony VGN-NS38M/P keyboard Harding sent Charles R. Forbes, Director of the Veterans Bureau, to privately investigate the matter. This upset Daugherty, who said the Atlanta prison situation was none of Forbes business.[191] Sony VGN-NW31ZF/S Keyboard
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Daugherty, according to a 1924 Senate investigation into the Justice Department, had authorized a system of graft between aides Jess Smith and Howard Mannington. Both Mannington and Smith allegedly took bribes to secure appointments, Sony VGN-NS10L keyboard
Sony VGN-NS31M/W keyboardprison pardons, and freedom from prosecution. A majority of these purchasable pardons were directed towards bootleggers. Cincinnati bootlegger, George L. Remus, allegedly paid Jess Smith $250,000 to not prosecute him. Remus, however, was prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced to Atlanta prison. Sony VGN-NS20E keyboard
Sony VGN-NS31M keyboardSmith tried to extract more bribe money from Remus to pay for a pardon. The prevalent question at the Justice Department was "How is he fixed?"[192]
Jess W. Smith[edit]
Jess Smith
Daugherty's personal aide Jess W. Smith, was widely viewed as the Attorney General's (and therefore the President's) spokesman and henchman.[193] Smith was considered Daugherty's proxy, and a central figure, in government file manipulation, paroles and pardons, influence peddling—and even served as bag man.[194] Sony VGN-NS20M keyboard
During Prohibition, pharmacies received alcohol permits to sell alcohol for medical purposes. According to Congressional testimony, Daugherty allegedly arranged for Jess Smith and Howard Mannington to sell these permits to drug company agents who really represented bootleggers. The bootleggers, Sony VGN-NS30Z keyboard
Sony VGN-NS21S/W keyboardhaving obtained a permit could buy cases of whiskey. Smith and Mannington split the permit sales profits. Approximately 50,000 to 60,000 cases of whiskey were sold to bootleggers at a net worth of $750,000 to $900,000. Sony VGN-NS20EF keyboard
Sony VGN-NS21S keyboardSmith also supplied bootleg whiskey to the White House and the Ohio Gang house on K Street, concealing the whiskey in a briefcase for poker games.[162][195
Eventually, rumors of Smith's abuses—free use of government cars, going to all night parties, manipulation of Justice Department files—reached Harding. Harding withdrew Smith's White House clearance and Daugherty told him to leave Washington. On May 30, Sony VGN-NS11E keyboard
Sony VGN-NS21M/P keyboard1923, Smith's dead body was found at Daugherty's apartment with a gunshot wound to the head. William J. Burns immediately took Smith's body away and there was no autopsy. Russell, concluding this was a suicide, indicates that a Daugherty aide entered Smith's room moments after a noise awoke him, Sony VGN-NS11ER keyboard
Sony VGN-NS12S keyboardand found Smith on the floor with his head in a trash can and a revolver in his hand. Russell also states that Smith had purchased the gun (though he was said to have detested guns), that a bullet had entered Smith's temple, Sony VGN-NS11J keyboard
Sony VGN-NS12M/W keyboard exited the forehead, and lodged in a doorjamb. Smith allegedly purchased the gun from a hardware store shortly before his death, after Daugherty verbally abused him for waking him up from a nap.[196][197] Sony VGN-NS11L keyboard
Veterans' bureau[edit]
Charles R. Forbes, director of the Veterans Bureau and convicted of defrauding the government
Charles R. Forbes, the energetic Director of the Veterans Bureau, disregarded the dire needs of wounded World War I veterans to procure his own wealth.[198Sony VGN-NS11S keyboard
Sony VGN-NS11ZR keyboard] To limit corruption in the Veterans' Bureau, Harding insisted that all government contracts be by public notice, but Forbes provided inside information to his co-conspirators to ensure their bids succeeded.[1Sony VGN-NS11SR keyboard
Sony VGN-NS11Z keyboard99] After his appointment, Forbes was quick to have Harding issue executive orders that gave him control over veterans' hospital construction and supplies.[200] Forbes defrauded the government of an estimated $225 million through hospital construction, after increasing construction costs from $3,000 to $4,000 per bed.[ Sony VPCF11C4E/B Keyboard
Sony VPCF13Z8E Keyboard 201] Forbes' main task at the Veterans bureau, having an unprecedented $500 million yearly budget, was to ensure that new hospitals were built around the country to help the 300,000 wounded World War I veterans.[202] Sony VPCF11C5E Keyboard
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In the Spring of 1922, Forbes went on tours, known as joy-rides, of new hospital construction sites around the country and the Pacific Coast. On these tours, Forbes allegedly received traveling perks and alcohol kickbacks, took a $5,000 bribe in Chicago, Sony VPCF11D4E Keyboard
Sony VPCF13M1E/B Keyboard and made a secret code to ensure $17 million in government construction hospital contracts with corrupt contractors. On the tours, Forbes allegedly went to parties, drank bootleg liquor, and played craps.[203] Sony VPC-F11M1E/H Keyboard
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Intent on making more money, on his return to the U.S. Capitol Forbes immediately began selling valuable hospital supplies under his control in large warehouses at the Perryville Depot.[20
Sony VPCF13J0E/H Keyboard4] The government had stockpiled huge amounts of hospital supplies during the first World War, which Forbes unloaded for a fraction of their cost to the Boston firm of Thompson and Kelly. In exchange for the deal, J.W. Thompson of the firm added $150,000 to the contract for Forbes, who also received a percentage of the profits realized.[20Sony VPCF11S1E/B Keyboard
Sony VPCF13E8E Keyboard5][206] The check on Forbes' authority at Perryville was Gen. Charles E. Sawyer, chairman of the Federal Hospitalization Board, who represented controlling interests in the valuable hospital supplies.[207]
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Dr. Charles Sawyer and Forbes were rivals at the Veterans Bureau.
Dr. Sawyer and Forbes were at odds with each other over authority at the Veterans Bureau.[208] Sawyer, a homeopathic doctor who was Harding's personal physician, told Harding that Forbes was selling valuable hospital supplies to an insider contractor.[2Sony VPCF22J1E Keyboard
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09] After issuing two orders for the sales to stop, Harding finally summoned Forbes to the White House and demanded Forbes' resignation, since Forbes had been insubordinate in not stopping the shipments.[21Sony VPCF22M1E Keyboard
Sony VPCF13E4E Keyboard] Harding, however, was not yet ready to announce Forbes' resignation and let him flee to Europe on the "flimsy pretext" that he would help disabled U.S. Veterans in Europe.[211][212] While in Europe, Forbes submitted his resignation to Harding on February 15, 1923. Sony VPCF22S1E Keyboard
Harding placed a reformer, Brigadier General Frank T. Hines, in charge of the Veterans Bureau. Hines immediately cleared up the mess left by Forbes. When Forbes returned to the U.S., he visited Harding at the White House in the Red Room. During the meeting, Harding angrily grabbed Forbes by the throat, Sony VPCF22S8E Keyboard
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Sony VPCF12M1E/H Keyboardshook him vigorously, and exclaimed "You double-crossing bastard!"[213] A guest who had an appointment with the President interrupted this physical encounter and Forbes was allowed to leave. Harding was bitter over Forbes' "betrayal" and the two never saw each other again.[21Sony VPCF23Q1E Keyboard
4] In 1926, Forbes was brought to trial and convicted of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government. He drew a two-year prison sentence and was released in November 1927.[215]
Charles F. Cramer, Forbes' legal council to the Veterans Bureau, rocked the nation's capital when he committed suicide in 1923.[2Sony VPCF231S1E Keyboard
Sony VPCF12F4E/H Keyboard16] Cramer was found dead by a maid in his bathroom on the morning of March 14 with a bullet wound to the head. Previously, in the fall of 1922 Cramer had been "bitterly assailed" by the American Legion at Indianapolis over alleged corruption at the Veterans Bureau. Cramer,
Sony VPCF12E1E/H Keyboardat the time of his death, was being investigated by a Senate committee and had been criticized and personally attacked. Cramer, himself, had denied charges of corruption and said he had given his "whole-hearted and patriotic service" to the Bureau. Sony VPCF23S1E Keyboard
Sony VPCF11Z1E/BI KeyboardCramer had paid $40,000 in Veteran funds to a private landholder to lease land to build a Veterans Hospital in Camp Kearny, California. The estimated value of the 325-acre land tract was only $8,000. Sony VPCF24M1E Keyboard
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Sony VPCF11C4E/B KeyboardMaj. Gen. John F. O'Ryan conducted the investigation into the Veterans' Bureau. In addition to replacing Forbes with Hines, Harding dismissed or transferred a number of subordinates at the Veteran's Bureau.[217] Sony VPCF13Z8E/BI Keyboard
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Shipping board, office of alien property and prohibition bureau[edit]
Harding as he appears at the National Postal Museum in Washington, D.C.
On June 13, 1921, Harding appointed Albert D. Lasker chairman of the United States Shipping Board. Lasker, a cash donor and Harding's general campaign manager, had no previous experience with shipping companies. Sony VPCF12S1E/B Keyboard
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Sony VPCF13Z0E/B KeyboardThe Merchant Marine Act of 1920 had allowed the Shipping Board to sell ships made by the U.S. Government to private American companies. A congressional investigation revealed that while Lasker was in charge, many valuable steel cargo ships, worth between $200 and $250 a ton, Sony VPCF13M1E/H Keyboard
Sony VPCF13M8E/B Keyboardwere sold for as low as $30 a ton to private American shipping companies without an appraisal board. J. Harry Philbin, a manager in the sales division, testified at the congressional hearing that under Lasker's authority U.S. ships were sold, "...as is, where is, take your pick, no matter which vessel you took." Lasker resigned from the Shipping Board on July 1, 1923.[218] Sony VPCF21Z1E/BI Keyboard
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Thomas W. Miller, head of the Office of Alien Property, was convicted of accepting bribes. Miller's citizenship rights were taken away and he was sentenced to 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine. After Miller served 13 months of his sentence, he was released on parole. President Herbert Hoover restored Miller's citizenship on February 2, 1933.[219] Sony VPCF24Q1E Keyboard
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Roy Asa Haynes, Harding's Prohibition Commissioner, ran the patronage-riddled Prohibition bureau, which was allegedly corrupt from top to bottom.[2Sony VPCF23P1E Keyboard
Sony VPCF12Z1E Keyboard20] The bureau's "B permits" for liquor sales became tantamount to negotiable securities, as a result of being so widely bought and sold among known violators of the law.[221] The bureau's agents allegedly made a year's salary from one month's illicit sales of permits.[220]
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Western travels, illness and death[edit]
In June 1923, Harding set out on a westward cross-country Voyage of Understanding, in which he planned to renew his connection with the people, away from the capital, and explain his policies.
Sony VPCF22M0E KeyboardThe schedule included 18 speeches and innumerable informal talks. Accompanying him were Secretaries Work, Wallace, and Hoover, House Speaker Gillett, and Rear Admiral Adam Hugh Rodman.[222] During this trip, he became the first president to visit Alaska.[223] Sony VPCF23N1E Keyboard
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Harding's physical health had declined since the fall of 1922. One doctor, Emmanuel Libman, who met Harding at a dinner, privately suggested that the President was suffering from coronary disease. By early 1923, Harding had trouble sleeping, looked tired, and could barely get through nine holes of golf. Sony VPCY21S1E/L Keyboard
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Though Harding wanted to run for a second term, he may have been aware of his own health decline. He gave up drinking, sold his "life-work," the Marion Star, in part to regain $170,000 previous investment losses, and had the U.S. Attorney General Harry Daugherty make a new will.
HP Pavilion DV7-2215SA KeyboardHarding, along with his personal physician Dr. Charles E. Sawyer, believed getting away from Washington would help relieve the stresses of being President. By July 1923, criticism of the Harding Administration was increasing. Prior to his leaving Washington, the President reported chest pains that radiated down his left arm.[2HP Pavilion DV7-1105EA Keyboard
HP Pavilion DV7-3115EA Keyboard24]
St. Louis, Kansas, Denver[edit]
During Harding's western travels, historian Samuel H. Adams claims that Harding's political views began to expand, and became more independent from established Republican Party agenda. In St. Louis, HP Pavilion DV7-1210EA Keyboard
HP Pavilion DV7-3112EA Keyboard Harding promoted U.S. participation in the World Court having earnestly desired world peace. In Kansas, Harding gave a speech on agriculture and, much to his doctor's displeasure, rode on a farming combine in searing summer heat.
In Denver, Harding extolled the virtues of the 18th Amendment, saying it should never be repealed, urging that the prohibition laws be obeyed.[225] HP Pavilion DV7-1135EA Keyboard
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HP Pavilion DV7-3110EA KeyboardHarding, himself, did not pack any whiskey for traveling on the Presidential train. Breaking away from Republican isolationism, Harding advocated more spending on national defense in case of another war. Harding also made a speech fully endorsing labor's right to organize, HP Pavilion DV7-1125EA Keyboard
HP Pavilion DV7-3105EA Keyboard and even spoke against those who sought to destroy labor movements around the country. In Tacoma, Washington, the President read a letter that promoted his efforts for a 12-hour work day. Sensing his own conversion, Harding even told his friends that he felt a spiritual change was influencing his stance on issues.[226] HP Pavilion DV7-1213EA Keyboard
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Alaska, British Columbia, Seattle[edit]
President Harding on board Presidential train in Alaska.
Sec. Hoover, Sec. Wallace, Sec. Work, and Mrs. Harding included in Presidential Party. 1923
President Harding, as his physically demanding schedule continued, boarded a naval transport ship, the USS Henderson, and voyaged to Alaska. During four days at sea, Harding was unable to rest and regain strength.[22HP Pavilion DV7-1211EA Keyboard
HP Pavilion DV7-3020EA Keyboard7] Rumors of corruption in his administration were beginning to circulate in Washington. While in Alaska, Harding was profoundly shocked by a long message he received detailing illegal activities previously unknown to him.[228] HP Pavilion DV7-1212EA Keyboard
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Harding's reasons for the Alaska visit included encouraging colonization of the sparsely populated territory. Harding hoped that, with completion of the Alaska Railroad, World War I veterans from Alaska would return to their home territory, HP Pavilion DV7-1214EA Keyboard
HP Pavilion DV7-3000 Keyboardand impoverished workers in the lower states could go to Alaska for employment. Harding brought along Secretary of Interior Hubert Work, Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, and Secretary of Agriculture Henry C. Wallace—"the three bears", as Herbert Hoover called them—to cut through bureaucracy in their respective departmental jurisdictions.[229]
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According to author Douglas Brinkley, Harding came to the most northern U.S. territory to "open up Alaska lands" for oil, mining, timber development, and industry.[230]
Harding arrived in Alaska on the USS Henderson on July 7, 1923. Harding and his presidential party first visited Metlakatla, Ketchikan (July 8), HP Pavilion DV7-2110SA Keyboard
HP Pavilion DV7-2120SA Keyboard and Wrangell (July 9). They continued on to Juneau (July 10), Skagway, and Glacier Bay (July 11).[231] The President then cruised to Seward (July 13). They then proceeded to travel by Presidential railway car and automobile. Harding visited Snow River on the Kenai Peninsula, Anchorage (July 13), Dell Latitude E4310 Keyboard
Dell Latitude E6500 Keyboard Chickaloon, Wasilla and Willow (July 14). The U.S. government had bought up the financially unstable Tanana Valley Railroad. The President continued his Alaska journey through Montana Station, Curry (July 14) Cantwell, Dell Latitude E4320 Keyboard
Dell Latitude E6400 Keyboard McKinley Park and Nenana(July 15).[232] On July 15, 1923, Harding drove in the golden spike on the north side of the steel Mears Memorial Bridge that completed the Alaska Railroad.[231] The trip continued to Fairbanks (July 15) Dell Latitude E4200 Keyboard
Dell Latitude E5420M Keyboard where it was decided (July 16) that the President and his wife would return to Seward (July 17) via the railroad. They spent a restful day at Seward (July 18). From there they took the Henderson to Valdez (July 19), Dell Latitude E4300 Keyboard
Dell Latitude E5220 Keyboard Cordova (July 20), and Sitka (July 22). While in Sitka, Harding visited and shook hands with Alaskan Native Tlingit elder chief Katlean outside in a crowd of people.[233] The information gathered by Harding's Alaska tour found that improving agriculture in south central Alaska, would require irrigation because of the low territory rainfall totals. By 1923, the Alaskan salmon population was being depleted from overfishing. Dell Latitude E6500 Keyboard
Dell Latitude E6530 Keyboard Harvesting and transporting coal by ship from Alaska through the territory's panhandle would be very expensive.[229]
On July 26, 1923, having departed Alaska on the USS Henderson, Harding toured Vancouver, British Columbia as the first sitting American President ever to visit Canada. Harding became exhausted while playing golf at the Shaughnessy Heights Golf Club, Dell Latitude E5400 Keyboard
Dell Latitude E6520N Keyboard and complained of nausea and upper abdominal pain. His doctor, Charles E. Sawyer, believed Harding's illness was a severe case of food poisoning. Nevertheless, Dr. Joel T. Boone also examined the President and noticed an enlargement of his heart.[228] Harding's pulse and breathing rate were rapid. Dell Latitude E5410 Keyboard
Dell Latitude E6430-XFR Keyboard The President was given digitalis. Harding met with British Columbia Premier John Oliver and Mayor of Vancouver Charles Tisdall at the Hotel Vancouver. Harding spoke in front of 50,000 people at Stanley Park with his voice projected by microphones. Harding inspected The Vancouver Regiment honor guard accompanied by Canadian Brig. Gen. V.W. Odlum.[234]
Coming into Seattle, Washington, Harding's transport ship, USS Henderson, accidentally rammed into the USS Zeilin (DD-313), a U.S. naval destroyer, due to fog. Harding was not harmed in the incident. While in port, Harding reviewed the U.S. naval fleet and visited the Bell Street Pier. In Seattle, Harding greeted children and led 50,000 Boy Scouts in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Dell Latitude E6430-ATG Keyboard Harding gave his final speech to a large crowd of 25,000 people at the University of Washington stadium in Seattle. Harding spoke on the magnificence of Alaska's wilderness, conservationism, and "measureless oil resources in the most northerly sections." Sec.
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Dell Latitude E6430 Keyboard of Commerce Herbert Hoover wrote the Seattle speech and Harding claimed he would protect the territory from looters and profit seekers; a rebuff to former Sec. of Interior Albert Fall.[2Dell Latitude E5500 Keyboard
Dell Latitude E6330 Keyboard 35] Harding had rushed through his speech not waiting for applause by the audience.[236] Harding traveled by train from Seattle to Portland, Oregon. Harding's scheduled speech in Portland was canceled.
Death in San Francisco, state funeral and memorial[edit]
Funeral procession for President Harding passes by the front of the White House
The President's train continued south to San Francisco. Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover sent a telegram from Dunsmuir, California, to his friend Dr. Ray L. Wilbur, asking Wilbur to meet and to personally evaluate the President. Dell Latitude E5510 Keyboard
Dell Latitude E6220 Keyboard Arriving at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, Harding developed a respiratory illness believed to be pneumonia.[23Dell Latitude E5420 Keyboard
7][238] Harding, severely exhausted, ordered that his planned speech be issued through the national press in order to communicate with the public. The President was given digitalis and caffeine that momentarily helped relieve his heart condition and sleeplessness.[23Dell Latitude E5520 Keyboard
Dell Latitude E6120 Keyboard 9] On Thursday, the President's health appeared to improve, so his doctors went to dinner. Harding's pulse was normal and his lung infection had subsided.[240] Unexpectedly, during the evening, Harding shuddered and died suddenly in the middle of conversation with his wife in the hotel's presidential suite, at 7:35 p.m. on August 2, 1923.[237][2
Dell Latitude E5530 Keyboard 40] Dr. Sawyer (a homeopath, and friend of the Harding family), opined that Harding had succumbed to a stroke, but doctors there disagreed.[237] Dell Latitude E6420 Keyboard
Immediately after Harding died, word of the event quickly spread to the San Francisco streets. People rushed into the Palace Hotel, and rapidly crowded into the hallways. The San Francisco chief of police, Daniel J. O'Brian, finally was able to clear the hotel of the unruly mob, and members of Harding's official party could come see him.[240] Dell Latitude E6400-ATG Keyboard
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After some discussion, the doctors issued a release stating that the cause of death was "some brain evolvement, probably an apoplexy."[241] Mrs. Harding refused to allow an autopsy.[237][2Dell Latitude E6410 Keyboard
42] In retrospect, scholars speculate that Harding had shown physical signs of cardiac insufficiency with congestive heart failure in the preceding weeks.[243][244] Naval medical consultants who examined the president in San Francisco concluded he had suffered a heart attack. Dell Latitude E6410-ATG Keyboard
Harding was succeeded as President by Vice President Calvin Coolidge, who was sworn in while vacationing at Plymouth Notch, Vermont, by his father, a Vermont notary public.
The Harding Memorial in Marion, Ohio.
Dedicated in 1931.
A story of Harding's body being laid in state in San Francisco City Hall before being returned to Washington is apparently false.[2Dell Latitude E5430 Keyboard
Dell Precision M6500 Keyboard 45] The Examiner for Aug. 3, 1923, states that Harding's "remains will not be taken from the hotel except to go directly to the train." The Chronicle for Aug. 3 and 4, 1923, says the same thing, that Harding's body was taken from the Palace Hotel directly to the train depot at Third and Townsend. Dell Precision M2400 Keyboard
Dell Precision M6400 Keyboard The funeral train made a four-day journey eastward across the country—the first such procession since Lincoln's funeral train. Millions lined the tracks in cities and towns across the country to pay their respects.[246] Dell Precision M4600 Keyboard
Harding's casket was placed in the East Room of the White House pending a state funeral, which was held on August 8, 1923, at the United States Capitol. Unnamed White House employees said that the night before the funeral, Dell Precision M6600 Keyboard
Dell Precision M4500 Keyboard they heard Mrs. Harding talking to her dead husband.[241] According to the historian Samuel H. Adams, Harding's death was mourned by the nation and the average citizen felt a "personal loss."[24Dell Latitude E4310 Battery
Dell Latitude E6330 Battery7] Harding was entombed in the receiving vault of the Marion Cemetery, Marion, Ohio, on August 10, 1923. Following Mrs. Harding's death on November 21, 1924 (from renal failure), she was buried next to her husband. Their remains were re-interred December 20, 1927, at the newly completed Harding Memorial in Marion, dedicated by President Herbert Hoover on June 16, 1931. Dell Latitude E4320 Battery
Dell Latitude E6230 Battery The delay between final interment and the dedication was partly because of the aftermath of the Teapot Dome scandal. Harding was survived by his father Dr. George Tryon Harding, who died on November 19, 1928.[248Dell Latitude E4300 Battery
] Harding and John F. Kennedy are the only two presidents to have predeceased their fathers. Harding's term of office was the shortest of any 20th-century U.S. President.[249]
Speculation on cause of death[edit]
Harding's sudden death led to theories that he had been poisoned[242] Dell Latitude E6500 Battery
Dell Latitude E6220 Batteryor committed suicide. Suicide appears unlikely, since Harding was planning for reelection in 1924. Rumors of poisoning were fueled, in part, by a book called The Strange Death of President Harding, in which the author (convicted criminal, former Ohio Gang member, and detective Gaston Means, hired by Mrs. Harding to investigate Warren Harding and his mistress) suggested that Mrs. Harding had poisoned her husband. Dell Latitude E5410 Battery
Dell Latitude E6120 BatteryMrs. Harding's refusal to allow an autopsy on her husband only added to the speculation. According to the physicians attending Harding, however, the symptoms prior to his death all pointed to congestive heart failure. Harding's biographer, Samuel H. Adams, concluded that "Warren G. Harding died a natural death which, in any case, could not have been long postponed".[2
Presidential papers destroyed[edit]
Immediately after Harding's death, Mrs. Harding returned to Washington, D.C., and briefly stayed in the White House with President and First Lady Coolidge. For a month, former First Lady Harding gathered and burned President Harding's correspondence and documents, both official and unofficial. Upon her return to Marion, 50] Dell Latitude E5500 Battery
Dell Latitude E6420 BatteryMrs. Harding hired a number of secretaries to collect and burn Harding's personal papers. According to Mrs. Harding, she took these actions to protect her husband's legacy. The remaining papers were held and kept from public view by the Harding Memorial Association in Marion.[251] Dell Latitude E5510 Battery
In a Washington Post article, journalist Carl S. Anthony disclosed that Warren G. Harding had extramarital affairs with four women.[252] These women included Susie Hodder and Carrie Fulton Phillips, Mrs. Harding's personal friends; Grace Cross, Harding's senatorial aide; and Nan Britton. Anthony stated that Harding was the father of Hodder's daughter.[25Dell Latitude E6420-ATG Battery
2] In her 1927 book, The President's Daughter, Britton asserted that Harding fathered her daughter, Elizabeth Ann, as well, during a 1919 tryst in his senatorial offices. Britton, who had a profound obsession with Harding beginning in high school, also alleged that she was his mistress before and during his administration.[252][2Dell Latitude E6430 Battery
Dell Precision M6500 Battery53] Historian Henry F. Graff states that Harding was sterile and that Harding's affair with Britton ended after Harding assumed the presidency.[254][255]
Historian Francis Russell indicates that, beginning in the spring of 1905, Harding had a 15-year relationship with Carrie Fulton Phillips, wife of businessman and friend James Eaton Phillips of Marion, Ohio.[256Dell Latitude E6430-ATG Battery
Dell Precision M6400 Battery] More than 100 intimate letters between Harding and Mrs. Philips were discovered in the 1960s, but publication of the letters was enjoined by court order in Ohio until 2024.[257] Russell, however, viewed the letters upon their discovery and described them as very touching and naive in some respects, erotic in others.[258Dell Latitude E6430S Battery
Dell Latitude E6430-XFR Battery
] Russell also concluded from the letters that Phillips was the love of Harding's life—"the enticements of his mind and body combined in one person".[259]
Before his death, Harding had established a margin account with stockbroker Sam Ungerleider. Before the broker could get authority from Harding's successors to liquidate the stocks purchased on loan, the account had a loss of more than $170,000. Dell Latitude E6520N Battery
Dell Precision M4500 Battery The broker was given the authority to sell, but the family refused to settle the loss and the broker declined to force collection.[260]
The most sensational allegations include one that Harding and Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty participated in bacchanalian orgies at the Ohio Gang's Little Green House on K Street in Washington, D.C.;
Dell Precision M6600 Battery witnesses to this were considered unreliable and one was a convicted perjurer.[261] Also, in his 1987 book The Fiery Cross, historian Wyn Craig Wade suggested that Harding had ties with the Ku Klux Klan, perhaps having been inducted into the organization in a private White House ceremony. Dell Latitude E6530 Battery
Evidence included the taped testimony of one of the members of the alleged induction team; however, evidence beyond that is scanty. Other historians generally dismiss these stories.[262] However, in the 1998 History Channel documentary entitled Ku Klux Klan: A Secret History, the speculation that Harding may have joined the group is highlighted by the fact that William J. Simmons, Dell Latitude E5420M Battery
Dell Precision M2400 Battery the founder of the modern Klan, once visited the President at the White House.[citation needed]
Several historians deny claims of orgies and mistresses, such as Robert H. Ferrell and Paul Johnson. Paul Johnson writes in Modern Times: "When in 1964 the Harding Papers (which had not been burnt)
Dell Latitude E5430 Battery were opened to scholars, no truth at all was found in any of the myths, though it emerged that Harding, a pathetically shy man with women, had a sad and touching friendship with the wife of a Marion store-owner before his presidency. The Babylonian image was a fantasy,
Dell Latitude E6410-ATG Batteryand in all essentials Harding had been an honest and exceptionally shrewd president."[263][page needed]
Historical ranking as president[edit]
Harding traditionally has been ranked as one of the worst presidents. In a 1948 poll conducted by Harvard University historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr., the first notable survey of scholars' opinions of the presidents, Harding ranked last among the 29 presidents considered. In a 1962 poll conducted by Schlesinger, Dell Latitude E6400 Battery
Dell Latitude E6410 Batteryhe was ranked last again, 31 out of 31. His son, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., conducted another poll in 1996; once again, Harding was last, ranked 39 out of 39. In 2010, a Siena College Research Institute survey of 238 presidential scholars ranked Harding 41st among the 43 men who had been president, between Franklin Pierce (40th) and James Buchanan (42nd); Andrew Johnson was adjudged the worst.[26Dell Latitude E6500 Battery
Dell Latitude E6400-ATG Battery
Dell Latitude E6400-XFR Battery4] Harding was also considered the third worst president in a 2002 Siena poll. Siena polls of 1982, 1990 and 1992 ranked him last.
However, Harding's biographer John W. Dean in 2004 believed that Harding was underrated.[265] Authors Marcus Raskin and Robert Spero, in 2007, also believed that Harding was underrated, and admired Harding's quest for world peace after World War I and his successful naval disarmament among strongly armed nations, including France, Dell XPS 14 Battery
Dell XPS L701X Battery Britain, and Japan.[266] In his 2010 book The Leaders We Deserved (and a Few We Didn't): Rethinking the Presidential Rating Game, presidential historian Alvin S. Felzenberg, ranking presidents on several different criteria, ranked Harding 26th out of 40 presidents considered.[267] Dell XPS 14D Battery
Life legacy[edit]
Further information: Harding Memorial
The 1st Harding stamp
Memorial Issue of 1923, issued only one month after his death.[268][269]
As a career politician, Harding exhibited an ability to grow, and had a desire to get along with political enemies rather than alienate them. As a prior journalist, Harding was the first President to realize the importance of an ever growing powerful media, Dell XPS 14D-L401X Battery
Dell XPS L501X Battery and even ordered his cabinet to organize their own respective press staff. He knew that radio would eventually dominate American commerce and promoted two Radio Conferences to give government power to regulate the industry. Harding also sensed the importance of oil in terms of national security and prosperity, signing an executive order that gave the U.S. a giant oil reserve in Alaska. Dell XPS 15 Battery
Dell XPS 17-L702X Battery Harding staunchly protected American business interests. He also signed America's first child welfare program designed to protect children's health and ensure that they would grow up without neglect from their parents. Dell XPS 15D Battery
Harding was also the first president that pursued world security through arms reduction and regulation during the Washington peace conference.
Harding's generosity and loyalty to friends was a liability as President. Multiple scandals evolved during his administration that damaged his reputation throughout the nation. His successes as President were over shadowed by the "Ohio Gang" criminal exploits, Dell XPS 15-L502X Battery
Dell XPS 17-L701X Battery the detrimental image of his social drinking, and his alleged extramarital affairs. His sudden death in 1923 only intensified unanswered questions concerning his knowledge of, and potential involvement in, the scandals—and if he would have reformed his administration. In fact, his reputation was so controversial, Dell XPS 15Z Battery
it was not until 1931 that Harding's marble memorial colonnade in Marion was dedicated by Herbert Hoover. According to Hoover, Harding's legacy was one of tragic betrayal.[270]
Harding's legacy began to improve during the 1970s, Dell XPS 17 Battery
Dell XPS L702X Battery however. The truth behind the many presidential scandals and his personal controversies may never be known. To protect her husband's damaged legacy, Mrs. Harding only left 1/7 of Harding's personal papers for posterity. She destroyed the rest.[271] The remaining papers, except for Harding's speeches, are currently unpublished. Harding has been one of the most historically challenging American Presidents in terms of finding private letters and paper documents.[2
Dell Inspiron N4030 battery72] Historian Hazel Rowley writes that because the Harding administration and the Republicans were seen associated with prosperity, prominent Democrats were reticent of running for president in 1924.[273]
Due to his untimely demise, Warren G. Harding is among the relatively few American Presidents who have been honored on a U.S. postage stamp more than the usual two times. Dell Inspiron 14V battery
Dell Inspiron N4020 batteryHarding has appeared on US postage for a total of five issues, more than that of most Presidents.[268][269] Harding's election provided a short burst of popularity for the name Warren.[274]