The Roaring Twenties The Politics of the Twenties
Warren G. Harding
In 1920 Warren G. Harding was elected President. He campaigned by saying America needs to "return to normalcy" after the war.
Americans wanted to forget the war and stay away from foreign affairs. Congress voted against joining the League of Nations. They also passed the highest tariff on goods from foreign countries in 1922.
Calvin Coolidge
When Harding died in 1923, Calvin Coolidge became President. Coolidge would do nothing to control how money was being spent by business. He felt the government should not control businesses.
Prohibition
On January 16, 1920, the Eighteenth Amendment became law. It made it unlawful to make or sell any alcoholic drink except for medical, industrial, or religious reasons. The illegal sale of alcohol went to gangsters such as Al Capone of Chicago. This caused some major problems.
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Many companies dealing in alcohol went out of business.
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People openly broke the law.
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Judges and police became corrupt because they took bribes from bootleggers.
In 1933 the Eighteenth Amendment was repealed.
Ku Klux Klan
Another way Americans broke the law was with the Ku Klux Klan. This was an organization that had begun after the Civil War to frighten and even kill black freemen. In 1915 William Simmons and a group of men in Atlanta, Georgia decided to bring the Ku Klux Klan back to life. They wanted to fight African Americans, Jews, Italians, and other immigrants who they did not understand.
The Klan grew from a membership of one million in 1921 to four million by 1924. Most members were from the South and Southwest; however, groups formed in New York and California.
Austin Peay was governor of Tennessee from 1923-1927. He created the state department for the highway. This highway system went from 244 miles of paved roads to over 4000 miles. Peay also reorganized the government into 8 bureaus. He purchased land to create the Great Smoky Mountain Park from lumber companies. Peay passed a bill to guarantee 8 months of school. He is the only governor to have died in office on October 2, 1927.