International Disarmament
Harding’s foreign policy was likewise dominated by conservatism. Although
Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes opened negotiations
for American rights to oil in the Middle East, the president focused
mainly on maintaining the status quo and reducing American involvement
abroad.
In 1922,
the United States convinced Britain and Japan to sign the Five-Power
Naval Treaty, which would reduce the number of battleships
each country had in the Pacific to a ratio of 5:5:3,
respectively. The United States and Britain promised not to fortify
their Pacific bases but allowed Japan to fortify its bases to counter
the battleship imbalance. The United States also signed the Four-Power Treaty with
Britain, Japan, and France, which forbade the countries from acquiring
new possessions in the Pacific, while the Nine-Power Treaty upheld
John Hay’s old Open Door policy in China.
Developments in Germany and Japan
During this period of American isolationism, events were
unfolding around the world that would have catastrophic consequences
later on. In Germany during the 1920s
and during the Great Depression, a man by the name of Adolf
Hitler began to gather a tremendous political following as
he proposed solutions to Germany’s economic problems and promised
to make the Fatherland strong again. Desperate Germans clung to
Hitler’s rhetoric, as hyperinflation was causing the
German mark to fall in value literally by the minute. This inflation
in Germany became so extreme that prices of meals at restaurants
would increase significantly between the time patrons started eating
and the time they finished.
Japan, meanwhile, was capitalizing on the
Five-Power and Four-Power treaties by strengthening its presence
in East Asia. It had had its eyes on the Manchuria region
of China for years and was waiting for the right moment to take
it.
The Teapot Dome Scandal
At home, Harding’s deregulation of big business led to
government scandal and corruption that tainted his presidency.
The most notorious scandal during his term was the Teapot
Dome scandal of 1923, which erupted
after a private company bribed the secretaries of the interior and
navy to overlook the illegal drilling of oil from government lands
in Teapot Dome, Wyoming. Harding himself was implicated in the scandal
but died later that year before anyone made any serious accusations.
He was replaced by the even more conservative Vice President Calvin
Coolidge.
The Election of 1924
A year later, the American people elected Coolidge president
in yet another three-way election. Coolidge’s opponents were Democrat John
W. Davis and the recently revamped Progressive Party’s nominee, Robert
La Follette. La Follette campaigned for more debt relief
and protection from big business and a constitutional amendment
to revoke the Supreme Court’s power of judicial review. Coolidge
won a landslide victory, though La Follette did receive thirteen
electoral votes.
