The Republican "Old Guard": President ~ Warren G. Harding; Secretary of State ~ Charles Evans Hughes; Secretary of Commerce ~ Herbert Hoover -- These men as a cabinet were eager to revert to laissez-faire ideals and repeal government presence in the economy.
William H. Taft: one of the Supreme Court justices elected during the Old Guard's reign. He was very pro-business and sought to keep government out of the economy.
Adkins v. Children's Hospital: Supreme Court strikes down the minimum wage laws in place -- sets the precedent that the government can't intervene in the workplace to adjust wages.
Esch-Cummins Transportation Act of 1920: government releases control of railroads to private enterprises after assuming control during WWI.
Merchant Marine Act: commissions a Shipping Board to sell naval ships way below market value in an attempt to reduce the size of the navy after WWI.
Adjusted Compensation Act: gave every former soldier (WWI vets) better insurance policies.
Treaty of Versailles: US never passed it, so the US passes its own agreement with Germany -- the US (arguably responsible for the League of Nations) were "unofficial observers" at the meetings but never participated in major decisions.
Washington "Disarmament" Conference: (1921-22) Soviet Union, unrecognized by the US, is not invited and makes no effort to attend. The conference results in a plan in which the US, Britain and Japan could maintain a 5:5:3 ratio of ships (in that order).
Four-Power Treaty: Replaced the American-Japanese agreement to respect each others' territories in the Pacific. The FPT sought to keep things the way they were in the Pacific.
Nine-Power Treaty: kept the Open Door Policy over China
Kellog-Briand Pact: all nations that signed this pact agreed to not use war as an offensive mean. (lol).
Fordney-McCumber Tariff: raised the US tariff from 27% to 35% -- this creates a problem that essentially stagnates the international economy. Europe needs to sell goods to the US in order to pay back war debts, but now it can't (for profit, anyways). The FM Tariff essentially weighs down money circulation on an international level.
McNary-Haugen Bill: the government wants to keep farmers out of an agricultural recession and plans to buy up agricultural surpluses and sell them abroad. Coolige vetoes twice.
Dawes Plan: (refer to the cycle diagram in Mr. Stewart's lecture): basically, money is going in a circle when all of the debt plans are drawn out, but because of the high tariff of the US and because of unravelling inflation in Germany, money barely circulated at all. The nature of the cycle of repayment plans basically spelled out doom for all participating parties if one of them wasn't able to hold up their end. The Dawes Plan extends Germany's dues and allows America to privately loan money to the Germans... basically:
Americans --> money --> Germany (takes money) --> money --> France and Britain (take money but realize they still owe money to Americans for war bonds) --> money --> America ~~ and repeat.
Agricultural Marketing Act: part of Hoover's first stabs at the depressed American economy. It was designed to help the farmers help themselves (but didn't do very much).
Hawley Smoot Tariff: raises the tariff to 60% (hasn't been this high since the tariff was used as a means to protect the American economy in the early 1800s) ~ also, this creates distrust among nations on an international level and further stagnates international circulation of money.
~~~~~~Great Depression happens around here~~~~~~~~
Reconstruction Finance Corporation: a government lending bank that was one of the final institutions created by Hoover.
Norris-La Guardia Anti-Injection Act: outlawed anti-union contracts and forbade the federal courts from restraining strikes, boycotts or peaceful picketing.
Good Neighbor Policy: as the American economy tanked, it was becoming less and less able to support the Monroe Doctrine or the Corollary and instead pursued peaceful alliances with Latin American nations.
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