WARREN HARDING
Biography
In the 1920 presidential election, Americans voted overwhelmingly for Warren G. Harding, who had promised to take the nation “back to normalcy”after the difficult times during and after World War I. As president, Harding saw his victory as a call to follow a conservative policy, both at home and abroad.
He Enters Politics
In 1898, Harding won election as a Republican to the Ohio State Senate. In 1902 he was elected lieutenant governor of Ohio and served for 2 years. Harding left politics temporarily in 1906 and returned to Marion to devote himself to the local newspaper, the Marion Star. In 1910 he returned to politics to run for governor of Ohio. He was defeated, but in 1914 he was elected to the U.S. Senate.
Senator and Mrs. Harding particularly enjoyed the social life of Washington, D.C., and Harding thought the Senate “a very pleasant place.” He showed the same good nature and personal modesty in Congress that he had in Marion, and he loyally supported the policies of the Republican leaders.
“He Looks Like a President”
In the months before the 1920 Republican convention in Chicago, an Ohio admirer, Harry Daugherty, had been advancing Harding's candidacy for the presidential nomination. “He looks like a president,” Daugherty later explained. Harding's other qualifications were so modest that few people took his candidacy seriously. But the stronger candidates at the convention blocked each other from the nomination. As a result, a powerful group of senators and their allies met in a hotel room to select a compromise candidate. Because he could be controlled, Harding became their choice for the presidential nomination.
The Election of 1920
The Republican campaign slogan was “Back to normalcy with Harding.” But it was not clear during the campaign just what this meant. It was especially difficult to determine from Harding's speeches whether he was for or against American entrance into the League of Nations, an organization similar to the United Nations. The Democratic candidate, James A. Cox, campaigned vigorously for American participation in the League.
Harding conducted a front-porch campaign, speaking to voters from the porch of his home. This put many people in mind of President William Mckinley, who had done much the same thing 20 years before. After the hardships of World War I a return to “normalcy” and the good times of McKinley appealed to many voters. Harding received 61 percent of the popular vote—16,143,000 to Cox's 9,130,000—and 404 Electoral votes to Cox's 127. Calvin Coolidge was elected as Harding's Vice President.
President
President and Mrs. Harding immediately won the goodwill of the country. They said they wanted to be thought of as “just folks.” Harding opened the White House to the public and cheerfully greeted anyone who came to see him. He said that while he knew he could not be the best president the United States ever had, he wanted to be the best-loved.
Harding tried to form a Cabinet made up of the “best minds” in the country. Some of his appointments, such as Herbert Hoover as secretary of commerce and Charles Evans Hughes as secretary of state, were well made. (Hoover would win election himself as president in 1928.) But many others were not. Men like Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall and Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty later proved unworthy of the trust placed in them.
His Administration
Harding interpreted his victory as a popular mandate to stay out of the League of Nations. He refused to co-operate with European nations in collective security plans. Instead, he called an international conference to reduce naval armaments and thus decrease the possibility of war. At the Washington Conference, which opened in 1921, Secretary of State Hughes recommended large cuts in the navies of the United States, Britain, and Japan. The resulting Five Power Naval Treaty of 1922 led an Englishman to remark: “Secretary Hughes sunk in 35 minutes more ships than all the admirals of the world have sunk in a cycle of centuries.”
The more conservative Republicans in Congress were able to push through much of their program and to obtain the president's approval of their bills. They did away with remaining wartime government restrictions, cut taxes, and created a federal budget system. They reestablished the high protective tariff (a tax on imported goods) and for the first time in American history drastically restricted immigration. Under the Immigration Quota Act of 1921, the flood of immigrants was cut to no more than a trickle.
One of the positive gains of Harding's administration was not achieved while he lived. The President had appealed to the leaders of the iron and steel industry to eliminate the 12-hour day or 7-day week they were still requiring of some employees. It was not until August 13, 1923, just 11 days after Harding's death, that the companies put into effect an 8-hour day.
Death
In June 1923, President Harding and his wife left Washington for a trip across the country. While returning from Alaska, Harding began to show signs of fatigue and illness. He was also worried about reports of a Senate investigation of men he had appointed to office. He remarked privately: “I have no trouble with my enemies. But my…friends,…they're the ones that keep me walking the floor nights!” Harding arrived in San Francisco apparently suffering from food poisoning. He developed pneumonia, complicated by a heart ailment, and died suddenly on August 2, 1923.
Aftermath
Harding was succeeded by Vice President Calvin Coolidge. At first the nation was plunged into grief over the President's death. Soon, however, scandals broke out that ruined his reputation.
The most spectacular of these was the Teapot Dome scandal, involving Secretary of the Interior Fall. Fall had accepted large bribes to lease to private oil companies valuable oil deposits that belonged to the Navy--at Teapot Dome, Wyoming. He was fined $100,000 and sent to jail. Attorney General Daugherty was involved in another scandal. He was forced to resign and later was brought to trial but acquitted.
Mrs. Harding died a year after her husband. She was buried at his side in Marion.
Reviewed by Frank Freidel
Harvard University, Author, America in the Twentieth Century