th

The Presidents Part 5: 20

Century Massive Changes

is epoch of American history directly in uenced our time in early May of 2024. ese human beings saw
massive challenges from World War II to the Great Depression. Yet, the American people are resilient and
survived both events with profound determination and strength. e unifying themes of these leaders were
despite their personality and ideological di erences, they each had to reckon with the role of government in
everyday life. As time went onward, economic challenges allowed FDR to increase the role of the federal
government to help humanity from literally starving to death. JFK and LBJ were inspired by Franklin Roosevelt
to proceed with a progressive domestic policy agenda too. Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, and Harding believed
that that the federal government should have a minimal role in in uencing the lives of the people. What is the
truth? e truth is that the federal government should never dominate the lives of very American in an
authoritarian fashion obviously, but the federal government has the role and responsibility to have an active
role to promote the general welfare, to protect the environment, to promote human rights, to preserve voting
rights, and to ensure justice for all people nationally (beyond a state-by-state basis). erefore, I believe that
the federal, state, and local governments of Americans should have a strong, active role in the lives of the people
without violating fundamental human rights. Ultimately, our rights don’t come from the government though.
Our rights are unalienable from birth coming from the hand of God alone. In other words, the government is
meant to protect, defend, and ensure our rights, not to establish our rights. Our rights come from us being born
on this Earth. ere should be boundaries, but you know me, I am progressive on economic issues. I believe in
a strong social safety net, racial justice, environmental justice, social justice, Social Security, Medicare, and
Medicaid.
 THE ICON MARIAN ANDERSON’S 1939
LINCOLN MEMORIAL CONCERT: HER VOICE
MOTIVATED THE WORLD
The Table of Contents

1. Prologue
2. Warren G. Harding
3. Calvin Coolidge
4. Herbert Hoover
5. Franklin Delano
Roosevelt
“If you have a purpose
in which you can believe,
there’s no end to the
amount of things you can
accomplish.”
-Marian Anderson
The era of Presidents from Warren G. Harding to John F. Kennedy included some of the most
important historical developments of the 20th century and in world history in general. Massive
changes in America including the world happened from 1921 to 1963 like the Little Rock Nine,
Sputnik, the singing of Marian Anderson at the Lincoln Memorial, and the independence of the
nation of Ghana. In that time, we saw the
bloodiest war in human history killing almost 100
million people, new African countries including
Asian nations being independent from Western
imperialism, and the growth of social movements
advancing the cause of justice and equality in the
four corners of the Earth. The Roaring 20s, the Adelaide Louise Hall (1901-1993) was one of the
Harlem Renaissance, the Swing Era, Jazz, and the most unsung jazz singers and entertainers of the 20th
century. She was active in the Jazz Age, the Harlem
early Civil Rights Movement were all part of the Renaissance, and in the UK. She was born in
time when these Presidents have lived. During this Brooklyn, New York City. She released music for over
time period, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt 8 consecutive decades. She performed with Ethel
Waters, Art Tatum, Louis Armstong, Lena Horne, Bill
changed America forever militarily, socially, Robinson, etc.).
economically, and politically. The world of
Presidents now came heavily from FDR's actions. The Great Depression ruined many lives, and then
massive federal government involvement was created to help to end it. Roosevelt was probably the
most influential President of the 20th century with his strengths and imperfections. He helped to
cultivate the modern expression of liberalism politically in many spheres of the world. By the end of
this period, there was the brink of nuclear war between America and the Soviet Union. With the
Berlin Airlift, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and other events, WWIII was almost going to occur. Yet,
cooler heads prevailed among both sides to resolve those conflicts. There was the Non-Aligned
Movement among many nations that rejected both Western imperialism and Soviet Stalinism too.
President John F. Kennedy saw both the promise of democracy and the long way to go in seeing
America live up to the aspiration of total human equality and justice for all people. The assassination
of John F. Kennedy totally changed America forever. Nothing would be the same. I have a strong
heritage of fighting for freedom and justice. Subsequently, my ancestors and relatives (in real life)
fought the Confederacy during the American Civil War, were in Normandy for real to defeat the
fascism of the Axis Powers (including to end the brutality and wickedness of the evil Shoah), and
worked hard in educating many people in the world. This is real life, so we are part of an amazing
human family with the responsibility to promote righteousness in our world (and to help our
neighbors out prodigiously). With the war in Vietnam, the start of the end of Jim Crow, and more
activists fighting for real social change, these Presidents witnessed unparalleled developments in
world history indeed.

One important event now is that a statue that honors Mary McLeod Bethune has been unveiled in Statuary Hall in the
U.S. Capitol back in 2022. Mary McLeod Bethune was a teacher of many black children. Bethune desired our community
to reach high, monumental heights of glory and power. She worked in Florida and nationwide to advance courage and
excellence. She continued to defend the truth of human equality and black freedom every day of her life. As a civil rights
icon, Bethune never relinquished her calling. The statue unveiling was attended by many people like House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, and other lawmakers plus activists.
Rep. Kathy Castor of Florida praised her contributions to civil rights and equal rights. Bethune was the daughter of former
slaves to become one of the greatest Americans in history. She established Bethune-Cookman University. She led voter
registration drives after women had the right to vote in 1920. It is fitting this comes after all Confederate statues are
expelled from the U.S. Capitol. She also worked with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to grow economic opportunities for
especially young black Americans too.
 Warren G. Harding
President Warren G. Harding was President from 1921 to 1923, and he lived from November 2, 1865, to August 2,
1923. He was a member of the Republican Party and popular among many of the American people back then. After
his death, many scandals were exposed like the Teapot Dome scandal and his extramarital affair with Nan Britton. He
was born in Blooming Grove, Ohio. Winnie was his nickname as a small child. Harding was the oldest of 8 children to
George Tryon Harding and Phoebe Elizabeth (nee Dickerson) Harding. Phoebe was a state license midwife, and Tryon
was a farmer who taught school near Mount Gilead. Tryon also became a doctor with a small practice. Some of
Harding's maternal ancestors were Dutch including the wealthy Van Kirk family. Harding had ancestors from England,
Wales, and Scotland too. Harding's family were abolitionists, and they moved into Caledonia. Tryon acquired the local
weekly newspaper called The Argus. Warren Harding was in Ohio Central College in Iberia when he was 14 years, and
it was his father's alma mater. Warren worked hard, and his family moved into Marion, which is about 6 miles from
Caledonia. Harding graduated from the school in 1882. Warren Harding lived on farms and small towns. He worked
as a teacher, an insurance man, and studied law. Warren Harding came to the 1884 Republican National Convention
where he talked with journalists and supported the Presidential nominee and Secretary of State James G. Blaine.
Warren Harding worked with the Democratic Mirror newspaper. He didn't like the newspaper praising then New York
Governor Grover Cleveland, who won the election. Harding built the newspaper of the Star by the late 1880's. The Star
was nonpartisan. Marion, Ohio grew fast. Harding was involved in the city's civic matters. Harding was married to
Florence King, the daughter of Amos King (a local banker and developer). By this time, many people said that the
Hardings had African American heritage when there is no conclusive evidence of this. Harding was married on July 8,
1891, at their new home on Mount Vernon Avenue in Marion. They didn't have children. His wife helped him to go to
another level in politics, possibly achieve the White House.
Warren Harding came into politics after he purchased the Star newspaper. He supported Joseph B. Foraker for
governor. Harding supported Ohio Republican politics. He opposed third party advocates. Harding's work as an editor
took a toll on his health. From age 23 to 35, he required five admissions to the Battle Creek Sanitorium for reasons
Sinclair described as "fatigue, overstrain, and nervous illnesses." Dean ties these visits to early occurrences of the heart
ailment that killed Harding at age 57. During one such absence from Marion, in 1894, the Star's business manager
quit, and Florence Harding took his place. She became her husband's top assistant at the Star on the business side,
maintaining her role until the Hardings moved to Washington in 1915. Her competence allowed Harding to travel to
make speeches—his use of the free railroad pass increased greatly after his marriage. Florence Harding practiced strict
economy and wrote of Harding, "he does well when he listens to me and poorly when he does not." In 1892, Harding
traveled to Washington, where he met Democratic Nebraska Congressman William Jennings Bryan, and listened to
the "Boy Orator of the Platte" speak on the floor of the House of Representatives. Harding traveled to Chicago's
Columbian Exposition in 1893. Both visits were without Florence. Democrats generally won Marion County's offices in
1895, and though Harding lost the election for county auditor, he did better than expected. The following year, Harding
was one of many orators who traveled across Ohio in support of the campaign of the Republican presidential candidate
William McKinley, that state's former governor. According to Dean, "while working for McKinley [Harding] began
making a name for himself through Ohio."

Warren Harding worked hard in politics. He had a good relationship with Republicans. He ran for state Senate in 1899.
He was in a two-year term as a state Senator. Warren Harding allowed his sister, Mary, to be a teacher at the Ohio
School for the Blind. Warren Harding was a Ohio political leader too. Warren Harding supported Taft after Teddy
Roosevelt left the Party to be part of the Bull Moose Party. The Progressive Movement was divided by the early 20th
century. Warren Harding ran for Senator of the U.S. Congress, and he won by 1914. He promoted a conciliatory
campaigning style. He defeated Ohio Attorney General Timothy Hogan. Democrats controlled both Houses of
Congress when Warren Harding was a Senator. He had very unimportant committee assignments early on. He was a
safe, conservative Republican voter on issues. Harding wanted nuanced positions on women's suffrage and on the
prohibition of alcohol. He never supported votes for women until Ohio did so. Harding drank but supported the 18th
Amendment (that banned the sale and drinking of alcohol). Harding, as a politician respected by both Republicans
and Progressives, was asked to be temporary chairman of the 1916 Republican National Convention and to deliver
the keynote address. He urged delegates to stand as a united party. The convention nominated Justice Charles Evans
Hughes. Harding reached out to Roosevelt once the former president declined the 1916 Progressive nomination, a
refusal that effectively scuttled that party. In the November 1916 presidential election, despite increasing Republican
unity, Hughes was narrowly defeated by Wilson. Harding supported WWI and war legislation like the Espionage Act
of 1917. The problem with that law is that it violated human civil liberties. Harding opposed Wilson's Treaty of Versailles
plan including Article X of it.

From the radio of the 1920’s to the laptop of the 2020’s (within
a span of 100 years), we see the growth and advanced nature
of technological development. Humanity once had a lot of its
news from the radio to now, we can get news from
newspaper, social media, the Internet, TV shows, and other
forms of media.
By 1920, many Progressives came into the Republican Party. When Roosevelt suddenly died on January 6, 1919, several
candidates quickly emerged. These included General Leonard Wood, Illinois Governor Frank Lowden, California
Senator Hiram Johnson, and a host of underdogs such as Herbert Hoover (renowned for his World War I relief work),
Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge, and General John J. Pershing. Harding ran for President in 1920. Harding
wanted to have a non-confrontation style in his campaign. He won the Ohio primary. The 1920 Republican National
Convention opened at the Chicago Coliseum on June 8, 1920, assembling delegates who were bitterly divided, most
recently over the results of a Senate investigation into campaign spending, which had just been released. The report
found that Wood had spent $1.8 million (equivalent to $23.25 million in 2020), supporting Johnson's claims that Wood
was trying to buy the presidency. Some of the $600,000 that Lowden had spent wound up in the pockets of two
convention delegates. Johnson had spent $194,000, and Harding $113,000. Many delegates believed that Johnson was
behind the inquiry, and the rage of the Lowden and Wood factions put an end to any possible compromise among
the frontrunners. Of the almost 1,000 delegates, 27 were women—the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States
Constitution, guaranteeing women the vote, was within one state of ratification, and passed before the end of August.

The Convention took time, and Harding won the Republican nomination for President. He chooses Calvin Coolidge as
his Vice President. Some criticized Harding as been too moderate. The Democrats had many choices. The Democratic
National Convention opened in San Francisco on June 28, 1920, under a shadow cast by Woodrow Wilson, who wished
to be nominated for a third term. Delegates were convinced Wilson's health would not permit him to serve and looked
elsewhere for a candidate. Former Treasury Secretary William G. McAdoo was a major contender, but he was Wilson's
son-in-law, and refused to consider a nomination so long as the president wanted it. Many at the convention voted
for McAdoo anyway, and a deadlock ensued with Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer. On the 44th ballot, the
Democrats nominated Governor Cox for president, with his running mate Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D.
Roosevelt. As Cox was a newspaper owner and editor when not in politics, this placed two Ohio editors against each
other for the presidency, and some complained there was no real political choice. Both Cox and Harding were
economic conservatives and were reluctant progressives at best. Harding wanted an Association of Nations, not a
League of Nations as promoted by Woodrow Wilson. FDR supported the League of Nations, but not Cox that much.

During the campaign, opponents spread old rumors that Harding's great-great-grandfather was a West Indian black
person, and that other black people might be found in his family tree. Harding's campaign manager rejected the
accusations. Wooster College professor William Estabrook Chancellor publicized the rumors, based on supposed
family research, but perhaps reflecting no more than local gossip. By Election Day, November 2, 1920, few had any
doubts that the Republican ticket would win. Harding received 60.2 percent of the popular vote, the highest
percentage since the evolution of the two-party system, and 404 electoral votes. Cox received 34 percent of the
national vote and 127 electoral votes. Campaigning from a federal prison where he was serving a sentence for
opposing the war, Socialist Eugene V. Debs received 3 percent of the national vote. The Republicans greatly increased
their majority in each house of Congress. Harding was sworn in on March 4, 1921, in the presence of his wife and
father. Harding preferred a low-key inauguration, without the customary parade, leaving only the swearing-in
ceremony and a brief reception at the White House. In his inaugural address he declared, "Our most dangerous
tendency is to expect too much from the government and at the same time do too little for it." Harding took a vacation,
and then went to work as the new President. Many of his appointments were pro-League of Nations people like Charles
Evan Hughes as his Secretary of States. Andrew W. Mellon, one of the richest Americans in that time, was the Treasury
leader. Harding had a scandal because of Harding's Senate friend, Albert B. Fall of New Mexico, the Interior Secretary,
and Daugherty, the Attorney General. Fall was a Western rancher and former miner and was pro-development. He was
opposed by conservationists such as Gifford Pinchot, who wrote, "it would have been possible to pick a worse man
for Secretary of the Interior, but not altogether easy." The New York Times mocked the Daugherty appointment, stating
that rather than select one of the best minds, Harding had been content "to choose merely a best friend." Eugene P.
Trani and David L. Wilson, in their volume on Harding's presidency, suggest that the appointment made sense then,
since Daugherty was "a competent lawyer well-acquainted with the seamy side of politics ... a first-class political
troubleshooter and someone Harding could trust."

Harding wanted America to not be part of the League of Nations. The Senate didn't pass the Treaty of Versailles.
Technically, America was at war with Germany, Austria, and Hungary. Peacemaking began with the Knox–Porter
Resolution, declaring the U.S. at peace and reserving any rights granted under Versailles. Treaties with Germany,
Austria, and Hungary, each containing many of the non-League provisions of the Treaty of Versailles, were ratified in
1921. Hughes worked to fight for Britain to pay off its war debt. Germany had to pay its reparations. In 1922, passed
a more restrictive bill. Hughes negotiated an agreement for Britain to pay off its war debt over 62 years at low interest,
reducing the present value of the obligations. This agreement, approved by Congress in 1923, served as a model for
negotiations with other nations. Talks with Germany on reduction of reparations payments resulted in the Dawes Plan
of 1924. Harding refused to recognize the Bolshevik Revolution and the Soviet Union. Harding's Commerce Secretary
Hoover allowed the American Relief Administration to send aid to Russia during its famine. Harding refused to support
trade with the Soviets, but Hughes did. Harding talked about disarmament in the campaign, but he didn't discuss
about it much as President. Some wanted fleets to be cut in America, the UK, and Japan.
Harding concurred, and after diplomatic discussions, representatives of nine nations convened in Washington in
November 1921. Most of the diplomats first attended Armistice Day ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery, where
Harding spoke at the entombment of the Unknown Soldier of World War I, whose identity, "took flight with his
imperishable soul. We know not whence he came, only that his death marks him with the everlasting glory of an
American dying for his country." Hughes, in his speech at the opening session of the conference on November 12,
1921, made the American proposal—the U.S. would decommission or not build 30 warships if Great Britain did likewise
for 19 vessels, and Japan for 17. Hughes was generally successful, with agreements reached on this and other points,
including settlement of disputes over islands in the Pacific, and limitations on the use of poison gas. The naval
agreement applied only to battleships, and to some extent aircraft carriers, and ultimately did not prevent rearmament.
Nevertheless, Harding and Hughes were widely applauded in the press for their work. Senator Lodge and the Senate
Minority Leader, Alabama's Oscar Underwood, were part of the U.S. delegation, and they helped ensure the treaties
made it through the Senate mostly unscathed, though that body added reservations to some. America disposed of
many vessels after WWI. Harding had troops in Cuba and Nicaragua. Latin America didn't like foreign occupying
interventions in their lands. America intervened in Panama and in Mexico. There was the ratification of the Thomas-
Urrutia Treaty with Colombia after the U.S. provoked Panamanian Revolution of 1903.

America saw a depression from 1920-1921. Economic decline was real. Harding wanted a reduction of income taxes,
an increase of tariffs on agricultural goods, and other reforms. He supported highways, aviation, and radio. Treasury
Secretary Mellon also recommended that Congress cut income tax rates, and that the corporate excess profits tax be
abolished. The House Ways and Means Committee endorsed Mellon's proposals, but some congressmen wanting to
raise corporate tax rates fought the measure. Harding was unsure what side to endorse, telling a friend, "I can't make
a d___ thing out of this tax problem. I listen to one side, and they seem right, and then—God!—I talk to the other side,
and they seem just as right." Harding tried compromise, and gained passage of a bill in the House after the end of the
excess profits tax was delayed a year. In the Senate, the bill became entangled in efforts to vote World War I veterans
a soldier's bonus. Frustrated by the delays, on July 12, Harding appeared before the Senate to urge passage of the tax
legislation without the bonus. It was not until November that the revenue bill finally passed, with higher rates than
Mellon had proposed. Harding opposed the veterans' bonus. Mellon wanted lower tax rates because he was
conservative economically. A noncash bonus for soldiers passed over Coolidge's veto in 1924. Mellon inspired Harding
to cut taxes starting in 1922. Mellon said that income tax money would be driven underground or abroad if income
tax rates were increased, but alternatives can be made for the rich to pay their fair share of taxation.
Deregulations increased and governmental spending dropped. Unemployment declined. Wages, profits, and
productivity increased. Mass production grew, Harding signed the Federal Highway Act of 1921. Large capital existed
in the U.S. economy. He wanted a laissez faire approach involving business, and he was hostile to organized labor.
Public works projects were growing but he wanted no federal money to deal massively with unemployment. This
economic growth saw falling wages for some people. Labor strikes existed. On July 1, 1922, 400,000 railroad workers
went on strike. Harding recommended a settlement that made some concessions, but management objected. Attorney
General Daugherty convinced Judge James H. Wilkerson to issue a sweeping injunction to break the strike. Although
there was public support for the Wilkerson injunction, Harding felt it went too far, and had Daugherty and Wilkerson
amend it. The injunction succeeded in ending the strike; however, tensions remained high between railroad workers
and management for years. Harding called for anti-lynching legislation, but he did nothing revolutionary to help
African Americans. Harding wanted literacy tests for white and black votes. Harding spoke about equality but did very
little to promote equality.

Never Forget about the 1921 Tulsa Massacre when racist terrorists harmed innocent
black human lives in Oklahoma.
Three days after the Tulsa race massacre of 1921, Harding spoke at the all-Black Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. He
declared, "Despite the demagogues, the idea of our oneness as Americans has risen superior to every appeal to mere
class and group. And so, I wish it might be in this matter of our national problem of races." Speaking directly about
the events in Tulsa, he said, "God grant that, in the soberness, the fairness, and the justice of this country, we never
see another spectacle like it." Harding supported Congressman Leonidas Dyer's federal anti-lynching bill, which passed
the House of Representatives in January 1922. When it reached the Senate floor in November 1922, it was filibustered
by Southern Democrats, and Lodge withdrew it to allow the ship subsidy bill Harding favored to be debated, though
it was likewise blocked. Black people blamed Harding for the Dyer bill's defeat; Harding biographer Robert K. Murray
noted that it was hastened to its end by Harding's desire to have the ship subsidy bill considered.

With the public suspicious of immigrants, especially those who might be socialists or communists, Congress passed
the Per Centum Act of 1921, signed by Harding on May 19, 1921, as a quick means of restricting immigration. The act
reduced the numbers of immigrants to 3% of those from a given country living in the U.S., based on the 1910 census.
This would, in practice, not restrict immigration from Ireland and Germany, but would bar many Italians and eastern
European Jewish people. Harding and Secretary of Labor James Davis believed that enforcement had to be humane,
and at the Secretary's recommendation, Harding allowed almost 1,000 deportable immigrants to remain. Coolidge
later signed the Immigration Act of 1924, permanently restricting immigration to the U.S. These xenophobic policies
were racist and obscene. Harding did not pardoned Eugene Debs when he was in prison for speaking against WWI.
Debs left prison after the war was over, and he met with the socialist Debs. Harding released 23 other war opponents
during that time to make normalcy in his mind a reality. Harding appointed four justices to the Supreme Court of the
United States. When Chief Justice Edward Douglass White died in May 1921, Harding was unsure whether to appoint
former president Taft or former Utah senator George Sutherland—he had promised seats on the court to both men.
After briefly considering awaiting another vacancy and appointing them both, he chose Taft as Chief Justice.
Sutherland was appointed to the court in 1922, to be followed by two other economic conservatives, Pierce Butler and
Edward Terry Sanford, in 1923.

By 1922, economic issues grew as unemployment was as high as 11 percent. After the midterms in 1923, Harding
fought to promote his policies. The economy improved. Harding wanted to go for re-election. Harding drink, eat, and
smoke too much. He had a heart condition and chronic kidney issues. He recovered from influenza in January of 1923.
Harding toured the West Coast and other places. He supported the World Court. He made many speeches, and
Harding visited Yellowstone and Zion National Parks. Harding toured Vancouver, British Columbia as the first sitting
American President to visit Canada. Harding visited Seattle. Harding kept up his busy schedule, giving a speech to
25,000 people at the stadium at the University of Washington. In the final speech he gave, Harding predicted statehood
for Alaska. The president rushed through his speech, not waiting for applause from the audience. Harding had many
scandals in electing his friends in federal positions. Many people didn't know the extent of the Teapot Dome scandal
(involving oil, bribery, and the Navy. Albert B. Fall went to prison for his crimes. He was the first Secretary of the Interior)
and other things until after his death. He was about to fire Jess Smith for corruption, but Smith committed suicide on
May 20, 1923. Charles R. Forbes went to prison for corruption at the Veterans' Bureau. It is no secret that Warren
Harding cheated on his wife by having adultery with many extramarital affairs.

Harding went to bed early the evening of July 27, 1923, a few hours after giving the speech at the University of
Washington. Later that night, he called for his physician Charles E. Sawyer, complaining of pain in the upper abdomen.
Sawyer thought that it was a recurrence of stomach upset, but Dr. Joel T. Boone suspected a heart problem. The press
was told Harding had experienced an "acute gastrointestinal attack" and his scheduled weekend in Portland was
cancelled. He felt better the next day, as the train rushed to San Francisco, where they arrived the morning of July 29.
He insisted on walking from the train to the car, was then rushed to the Palace Hotel, where he suffered a relapse.
Doctors found that not only was his heart causing problems, but also that he had pneumonia, and he was confined to
bed rest in his hotel room. Doctors treated him with liquid caffeine and digitalis, and he seemed to improve. Hoover
released Harding's foreign policy address advocating membership in the World Court, and the president was pleased
that it was favorably received. By the afternoon of August 2, Harding's condition still seemed to be improving and his
doctors allowed him to sit up in bed. At around 7:30 pm that evening, Florence was reading to him "A Calm Review of
a Calm Man," a flattering article about him from The Saturday Evening Post; she paused and he told her, "That's good.
Go on, read some more." Those were to be his last words. She resumed reading when, a few seconds later, Harding
twisted convulsively and collapsed back in the bed, gasping. Florence Harding immediately called the doctors into the
room, but they were unable to revive him with stimulants; Harding was pronounced dead a few minutes later, at the
age of 57. Harding's death was initially attributed to a cerebral hemorrhage, as doctors at the time did not generally
understand the symptoms of cardiac arrest. Florence Harding did not consent to have the president autopsied. His
death was shock to the nation. His body traveled to the United States Capitol rotunda. He was buried at Marion, Ohio.
 President Coolidge, Chief Justice Taft, and Harding's widow and his father were there as his body was placed on a
horse drawn hearse. His funeral was attended by Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Harvey Firestone. Florence Harding,
his wife, was buried in the Harding Tomb being dedicated by President Hoover in 1931. President Warren G. Harding's
legacy is that he wanted to get along with everybody, but he never foreseen a lot of the scandals that existed in his
administration. He was a conservative on economic issues and wanted the status quo after wars and conflicts. The
weakness of his administration was that its obsession with not forming bold policy action contributed to his moderate
legacy (and scandals from Daugherty, Smith, Fall, and others definitely harmed America). His Presidency was short
lived, but Warren Harding remains one of the most important Presidents of the 20th century.

MANY ICONS OF THE JAZZ AGE

Louis Armstrong: He was
called Satchmo or Pops. He
was a famous trumpeter and
vocalist who influenced jazz in
voice and rhythm in many
ways. He performed in stages
the world over. It’s a
Wonderful World is one of his
signature songs.
Count Basie: He was a jazz
pianist, organist, bandleader,
and composer who had his
own Count Basie Orchestra
that started in 1935. He was
born in New Jersey and
worked in Chicago for years.
Count Basie set the stage for
modern day music.
Duke Ellington: He was one of
the greatest jazz composers
in human history. Duke
Ellington loved to play the
piano to perform jazz for
decades. He was a leader of
his eponymous jazz orchestra
from 1923 to his passing in
1974.
Fletcher Henderson: He was
an American pianist,
bandleader, arranger, and
composer. He helped to work
in the development of big
band jazz and swing music.
He was born in the South at
Cuthbert, Georgia, and lived
in New York City too.

Benny Goodman: He was an
American clarinetist and
bandleader. People know him
as one of the greats of swing
music. He was born in
Chicago, Illinois. He was
involved in the famous
January 16, 1938, jazz concert
at Carnegie Hall in New York
City. He promoted integrated
jazz groups too.
Billie Holiday: She was one of
the greatest jazz singers of all
time. Lady Day used great
improvisational skills. She was
born in Philadelphia and lived
in Baltimore too. She earned
four Grammy Awards
posthumously. She changed
jazz forever and the song
Strange Fruit was an anthem
to fight racial injustice.
Artie Shaw: He was an
American clarinetist,
composer, bandleader, actor,
and author of any fiction and
non-fiction books. He was
born in New York City. Duke
Ellington clarinetist Berney
Bigard said that Shaw was his
favorite clarinet player.
Ella Fitzgerald: She was the
Queen of Jazz with her voice
and tone. She had the gift to
sing and use scat singing. She
was born in the 757 at
Newport News, Virginia. Her
career lasted for almost sixty
years. She earned 14 Grammy
Awards, the NAACP’s
Inaugural President’s Award,
and the Presidential Medal of
Freedom.
 Calvin Coolidge

President Calvin Coolidge was one of the most conservative Presidents in American history. He blatantly believed in
laissez faire economics. His views on civil rights were more progressive than Harding, but Coolidge's economic policies
contributed to the length and intensity of the Great Depression in the United States of America. He was the 30th
President of America from 1923 to 1929. He lived from July 4, 1872, to January 5, 1929. He was born in Plymouth
Notch, Vermont. He was the only U.S. President born on Independence Day. His parents were John Calvin Coolidge Sr.
(1845–1926) and Victoria Josephine Moor (1846–1885). Although named for his father, John, from early childhood
Coolidge was addressed by his middle name, Calvin. His middle name was selected in honor of John Calvin, considered
a founder of the Congregational church in which Coolidge was raised and remained active throughout his life. His
father was a famous farmer, storekeeper, and public servant. His ancestors came from the New England region. His
earliest American ancestor, John Coolidge, emigrated from Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, England, around 1630 and
settled in Watertown, Massachusetts. Coolidge's great-great-grandfather, also named John Coolidge, was an American
military officer in the Revolutionary War and one of the first selectmen of the town of Plymouth. His grandfather Calvin
Galusha Coolidge served in the Vermont House of Representatives. Coolidge was also a descendant of Samuel
Appleton, who settled in Ipswich and led the Massachusetts Bay Colony during King Philip's War. Calvin Coolidge
attended Black River Academy and then St. Johnsbury Academy. He also enrolled at Amherst college. He knew how
to debate in college. Coolidge joined the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity and graduated cum laude. Later, he went into
law after being influenced by philosophy professor Charles Edward Garman (a Congregational mystic with a neo-
Hegelian philosophy).

Calvin Coolidge worked as a country lawyer in Massachusetts, and he married Grace Coodhue (a University of Vermont
graduate and teacher at Northampton's Clarke School for the Deaf). They had a honeymoon trip to Montreal. After 25
years he wrote of Grace, "for almost a quarter of a century she has borne with my infirmities and I have rejoiced in her
graces." The couple had 2 sons. Calvin Jr. died of blood poisoning. As a Republican, he worked in local politics in New
England. Coolidge won the election to the City of Council of Northampton in 1898, and he continued to work as a
political leader. In 1906, the local Republican committee nominated Coolidge for election to the Massachusetts House
of Representatives. He won a close victory over the incumbent Democrat and reported to Boston for the 1907 session
of the Massachusetts General Court. In his freshman term, Coolidge served on minor committees and, although he
usually voted with the party, was known as a Progressive Republican, voting in favor of such measures as women's
suffrage and the direct election of Senators. While in Boston, Coolidge became an ally, and then a liegeman, of then
U.S. Senator Winthrop Murray Crane who controlled the western faction of the Massachusetts Republican Party;
Crane's party rival in the east of the commonwealth was U.S. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge.

Coolidge has an alliance with Guy Currier in his political career. He won his 2nd term in 1908. Calvin Coolidge was a
well-known conservative, but he refused to leave the Republican Party. Theodore Roosevelt was in the progressive
wing of the Republicans, and the conservative wing of the party supported William Howard Taft. Coolidge by 1913
was in the Republican Party power structure. He supported investments in Massachusetts. He soon became Lieutenant
Governor and Governor of Massachusetts from 1916 to 1921. He was lieutenant governor with Samuel W. McCall as
governor. He won the 1918 election for Governor of Massachusetts. His running mate was Channing Cox or the Boston
lawyer and Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Coolidge ran on a platform of being fiscal
conservative, a vague opposition to Prohibition, support for women's suffrage, and support for American involvement
in World War I. The issue of war was divisive, but he won the election. As Governor, he opposed the Boston police to
form a union. He responded to Samuel Gompers' pro-labor, pro-union words. Coolidge lost many friends from
organized labor because of his decision to use National Guard troops to promote Curtis to office in the Boston police.
Yet, he promoted law and order. He ran for re-election as Governor in 1918.
By the time Coolidge was inaugurated as Governor on January 2, 1919, the First World War had ended, and Coolidge
pushed the legislature to give a $100 bonus (equivalent to $1,493 in 2020) to Massachusetts veterans. He also signed
a bill reducing the work week for women and children from fifty-four hours to forty-eight, saying, "We must humanize
the industry, or the system will break down." He signed into law a budget that kept the tax rates the same, while
trimming $4 million from expenditures, thus allowing the state to retire some of its debt. Coolidge vetoed many bills
as Governor. He personally opposed to Prohibition, but he enforced the 18th Amendment because it was the law of
the land. He was Vice President from 1921 to 1923 under President Warren G. Harding. Harding won Tennessee in the
election which was the first time a Republican ticket won a Southern state since Reconstruction. Coolidge was mostly
quiet as Vice President. He gave many speeches.

Coolidge often seemed uncomfortable among fashionable Washington society; when asked why he continued to
attend so many of their dinner parties, he replied, "Got to eat somewhere." Alice Roosevelt Longworth, a leading
Republican wit, underscored Coolidge's silence and his dour personality: "When he wished he were elsewhere, he
pursed his lips, folded his arms, and said nothing. He looked then precisely as though he had been weaned on a
pickle." Coolidge and his wife, Grace, who was a great baseball fan, once attended a Washington Senators game and
sat through all nine innings without saying a word, except once when he asked her the time. After Warren Harding's
unexpected death from a heart attack in San Francisco, Calvin Coolidge was President immediately. Coolidge was at
his Vermont home with his family when the news came to him. His father, a notary public and justice of the peace,
administered the oath of office in the family's parlor by the light of a kerosene lamp at 2:47 a.m. on August 3, 1923,
whereupon the new President of the United States returned to bed.

Coolidge returned to Washington the next day and was sworn in again by Justice Adolph A. Hoehling Jr. of the
Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, to forestall any questions about the authority of a state official to administer
a federal oath. This second oath-taking remained a secret until it was revealed by Harry M. Daugherty in 1932, and
confirmed by Hoehling. President Calvin Coolidge kept a low profile.

Coolidge addressed Congress when it reconvened on December 6, 1923, giving a speech that supported many of
Harding's policies, including Harding's formal budgeting process, the enforcement of immigration restrictions and
arbitration of coal strikes ongoing in Pennsylvania. The address to Congress was the first presidential speech to be
broadcast over the radio. The Washington Naval Treaty was proclaimed just one month into Coolidge's term and was
generally well received in the country. In May 1924, the World War I veterans' World War Adjusted Compensation Act
or "Bonus Bill" was passed over his veto. Coolidge signed the Immigration Act later that year (which is blatantly racists,
pro-eugenics, and is xenophobic), which was aimed at restricting southern and eastern European immigration but
appended a signing statement expressing his unhappiness with the bill's specific exclusion of Japanese immigrants.
Just before the Republican Convention began, Coolidge signed into law the Revenue Act of 1924, which reduced the
top marginal tax rate from 58% to 46%, as well as personal income tax rates across the board, increased the estate tax
and bolstered it with a new gift tax. On June 2, 1924, Coolidge signed the act granting citizenship to all Native
Americans born in the United States. By that time, two-thirds of them were already citizens, having gained it through
marriage, military service (veterans of World War I were granted citizenship in 1919), or the land allotments that had
earlier taken place. Coolidge won the 1924 election against John W. Davis and Robert M. LaFollette, a Republican
Progressive politician from Wisconsin. After his son Calvin died, Calvin Coolidge was never the same.

President Coolidge signed the appropriation bills for Here is President Calvin
the Veterans Bureau in June 1924 Coolidge standing near the
Vice President (on the right)
Charles G. Dawes.

President Calvin Coolidge ran his campaign and run. He wasn't confrontational. Calvin Coolidge saw rapid economic
growth in the Roaring Twenties. Herbert Hoover was the Secretary of Commerce back then. Coolidge disdained
regulation and demonstrated this by appointing commissioners to the Federal Trade Commission and the Interstate
Commerce Commission who did little to restrict the activities of businesses under their jurisdiction. The regulatory
state under Coolidge was, as one biographer described it, "thin to the point of invisibility." Historian Robert Sobel
offers some context of Coolidge's laissez-faire ideology, based on the prevailing understanding of federalism during
his presidency: "As Governor of Massachusetts, Coolidge supported wages and hours legislation, opposed child labor,
imposed economic controls during World War I, favored safety measures in factories, and even worker representation
on corporate boards. Did he support these measures while president? No, because in the 1920s, such matters were
considered the responsibilities of state and local governments." I disagree, because the federal government has every
right to ban child labor, have labor rights, and do other things to regulate the economy. Coolidge supported the
taxation policies of Andrew Mellon. He cut taxes. He reduced federal expenditures. Only the richest 2 percent of
taxpayers paid any federal income tax by 1927. Coolidge even opposed farm subsidies (which is wrong). Farmers
were suffering, and Coolidge refused to support the federal government to purchase crops to sell abroad at
lower prices. Agriculture Secretary Henry C. Wallace and other administration officials favored the bill of the
federal government to help farmers when it was introduced in 1924, but rising prices convinced many in
Congress that the bill was unnecessary, and it was defeated just before the elections that year.
In 1926, with farm prices falling once more, Senator Charles L. McNary and Representative Gilbert N. Haugen – both
Republicans – proposed the McNary–Haugen Farm Relief Bill. The bill proposed a federal farm board that would
purchase surplus production in high-yield years and hold it (when feasible) for later sale or sell it abroad. Coolidge
opposed McNary-Haugen, declaring that agriculture must stand "on an independent business basis", and said that
"government control cannot be divorced from political control." Instead of manipulating prices, he favored instead
Herbert Hoover's proposal to increase profitability by modernizing agriculture. Secretary Mellon wrote a letter
denouncing the McNary-Haugen measure as unsound and likely to cause inflation, and it was defeated. Coolidge has
often been criticized for his actions during the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, the worst natural disaster to hit the
Gulf Coast until Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Although he did eventually name Secretary Hoover to a commission in
charge of flood relief, scholars argue that Coolidge overall showed a lack of interest in federal flood control. Coolidge
did not believe that personally visiting the region after the floods would accomplish anything, and that it would be
seen as mere political grandstanding. He also did not want to incur the federal spending that flood control would
require; he believed property owners should bear much of the cost. On the other hand, Congress wanted a bill that
would place the federal government completely in charge of flood mitigation. When Congress passed a compromise
measure in 1928, Coolidge declined to take credit for it and signed the bill in private on May 15. Calvin Coolidge spoke
in making lynching a federal crime, but he did nothing revolutionary to help African Americans. During his time as
Presidents, lynchings of African Americans decreased, and millions of people left the Klan. Coolidge disliked the Klan.
Charles Dawes criticized the Klan.

Coolidge spoke in favor of the civil rights of African-Americans, saying in his first State of the Union address that their
rights were "just as sacred as those of any other citizen" under the U.S. Constitution and that it was a "public and a
private duty to protect those rights." On June 6, 1924, Coolidge delivered a commencement address at historically
black, non-segregated Howard University, in which he thanked and commended African-Americans for their rapid
advances in education and their contributions to U.S. society over the years, as well as their eagerness to render their
services as soldiers in the World War, all while being faced with discrimination and prejudices at home. On June 2,
1924, Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act, which granted U.S. citizenship to all American Indians living on
reservations. (Those off reservations had long been citizens). Coolidge spoke of tolerance of differences. He worked
in foreign policy affairs too. Coolidge wanted the World Court but not the League of Nations as not serving American
interests. He wanted the Dawes Plan to give partial relief to Germany in paying off their reparations from WWI.
Coolidge refused to recognize the USSR. Coolidge worked with Mexico and allowed the occupation of Nicaragua plus
Haiti. He ended the occupation of Dominican Republic in 1924. Coolidge talked with Latin American leaders. For
Canada, Coolidge authorized the St. Lawrence Seaway, a system of locks and canals that would provide large vessels
passage between the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes. His cabinet including judicial appointments existed. By the
1928 election, Coolidge didn't run for re-election. Herbert Hoover won in a landslide in 1928. The Republicans had a
landslide. Calvin Coolidge retired and lived in Northampton. He was an honorary president of the American Foundation
for the Blind, a director of New York Life Insurance Company, president of the American Antiquarian Society, and a
trustee of Amherst College. Calvin Coolidge supported Herbert Hoover's re-election campaign in 1932. Hoover lost,
and Coolidge promoted his autobiography, newspaper column, etc.
Coolidge died suddenly from coronary thrombosis at "The Beeches", at 12:45 p.m., January 5, 1933, at age 60. Shortly
before his death, Coolidge confided to an old friend: "I feel I no longer fit in with these times." Coolidge is buried in
Plymouth Notch Cemetery, Plymouth Notch, Vermont. The nearby family home is maintained as one of the original
buildings on the Calvin Coolidge Homestead District site. The State of Vermont dedicated a new visitors' center nearby
to mark Coolidge's 100th birthday on July 4, 1972. Calvin Coolidge's 2nd inauguration was the first Presidential
inauguration broadcast on the radio. He helped to expand radio regulation too. When Charles Lindbergh arrived in
Washington on a U.S. Navy ship after his celebrated 1927 trans-Atlantic flight, President Coolidge welcomed him back
to the U.S. and presented him with the Medal of Honor; the event was captured on film. The legacy of President Calvin
Coolidge was that was he was more of a shy man who sincerely believed in laissez faire economic policies. He was still
sincerely wrong on economic issues, and the federal government utilized to enrich the lives of the people directly is
righteous. Coolidge didn't live to see the whole era of WWII, but Coolidge was the transitional President after WWI
but before WWII that caused another expansion of the federal government since the days of Reconstruction.
During the 1920’s, The motion picture industry
Josephine Baker was in its infancy, but movies
toured the world (from had complex stories, great
America to France) plots, and pure talent among
with dances, fashion, people of every color during
and entertainment the 1920’s (like Oscar
that was decades Micheaux’s 1920 movie of
ahead of its time. She Within our Gates). Silent lms
will be active to ght were common (which has been
Nazism and defend shown today in the TMC
civil rights in America. Channel) and spoken lms
would exist by the end of the
1920’s.
The Harlem Renaissance was Bessie Coleman was
one of the most important a great African
developments in African American aviator who
American history lled with lived from 1892 to
artists, poets, musicians, 1926. She is the rst
authors, scholars, and activists black person to earn
like Langston Hughes, Ethel an international pilot’s
Waters, Jacob Lawrence, license. She was born
Augusta Savage, Aaron in the state of Texas,
Douglas, etc. lived in Chicago, and
performed air shows.
She exhibited
courage and humility.

Women used the Amelia Earhart flew on a plane Prohibition (or the legal Babe Ruth was one of
flappers clothing not all over the world. She was an banning of alcohol in America) the greatest baseball
only to promote aviator pioneer who flown caused an opening for the players in history.
creativity. They across the Atlantic Ocean Ma a (made up some people During the 1920’s, he
wanted to outline their before too. She disappeared in of Italian, Jewish, Dutch, Irish, made many records
sense of a mysterious fashion, but her and other ethnic groups) to and inspired crowds
independence and contributions to humanity will cause violence, rivalries, and of people worldwide.
freedom that has been always be remembered by us. other forms of criminal Babe Ruth played
denied to them for activities. Al Capone was one most of his career in
millennia among such Ma a leader who caused the New York
human history. Later, overt evil. Yankees.
women would have
the right to vote in
America by the
1920’s.
 Herbert Hoover
The 31st President of the United States of America was Herbert Clark Hoover. Herbert Hoover was a member of the
Republican Party, and he was President from 1929 to 1933. Hoover saw the start of the Great Depression when he was
in his office. Before being President, he led the Commission for Relief in Belgium, was the director of the U.S. Food
Administration, and was the third Secretary of Commerce. He lived from August 10, 1874, to October 20, 1964. Herbert
Hoover was born on August 10, 1874 at West Branch, Iowa. His father, Jesse Hoover, was a blacksmith and farm
implement store owner of German, Swiss, and English ancestry. His mother was Hulda Randall Minthorn. She was
raised in Norwich, Ontario, Canda before moving into Iowa in 1859. Hoover was raised as a Quaker. Hoover read the
Bible as a child. His parents died as a young age, so he was an orphan along with his brother and sister. Hoover lived
with his uncle Allen Hoover at a nearby farm. By November 1885, Hoover was sent to Newberg, Oregon, to live with
his uncle John Minthorn, a Quaker physician and businessman whose own son had died the year before. Hoover
developed a strong work ethic with the Minthorn family. Hoover attended Friends Pacific Academy or George Fox
University now. He dropped out to be an office assistant for his uncle's real estate office in Salem, Oregon. At night
school, he learned bookkeeping, typing, and mathematics. By 1891, he was part of Stanford University, despite failing
all the entrance exams, except mathematics. He studied geology. John Casper Branner was the chair of Stanford's
geology department. Hoover worked in part time jobs and was in campus activities. Hoover was shy at first, but he
won election as student treasurer. He had a distaste for fraternities and sororities. Hoover served as student manager
of both baseball and football teams. He helped to organize the inaugural Big Game versus the University of California.
Hoover continued to study geology. That is why he interned under economic geologist Waldemar Lindgren of the
United States Geological Survey. His career as a mining geologist and engineer grew.
Hoover graduated from Stanford in 1895. This was the time when most of the country had the economic crisis of the
Panic of 1893. Hoover worked in low level mining jobs in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Later, he was trained by the
prominent mining engineer Louis Janin, and Janin hired him. He worked as a mine court for a year until he was hired
by Bewick, Moreing, and Co., a London based company that operated gold mines in Western Australia. Hoover went
to Coolgradie at first, then the center of the Eastern Goldfields. Though Hoover received a $5,000 salary (equivalent
to $155,540 in 2020), conditions were harsh in the goldfields. Hoover described the Coolgardie and Murchison
rangelands on the edge of the Great Victoria Desert as a land of "black flies, red dust and white heat." Hoover traveled
constantly across the Outback to evaluate and manage the company's mines. He convinced Bewick, Moreing to
purchase the Sons of Gwalia gold mine, which proved to be one of the most successful mines in the region. Partly due
to Hoover's efforts, the company eventually controlled approximately 50 percent of gold production in Western
Australia. Hoover brought in many Italian immigrants to cut costs and counter the labor movement of the Australian
miners. During his time with the mining company, Hoover became opposed to measures such as a minimum wage
and workers' compensation, feeling that they were unfair to owners. Hoover's work impressed his employers, and in
1898 he was promoted to junior partner. An open feud developed between Hoover and his boss, Ernest Williams, but
company leaders defused the situation by offering Hoover a compelling position in China.

Upon arriving in China, Hoover developed gold mines near Tianjin on behalf of Bewick, Moreing and the Chinese-
owned Chinese Engineering and Mining Company. He became deeply interested in Chinese history but gave up on
learning the language to a fluent level. He publicly said the racist comment Chinese workers were inefficient and
racially inferior. Of course, that is a lie as Chinese people are never inefficient or racially inferior. Hoover said that he
wanted recommendations to end the imposing of long-term servitude contracts and have reforms of Chinese workers
based on merit. The Boxer Rebellion came out shortly after Hoover came into China. The Boxer Rebellion was about
Chinese people using a revolutionary movement to end Western control of China. The Boxer Rebellion failed, but it
was a sign that colonialism would continue to face huge resistance by heroic people of color. The Hoovers and other
foreign nationals were in a multi-national military force to defeat the Boxer forces in the Battle of Tientsin. Fearing
the imminent collapse of the Chinese government, the director of the Chinese Engineering and Mining Company
agreed to establish a new Sino-British venture with Bewick, Moreing. After Hoover and Bewick, Moreing established
effective control over the new Chinese mining company, Hoover became the operating partner of Bewick, Moreing in
late 1901. As operating partner, Hoover continually traveled the world on behalf of Bewick, Moreing, visiting mines
operated by the company on different continents. Beginning in December 1902, the company faced mounting legal
and financial issues after one of the partners admitted to having fraudulently sold stock in a mine. More issues arose
in 1904, after the British government formed two separate royal commissions to investigate Bewick, Moreing's labor
practices and financial dealings in Western Australia. After the company lost a suit Hoover began looking for a way to
get out of the partnership, and he sold his shares in mid-1908.
Herbert Hoover was a mining engineer in 1917. He left Bewick, Moreing, and Hoover to work as a London based
independent mining consultant and financial leader. Hoover raised money from many investments worldwide. He had
offices in San Francisco, London, New York City, Paris, Petrograd, and Mandalay, British Burman. By 1914, Hoover was
a very wealthy man, with an estimated personal fortune of $4 million or equivalent to $103.35 million in 2020. Hoover
co-founded the Zinc Corporation to get zinc near the Australian city of Broken Hill, New South Wales. He has a role in
increasing copper production in Kyshtym, Russia via the use of pyritic smelting. He managed a mine in the Altai
Mountains. Hoover wrote a book called the Principles of Mining in 1909 where he promoted the 8 hour workdays and
organized labor. Hoover became deeply interested in the history of science, and he was especially drawn to the De re
metallica, an influential 16th century work on mining and metallurgy by Georgius Agricola. In 1912, Hoover and his
wife published the first English translation of De re metallica. Hoover also joined the board of trustees at Stanford, and
led a successful campaign to appoint John Branner as the university's president. Herbert Hoover dated Lou Henry that
she met during his senior year at Stanford. She was a daughter of a banker from Monterey, California. Lou Henry
studied geology at Stanford after attending a lecture delivered by John Branner. Hoover and Lou Henry married each
other. Lou Henry passed away in 1944. Hoover rarely attended Quaker religious meetings during his adult life. The
couple had 2 children: Herbert Hoover Jr. (born in 1903) and Allan Henry Hoover (born in 1907). The Hoover family
began living in London in 1902, though they frequently traveled as part of Hoover's career. After 1916, the Hoovers
began living in the United States, maintaining homes in Palo Alto, California, and Washington, D.C.

The events of World War I changed his life forever. The Allies of France and other nations fought Germany by August
1914. The Germans wanted to go into Paris to conquer it by traveling through neutral Belgium. Germany controlled
nearly all of Belgium during the war. Hoover and other London-based American businessmen established a committee
to organize the return of the roughly 100,000 Americans stranded in Europe. Hoover was appointed as the committee's
chair and, with the assent of Congress and the Wilson administration, took charge of the distribution of relief to
Americans in Europe. Hoover later stated, "I did not realize it at the moment, but on August 3, 1914, my career was
over forever. I was on the slippery road of public life." By early October 1914, Hoover's organization had distributed
relief to at least 40,000 Americans. A food crisis existed in Belgium after Germany invaded Belgium in August of 1914.
The Germans didn't want to feed Belgian citizens. The British refused to lift their blockade of German occupied Belgium
unless the U.S. government supervised Belgian food imports as a neutral party in the war. With the cooperation of the
Wilson administration and the CNSA, a Belgian relief organization, Hoover established the Commission for Relief in
Belgium (CRB). The CRB obtained and imported millions of tons of foodstuffs for the CNSA to distribute and helped
ensure that the German army did not appropriate the food. Private donations and government grants supplied the
majority of its $11-million-a-month budget, and the CRB became a veritable independent republic of relief, with its
own flag, navy, factories, mills, and railroads. Herbert Hoover worked with Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd
George to send money to the people of Belgium. Supplies came to German occupied Northern France in 1915. Hoover
negotiated things with the British, French, German, Dutch, and Belgian governments. Hoover was the head of the U.S.
Food Administration.

Hoover helped many Americans and others to get food. During the war, food spread among many people. WWI
caused a global food crisis. Food prices increased and food riots plus starvation existed in countries at war. Hoover's
chief goal as food czar was to provide supplies to the Allied Powers, but he also sought to stabilize domestic prices
and to prevent domestic shortages. Under the broad powers granted by the Food and Fuel Control Act, the Food
Administration supervised food production throughout the United States, and the administration made use of its
authority to buy, import, store, and sell food. Determined to avoid rationing, Hoover established set days for people
to avoid eating specified foods and save them for soldiers' rations: meatless Mondays, wheatless Wednesdays, and
"when in doubt, eat potatoes". These policies were dubbed "Hooverizing" by government publicists, in spite of
Hoover's continual orders that publicity should not mention him by name. The Food Administration shipped 23 million
metric tons of food to the Allied Powers, preventing their collapse and earning Hoover great acclaim. As head of the
Food Administration, Hoover gained a following in the United States, especially among progressives who saw in
Hoover an expert administrator and symbol of efficiency. Hoover also helped Europe with food relief after the war
ended. Hoover was a close advisor to President Wilson. He believed in the League of Nations and self-determination.
John Maynard Keynes, the economist, praised Hoover for his realism. Despite the opposition of Senator Henry Cabot
Lodge and other Republicans, Hoover provided aid to the defeated German nation after the war, as well as relief to
famine-stricken Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Hoover condemned the Bolsheviks but warned President
Wilson against an intervention in the Russian Civil War, as he viewed the White Russian forces as little better than the
Bolsheviks and feared the possibility of a protracted U.S. involvement. The Russian famine of 1921–22 claimed six
million people, but the intervention of the ARA likely saved millions of lives. When asked if he was not helping
Bolshevism by providing relief, Hoover stated, "twenty million people are starving. Whatever their politics, they shall
be fed!" Reflecting the gratitude of many Europeans, in July 1922, Soviet author Maxim Gorky told Hoover that "your
help will enter history as a unique, gigantic achievement, worthy of the greatest glory, which will long remain in the
memory of millions of Russians whom you have saved from death."

Herbert Hoover ran for President in 1920 as a Republican. He wanted higher taxes back then, criticism of Attorney
General A. Mitchell's Palmer's actions during the First Red Scare, a minimum wage, 48 hour work week, and elimination
of child labor. Hoover back then was never closely affiliated with the Democrats or the Republicans. He joined the
Republicans, because he thought that the Democrats couldn't win. Hoover lost after his defeat in the California primary
to their favorite son Hiram Johnson. Warren G. Harding won the 1920 Republican National Convention and the
Presidential election. Hoover supported him. Harding made Hoover the Secretary of Commerce. He was in that
position from 1921 to 1928. As part of the Commerce Department, Hoover didn't want unrestrained capitalism or
socialism, but a third alternative.
He wanted a balance among labor, capital, and government. A high priority was economic diplomacy, including
promoting the growth of exports, as well as protection against monopolistic practices of foreign governments,
especially regarding rubber and coffee. Some have called him a corporatist or an associationalist. Hoover demanded,
and received, authority to coordinate economic affairs throughout the government. He created many sub-
departments and committees, overseeing and regulating everything from manufacturing statistics to air travel. In some
instances he "seized" control of responsibilities from other Cabinet departments when he deemed that they were not
carrying out their responsibilities well; some began referring to him as the "Secretary of Commerce and Under-
Secretary of all other departments." In response to the Depression of 1920–21, he convinced Harding to assemble a
presidential commission on unemployment, which encouraged local governments to engage in countercyclical
infrastructure spending. He endorsed much of Mellon's tax reduction program, but favored a more progressive tax
system and opposed the treasury secretary's efforts to eliminate the estate tax.

People in America in families that had radio grew from 1923 to 1929 from 300,000 to 10 million Hoover, as Secretary
of Commerce, promoted radio regulation and air travel. He gave radio conferences and contributed to the Radio Act
of 1927 that allowed the government to intervene and abolish radio stations that were deemed non useful to the
public. Many Congressmen disagreed with the regulation of radio including Senators and from radio station owners.
Hoover promoted the air industry. He wanted indirect government subsidies to fund that industry. He encouraged
the development of emergency landing fields, required all runways to be equipped with lights and radio beams, and
encouraged farmers to make use of planes for crop dusting. He also established the federal government's power to
inspect planes and license pilots, setting a precedent for the later Federal Aviation Administration. As Commerce
Secretary, Hoover hosted national conferences on street traffic collectively known as the National Conference on Street
and Highway Safety. Hoover's chief objective was to address the growing casualty toll of traffic accidents, but the
scope of the conferences grew and soon embraced motor vehicle standards, rules of the road, and urban traffic control.
He left the invited interest groups to negotiate agreements among themselves, which were then presented for
adoption by states and localities. Because automotive trade associations were the best organized, many of the
positions taken by the conferences reflected their interests. The conferences issued a model Uniform Vehicle Code for
adoption by the states, and a Model Municipal Traffic Ordinance for adoption by cities. Both were widely influential,
promoting greater uniformity between jurisdictions and tending to promote the automobile's priority in city streets.
Hoover didn't want to be seen as a British tool (as he spent years in Britain and Australia), so he wanted to work with
the media to build up his image.

Herbert Hoover gave speeches and interviews criticizing monopolies, promoting science, and working in the auto
industry. Herbert Hoover wanted to eliminate waste, international trade, and long-term home mortgages. This was
done by the Better Houses in America movement, the Architects' Small House Service Bureau, and the Home
Modernizing Bureau. Other accomplishments included winning the agreement of U.S. Steel to adopt an eight-hour
workday, and the fostering of the Colorado River Compact, a water rights compact among Southwestern states. There
was the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. The banks and levees broke in early 1927. That causes millions of acres to be
flooded and leaving 1.5 million people displaced from their homes. Although disaster response did not fall under the
duties of the Commerce Department, the governors of six states along the Mississippi River specifically asked President
Coolidge to appoint Hoover to coordinate the response to the flood. Believing that disaster response was not the
domain of the federal government, Coolidge initially refused to become involved, but he eventually acceded to
political pressure and appointed Hoover to chair a special committee to help the region. Hoover established over one
hundred tent cities and a fleet of more than six hundred vessels and raised $17 million (equivalent to $253.27 million
in 2020). In large part due to his leadership during the flood crisis, by 1928, Hoover had begun to overshadow President
Coolidge himself. Though Hoover received wide acclaim for his role in the crisis, he ordered the suppression of reports
of mistreatment of African Americans in refugee camps. He did so with the cooperation of African-American leader
Robert Russa Moton, who was promised unprecedented influence once Hoover became president. Hoover and Moton
were wrong to suppress reports. Hoover lied to Moton in saying that if Moton suppressed reports, then Moton and
other black people would have high positions in the Hoover administration. Motivated by Hoover's promises, Moton
saw to it that the Colored Advisory Commission never revealed the full extent of the abuses in the Delta, and Moton
championed Hoover's candidacy to the African-American population. However, once elected President in 1928,
Hoover ignored Robert Moton and the promises he had made to his black constituency. In the following election of
1932, Moton withdrew his support for Hoover and switched to the Democratic Party.

Hoover ran for President in 1928, and he won. Coolidge announced his retirement from the Presidential office in
August 1927, so Hoover was free to run. He or Hoover worked with a strong campaign team led by Hubert Work, Will
H. Hays, and Reed Smooth. Coolidge criticized Hoover as giving him bad advice, but he supported Hoover anyway as
not to break up the Republican Party. Charles Dawes wasn't the Vice President as Coolidge hated him. So, Senator
Charles Curtis of Kansas was the Vice President. The Democrats choose Al Smith, who was the first Roman Catholic
major nominee for President. Hoover wanted to say that the Republican record of peace and prosperity would make
people vote for him. Smith was more charismatic and gregarious than Hoover. His campaign was damaged by his
overt opposition to Prohibition, and some people targeted his Catholic faith. Hoover was never a strong proponent of
Prohibition, but he accepted the policy as a noble motive. Hoover made the racist policy to remove black Republicans
from leadership positions in attempting to gain support among white Southerners.
Hoover maintained polling leads throughout the 1928 campaign, and he decisively defeated Smith on election day,
taking 58 percent of the popular vote and 444 of the 531 electoral votes. Historians agree that Hoover's national
reputation and the booming economy, combined with deep splits in the Democratic Party over religion and
Prohibition, guaranteed his landslide victory. Hoover's appeal to Southern white voters succeeded in cracking the
"Solid South", and he won five Southern states. Hoover's victory was positively received by newspapers; one wrote
that Hoover would "drive so forcefully at the tasks now before the nation that the end of his eight years as president
will find us looking back on an era of prodigious achievement." Hoover's detractors wondered why he did not do
anything to reapportion congress after the 1920 United States Census which saw an increase in urban and immigrant
populations. The 1920 Census was the first and only Decennial Census where the results were not used to reapportion
Congress, which ultimately influenced the 1928 Electoral College and impacted the Presidential Election.

President Herbert Hoover was President from 1929 to 1933. He wanted a public private cooperation to improve
conditions for all Americans. He supported volunteerism and opposed governmental coercion or intervention. He
focused on individualism and self-reliance. He signed the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1929, the Federal Farm Board
to stabilize farm prices, and made studies to promote solutions. Business leaders dominated his cabinet. The Secretary
of the Treasury was Andrew Mellon. Lou Henry Hoover was the activist First Lady. She was overt in being a new woman
of the Post WWI era. Then, the Great Depression hit after Hoover said that he wanted poverty abolished on the Earth.
The Great Depression existed by a farm crisis, growing income inequality, and excessive speculation. Stock prices grew
far beyond their value. Many people and regulators said that Hoover had to curb speculation to prevent financial
catastrophe. Coolidge and Hoover didn't want the Federal Reserve System to be too involved in regulating banks. In
late October 1929, the Stock Market Crash of 1929 occurred, and the worldwide economy began to spiral downward
into the Great Depression. The causes of the Great Depression remain a matter of debate, but Hoover viewed a lack
of confidence in the financial system as the fundamental economic problem facing the nation. He sought to avoid
direct federal intervention, believing that the best way to bolster the economy was through the strengthening of
businesses such as banks and railroads. Hoover believed in the lie that people in a social safety net would weaken the
nation permanently. Hoover wanted local governments and private giving to deal with individuals.

Hoover wanted to cut interest rates, send money to promote lending, and try to stop deflation. He opposed
Congressional proposals to provide federal relief to the unemployed, as he believed that such programs were the
responsibility of state and local governments and philanthropic organizations. He supported raising tariffs in the
Smoot Hawley Tariff Act in June of 1930. Later, many nations like Canada and France retaliated by raising tariffs. The
economy worsened. Progressive Republicans such as Senator William E. Borah of Idaho were outraged when Hoover
signed the tariff act, and Hoover's relations with that wing of the party never recovered. Unemployment reached 11.9
percent by the end of 1930. Banks failed, and the larger economic collapse happened in 1931. Many nations left the
gold standard, and Hoover refused to abandon it. Hoover made a one-year moratorium on European war debts, in
response to the collapse of the German economy. By this time, the worldwide economy became worse. Democratic
governments fell; in Germany, Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler assumed power and dismantled the Weimar Republic.

By mid-1931, the unemployment rate had reached 15 percent, giving rise to growing fears that the country was
experiencing a depression far worse than recent economic downturns. A reserved man with a fear of public speaking,
Hoover allowed his opponents in the Democratic Party to define him as cold, incompetent, reactionary, and out-of-
touch. Hoover's opponents developed nicknames to discredit him, such as "Hooverville" (the shanty towns and
homeless encampments), "Hoover leather" (cardboard used to cover holes in the soles of shoes), and "Hoover blanket"
(old newspaper used to cover oneself from the cold). While Hoover continued to resist direct federal relief efforts,
Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York launched the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration to provide aid
to the unemployed. Democrats positioned the program as a kinder alternative to Hoover's alleged apathy towards the
unemployed, despite Hoover's belief that such programs were the responsibility of state and local governments.

The economy continued to worsen, with unemployment rates nearing 23 percent in early 1932, and Hoover finally
heeded calls for more direct federal intervention. In January 1932, he convinced Congress to authorize the
establishment of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC), which would provide government-secured loans to
financial institutions, railroads, and local governments. The RFC saved numerous businesses from failure, but it failed
to stimulate commercial lending as much as Hoover had hoped, partly because it was run by conservative bankers
unwilling to make riskier loans. The same month the RFC was established, Hoover signed the Federal Home Loan Bank
Act, establishing 12 district banks overseen by a Federal Home Loan Bank Board in a manner like the Federal Reserve
System. He also helped arrange passage of the Glass–Steagall Act of 1932, emergency banking legislation designed
to expand banking credit by expanding the collateral on which Federal Reserve banks were authorized to lend. As
these measures failed to stem the economic crisis, Hoover signed the Emergency Relief and Construction Act, a $2
billion public works bill, in July 1932. The federal government had a budget deficit in 1931 after a decade of surpluses.
Some wanted deficit spending to address the Great Depression.

In late 1931, Hoover proposed a tax plan to increase tax revenue by 30 percent, resulting in the passage of the Revenue
Act of 1932. The act increased taxes across the board, rolling back much of the tax cut reduction program Mellon had
presided over during the 1920s. Top earners were taxed at 63 percent of their net income, the highest rate since the
early 1920s. The act also doubled the top estate tax rate, cut personal income tax exemptions, eliminated the corporate
income tax exemption, and raised corporate tax rates. Despite the passage of the Revenue Act, the federal government
continued to run a budget deficit. Hoover was never revolutionary on civil rights. He didn't mention civil rights a lot.
He believed that African Americans and other races of people could improve by education and individual initiative. He
appointed more black Americans to federal positions than Harding and Coolidge combined. Yet, many black leaders
condemned Hoover for not pushing for a federal anti-lynching law. Hoover removed black people from leadership
positions in the GOP. This effort angered black people, except people like Robert Moton who viewed this measure as
temporary. It wasn't temporary.
AN OVERVIEW OF THE 1930’S
An overview of the 1930's is key to understanding the
Presidencies of Herbert Hoover and Franklin Delano
Roosevelt. The 1930's was a decade of chaos, wars,
resistance against tyranny, prominent people, and other
events. There was the political and global economic crisis
of the Great Depression that came after the Wall Street
Crash of 1929, the largest stock market crash in American
history. The Great Depression caused widespread poverty
and unemployment globally, not just in America.
Germany experienced a massive recession after
struggling to pay off the reparations for the First World
War. The Dust Bowl further exacerbated the financial
crisis. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who took office
in 1933, introduced a program of broad-scale social
reforms and stimulus plans called the New Deal in
response to the crisis. The Soviet Union's second five-year
plan gave heavy industry top priority, putting the Soviet
Union not far behind Germany as one of the major steel-
producing countries of the world, while also improving
communications. First-wave feminism made advances,
with women gaining the right to vote in South Africa
(1930, whites only which is disgraceful), Brazil (1933), and
Cuba (1933). Following the rise of Adolf Hitler and the
emergence of the NSDAP as the country's sole legal party
in 1933, Germany imposed a series of laws that
discriminated against Jewish people and other ethnic
minorities. When Nazi Germany rose up, they
remilitarized the Rhineland in 1936, stole Austria in 1938,
and stole Sudetenland (by 1938). Italy likewise continued
its already aggressive foreign policy, defeating the Libyan
resistance (1932) before invading Ethiopia (1935) and
then Albania (1939). Both Germany and Italy became
involved in the Spanish Civil War, supporting the
eventually victorious Nationalists led by Francisco Franco
against the Republicans, who were in turn supported by
the Soviet Union. The Chinese Civil War was halted due to
the need to confront Japanese imperial ambitions, with
the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party
forming a Second United Front to fight Japan in the
Second Sino-Japanese War. Lesser conflicts included
interstate wars such as the Colombia–Peru War (1932–
1933), the Chaco
War (1932–1935) Jesse Owens won
and the Saudi– four gold medals
in the Olympics in
Yemeni War (1934),
1936 at Berlin,
as well as internal refuting the lie of
conflicts in Brazil white supremacy.
(1932), Ecuador
(1932), El Salvador
(1932), Austria (1934) and British Palestine (1936–1939).
Severe famine took place in the major grain-producing
areas of the Soviet Union between 1930 and 1933,
leading to 5.7 to 8.7 million deaths. Major contributing
factors to the famine include: the forced collectivization
in the Soviet Union of agriculture as a part of the First
Five-Year Plan, forced grain procurement, combined with
rapid industrialization, a decreasing agricultural
workforce, and several severe droughts. A famine of
similar scope also took place in China from 1936 to 1937,
killing 5 million people. The 1931 China floods caused
422,499–4,000,000 deaths. Major earthquakes of this
decade include the 1935 Quetta earthquake (30,000–
60,000 deaths) and the 1939 Erzincan earthquake
(32,700–32,968 deaths). During the 1930's, we saw new
sound films and novels like The Three Stooges, and Marx
Brothers Judy Garland starred as Dorothy Gale in the 1939
film The Wizard of Oz. Dozens of black film companies
existed by the 1930's, including Oscar Micheaux's
institutions. Hattie McDaniel, Bill Robinson, Lena Horne,
Paul Robeson, Nina Mae McKinney, Mildred Washington,
Edna Mae Harris, Dorothy Van Engle, Ruby Elzy, Fredi
Washington, Elisabeth Welch, Dorothy Dandridge, The
Nicholas Brothers, and other black actors and black
actresses shown forth their talent to the world.
Hoover further alienated black leaders by nominating conservative Southern Judge John J. Parker to the Supreme
Court; Parker's nomination ultimately failed in the Senate due to opposition from the NAACP and organized labor.
Many black voters switched to the Democratic Party in the 1932 election, and African Americans would later become
an important part of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal coalition. As part of his efforts to limit unemployment, Hoover
sought to cut immigration to the United States, and in 1930 he promulgated an executive order requiring individuals
to have employment before migrating to the United States. Prohibition ended by the 21st Amendment to the
Constitution in December 1933. It didn't work. He didn't interfere with foreign affairs in Latin America a lot. Yet, he
did use the military in Latin American countries who promoted progressive views like the Dominican Republic and El
Salvador. He ended the occupation of Nicaragua. He almost ended the occupation of Haiti. He wanted money from
the military to be sent to domestic needs or disarmament. He wanted the banning of tanks and bombers which weren't
adopted. He didn't agree with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, but he followed the Stimson Doctrine to
not recognize territories gained by force.

The Bonus Army was a serious protest cause for economic justice for military veterans of World War I.
Walter W. Waters was one leader of the movement who camped in Washington, D.C. By July 28, 1932,
the U.S. Army violently dispersed the protesters, their demands were rejected, and this tragic end was
one factor (out of many) on why Hoover lost the 1932 Presidential election. 2 people died and at least
69 police officers were injured.

Thousands of World War I veterans and their families demonstrated and camped out in Washington, DC, during June
1932, calling for immediate payment of bonuses that had been promised by the World War Adjusted Compensation
Act in 1924; the terms of the act called for payment of the bonuses in 1945. Although offered money by Congress to
return home, some members of the "Bonus Army" remained. Washington police attempted to disperse the
demonstrators, but they were outnumbered and unsuccessful. Shots were fired by the police in a futile attempt to
attain order, and two protesters were killed while many officers were injured. Hoover sent U.S. Army forces led by
General Douglas MacArthur to stop the protests. MacArthur, believing he was fighting a Communist revolution, chose
to clear out the camp with military force. This was not a Communist revolution but sincere military veterans who
wanted just economic compensation. McArthur was wrong in his role in the Bonus Army march suppression. Though
Hoover had not ordered MacArthur's clearing out of the protesters, he endorsed it after the fact. The incident proved
embarrassing for the Hoover administration and hurt his bid for re-election.

Here is an image of the inauguration of President Herbert Hoover.

Herbert Hoover ran for re-election in 1932. Hoover had issues with his economic performance. Franklin D. Roosevelt
won the 1932 Democratic National Convention nomination. He defeated Al Smith. FDR and the Democrats blamed
Hoover of the Great Depression. As Governor of New York, Roosevelt had called on the New York legislature to provide
aid for the needy, establishing Roosevelt's reputation for being more favorable toward government interventionism
during the economic crisis. The Democratic Party, including Al Smith and other national leaders, coalesced behind
Roosevelt, while progressive Republicans like George Norris and Robert La Follette Jr. deserted Hoover. Prohibition
was increasingly unpopular, and many people offered the argument that states and localities needed the tax money.
Hoover proposed a new constitutional amendment that was vague on particulars. Roosevelt's platform promised
repeal of the 18th Amendment. Hoover still believed that nonintervention from the federal government would save
the nation from Depression. People were hostile with him. He was heckled and the Secret Service prevented people
from trying to hurt Hoover. In the electoral vote, Hoover lost 59–472, carrying six states. Hoover won 39.7 percent of
the popular vote, a plunge of 26 percentage points from his result in the 1928 election.
After Hoover lost the election, Herbert Hoover opposed the New Deal policies that were enacted form FDR. Hoover
was the sole living ex-President from 1933 to 1953. He lived in Palo Alto until his wife's death in 1944. Later, Hoover
lived at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City. Hoover identified more as a conservative. Hoover became so
radical that he wrote books calling FDR's New Deal as socialistic which is silly. Hoover ran again for President in 1936,
but he lost. Hoover supported Landon. Hoover lost the 1940 RNC to Wendell Willkie.

During a 1938 trip to Europe, Hoover met with Adolf Hitler and stayed at Hermann Göring's hunting lodge. He
expressed dismay at the persecution of Jewish people in Germany and believed that Hitler was mad, but did not
present a threat to the U.S. Of course, Hoover was wrong. Instead, Hoover believed that Roosevelt posed the biggest
threat to peace, holding that Roosevelt's policies provoked Japan and discouraged France and the United Kingdom
from reaching an "accommodation" with Germany. This is silliness and overt appeasement by Hoover once again. After
the September 1939 invasion of Poland by Germany, Hoover opposed U.S. involvement in World War II, including the
Lend-Lease policy. He was active in the isolationist America First Committee. He rejected Roosevelt's offers to help
coordinate relief in Europe, but, with the help of old friends from the CRB, helped establish the Commission for Polish
Relief. After the beginning of the occupation of Belgium in 1940, Hoover provided aid for Belgian civilians, though this
aid was described as unnecessary by German broadcasts.

In December 1939, sympathetic Americans led by Hoover formed the Finnish Relief Fund to donate money to aid
Finnish civilians and refugees after the Soviet Union had started the Winter War by attacking Finland, which had
outraged Americans. By the end of January, it had already sent more than two million dollars to the Finns.

During a radio broadcast on June 29, 1941, one week after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, Hoover disparaged
any "tacit alliance" between the U.S. and the USSR, stating, "if we join the war and Stalin wins, we have aided him to
impose more communism on Europe and the world... War alongside Stalin to impose freedom is more than a travesty.
It is a tragedy." Much to his frustration, Hoover was not called upon to serve after the United States entered World
War II due to his differences with Roosevelt and his continuing unpopularity. He did not pursue the presidential
nomination at the 1944 Republican National Convention, and, at the request of Republican nominee Thomas E. Dewey,
refrained from campaigning during the general election. In 1945, Hoover advised President Harry S. Truman to drop
the United States' demand for the unconditional surrender of Japan because of the high projected casualties of the
planned invasion of Japan, although Hoover was unaware of the Manhattan Project and the atomic bomb. After WWII,
Hoover was a friend of Harry S. Truman. Hoover was an anti-Communist radical who wanted to support Nixon to
expose Communists in America. Hoover didn't like Eisenhower as Eisenhower refused to roll back the New Deal.
Hoover was saddened over the Kennedy assassination in 1963 and he defended Kennedy after the Bay of Pigs invasion.
Hoover wrote many books. Hoover was a radical by this time. He had major illnesses and passed away from internal
bleeding on October 20, 1964, in New York City.

Hoover was honored with a state funeral in which he lay in state in the United States Capitol rotunda. President Lyndon
Johnson and First Lady Ladybird Johnson attended, along with former presidents Truman and Eisenhower. Then, on
October 25, he was buried in West Branch, Iowa, near his presidential library and birthplace on the grounds of the
Herbert Hoover National Historic Site. Afterwards, Hoover's wife, Lou Henry Hoover, who had been buried in Palo Alto,
California, following her death in 1944, was re-interred beside him. Hoover was the last surviving member of the
Harding and Coolidge Cabinets. John Nance Garner (he was Speaker of the House during the second half of Hoover's
term) was the only person in Hoover's United States presidential line of succession he did not outlive.

President Herbert Hoover had a complicated legacy. Hoover believed in voluntarism and cooperation, but he was
stubborn to not adjust his mind to help people more thoroughly during the Great Depression. After his Presidency, he
became even more conservative and caused the Republican Party to be a more conservative party. Hoover failed to
adjust his perspectives and worked hard in the early 20th century to give food and other humanitarian aid in America
plus Europe. Hoover believed in the Horatio Alger myth wholeheartedly, being one of the hardest critics of the New
Deal. The New Deal saved millions of lives by providing Social Security to the elderly, adequate economic resources in
other ways, and it helped to end the Great Depression (along with the U.S. military buildup during World War II).
Hoover was also a vicious racist as mentioned by W.E.B. DuBois and other scholars. The Herbert Hoover Presidential
Library and Museum is in West Branch, Iowa next to the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site. The library is one of
thirteen presidential libraries run by the National Archives and Records Administration. The Hoover–Minthorn House,
where Hoover lived from 1885 to 1891, is in Newberg, Oregon. President Herbert Hoover ended his Presidency as
failed to promote the general welfare. That is why his successor came about to change America in ways that were life
changing in saving millions of lives in the future.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was not only one of the greatest Presidents in American history. He was one of
the most transformational Presidents in history. His strengths and imperfections are well known. He changed
government in a way to legitimate promote the federal government to have a serious involvement in the general
welfare of society that saved millions of lives literally. There is no Social Security as we know it without FDR, so his
legitimate policies are things that I will always cherish and respect. Yet, no human is perfect, and we must know of his
imperfections too to get a fair appraisal of the man. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was an enemy to big Wall Street banking
interests so much that many far-right people planned a coup against him according to Smedley Butler. Therefore, I
will always be progressive on economic issues. FDR certainly inspired me to be progressive on economic issues. To
this day. He was the 32nd President of the United States of America who was President from 1933 to 1945. Roosevelt
was not only opposed by far-right extremists but by pro-imperialistic Winston Churchill on many issues. Franklin
Delano Roosevelt lived from January 30, 1882, to April 12, 1945. FDR's New Deal domestic agenda and his response
leading the Allied forces to victory during WWII made him the most consequential President of the 20th century. He
defined modern day liberalism in America.

He was born in the Hudson Valley town of Hyde Park, New York. His parents were businessman James Roosevelt I and
his second wife Sara Ann Delano. His parents were 6th cousins. Both parts of his family came from wealthy established
New York families like the Roosevelts, the Aspinwalls, and the Delanos. Roosevelt's paternal ancestor migrated to New
Amsterdam in the 17th century, and the Roosevelts succeeded as merchants and landowners. The Delano family
patriarch, Philip Delano, traveled to the New World on the Fortune in 1621, and the Delanos thrived as merchants and
shipbuilders in Massachusetts. Franklin had a half-brother, James Roosevelt "Rosy" Roosevelt, from his father's
previous marriage. His father graduated from Harvard Law School in 1851, but he didn't practice law. The reason was
that he received an inheritance from his grandfather, James Roosevelt. His father was a prominent Bourbon Democrat.
He took Franklin to meet President Glover Cleveland. President Cleveland said to him that, "My little man, I am making
a strange wish for you. It is that you may never be President of the United States." Franklin's mother, the dominant
influence in his early years, once declared, "My son Franklin is a Delano, not a Roosevelt at all." James, who was 54
when Franklin was born, was considered by some as a remote father, though biographer James MacGregor Burns
indicates James interacted with his son more than was typical at the time. Roosevelt learned to ride, shoot, and sail.
He played polo, tennis, and golf.

FDR traveled in trips to Europe from age 2 to age 7 to 15. He became conversant in German and French. He attended
a public school in Germany at the age of 9. He later attended Groton School, which is an Episcopal boarding school in
Groton, Massachusetts. He was not popular in Groton, Massachusetts. Many kids there were better athletes and had
rebellious streaks. Its headmaster, Endicott Peabody, preached the duty of Christians to help the less fortunate and
urged his students to enter public service. Peabody remained a strong influence throughout Roosevelt's life, officiating
at his wedding and visiting him as president. FDR went to Harvard College. He was a member of the Fly Club and the
Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. Roosevelt wasn't an athlete, but he became an editor in chief of The Harvard Crimson daily
newspaper. This required energy, the ability to manage others, and ambition. He later said, "I took economics courses
in college for four years, and everything I was taught was wrong." Roosevelt was sadden over the death of his father
in 1900. His fifth cousin, Theodore Roosevelt, was the President of America. FDR viewed Teddy Roosevelt as a hero
and role model. Franklin graduated from Harvard in 1903 with an A.B. in history. He entered Columbia Law School in
1904 but dropped out in 1907 after passing the New York Bar Examination. In 1908, he took a job with the prestigious
law firm of Carter Ledyard & Milburn, working in the firm's admiralty law division. Strange events came later. He
proposed to Boston heiress Alice Sohier, who turned him down. Franklin courted his child acquaintance and cousin
Eleanor Roosevelt, a niece of Theodore Roosevelt. That's wild. In 1903, Franklin proposed to Eleanor, and after
resistance from his mother, they were married on March 17, 1905. Eleanor's father, Elliott, was deceased, and her uncle
Theodore, then the president, gave away the bride. The young couple moved into Springwood, and Franklin and Sara
Roosevelt also provided a townhouse for the couple in New York City, where Sara built a house alongside for herself.
Eleanor never felt at home in the houses at Hyde Park or New York, but she loved the family's vacation home on
Campobello Island, which Sara also gave the couple.

FDR was at ease with the upper class, but Eleanor was shy and disliked social life at first. She took care of their children
at home. Eleanor used caregivers to take care of their children. She later said she knew "absolutely nothing about
handling or feeding a baby." Although Eleanor thought sex was "an ordeal to be endured", she and Franklin had six
children. Anna, James, and Elliott were born in 1906, 1907, and 1910, respectively. The couple's second son, Franklin,
died in infancy in 1909. Another son, also named Franklin, was born in 1914, and the youngest child, John, was born
in 1916.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt had many extra martial affairs like Eleanor's social secretary Lucy Mercer (soon after she
was hired in 1914. Eleanor found out in 1918). FDR thought about divorcing Eleanor, but Sara objected. Lucy wouldn't
marry a divorced man with 5 children. Franklin and Eleanor remained married, and Roosevelt promised never to see
Lucy again. Eleanor never forgave him, and their marriage became more of a political partnership. Eleanor soon
established a separate home in Hyde Park at Val-Kill, and devoted herself to social and political causes independent
of her husband. The emotional break in their marriage was so severe that when Roosevelt asked Eleanor in 1942—in
light of his failing health—to come back home and live with him again, she refused. He was not always aware of when
she visited the White House and for some time she could not easily reach him on the telephone without his secretary's
help; Roosevelt, in turn, did not visit Eleanor's New York City apartment until late 1944.
Franklin broke his promise to Eleanor as he and Lucy maintained a formal correspondence and began seeing each
other again in 1941 or earlier. Roosevelt's son Elliott claimed that his father had a 20-year affair with his private
secretary, Marguerite "Missy" LeHand. Another son, James, stated that "there is a real possibility that a romantic
relationship existed" between his father and Crown Princess Märtha of Norway, who resided in the White House during
part of World War II. Aides began to refer to her at the time as "the president's girlfriend", and gossip linking the two
romantically appeared in the newspapers.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt started his major political career in 1910. He always wanted to enter politics after he left the
practice of law. He admired his cousin Theodore Roosevelt, but he supported the Democratic Party. So, he supported
Governor Woodrow Wilson's 1912 Presidential run. Roosevelt won the New York state senate race in 1910. FDR used
cars to spread his message. Teddy even supported his campaign. FDR won in a surprising victory. He was part of a
group of people opposing the Tammany Hall machine of the state Democratic Party. Roosevelt opposed Tammany
Hall candidates. He put pressure to make Tammany support James A. O'Gorman. The press called him the "second
coming of a Roosevelt" and sending "cold shivers down the spine of Tammany." FDR served as chairman of the
Agriculture Committee, and his success with farm and labor bills was a precursor to his New Deal policies years later.
He had then become more consistently progressive, in support of labor and social welfare programs. From 1913-1919,
FDR was the Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President Wilson. FDR worked under Navy Department Secretary
Josephus Daniels. FDR loved the Navy and researched it heavily. Daniels and Roosevelts promoted a merit-based
promotion system. He made reforms to make civilian control over the departments of the Navy that were autonomous.
They made sure that Navy's civilian employees were dealt with. They earned the respect of union leaders for FDR's
fairness in resolving disputes. No strikes took place when he was in the office. FDR learned about labor issues, wartime
management, naval issues, and logistics.

Roosevelt lost the Senate race against James W. Gerard in

a tough campaign. After the election, he and Tammany
Hall boss, Charles Francis Murphy, sought
accommodation and became allies. FDR supported
Wilson's involvement in WWI, and he supported the
Preparedness Movement. The Navy in America grew. After
WWI, Roosevelt ran for vice President with Democratic
candidate Governor James M. Cox of Ohio. Roosevelt
personally supported U.S. membership in the League of
Nations, but, unlike Wilson, he favored compromising
with Senator Henry Cabot Lodge and other
"Reservationists". The Cox–Roosevelt ticket was defeated Roosevelt's second term as New York state’s Governor
by Republicans Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge in in Albany was focused on measures to counter the
the presidential election by a wide margin, and the effects of the Depression, including the Temporary
Republican ticket carried every state outside of the South. Emergency Relief Administration to provide public
Roosevelt accepted the loss without issue and later works employment, as well as legislation on
reflected that the relationships and goodwill that he built unemployment compensation, banking reform, and
reforestation of marginal farmland. In August 1932,
in the 1920 campaign proved to be a major asset in his
Roosevelt forced Tammany's hand on the corruption
1932 campaign. The 1920 election also saw the first public issue by convening a public hearing on the question of
participation of Eleanor Roosevelt who, with the support removing Walker as mayor. Walker resigned on
of Louis Howe, established herself as a valuable political September 1, following a State Supreme Court ruling
ally. By August 1921, he was so sick that he became upholding the governor's authority to remove him for
paralyzed from the waist down. He may have polio or cause.
Gullian Barre Syndrome. FDR continued with his political
career. The development of polio vaccines came later. He was active in the Democratic Party in the 1920's, and he had
contacts in the South, especially, in Georgia. He endorsed Al Smith's successful campaign in New York's 1922
gubernatorial election.

"Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free
people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.”

-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Roosevelt and Smith came from different backgrounds and never fully trusted one another, but Roosevelt supported
Smith's progressive policies, while Smith was happy to have the backing of the prominent and well-respected
Roosevelt. Roosevelt gave nominating speeches for Smith in 1928 and in 1928 during Smith's Presidential runs. FDR
wanted compromise on the Prohibition issue. Some of his ideals in 1924 for a plan for world peace inspired by the
creation of the United Nations in 1944-1945. FDR was Governor of New York state from 1929 to 1932. He defeated
New York Attorney General Republican Albert Ottinger. FDR won by a 1 percent margin. Samuel Rosenman, Frances
Perkins, and James Farley supported him. He made fireside chats to advance his agenda in the New York State
Legislature. FDR didn't want to keep Smith appointees like Moses, so their relationship suffered. He or FDR proposed
hydroelectric power plans, addressed farming, and dealt with other issues. In October 1929, the Wall Street Crash
occurred, and with it came the Great Depression. Roosevelt saw the seriousness of the situation and established a
state employment commission. He also became the first governor to publicly endorse the idea of unemployment
insurance.
When Roosevelt began his run for a second term in May 1930, he reiterated his doctrine from the campaign two years
before: "that progressive government by its very terms must be a living and growing thing, that the battle for it is
never-ending and that if we let up for one single moment or one single year, not merely do we stand still but we fall
back in the march of civilization." He ran on a platform that called for aid to farmers, full employment, unemployment
insurance, and old-age pensions. He was elected to a second term by a 14% margin. Roosevelt helped to bring
economic relief to tons of New York state residents. FDR's Emergency Relief Administration (led by Jesse I. Strauss and
later by Harry Hopkins) assisted over 1/3 of New York's population between 1932 and 1938. He used the Seabury
Commission to fight crime, police corruption, and organized crime. Tammany Hall declined after public officials were
gone from being exposed in an extortion ring. He supported reforestation with the Hewitt Amendment in 1931, which
gave birth to New York's State Forest system.

This is the 1933 Election Presidential Results.

FDR ran for President in 1932. He had the experience, and now it was time. People from Columbia University and
Harvard University advised him on the campaign. FDR helped to address the depression in NY, so he was the front
runner for the 1932 Democratic Presidential nomination. Roosevelt rallied the progressive supporters of the Wilson
administration while also appealing to many conservatives, establishing himself as the leading candidate in the South
and West. The chief opposition to Roosevelt's candidacy came from Northeastern conservatives such as Speaker of
the House John Nance Garner of Texas and Al Smith, the 1928 Democratic presidential nominee. FDR promised a new
deal for the American people. Roosevelt promised securities regulation, tariff reduction, farm relief, government-
funded public works, and other government actions to address the Great Depression. Many progressives supported
him like progressive Republicans George W. Norris, Hiram Johnson, and Robert La Follette Jr. FDR defeated Herbert
Hoover, especially after Hoover's brutal response to veterans in the Bonus Army suppression. Roosevelt won 57% of
the popular vote and carried all but six states. Historians and political scientists consider the 1932–36 elections to be
a political realignment. Roosevelt's victory was enabled by the creation of the New Deal coalition, small farmers, the
Southern whites, Catholics, big city political machines, labor unions, northern African Americans (southern ones were
still heavily disfranchised), Jewish people, intellectuals, and political liberals. The creation of the New Deal coalition
transformed American politics and started what political scientists call the "New Deal Party System" or the Fifth Party
System. Between the Civil War and 1929, Democrats had rarely controlled both houses of Congress and had won just
four of seventeen presidential elections; from 1932 to 1979, Democrats won eight of twelve presidential elections and
generally controlled both houses of Congress. FDR once said that, “We must scrupulously guard the civil rights and
civil liberties of all our citizens, whatever their background. We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any
hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization.”
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was President from 1933 to 1945. President Roosevelt appointed powerful people, but he
made huge decisions under his command. Early on, the far-right extremists hated him because of his political views.
Roosevelt refused to support Hoover's policies after Hoover wanted him to renounce some of his campaign platform.
FDR had Frances Perkins as the Secretary of Labor being the first woman appointed at a cabinet position, Cordell Hull,
Harold L. Ickes, and Henry A. Wallace. In February 1933, Roosevelt escaped an assassination attempt by Giuseppe
Zangara, who expressed a "hate for all rulers." As he was attempting to shoot Roosevelt, Zangara was struck by a
woman with her purse; he instead mortally wounded Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, who was sitting alongside
Roosevelt. FDR was inaugurated on March 4, 1933, during the nadir of the worst depression in American history. A
quarter of the workforce was unemployed, and farmers were in deep trouble as prices had fallen by 60%. Industrial
production had fallen by more than half since 1929. Two million people were homeless. By the evening of March 4,
1932 of the 48 states – as well as the District of Columbia – had closed their banks. President Roosevelt used fireside
chats to boost moods and use policies to help people. Roosevelt used a four-day national bank holiday to end the run
by depositors seeking to withdraw funds. FDR passed legislation like the Emergency Banking Act, the Federal
Emergency Relief Administration, and the Public Works Administration to help society. Dams, Bridges, and schools
were built. Some of the New Deal policies discriminated against black people, and that was wrong. The Civilian
Conservation Corps (CCC) helped to work on rural projects with 250,000 previously unemployed workers in them.

Marian Anderson was a singer and activist who wanted her music to motivate humanity to be
better. The Golden Rules is the view that she loved, and she showed Black Excellence for the
decades of her illustrious career.
This was the First New Deal in 1933-1934. He ended Prohibition by signing the Cullen-Harrison Act. He used the
Federal Trade Commission and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration to help farmers and other people. The
Rural Electrification Administration and the National Industrial Recovery Act wanted to cut cutthroat competition with
minimum prices, rules, etc. Regulation existed with Glass Steagall Act, the FDIC, and other policies to handle financial
regulations. Roosevelt worked with Senator Norris to create the largest government-owned industrial enterprise in
American history—the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)—which built dams and power stations, controlled floods, and
modernized agriculture and home conditions in the poverty-stricken Tennessee Valley. However, natives criticized TVA
for displacing thousands of people for these projects. He fought deflation by selling privately held gold of American
citizens. The price raised from 20 to 35 dollars. He tried to balance the budget and he won support among Veteran
groups by passing the Bonus Act in January 1936 (to give veterans direct cash). The GDP grew. Democrats gained
seats in the 1934 Congressional elections. Also, the Second New Deal era existed from 1935-1936. He signed the Social
Security Act on August 14, 1935, to help elderly people to have adequate retirement funds (and help the poor and
sick). The National Labor Relations Act guaranteed workers the right to collective bargaining through unions of their
own choice. The act also established the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to facilitate wage agreements and to
suppress the repeated labor disturbances. The act did not compel employers to reach an agreement with their
employees, but it opened possibilities for American labor.

The picture above showed the First Inaugural Address from the historic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
President Roosevelt said the following words in that speech on March 4, 1933, “…For the trust reposed in me I will
return the courage and the devotion that befit the time. I can do no less. We face the arduous days that lie before us
in the warm courage of the national unity; with the clear consciousness of seeking old and precious moral values;
with the clean satisfaction that comes from the stem performance of duty by old and young alike. We aim at the
assurance of a rounded and permanent national life. We do not distrust the future of essential democracy. The
people of the United States have not failed. In their need they have registered a mandate that they want direct,
vigorous action. They have asked for discipline and direction under leadership. They have made me the present
instrument of their wishes. In the spirit of the gift I take it. In this dedication of a Nation we humbly ask the
blessing of God. May He protect each and every one of us. May He guide me in the days to come…”
Labor increased and sit-ins plus strikes existed too. The 2nd New Deal was opposed more by the business community.
Al Smith promoted the bigoted American Liberty League by slandering FDR as following the views of Karl Marx and
Vladimir Lenin. While many of the wealthy opposed the New Deal, many poor people, labor unions, and other people
supported FDR. FDR wanted to use experiments to see what policies would work and reject those which failed. FDR
won re-election in 1936. 8 million workers were unemployed in 1936. People from the far right like Charles Coughlin
and some liberals opposed FDR of not going far enough. He won the election because of the NLRB and the Social
Security Act. He defeated Republican Kansas Governor Alf Landon. Huey Long was assassinated in 1935, and he was
more left wing. Roosevelt lost high-income voters, especially businessmen and professionals, but made major gains
among the poor and minorities. He won 86 percent of the Jewish vote, 81 percent of Catholics, 80 percent of union
members, 76 percent of Southerners, 76 percent of black Americans in northern cities, and 75 percent of people on
relief. Roosevelt carried 102 of the country's 106 cities with a population of 100,000 or more.

The Parts of the New Deal

The First New Deal (1933-1934) The Second New Deal (1935-1936) and Beyond
Its Components: Its Components:

1. The Emergency Bank Act
2. The 1933 Banking Act
3. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)
provided US$500 million (equivalent to $11.8 billion in
2023) for relief operations by states and cities, and the
short-lived CWA gave locals money to operate make-work
projects from 1933 to 1934.
1. The National Labor Relations Act to protect labor
organizing.
2. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) relief
program (which made the federal government the largest
employer in the nation).
3. The Social Security Act and new programs to aid tenant
farmers and migrant workers.

4. The Securities Act of 1933 was enacted to prevent a
repeated stock market crash.
5. The National Recovery Administration (NRA)
4. After the 2nd New Deal, there was the creation of the
United States Housing Authority and the FSA, which both
occurred in 1937; and the Fair Labor Standards Act of
1938, which set maximum hours and minimum wages for
most categories of workers. The FSA was also one of the
oversight authorities of the Puerto Rico Reconstruction
Administration, which administered relief efforts to Puerto
Rican citizens affected by the Great Depression.
By this time, President Roosevelt used a controversial court packing scheme to pass many of his political views. That
action was opposed by liberals and conservatives back then. Later, the Supreme Court took down some of the New
Deal policies. That would change in 1937. Four of Roosevelt's Supreme Court appointees, Felix Frankfurter, Robert H.
Jackson, Hugo Black, and William O. Douglas, were particularly influential in re-shaping the jurisprudence of the Court
for years and decades to come. Roosevelt did manage to pass some legislation, including the Housing Act of 1937, a
second Agricultural Adjustment Act, and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938, which was the last major piece
of New Deal legislation. The FLSA outlawed child labor, established a federal minimum wage, and required overtime
pay for certain employees who work in excess of forty-hours per week. He also won passage of the Reorganization
Act of 1939 and subsequently created the Executive Office of the President, making it "the nerve center of the federal
administrative system." There was a yearlong recession from 1937-1938. Yet, FDR continued to oppose big business
and monopoly power in America. Conservative Democrats opposed FDR and won many seats by the November 1938
election. Yet, they supported his foreign policy before and during World War II. President Roosevelt supported
environmentalism in building forests and upgrading resources. FDR saw an expansion of GDP and a decline of
unemployment. Roosevelt wanted a Good Neighbor Policy in Latin America opposition of the Monroe Doctrine. He
withdrew U.S. military forces from Haiti and made new treaties with Cuba and Panama.

Roosevelt signed the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States banning the right to intervene
unilaterally in the affairs of Latin American countries. FDR normalized relations with the Soviet Union. He wanted to
renegotiate the Russian debt from WWI and open trade relations, but that plan didn't work. The rejection of the Treaty
of Versailles in 1919–1920 marked the dominance of isolationism in American foreign policy. Despite Roosevelt's
Wilsonian background, he and Secretary of State Cordell Hull acted with great care not to provoke isolationist
sentiment. The isolationist movement was bolstered in the early to mid-1930s by Senator Gerald Nye and others who
succeeded in their effort to stop the "merchants of death" in the U.S. from selling arms abroad. The Neutrality Acts
was passed. FDR largely followed Congress' non-interventionism when fascists harmed people worldwide. Fascists like
Benito Mussolini ruled Italy and invaded Ethiopia. Fascists like Hitler in Nazi Germany, Franco of Spain, and in other
places harmed people. In 1939, Roosevelt regretted not aiding the Spanish Republicans. By 1937, Japan invaded China
causing the Nanking Massacre (where people were killed, and women were raped) and the USS Panay incident. FDR
was personally opposed to isolationism, but most of Congress supported it. Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938.
Roosevelt in public at that time was neutral. The Munich treasonous Agreement came about and the Kristallnacht
massacre happened against Jewish people. American public opinion soon was against Germany. Roosevelt was
prepared for possible war against the Nazis. Relying on an interventionist political coalition of Southern Democrats
and business-oriented Republicans, Roosevelt oversaw the expansion of U.S. airpower and war production capacity.

World War II started in September 1939 after Germany invaded Poland. Britian and France declared war on Germany.
Roosevelt used the Lend Lease program to aid the Allies forces including Churchill. Isolationist leaders opposed the
repeal of the Neutrality Act like Charles Lindbergh and Senator William Borah. Roosevelt worked with Winston
Churchill to fund the Allied secretly at first. France fell in June 1940 which shocked the American public. Isolationist
sentiment declined. In July 1940, Roosevelt appointed two interventionist Republican leaders, Henry L. Stimson and
Frank Knox, as Secretaries of War and the Navy, respectively. Both parties gave support to his plans for a rapid build-
up of the American military, but the isolationists warned that Roosevelt would get the nation into an unnecessary war
with Germany. In July 1940, a group of Congressmen introduced a bill that would authorize the nation's first peacetime
draft, and with the support of the Roosevelt administration, the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 passed in
September. The size of the army increased from 189,000 men at the end of 1939 to 1.4 million men in mid-1941. FDR
won the 1940 election. He had his third term. FDR saw the Nazi threat as an enemy of freedom. He defeated Wendel
Willkie. Henry Wallace was FDR's Vice President. Wallace was progressive back then. The Destroyers for Bases
Agreement helped FDR to win the election. Roosevelt won the 1940 election with 55% of the popular vote, 38 of the
48 states, and almost 85% of the electoral vote. By 1941, FDR dealt with world affairs heavily. War was coming to
America very soon. Roosevelt maintained close personal control of all major diplomatic and military decisions, working
closely with his generals and admirals, the war and Navy departments, the British, and even with the Soviet Union. His
key advisors on diplomacy were Harry Hopkins (who was based in the White House), Sumner Welles (based in the
State Department), and Henry Morgenthau Jr. at Treasury. In military affairs, FDR worked most closely with Secretary
Henry L. Stimson at the War Department, Army Chief of Staff George Marshall, and Admiral William D. Leahy.

This 1948 statue of President Franklin This is a granite engraving of the Four Freedoms
Delano Roosevelt found in Grosvenor at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial,
Square, at London (in the United Kingdom). dedicated in 1997 at Washington, D.C.

President Roosevelt used policies to increase the policies of the Army and the Navy. His Four Freedoms speech
promoted freedom of speech, the press, religion, and freedom from want. The Lend Lease program was working to
aid Britain, China, and the Allied nations in general. Roosevelt worked to take a firm stance against Japan, Germany,
and Italy. American isolationists such as Charles Lindbergh (who was a far-right extremist) and the America First
Committee vehemently attacked Roosevelt as an irresponsible warmonger. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union
in June 1941, Roosevelt agreed to extend Lend-Lease to the Soviets. Thus, Roosevelt had committed the U.S. to the
Allied side with a policy of "all aid short of war." By July 1941, Roosevelt authorized the creation of the Office of the
Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (OCIAA) to counter perceived propaganda efforts in Latin America by Germany
and Italy. FDR and Churchill drafted the Atlantic Charter to deal with postwar goals. Pearl Harbor changed everything
and caused America to declare war on Germany and Japan. Japan wanted oil resources in Oceania and had an alliance
with the Axis Powers called the Tripartite Pact. General Douglas MacArthur worked in the Philippines to help U.S.
troops there. Japan attacked Peral Harbor after the oil embargo and negotiations failed. Pearl Harbor took place on
December 7, 1941. America declared war against Mussolini's fascist Italy too.
MANY CABINET MEMBERS OF THE ROOSEVELT ADMINISTRATION

John N. Garner (Vice Frances Perkins, (The Henry A. Wallce Henry Morgenthau Cordell Hull
President from 1933 Secretary of Labor (Vice President Jr. (Secretary of (Secretary of State
to 1941) (from 1933 to 1945) from 1941 to 1945) Labor from 1934 from 1933 to 1944)
to 1945)

President Roosevelt worked with Allied Powers to fight in the war. Top military officials made most decisions. Roosevelt
supported research in the nuclear program. In 1942, Roosevelt formed a new body, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which
made the final decisions on American military strategy. Admiral Ernest J. King as Chief of Naval Operations commanded
the Navy and Marines, while General George C. Marshall led the U.S. Army and was in nominal control of the Air Force,
which in practice was commanded by General Hap Arnold. The Joint Chiefs were chaired by Admiral William D. Leahy,
the most senior officer in the military. The Manhattan Project ultimately developed nuclear weapons. FDR wanted
America, the UK, the Soviet Union, and China to govern global affairs after WWII. Stalin wanted FDR to fight in the
area of France now, but FDR choose North Africa first. This was called Operation Torch. In November 1943, Roosevelt,
Churchill, and Stalin met to discuss strategy and post-war plans at the Tehran Conference, where Roosevelt met Stalin
for the first time. At the conference, Britain and the United States committed to opening a second front against
Germany in 1944, while Stalin committed to entering the war against Japan at an unspecified date. Subsequent
conferences at Bretton Woods and Dumbarton Oaks established the framework for the post-war international
monetary system and the United Nations, an intergovernmental organization similar to Wilson's failed League of
Nations.
Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met for a second time at the February 1945 Yalta Conference in Crimea. With the end
of the war in Europe approaching, Roosevelt's primary focus was on convincing Stalin to enter the war against Japan;
the Joint Chiefs had estimated that an American invasion of Japan would cause as many as one million American
casualties. In return for the Soviet Union's entrance into the war against Japan, the Soviet Union was promised control
of Asian territories such as Sakhalin Island. The three leaders agreed to hold a conference in 1945 to establish the
United Nations, and they also agreed on the structure of the United Nations Security Council, which would be charged
with ensuring international peace and security. Roosevelt did not push for the immediate evacuation of Soviet soldiers
from Poland, but he won the issuance of the Declaration on Liberated Europe, which promised free elections in
countries that had been occupied by Germany. Germany itself would not be dismembered but would be jointly
occupied by the United States, France, Britain, and the Soviet Union. Against Soviet pressure, Roosevelt and Churchill
refused to consent to impose huge reparations and deindustrialization on Germany after the war. Roosevelt's role in
the Yalta Conference has been controversial; critics charge that he naively trusted the Soviet Union to allow free
elections in Eastern Europe, while supporters argue that there was little more that Roosevelt could have done for the
Eastern European countries given the Soviet occupation and the need for cooperation with the Soviet Union during
and after the war.

Allied forces by 1942 were gradually defeating the Axis Powers. Allied forces won North Africa and moved into Sicily
and the rest of Italy. In February 1943, the Soviet Union won a major victory at the Battle of Stalingrad, and in May
1943, the Allies secured the surrender of over 250,000 German and Italian soldiers in North Africa, ending the North
African Campaign. It is important to note the Soviet Union’s massive contribution to the victory of the Allies during
World War II, especially in the Eastern Front of Europe. The Allies launched an invasion of Sicily in July 1943, capturing
the island by the end of the following month. In September 1943, the Allies secured an armistice from Italian Prime
Minister Pietro Badoglio, but Germany quickly restored Mussolini to power. The Allied invasion of mainland Italy
commenced in September 1943, but the Italian Campaign continued until 1945 as German and Italian troops resisted
the Allied advance. To command the invasion of France, Roosevelt chose General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had
successfully commanded a multinational coalition in North Africa and Sicily. Eisenhower chose to launch Operation
Overlord on June 6, 1944. Supported by 12,000 aircraft and the largest naval force ever assembled, the Allies
successfully established a beachhead in Normandy and then advanced further into France. Though reluctant to back
an unelected government, Roosevelt recognized Charles de Gaulle's Provisional Government of the French Republic
as the de facto government of France in July 1944. After most of France had been liberated from German occupation,
Roosevelt granted formal recognition to de Gaulle's government in October 1944. Over the following months, the
Allies liberated more territory from Nazi occupation and began the invasion of Germany. By April 1945, Nazi resistance
was crumbling in the face of advances by both the Western Allies and the Soviet Union.

In the opening weeks of the war, Japan conquered the Philippines and the British and Dutch colonies in Southeast
Asia. The Japanese advance reached its maximum extent by June 1942, when the U.S. Navy scored a decisive victory
at the Battle of Midway. American and Australian forces then began a slow and costly strategy called island hopping
or leapfrogging through the Pacific Islands, with the objective of gaining bases from which strategic airpower could
be brought to bear on Japan and from which Japan could ultimately be invaded. In contrast to Hitler, Roosevelt took
no direct part in the tactical naval operations, though he approved strategic decisions. Roosevelt gave way in part to
insistent demands from the public and Congress that more effort be devoted against Japan, but he always insisted on
Germany first. The strength of the Japanese navy was decimated in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, and by April 1945 the Allies
had re-captured much of their lost territory in the Pacific. In America, unemployment declined. There was the 2nd
Great Migration of American Americans from the South to the West Coast, the Midwest, and the North. There were
riots, labor strikes, and other events. FDR passed tax policies to raise revenues for the war. Roosevelt's 1944 State of
the Union Address advocated that Americans should think of basic economic rights as a Second Bill of Rights. He
stated that all Americans should have the right to "adequate medical care", "a good education", "a decent home", and
a "useful and remunerative job." In the most ambitious domestic proposal of his third term, Roosevelt proposed the
G.I. Bill, which would create a massive benefits program for returning soldiers. Benefits included post-secondary
education, medical care, unemployment insurance, job counseling, and low-cost loans for homes and businesses. The
G.I. Bill passed unanimously in both houses of Congress and was signed into law in June 1944. Of the fifteen million
Americans who served in World War II, more than half benefitted from the educational opportunities provided for in
the G.I. Bill. Indeed, the G.I. Bill was one of the greatest accomplishments of the Roosevelt Presidency.
 Lena Horne Ethel Waters Nina Mae McKinney Joyce Bryant

The end of World War II meant the end of his life. FDR had health problems like high blood pressure, coronary artery
disease, and other illnesses. He won the 1944 Presidential election against Dewey. Conservative Democrats put
pressure to replace Wallace with Harry S. Truman. They did this, because the far-right Wall Street interests viewed
Henry Wallace as too liberal and too progressive. Truman was from Missouri. Labor unions supported FDR. When
Roosevelt returned to the United States from the Yalta Conference, many were shocked to see how old, thin, and frail
he looked. He spoke while seated in the well of the House, an unprecedented concession to his physical incapacity.
During March 1945, he sent strongly worded messages to Stalin accusing him of breaking his Yalta commitments over
Poland, Germany, prisoners of war and other issues. When Stalin accused the western Allies of plotting behind his
back a separate peace with Hitler, Roosevelt replied: "I cannot avoid a feeling of bitter resentment towards your
informers, whoever they are, for such vile misrepresentations of my actions or those of my trusted subordinates." On
March 29, 1945, Roosevelt went to the Little White House at Warm Springs, Georgia, to rest before his anticipated
appearance at the founding conference of the United Nations.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt had a complicated legacy on civil rights. He won strong support among African
Americans, Jewish people, Catholics, Chinese Americans, and Filipino Americans. Yet, Japanese Americans were victims
of the internment concentration camps during WWII. The internment camps being used via Executive Order 9066 was
one of the biggest mistakes of the FDR administration. Japanese Americans were forced against their wills to go into
harsh camps, their resources stolen, and they faced harsh racism. Many German and Italian American were in
internment camps too. The Supreme Court defended this racist, evil policy via the 1944 case of Korematsu v. United
States. African Americans and Native Americans fared well in two New Deal relief programs, the Civilian Conservation
Corps and the Indian Reorganization Act, respectively. Sitkoff reports that the WPA "provided an economic floor for
the whole black community in the 1930s, rivaling both agriculture and domestic service as the chief source" of income.
Roosevelt stopped short of joining NAACP leaders in pushing for federal anti-lynching legislation, as he believed that
such legislation was unlikely to pass and that his support for it would alienate Southern congressmen. He did, however,
appoint a "Black Cabinet" of African American advisers to advise on race relations and African American issues, and
he publicly denounced lynching as "murder."

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt vocally supported efforts designed to aid the African American community, including the
Fair Labor Standards Act, which helped boost wages for nonwhite workers in the South. In 1941, Roosevelt established
the Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) to implement Executive Order 8802, which prohibited racial and
religious discrimination in employment among defense contractors (which was the most progressive policy on civil
rights for black Americans during that time since Reconstruction). The FEPC was the first national program directed
against employment discrimination, and it played a major role in opening new employment opportunities to non-
white workers. During World War II, the proportion of African American men employed in manufacturing positions
rose significantly. In response to Roosevelt's policies, African Americans increasingly defected from the Republican
Party during the 1930s and 1940s, becoming an important Democratic voting bloc in several Northern states. There is
controversy on the FDR response to Jewish people during the Shoah. Roosevelt was wrong in 1923 to promote a quota
restricting the entry of Jewish people at Harvard University.

After Kristallnacht in 1938, Roosevelt did not loosen immigration quotas and his State Department took steps to
prevent Jewish people and other refugees from entering the country. However, he was prevented from accepting
further Jewish immigrants, particularly refugees, by the restrictive Immigration Act of 1924, and antisemitism among
voters. According to Rafael Medoff, the US president could have saved 190,000 Jewish lives by telling his State
Department to fill immigration quotas to the legal limit, but his administration discouraged and disqualified Jewish
refugees based on its prohibitive requirements that left less than 25% of the quotas filled.

Hitler chose to implement the "Final Solution"—the extermination of the European Jewish population—by January
1942, and American officials learned of the scale of the Nazi extermination campaign in the following months. Against
the objections of the State Department, Roosevelt convinced the other Allied leaders to jointly issue the Joint
Declaration by Members of the United Nations, which condemned the ongoing Holocaust and warned to try its
perpetrators as war criminals. In 1943, Roosevelt told U.S. government officials that there should be limits on Jewish
people in various professions to "eliminate the specific and understandable complaints which the Germans bore
towards the Jews in Germany." Franklin Roosevelt is wrong on that quote, because there are no legitimate complaints
against innocent Jewish people in Europe. The same year, Roosevelt was personally briefed by Polish Home Army
intelligence agent Jan Karski who was an eyewitness of the Holocaust; pleading for action, Karski told him that 1.8
million Jewish people had already been exterminated. Karski recalled that in response, Roosevelt "did not ask one
question about the Jews." In January 1944, Roosevelt established the War Refugee Board to aid Jewish people and
other victims of Axis atrocities. Aside from these actions, Roosevelt believed that the best way to help the persecuted
populations of Europe was to end the war as quickly as possible. Top military leaders and War Department leaders
rejected any campaign to bomb the extermination camps or the rail lines leading to the camps, fearing it would be a
diversion from the war effort. According to biographer Jean Edward Smith, there is no evidence that anyone ever
proposed such a campaign to Roosevelt.
In the afternoon of April 12, 1945, in Warm Springs, Georgia, while sitting for a portrait, Roosevelt said "I have a terrific
headache." He then slumped forward in his chair, unconscious, and was carried into his bedroom. The president's
attending cardiologist, Dr. Howard Bruenn, diagnosed the medical emergency as a massive intracerebral hemorrhage.
At 3:35 p.m. that day, Roosevelt died at the age of 63. It was a shocking death for many Americans. The following
morning, Roosevelt's body was placed in a flag-draped coffin and loaded onto the presidential train for the trip back
to Washington. Along the route, thousands flocked to the tracks to pay their respects. After a White House funeral on
April 14, Roosevelt was transported by train from Washington, D.C., to his place of birth at Hyde Park. On April 15 he
was buried, per his wish, in the rose garden of his Springwood estate. Roosevelt's home in Hyde Park is now a National
Historic Site and home to his Presidential library. Washington, D.C., hosts two memorials to the former president. The
largest, the 7+1 2-acre (3-hectare) Roosevelt Memorial, is located next to the Jefferson Memorial on the Tidal Basin. A
more modest memorial, a block of marble in front of the National Archives building suggested by Roosevelt himself,
was erected in 1965. Roosevelt's leadership in the March of Dimes is one reason he is commemorated on the American
dime. Roosevelt has also appeared on several U.S. Postage stamps.

Roosevelt's declining physical health had been kept secret from the public. His death was met with shock and grief
across the world. Germany surrendered during the 30-day mourning period, but Harry Truman (who had succeeded
Roosevelt as president) ordered flags to remain at half-staff; he also dedicated Victory in Europe Day and its
celebrations to Roosevelt's memory. World War II finally ended with the signed surrender of Japan in September 1945.
President Franklin Roosevelt was one of the most important figures in the history of the United States and of the
world. Roosevelt did a lot of good in the world, and he made mistakes. Roosevelt's greatest part of his legacy was that
he increased the expansion of governmental programs to help the people, he helped to end the Great Depression,
and he helped to defeat the Axis Powers once and for all. His major errors were that he didn't go far enough to deal
with civil rights (like him opposing federal anti-lynching legislation to fight anti-black racial oppression), he didn't go
far enough in helping Jewish victims of the Shoah, and he was involved in the creation of the evil internment camps
in America harming Japanese Americans. His Second Bill of Rights proposal is one of his greatest plans in American
history. Eleanor Roosevelt became a progressive giant in her own right. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt remains
a person with a wide-ranging influence on how we live in America today in enumerable ways.

By Timothy
 The 2nd part of this series will come soon to evaluate and discuss the Presidencies of
Harry Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy. These Presidents were
involved in wide ranging circumstances that caused the modern world to develop
technologically, socially, and politically.