On November 19, 1919, the Republican-controlled Senate refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles aimed at ending the war and establishing the League of Nations after a two-month debate. This action by the Senate was a serious setback for President Wilson. Because President Wilson urged the Paris Peace Conference to accept the League of Nations.
The central issue of the dispute is the right to reserve the provisions of the treaty concerning the establishment of the League of Nations. These reservations were proposed by Massachusetts Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, the chairman of the Senate’s Committee on External Relations. These reservations clearly indicate that the United States has no responsibility and obligation to defend the member states of the League of Nations in accordance with Article 10 of the Article without the approval of Congress.
President Wilson urged the senators to vote against the treaty with Lodge's right to reserve. He said that insisting on these reservations is tantamount to canceling the entire treaty. In the end, the Senate voted 55 to 39 to veto the treaty containing Lodge’s reservation rights. 46 Republicans voted against it.
On November 2, 1920, 55-year-old Warren Harding was elected as the 29th President of the United States. Harding was born in Ohio in 1865. He likes to play wind music when he is young and has a genius for recitation. After graduating from university, he engaged in journalism and hosted the "Star". Harding joined the Republican Party in 1891, was elected to the Ohio State Assembly in 1899, and was elected as the state's lieutenant governor in 1904. In 1914, he was elected as a federal senator and served until 1920. During his tenure in the Senate, he was an insignificant figure and was often absent. But he had a lot of friendship, and he was loyal to the Republican Party and was able to act according to the party’s core leadership, so he was nominated as the party’s presidential candidate in 1920 by the Republican leaders. Harding took advantage of voters' boredom with President Wilson and the Democratic Party and put forward the campaign slogan of "restoring normalcy", and the campaign was successful.
On March 4, 1921, after Harding became president, he disbanded various institutions established during the war and declared that the government would not interfere in the activities of private enterprises. However, regarding the merger of enterprises, he would no longer set prices or formulate government regulations to interfere with the economy and let him go. Monopoly capitalists expand their power and strengthen their monopoly position. He also abolished the income tax, inheritance tax, and excessive profit tax that the Wilson government received during the war. In particular, he lowered the tax rate for high-income earners, greatly reducing the taxes paid by wealthy capitalists, and increasing the burden on the people. In diplomacy, the Harding administration initiated the Washington Nine-nation Conference and signed the Naval Armament Treaty and the Pacific Agreement. During the presidency of President Harding, many big capitalists were employed. As a result, many cases of abuse of power for personal gain and corruption and malfeasance occurred.
On April 12, 1921, President Harding stated at a joint meeting of Congress that the United States "will not participate" in the League of Nations. The new president’s rejection of the League of Nations won enthusiastic applause mainly from his Republican partners. And this international organization was advocated by the former president and Democrat Wilson. While rejecting the League of Nations, the president promised that his government will cooperate with foreign governments who want to form a coalition of countries that he calls apolitical and who want to revive European countries that have been trampled by war.
On August 2, 1923, President Harding died. In the early morning of the 3rd, US Vice President Coolidge was sworn in as President in accordance with the Constitution. He is humble and pious, and the American public likes him very much.
From 1923 to 1929, the United States flourished during the tenure of President Coolidge. At that time, the United States, due to its huge economic strength during the First World War, got rid of the economic crisis of 1920-1921 earlier, and production began to recover and develop. At the same time, after entering the 20th century, an "industrial rationalization" movement appeared in the United States. Various enterprises adopted new equipment and new technologies to realize the specialization, standardization, electrification and automation of production. The implementation of the "Taylor System" and "Ford System" in management not only increased labor productivity, but also enabled the rapid development of new industrial sectors. And while expanding the domestic market, a large amount of capital and commodities were exported. All this prompted the rapid economic development and prosperity of the United States from 1923 to 1929. This is mainly manifested in the substantial increase in industrial production. In 1929, the total industrial output value of the United States doubled from 1914, especially the automobile industry, construction industry, and electrical industry. In addition, the chemical industry, machine manufacturing, rubber, aircraft manufacturing and other sectors have also developed significantly. The prosperity of this period greatly promoted the industrialization of the United States and made industry more and more important in the national economy. This period was during Calvin Coolidge's tenure, so it was called "Coolidge Prosperity."
On March 27, 1928, a huge amount of buying and throwing in the New York Stock Exchange, participants in the trade had both gains and losses. This is an extraordinary day in the history of Wall Street. The automatic stock quotation display made noises from time to time with the frantic buying, and as many as 4.79 million shares changed hands. This is a day when stocks are trading staggeringly and frantically fighting for the dollar. Even in only 10 minutes, the difference in the value of major securities caused by price fluctuations is as high as millions of dollars.
On May 15, 1928, Wall Street stock prices fell rapidly without warning, and the turnover was unprecedented in the Wall Street stock market. As of yesterday's close, the total number of transactions was 4.82 million shares, most of which changed hands in the last two hours. Many of the most dynamic stocks had fallen by more than 5 to 40 points before the wave was controlled.
On October 24, 1929, the New York Stock Market plunged for the first time, which opened the prelude to the global economic crisis. The scale, scope, impact and consequences of this crisis have greatly exceeded any economic crisis in history.
As the price of New York stocks plummeted all the way, it quickly caused the bankruptcy of a large number of industrial enterprises and farms in the United States, and commercial trade appeared to collapse. Take the automobile industry as an example. In August 1929, Meiwei’s automobile production was 440,000, but it dropped to 319,000 from January to October, and then dropped to 169,000 in November, which had fallen below 100,000 by the end of the year. In just four months, US automobile production fell by about 80%. While the industrial crisis continued to expand, the agricultural crisis also became increasingly serious. Between September and December 1929, the price of wheat in the United States fell by an average of about 4 cents, or more than 80%. The rate of decline in imports is also striking. The total value of imports in September 1929 was US$396 million, but by December it fell to US$307 million, a decrease of about 20%.
"100 dollars can buy this car. Lost everything in the stock market, urgently in need of cash." This is the result of the New York financial crisis. When the crisis came, US President Hoover was completely unprepared. He denied the seriousness of the crisis, continued to pursue traditional economic theories, and was convinced that self-regulating markets and laissez-faire policies would be enough to get the United States out of the quagmire of the crisis. However, with the passage of time, not only did the economic improvement that Hoover hoped for did not come, but the crisis became more and more serious, causing the dissatisfaction of the people to spread. Under such circumstances, although the Hoover administration has adopted partial anti-crisis measures, the results have not been great, and the situation is still deteriorating.
The development of an economic crisis to a certain extent often triggers a political crisis. Beginning in the spring of 1931, progressive organizations in the United States have repeatedly held hunger marches to put pressure on state capitals. The most serious political crisis faced by the Hoover administration was the march of unemployed veterans of the First World War to Washington in May 1932. This march was originally initiated by 200 unemployed veterans in Podron, Oregon. During their transcontinental march to Washington to petition Congress, they were warmly welcomed by thousands of American civilians. By June, more than 20,000 veterans had flooded into Washington. They demanded that Congress pay veterans' benefits immediately.
On July 28, 1932, President Hoover ordered Army Chief of Staff MacArthur and his assistant Eisenhower to command the cavalry, tanks, machine guns, and infantry to disperse the veterans and drive them out of Washington. However, the nationwide anti-hunger struggle has not subsided because of this, on the contrary, it has become more and more fierce. The Workers’ and Peasant Movements one after another have brought great impact to the political situation in the United States.