Warren Harding Presidency

The First World War significantly changed the relationship between business and government. World War I dampened the enthusiasm of the Progressive Era and ushered in a decade of economic boom and lessened regulations. In 1920, President Woodrow Wilson was in failing health, opening up a viable path for Republicans to take back the White House from the progressives of the 1910s. The Republicans, now led by the conservative, pro-business wing of the party, nominated Ohio Senator Warren G. Harding as their candidate for president. On election day, he won in a massive victory with nearly sixty percent of the popular vote. His presidency began the Republican Ascendency and leadership that would last until 1932.

Warren G Harding's Presidency: Facts

• Term: March 4, 1921, to August 2, 1923
• Party: Republican
• Vice President: Calvin Coolidge
• Election Opponent: Governor James M. Cox of Ohio
• Other Offices Held: State Senator in Ohio, U.S. Senator for Ohio
• Death: Harding died while president of a heart attack in San Francisco on August 2, 1923.

Major Events During Warren Harding's Presidency

Early in Harding’s presidency, there were several significant issues, both domestic and foreign, that had to be addressed. There were issues dealing with the end of World War I and U.S. interventions in Latin America.

Fig. 1 - President Warren G. Harding.

Warren G Harding's Presidency Issues: Foreign

The first issue that Harding’s Administration had to deal with was formally ending the U.S. involvement in World War I. Though the fighting ended in 1919, President Wilson had pushed his Fourteen Point agenda and the League of Nations during negotiations with the Central and Allied powers. However, a Republican-controlled congress did not want to join the League of Nations as they felt it would open up more opportunities for the U.S. to be pulled into European affairs. Thus, the U.S. did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles.

Harding moved to end the U.S. involvement officially. Harding doubled down on his view that the U.S. should not join the League of Nations and passed the Knox-Porter Resolution, formally declaring the U.S. at peace with the Central Powers. From this vantage, Harding worked with Germany, Austria, and Hungary for separate treaties and reparations.

Reducing the Military

As World War I officially ended, Harding shifted his focus on domestic issues connected to the War. Following the war, there was a mild economic recession, and Harding’s Administration looked to balance the federal budget, which had become bloated with defense spending.

Harding’s primary target was the expanded U.S. Navy. During the war, the U.S. had purchased and built over one thousand vessels, many of which were either now obsolete or in disrepair. At first, Harding attempted to work out deals that championed the Republican pro-business views and sell off the ships. However, few ships would bring re-sale values close to their actual costs, so congress authorized a bill to scrap most of the unneeded vessels.

In addition to reducing the size of the Navy, Harding began reducing the size of the standing army. The U.S. had drafted and trained nearly 2.5 million men into soldiers at the war's end. Harding started the process of demilitarization to reduce the size of the army back to the pre-war numbers, closer to 250,000.

Latin America

When Harding took office, the U.S. had troops in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Cuba. Again, Harding began to withdraw U.S. forces to reduce the military size, restrict budgets, and improve relations with these countries. Harding eventually kept troops in Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic, though at reduced numbers, and he withdrew entirely from Cuba in 1921.

In 1921, Harding got approval from congress for the Thomson-Urrutia Treaty. This treaty with Columbia was a settlement agreement for the U.S. involvement in the Panamanian revolution in 1903, which allowed the U.S. to purchase and build the Panama Canal. The treaty paid Columbia $25 million.

Warren G. Harding’s Presidency Issues: Domestic

The primary influence on the domestic issues addressed in Harding’s Administration was the economic recession coming out of World War I. This economic downturn influenced financial, business, and infrastructure policy.

Fig. 2 - President Harding appointed Andrew Mellon as Secretary of the Treasury. He would serve in this post until 1932. It was Mellon's proposed tax cuts that Harding pushed to congress.

Tax Cuts

One of the first domestic issues Harding tackled was sweeping cuts to the income tax rate and abolishing corporate profits tax. After several rounds of debates in Congress, his tax cuts were passed in November 1921.

The Automobile, The Radio, and the Airplane

War, especially a global war, tends to bring about rapid technological innovation. World War I brought about the greater use of the automobile, the expanded use of radio, and the use of airplanes. After the war’s end, these technologies began to integrate into civilian life.

In a policy initiative designed to modernize the United States, Harding moved to build and prepare the infrastructure to support the growing use of automobiles in the nation, regulating radio broadcasting and attempting to establish aeronautic regulation.

With Herbert Hoover as Secretary of Commerce taking the lead, Harding passed the Federal Highway Act of 1921, which granted the federal government nearly $160 million to improve the road system in the U.S. In that same year, Harding attempted to regulate the radio broadcast industry. Though Congress did not pass regulations, Harding could get broadcasters to license radio frequencies voluntarily.

With aviation entering the commercial sector following World War I, Harding wanted to promote and regulate the industry for safety, inspection, and licensing. Under Harding’s administration, national conferences were held to discuss and codify some of these regulations, but the existing industry regulation would not happen until 1926.

Fig. 3 - Senate appointed a committee to investigate the Teapot Dome Scandal, which ended with the indictment of Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall.

Warren G Harding's Presidential Accomplishments

Though his term as president would be cut short due to his death in August 1923, Harding’s administration accomplished several major policy initiatives and appointments and created a foundation for the next decade of Republican presidential leadership in the White House. Some of these accomplishments were:

• The Knox-Porter Resolutions and the peace treaties with the Central Powers (1921)

• Disarmament of the U.S. military (1921)

• Withdraw of U.S. Forces from Latin America and the Thomson-Urrutia Treaty (1921)

• Mellon Tax Cuts (1921)

• Federal Highway Act of 1921

• The successful injunction of the Great Railroad Strike of 1922

• Reducing the daily work hours of steel mill workers from 12 hours to 8 hours.

• Released Socialist Eugene Debs from political prison, commuting his sentence in 1921

• Appointed 4 Supreme Court Justices: Edward D. White, George Sutherland, Pierce Butler, and Edward T. Sanford.

Warren G. Harding Presidency: Significance

Harding’s presidency established the policy and platform for how the conservative, pro-business Republican section of the Republican party would control the White House from 1921 to 1932. Harding’s presidency set a foundation for isolationism by withdrawing troops from Latin America and keeping the U.S. out of the League of Nations. A policy that would continue throughout the 1920s.

Harding also championed that less government in business is good for business, and more government business is good for the government. Though there would be some benefits to the increased relationship between government and industry, it often led to corruption, such as the Teapot Dome scandal and the prevalence and predatory practices of monopolies.

Harding’s presidency became a proto blueprint for the Coolidge and Hoover Administrations. The Republican ascendency ended with the stock market collapse in 1929 and the election of Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932.