Big Business, Black Fords and Easy Credit

In a retreat from Progressive reform, Conservative Republicans sought to serve the public good less
by direct government action and more through cooperation with big business.

REVIEW Intolerance and Nativism

Three Republican presidents—Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover— steered the nation on the roller-coaster ride of the 1920s, a thrilling ascent from the depths of post– World War I recession to breathtaking heights of prosperity, followed by a terrifying crash into the Great Depression. In a retreat from progressive reform, Republicans sought to serve the public good less by direct government action and more through cooperation with big business. Some corrupt officials served themselves as well, exploiting public resources for personal profit. Meanwhile, the United States retreated from its brief internationalist fling during World War I and resumed with a vengeance its traditional foreign policy of military unpreparedness and political isolationism

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POLITICS of the 1920’s: Why was there a turning away from the governmental activism of the Progressive Era?

A Review of Presidential Scandals 

Point #1 People looked for “return to normalcy” after sacrifices and hardships of World War I.

Point #2 Many believed in limited role in foreign affairs and international efforts to prevent war

Point #3 Supported interests of big business through tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy and through high tariffs; believed government should not intervene in the economy

Point #4 Many believed government should NOT act to protect or assist individuals
 

Point #5 Economy grew rapidly from 1920–1929. and Republicans won three elections with conservative views.

A turning away from the governmental activism of the Progressive Era?

In the first years of the 1920s, the Supreme Court axed progressive legislation. It killed a federal child-labor law, stripped away many of labor’s hard won gains, and rigidly restricted government intervention in the economy.

Lochner vs. New York (1905)

The case involved a New York law that limited the number of hours that a baker could work each day to ten, and limited the number of hours that a baker could work each week to 60. The Supreme Court rejected the argument that the law was necessary to protect the health of bakers.

Muller v. Oregon (1908)

The case upheld Oregon state restrictions on the working hours of women as justified by the special state interest in protecting women's health. The ruling had important implications for protective labor legislation.   However, many equal-rights feminists opposed the ruling, since it allowed laws based on stereotyped gender roles that restricted women's rights and financial independence. 

Adkins v. Children's Hospital (1923)

A Supreme Court opinion holding that federal minimum wage legislation for women was an unconstitutional infringement of liberty of contract, as protected by the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment.