Warren G. Harding (1921- August 1923)
In the 1920 campaign, Warren G. Harding described his platform as “America First.” In a speech before the Ohio Society in New York on Jan. 6, 1920, Mr. Harding in part said: "Call it the selfishness of nationality if you will, I think it an inspiration to patriotic devotion — To safeguard America first, To stabilize America first, To prosper America first, To think of America first, To exalt America first, To live for and revere America first."
Harding, the 29th president of the United States, won an overwhelming victory in 1920 based on a vague pledge to return America to “normalcy” after the tensions of World War I and its succeeding depression.
A conservative Republican, usually content to follow the advice of party leaders, Harding signed measures that ended wartime economic controls, cut taxes, re-imposed high protective tariffs, and strictly limited immigration. In foreign affairs, he worked with his able secretary of state to gain an international agreement to limit naval armaments. A handsome and affable man who was always loyal to his friends, Harding paid a high price when some of his appointees turned out to be corrupt; however, he died of a heart attack in August 1923, before the full extent of the scandals broke.
Born in 1865 on a farm near Corsica, a small town in north-central Ohio, Warren G. Harding was the eldest of eight children. He graduated from Ohio Central College in 1882, working odd jobs to support himself and editing the school newspaper. In 1882 his parents moved to Marion, where he soon joined them. He taught one term at a rural school, briefly studied law, sold insurance, and then went to work as a reporter and general assistant at the weekly Democratic Mirror. In 1884 he and two partners purchased for $300 the Star, a four-page weekly that was close to bankruptcy.
Inside of 2 years, Harding bought out his associates. In 1884, he and two partners purchased for $300 the Marion Star, a failing four-page weekly. Harding bought out his associates, turned the paper into a daily, and became a successful publisher and prominent citizen. At first, Harding participated in all phases of newspaper production. But, as his paper turned into a daily and circulation grew along with the town, he became a prosperous publisher and influential civic leader. He held directorships in a bank, lumber company, and telephone exchange; served as trustee of a Baptist church; and figured prominently in local charities and fraternal organizations.
In 1891 Harding married Florence Kling DeWolfe, the divorced daughter of a local banker. They moved into a home they had constructed the year before in anticipation of their marriage, which proved to be childless. About this time, Harding became seriously interested in politics and joined the Republican Party.
Harding rose steadily in the State Republican Party and attracted the attention of Ohio politician-lobbyist Harry M. Daugherty. He served in the State senate for four years. From 1904 to 1906, he was lieutenant governor, but lost when he ran for governor in 1910. Elected to the United States Senate in 1914, he served there until 1921. When the principal contenders for the 1920 Republican presidential nomination deadlocked, party leaders picked Harding as the compromise candidate. During the campaign, which Daugherty managed, Harding spoke to thousands of people from the wide Colonial Revival front porch of his home. He was famous as an orator, with a powerful, expressive voice. So many people came to hear him that the family had to replace the front lawn with gravel.
Harding announced that what America wanted was “not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not agitation, but adjustment; not submergence in internationality, but sustainment in triumphant nationality.” His “Return to Normalcy” platform proved extremely popular with a people just recovering from the dislocations of World War I and the postwar depression. In November, Harding and running mate Calvin Coolidge overwhelmed Democrat James M. Cox with more than 60 percent of the popular vote. At the time, this was the largest majority any presidential candidate had ever received.
Harding’s position on the League of Nations was ambiguous during the campaign, but he took his election as a mandate against U.S. membership. He signed separate peace treaties with Germany, Austria, and Hungary, formally ending World War I for the United States. President Harding hosted the 1921-22 Washington Naval Conference. Five of the major powers in attendance—the United States, Great Britain, Japan, Italy, and France—agreed to limit naval armaments. The conference also internationalized existing territorial claims in the Pacific, guaranteed China’s territorial integrity and independence, and reaffirmed the "Open Door" trading policy. Harding also achieved international agreement to outlaw gas warfare.
In domestic policy, he left many decisions to his cabinet officers. Republican leaders in Congress easily got his approval for bills eliminating wartime controls; reducing taxes, especially those on business; creating a federal budget process; restoring the high protective tariff; and limiting immigration.
Harding was popular for his foreign policies and for his success in restoring prosperity, but by 1923 he was facing increasing problems. He lost effective control of Congress in the midterm elections of 1922. More importantly, persistent rumors of corruption in his administration began to circulate. They centered on the Veterans' Bureau, the Office of Alien Property Custodian (both under his friend, Attorney General Daugherty), and the Department of the Interior. Eventually Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall went to jail for accepting bribes in exchange for leasing naval oil reserves on public land at Teapot Dome, Wyoming (infamously known as the Teapot Dome Scandal) and Elk Hills, California to private interests. Fall was the first cabinet member ever to go to prison.
Fortunately for Harding, this did not happen until 1931. Having learned about corruption in his administration before his death, he did not live to see the full extent of the scandals become public knowledge. Returning from a trip to Alaska, Harding died of a heart attack in San Francisco on August 2, 1923.
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