VII. Conservative Laissez-faire Roaring 20's Cycle (1921-1933)

VII. Conservative Laissez-faire 

Roaring 20's Cycle

[3 Terms]

Major Parties: Democrats, Republicans
Major 3rd Parties: Progressive Party
Presidents: (R) Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover 
Vice Presidents: (R) Calvin Coolidge, Charles Dawes, Charles Curtis

Dominant Issue: Laissez-faire Capitalism (hands off the economy)

Events: Prohibition, Stock Market Crash, Harding's Death, Bonus

Army March on Washington, Radio, Naval Treaty, Teapot Dome Scandal, Invasion of Nicaragua, Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 nearly destroys New Orleans, Occupation of Dominican Republic, Blair Mountain, Greenwood Massacre, Scopes Monkey Trial, Norris-La Guardia Injunction Act

--Democrat Party Factions:

Smith

Conservative Democrats, ProgressiveDemocrats (dwindling group of Moderate and Radical Progressives in the Party) 

--Republican Party Factions: Conservative Republicans,  Progressive Republicans (dwindling group of Moderate and Radical Progressives in the Party) 

3rd Parties: Progressive Party formed by Republican

Coolidge

Governor Robert LaFollette after losing the Republican Primaries to President Coolidge. Was a Presidential level Party viewed at the time as the possible last gasp of the Progressives. In the election they won 17% of the vote and the state of Wisconsin.

End of Cycle: Depression

1920:
Republican Convention: Across the Midwest in Chicago, Illinois
Republican Ticket: Harding/Coolidge

Harding

President: U.S. Senator Warren G. Harding (Ohio) Vice President: Governor Calvin Coolidge (Massachusetts)
*Coolidge succeeded Harding who died of food poisoning after visiting Alaska
Democrat Convention: Out West in San Francisco, California
Democrat Ticket: Cox/Roosevelt
President: Governor James Cox (Ohio) Vice President: Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin Roosevelt (New York) [distant cousin of Teddy Roosevelt]

1924:

Republican Convention: Across the Midwest in Cleveland, Ohio
Republican Ticket: Coolidge/Dawes
President: President Calvin Coolidge (Massachusetts) Vice President: White House Budget Director Charles Dawes (Illinois)
Democrat Convention: Back East in New York City, New York
Democrat Ticket: Davis/Bryan
President: Former Ambassador John W. Davis

LaFollette

(West Virginia) [brother of former 1904 V.P. candidate Henry Davis] Vice President: Governor Charles Bryan (Nebraska) [brother of 3 time Presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan in 1896, 1900, 1908]

Progressive Party Convention: Across the Midwest in Cincinnati, Ohio

Progressive Party Ticket: LaFollette/Wheeler

President: Republican Governor Robert LaFollette (Wisconsin) Vice President: Democrat U.S. Senator Burton Wheeler (Montana)

1928:
Republican Convention:  Down South in Kansas City, Missouri

Hoover

Republican Ticket: Hoover/Curtis
President: U.S. Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover (California) Vice President: U.S. Senator Charles Curtis (Kansas)
Democrat Convention:   Down South in Houston, Texas
Democrat Ticket: Smith/Robinson
President: Governor Al Smith (New York) Vice President: U.S. Senator Joseph T. Robinson (Arkansas)

Hotly Contested Election of Cycle:

1924:

In the above counties map (R) Coolidge is in the Reddish colors, (D) Davis in the Blueish and (P) LaFollette in Greenish.

Both (R) Coolidge and (D) Davis were from the Conservative wings of their Parties during the heart of Laissez-faire Capitalism of the

LaFollette, who died the next year

  Roaring 20's. (R) LaFollette, after losing in a Landslide during the Republican Primaries to the incumbent through succession Coolidge, split off to form the Progressive Party--even gathering supporters together for a national convention--and drawing from what was left of both Parties of Radical Progressives and some Moderate Progressives from the last Cycle. He put a Democrat on the ticket to balance it. The Progressive Party that year faced no snipping at it's heels for votes as the Socialist Party endorsed it instead of fielding their own candidate that year. Despite LaFollette's strong showing for a 3rd Party candidacy at 17%, Coolidge still won a blowout polling in the mid 50's in a 3-way race.

The Democrat Convention that year was known as "Klanbake" for the

Davis wins the "Klanbake" Convention

influence of the KKK at the Convention that year. 

They had to vote more than 100 times to break the deadlock between W.G. McAdoo (representing Rural, Protestant Democrats who loathed the corruption of urban machine Politics like Tammany Hall Democrats of NYC) vs. Al Smith (who embraced the urban machine style -Immigrant based Catholic allied, Labor backed politics). The deadlock was finally broke when they turned to J.W. Davis as an alternative. Hundreds of Klan Knights were delegates that year.

-Note of Interest--

Curtis

Charles Curtis was the first minority to reach the White House, in this case as Vice President, on the Republican Hoover/Curtis ticket.

He was part American Indian of the Kaw tribe and born on an Indian Reservation in Kansas.