The 1920s Government, Politics, and Law: Overview

At the beginning of the new decade, America was in a position to pursue world leadership through international trade and the spread of democracy. But instead of forming political and economic alliances with its allies from World War I (1914–18), America retreated into isolationism, avoiding entanglements in international affairs. The horror of World War I had clouded many Americans' vision of working with other countries, and political policy started to close off America from the rest of the world.

Seeking means to keep foreign elements from crossing American borders, the government restricted immigration. Whereas immigrants had been welcomed during the 1910s as a fresh stock of workers who could be "Americanized" to become good citizens, foreigners were now "dangers" to be kept away from the United States. Immigrants were viewed as competitors for jobs. They were shunned as political or religious outsiders, and even feared as radicals who threatened the American lifestyle.

On the domestic front, people were becoming more distrustful of others whose religions or cultures differed from their own. This growing provincialism (a limited or unsophisticated outlook) placed factions against one another. White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs) clashed with blacks, Catholics, and Jews. The white separatist supremacist group known as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was revived, and wreaked havoc among minorities in the South, particularly African Americans. As provincialism spread, the mainly Protestant Prohibitionists (those who supported outlawing the manufacture, distribution, and consumption of alcoholic beverages) from rural areas viewed big-city dwellers with fear and distrust. Many of these blind hatreds spilled over into the political arena.

The shift in Americans' attitudes caused a similar shift in political power. By the end of the 1910s, Democratic President Woodrow Wilson had lost party support in a Congress which had become strongly Republican. The situation made it impossible for Wilson's post-World War I policies to be enacted. As the 1920s unfolded, Washington D.C. became a Republican stronghold. Republican presidential candidate Warren G. Harding won a landslide victory in 1920. Upon Harding's sudden death in 1923, Vice President Calvin Coolidge assumed the presidency. His election to a full term as president in 1924 assured the continuance of Republican Party policy. When Coolidge stepped aside in 1928, he paved the way for fellow Republican Herbert Hoover to take over the presidency. Throughout the decade, the Republicans held majorities in both houses of Congress.

The Republicans established a probusiness approach that lasted throughout the decade. Government intervention in business matters was minimized. The federal government cut back on spending and allowed generous tax cuts. In general, the policies pleased the public. One exception was the agricultural community, whose members suffered substantially from lack of federal support.

With close ties between big business and government, scandals and corruption marred the 1920s. President Harding's attorney general Harry Daugherty left office over allegations of corruption, and then the director of the Veterans' Bureau stepped down over charges of fraud. The decade's most sensational scandal was the Teapot Dome affair, in which Albert Fall, Harding's secretary of the interior, took bribes in exchange for awards of oil leases. In 1923, he and Secretary of the Navy Edwin Denby resigned in disgrace over this matter.

The greatest example of the dramatic change in America during the 1920s is Prohibition. The enactment of the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1919 forbade the sale or use of alcohol in America. During the 1920s, Prohibition split the country into opposing factions: those who favored a "dry" lifestyle or those who condemned it. Prohibition led to the underground sale of alcoholic beverages through organized crime syndicates. The illegal trade in "bootleg gin" made gangsters as famous as movie stars and turned mob bosses into millionaires.