Normalcy and woodrow wilson essays

Normalcy and woodrow wilson essays The idealism of Woodrow Wilsons politics and the strain of World War 1 had the nation wishing for less turbulent, more normal times. While running for President in 1920, Warren G. Harding played on these desires and came up the idea of a return to normalcy. Harding said, Americas present need is not heroics but healing, not nostrums but normalcy; not revolution but restoration. (Faragher p. 669) The idea of a less complicated life, without war, union strikes, factories and feminism, was so appealing to the nation that Harding won the election by the largest margin in history to that date even though he did not actively campaign for President. The three Republican presidents of the 1920's, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover, shared the conservative philosophy that less federal government was good for the country and that a close business- federal government relationship was good for the economy. They believed that knowledgeable businesses, encouraged by the government would act in the public interest. (Faragher p 690) The domestic policy of normalcy towards business was to leave business alone and not interfere with additional regulations. This philosophy was hard on organized labor. Union membership declined during the 1920's. During World War I, the government in an effort to provide for the war had supported unions, now during normalcy it, along with the Supreme Court, were unsympathetic toward the unions. Companies had free rein to limit union membership. This was accomplished in several ways: by calling for an open shop, where even if a worker did not belong to the union he/she would still receive the benefits of the union. This effectively discouraged new workers from joining the union. Employers also tried to gain employee loyalty and discourage union membership by offering the employees stock-options, in ...