Americans Vote for Change in 1920 as Harding Promises 'Normalcy'Written by David Jarmul 23 May 2006 MUSIC VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English on the Voice
Trang 1Americans Vote for Change in 1920 as Harding Promises 'Normalcy'
Written by David Jarmul
23 May 2006
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VOICE ONE:
THE MAKING OF A NATION a program in Special English on the Voice of America
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This is Shirley Griffith Today, Doug Johnson and I tell about America's presidential election of nineteen twenty and the man who won it, Warren Harding
VOICE TWO:
The presidential election of nineteen twenty was a turning point in American politics It ended a period of social reforms at home and an active foreign policy It began a period of conservative thinking in both the political and social life of the nation
American reporter H L Mencken described the national feeling this way: "The majority of Americans are tired of idealism They want capitalism openly and without apology."
VOICE ONE:
President Woodrow Wilson had suffered a stroke during his second term
He was very sick No one expected him to be a candidate again Yet he
refused to announce that he would not run for a third term
Woodrow Wilson had done much during his administration He helped
pass important laws dealing with trade, banking, and the rights of
workers He led the nation through the bloody world war in Europe He
tried, but failed, to have the United States join the new international
organization the League of Nations
The American people honored Wilson for his intelligence and ideas But
they were tired of his policies of social change And they did not want to
be involved in international problems anymore
VOICE TWO:
The leaders of President Wilson's Democratic Party understood the feelings of the people They knew they had little chance of winning the presidential election if they nominated a candidate of change
Delegates to the democratic nominating convention voted forty-four times before agreeing on a candidate They chose the governor of the state of Ohio, James Cox
The Republican Party also had a difficult time at its nominating convention Four men wanted to be president The delegates voted six times None of the men gained enough support So, several party
Woodrow Wilson
Trang 2leaders met in private They agreed that only one man a compromise candidate could win the support of the convention He was a senator from the state of Ohio, Warren Harding
The delegates voted ten more times before choosing Harding as their candidate for president For vice president, they chose Calvin Coolidge of Massachusetts
VOICE ONE:
Warren Harding had owned a newspaper in Ohio People advised him to enter politics, because he was such a good public speaker
During the campaign, he promised lower taxes, less immigration, and more aid to farmers He called for "normalcy" a new period of peace and quiet, with few changes That is what the voters wanted to hear in nineteen twenty Warren Harding won the election with sixty-eight percent of the popular vote
In his first act as president, he invited people to visit the White House He permitted them to walk in the garden The act was a sign The government seemed to be returning to the people
VOICE TWO:
Warren Harding is remembered mostly for two events One was a successful international conference The other was a shameful national incident
After World War One, Britain, Japan, and the United States expanded their navies They built bigger and better ships Many members of the United States Congress worried about the cost They also worried about increased political tension in Asia They asked President Harding to organize a
conference to discuss these issues
VOICE ONE:
The conference was held in Washington in November, nineteen twenty-one President Harding invited representatives from the major naval powers of the time: Britain, Japan, France, and Italy He also invited representatives from countries with interests in Asia: China, Portugal, Belgium, and the Netherlands He did not invite the new Soviet leaders in Russia
Mr Harding's Secretary of State, Charles Evans Hughes, spoke He offered the conference a detailed plan to reduce the size of the world's major navies
He proposed that the world's strongest nations should stop building warships for ten years He also proposed that Britain, Japan, and the United States should destroy some ships to make their navies smaller immediately
VOICE TWO:
Delegates to the conference debated the plan for three months Japan demanded, and won, the right to have more ships But the final agreement was very close to the one proposed by Secretary Hughes The conference was not a complete success
Warren Harding
Trang 3For example, it did not prevent countries from building some kinds of ships These ships would prove important in the second world war Also, it did not create ways to protect China and the islands in the South Pacific Ocean from Japanese expansion Yet the naval treaty of nineteen twenty-one was the first in which the world's strongest countries agreed to reduce the size of their armed forces Most people thought it was a good treaty
VOICE ONE:
The second thing for which President Harding is remembered is the Teapot Dome scandal It involved the mis-use of underground oil owned by the federal government
Warren Harding was an honest man But he did not have a strong mind of his own He was easily influenced And he often accepted bad advice He explained the problem with these words:
"I listen to one side, and they seem right Then I listen to the other side, and they seem just as right I know that somewhere there is a man who knows the truth But I do not know where to find him." VOICE TWO:
President Harding appointed several men of great ability to his cabinet They included Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes, Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, and Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover However, some of his appointments were dishonest men One was Interior Secretary Albert Fall He was responsible for the Teapot Dome scandal
Secretary Fall gave a private company the right to take oil from land owned by the federal
government In return, the company gave him money and cattle
The oil was not supposed to be taken from the ground It was supposed to be saved for the United States navy to use in an emergency Private oil companies and many politicians opposed this policy They said saving the oil was unnecessary
VOICE ONE:
Albert Fall opposed the policy when he was a member of the Senate When he became Interior Secretary, his department took control of the lands containing the underground oil Then he permitted private companies to use the land for a period of time During that time, the companies could take out the oil
Some of the oil was in the western state of Wyoming The rock mass on the surface looked like a container for making tea So, the area was called Teapot Dome When the Senate uncovered Secretary Fall's wrong-doing, the press quickly called the incident the Teapot Dome scandal
The Senate investigation led to several court cases which lasted throughout the nineteen-twenties Secretary Fall was found guilty of mis-using his government position He was sentenced to prison for one year
VOICE TWO:
President Harding did not live to see the end of the Teapot Dome incident In the summer of nineteen twenty-three, he made a political trip to Alaska and western states On the way home, he became sick while in San Francisco He died of a heart attack
Trang 4Vice President Calvin Coolidge was in the northeastern state of Vermont when he heard that President Harding had died Coolidge's father was a local court official there He gave the oath of office to his son That is how Calvin Coolidge became the thirtieth president of the United States
The story of his administration will be the subject of our program next week
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VOICE ONE:
You have been listening to the VOA Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION Your announcers were Shirley Griffith and Doug Johnson Our program was written by David Jarmul Join
us again next week at this same time for another report about the history of the United States
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