The Road to Normalcy Bagby, Wesley M. Published by Johns Hopkins University Press Bagby, Wesley M. The Road to Normalcy: The Presidential Campaign and Election of 1920. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1962. Project MUSE. doi:10.1353/book.68463. https://muse.jhu.edu/. For additional information about this book https://muse.jhu.edu/book/68463 [ Access provided at 25 Sep 2021 18:49 GMT with no institutional affiliation ] This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. HOPKINS OPEN PUBLISHING ENCORE EDITIONS Wesley M. Bagby The Road to Normalcy The Presidential Campaign and Election of 1920 Open access edition supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities / Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program. © 2019 Johns Hopkins University Press Published 2019 Johns Hopkins University Press 2715 North Charles Street Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363 www.press.jhu.edu The text of this book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. CC BY-NC-ND ISBN-13: 978-1-4214-3561-9 (open access) ISBN-10: 1-4214-3561-6 (open access) ISBN-13: 978-1-4214-3560-2 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-4214-3560-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-1-4214-3562-6 (electronic) ISBN-10: 1-4214-3562-4 (electronic) This page supersedes the copyright page included in the original publication of this work. THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES IN HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCE Under the Direction of the Departments of History, Political Economy, and Political Science SERIES LXXX NUMBER 1 (1962) THE ROAD TO NORMALCY THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN AND ELECTION OF 1920 TI-IE ROAD TO NORMALCY THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN AND •ELECTION OF 1920 BY WESLEY M. BAGBY BALTIMORE THE JOHNS HOPKINS PRESS 1962 © 1962 by The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore 18, Md. Printed in the United States of America by J. H. Furst Company Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 62-14361 This book has been brought to publication with the assistance of a grant from the Ford Foundation. PREFACE The election of 1920 was one of the most momentous in Ameri­ can history, with great impact on both foreign and domestic policies. One result was American rejection of membership in the League of Nations. Another was the reversal of the Progressive Movement. The last presidential election before World War I, that of 1912, in which Taft, Wilson, and Roosevelt all championed reform, was a high point of the Progressive Movement. Eight years later, in sharp contrast, the election marked the " advent of the con­ servative reaction." Wartime social and intellectual trends were so parallel to the political reaction that the relationship may profit­ ably be examined. I wish to acknowledge the help of Professor Allan Nevins of Columbia University, Dr. Arthur S. Link of Princeton University, Dr. Festus P. Summers and Dr. John A. Caruso of West Virginia University, and Dr. Donald S. Barnhardt of San Francisco State College, all of whom have read the manuscript in various stages of its preparation. Mr. Homer Cummings and Mr. Will Hays, who were national chairmen of the Democratic and Republican parties in 1920, were most helpful and generous with their time. I also wish to thank Mr. Francis H. McAdoo for permitting access to the William Gibbs McAdoo Papers, and Mr. Ray Baker Harris for allowing me to use his collection of Warren G. Harding materials. Miss Katherine Brand and Dr. C. Percy Powell of the Manuscripts Division of the Library of Congress gave much friendly and conscientious aid, and I wish to thank those who have been generous in permitting the quotations which are acknowledged in the footnotes. W.M.B. CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE 7 INTRODUCTION 13 I. REPUBLICAN PRECONVENTION POLITICS Roosevelt's Successor: General Leonard Wood . 25 Hiram Johnson 31 Frank 0. Lowden 33 Warren G. Harding 36 Herbert Hoover . 42 Calvin Coolidge . 45 Henry Cabot Lodge 46 William C. Sproul 47 Henry Allen . 48 Butler, Hughes, Taft, and Pershing . 48 Republican Primaries 49 The Campaign Fund Investigation . 52 II. DEMOCRATIC PRECONVENTION POLITICS Wilson, a Third Term, and the " Solemn Referendum " 54 William Gibbs McAdoo 63 A. Mitchell Palmer . 71 James M. Cox 73 William Jennings Bryan 76 Dark Horses . 78 Ill. THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION The Lines Are Drawn at Chicago 79 Smoke-filled Rooms 85 The Smoke Clears 92 Reaction . 96 The Coolidge Stampede 100 IV. THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION The Democrats Espouse Principles 102 The Democratic Nominations 110 Wilson's Third Term Bid 117 The Selection of Franklin D. Roosevelt 120 V. THE CAMPAIGN The Republican Battle Plan 123 Battle lines of the Democracy 127 The Scandal of " Slush Funds " 132 Harding Beclouds the league Issue . 134 Cox, Wilson, and a league Crusade . 141 Progressivism 146 \'v'ilsonism 150 The " liquor Issue " 151 The Woman Vote 152 Race 152 Hyphenated Americans 153 labor 155 The Press 155 The Recession 156 The Demand for Change 157 Predictions 158 The Returns 159 Interpretations 160 The Defeat of Progressivism 161 NOTES• 168 INDEX . 191 THE ROAD TO NORMALCY THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN AND ELECTION OF 1920 INTRODUCTION The 1920 election was unusually decisive. Coming two years after the end of World War I, it answered two important ques­ tions, one in domestic and the other in foreign policy. The first was whether America would resume the Progressive Movement after its interruption by the war. The second was whether United States foreign policy would continue to reflect the idealistic inter­ nationalism that contributed to entry into the war and to the creation of the League of Nations. Both answers were negative, but the story of how they were made is no less instructive. This study describes the process and attempts to analyze the factors that contributed to these momentous shifts in national policy. THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT In a favorable setting of abundant resources, indulgent govern­ ment, prosperous farmers, good wages, and a continent-wide market, American industry grew more rapidly after the Civil War than that of any other nation. Value added by manufacturing, somewhat over one-half billion dollars in 1869, multiplied to nearly $5½ billion by 1899 and almost doubled again to $9½ billion by 1914. In addition to a rising standard of living, this massive industrialization brought certain social dislocations. Large corporations prevailed over small businesses, and the growing industrial output came to be produced by an ever di­ minishing number of giant corporations. Over 80 per cent of the production of twenty-six products such as tobacco, sugar, whisky, matches, and lead, and over 70 per cent of steel fell under the control of single corporations. John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil gained control of 90 per cent of America's oil refining. Furthermore, banking groups found that they could exercise in­ visible government over even vaster segments of the national economy. By 1913 J. P. Morgan's group was represented on the board of 112 corporations. 13 14 THE ROAD TO NORMALCY This centralization of control over industry occurred because it rationalized economic processes, was more efficient, and there­ fore more profitable than myriad small, desperately competing enterprises. In some cases it resulted in lower prices. But con­ solidation had other consequences that seemed to threaten the American free-enterprise and democratic system. Such giant corporations were in a position to hold their prices far above costs, to set low prices to producers of raw materials, and effectively to combat labor's demands for higher wages. Consequently, the benefits of America's industrialization flowed largely to businessmen, particularly big-businessmen, and income became ever more unequally distributed. By 1910 one per cent of the population owned 47 per cent of the nation's wealth. It soon became evident that such inequalities of property could produce civil inequities, and that great wealth could exert great political power. By bribery, and by financing newspapers and political parties, the great financial interests were often able to sway public policy to their private gain, and to the detriment of the common man. Thus, in a Jefferson-Jackson nightmare come to life, centralization of control of the nation's economy into the hands of a few threatened not only free enterprise but democracy itself. The "Progressive Movement" is a name given to the great wave of reform that dominated the American scene from 1901 through 1917. The reformers had two main goals. First, they sought politi­ cal reforms which would make the government more democratic and more responsive to the common man. Once this was achieved, they would use governmental power to protect the common man from exploitation by big business, and as an "instrument of social welfare." The most striking feature of the Progressive Movement was its wide pervasiveness. Progressives were numerous in all classes, all sections of the country, and in both major parties. Farmers and workingmen naturally favored progressivism because it backed most of the demands of the old Populist party and the labor unions. But these groups, though numerous, were unable to take the concerted action necessary to win political power. Essential to the success of the Progressive Movement was the conversion of a large section of the middle and upper income groups to the cause of reform. INTRODUCTION 15 Many small-businessmen feared the trusts that threatened to destroy them, and some big-businessmen felt that moderate social legislation was necessary to head off a dangerous growth of radi­ calism among the workers. But, important also were the idealists who enlisted middle-class support for the movement in the name of humanitarianism. In the churches arose a social gospel move­ ment that taught that the ethical sayings of Jesus should be ac­ cepted as a practical guide in political, economic, and social matters.