Warren G. Harding Accomplishments/Scandals
Warren G. Harding was the 29th president of the United States. In his campaign he promised America a return to normalcy. He didn’t agree with the former president Woodrow Wilson on joining the League of Nations, but he helped the US sign peace treaties with Germany and Austria during his presidency. When he was elected he appointed William Howard Taft as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. President Harding cut taxes in order to help get out of the Depression of 1920-1921 and also helped the unemployment rate and inflation go down. So the wages, profits, and productivity made great gains in the 1920’s. Warren helped establish the Bureau of Veterans Affair which helped serve the needs of veterans. President Harding also helped end the Bolshevik Scare, a fear of a communism revolution in America, by releasing Eugene Debs from prison. In 1921 President Warren Harding signed the Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act which was the first major social welfare program, it funded 3,000 health centers in the US.
President Harding would put people who he felt helped him win his campaign in high positions in his cabinet. A lot of these people were from Ohio and they became known as the Ohio Gang. The Ohio Gang is known for their scandals, the biggest scandal was the Teapot Dome Scandal. The Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall leased land in Wyoming that was oil-rich to companies in order to get personal loans. Another scandal was when Harry Daugherty was accepting bribes from bootleggers. The only scandal uncovered during Warren’s life was the Veteran’s Bureau scandal, Charles Forbes was in charge of ensuring that hospitals were built in the US to help WWI veterans, while doing so he defrauded the government of $225 million. Harding reformed the Veteran’s Bureau in March of 1923.
President Harding had a heart attack and died on August 2, 1923.
I don’t think Warren Harding was a good president, he didn't hire people who were qualified for the high positions of a president’s cabinet, and the Ohio Gang scandals is another reason that I don’t think he was a good president, he did do a good job of getting the US out of the 1920-1921 depression though.
http://www.biography.com/people/warren-g-harding-9328336?page=3\
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_G._Harding
Comments
Very well done Marcus!