Posted on 08/27/2015 9:17:43 AM PDT by Brad from Tennessee
THE last year or so has not been kind to Warren G. Harding, who was the 29th president, from 1921 to 1923. Last summer the Library of Congress released his steamy love letters to his neighbor Carrie Phillips. More recently, some of Harding’s descendants had their DNA tested, to see if there was any truth to the claim of Nan Britton, the author of the tell-all book “The President’s Daughter,” that she had borne Harding’s child. They released the results last month. It turns out she had.
Harding’s reputation wasn’t doing well to begin with. From the first poll of historians ranking the presidents, conducted in 1948 by Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr., to the most recent one in 2015, Harding has always come in either at the very bottom of the list, or one above James Buchanan, thanks in large part to the scandals that rocked his administration, which tarnished his reputation even though he had nothing to do with them.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------snip-------------------------
Harding’s victory was a rejection of the Democrats and President Woodrow Wilson, who had promised, then failed, to keep America out of World War I. During the war, Wilson had greatly expanded the federal government, including intrusive, powerful new agencies like the War Industries Board and a government takeover of the railroads.To pay for it, the Federal Reserve inflated the money supply, causing the nation’s debt to grow from $1 billion in 1914 to $24 billion in 1920. To put a lid on dissent, Wilson introduced the nation’s first “red scare,” when many antiwar dissenters as well as socialists, anarchists and union members were jailed. A Southerner, Wilson also introduced segregation into the federal government. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Actually, one of our better presidents.
Bump
To Read Later
“To pay for it, the Federal Reserve inflated the money supply, causing the nation’s debt to grow from $1 billion in 1914 to $24 billion in 1920. “
An astounding sum back then.
When the crash and depression of 1921 happened, the Harding-Coolidge administration did nothing — and it corrected itself in short order.
Contrast that to the Hoover-FDR policies, built on Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson’s “progressive” ideas, that lengthened and deepened a major recession into The Great Depression. (Is that what FDR and his rich-boy pals wanted?)
Between Harding and Coolidge, the nation had SURPLUSES every single year they were in office. They cut taxes by 2/3s and yet the debt fell 1/3 in seven years (try that today!)
Most incredibly, unemployment was often only 4% and in 1926 reached the astoundingly, almost unbelievably low level of 1.6%. Manufacturing, wealth, savings, output all rose dramatically under Harding and Coolidge.
Had Harding been a Democrat, he would have met or exceeded the standard of their best two presidents in the 20th century who managed to make it into the mediocre category: JFK and Truman.
Wilson didn’t just promise and then fail to keep the US out of the great war.
Wilson made massive arms shipments to england, with some goofy idea that putting them in the holds of passenger ships would disguise them from the German blackade.
When Wilson’s unwitting human shields perished trying to run the blockade, he denied what he had been doing and demanded congress declare war on the Axis Powers.
Had the US not entered the war Europe might have bled itself too dry for the second round in the forties.
I have long thought that Harding got a bum rap from the usual suspects in academia. Though by no means a great president, he was not a bad one. That said I am much more a fan of his successor Calvin Coolidge.
Great post.
Democrats are racists. Always have been, always will be. They created the KKK. They created segregation. They created Jim Crow Laws. They created the Welfare State, ghettos and single mother families. They created Poll Taxes and Voting Competency Tests to keep blacks form exercising their right to vote. Once all that failed, they pay lip service to blacks only to get their votes, then forget them for 2-4 years until they need them again. They promise a New Deal but the deliver the same old crap, time and time again. When will black Americans wake up and discover they have been used, abused, lied to and in the modern day parlance PUNK'D for over a century by the DEMOCRATS they so loyally follow?...............
You dare to bring data to a gossip column??? How uncouth...:-)
So even the NY Times admits it. The Federal Reserve is the political foundation of Progressive Government. Without fiat, unlimited debt and fake interest rates, the Federal Government can in no way engage in the thousands of social engineering projects it does.
Conservatives should understand - they will lose EVERY major economic and social battle against the Left, as long as the left has the weapon of unlimited printed money
Makes sense. Woodrow Wilson was hell-bent on establishing the Fed.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.