In the course of six months after the Armistice, about two-thirds of the troops were brought back, leaving behind them enormous stores, large parts of which were sold at heavy discounts to European Governments. General Pershing, the only military man of high rank whose achievements caught the public eye, received the reward of the permanent rank of general. By 1920 the only American troops left in Europe were an Army of Occupation of about 17,000. In Sept. 1919 the American Legion incorporated by Act of Congress was formed to look after the interests of the ex-soldiers.
Two constitutional amendments crystallized some of the results of the war. The various prohibition measures passed by Congress, on the ground that the use of liquor impeded the success of the war, were powerful aids to the general arguments against liquor. Many of the states had absolutely prohibited the sale of liquor and on Jan. 16 1919 the 18th Amendment, prohibiting the manufacture, sale, transportation or gift of intoxicants (submitted in 1917) was ratified by 36 states (eventually 45 states). It went into final effect Jan. 15 1920, enforced by the Volstead Act (passed Oct. 28 1919, over the President's veto), which declared all liquors containing more than one-half of 1% of alcohol to be intoxicating and therefore prohibited (see Prohibition).
The active war patriotism and service of women, together with the votes they already enjoyed, caused Congress June 1919 to submit the 19th Constitutional Amendment, annulling all sex restrictions of suffrage. It was warmly supported by the former Progressives and by President Wilson, received its 36th ratification Aug. 24 1920, and went into force August 26.
Railways and telephones were restored to their owners. Federal control over fuel stopped; but the abnormal number of executives and clerks in Washington and elsewhere remained under pay. Congress provided for the men disabled in the war by establishing hospitals and by giving to the weak and maimed an opportunity to acquire some trade or calling by which they could make a living. This system enlarged the functions of the Federal Vocation Board created by the Vocational Education Act of Feb. 23 1917. Trade and oversea transportation were discouraged by the financial conditions of the European nations that had been accustomed to trade with the United States. All the war countries in Europe except Great Britain were on a paper-money basis, and a dollar in gold in Oct. 1920 would buy 15 French francs, 26 Italian lire or 71 German marks; even the English sovereign was as compared with the dollar at a discount of 25%. These conditions demoralized international exchange. Transportation in the United States was much disturbed because of the great increase in the money cost of labour and supplies. Feb. 28 1920 Congress passed the Esch-Cummins Transportation Act for the return of the railways to their owners, with certain guarantees of compensation for a period of six months and a stipulation directing the Interstate Commerce Commission to make rates yielding a return of 5½% to 6% for a period of two years. Sea traffic was confused, and in 1921 became almost profitless because of the increased number of ships which were competing for a decreasing amount of business.
The most serious trouble was with labour. Railwaymen and many other skilled employees received wages amounting in some cases to more than double the figures of 1914, and naturally were unwilling to relinquish their advantages. Whenever there was an attempt to reduce wages there was a strike. New York and other ports were several times almost paralysed by strikes of longshoremen or officers and crews of ships. In Aug. 1919, under President Wilson's direction, the Government threatened to use military force to break a railway strike. The police force of Boston struck Sept. 9 1919 as a protest against an order not to join the American Federation of Labor. The strikers stood by and saw without protest scenes of riot and pillage. They were all dismissed and Governor Coolidge of Massachusetts, in replying to a telegram from Samuel Gompers, declared that “there is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, any time.” In 1916 there was a strike of 600,000 bituminous coal-miners in the west. Notwithstanding conferences and boards and mutual understanding there was no national or state machinery that could effectively deal with these troubles.
Political Overturn of 1920.—As the months passed, dissatisfaction grew. The soldiers received in many states a money bonus varying in amount, and demanded a similar bonus from Congress. The general public complained bitterly against the “high cost of living,” while many corporations continued to make war profits in time of peace. Salaried men, people living on investments, holders of life-insurance policies and depositors in savings banks, saw their incomes and expectations reduced by the fall in the purchasing power of the dollar. The Democratic party was paralysed by internal difficulties over the Peace Treaty and by lack of the trusted leadership of the President. The Republicans had broken the foreign policy of the Administration and were in possession of a majority of both Houses, but had no fixed policy of foreign relations or reconstruction.
In the winter and spring of 1920 Presidential candidates began to develop. General Leonard Wood, formerly chief-of-staff of the army, who had been refused a foreign command during the war, was put forward by a large group of Republicans. Governor Lowden of Illinois had a considerable following. A movement was made in favour of Hoover, well known for his services on the Commission for Relief in Belgium and other relief agencies and also as Federal Food Administrator. When the Convention assembled at Chicago June 9 1920, it proved to be impossible to nominate any of the three, and Senator Harding of Ohio received the nomination backed by a strong group of stand-patters to whom, however, he seems to have made no pledges as to policy or appointment. Governor Coolidge of Massachusetts was put on the ticket as vice-president.
The Democratic Convention held at San Francisco was confronted with a similar difficulty. Woodrow Wilson had already served two terms and was known to be physically unable to perform the duties of the office. The leading candidates were McAdoo of New York, formerly Secretary of the Treasury, and Attorney-General Palmer of Pennsylvania; but after many ballots the nomination went to Governor Cox of Ohio, a man little known in national affairs, with Franklin D. Roosevelt, a cousin of the former president, as vice-president. The Republicans had the lead in the campaign, in which for the first time women were eligible to vote in every state. The result was a complete triumph for the Republicans, who elected Harding by a popular majority of about seven million and an electoral majority of 404 against 127 for Cox, besides securing solid majorities in both Houses of Congress.
March 4 1921 Woodrow Wilson accompanied the President-Elect to the Capitol as the last act of his official life. He had been president for eight years, during six of which he was the undisputed leader of his party and of the nation. Except for a few not very important measures passed over his veto, up to the summer of 1919 he had his way with Congress and with the people. He was responsible for a group of important revenue, banking and labour laws. He had a great hold on the affections and opinions of millions of his fellow citizens, and maintained the country's dignity in war and peace. He had the people behind him in entering the war. He stood behind the measures for organizing and transporting millions of American soldiers. For a time in Paris he was the foremost man in the world, and he succeeded in inducing foreign statesmen, not much interested in, and at heart disliking, the project, to accept a League of Nations. At the height of his career he suddenly lost control as war president of the whole country, was no longer accepted as unquestioned head of his party, and ceased to be the one man who could appeal from Congress to the people. Before illness disabled him, he had already lost his hold upon the minds of the majority of his fellow countrymen.
His work was transferred to a new man less experienced in politics, for a short time a quiet member of the U.S. Senate whose task it was to take over the discordant elements and build out of them a national policy. President Harding accepted this new responsibility and began his administration under favouring auspices. An excellent impression was created through
