Warren G. Harding

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Warren G. Harding bigraphy, stories - American president, businessman

Warren G. Harding : biography

02 November 1865 – 02 August 1923

Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th President of the United States (1921–1923), a Republican from Ohio who served in the Ohio Senate and then in the United States Senate where he protected alcohol interests and moderately supported women’s suffrage. He was the first incumbent U.S. senator and (self-made) newspaper publisher to be elected U.S. president.. POTUS, Simmons, May 16, 2009, Retrieved December 22, 2010Russell, p. 423.

Harding was the compromise candidate in the 1920 election, when he promised the nation a return to "normalcy", in the form of a strong economy, independent of foreign influence. Harding and the Republican Party had desired to move away from progressivism that dominated the early 20th century. He defeated Democrat and fellow Ohioan James M. Cox in the largest presidential popular vote landslide (60.32% to 34.15%) since popular vote totals were first recorded.Sinclair, pp. 23, 35–40.

Harding not only put the "best minds" on his cabinet including Herbert Hoover as secretary of commerce and Charles Evans Hughes as secretary of state, but also rewarded his friends and contributors, known as the Ohio Gang, with powerful positions. Cases of corruption, including the notorious Teapot Dome scandal, arose resulting in prison terms for his appointees.Sinclair, pp. 261–263. He was a keen poker player, who once gambled away on a single hand an entire set of White House china dating back to Benjamin Harrison. Harding did manage to clean up corruption in the Veterans BureauThe Helena Daily Independent (March 19, 1923), "Veterans’ Bureau Probe", p. 4

Domestically, Harding signed the first federal child welfare program, dealt with striking mining and railroad workers, including supporting an 8-hour work day, and attended an unemployment rate drop by half.Romer, Christina "Spurious Volatility in Historical Unemployment Data", The Journal of Political Economy, February 1986. He also set up the Bureau of the Budget to prepare U.S. federal budget. Harding advocated an anti-lynching bill to curb violence against African Americans; it failed to pass. In foreign affairs, Harding spurned the League of Nations, and having signed a separate peace treaty with Germany and Austria. Harding promoted a successful world naval program.

In August 1923, Harding suddenly collapsed and died. His administration’s many scandals have historically earned Harding a low ranking as president,Ingalls (1974), p 274 but there has been growing recognition of his fiscal responsibility and endorsement of African-American civil rights.Wilson Quarterly (Winter 2012), "Harding’s Hidden Halo" In 1998, journalist Carl S. Anthony stated Harding was a "modern figure" who embraced technology and culture and who was sensitive to the plights of minorities, women, and labor.Anthony (July–August 1998), "The Most Scandalous President"

Historical ranking as president

Harding traditionally has been ranked as one of the worst presidents. In a 1948 poll conducted by Harvard University historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr., the first notable survey of scholars’ opinions of the presidents, Harding ranked last among the 29 presidents considered. In a 1962 poll conducted by Schlesinger, he was ranked last again, 31 out of 31. His son, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., conducted another poll in 1996; once again, Harding was last, ranked 39 out of 39. In 2010, a Siena College Research Institute survey of 238 presidential scholars ranked Harding 41st among the 43 men who had been president, between Franklin Pierce (40th) and James Buchanan (42nd); Andrew Johnson was adjudged the worst. Harding was also considered the third worst president in a 2002 Siena poll. Siena polls of 1982, 1990 and 1992 ranked him last.

However, Harding’s biographer John W. Dean in 2004 believed that Harding was underrated.Jeansonne-Luhrssen (2006) A Time of Paradox: America Since 1890, p. 248 Authors Marcus Raskin and Robert Spero, in 2007, also believed that Harding was underrated, and admired Harding’s quest for world peace after World War I and his successful naval disarmament among strongly armed nations, including France, Britain, and Japan.Raskin-Spero (2007), The Four Freedoms Under Siege, p. 242 In his 2010 book The Leaders We Deserved (and a Few We Didn’t): Rethinking the Presidential Rating Game, presidential historian Alvin S. Felzenberg, ranking presidents on several different criteria, ranked Harding 26th out of 40 presidents considered.