The World Facing Coolidge

100 years ago this week, the United States was mourning the death of one president and wondering what to expect from its new one.

"His Heritage" by Harold Talburt for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., ca. Aug. 7, 1923

People may have known that as Governor of Massachusetts, Coolidge had called in the National Guard to put down a strike by police in Boston, but he never made much news as Vice President. He was, however, the first Veep to attend cabinet meetings, so he wasn't coming into office unaware of what lay ahead. Nor was he apt to make significant changes to administration policy, as a few Vice Presidents in his position had done before him.

So what was going on in the world and the nation in 1923?

"The Beneficent Despot" by Max Beerbaum, by June 23 1923

This Max Beerbaum cartoon depicts Italy's King Vittorio Emanuele III commending Fascist Prime Minister Benito Mussolini to British monarch George V. The cartoon comes from a display that accompanied Beerbaum on a tour of the U.S. in the spring of 1923.

Although Beerbaum was not among them, Mussolini had his supporters in both Great Britain and the U.S. They included the Chicago Tribune, William Randolph Hearst, and U.S. Ambassador to Italy Richard W. Child, who were impressed with Mussolini's anti-Bolshevik policies. Child would report home with approval that results of Mussolini's first year in power “have been excellent, and during the last twelve months there has not been a single strike in the whole of Italy.”

A law passed by the Italian parliament in June with the intent of consolidating Fascist rule provided that the party gaining the largest share of the votes in the next year's elections – even if it won only 25% of the votes – would gain two-thirds of the seats in parliament.

"Hakenkreuz und Sowjetstern" by Werner Hahmann in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, August 12, 1923

Meanwhile, in Germany, as the text above Werner Hahmann's cartoon explained, "A lively exchange of opinions [took] place between Nationalists and Communists about their common points of agreement."

"The Old Passive Cow" by Elmer Bushnell for Central Press Assn., ca. Aug. 17, 1923

1923 came to be known in Germany as the Year of Crises. Citizens living under French and Belgian occupation in the Ruhr valley continued resistance with workers' strikes and industrial sabotage. German Chancellor Wilhelm Cuno was replaced with Gustav Streseman on August 13.

"One Place Where a Dollar Buys More'n Enough" by Dorman Smith for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., ca. Aug. 1, 1923

Dorman Smith's depiction of German hyperinflation was not far off-base. Germans did indeed have to transport their rapidly depreciating currency by cart just to buy basic necessities. The cost of a loaf of bread, .25 Reichsmark in 1918, had risen to 700 Reichsmarks January of 1923, only to soar past 1,200 RM in May, 100,000 in July, two million in September, 670 million in October, and 80 billion in November.

"Waiting for the Signal Bell" by Elmer Bushnell for Central Press Assn., ca. Aug. 18, 1923

Closer to home, Coolidge would continue moves begun by the Harding Administration to extend official recognition to the regime of Álvaro Obregón in Mexico. That Pancho Villa had been killed in a government-set-up ambush in July helped foster the impression in Washington that political stability was replacing the Mexican Revolutionary Era. Full recognition came soon after Mexico and the U.S. signed the Bucareli Treaty in August, spelling out the rights of the Mexican government and U.S. oil companies.

I doubt, however, that Mexican people or politicians would have agreed with cartoonist Elmer Bushnell's sign alleging that Mexico's "huge tracts of territory need colonists." They wouldn't have gone so far as to set up floating razor wire in the Rio Grande to keep American and Canadian capitalists out, though.

"Looks As If Some of the Boys..." by J.N. "Ding" Darling in Colliers, June 16 1923

Domestically, the change of administration made little difference to Coolidge's fellow Republicans who opposed U.S. joining the League of Nations. Coolidge believed that staying out of the League was a settled issue, although he did support U.S. participating in a World Court.

"Wiping His Feet on It" by Rollin Kirby in New York Evening World, ca. June 10, 1923

The terrorist lynching of Black Americans by the Ku Klux Klan and its open flouting of the law would continue throughout the Coolidge presidency. The decade saw Klan influence at its peak, particularly at the 1924 Democratic National Convention.

"High Finance" by Hal Coffman for International Feature Service, Aug. 9, 1923

Coolidge would be blessed with a booming economy, but there were those who cautioned that soaring stock market gains would not be sustainable. Cartoonists such as Hal Coffman who had been preaching thriftiness and a solid work ethic foresaw hard times ahead.

The decision by the small investor atop the stack that "After this, I better put my money in a savings bank" would, sadly, not be much help when the tide indeed went out.