support, the government would not yield; the
unions had no chance and lost. In the 1920s
French socialism split, as it did elsewhere in
Europe. The communists formed their own party
and separate trade union. The ‘democratic’ social-
ists, led by Léon Blum, and democratic trade
unions organised themselves also. The split of the
‘left’ was mirrored by a split on the right,
Poincaré’s policies having failed to produce the
expected results in 1923.
The elections of 1924 gave power to a group-
ing of centre radicals and socialists, the so-called
Cartel des Gauches. The Bloc National formed
the main opposition to the right, and the small
Communist Party to the left, but the presence of
the communists to their left, bitterly critical, had
the effect of inhibiting the socialists from collab-
orating with the radicals of the centre. The split
of French socialism thus deprived the large social-
ist electorate from exercising an influence in the
government of the Republic commensurate with
their strength. It was a formula for sterility.
Meanwhile the undoing of the Cartel government
was its inability to master the financial situation.
The franc fell precipitously in value. While
American loans were reaching Germany, the
French inability and refusal to negotiate a debt
settlement with the US closed the American
money market to the French. In 1926, the
Chamber turned once more to the strongman of
French politics, Poincaré. Poincaré was granted
special powers to restore France to financial
health, which he promptly succeeded in doing by
raising taxes and cutting expenditure. France now
experienced a few golden years of progress and
prosperity until the effects of the worldwide
slump made themselves seriously felt in France in
1933.
In industrial strength and influence the US had
emerged as a world power by the close of the First
World War. But victory left the American people
disillusioned with the role of world leadership
that Wilson had sought to thrust upon them. Yet
during the 1920s and 1930s there was no way in
which the Americans could opt out of world
affairs and return to what appeared only in retro-
spect as a golden past of American self-sufficiency.
The immediate post-war mood favoured a
rapid return to freeing the individual American
from all constraints of wartime control and freeing
business too to get on with the job of expanding
American prosperity. An amiable conservative
Republican politician, Warren G. Harding, had
been elected to the White House in November
1920 on a campaign slogan that reflected the
public mood precisely: ‘less government in busi-
ness and more business in government’. Business-
men were no longer depicted as the ‘robber
barons’ ruthlessly amassing wealth but as the
new patriotic leaders who would benefit the
average American. On 4 March 1921 Harding
was inaugurated. Big business was brought into
government with the appointment of Andrew
Mellon, one of the richest men of the US,
whose wealth was exceeded only by Rockefeller
and Ford, as secretary of the treasury. Mellon’s
fortune was founded on banking, channelling
money into steel, railroads and a wide range
of industry. There were other appointments of
men of proven ability: Herbert Hoover, Henry
Wallace and, as secretary of state to take charge
of foreign affairs, a brilliant lawyer, Charles Evans
Hughes. Unfortunately, Harding made grave
errors too in rewarding political cronies of his
own state, Ohio. The ‘Ohio gang’ were to sur-
round Harding in 1923 during the last months
of his administration with spectacular scandals of
corruption.
The early boom which had absorbed the ex-
servicemen in 1919 collapsed in 1920 and the
depression lasted until 1922. But then followed
seven years of remarkable economic expansion
and rising industrial prosperity led by the growth
of the automobile industry, electrical machinery
and appliances and building. Yet, the decade was
to close with the most severe and long-lasting
economic collapse in American history. The
1920s did not turn out to be the new era of
never-ending prosperity.
With hindsight the weaknesses of the 1920s
can be discerned. Industry, enjoying the protec-
tion of a high tariff, had over-expanded as its pro-
ductivity had increased. Wages had failed to keep
pace with the increases in production. Big busi-
ness had successfully defeated the great waves of