American History - Part 162 - Coolidge - Small Govt is good Govt - Frederick Taylor
Channel: ListenAndReadAlong
Date: 2013-08-01

Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION-- American history in VOA Special English.
Calvin Coolidge was quiet and plain-looking. He was the son of a farmer and political leader from the small northeastern state of Vermont.
America's 30th President was, in some ways, an unusual kind of person to lead the country. He said little. He showed few feelings. Coolidge's policies as President were not active. He tried to start as few new programs as possible. He was a conservative Republican who believed deeply that government should be small.
Coolidge expressed his belief this way: "If the federal government should go out of existence, most people would not note the difference." And once he said: "Four-fifths of our troubles in this life would disappear if we would only sit down and keep still."
Coolidge believed that private business-- not the federal government-- should lead the country to greater wealth and happiness. He continued President Harding's policy of supporting American business both inside the United States and in other countries. The government under President Coolidge continued high taxes on imports in an effort to help American companies.
Many Americans shared Coolidge's ideas about small government and big business. In the early 1920s, many of them were living better than ever before.
At that time, companies were growing larger. The prices of their stocks rose higher and higher. There were lots of jobs. And the wages of many workers increased. Americans agreed with their President that there was little need for government spending and government programs, when private industry seemed so strong.
The American economy grew in the 1920s for several reasons. The world war had destroyed many factories and businesses in Europe. The United States did not suffer the same destruction. It was still a young country. It had great natural resources, trained workers, and a huge market within its own borders. When peace came, Americans found their economy stronger than any other in the world.
Changes in the American market also helped economic growth. "Installment buying" became popular. In this system, people could buy a product and pay for it over a period of several weeks or months.
The total cost was higher, because they had to pay interest. But the system made it possible for more people to buy more goods. It also made the idea of borrowing money more acceptable to many Americans.
The growing importance of the New York stock markets also helped economic growth in the 1920s. 1,000,000s of Americans bought shares of stock in companies that seemed to grow bigger every month.
During the 1920s, the idea of manufacturing goods in the most scientific way became very popular. The father of this idea of "scientific management" was an engineer, Frederick Taylor.
Mister Taylor developed a system to study manufacturing. He studied each machine involved in the process. He studied how much work each person did. He studied how goods moved from 1 part of a factory to another. Then he offered ideas to business owners about ways to produce goods faster and for less cost.
Taylor's ideas of scientific management appealed to business owners. Automobile manufacturer Henry Ford proved that the ideas could work in his new car factory in the state of Michigan. Ford used the assembly line system of production. In this system, each worker did 1 thing to a product as it moved through the factory. This helped cut prices and increase wages.
Ford and other businessmen learned a great deal about how to control costs, set prices, and decide how much to produce. All these changes in production and marketing helped Ford and other American companies grow larger and stronger.
Henry Ford's Model-T car became popular throughout the country. So did other new products. Radios. Refrigerators for cooling food. Vacuums to clean carpets. Ready-made cigarettes. Beauty products.
Americans in the 1920s began to buy all kinds of new products they had never used before.
Calvin Coolidge was in the White House. However, business led the nation. Times were good. Americans trusted business and its leaders. It became an honor to call someone a businessman. Colleges organized business classes. Middle-class citizens in almost every city and town gathered to discuss business ideas.
President Coolidge spoke for 1,000,000s of Americans when he said: "The chief business of the American people is business."
Coolidge represented traditional values and a simple way of life. He knew exactly how every dollar he earned was saved or spent. And he spent no more money than was necessary.
The strange thing was that Coolidge was extremely popular with a public that was spending large amounts of money. Some economic experts warned that the country's quick economic growth would end in economic depression. Most Americans, however, believed that the good times had come to stay. They enjoyed the good things in life that work and success in business could bring.