Coolidge did not have a vice president during his first term, but Charles Dawes became vice president at the start of Coolidge's second term. With a budget surplus, many legislators wanted to reward the veterans of World War I with extra compensation, arguing that the soldiers had been paid poorly during the war. Coolidge and Mellon preferred to use the budget surplus to cut taxes, and they did not believe that the country could pass the Bonus Bill, cut taxes, and maintain a balanced budget. During the 1920s, the conservative Taft Court issued several holdings that damaged labor unions and allowed federal courts to use injunctions to end strikes. The Supreme Court was also hostile to federal regulations designed to ensure minimal working conditions, and it declared minimum wage laws unconstitutional in the 1923 case of Adkins v. Children's Hospital.
n/a
n/a