The man America turned to at the start of the decade seemed to offer a happy escape from the rigors of problem solving. Like the nation that elected him, he was something of an adolescent. Warren Harding never allowed the problem of high office to mar his congenital good humor. That Harding was not a particularly able man apparently bothered no one. The only fault anyone seemed to find with him was a fondness for what he called "bloviating," or windy speechmaking.

The new President suffered from a vital flaw, he refused to face responsibility. One of the problems that alluded his attention was the fact that his cronies systematically robbing the public till. During his presidency one close friend in a government post was revealed to be involved in graft, and two thers committed suicide to escape prosecution. His Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall, was implicated in an oil scandal, and rumors were circulating about his Attorney General, Harry Daugherty, who had mysteriously banked $75,000 while he was earning a salary of only $12,000. Shaken by these betrayals, Harding died in office on August 2, 1923, of a heart attack.

Despite all this, Harding's policy of government inactivity had been popular, and his successor, Calvin Coolidge, tried to carry it a bit further. To make sure he did not rock the boat, Coolidge spent from two to four hours of every working day taking a nap.

In the freewheeling mood of the decade, strong government seemed not only boring, but unnecessary. The nation's troubles, people felt, were somehow solving themselves, without official interference. Though business had slumped a bit at the beginning of the decade, the economy soon began to boom.