Conservative Policies Prevail  In keeping with the prevailing
prosperity, at least in the urban areas of the country, American
governmental policy during the 1920s was eminently conservative.
It was based upon the belief that if government did what it
could to foster private business, prosperity would trickle down
to all ranks of the population.  Accordingly, Republican
policies were intended to create the most favorable conditions
for American industry. The tariff acts of 1922 and 1930 brought
tariff barriers to new heights, guaranteeing to American
manufacturers in one field after another a monopoly of the
domestic market. The second of these tariffs, the Smoot-Hawley
Act of 1930, embodied rates so high that over a thousand
American economists petitioned President Hoover to veto it, and
subsequent events bore out their predictions of costly
retaliation by other nations. At the same time, the federal
government started a program of tax reduction, reflecting
Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon's belief th