A Reference Resource Key Events in the Presidency of Warren G.
Harding March 4, 1921 Warren G. Harding is inaugurated as the
twenty-ninth President of the United States. Described by one
contemporary as a "great looking President," Harding lacks
experience in international affairs, reflecting the general
disinterest of the American public toward such issues. April 20,
1921 The Thompson-Urrutia Treaty with Colombia is ratified. The
treaty grants Colombia $25 million as compensation for the loss
of Panama, which had gained its independence in 1903 with the
help of the United States. May 19, 1921 Harding signs the
Emergency Quota Act into law, limiting the number of immigrants
from any given country to 3 percent of that nationality already
in the United States by 1910. The temporary act lasts three
years and serves as the precursor to the harsher and permanent
1924 act. The law represents the growing nativism of the 1920s,
motivated, in part, by the massive influx of south and east
European immigrants into the U