The injunction succeeded in ending the strike; however, tensions remained high between railroad workers and management for years.[162]
By 1922, the eight-hour day had become common in American industry. One exception was in steel mills, where workers labored through a twelve-hour workday, seven days a week. Hoover considered this practice barbaric and got Harding to convene a conference of steel manufacturers with a view to ending the system. The conference established a committee under the leadership of U. S. Steel chairman Elbert Gary, which in early 1923 recommended against ending the practice. Harding sent a letter to Gary deploring the result, which was printed in the press, and public outcry caused the manufacturers to reverse themselves and standardize the eight-hour day.[163]

Civil rights and immigration
Harding addresses the segregated crowd in Birmingham, Alabama, October 26, 1921
Although Harding's first address to Congress called for passage of anti-lynching legislation,[8] he initially seemed inclined to do no more for African Americans than Republican presidents of the recent past had; he asked Cabinet officers to find places for blacks in their departments. 