APUSH Chapter 33- The Great Depression and the New Deal

Election of 1932

The Republicans nominated Herbert Hoover to run for president in the election of 1932. The Democrats chose Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He had been born to a wealthy New York family and served as the governor of New York.

Eleanor Roosevelt

FDR's Wife and New Deal supporter. Was a great supporter of civil rights and opposed the Jim Crow laws. She also worked for birth control and better conditions for working women

March 4, 1933

Franklin Roosevelt is sworn in as the 32nd President of the United States.

Hundred Days Congress

FDR began sending bill after bill to Congress. Between March 9 and June 16, 1933 which came to be called the HUNDRED DAYS. Congress passed 15 major acts to meet the economic crisis setting a pace for new legislation that has never been equaled. Later became known as 1st New Deal.

3 R's of the New Deal

relief, recovery, reform

blank-check powers

powers that Congress gave the president that some of the laws it passed expressly delegated legislative authority to the chief executive (such as the NRA over ring the Anti-Trust laws)

progressive ideas

unemployment insurance, old-age insurance, minimum-wage regulations, conservation and development of natural resources, and restrictions on child labor.

Emergency Banking Relief Act of 1933

It gave the president power to regulate banking transactions and foreign exchange and to reopen solvent banks. -- this act established insurance on individual deposits and ended the epidemic of bank failures

fireside chats

informal talks given by FDR over the radio; sat by White House fireplace; gained the confidence of the people

Glass-Steagall Banking Reform Act

that provided the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) which insured individual deposits up to $5000, thereby eliminating the epidemic of bank failure and restoring faith to banks.

Gold Standard after the Great Depression

President Roosevelt ordered all private holdings of gold to be given to the Treasury in exchange for paper currency and then the nation to be taken off the gold standard-Congress passed laws providing for these measures.

FDR and Inflation

FDR believed that inflation would relieve debtors' burdens and stimulate new production. Inflation was achieved through gold buying; the Treasury purchased gold at increasing prices, increasing the dollar price of gold. This policy increased the amount of dollars in circulation.

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

provided employment for about 3 million men in government camps. Their work included reforestation, fire fighting, swamp drainage, building levees for flood control, and improving national parks. This program gave jobs to men but it also benefited the public.

Federal Emergency Relief Act

The Act was the first direct-relief operation under the New Deal, and was headed by Harry L. Hopkins, a New York social worker who was one of Franklin D. Roosevelt's most influential advisers , law provided money for food and other necessities for the unemployed Affected the people in trying to aid people feeling the effects of the depression, still in effect today. Hopkins's agency granted about $3 billion to the states for direct relief payments or for wages on work projects.

Civil Works Administration (CWA)

provided work in federal jobs; designed to provide temporary jobs during the winter emergency. Thousands of unemployed were employed at leaf raking and other manual-labor jobs.

Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)

1933 sought to help raise commodity prices by paying farmers to cut back production; the money for the benefit payments made to farmers would be raised from a "processing tax" levied on the businesses..Also made available millions of dollars to help farmers meet their mortgages.

Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC)

loaned money at low interest to homeowners who could not meet mortgage payments

Father Charles Coughlin

a critic of the New Deal; created the National Union for Social Justice; wanted a monetary inflation and the nationalization of the banking system

Senator Huey P. Long

"Share the Wealth" program ;; every family receives $5000 at expense of the wealthy... he was assassinated in 1935 so the plans were never carried out

Dr. Francis E. Townsend

American physician and social reformer whose plan for a government-sponsored old-age pension was a precursor of the Social Security Act of 1935. attracted millions of senior citizens with his plan that each citizen over the age of 60 would receive $200 a month.

Works Progress Administration (WPA)

New Deal program that employed men and women to build hospitals, schools, parks, and airports; employed artists, writers, and musicians as well. Taxpayers criticized the agency for paying people to due "useless" jobs such as painting murals.

National Recovery Administration (NRA)

1933. First atempt to achieve economic advance through planning and cooperation among labor, business and government. Codes and regs. to control production, labor relations, and trade among businesses. Declared unconstitutional in 1935. Recovery and also Reform. Individual industries, through "fair competition" codes, were forced to lower their work hours so that more people could be hired; a minimum wage was also established

Schechter Case

1935; Shut down the NRA -- Congress could not "delegate legislate powers" to the executive, and "Congressional control could not apply to a local fowl business.

Public Works Administration (PWA)

industrial recovery and for unemployment relief. --its goal was to stimulate the economy through the building of huge public works projects that needed large numbers of workers. It set up jobs for people without jobs which gave the employers money and the employers funded the job.

Harold L. Ickes

the Interior Secretary in charge of the PWA, he hired private contractors instead of workers on a government payroll, it indirectly served the purpose of work relief -- put $4 billion into the PWA

21st Amendment

1933 - repeal of prohibition

Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA)

Created in 1933 as part of FDR's New Deal. The AAA controlled the production and prices of crops by offering subsidies to farmers who stayed under set quotas. The Supreme Court declared the AAA unconstitutional in 1936.

Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act of 1936.

1936 -- reduction of crop acreage was now achieved by paying farmers to plant soil-conserving crops.

Second Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938

replaced National Recovery Administration (Agricultural Adjustment Act), it paid farmers to plant crops like soybeans or leave the land fallow

Dust Bowl

1933 - prolonged drought struck the states of the trans-Mississippi Great Plains. Partially caused by the cultivation of countless acres, dry-farming techniques, and mechanization.

Frazier-Lemke Farm Bankruptcy Act

It made possible a suspension of mortgage foreclosures for 5 years. It was struck down in 1935 by the Supreme Court.

Resettlement Administration 1935

charged with the task of removing near-farmless farmers to better land.

Indian Reorganization Act of 1934

the Indian "New Deal"; encouraged Native American tribes to establish self-government and to preserve their native crafts and traditions. 77 tribes refused to organize under the law, while hundreds did organize.

Federal Securities Act

AKA "Truth in Securities Act", this act was created to protect the public against fraud.Before securities could be offered for sale they had to be accompanied by full and true information. Misleading information or the absence of pertinent information could result in prosecution.

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

1934 - Created to supervise stock exchanges and to punish fraud in sercurities trading.

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

June 1933. Innovative attempt at regional planning. Series of dams in seven states on the Tennessee river to control floods, ease navigation, and produce electricity. Endures to this day. Relief and Reform... The large project of constructing dams on the Tennessee River brought to the area full employment, the blessings of cheap electric power, low-cost housing, abundant cheap nitrates, the restoration of eroded soil, reforestation, improved navigation, and flood control.

Federal Housing Administration (FHA) 1934.

expanded private home ownership among moderate-income families through federal guarantees of private mortgages, the reduction of down payments (from 30 to 10 percent), and the extension of payment form 20 to 30 years

United States Housing Authority (USHA) 1937

meant to strengthen the FHA, It was designed to lend money to states or communities for low-cost construction.

Social Security Act of 1935

provided for federal-state unemployment insurance. To provide security for old age, specified categories of retired workers were to receive regular payments from Washington. -- old-age pensions. Was an idea taken from Europe.

National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (Wagner Act)

Made to counter the Supreme Court striking down the NRA -- This law created a powerful National Labor Relations Board for administrative purposes and reasserted the rights of labor to engage in self-organization and to bargain collectively through representatives of its own choice.

John L. Lewis

long-time labor leader who organized and led the first important unskilled workers labor union, called in to represent union during sit-down strike. He formed the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO) in 1935 and boss of the United Mine Workers

Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO) 1935

Originally formed by leaders within the AFL who wanted to expand its principles to include workers in mass production industries. John L. Lewis led a series of strikes including the sit-down strike at the General Motors automobile factory in 1936.

In 1938, the CIO joined with the AF of L and the name "Committee for Industrial Organization" was changed to "Congress of Industrial Organizations." By 1940, the CIO claimed about 4 million members.

Fair Labor Standards Act (Wages and Hours Bill) 1938.

Industries involved in interstate commerce were to set up minimum-wage and maximum-hour levels. Labor by children under the age of 16 was forbidden.

Election of 1936

Republicans - Alfred M. Landon, However FDR was reelected. FDR won primarily because he had appealed to the "forgotten man." He had forged a powerful and enduring coalition of the South, blacks, urbanites, and the poor.

20th Amendment

Ratified in 1933, shortened the period from election to inauguration by 6 weeks. FDR took the presidential oath on January 20, 1937, instead of the traditional March 4.

FDR and Supreme Court (2nd Term)

President Roosevelt released his plan to ask Congress to pass legislation allowing him to appoint one new justice to the Supreme Court for every member over the age of 70 who would not retire; the maximum number of justices would now be 15. Shocking both Congress and the public, the plan received much negative feedback.

Owen J. Roberts

conservative Supreme Court judge who began voting more liberally thereby undermining FDR's "court packing"

Supreme Court and the New Deal (FDR's 2nd Term)

Supreme Court upheld the principle of state minimum wage for women, reversing its stand on a different case a year earlier. The Court, now sympathetic towards the New Deal, upheld the National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act) and the Social Security Act.

John Maynard Keynes

"Keynesianism" --, British economist who argued that for a nation to recovery fully from a depression, the govt had to spend money to encourage investment and consumption

Reorganization Act 1939

Passed by congress, giving President Roosevelt limited powers for administrative reforms, including the new Executive Office in the White House.

Hatch Act of 1939

barring federal administrative officials from active political campaigning and soliciting. It also forbade the use of government funds for political purposes as well as the collection of campaign contributions from people receiving relief payments.

Actual truth about the Great Depression and New Deal

Private enterprise was being suppressed and states' rights were being ignored. The most damning indictment of the New Deal was that it did not end the depression; it merely administered "aspirin, sedatives, and Band-Aids." Not until World War II was the unemployment problem solved.