The Great Depression- Unit 3

Margin Buying

When you borrow 90% of your investment from the bank

Federal Reserve Board/System

The job is to smooth out bumps and anticipate any changed in the economy; however, they don’t care because the government policy at this time is Laissez-Faire, so they don’t say anything

Reconstruction Finance Corporation

1932; granted loans to banks, railroads, the state, and local governments, had authority to spend up to 2 billion, but administrated very poorly and went to banks of choice

Bonus Army/March

1925; a law was passed to pay WWI veterans their benefits in 1945, but the veterans marched to Washington demonstrate their need for money

Agriculture adjustment act

Goal was to decrease production, taxes companies that produced the food instead the farmers, reduction in cotton prices, 6 million piglets were also killed not just crops, They would plow over fields of cotton to destroy the extra cotton.

Tennessee Valley Authority

Managed river and dams, helped prevent flooding disasters. This cared for public land and waters. Didn’t use taxpayer money but used money that they got from energy, created jobs for people desperate for them, however, this gave the government direct control over business, which many did not like, and displaced more than 250,000 TN residents due to the hydroelectric projects

Liberty Leagues

Formed April of 1934, led by Al Smith, promoted the ownership of private property and they hated regulation; all the people in this thought that FDR was a traitor to his class

Social Security Act

First federal measure of direct help, a worker’s right, old age pension, funded by both employers and employee, For minors the state got their pension and was responsible for the distribution of it, health insurance was not provided for. This was seen as a terrible thing because it broke tradition by giving direct aid to people who weren’t employed. FDR’s most proud measure of the Depression

Huey Long

The Governor of Louisiana was a dictator over them; he planned to share wealth; everyone got a house car, and a radio. He said all accounts over 3 million should be confiscated, seen as a threat to FDR, but was assassinated Governor

Court Packing Plan

FDR scheme in his second term; told the Supreme Court that they should start accepting his deals or he would go to Congress and get the SC justices from 9 to 13

Rural Electrification Administration

May 1935, generated plants and powerlines in the rural areas, farmers encouraged to create co-ops to bring electricity to their area, this was very successful and it brought 773 power systems.

Hundred Days

The first hundred days were all about transforming and alphabet soup. It was about banking and finance and in 1932, 40 banks were closing daily, which led to the passing of the Emergency banking relief act to close the banks for 4 days, FDR uses a fireside chat

Civilian Conservation Corps

May 1933, soil conservation and soil management; at its height it employed more than half a million people, made 65,100 miles of telephone line, 4.1 million man hours fighting forest fires and planted 1.3 billion trees, made 30 dollars a month but had to send 25% of it home which was mandatory

National Recovery Administration

Encourage firms to regulate themselves and each other to avoid unfair competition, a lot of firms did this because they thought it was the right thing to do, employees had the right to collective bargaining, FDR was against Collective bargaining but congress made him do it, the national response was tremendous, if you were a company that agreed to this, you were allowed to fly a flag saying you did your part. In May of 1935, this was ruled at unconstitutional

Wagner Act

July 1935, FDR didn’t like it; he didn’t want to upset big businesses, he didn’t want to upset the Southern Democrats, this gave collective bargaining rights to all unions and gave unions rights, the downside to him was that it brought the American Government into relations

Fair Labor Standards Act

This created minimum wage, the max work week was 44 hours, created child labor laws. This left African-Americans behind because it excluded two groups of people being domestic and farm workers

Father Charles Coughlin

He had a radio show which 30-40 million people listened to, and he supported the new deal but only at first and accused the new deal of communism, and became anti-semitic, admiring hitler and Mussolini

Francis E. Townsend

Supported retirement at 60 but was called impractical for this