ch 24 terms

Eleanor Roosevelt

a key player in the New Deal, having been a part of settlement house work and in Florence Kelley’s National Consumer’s League. Through her, her husband met reformers, social workers, and advocates for minority rights

Reconstruction Finance Corporation

an agency set up by Congress at the (reluctant) recommendation of Hoover to make loans to banks and other lending institutions, like insurance companies. It also funded job-creating public-work programs

Bonus Marchers

tens of thousands of largely jobless veterans that marched in Washington for an immeadiate payment of bonuses that Congress planned to give out over the course of twenty years. Most went home when Congress said no, but those who stayed were subjected to Hoover sending General MacArthur on them with tear gas, machine guns, and burning shelters despite Hoover’s call for restraint

Brain Trust

FDR’s circle of advisers that he brought with him to Washington. Columbian university professor Rexford G. Tugwell, lawyer Adolph A. Berle. They advocated for federal economic planning and corporate regulation. FDR sought a broad range of opinions. 

Frances Perkins

a former progressive reformer and Secretary of Labor under FDR; leader of the committee that wrote the Social Security Act

Harold Ickes

The interior secretary of FDR’s cabinet  and director of major public works agencies who was able to get the liberal republicans to vote for FDR.  

First One Hundred Days

between March 9, 1933, and June 16, 1933 (99 days), over a dozen acts were implemented into Congress. These include but are not limited to, the Emergency Banking Act, the National Industrial Recovery Act, the Federal Securities Act, and the Federal Emergency Relief Act. The purpose of the majority of these acts were to stimulate the economy after the depression.  

Civilian Conservation Corps

an early relief program that employed jobless youths in government projects such as reforestation, park maintenance, and erosion control. By 1935, half a million young men were earning $35 a month in these camps. Helped to keep environmental awareness alive in 1930’s 

Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA)

a principle relief measure of the First Hundred Days, it appropriated $500 million for financially strapped state and local relief agencies

Harry Hopkins

a major New Deal figure picked by FDR to lead the Federal Emergency Relief Act, as he was the relief administrator in New York State

Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)

under this act, farmers were granted subsidies if they cut their production. A tax on food processors is responsible for the collection of said subsidy. There was a second one passed in 1938 that limited production of crops as well as providing storage for surpluses. Farm income rose but the actual farmers were harmed; because of this, we see the rise of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union. 

Public Work Administration (PWA)

the administration, head by Interior Secretary Harold Ickes, that ran the National Industrial Recovery Act. The act appropriated $3.3 billion for large scale public works projects to provide jobs and stimulate the economy. 

National Recovery Association (NRA)

Attempt to gain cooperation in recovery efforts among government, business, and labor leaders; brought together business leaders to draft codes of “fair competition” for their industries; set production limits, prescribed wages and working conditions, and forbade price cutting and unfair competitive practices; revived trade associations promoted by Washington during WW1 

Tennessee Valley Authority (TWA)

one of the programs to come out of the Hundred Days, this program expanded on Nebraskan governor George Norris’ idea of using the area’s government-built hydroelectric plant in order to supply electricity to nearby farmers and was headed by David Lilienthal. It created construction jobs through dams and recreational facilities, which also reduced soil erosion. 

Works Progress Administration (WPA)

a massive public works program during the Second New Deal, it funneled assistance to the unemployed by providing work rather than handouts. Led by Hopkins

Wagner Act

also known as the National Labor Relations Act, it guaranteed collective bargaining rights and outlawed such management tactics such as blacklisting union organizers. The law led to the National Labor Relations Board to enforce the law and supervise shop elections. A wave of unionization followed. 

Social Security Act

measure to establish old-age pensions, unemployment benefits, and care for windows and orphans; stands out for long-range significance; drafted by a committee chaired by Francis Perkins, drew upon Progressive Era ideas and European social welfare programs; established a mixed federal-state system of economic aid; funded by employer and worker taxes 

Fair Labor Standards Act

a 1938 act that banned child labor and established a national minimum wage, as well as a maximum of a 40-hour work week. It was easily exploited and passed as a means to undermine the low-wage south, however it was humanitarian and established government authority in an abusive workplace.  

Congress of Industrial Organization

John Lewis and Sidney Hillman started it as a branch of the AFL that worked hand in hand with the Wagner Act. It was composed of many unions and welcomed all kinds of people; because of this, companies started to listen to and acknowledge their unions.  

Indian Reorganization Act

reformer John Collier sought to halt tribal land sales and to restore Native lands. Congress compromised and halted tribal land sales and enabled tribes to regain title to unallocated lands. Congress scaled back Collier’s proposals for tribal self-government and dropped his proposals for renewing traditional tribe culture. The law recognized Indian interests and the value of cultural diversity. Laid the groundwork for later tribal business ventures as well as legal efforts to enforce long-ignored treaty rights. 

Popular Front

a political movement made up of a coalition of liberal, communist elements against fascism; it faded in August 1939 as Stalin and Hitler signed a nonagression pact; while it lasted, it alerted Americans to threatening events abroad