T4A: Truman's Domestic Policy IDs: #1-20

G.I. Bill

Officially the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, it was created to help veterans of World War II. It established hospitals, made low-interest mortgages available and granted stipends covering tuition and expenses for veterans attending college or trade schools.

Strike Wave

A series of massive post-war labor strikes from 1945 to 1946 spanning numerous industries and public utilities. In the year after V-J Day, more than five million American workers were involved, which lasted on average four times longer than those during the war. They were the largest of these kinds in American labor history.

John L. Lewis & the United Mine Workers

An American leader of organized labor who served as president of a certain group from 1920 to 1960. A major player in the history of coal mining, he was the driving force behind the founding of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), which established the United Steel Workers of America and helped organize millions of other industrial workers in the 1930s. A leading liberal, he played a major role in helping Franklin D. Roosevelt win a landslide in 1936, but as an isolationist, broke with Roosevelt in 1940 on FDR's anti-Nazi foreign policy. He was a brutally effective aggressive fighter and strike leader who gained high wages for his membership while steamrolling over his opponents, including the United States government. He was one of the most controversial and innovative leaders in the history of labor, gaining credit for building the industrial unions of the CIO into a political and economic powerhouse to rival the AFL, yet was widely hated by calling for nationwide coal strikes which critics believed to be damaging to the American economy and war effort. Coal miners for 40 years hailed him as their leader, whom they credited with bringing high wages, pensions and medical benefits.

Midterm Elections of 1946

After Franklin D. Roosevelt’s three-plus terms, Harry S. Truman (D) seems like a weak heir in 1945 as the nation contemplates the cold war world and a logy economy. The Republicans walk away from this with gains of 56 seats in the House and 13 in the Senate—and majorities in both houses for the first time since 1928. But this proves to be a false portent: inaction on Truman’s legislative agenda gives him an opening to run against the “do- nothing Congress,” which he does in 1948, winning the Democratic nomination and then his own term as president.

Taft - Hartley Act

Formally the Labor-Management Relations Act (1947), enacted over the veto of Pres. Harry S. Truman, it amended much of the pro-union Wagner Act of 1935. While preserving the rights of labor to organize and to bargain collectively, additionally guaranteed employees the right not to join unions (outlawing the closed shop); permitted union shops only where state law allowed and where a majority of workers voted for them; required unions to give 60 days’ advance notification of a strike; authorized 80-day federal injunctions when a strike threatened to imperil national health or safety; narrowed the definition of unfair labor practices; specified unfair union practices; restricted union political contributions; and required union officers to deny under oath any Communist affiliations.

Presidents Committee on Civil Rights

A United States Presidential Commission established by President Harry Truman in 1946. It was created by Executive Order 9808 on December 5, 1946 and instructed to investigate the status of civil rights in the country and propose measures to strengthen and protect them. After it submitted a report of its findings to President Truman, it disbanded in December 1947.

Jackie Robinson

An American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. When the Dodgers signed him, they heralded the end of racial segregation in professional baseball that had relegated black players to the Negro leagues since the 1880s. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.

Truman’s Executive Order 9980

Ordered the desegregation of the federal work force.

Truman’s Executive Order 9981

Ordered the desegregation of the armed services.

Smith Act

A United States federal law that was enacted on June 29, 1940. It set criminal penalties for advocating the overthrow
of the U.S. government and required all non-citizen adult residents to register with the government. The law was
repealed in 1952.

HUAC (House Un-American Committee)

A committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, it investigated allegations of communist activity in the U.S. during the early years of the Cold War (1945-91). Established in 1938, it wielded its subpoena power as a weapon and called citizens to testify in high- profile hearings before Congress. This intimidating atmosphere often produced dramatic but questionable revelations about Communists infiltrating American institutions and subversive actions by well-known citizens. Its controversial tactics contributed to the fear, distrust and repression that existed during the anticommunist hysteria of the 1950s.

Hollywood Ten

A number of members of the Hollywood film industry publicly denounced the tactics employed by the HUAC during its probe of alleged communist influence in the American motion picture business. These prominent screenwriters and directors received jail sentences and were banned from working for the major Hollywood studios. Their defiant stands also placed them at center stage in a national debate over the controversial anti-communist crackdown that swept through the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Blacklist

The practice of denying employment to screenwriters, actors, directors, musicians, and American entertainment professionals during the mid-20th century because they were accused of having Communist ties or sympathies.

Truman’s Loyalty Review Board

In response to public fears and Congressional investigations into communism in the United States, President Harry S.
Truman issued an executive decree establishing a sweeping loyalty investigation of federal employees on March 22,
1947\.

Alger Hiss Case

An American government official was accused of being a Soviet spy in 1948 and convicted of perjury in connection with this charge in 1950. Before he was tried and convicted, he was involved in the establishment of the United Nations both as a U.S. State Department official and as a U.N. official. In January 1950, he was found guilty on both counts of perjury and received two concurrent five-year sentences, of which he eventually served three and a half years.

Election of 1948

Incumbent President Harry S. Truman, the Democratic nominee, defeated Republican Governor Thomas E. Dewey.
Truman's victory is considered to be one of the greatest election upsets in American history.

Truman’s Fair Deal

In a reference to Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal policies, Truman announced his plans for domestic policy reforms including national health insurance, public housing, civil rights legislation and federal aid to education. He advocated an increase in the minimum wage, federal assistance to farmers and an extension of Social Security, as well as urging the immediate implementation of anti-discrimination policies in employment. Truman argued for an ambitious liberal agenda based on policies first articulated by his predecessor, Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The Rosenbergs Case

Judge Irving R. Kaufman presided over the espionage prosecution of the couple accused of selling nuclear secrets to the Russians (treason could not be charged because the United States was not at war with the Soviet Union). Reportedly, they were offered a deal in which their death sentences would be commuted in return for an admission of their guilt. They refused and were executed.

McCarthyism

The practice in the United States of making accusations of subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence. It has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting from the late 1940s through the 1950s. It was characterized by heightened political repression as well as a campaign spreading fear of Communist influence on American institutions and of espionage by Soviet agents.

McCarran Act

Congress passed this over the veto of President Harry Truman four months into the Korean War. Critics believed this posed a risk to First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and association. It had three main components: First, it created a Subversive Activities Control Board (SACB), which on the petition of the attorney general could order an organization it determined to be Communist to register with the Justice Department and submit information concerning membership, finances, and activities. Second, the act made it a felony to take any steps that might contribute substantially to the establishment of a totalitarian dictatorship in the United States. Third, it authorized the President, in an emergency (defined as invasion, declaration of war, or insurrection in aid of a foreign enemy), to arrest and detain persons who he believed might engage in espionage or sabotage.