14.1 Terms

GI Bill

A law passed in 1944 to help returning veterans buy homes and pay for higher educations

Union shops

A provision found in some collective bargaining agreements requiring all employees of a business to join the union within a short period, usually 30 days, and to remain members as a condition of employment.

Election 1952

A race between Dwight D. Eisenhower for the republicans and Adlai Stevenson for the democrats. Eisenhower won in a landslide.

Closed shop

A working establishment where only people belonging to the union are hired. It was done by the unions to protect their workers from cheap labor.

Fair Deal

An economic extension of the New Deal proposed by Harry Truman that called for higher minimum wage, housing and full employment. It led only to the Housing Act of 1949 and the Social Security Act of 1950 due to opposition in congress.

Federal Highway Act

Appropriating $25 billion for the construction of interstate highways over a 20-year period, it was the largest public works project in American history to that point.

Dynamic conservatism

Eisenhower's philosophy of being liberal in all things human and being conservative with all things fiscal. Appealed to both Republicans and Democrats.

Right to work law

State legislation designed to outlaw the union shop, passed by 21 states acting under Section 14B of the federal Taft-Hartley Act.

Election of 1948

The U.S. presidential election of 1948 is considered by most historians as the greatest election upset in American history. Virtually every prediction (with or without public opinion polls) indicated that incumbent President Harry S. Truman would be defeated by Republican Thomas Dewey. Truman won, overcoming a three-way split in his own party. Truman's surprise victory was the fifth consecutive win for the Democratic Party in a presidential election. Truman's election confirmed the Democratic Party's status as the nation's majority party, a status they would retain until the 1980's.

Featherbedding

The practice of negotiating labor contracts that keep unnecessary workers on a company's payroll

"Do nothing congress"

Truman's verbal attack on the Republican Congress during his 1948 election campaign for their refusal to enact his legislative agenda