APUSH Period 7 2/2

National Youth Administration

(FDR) , (NYA) 1935, Provided education jobs counseling and recreation for young people. part time positions at schools for students allowed for aid in High School, college, and grad school. Gave part time jobs to drop outs.

Social Security Act

1935, guaranteed retirement payments for enrolled workers beginning at age 65; set up federal-state system of unemployment insurance and care for dependent mothers and children, the handicapped, and public health.

Works Progress Administration

1935- Began under Hoover and continued under Roosevelt but was headed by Harry L. Hopkins. Provided jobs and income to the unemplyed but couldn't work more than 30 hours a week. It built many public buildings and roads, and as well operated a large arts project.

Wagner Act

1935; established National Labor Relations Board; protected the rights of most workers in the private sector to organize labor unions, to engage in collective bargaining, and to take part in strikes and other forms of concerted activity in support of their demands.

Rural Electrification Administration

1935; made electricity available at low rates to American farm families in rural areas. By 1939 the REA had helped to establish 417 rural electric cooperatives, which served 288,000 households. The actions of the REA encouraged private utilities to electrify the countryside as well. By 1939 rural households with electricity had risen to 25 percent

Fair Labor Standards Act

1938- United States federal law that applies to employees engaged in and producing goods for interstate commerce. The FLSA established a national minimum wage, guaranteed time and a half for overtime in certain jobs, and prohibited most employment of minors in "oppressive child labor," a term defined in the statute. It excluded agricultural, service, and domestic workers, meaning it did not help women, blacks, and Mexican Americans who were focused in these fields.

Father Coughlin

A Catholic priest from Michigan who was critical of FDR on his radio show. His radio show morphed into being severly against Jews during WWII and he was eventually kicked off the air, however before his fascist rants, he was wildly popular among those who opposed FDR's New Deal.

Tennessee Valley Authority

A New Deal agency created to generate electric power and control floods in a seven-U.S.-state region around the Tennessee River Valley . It created many dams that provided electricity as well as jobs. Was a relief, recovery, and reform effort that gave 2.5 million poor citizens jobs and land. It brought cheap electric power, low-cost housing, cheap nitrates, and the restoration of eroded soil.

National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA)

A New Deal legislation that focused on the employment of the unemployed and the regulation of unfair business ethics. The NIRA pumped cash into the economy to stimulate the job market and created codes that businesses were to follow to maintain the ideal of fair competition and created the NRA and WPA.

American Liberty League

A conservative anti-New Deal organization; members included Alfred Smith, John W. Davis, and the Du Pont family. It criticized the "dictatorial" policies of Roosevelt and what it perceived to be his attacks on the free enterprise system.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

A distant cousin of a former president, he was a tall and charming man before he caught polio in 1921, and his legs were paralyzed. He wore leg braces in public and rode in a wheelchair in private. He was elected president in 1932, defeating Hoover by a landslide. The Americans blamed the Republicans for the Great Depression, so they were happy to elect a Democrat who promised a "new deal for the forgotten man." He promised a New Deal to American and built his plan around the three R's of Relief, Recovery, and Reform.

Congress of Industrial Organization

A federation of labor union for all unskilled workers. It provided a national labor union for unskilled workers, unlike the AFL, which limited itself to skilled workers. Included skilled and unskilled workers; open to women and minorities

Emergency Banking Act

A government legislation passed during the depression that dealt with the bank problem. The act allowed a plan which would close down insolvent banks and reorganize and reopen those banks strong enough to survive.

Fireside Chats

A series of informal radio addresses given by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s. In his fireside chats, Roosevelt sought to explain his policies to the American public and to calm fears about the Great Depression.

Bonus Army

About 20,000 unemployed WWI veterans marched to the capital in 1932 to demand the immediate payment of bonus money they earned. voted them in 1922. Hoover called in the army to, more brutal than intended, using tear gas and bayonets. This incident ruined Hoover's reputation.

Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 (AAA)

Agricultural Adjustment Act was a United States federal law of the New Deal era which restricted agricultural production by paying farmers subsidies not to plant part of their land (that is, to let a portion of their fields lie uncultivated) and to kill off excess livestock. Its purpose was to reduce crop surplus and therefore effectively raise the value of crops.

Court Packing

Attempt by Roosevelt to appoint one new Supreme Court justice for every sitting justice over the age of 70 who had been there for at least 10 years. Wanted to prevent justices from dismantling the new deal. Plan died in congress and made opponents of New Deal inflamed.

National Recovery Administration (NRA)

Attempted to guarantee reasonable profits for business and fair wages and hours for labor; could help each industry set codes for wages, hours of work, levels of production, and prices of finished goods; also gave workers the right to organize and bargain collectively (not enforced); declared unconstitutional in Schechter v. US.

"Brain Trust"

Brain trust began as a term for a group of close advisors to a political candidate or incumbent, prized for their expertise in particular fields. The term is most associated with the group of advisors to Franklin Roosevelt during his presidential administration. Group of advisers to Franklin Roosevelt in his 1932 presidential campaign. Its principal members were the Columbia University professors Raymond Moley, Rexford Tugwell, and Adolf A. Berle, Jr. (1895 - 1971). They presented Roosevelt with analyses of national social and economic problems and helped him devise public-policy solutions. The group did not meet after Roosevelt became president, but members served in government posts.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

Created by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, insured individual deposits up to $5000, thereby decreasing the amount of bank failures and restored faith in the banks. Created by Glass-Steagall Reform Act. It insures up to $100,000 for bank deposits, thus helping put faith back into the banks.

National Labor Relations Board

Created by the National Labor Relations Act, also known as the Wagner Act it was created in the 1930's by congressman Wagner who was sympathetic to labor unions. The National Labor Relation Board was an administrative board that gave laborers the rights of self-organization and collective bargaining.

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

Employed about 3 million men to work on projects that benefited the public, planting trees to reforest areas, building levees for flood control, and improving national parks. This program gave jobs to men but it also benefited the public.

Agricultural Adjustment Act

Established by the Agricultural Act of 1932, a new deal Bureau designed to restore economic position of farmers by paying them NOT to farm goods that were being overproduced.

Bank Holiday (1933)

FDR decided that to ease the crisis in the banking industry, the banks should be closed. Banks had "failed" -- run out of money -- partly because people had panicked after the stock market crash, and fearing that their money would be lost, began withdrawing it. Many banks were under-funded, could not meet the demands, and went out of business. It was instituted to stop the withdrawals that were leading to bank failures.

Second New Deal

FDR's set of programs designed to stimulate the economy that began in 1935 after much of the 1st New Deal was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court; these programs were characterized by greater government spending, increased work relief, and some attempt at long-term reform (esp. the Social Security system).

Federal Emergency Relief Corporation

Federal Emergency Relief Administration (1933)- Relief, Recovery- Combined cash relief to needy families with work relief; superseded in early 1935 by the extensive work relief projects of the WPA and unemployment insurance established by Social Security.

Securities and Exchange Commission

Government agency having primary responsibility for enforcing the Federal securities laws and regulating the securities industry. It protected investors, listened to complaints, issued licenses and penalized fraud. Congressional commission created in 1934 to administer the Securites Act requiring full financial disclosure by companies wishing to sell stock, and to prevent the unfair manipulation of stock exchanges

National Recovery Administration

Government agency that was part of the New Deal and dealt with the industrial sector of the economy. It allowed industries to create fair competition which were intended to reduce destructive competition and to help workers by setting minimum wages and maximum weekly hours.

Indian Reorganization Act

Government legislation that allowed the Indians a form of self-government and thus willingly shrank the authority of the U.S. government. It provided the Indians direct ownership of their land, credit, a constitution, and a charter in which Indians could manage their own affairs.

John N. Garner

He served in the House of Representatives before 1931 when he became the Speaker of the House. He was elected as VP with FDR. A conservative, he worked on FDR's New Deal until he broke his friendship with FDR after he attempted to enlarge the Supreme Court. The Split widened when he wanted to run for president after the end of FDR's 2nd term. He lost miserably to Roosevelt, and FDR broke the two-term tradition.

Herbert C. Hoover

He was an orphan from Iowa who worked his way up and graduated from Stanford University. He was a self-made man and an advocate of many Progressive Era ideals such as efficiency, industry, and self-reliance. He was shy and not much of a talker. He was a passionate man, though, dedicated to getting the facts and getting things done. His integrity and humanitarianism gave him his power. He had previously been head of the Food Administration during WWI where he was famous for helping the starving people of Belgium and saving food through propaganda. He was Sec. of Commerce from 1921 to 1927. He was elected president in 1928. As president, he was against direct government handouts to the poor victims of the Great Depression. He believed in the "trickle down" theory that helping the corporations would trickle down and help the people. He also advocated public works, starting the construction of the dam that bears his name. He was against the radical New Deal.

Charles E. Coughlin

He was one of the first political leaders to use radio to reach a mass audience, as more than forty million tuned to his weekly broadcasts during the 1930s, and he used his radio program to promote Franklin D. Roosevelt and his early New Deal proposals.

Alfred E. Smith

He was the Democratic candidate in the election of 1928. He was a "wet" Catholic governor of New York. A funny, liberal man, he was subject to the prejudices of the day in his race for the presidency. Prohibition and prejudice against Catholics made him unappealing to many. He lost the election to Hoover.

John Collier

Head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs who introduced the Indian New Deal and pushed congress to pass Indian Reorganization Act

Boulder Dam

Hoover Dam; A dam on the Colorado River built during the Great Depression as part of a public-works program indented to stimulate buisness and provide jobs. Named Hoover Dam after its completion to honor President Hoover.

Reconstruction Finance Corporation

Hoover actually taking action. It was a government lending bank that indirectly helped the people suffering from the Great Depression. It had a $500 million in capital to provide relief to insurance companies, banks, agricultural organizations, and railroads. It helped the businesses so that they could be in a better financial situation; the businesses, in turn, would be able to help the people.

Alphabet Agencies

In 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt launched his New Deal to deal with the Great Depression. The administrative style was to create new agencies. Some were set up by Congress (such as TVA) and others by Roosevelt's Executive Order (such as WPA). The agencies were also referred to as "alphabet soup".FIB,CIA,EPA,etc.

Farm Security Administration

In 1937, the Agriculture Department created the Farm Security Administration to provide housing and loans to help tenant farmers become independent. But Relatively few tenants received loans, because the FSA was starved for funds and ran up against the major farm organizations intent on serving their own interests.

Resettlement Administration

In an attempt to address the problems of Dust Bowlers and other poor farmers, this 1935 New Deal program attempted to provide aid to the poorest farmers, resettle some farmers from the Dust Bowl, and establish farm cooperatives. This program never recieved the funding it needed to be even partially successful; and in 1937 the Farm Security Administriayion was created to replace it.

Court Packing scheme

In the wake of Supreme Court decisions that declared key pieces of New Deal legislation unconstitutional, Roosevelt proposed increasing the number of justices. If a justice did not retire at age 70, the president could appoint an additional justice up to a maximum of 6. Roosevelt's initiative ultimately failed due to adverse public opinion.

Grand Coulee Dam

It was a dam on the Columbia River restrained Franklin Roosevelt Lake. It was the largest structure since the Great Wall of China, spanning 4,173 feet long by 550 feet high. It was built with two power plants, and I third was later added. It has the largest power-producing capacity in the US (6,465MW). The water from the dam is pumped into the Grand Coulee gorge and used as a reservoir.

Brain Trust

Many of the advisers who helped Roosevelt during his presidential candidacy continued to aid him after he entered the White House. A newspaperman once described the group as "Roosevelt's Brain Trust." They were more influential than the Cabinet. The group of expert policy advisers who worked with FDR in the 1930s to end the great depression

Mary McLeod Bethune

Mary McLeod Bethune was a leader in the struggle for women's and black equality. She founded a school for black students that eventually became Bethune-Cookman University. She also served as an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Schecter v. US

NRA invalidated

Huey Long

Nickname: "Kingfish." Senator from Louisiana, a critic of President Roosevelt, had long advocated a "Robin Hood" plan to take from the rich and give to the poor called "Share Our Wealth." This plan would include heavy taxes on inheritance and estates to fund a minimum salary of $5,000 a year for every American. He controlled all government office in Louisiana, both state and local. Assassinated in 1935, this man could have given FDR a run for the Democratic nomination in 1936.

Bank Holiday

Part of the Emergency Banking Act under FDR; plan to close down bankrupt banks and reorganize and reopen those banks strong enough to survive

Dust bowl

Parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas that were hit hard by dry topsoil and high winds that created blinding dust storms; this area of the Great Plains became called that because winds blew away crops and farms, and blew dust from Oklahoma to Albany, New York.

Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act

Passing in 1930, this act was supposed to help the dire situation with the farmers. As always, it acquired hundreds of amendments as it passed through the Senate. With the number of amendments, the tariff rate also grew to the highest in peacetime history—an average of 60% on non-free goods. This helped to make the Great Depression even worse than it already was, and the high rates made other countries mad, too!

Civilian Conservation Corporation

Provided employment in fresh air government camps for about 3 million workers, which helped in reforestation, firefighting, flood control, and swamp drainage. Income were mandatorily sent back to their parents. Critiics of this policy called it "militarizing" nation's youth

Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA)

Provided immediate relief rather than long-term alleviation, was headed by the zealous Harry L. Hopkins. the agency gave loans to the states to operate relief programs. It provided emergency supplies to those in need, blankets, food, water, shelter, clothing. First direct-relief operation.

Alfred M. Landon

Republican 1936 candidate. Roosevelt and accepted much of the New Deal but objected that it was hostile to business and involved too much waste and inefficiency.

Agricultural Adjustment Administration

Restricted agricultural production in the New Deal era by paying farmers to reduce crop area. Its purpose was to reduce crop surplus so as to effectively raise the value of crops, thereby giving farmers relative stability again.

Election of 1936

Roosevelt vs. Alf Landon (Gov of Kansas): Roosevelt won the greatest electoral landslide since the beginning of the current two-party system in the 1850s, carrying all but 8 electoral votes. Roosevelt carried every state except Maine and Vermont.

Sit down strikes

Sit down strikes was a revolutionary technique that workers wanting labor unions resorted to in 1936. The workers refused to leave the factories where they worked. This prevented the importation of strikebreakers. The most famous sit down strike was the one on the General Motors factory at Flint Michigan. After negotiations, the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO) became recognized by General Motors.

Broker State

Term for the federal government after the New Deal that describes how the federal government mediates between various interest groups competing for advantages in the national economy.

Civil Works Administration

The Civil Works Administration was established by the New Deal during the Great Depression to rapidly create manual labor jobs for millions of unemployed workers. President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveiled the CWA on November 8, 1933 and put Harry L. Hopkins in charge of the short-term agency. The CWA created construction jobs, mainly improving or constructing buildings and bridges. It ended on March 31, 1934, after spending $200 million a month and giving jobs to 4 million people.

Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)

The Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO, proposed by John L. Lewis in 1932, was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. The CIO was open to African Americans. The Committee for Industrial Organization was founded on November 9, 1935, by eight international unions belonging to the American Federation of Labor. It officially broke away from the AF of L in 1938 and reformed itself as the Congress of Industrial Organizations.

Federal Emergency Relief Act

The Federal Emergency Relief Act was a relief effort for the unemployed with immediate relief goals. It looked for immediate relief rather than long-term alleviation, and its correlating Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) was headed by the zealous Harry L. Hopkins. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) was established because of this act.

Home Loan Bank Act

The Great Depression destroyed the economic market with its many branches of business. This act helped the housing and savings and loan industries. It made a credit reserve that would be used to increase the amount of credit available to the housing market, so people can buy and houses. Its initial results were a complete failure, turning down all but three of the 41,000 applicants for a loan.

"Hundred Days"

The Hundred Days is the title often given to the first congressional session of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration, March 9 to June 16, 1933. To address the crisis of the worsening depression, the president convened Congress in special session and launched the New Deal with an avalanche of bills designed to stabilize the economy, create jobs, and bolster flagging local relief efforts.

National Recovery Act

The National Industrial Recovery Act, enacted June 16, 1933, was an American statute which purposed to authorize the President of the United States to regulate industry and permit cartels and monopolies in an attempt to stimulate economic recovery, and established a national public works program. The legislation was enacted in June 1933 during the Great Depression as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal legislative program.

National Labor Board

The National Labor Board (NLB) was an independent agency of the United States Government that was established on August 5, 1933 to handle disputes arising under the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA). The American labor movement, encouraged by the protections guaranteed under the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), undertook a wave of organizing, and a series of strikes overtook the country in the summer of 1933. Roosevelt issued no executive order defining the Board's powers, duties or procedures, but he did assert that the board should 'consider, adjust, and settle differences and controversies' arising in labor disputes. The NLB quickly settled on a strategy of suggesting elections as a way of determining majority status and breaking a collective bargaining deadlock.

Public Works Administration (PWA)

The Public Works Administration (PWA), part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It built large-scale public works such as dams and bridges, warships, hospitals and schools. it aimed at long-range recovery by spending over $4 billion on some 34,000 projects (i.e. the Grand Coulee Dam of the Columbia River).

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned corporation in the United States created by congressional charter in May 1933 to provide: navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development in the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly affected by the Great Depression. The enterprise was a result of the efforts of Senator George W. Norris of Nebraska. TVA was envisioned not only as a provider, but also as a regional economic development agency that would use federal experts and electricity to rapidly modernize the region's economy and society.

20th Amendment

The Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution establishes the beginning and ending of the terms of the elected federal offices. It also deals with scenarios in which there is no President-elect. The Twentieth Amendment was ratified on January 23, 1933. The amendment reduced the amount of time between Election Day and the beginning of Presidential, Vice Presidential and Congressional terms. Originally, the terms of the President, the Vice President and the incoming Congress began on March 4, four months after the elections were held; this kept a "lame duck" congress in session, preventing anything from being accomplished. Also, it moved the date of the required congressional meeting.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)

The U.S. corporation insuring deposits in the U.S. against bank failure. The FDIC was created in 1933 to maintain public confidence and encourage stability in the financial system through the promotion of sound banking practices. It is a United States government corporation created by the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

The United States Federal Communications Commission, created by an act of Congress on 19 June 1934, merged the administrative responsibilities for regulating broadcasting and wired communications under the rubric of one agency. The commission was given broad latitude to establish "a rapid, efficient, Nation-wide, and world-wide wire and radio communication service." It merged the Federal Radio Commission, the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Postmaster General into one agency, and was organized into three divisions: Broadcast, Telegraph, and Telephone.

Works Progress Administration (WPA)

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was a relief measure established in 1935 by executive order as the Works Progress Administration, and was redesigned in 1939 when it was transferred to the Federal Works Agency. Headed by Harry L. Hopkins and supplied with an initial congressional appropriation of $4,880,000,000, it offered work to the unemployed on an unprecedented scale by spending money on a wide variety of programs, including highways and building construction, slum clearance, reforestation, and rural rehabilitation. It stimulated private business during the depression years and inaugurated reforms that states had been unable to subsidize.

Stock Market Crash 1929

The bull market came to an abrupt halt after this incident in October 1929. A record trading day called "Black Thursday" saw the swapping over over 12 million shares. Banks attempted to stop the panic by buying large chunks of stock. The following Tuesday (Black Tuesday) sent the market over the edge when over 16 million stocks clotted the market and dropped the prices of stock by 12%. This occurred on October 29, 1929, and its affects lasted for years to come, ushering in the Great Depression.

Dust Bowl

The dry-farming techniques wore out the top soil and reduced it to dust when a severe drought in the 1930s brought this upon the Great Plains, stretching from Texas and Oklahoma to Colorado and Kansas. The top soil blew away and caused "black blizzards," forcing farmers to flee to California. John Steinbeck portrayed this event in The Grapes of Wrath.

Black Cabinet

The name for President Roosevelt's cabinet, when, after being urged by his wife Eleanor, he appointed more African Americans to cabinet positions than any other president before him. This cabinet worked on issues ranging from the repeal of Jim Crow laws in the South to antilynching legislation. Unfortunately for African Americans, Presidetn Roosevelt needed to maintain support of Southern Democrats and di not sign the legislation designed to end either of the issues the cabinet fought against.

Wagner Act of 1935

This 1935 act, also called the Wagner Act after the senator who penned the bill, strengthened the language of Section 7a NIRA. Even though all labor unions fought for the protection of workers, not all agreed on who should be protected. The American Federation of Labor (AFL) was comprised mainly of white skilled workers who did not agree that ALL workers should be protected by the union.

Civil Works Adminstration

This act organization created in 1933 provided 4 million jobs immediately during the winter months of 1933-34; people employed by this group built 40,000 schools & paid 50,000 school teachers salaries.

Glass-Steagall Act

This act paved the way for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which would protect American's banking deposits up to $5,000 per deposit.

The Roosevelt Recession

This financial crisis had impacted the economy in 1937 and 1938 due to the fact that President Roosevekt had decided to "pull back" on government spending. Reluctantly, FDR initiated an icrease in speding on public works projects and other programs, which almost magically increased investment and emplyment,

First Hundred Days

This is the term applied to President Roosevelt's first three months in taking office. During this time, FDR had managed to get Congress to pass an unprecedented amount of new legislation that would revolutionize the role of the federal government from that point on. This era saw the passage of bills aimed at repairing the banking system and restoring American's faith in the economy, starting government works projects to employ those out of work, offering subsidies for farmers, and devising a plan to aid in the recovery of the nation's industrial sector.

Congress of Industrial Organizations

This organization was led by John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers. This organization focused on unskilled laborers in America's heavy industrial sector such as steel, automobiles, and mines.

Panic of 1929

This refers to the events surrounding the massive speculation of prices that led up to the Stock Market Crash and the Great Depression. Prices had been going up and up in a "long boom" in a bull market. Hoover tried to stop speculation with the Federal Reserve Board, but the prices still went up and up until they came crashing down in October resulting the Great Depression.

New Deal

This was FDR's plan to help the economy in the Great Depression and to promote social reform. It was planned out by a group of his academic friends known as the Brain Trust. This program was based on his three R's of Relief, Recovery, and Reform. The goal was to provide relief for the Depression, recovery for the farmers, businesses, and the economy, and reform mostly through the Tennessee Valley Authority. This program resulted in a downpour of new bills on Congress even in the first "Hundred Days." The money to fund all of the actions this program would be paying for would come from raising taxes on the rich and the sale of government bonds.

Election of 1932

This was a major change in the political tide. With the Americans unhappy with Hoover's policies and angry about his failures, including the Smoot-Hawely Tariff and the Bonus Army incident, a change was needed. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was that change. He was charismatic and an able speaker. He was voted into office in this election, denouncing Hoover's policies and proclaiming a "new deal" for the "forgotten man." With his easy victory, came a great deal of change. Blacks, usually Republican, voted Democrat, and the New Deal, written by FDR's "Brains Trust," came into American history.

Patman Bonus Bill

This was the bill that the WWI veterans wanted passed to provide them with money to relieve their suffering the Great Depression. The Senator from Texas whose name the bill bears sponsored its provision of a $2.4 billion dollar payment to the WWI veterans. The bill failed to pass the Congress, and the soldiers marching on the capital were instructed to leave. They refused and Hoover called in the army to evict them.

Francis Townsend

Townshend developed a plan in which the government would give monetary resources to senior citizens ages sixty and over. Laid the foundations of the creation of Social Security.

US v. Butler

US v. Butler invalidated the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 (AAA), dealing a blow to New Deal agricultural policy.

Federal Housing Administration

United States government agency created as part of the National Housing Act of 1934. Insured loans made by banks and other private lenders for home building and home buying. The goals of this organization are: to improve housing standards and conditions; to provide an adequate home financing system through insurance of mortgage loans; and to stabilize the mortgage market.

John Steinbeck

United States writer noted for his novels about agricultural workers. Wrote "The Grapes of Wrath" and "Of Mice and Men".

Sit-Down Strike

Work stoppage in which workers shut down all machines and refuse to leave a factory until their demands are met.

Jesse H. Jones

a Houston, Texas politician and entrepreneur. He served as United States Secretary of Commerce from 1940 to 1945. His most important role was to head the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC), (1932-45), a federal agency originally created by Herbert Hoover that played a major role in combating the Great Depression and financing industrial expansion in World War II. Jones was in charge of spending $50 billion, especially in financing railways and building munitions factories.

Glass-Steagall Banking Act

a law that established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in the United States and introduced banking reforms, some of which were designed to control speculation. It is most commonly known as the Glass-Steagall Act, after its legislative sponsors, Carter Glass and Henry B. Steagall. It forced a separation between commercial banking and investment banking. This act, which required commercial banks to dispose of their securities affiliates, bears the same name as the Banking Act of 1933.

Economy Act

an Act of Congress that cut the salaries of federal workers and reduced benefit payments to veterans, moves intended to reduce the federal deficit in the United States. It was enacted six days after FDR's inauguration. ***** The Economy Act of 1933 is different from the Economy Act of 1932. The Economy Act of 1932 was signed in the final days of the Hoover administration in February 1933. This sometimes leads to confusion between the two pieces of legislation. The Hoover-sponsored bill established the purchasing authority of the federal government*****

Securities Exchange Act

created to provide governance of securities transactions on the secondary market (after issue) and regulate the exchanges and broker-dealers in order to protect the investing public. Contrasted with the Securities Act of 1933, which regulates these original issues, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 regulates the secondary trading of those securities between persons often unrelated to the issuer, frequently through brokers or dealers.

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Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC)

former U.S. government agency established in 1933 to help stabilize real estate that had depreciated during the depression and to refinance the urban mortgage debt. It granted long-term mortgage loans to some 1 million homeowners facing loss of their property. The HOLC ceased its lending activities in June, 1936, by the terms of the Home Owners' Loan Act.

John L. Lewis

founder of CIO

Silver Purchase Act (1934)

passed by the U.S. Congress to replace the Bland-Allison Act of 1878. It not only required the U.S. government to purchase nearly twice as much silver as before, but also added substantially to the amount of money already in circulation. The Silver Act of 1934 required the U.S. Treasury Secretary to purchase silver in large quantities and allowed President Roosevelt to nationalize all private silver holdings. The act greatly disrupted the world's silver markets and ultimately was repealed in the 1960s.

Norris-LaGuardia Act of 1932

prevented antiunion contracts as well as from issuing injunctions to break strikes, boycotts, and picketing.

Harold L. Ickes

was a leading New Dealer as Secretary of the Interior from 1933 to 1946 and a top liberal advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Starting off in Chicago Republican politics Ickes campaigned for Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive party in 1912 and for the presidential campaigns of Republican nominee Charles Evans Hughes (1916) and presidential hopeful Hiram Johnson in 1920. He was an important figure in the New Deal, as Secretary of the Interior (1933-46) and administrator of the Public Works Administration (1933-39).

Henry A. Wallace

was the 33rd Vice President of the United States (1941-1945), the Secretary of Agriculture (1933-1940), and the Secretary of Commerce (1945-1946). In the 1948 presidential election, Wallace was the nominee of the Progressive Party. From Iowa

Eleanor Roosevelt

was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an international author, speaker, politician, and activist for the New Deal coalition. She worked to enhance the status of working women, although she opposed the Equal Rights Amendment because she believed it would adversely affect women.

Frances Perkins

was the U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945, and the first woman appointed to the U.S. Cabinet. As a loyal supporter of her friend, Franklin D. Roosevelt, she helped pull the labor movement into the New Deal coalition. She and Interior Secretary Harold Ickes were the only original members of the Roosevelt cabinet to remain in office for his entire presidency.

Henry Morgenthau, Jr.

was the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury during the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He played a major role in designing and financing the New Deal. After 1937, while still in charge of the Treasury, he played an increasingly major role in foreign policy, especially with respect to policies supporting China, helping Jewish refugees, and (in the "Morgenthau Plan") preventing Germany from ever again being a military power after the Allied victory in 1945.