Chapter 36: The Great Depression and the New Deal

Shantytown

a deprived area on the outskirts of a town consisting of large numbers of crude dwellings.

Soup kitchens

a place where free food is served to those who are homeless or destitute.

Direct Relief

aid given to the American public by the U.S government, this was a short term solution to the Great Depression; Part of FDR's philosophy (along with work programs) to get out of the Great Depression; financial assistance to the poor and unemployed.

Down Jones Industrial Average

an index of figures indicating the relative price of shares on the New York Stock Exchange, based on the average price of selected stocks.

New Deal

term used to describe president Franklin Roosevelt's relief, recovery, and reform programs designed to restore the economy durning the Great Depression

Federal Home Loan Bank Act, 1932

Lowered mortgage rates for homeowners and allowed farmers to refinance their farm loans and avoid foreclosure.

Agricultural Adjustment Act

- paid farmer to limit their crop production to correct for overproduction; Protected farmers from price drops by providing crop subsidies to reduce production, educational programs to teach methods of preventing soil erosion.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Democratic president who created the New Deal to counter the effects of the Great Depression

Civilian Conservation Corps

Employment for military men for a beneficial cause; public relief program

Glass-Steagall Act of 1932

Established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) which provided federal insurance for individual bank accounts of up to $5,000, reassuring millions of bank customers that their money was safe...also required banks to act cautiously with their customers' money

Eleanor Roosevelt

FDR's Wife and New Deal supporter. Was a great supporter of civil rights and opposed the Jim Crow laws. She also worked for birth control and better conditions for working women

Wagner Act, 1935

Guaranteed workers the right to organize labor unions, bargain collectively, and provided protections against unfair labor practices on the part of management

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,those areas of the Great Plains became called that because winds blew away crops and farms, and blew dust from Oklahoma to New York destroying the main job for the south, farming.

NYA, 1935 National Youth Administration

Provided part-time employment to more than two million college and high school students.

Frances Perkins

Roosevelt's Secretary of Labor and first woman cabinet member in U.S. history. Remained in office for FDRs entire presidency

Fair Labor Standards Act, 1938

1938 act which provided for a minimum wage, a maximum workweek of 44 hours, and restricted shipments of goods produced with child labor

Tennessee Valley Authority

; Federal government build series of dams to prevent flooding and sell electricity. First public competition with private power industries; 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.

Huey Long

As senator in 1932 of Washington preached his "Share Our Wealth" programs. It was a 100% tax on all annual incomes over $1 million and appropriation of all fortunes in excess of $5 million. With this money Long proposed to give every American family a comfortable income of $5000 per year

Schechter Poultry Corp. v. U.S.

Congress could not "delegate legislative powers" to the executive; congressional control does not apply to all local fowl business

Hawley-Smoot Tariff, 1930

Congressional compromise serving special interest, it raised duties on agricultural and manufactured imports. It may have contributed to the spread of the international depression.

Second New Deal (Second Hundred Days), 1935

Employed 8.5 million workers in construction and other jobs, but more importantly provided work in arts, theater, and literary projects.

WPA, 1935 Works Progress Administration

Employed 8.5 million workers in construction and other jobs, but more importantly provided work in arts, theater, and literary projects.

Court Packing

Franklin Roosevelt's politically motivated and ill-fated scheme to add a new justice to the Supreme Court for every member over seventy who would not retire. His objective was to overcome the Court's objections to New Deal reforms. (845)

Reconstruction Finance Corp.

The agency gave $2 billion in aid to state and local governments and made loans to banks, railroads, mortgage associations and other businesses. The loans were nearly all repaid. The goal of the RFC was to boost the country's confidence and help banks return to performing daily functions. The RFC was created to solve the problem that the Federal Reserve could not fix by itself since they had some

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

The corporation created by the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933. It provides deposit insurance. which guarantees the safety of deposits in member banks. Set up to prevent "bank runs" and to keep money in banks, thus stimulating the economy. Also, at the time it insured individual deposits up to $5000, thereby decreasing the amount of bank failures and restored faith in the banks.

"The Hundred Days"

The first 3 months of FDR's presidency where he passed many new programs to help the depression within a 100 days.

National Industrial Recovery Act

Title I was devoted to industrial recovery, and authorized the promulgation of industrial codes of fair competition, guaranteed trade union rights, permitted the regulation of working standards, and regulated the price of certain refined petroleum products and their transportation. Title II established the Public Works Administration, outlined the projects and funding opportunities it could engage in, and funded the Act. (Created NRA to enforce codes of fair competition, minimum wages, and to permit collective bargaining of workers.)

Congress of Industrial Organizations

a federation of North American labor unions, organized largely by industry rather than craft. In 1955 it merged with the American Federation of Labor to form the AFL-CIO.

New Deal Coalition

coalition forged by the Democrats who dominated American politics from the 1930's to the 1960's. its basic elements were the urban working class, ethnic groups, Catholics and Jews, the poor, Southerners, African Americans, and intellectuals.

Deficit Spending

government spending, in excess of revenue, of funds raised by borrowing rather than from taxation.

National Labor Relations Board

independent agency of the United States government charged with conducting elections for labor union representation and with investigating and remedying unfair labor practices.

Speculation

investment in stocks, property, or other ventures in the hope of gain but with the risk of loss

Federal Securites Act

it requires that any offer or sale of securities using the means and instrumentalities of interstate commerce be registered with the SEC pursuant to the 1933 Act, unless an exemption from registration exists under

Price-supports

the intended effect of keeping the market price of a good higher than the competitive equilibrium level; It is the support of certain price levels at or above market values by the government.

SEC, 1934 Security and Exchange Commission

to establish fair rules for stock trading; Regulated stock market and restricted margin buying.

U.S. v. Butler

was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the processing taxes instituted under the 1933 Agricultural Adjustment Act were unconstitutional. Justice Owen Roberts argued that the tax was "but a means to an unconstitutional end" that violated the Tenth Amendment

Judicial Reorganization Bill

was a legislative initiative proposed by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt to add more justices to the U.S. Supreme Court. Roosevelt's purpose was to obtain favorable rulings regarding New Deal legislation that the court had ruled unconstitutional; would have granted the President power to appoint an additional Justice to the U.S. Supreme Court