APUSH Ch. 24 The New Deal

Dr. Francis E. Townsend

..., American physician and social reformer whose plan for a government-sponsored old-age pension was a precursor of the Social Security Act of 1935

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.

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. The FLSA is administered by the Wage & Hour Division of the United States Department of Labor.

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.

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.

Harry Hopkins

A New York social worker who headed the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and Civil Works Administration. He helped grant over 3 billion dollars to the states wages for work projects, and granted thousands of jobs for jobless Americans.

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.

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.

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.

Fireside Chats

Broadcasts on the radio by Franklin Roosevelt addressed directly to the American people that made many Americans feel that he personally cared about them; FDR did 16 of these in his first two terms. Many Americans in the 1930s had pictures of Roosevelt in their living rooms; in addition, Roosevelt recieved more letters from ordinary Americans that any other president in U.S. history.

Grand Coulee Dam

Dam began in 1933 and finished in 1942, a total of 77 men died in its construction. For several years it was the largest provider of electricity in the world and was used in the Manhattan Project.

National Recovery Administration (NRA)

Directed by Hugh Johnson, attempt 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 organaize and bargain collectively; declared unconstitutional in Schechter v. US.

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.

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).

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.

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.

Father 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.

John Collier

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

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.

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 plabn 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 officed in Louisiana, both state and local. Killed by an assassin's bullet in 1935, this man could have given FDR a run for the Democratic nomination in 1936.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

Passed during the first Hundred Days of the administration of FDR. This insured indivudual bank deposits up to $2,500 and helped to restore confidence in America's banks.

Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA)

Provided immediate relief rather than long-term alleviation, was headed by the zealous Harry L. Hopkins. It provided emergency supplies to those in need, blankets, food, water, shelter, clothing.

Share Our Wealth

Radical relief program proposed by Senator Huey Long in the 1930s to empower the government to seize wealth from the rich through taxes and provide a guaranteed minimum income and home to every American family.

Craft Unionism

Refers to organizing a union in a manner that seeks to unify workers in a particular industry along the lines of the particular craft or trade that they work in by class or skill level.

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.

"Little Steel"

Steelworkers represented by the Congress of Industrial Organizations were pitted against smaller steel manufacturing companies, such as the Republic Steel Company, the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, collectively known as Little Steel.

Schechter Brothers

Supreme Court V NRA- Schechter brothers ran a wholesale poultry business in New York. They said the rules did not apply to them because they did not engage in interstate commerce and the court strikes down the entire premise of the NRA.

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.

Francis Perkins

The U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945, and the first woman ever appointed to the US 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 Roosevelt's cabinet who remained in offices for his entire Presidency.

Industrial Unionism

The movement to form labor organizations that represent every worker in a single industry, regardless of his or her level of skill.

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.

Cultural Relativism

The perspective that a foreign culture should not be judged by the standards of a home culture and that a behavior or way of thinking must be examined in its cultural context

National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (Wagner Act)

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.

Economy Act

This act passed March 20th of 1933 gave FDR the power to cut government workers' salaries and reduce payments to military veterans for non-service-connected disabilities as well as having the ability to reorganize federal agencies in the interest of reducing expenses. This expanded the role of the presidency more then any other act prior to it..

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.

Bank Holiday

When Franklin D. Roosevelt closed the banks from March 6 to March 10 to keep depositors from bankrupting the banking system by withdrawing all their money., H wanted to make sure the banks were financially healthy, and to restore confidence in the banking system.

Sit-Down Strike

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