Chapter 27: The New Deal

Fair Labor Standards Act

Also known as the Wages and Hours Law, this New Deal legislation abolished child labor and established a national minimum wage of 40 cents per hour and a maximum work week of 40 hours.

Gerald Nye

He headed a Senate investigation into banking and the munitions industries. He concluded that they had conspired to drag the United States into World War I for their own profit. He labeled munitions manufacturers "merchants of death." His committee's report fed the isolationist mood of Americans in the mid-1930s.

Court Packing Plan

In 1937 in one of his fireside chats, President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced this plan to the public. In the preceding years, the U.S. Supreme Court had declared several components of his New Deal program unconstitutional, so Roosevelt wanted to appoint additional justices to the Court who would be more sympathetic to his policies. This plan met with widespread public and congressional condemnation, as Roosevelt was accused of suggesting a major constitutional reform without sufficient cause, and the plan was ultimately defeated.

Destroyers for Bases

In 1940, the Roosevelt Administration was sympathetic to Britain's plight in the European War, but American public opinion at the time overwhelmingly supported isolationism. President Roosevelt arranged this deal to trade fifty old American naval destroyers to Britain in exchange for six Caribbean naval bases. It was a shrewd deal that helped save Britain's fleet and bolster U.S. defenses in the Atlantic.

Four Freedoms

In 1941, before the United States entered World War II, President Roosevelt enumerated these goals for world peace and for which World War II was being fought--freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

America First Committee

Led by aviation hero Charles Lindbergh, this was an isolationist organization in the 1930s that opposed any U.S. intervention in world affairs that might lead the United States into war. Peaking at 800,000 members, it was likely the largest anti-war organization in American history. Started in 1940, it became defunct after the attack upon Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

Quarantine Speech

President Franklin Roosevelt delivered this speech in 1937 as an alternative to the political climate of American neutrality and non-intervention that was prevalent at the time. He condemned international aggression and suggested the use of economic pressure, a forceful response, but less direct than outright aggression.

Frances Perkins

She 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 Franklin D. Roosevelt, she helped pull the labor movement into the New Deal coalition. During her term as Secretary of Labor, she championed many aspects of the New Deal, including the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Public Works Administration. Through the Fair Labor Standards Act, she established the first minimum wage and overtime laws for American workers, and defined the standard 40-hour work week.

Bank Holiday

The day after becoming president in 1933, Franklin Roosevelt called for this—a temporary closure of all banks while they were investigated by federal examiners. In this time, Congress passed the Emergency Banking Act of 1933. When banks reopened depositors stood in line to return their stashed cash to neighborhood banks. On March 15, 1933, the first day of trading after the extended closure, the New York Stock Exchange recorded the largest one-day percentage price increase ever. With the benefit of hindsight, this action ended the bank runs that had plagued the Great Depression and signaled the vigorous executive action associated with Roosevelt's New Deal.

Indian Organization Act

The law replaced the "Dawes Act" and reversed previous Indian policy by guaranteeing tribal self-government and providing economic assistance. It was intended to allow Native Americans to resurrect their culture and traditions lost to government expansion and encroachment years earlier. Part of Congress's intent was to help Native Americans achieve economic parity with white people, while not becoming dependent on state governments. The goal of the act, however, was to give greater independence to local tribes, not individual members.

Neutrality Acts

These laws were passed by the United States Congress in the 1930s, in response to the growing turmoil in Europe and Asia that eventually led to World War II. They were spurred by the growth in isolationism and non-interventionism in the US following its costly involvement in World War I, and sought to ensure US neutrality by forbidding arms trade and loans to belligerent countries.

Lend-Lease Act

This Act (March, 1941) provided for the extension of credit, weapons, and supplies to the British government, as Great Britain struggled against the aggression of Nazi Germany in World War II. Technically, the law allowed the president to grant aid to any country whose defense the president believed to be vital to U.S. security. Over the course of the war and under the auspices of this bill, the United States granted more than $50 billion of aid to its allies.

21st Amendment

This Amendment to the United States Constitution repealed the Eighteenth Amendment which had mandated nationwide Prohibition. It was ratified on December 5, 1933.

Dr. Francis Townsend

This American physician was best known for his proposal for a revolving old-age pension plan during the Great Depression. This proposal is often considered an important influence on the establishment of the Social Security system during the Roosevelt Administration

Eleanor Roosevelt

This First Lady (1933-1945) was the first wife of a president to use her unique position to fight for the rights of minorities, women, and the destitute. She worked in the slums, visited workers in mines and factories, held press conferences, and wrote a newspaper column. Strongly committed to civil equality for African Americans, she was often the only person close to the White House who was willing to speak up on the issue. After her husband's death in 1945, she continued her public life, serving as a delegate to the United Nations until 1952.

Huey Long

This Louisiana Senator was a left-wing critic of the New Deal, contending it did too little to help the poor. He advocated a "Share Our Wealth" program to transfer wealth from the rich to the poor. He made it clear that he hoped to run for the presidency at the head of the Democratic Party in 1936 or 1940, but that if he could not secure the nomination he would run as an independent. He never had the chance. He was assassinated on September 8, 1935 by the son-in-law of a political opponent he was attempting to destroy. He died two days later.

Reuben James

This US Navy destroyer was the first United States Navy ship sunk by hostile action in World War II. The destroyer was part of the convoy escort force established to promote the safe arrival of materiel to the United Kingdom. On October 31st, 1941, while escorting a convoy, this ship was torpedoed by a German submarine. Of the 159-man crew, only 44 survived.

John Steinbeck

This author wrote the famous novel, The Grapes of Wrath in 1939, a book that captured the economic despair of the 1930s and spawned popular outrage against conditions faced by migrant farm workers. In the book, the Joad family characterized typical "Oakies" who moved from Oklahoma to California, like to escape the droughts and Dust Bowl conditions that ruined farmers in the Midwest. By 1950, four million people, or one quarter of all persons born in Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, or Missouri, like Steinbeck's Joad family, lived outside the region. Most went to California.

Wagner Act

This is the more common name for the National Labor Relations Act (1935) which created the National Labor Relations Board to aid unions by prohibiting employers from engaging in unfair labor practices. The law set the stage for the development of collective bargaining for labor organizations during the 1930s. One of the key pieces of legislation during the New Deal, this act, among other things, created the National Labor Relations Board, which heard thousands of cases of alleged unfair labor practices. The passage of this law elevated the standing of labor unions across the country.

CIO

This labor union was formed in 1938 as an organization of semi-or unskilled labor from mass-production industries that was composed of industrial unions rather than craft unions like the AFL. This meant that labor recruiters would organize all of the workers in one industry or plant into a single union, rather than organizing them on the basis of their industrial craft skills.

Father Charles Coughlin

This magnetic radio personality quickly won enormous popularity, and by 1930 his broadcasts attracted as many as 40 million listeners. His attention soon turned from religious to political issues. Initially a supporter of FDR, by 1934, he launched his own political organization--the National Union for Social Justice--and gradually turned it into a vehicle for challenging the president. His radio sermons attacked the New Deal as a communist conspiracy and an incipient dictatorship. In 1938, he added a harsh anti-Semitism to his broadcasts. Although he retained a devoted following, his new extremism drove away most of his traditional supporters; in 1940, no longer able to afford radio time, he ceased his broadcasts.

Social Security Act

This monumental piece of New Deal legislation (1935) established a system of old-age, unemployment, and survivors insurance funded by wage and payroll taxes. At age sixty-five workers could retire with a modest benefit. Because agricultural laborers and domestic servants were excluded from coverage, three-fifths of African American workers were ineligible for these benefits, as were most Native Americans. Also excluded were teachers, nurses, hospital employees, librarians, and social workers--all predominantly female occupations.

Fireside Chats

This term described the national radio addresses delivered by President Franklin Roosevelt that were intended to reassure the public and inform them of any national issues or crises. After the success of the first radio address on March 12, 1933, Roosevelt went on to give 28 more over the next 10 years. Not only did these speeches garner him wide support as an understanding president, but they also promoted New Deal programs.

Hundred Days

This term refers to the early part of the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, when he initiated legislation to relieve economic pressures during the Great Depression. In this time, Roosevelt called Congress into a special session and he proposed more legislative programs than any previous president had done in a comparable time period. The New Deal significantly reoriented America's understanding of the responsibility of the national government for social welfare. This period remains an example of unparalleled exercise of presidential powers in a time of peace and has served as inspiration for later presidents.

Sit-Down Strikes

This type of strike by General Motors workers in Flint, Michigan energized the new CIO and labor union movement during the Roosevelt administration. GM was the largest and most profitable U.S. corporation, the very epitome of twentieth-century corporate power. From December 29, 1936, until February 11, 1937, GM workers occupied several key GM plants. The strike was widely supported and skillfully publicized. The auto workers' stunning victory came to symbolize CIO solidarity and militancy, galvanizing not only auto workers but all labor.

Schecter v United States

This unanimous Supreme Court decision declared the National Industrial Recovery Act, a main component of President Roosevelt's New Deal, was unconstitutional. Speaking to aides of Roosevelt, Justice Louis Brandeis remarked that, "This is the end of this business of centralization, and I want you to go back and tell the president that we're not going to let this government centralize everything."

Cash and Carry

This was a policy requested by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt in 1939, as World War II was spreading throughout Europe. It replaced the Neutrality Acts of 1936. The revision allowed the sale of material to belligerents, as long as the recipients arranged for the transport using their own ships and paid immediately in cash, assuming all risk in transportation.

Brain Trust

This was the name given to a diverse group of academics who served as advisers to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. These men played a key role in shaping the New Deal. Although this group represented a variety of ideologies, they shared a basic, somewhat self-justifying belief that organized intelligence could restore the political, economic, and social health of society.