Chapter 21

Congress of Industrial Organization (CIO)

Umbrella Organization of Semiskilled industrial industrial unions, formed in 1935 as the committee for Industrial Organization and Renamed in 1938

Bank Holiday

When FDR closed the banks for 7 days and the treasury gave them some money so people could extract their savings.

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 was created by the National Industrial Recovery Act in June 1933 in response to the Great Depression

House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)

Formed in 1938 to investigate subversion in the government and holders of racial ideas more generally,: best-known investigations were of hollywood notables

Fair Labor Standards Act

established minimum living standards for workers engaged in interstate commerce, including provision of a federal minimum wage

"Radio Priest" 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.

End of the New Deal and its impact

-a 3rd revolution in American culture and politics- more govt involvement but w/in the context of traditional U.S. Democracy -New Deal helped in stimulating the U.S. economy, but only WWII would solve any lingering problems 🡪 unemployed found jobs in munitions factories and the military as the U.S. became the ARSENAL OF DEMOCRACY -New Deal saw expansion of U.S. gov't in : 1) eco. - constant gov't intervention/deficit Spending 2) social reform - welfare state - after this Pt the U.S. gov't was expected to play a role in any economic crisis

FDR

32nd President of the United States, Roosevelt, the President of the United States during the Depression and WWII. He instituted the New Deal. Served from 1933 to 1945, he was the only president in U.S. history to be elected to four terms

Minimum Wage Laws

Beginning in March 1937, the Court suddenly revealed a new willingness to support economic regulation by both the federal government and the states. It upheld a minimum wage law of the state of Washington similar to the New York measure it had declared unconstitutional a year earlier.

Supreme Court Rulings and the New Deal

Challenges most Alphabet Programs and shut down the NRA and AAA because they were deemed unconstitutional

Social Security Act (SSA)

Created Social Security system with provisions for a retirement pension, unemployment insurance, disability insurance, and public assistance (welfare)

Rural Electrification Agency

Created to bring electric power to homes that lacked it—80 percent of farms were still without electricity in 1934—in part to enable more Americans to purchase household appliances.

Wagner Act

Established the National Labor Relations board and facilitated unionization by regulating employment and bargaining practices

Fireside Chats

FDR talks on the Radio where he talks to the American people about the depression and new deal policies.

Court Packing plan/scandal

FDR wanted to expand the Supreme Court to 15 judges so they would be on his side. This never happens but other judges retire and he gets to choose judges that like him.

The First Hundred Days

In Franklin Roosevelt's first hundred days as President, he instituted a bunch of new programs, almost all of which were passed almost instantly by a cowed Congress. Included was the repeal of Prohibition, the CCC, the TVA, and the establishment of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which stopped most bank failures

"Scottsborough Boys"

In overturning verdict agnaist nine black youths accused of raping two white women, the US Supreme Court established precedents in Powell v. Alabama, that adequate counsel must be appointed in the capital cases, and in Norris v. Alabama, that African Americans cannot be excluded from juries

"Public works revolution"

It transformed the economy of America and America's landscape during the 1930s. This included the Grand Coulee Dam. A lot of money was spent by the Roosevelt administration for building roads, bridges, dams, housing, and airports more than anything else.

Works Progress Administration (WPA)

Part of the Second New Deal, it provided jobs for millions of the unemployed on construction and art projects

Communist Party USA

Radical political party aligned with Soviet Union advocated overthrow of capitalist economic system; Never had a membership larger than 100,000 in U.S.; During the Depression, initially attacked Democrats, then attempted to ally with them (forming a "Popular Front")

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

Regulates the NYSE, ex. practice of buying on margin was regulated

Sit Down Strike

Tatic adopted by labor unions in the mid and late 1930s, whereby striking workers refused to leave factories, making production impossible; proved highly effective in the organizing drive of the CIO

Huey Long/ "Kingfish" and Share Our Wealth movement

The Share the Wealth society was founded in 1934 by Senator Huey Long of Louisiana He called for the confiscation of all fortunes over $5 million and a 100% tax on annual incomes over $1 million. He was assassinated in 1935.

Federal Housing Administration (FHA)

a United States government agency founded by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, created in part by the National Housing Act of 1934. The FHA sets standards for construction and underwriting and insures loans made by banks and other private lenders for home building

Second New Deal

a new set of programs in the spring of 1935 including additional banking reforms, new tax laws, new relief programs; also known as the Second Hundred Days.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)

an independent agency created by the U.S. Congress to maintain stability and public confidence in the nation's financial system by insuring deposits, examining and supervising financial institutions for safety and soundness and consumer protection, and managing receivership

New Deal

domestic program of the administration of U.S. Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt between 1933 and 1939, which took action to bring about immediate economic relief as well as reforms in industry, agriculture, finance, water power, labor, and housing, vastly increasing the scope of the federal government's activities

United Auto Workers (UAW)

employed the "sit-down strike" technique after making little progress in winning recognition from corporations. It helped them get recognized by General Motors and other automobile companies.

Smith Act

federal law passed in 1940 that made it a criminal offense to advocate the violent overthrow of the government or to organize or be a member of any group or society devoted to such advocacy

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

in 1933 - set to establish work for young men (18-25) in areas of reforestation, soil conservation, flood control, road construction - also took them out of urban labour markets - but Blacks not permitted to enrol

Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)

passed in 1933 to aid formers- its objective was to restore farmers' purchasing power and to restore the family farm - AAA had farmers cut back on crop production by paying them equivalent SUBSIDIES (paid not to produce) - bad side: 1) food production down when millions were starving 2) Black sharecroppers were hurt: white landowners paid not to farm so they got rid of Black tenant farmers in 1935, AAA was declared unconstitutional by courts (too much control over individual states), so it was revised and introduced as new legislation

Glass-Steagall Act

prohibits commercial banks from engaging in the investment business

The Popular Front

the CPUSA s popular front strategy provided the emerging CIO bureaucracy, led by Lewis and Murray, with a powerful ally in their struggle to radicalize the labor movement. The U.S. popular front strategy was codified at the CPUSA's 9th Congress in June 1936.

Dust Bowl

the drought-stricken Southern Plains region of the United States, which suffered severe dust storms during a dry period

"Labor's Great Upheaval"

the mobilization of millions of workers in mass-production industries that had successfully resisted unionization. "Labor's great upheaval," as this era of unprecedented militancy was called, came as a great surprise.

Tennessee Valley Administration (TVA)

used to promote hydroelectric power, control flooding - lower rates 🡪 private industry, manuf. fertilizer 🡪fed. Gov't took ownership

John L Lewis and the United Mine Workers of America (UMW)

was an American leader of organized labor who served as president of the United Mine Workers of America used UMW activists to organize new unions in autos, steel and rubber. He was the driving force behind the founding of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). It established the United SteelWorkers of America and helped organize millions of other industrial workers in the 1930s. After resigning as head of the CIO in 1941, he took the Mine Workers out of the CIO in 1942 and in 1944 took the union into the American Federation of Labor (AFL). A leading liberal, Lewis played a major role in helping Franklin D. Roosevelt win re-election with a landslide in 1936, but as an isolationist supported by Communist elements in the CIO, Lewis broke with Roosevelt in 1940 on anti-Nazi foreign policy a brutally effective and aggressive fighter and strike leader who gained high wages for his membership while steamrolling over his opponents, including the United States government. Lewis was one of the most controversial and innovative leaders in the history of labor, gaining credit for building the industrial unions of the CIO into a political and economic powerhouse to rival the AFL, yet was widely hated as he called nationwide coal strikes damaging the American economy in the middle of World War II.

National Recovery Administration (NRA)

were established to end animosity b/n labour and business 🡪 all was redirected to industrial growth 🡪 fair labour codes established - wages, no child labour, shortened work hours- business people challenged the NRA, claiming it was communist