APUSH Chapter 21
court-packing plan
A serious political miscalculation that many considered Roosevelt to have made. On the pretense that several members of the Supreme Court were too old to perform their functions, he proposed that the president be allowed to appoint a new justice for each one who remained on the Court past age seventy. FDR's aim was to change the balance of power on a Court that he feared might well invalidate SS, the Wagner Act, and other Second New Deal measures.
Smith Act
Also known as the Alien registration act of 1940, criminalized advocation of the overthrow of the US government and required all non-citizen adult residents to register with the government.
House Un-American Activities Committee
An investigative committee of the House of Representatives created to uncover citizens with ties to the Nazi party.
Mary McLeod Bethune
Appointed by FDR, she was a prominent black educator, was a special adviser on minority affairs
John Collier
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, launched the Indian New Deal, ended the policy of forced assimilation and allowed Indians unprecedented cultural autonomy
Rural Electrification Agency
Congress levied a highly publicized tax on large fortunes and corporate profits-a direct response to the popularity of Huey Long's Share Our Wealth campaign. The tax created the REA to bring electric power to homes that lacked it in part to enable more Americans to purchase household appliances. Proved to be one of the 2nd New Deal's most successful programs.
Glass-Steagall Act
Refers to four provisions of the U.S. Banking Act of 1933 that limited commercial bank securities activities and affiliations within commercial banks and securities firms. Regulated or prohibited a combination of commercial and investment banking.
Brains Trust
Refers to the intellectuals and veteran social workers Roosevelt appointed as his advisers.
Alfred Landon
Roosevelts opponent in the election of 1836, republican, denounced social security and other measures as threats to individual liberty
Harold Ickes
Secretary of the INterior, veteran of Theodore Roosevelts Progressive Campaign of 912
Frances Perkins
The U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945 and the first woman ever appointed to the cabinet. As a loyal supporter of her friend Franklin D. Roosevelt, she helped pull the labor movement into the New Deal coalition.
Fireside chats
a series of thirty evening radio addresses given by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt between 1933 and 1944. Although the World War I Committee on Public Information had seen presidential policy propagated to the public en masse, "fireside chats" were the first media development that facilitated intimate and direct communication between the president and the citizens of the United States. Roosevelt's cheery voice and demeanor played him into the favor of citizens and he soon became one of the most popular presidents ever, often affectionately compared to Abraham Lincoln.[1] On radio, he was able to quell rumors and explain his reasons for social change slowly and comprehensibly. Helped fight fear during the Great Depression.
American Liberty League
an American political organization formed in 1934, primarily by conservative Democrats to oppose the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt. It was highly active for just two years.
New Deal Coalition
an American political term that refers to the alignment of interest groups and voting blocs that supported the New Deal and voted for Democraticpresidential candidates from 1932 until the late 1960s.Franklin D. Roosevelt forged a coalition that included banking and oil industries, the Democratic state party organizations, city machines, labor unions, blue collar workers, minorities (racial, ethnic and religious), farmers, white Southerners, people on relief, and intellectuals, as well as Jews and Catholics.
Recession of 1937
an economic downturn that occurred during the Great Depression in the United States.The Roosevelt Administration reacted by launching a rhetorical campaign against monopoly power, which was cast as the cause of the depression, and appointing Thurman Arnold in the anti-trust division of the U.S. Department of Justice to act, but Arnold was not effective.[clarification needed] In February 1938, Congress passed a new AAA bill, theAgricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, which authorized crop loans, crop insurance against natural disasters, and large subsidies to farmers who cut back production.
The HUndred Days
an unprecedented flurry of legislation during the first three months of roosevelt's administration,
agricultural adjustment act
another policy initiative of the Hundred days addressed the disastrous plight of american farmers. it authorized the federal government to try to raise farm prices by setting production quotas for major crops and paying farmers not to plant more. many crops already in the field were destroyed. pigs were slaughtered too. succeeded in raising farm prices and incomes. however its policy of paying landowning farmers not to grow crops encouraged the eviction of thousands of poor tenants and sharecroppers.
public works administration
created by one section of the NIRA, with an appropriation of 3.3 billion dollars. directed by secretary of the interior harold ickes, it built roads, schools, hospitals, and other public facilities.
First New Deal
dealt with diverse groups, from banking and railroads to industry and farming, all of which demanded help for economic survival. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration, for instance, provided $500 million for relief operations by states and cities, while the short-lived CWA (Civil Works Administration) gave localities money to operate make-work projects in 1933-34.
Bank Holiday
declared by roosevelt to temporarily halt all bank operations and call congress into special session.
social security
emphasis of the second new deal was this, a guarantee that Americans would be protected against unemployment and poverty
national recovery administration
established by the National industrial recovery act, which was the centerpiece of roosevelt's plan for combating the depression. it would work with groups of business leaders to establish industry codes that set standards for output, prices, and working conditions. thus cutthroat competition would be ended. industry wide arrangements would be exempt from antitrust laws.
Fair Labor Standards Act
establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping, and youth employment standards affecting employees in the private sector and in Federal, State, and local governments. Covered nonexempt workers are entitled to a minimum wage of not less than $7.25 per hour effective July 24, 2009.
John Lewis
head of United Mine Workers, led a walkout that produced a new labor organization, the Congress of Industrial Organizations, aimed to secure "economic freedom and industrial democracy" for workers
Huey Long
his career embodied populist and socialist traditions and Lousianas heritage of undemocratic politics, was in the Senate, dictatorial,
Tennessee Valley AUthority
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.
Martha Graham
made the modern dance masterpiece American Document (1938), embodiment of Popular Front aesthetics with emphasis on Americas folk traditions and multi ethnic heritage, centered its account of history on the Declaration of Independence and Gettysburg Address
"scottsboro boys"
nine black teenagers who were accused of raping two white women and, after an unjust trial, were sentenced to death
dust bowl
onset in 1930 of a period of unusually dry weather in the nation's heartland worsened the Depression's impact on rural america. region suffered from century's most severe drought. mechanized agriculture in this semiarid region had pulverized the topsoil and killed native grasses that prevented erosion. winds now blew much of the soil away, creating the Dust Bowl, as the affected areas of Oklahoma, texas, kansas, and colorado were called.
Congress of Industrial Organizations
proposed by John L. Lewis in 1928, was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955.
civilian conservation corps
set unemployed men to work on projects like forest preservation, flood control, and the improvement of national parks and wildlife preserves
Franklin Roosevelt
symbolic representative of ordinary citizens, won election of 1932, democratic, promised "new deal" for americans
indian new deal
the bureau of indian affairs under commissioner of Indian affairs John Collier, launched this. Collier ended the policy of forced assimilation and allowed Indians unprecedented cultural autonomy. He replaced boarding schools meant to eradicate the tribal heritage of Indian children with schools on reservations, and dramatically increased spending on Indian health. He secured passage of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, ending the policy, dating back to the Dawes Act, of dividing Indian lands into small plots for individual families and selling off the rest. Federal authorities once again recognized Indians' right to govern their own affairs, except where specifically limited by national laws.
Townsend Plan
the government would make a monthly payment of 200 dollars to older Americans, with the requirement that they spend it immediately. This, he argued, would boost the economy. By the end of 1934, Townsend Clubs claimed more than 2 million members. this plan was created by Dr. Francis Townsend, a California physician.
minimum wage laws
these laws were a result of the Court suddenly revealing in March 1937 of 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. it turned aside challenges to SS and the Wagner Act. In subsequent cases, the Court affirmed federal power to regulate wages, hours, child labor, agricultural production, and numerous other aspect of economic life.
The Wagner Act
this bill was signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt on July 5, 1935. It established the National Labor Relations Board and addressed relations between unions and employers in the private sector.
"Share Our Wealth" Movement
this movement was launched in 1934 by Huey Long, with the slogan "Every Man a King." he called for the confiscation of most of the wealth of the richest Americans in order to finance an immediate grant of 5000 dollars and a guaranteed job and annual income for all citizens.
the popular front
this was a period during the mid-1930s when the Communist Party sought to ally itself with socialists and New Dealers in movements for social change, urging reform of the capitalist system rather than revolution. At its height, Communists gained an unprecedented respectability. Earl Browder, the party's leader, even appeared on the cover of Time magazine. It is one of the era's ironies than an organization with an undemocratic structure and closely tied to Stalin's dictatorial regime in Russia should have contributed to the expansion of freedom in the United States. But the Communist Party helped to imbue New Deal liberalism with a militant spirit and a more pluralistic understanding of Americanism.
social security act
this was the centerpiece of the Second New Deal. It was passed in 1935 and embodied Roosevelt's conviction that the national government had a responsibility to ensure the material well-being of ordinary Americans. It created a system of unemployment insurance, old age pensions, and aid to the disabled, elderly poor, and families with dependent children. launched the American version of the welfare state.
Second New Deal
to characterize the second stage of the New Deal programs of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. its core was the social security act
"Public Works Revolution"
transformed the american economy and landscape during the 1930s. the roosevelt administration spend far more money on this than any other activity. came as a result of roosevelt's belief that regional economic planning like that in the northwest would promote economic growth, ease the domestic and working lives of ordinary americans, and keep control of key natural resources in public rather than private hands.
sit-down strike
unveiled by the united auto workers, a fledgling Congress of Industrial Organizations union. the sit-down was a strikingly effective tactic that the IWW had pioneered three decades earlier. rather than walking out of a plant, thus enabling management to bring in strikebreakers, workers halted production but remained inside. in the UAW's first sit down strike, 7000 general motors workers seized control of the fisher body plant in cleveland. sitdowns soon spread to gm plants in flint, michigan, the nerve center of automobile production. the strikers demonstrated a remarkable spirit of unity. general motors agreed to negotiate with the UAW. 1941 anti-union henry ford signed a labor contract
United STates 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.
Schechter v United States
was an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power to the Executive, and was not a valid exercise of congressional Commerce Clause power. invalidated the NIRA because the federal government can not regulate work hours and wages based on an indirect connection between interstate commerce and bad poultry.
"Kingfish"
what Huey Longs admirers and critics referred to him as
Works Progress Administration
which hired some 3 million Americans, in virtually every walk of life, each year until it ended in 1943. under harry hopkins's direction, changed the physical face of the US. It constructed thousands of public buildings and bridges, more than 500,000 miles of roads, and 600 airports. It built stadiums, swimming pools, and sewage treatment plants. Unlike previous work relief programs, the WPA employed many out of work white collar workers and professionals even doctors and dentists. most famous WPA projects were in the arts.
Eleanor Roosevelt
wife to FDR, resigned from Daughters of the american revolution when they wouldnt let a black singer present a concert at the COnstitution Hall
John Steinbeck
wrote the Grapes of Wrath, 1939, captures the plight of farmers during the dust storms, tracing a dispossessed familys trek from oklahoma to california
