Great Depression and the New Deal

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.

Deflation

A situation in which prices are declining

Charles Coughlin

Catholic priest who used his popular radio program to criticize the New Deal; he grew increasingly anti-Roosevelt and anti-Semitic until the Catholic Church pulled him off the air

Charles Coughlin "Father Coughlin"

Catholic priest who used his popular radio program to criticize the New Deal; he grew increasingly anti-Roosevelt and anti-Semitic until the Catholic Church pulled him off the air.

Eleanor Roosevelt

FDR's Wife and New Deal supporter. Was a great supporter of civil rights and opposed the Jim Crow laws.

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

a government agency set up to regulate the stock market and prevent fraud

Hoovervilles

Shantytowns that the unemployed built in the cities during the early years of the Depression; the name given to them shows that the people blamed Hoover directly for the Depression.

Schechter .v U.S.

Sometimes called "the sick chicken case." Unanimously declared the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) unconstitutional on three grounds: that the act delegated legislative power to the executive; that there was a lack of constitutional authority for such legislation; and that it sought to regulate businesses that were wholly intrastate in character.

National Industrial Recovery Act

Sought to help business, raise prices, control production, and put people back to work. This act established the National Recovery Administration (NRA), with the power to set fair competition codes in all industries

Emergency Relief Appropriation Act (1935)

The 'Big Bill' designed to inject over $4 Billion into the economy to spend on creating employment. Gave work to 3.5 million people in projects such as building roads, schools, hospitals, airports, electrification projects. Ultimately 8.5 million people gained work through this project.

Stock Market Crash

The Stock Market Crash was when, flooded with investments (particularly those buying "on margin, or paying a fraction of the total price or a transaction and the broker lending the trader the rest), the Stock Market crashed after those who bought on margin were forced to either put up more money or sell their stock, choosing to sell. Thousands of people sold their stocks at once, and a financial panic ensued.

Hawley-Smoot Tariff

The highest import tax in American history to increase jobs by preventing cheaper European goods from entering the country, which was countered by Europe's tariffs and was a major failure because it killed international trade and deepened the Great Depression.

Bonus Expeditionary Force ("Bonus Army")

Thousands of World War I veterans, who insisted on immediate payment of their bonus certificates, marched on Washington in 1932; violence ensued when President Herbert Hoover ordered their villages cleared.

John Collier

Under President FDR, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs who worked to create jobs for Native Americans and worked to protect thier land.

Stock

a certificate documenting the shareholder's ownership in the corporation

Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)

a law enacted in 1933 to raise crop prices by paying farmers to leave a certain amount of their land unplanted, thus lowering production to raise the value (price) for crops.

sit-down strike

a protest action in which workers stopped working and refused to leave the factory

Great Depression

a severe, world wide economic crisis which lasted from the end of 1929 to the outbreak of World War II in 1941.

speculation

buying shares, betting that the stock market will continue to climb , and then selling the stock to make money quickly

Public works

government-financed building projects

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)

government-run company created by the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act to prevent bank runs & to reform the banking system; (2) it still exists & requires all banks to pay into a government fund that is used to guarantee that individuals will not lose their bank savings, even if individual banks fail (go bankrupt)

Bull Market

period of increased stock trading and rising stock prices

fireside chats

radio broadcasts that President Roosevelt held with the American people to let them know what he hoped to accomplish

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR)

the 32nd president of the United States. He was president from 1933 until his death in 1945 during both the Great Depression and World War II. He is the only president to have been elected 4 times, a feat no longer permissible due to the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution.

Election of 1932

the Republican nominee President Herbert Hoover and the Democratic nominee Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt won with 472 electoral votes and all but 6 states. His victory paved the way for his "New Deal' policies and optimism in the country "nothing to fear but fear itself (Inauguration speech)." Democrats also won control of both houses of Congress

Dust Bowl

the dried up lands of the Great Plains that resulted from a severe drought and over farming.

Hundred Days

the time between March 9 and June 16, 1933, when the Democratic party contolled Congress passed many laws to try to deal with the Great Depression

Frances Perkins

was 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

Works Progress Administration (WPA)

(1) unemployment relief agency that received much of the $5 billion allocated to FDR by the Emergency Relief Allocation Act of 1935; (2) for 8 yrs, this agency provided job for all kinds of workers (from industrial engineers to authors & artists); (3) partly because of this agency's efforts, unemployment fell by >5% in 1935-1937

Emergency Banking Act

(FDR) 1933 , gave the President power over the banking system and set up a system by which banks would be reorganized or reopened

National Youth Administration

1935, provided education jobs counseling and recreation for young people. part time positions at schools for students allowed for aid in h.s. college and grad school. part time jobs for drop outs

Herbert Hoover

31st U.S. President. 1929-1933. Republican, U.S. president during stock market crash, who rejected the Progressive emphasis on activist government to pursue a program of minimal business regulation, low taxes, and high tariffs; encouraged businesses to regulate themselves, his belief in "rugged individualism" kept him from giving people direct relief during the Great Depression.

National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act)

A 1935 law, that guarantees workers the right of collective bargaining, sets down rules to protect unions and organizers, and created the National Labor Relations Board to regulate labor-management relations

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. This New Deal agency aroused strong conservative criticism by producing low-cost electrical power in competition with private utilities.

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.

Stock Market

A general term used to describe all transactions involving the buying and selling of stock shares issued by a company.

Dorothea Lange

American photographer who recorded the Great Depression by taking pictures of the unemployed and rural poor, Sent out by the government to record the Great Depression by taking pictures, she took the picture "Migrant Mother".

Buying on Margin

An option that allowed investors to purchase a stock for only a fraction of its price and borrow the rest

Court Packing Plan

Because the Supreme Court was striking down New Deal legislation, Roosevelt decided to curb the power of the Court by proposing a bill to allow the president to name a new federal judge for each who did not retire by age 70 and 1/2. At the time, 6 justices were over the age limit. Would have increased the number of justices from 9 to 15, giving FDR a majority of his own appointees on the court. The court-packing bill was not passed by Congress.

John Maynard Keynes

British economist who argued that for a nation to recovery fully from a depression, the govt had to spend money to encourage investment and consumption...His theories helped justify New Deal deficit spending

margin call

Demand by a broker that investors pay back loans made for stocks purchased on margin.

Second New Deal

Despite the continuation of the Depression, Democrats did well in the midterm elections in November 1934. In the Spring of 1935 Roosevelt set out on his 'Second New Deal' new focus of security, regulation and planned development was put in place.

Oakies

During the Depression this nickname was commonly given to refugees from the Great Plains seeking to escape the dust bowl. These people were looking for work as migrant farmhands

Bank Holiday

FDR Closed all banks until government examiners could investigate their financial condition; only sound/solvent banks were allowed to reopen

Brain Trust

FDR's reform-minded intellectual advisers, who conceived much of the New Deal legislation.

Huey Long

Flamboyant Louisiana governor and U.S. senator; he challenged FDR to do more for the poor and needy and proposed a popular "Share-Our-Wealth" program to tax the wealthy in order to provide a guaranteed income for the poor. He was assassinated in 1935.

New Deal

Franklin Roosevelt's economic reform program designed to solve the problems of the Great Depression

National Recovery Administration (NRA)

Government agency that was part of the New Deal and dealt with the industrial sector of the economy. It allowed industries to create fair competition which were intended to reduce destructive competition and to help workers by setting minimum wages and maximum weekly hours.industrial recovery. Guaranteed reasonable profits for businesses and fair wages and hours for labor. Set codes for wages, hours of work, levels of production, and prices of finished goods. gave workers the right to organize and bargain collectively. killed by supreme court in 1935 (Schechter vs. US)

Bread Lines

Groups of hungry people waiting outside charitable organizations for free meals during The Great Depression

Scottsboro Case

Nine black teenagers were taken off a freight train in a small town near Scottsboro, Alabama and were arrested for vagrancy and disorder. Later, two white women accused the boys of raping them, and although there was significant evidence to suggest the women were lying, an all-white jury convicted all of the boys and eight were sentenced to death. However, with the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the convictions in 1932 and with the support of an organization associated with the Communist Party, the International Labor Defense, all of the defendants eventually gained their freedom.. In overturning verdicts against nine black youths accused of raping two white women, the U.S. Supreme Court established precedents Powell v. Alabama (1932), that adequate counsel must be appointed in capital cases, and in Norris v. Alabama (1935), that African-Americans cannot be excluded from juries.,

Black Tuesday

October 29, 1929; the day the stock market crashed. Lead to the Panic of 1929

Mary Mcleod Bethune

One of FDR's many African American policymakers who had the highest position of any black person in FDR's New Deal. She was made the head of the Division of Negro Affairs in the National Youth Administration, and reported to the President on the state of his legislation on blacks and proposed new laws to help them., Mary McLeod Bethune was a leader in the struggle for women's and black equality. She founded a school for black students that eventually became Bethune-Cookman University. She also served as an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Reconstruction Finance Corporation

Part of Hoover's plan to fix the economy during the Depression. This organization was set up by Congress to make loans to businesses

Social Security Act

Part of Second New Deal, An act passed in 1935 gave government-payed pensions to American citizens over the age 65 as well as provided help for the unemployed, the disabled, and the needy., created a tax on workers and employers. That money provided monthly pensions for retired people.

Bank Failure

People tried to withdraw money from banks but couldn't because some banks didn't have the money because they had invested it in stocks, This caused 600 banks to close in 1929 and by 1933 11,000 out of 33,000 banks had closed in the US. Millions lost their savings accounts.

The Three Rs

Refers to FDR's plan of Relief, Recovery, and Reform. Relief - RELIEF for the unemployed and poor;government would provide jobs,food and money directly to the people. RECOVERY of the economy to normal levels for example government paid farmers to stop overproducing crops. REFORM of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression.- see SEC, FDIC

Glass-Steagall Act

Reform: It separated banks into different categories. The banks couldn't gamble with the investments, so the investments were kept safe; protected bank depositors; forced a separation between commericial banking and investment banking

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

Relief:New Deal program created by the Unemployment Relief Act. It provided employment in government camps for 3 million men. The work they were involved in included reforestation, fire fighting, flood control, and swamp drainage.