Great Depression
1933-1939
Terms
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- John Steinbec
- The Grapes of Wrath (1939) -migrants to southern CA
- Mary McLeod Bethune
- director of Office of Minority Affairs in the National Youth Administration ;; highest ranking African American in Roosevelt administration
- John Collier
- Commissioner of Indian Affairs ;; sought to reverse forced-assimilation policies ;; promoted Indian Reorganization Act of 1934
- Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
- 1933 find how much production & distribution of electricity cost (to test fairness of rates) ;; cheap electric power, low-cost housing, reforestation, improved navigation, flood control ;; longest & most costly project
- Civil Works Administration (CWA)
- branch of FERA ;; provided temporary jobs during the winter (shoveling snow)
- Eleanor Roosevelt
- most active First Lady ;; lobbying, speeches, newspaper column, battled for improverished & oppressed
- Frances Perkins
- Secretary of Labor ;; 1st woman cabinet member
- Social Security Act of 1935
- federal state unemployment insurance ;; certain retired workers get regular payments ($10 to $85/ month) ;; financed by payroll tax on employers & employees
- Dust Bowl
- drought in states of trans-Mississippi Great Plains ;; caused by high grain prices, dry-farming techniques, mechanization, steam tractor & disk plow
- Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
- watchdog administrative agency that watches the trading
- Hatch Act of 1939
- barred federal administrative officials from active political campaign ;; forbade use of gov't funds for political purposes or collection of campaign contributions
- Frazier-Lemke Farm Bankruptcy Act
- 1934 suspension of mortgage foreclosures for 5 yrs ;; set void by Supreme Court
- Grand Coulee Dam
- on Columbia R. ;; led to irrigation of farmland & more electric power
- Resettlement Administration
- 1935 remove near farmless farmers to better land
- Federal Securities Act
- "Truth in Securities Act" ;; promoters must transmit to investor sworn info. regarding soundness of stocks and bonds
- Home Owner's Loan Corporation (HOLC)
- refinanced mortgages on non-farm homes & bailed out mortgage-holding banks ;; secured loyalties of middle class homeowners
- Second Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938
- if growers followed acreage restrictions on commodities, they were eligible for parity payments
- Alfred M. Landon
- Republican ;; Kansas governor ;; accepted some New Deal reforms but not Social Security Act
- Federal Emergency Relief Act
- immediate & direct relief ;; created FERA
- "Brains Trust"
- group of reform-minded intellectuals. young college professors who authored much of New Deal legislation ;; wrote FDR's speeches
- U.S. Housing Authority (USHA)
- lent $ to states/communities for low-cost construction
- Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)
- headed by Harry L. Hopkins ;; granted $3 billion for direct payments or for wages on projects
- Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act of 1936
- withdrawal of acreage from production by paying farmers to plant soil-conserving crops & letting land fallow
- John L. Lewis
- boss of United Mine Workers ;; 1935 formed Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO)
- Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935
- stopped bloated growth of public utility companies
- Public Works Administration (PWA)
- headed by Secretary of Interior Harold L. Ickes ;; long range recovery ;; $4 billion spent on projects ;; preserved arts by hiring artists
- Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA)
- "parity prices" (price set for a product that gave it the same real value) for basic commodities ;; eliminated surpluses by paying growers to reduce crop acreage
- sit-down strike
- workers refuse to leave factory building of General Motors & prevented importation of strikebreakers
- Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)
- millions of $ to help farmers meet mortgages
- Reogranization Act
- 1939 limited powers for administrative reforms (new executive office)
- Works Progress Administration (WPA)
- 1935 employment on useful projects ;; spent $11 billion on public buildings, bridges, roads, agencies found part-time jobs for students and unemployed white-collar ppl
- Pearl S. Buck
- The Good Earth ;; 3rd American to receive Nobel Prize for literature in 1938
- Indian Reorganization Act of 1934
- "Indian New Deal" ;; encouraged tribes to set up local self-gov't & save native crafts/traditions ;; helped stop loss of Indian lands & revived tribes' interest in identity & culture
- Hundred Days
- Mar 9-June 16, 1933 ;; time when Democratic Congress worked on legislation
- Wagner (National Labor Relations) Act of 1935
- created National Labor Relations board for administrative purposes & reasserted rights to unionize & bargain through reps.
- National Recovery Administration (NRA)
- assisted labor, industry, unemployed ;; codes of "fair competition" ;; workers got rights to organize, bargain through reps, labor hrs reduced ;; "yellow dog" antiunion contracts forbidden, restrictions placed on use of child labor ;; symbol of NRA = blue eagle
- Ruth Benedict
- "culture and personality movement" ;; Patterns of Culture (1934) - study of cultues as collective personalities
- Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
- employment in gov't camps for 3 million young men (ages 18-23) ;; most popular of New Deal agencies ;; reforestation, firefighter, flood control, swamp drainage
- Father Charles Coughlin
- Michigan Catholic priest ;; "Social Justice" ;; anti-New Deal rants were so anti-Semitic, fascistic, and demagogic that he was silenced
- Glass-Steagall Banking Reform Act
- supported public reliance on banking system ;; created FDIC
- Margaret Mead
- student of Ruth Benedict ;; had new ideas about sexuality, gender roles, intergenerational relationships ;; helped to popularize cultural anthropology & was a celebrity
- Emergency Banking Relief Act of 1933
- gave president power to regulate banking transactions & foreign exchange then reopen solvent banks
- Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
- FDIC insures individual deposits up to $5000 ($100,000 today)
- Dr. Francis E. Townsend
- supported by 5 million senior citizens ;; each old person gets $200/month
- Federal Housing Administration (FHA)
- 1934 building industry stimulated by small loans to householders for improvements & completions of new homes
- Fair Labor Standards Act (Wages and Hours Bill)
- 40 cents & 40-hr week ;; labor under 16 banned
- Senator Huey P. Long
- "Share the Wealth" program ;; every family receives $5000 at expense of the wealthy
- Schechter decision
- 1935 shot down NRA ;; agreed that Congress could not give legislative powers to president and congressionl control of interstate commerce did not apply to fowl businesses (Schechter brothers in NY)