U.s. Chapter 26 Flashcards

Front 1

RFC

Back 1

~ President Hoover established this corporation to help imeriled banks and insurance companies
~ established early in 1932
~ the RFC loaned government money to financial institutions to save them from bankruptcy

Front 2

Hundred Days

Back 2

~ the first a hundred days of the depression
~ During these hundred days, Roosevelt sent fifteen major requests to Congress and received back fifteen pieces of legislation
~ some of these agencies that were created have become apart of American life like the Tennessee Valley Authority

Front 3

NRA

Back 3

~ attempted to combat the Great Depression through national economic planning by establishing and administering a system of industrial codes to control production, prices, labor relations, and trade practices among leading business interests
~ it was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1935

Front 4

AAA

Back 4

~ attempted to regulate agriculture production through farm subsidies
~ it was reworked after the Supreme Court ruled its key regulatory provisions unconstitutional in 1936
~ it coordinated agricultural production during WWII, after which it was disbanded

Front 5

Harry Hopkins

Back 5

~ President Roosevelt brought in Hopkins to direct the RFC
~ A former social worker
~ Hopkins proceeded to spend more than 5 million in less than two hours
~ by the end of 1933, Hopkins had cut through red tape to distribute money to nearly one-sixth of the American people
~ the most influential factor in the African American's political switch was Hopkins' color-blind policy
~ he had more than one million blacks working for the WPA by 1939, many of them in teaching and artistic positions as well as in construction jobs

Front 6

WPA

Back 6

~ massive work relief programs funded projects ranging from construction to acting
~ disbanded by FDR during WWII

Front 7

Townsend Plan

Back 7

~ created by Francis Townsend in 1934
~ the plan proposed giving everyone over the age of 60 a monthly pension of 200 dollars with the proviso that it must be spent within thirty days
~ was used as a way to stimulate the economy
~ despite the criticism from economists that the plan would transfer more than half the national income to less than 10 percent of the population, more than ten million people signed petitions endorsing the plan

Front 8

Social Security Act

Back 8

~ guaranteed retirement payments for enrolled workers beginning at age 65
~ set up federal-state system of unemployment insurance and care for dependent mothers and children, the handicapped, and public health
~ the act still continues today

Front 9

Wagner Act (National Labor Relations Act)

Back 9

~ created in 1935
~ it created the national labor relations board to supervise union elections and designate winning unions as official bargaining agents
~ the board could also issue cease-and-desist orders to employers who dealt unfairly with their workers

Front 10

NLRB

Back 10

~ was established by the Wagner Act
~ greatly enhanced power of American labor by overseeing collective bargaining
~ continues to arbitrate labor-management disputes today

Front 11

John L. Lewis

Back 11

~ was the head of the United Mine Workers
~ he took the lead in forming the Committee on Industrial Organization in 1935
~ the son of a Welsh coal miner
~ was a dynamic and ruthless man
~ he had led the mine workers since 1919 and was determined to spread the benefits of unions throughout industry
~ he renamed his group the Congress of Industrial Organizations and announced in 1936 that he would use the Wagner Act to extend collective bargaining to the nation's auto and steel industries
~ within five years, Lewis had scored a remarkable series of victories in steel and in the automobile industry

Front 12

Liberty League

Back 12

~ was formed by a group of wealthy industrialists to fight what they saw as the New Deal's assault on property rights
~ the league attracted prominent Democrats, including Al Smith, but in 1936 it endorsed Republican presidential candidate, Alfred M. Landon
~ Democratic spokesmen condemned the Liberty League as a millionaire's union and reminded the American people of how much Roosevelt had done for them in fighting unemployment and providing relief

Front 13

CCC

Back 13

~ young men between the ages of 18 and 25 volunteered to be placed in camps to work on regional environmental projects, mainly west of the Mississippi
~ they received 30 dollars a month, of which 25 dollars was sent home
~ it was disbanded during WWII

Front 14

Bonus Army

Back 14

~ June 1932: a group of twenty thousand WWI veterans marched on Washington, D.C., to demand immediate payment of their adjusted compensation bonuses voted by Congress in 1924
~ Congress rejected their demands, and President Hoover, fearing that their ranks were infested with criminals and radicals, had the bonus army forcibly removed from their encampment
~ it was a public relations disaster for Hoover

Front 15

PWA

Back 15

~ it financed more than 34,000 federal and non federal construction projects at a cost of more than 6 billion dollars
~ initiated the first federal public housing program, made the federal government the nation's leading producer of power, and advanced conservation of the nation's natural resources
~ discontinued in 1939 due to its effectiveness at reducing unemployment and promoting private investment

Front 16

CWA

Back 16

~ emergency work relief program
~ it put more than four million people to work during the extremely cold winter of 1933-1934, after which it was disbanded

Front 17

Harold Ickes

Back 17

~ Secretary of the Interior
~ headed the PWA
~ he was intent on the quality of the projects rather than human needs, and he failed to put many people to work
~ Ickes signs the first constitution providing for Indian self-rule

Front 18

UAW

Back 18

~ General motors resisted the newly created UAW
~ the union developed an effective strike technique
~ the workers sat where they were and wouldn't move until they signed a contract and if they were removed forcefully they would destroy the machines
~ General Motors conceded defeat and signed a contract with the UAW
~ the UAW gained another victory with Chrysler as well

Front 19

Hattie Caraway

Back 19

~ Caraway of Arkansas succeeded her husband in the Senate, wining a full term in 1934
~ that same year, voters elected six women to the House of Representatives

Front 20

FSA

Back 20

~ granted loans to small farmers and tenants for rehabilitation and purchase of small-sized farms
~ Congress slashed its appropriations during WWII when many poor farmers entered the armed forces or migrated to urban areas

Front 21

Federal Farm Board

Back 21

~ was created in response to the growing destruction of the depression
~ it loaned money to aid cooperatives and bought up surplus crops in the open market in a vain effort to raise farm prices

Front 22

Fair Labor Standards Act

Back 22

established a minimum wage of 40 cents an hour and a maximum workweek of 40 hours for bushinesses engaged in interstate commerce

Front 23

"Hooverville's"

Back 23

~ was the popular name for shanty towns built by homeless people during the Great Depression

Front 24

Charles Coughlin

Back 24

~ a Roman Catholic priest from Detroit
~ he had originally supported FDR
~ he challenged FDR and his leadership
~ speaking to a rapt nationwide radio audience in his rich, melodious voice, Coughlin appealed to the discontented with a strange mixtrue of crank monteray schemes and anti-Semitism
~ he broke with the New Deal in late 1934
~ he founded his own National Union for Social Justice
~ he called for monetary inflation and the nationalization of the banking system in his weekly radio sermons to an audience of more than thirty million

Front 25

Huey Long

Back 25

~ the third voice of protest against FDR and his program was Huey
~ the flamboyant senatro from Louisiana
~ Long turned against Fdr and by 1935 had become a major political threat to the president
~ Long had a remarkable ability to mock those in power
~ he announced a nationwide Share the Wealth movement in 1934
~ he spoke grandly of taking from the rich to make every man a king, guaranteeing each American a home work 5000 dollars and an annual income of 2500 dollars
~ to finance the plan, Long advocated seizing all fortunes of more than 5 million and levying a tax of 100 percent on incomes greater than 1 million
~ 1935: he had 27 thousand Share the Wealth clubs and had a mailing list of more than seven million people
~ he was killed in Louisiana in late 1935

Front 26

Francis Townsend

Back 26

~ another threatening figure to Roosevelt and his plan
~ Francis arose in California
~ a 67 year old physician
~ came forward in 1934 with a scheme to assist the elderly, who were suffering greatly during the depression
~ the plan proposed giving everyone over the age of 60 a montly pension of 200 dollars with the proviso that it must be spent within thirty days
~ more than ten million people signed petitions endorsing the Townsend Plan, and few politicians opposed it

Front 27

Alf Landon

Back 27

~ the Republican presidential candidate in the election of 1936
~ was the Governor of Kansas
~ he was a moderate, colorless figure
~ he disappointed his backers by refusing to campaign for repeal of the popular New Deal reforms
~ he lost

Front 28

Eleanor Roosevelt

Back 28

~ spoke out eloquently throughout the decade against racial discrmination, most notably in 1939 when the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to let African Americcan contralto Marian Anderson sign in Constitution Hall
~ Eleanor set an example for all women to encourage them to join government
~ Eleanor traveled around the country, eager to uncover wrongs, bring them to the president's attention, and, if poosible, rectify them

Front 29

Charles Evans Hughes

Back 29

~ the chief justice of the Supreme Court during Roosevelt's time
~ he testified tellingly to the Senate Judiciary Committee, pointing out that in fact the court was up to date and not behind schedule as Roosevelt charged

Front 30

TVA

Back 30

~ an attempt at regional planning
~ including provisions for environment and recreational design, archtectural, educational, and health projects, and controversial public power projects
~ continues today to meet the Tennessee Valey's energy and flood-control needs

Front 31

Fireside Chats

Back 31

~ FDR addressed the nation by radio in the first of his fireside chats
~ in conversational tones, he told the public what he had done

Front 32

Court Packing

Back 32

~ concerned that the conservative supreme court might declare all his New Deal programs unconstiturional, President Franklin Roosevelt asked Congress to allow him to appoint additional justices to the court
~ both congress and the public rejected this court-packing scheme and it was defeated

Front 33

REA

Back 33

~ transformed American rural life by making electricity available at low rates to American farm families in areas that private power companies refused to service
~ closed the cultural gap between rural and urban everyday life by making modern amenities, such as radio, available in rural areas

Front 34

New Deal

Back 34

~ in accepting the nomination of the Democratic Party in 1932, FDR promised a new deal for the American people
~ after his election, the label was applied to his program of legislation passed to combat the Great Depression
~ the New Deal included measures aimed at relief, reform, and recovery
~ they achieved some relief and considerable reform but little recovery

Front 35

New Deal Coalition

Back 35

~ was the alignment of interest groups and voting blocs that supported the New Deal and voted for Democratic presidential candidates from 1932 until approximately 1968, which made the Democratic Party the majority party during that period, losing only to Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956. Franklin D. Roosevelt created a coalition that included the Democratic party, big city machines, labor unions, minorities (racial, ethnic and religious), liberal farm groups, intellectuals, and white Southern liberals. The coalition fell apart in 1968, but it remains the model that party activists seek to replicate.

Front 36

Indian Reorganization Act

Back 36

~ passed by Congress in 1934
~ a reform measure designed to stres tribal unity and autonomy instead of attempting to transform Indians into self-sufficient farmers by granting them small plots of land

Front 37

Great Depression impact on political parties

Back 37

~ Democrats controlled politics throughout the decade of the depression
~ congress passed almost all of FDR's programs and acts throughout the decade
~ The New Deal programs of FDR created a liberal political alliance made up of labor unions, blacks and other ethnic and religious minorities, intellectuals, the poor, and some farmers

Front 38

New Deal impact on women, African Americans, Mexicans

Back 38

~ the New Deal reached into areas hitherto untouched
~ many of them brought about long-overdue improvements, but others failed to make any significant dent in historic inequities
~ the most importan advances came with the dramatic growth of labor unions
~ the conditions of for working women and minorities in non unionized industries showed no comparable advance

Front 39

CIO

Back 39

~ was a union to help the workers of the auto and steel industries
~ was organized and headed by John Lewis
~ By the end of the 1930s, the CIO had some five million members
~ the CIO had also been successful in the textile, rubber, electrical, and metal industries
~ they organized unskilled as well as skilled
~ women and african americans benefitted greatly from this union