Chapter 24

Question 1

“fireside chats”

Answer 1

made use of the radio. He explained his programs and plans to people and helped build public confidence in the administration.

Question 2

bank holiday

Answer 2

On March 6, 1933, two days after taking office, he issued a proclamation closing all American banks for four days until Congress could meet in special session to consider banking reform legislation. So great was the panic about bank failures that the “bank holiday” created a general sense of relief. Three days later, Roosevelt sent to Congress the Emergency Banking Act, a generally conservative bill designed primarily to protect larger banks from being dragged down by the weakness of smaller ones. The bill provided for Treasury Department inspection of all banks before they would be allowed to reopen.

Question 3

Twenty-first Amendment

Answer 3

Roosevelt moved in his first days in office to put to rest one of the divisive issues of the 20s. He supported and then signed a bill to legalize the manufacture and sale of bear with a 3.2 percent alcohol content–an interim measure pending the repeal of prohibition, for which a constitutional amendment (21st) was in process. The amendment was ratified in 1933.

Question 4

blue eagle

Answer 4

An eagle was the symbol of the NRA. (trying to show their patriotic commitment to recovery)

Question 5

NRA section 7a

Answer 5

Other NRA goals did not progress as quickly as the efforts to raise prices. Section 7a of the NRA promised workers the right to form unions and engage in collective bargaining and encouraged many workers to join unions for the first time. But section 7a contained no enforcement mechanisms. Hence recognition of unions by employers (an thus the significant wage increases the unions were committed to winning) did not follow.

Question 6

Schechter case

Answer 6

In 1935, a case came before the Court involving alleged NRA code violations by the Schechter brothers, who operated a wholesale poultry business confined to Brooklyn, New York. The COurt ruled unanimously that the Schechters were not engaged in interstate commerce (and thus not subject to federal regulation) and further, that Congress had unconstitutionally delegated legislative power to the president to draft eh NRA codes. The justices struck down the legislation establishing the agency. Roosevelt denounced the justices for their “horse-and-buggy” interpretation of the interstate commerce clause. he was rightfully concerned, for the reasoning in the Schechter case threatened many other New Deal programs as well . But the Court’s destruction of the NRA itself gave the New Deal a convenient excuse for ending a failed experiment.

Question 7

Glass-Stegall Banking Act

Answer 7

Through other legislation, the early New Deal increased federal authority over priviously unregulated or weakly regulated areas of the economy. The Glass-Steagall Act of June 1933 gave the government authority to curb irresponsible speculation by banks. It also established a wall between commercial banking and investment banking. Equally important, it established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which guaranteed all bank deposits up to $2,500/ Finally, in 1935, Congress passed a major banking act that transferred much of the authority once wielded by the regional Federal Reserve banks to the Federal Reserve Board in Washington

Question 8

American Liberty League

Answer 8

By the end of 1934, it was clear that the American right had become irreconcilably hostile to the New Deal. In August 1934, a group of the most fervent, and wealthiest, Roosevelt opponents led by members of the Du Pont family, reshaped the American Liberty League (formed initially to oppose prohibition of liquor) to arouse public opposition to the New Deal’s “dictatorial” policies and its supposed attacks on free enterprise. But the new organization was never able to expand its constituency much beyond the northern industrialists who had founded it.

Question 9

Townsend Plan

Answer 9

Dr. Francis E. Townsend, and elderly California physician, rose from obscurity to lead a movement of more than 5 million members with his plan for federal pensions for the elderly. According to the Townsend Plan, all Americans over the age of 60 would receive monthly government pensions of $200 provided they retired (thus freeing jobs for younger, unemployed Americans) and spent the money in full each month (which would pump needed funds into the economy(. By 1935, the Townsend Plan had attracted the support of many older men and women. And while the plan itself was defeated in congress in 1935, the public sentiment behind it helped build support for the Social Security system, which Congress did approve in 1935

Question 10

Huey P. Long

Answer 10

had risen to power in his home state through his strident attacks on the banks, oil companies, and utilities and on the conservative political oligarchy allied with them. Elected governor in 1928, he launched an assault on his opponents so thorough and forceful that they were soon left with virtually no political power. Many critics in Louisiana claimed that Long had, in effect, become a dictator. But he also maintained the overwhelming support of the Louisiana electorate, in part because of his flamboyant personality and in part because of his solid record of conventional progressive accomplishments. Barred by law from succeeding himself as governor, he ran in 1930 for a seat in the Senate and won easily.

He once supported the president, but changed his mind, instead advocating for a drastic program of wealth redistribution, a program he named the Share-Our-Wealth Plan.

Question 11

Congress of Industrial Org.

Answer 11

John L. Lewis, the talented, flamboyant, and eloquent leader of the United Mine Workers supported industrial Unionism. Advocates of this approach argued that all workers in a particular industry should be organized in a single union, regardless of what functions the workers performed. At first, he attempted to work within the AFL, but friction between the new industrial organizations Lewis was promoting and the older craft unions grew rapidly. Lewis became embroiled in a series of angry confrontations (even a fist fight) at an AFL convention, before finally walking out. Lewis renamed the committee the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) established it in 1936 as an organization directly rivaling the AFL and became its first president.

Question 12

sit down strike

Answer 12

United Auto Workers (UAW) was gradually emerging preeminent in the early and mid 1930s. But although it was gaining recruits, it was making little progress in winning recognition from the automobile corporations. In December 1936, however, auto workers employed a controversial and effective new technique for challenging corporate opposition: the sit down strike. Employees in several General Motors plants in Detroit simply sat down inside the plants, refusing either to work or to leave, thus preventing the company from using strikebreakers. The tactic spread to other location and by Feb. 1937 strikers had occupied 17 GM plants.

GM relented and became the first major manufacturer to recognize the UAW. The sit down strike prove effective for rubber workers and others as well but it only survived briefly. Its apparent illegality aroused so much public opposition that labor leaders soon abandoned it.

Question 13

Frances Perkins

Answer 13

First female cabinet member in the nation’s history, Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins.

Question 14

1936 electoral realignment

Answer 14

The election results demonstrated the party realignment that the NEw Deal had produced. The Democrats ow controlled a broad coalition of western and southern farmers, the Urban working classes, the poor and unemployed, and the black communities of northern cities, as well as a traditional progressives and committed new liberals. It would be decades before the Republican Party could again create a lasting majority coalition of its own.

Question 15

court packing plan

Answer 15

In February 1937, Roosevelt sent a surprise message to Capitol Hill proposing a general overhaul of the federal court system; included amount eh many provisions was to add up to 6 new justices to the Supreme COurt, with a new justice added fore vey sitting justice over the age of 70. The Courts were “overworked” he claimed. But Roosevelt’s real purpose was to give himself the opportunity to appoint new, liberal justices and change the ideological balance of the court. Conservatives were outraged at the court packing plan and even many Roosevelt supporters were disturbed by what they considered evidence for the president’s hunger for power. Still, Roosevelt might well have persuaded Congress to approve at least a compromise had the Supreme Court itself not intervened. The Court’s newly moderate position made the court packing bill seam unnecessary.

Question 16

Roosevelt Recession

Answer 16

The recession of 1937, known to the president’s critics as the “roosevelt recession” was a result of many factors. But to many observers at the time it seemed to be a direct result of the administration’s unwise decision to reduce spending. So in April 1938, the president asked Congress for $5 billion for public works and relief programs, and government funds soon began pouring into the economy once again. Within a few months, another tentative recovery seemed to be underway, and the advocates of spending pointed to it as proof of the validity of their approach

Question 17

“broker state”

Answer 17

Instead of forging all elements in society into a single, harmonious unit as some reformers had once hoped to do, the real achievement of the New Deal was to elevate and strengthen new interest groups so as to allow them to compete more effectively in the national marketplace. The New Deal made the federal government a mediator in that continuous competition, a force that could intervene when necessary to help some groups and limit the power of others.

Question 18

blacks and the New Deal

Answer 18

The New Deal was not hostile to African Americans, and it did much to help them advance. But it refused to make the issue of race a significant part of its agenda.

Question 19

Indian Reorganization Act

Answer 19

John Collier was a former social worker who had become committed to the cause of the Indians after exposure to tribal cultures. He proposed legislation which became the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. It restored to the tribes the right to own land collectively. In the 13 years after passage of the bill, tribal land increased by nearly 4 million acres, and Indian agricultural income increased hugely. Even with the redistribution however, Indians continued to posses, mostly, territory whites did not want, much of it arid, some of it desert. As a group, the continued to constitute the poorest segment of the population.

Question 20

Women and the New Deal

Answer 20

As with African Americans, the New Deal was not hostile to feminist aspirations, but neither did it do a great deal to advance them. There were symbolic gains for women during the time, but New deal support for women operated within limits.

Question 21

New Deal in West and South

Answer 21

the South and the West benefited disproportionately from the New Deal. The West received more federal funds per capita than any other regions. Most westerners were eager for assistance, but their political leaders were not always supportive. In the South, locally administered New Deal relief programs did not challenge prevailing racial norms. In the West too, New Deal programs accepted existing racial and ethnic prejudices.

Question 22

AAA

Answer 22

Agricultural Adjustment Administration-May 1933-most important feature was its provision for reducing crop production to end agricultural surpluses and halt the downward spiral of farm prices. Under the provisions of the act, producers of 7 basic commodities would decide on production limits for their crops. The government, through the AAA, would then tell individual farmers how much they should produce and would pay them subsidies for leaving some of their land idle. A tax on food processing would provide the funds for the new payments. The AAA helped bring about a rise in prices for farm commodities in the years after 1933. Gross farm income increased by half in the first three years of the New Deal, and the agricultural economy as a whole emerged from the 30s much more stable and prosperous than it had been in many years. The AAA did however favor larger farmers over small farmers. In January 1936, the Supreme Court struck down the crucial provisions of the AAA, arguing that the government had no constitutional authority to require farmers to limit production.

Question 23

FSA

Answer 23

The Resettlement Administration, established in 1935 and its successor, the Farm Security Administration, established in 1937, provided loans to help farmers cultivating submarginal soil to relocate to better lands. But the programs never moved more than a few thousand farmers.

Question 24

REA

Answer 24

Rural Electrification Administration- More effective than the FSA. Created in 1935, which worked to make electric power available for the first time to thousands of farmers through utility cooperatives.

Question 25

NRA

Answer 25

National Recovery Administration-under the direction of the flamboyant and energetic Hugh S. Johnson. Johnson called on every business establishment in the nation to accept a temporary “blanket code”: a minimum wage of between 30 and 40 cents an hour, a maximum workweek of 35-40 hours, and the abolition of child labor. Adherence to the code, he claimed, would raise consumer purchasing power and increase employment.

From the beginning, the NRA encountered serious difficulties. The codes themselves were hastily and often poorly written. Administering them was beyond the capacities of federal officials with no prior experience in running so vast a program. Large producers consistently dominated the code writing process and ensured that the new regulations would work to their advantage and to the disadvantage of smaller firms. And the codes at times did more than simply set floors under prices, they actively and artificially raised them—sometimes to levels higher than the market could sustain

Question 26

PWA

Answer 26

Public Works Administration-Established in 1933 to administer the National Industrial Recovery Act’s spending programs, only gradually allowed the $3.3 billion in public works funds to trickle out. Not until 1938 was the PWA budget pumping an appreciable amount of money into the economy.

Question 27

TVA

Answer 27

Tennessee Valley Authority- unprecedented experiment in regional planning. The TVA had its roots in a political controversy of the 20s. Progressive reformers had agitated for years for public development of the nation’s water resources as a source of cheap electric power. In particular, they had urged completion of a great dam at Muscle Shoals on the Tennessee River in Alabama. A dam begun during WWI and left unfinished when the war ended. But opposition from the utility companies had been two powerful to overcome. In 1932, however, one of the great utility empires—that of the electricity magnate Samuel Insull—collapsed spectacularly, amid widely publicized exposes of corruptionHostility to the utilities soon grew so intense that the companies were no longer able to block the public power movement. The result in may 1933 was the Tennessee Valley Authority. The TVA was authorized to complete the dam at Muscle Shoals and build others in the region and to generate and sell electricity from them to the public at reasonable rates. IT was also intended to be an agent for a comprehensive redevelopment of the entire region: for stopping the disastrous flooding that had plagued the Tennessee Valley for centuries, for encouraging the development of local industries, for supervising a substantial program of reforestation, and for helping farmers improve productivity.

The TVA revitalized the region in numerous ways. It improved water transportation, virtually eliminated flooding in the region, and provided electricity to thousands of individuals had never before had it. Power rates declined throughout the country. Even so, the Tennessee Valley remained a generally impoverished region despite the TVAs efforts. Like many other New Deal programs, the TVA made no serious effort to challenge local customs and racial prejudices.

Question 28

FDIC

Answer 28

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation-Established by the Glass-Steagall Act, guaranteed all bank deposits up to $2,500

Question 29

SEC

Answer 29

Securities and Exchange Commission-June 1934-established to police the stock market. Among other things, the establishment of the SEC was an indication of how far the financial establishment had fallen in public estimation. The criminal trials of a number of once well respected wall street figures for grand larceny and fraud eroded the public stature of the financial community still further.

Question 30

FERA

Answer 30

Federal Emergency Relief Administration-provided cash grants to states to prop up bankrupt relief agencies. TO administer the program, he chose the director of the NY state relief agency, harry Hopkins, who disbursed the FERA grants widely and rapidly.

Question 31

CWA

Answer 31

Civil Works Administration-both Hopkins and Roosevelt had misgivings about establishing a government “dole.” They felt more comfortable with another form of government assistance, work relief. Thus when it became clear that the FERA grants were not enough, the administration established as second program (CWA). Between November 1933 and April 1934, it put more than 4 million people to wrk on temporary projects. Some of the projects were of lasting value such as the construction of roads, schools and parks; others were little more than make work. To Hopkins however the important thing was pumping money into an economy badly in need of it, and providing assistance to people with nowhere else to turn.

Question 32

CCC

Answer 32

Civilian Conservation Corps-Roosevelt’s favorite relief project. Established in the first weeks of the new administration, the CCC was desligned to provide employment to the millions of young men who could find no jobs in ghe cities. The CCC created camps in national parks and forests and in other rural and wilderness settings. There young men worked in semimilitary environment on such projects as planting trees, building reservoirs, developing parks, and improving agricultural irrigation. The CCC camps were segregated by race.

Question 33

FCA

Answer 33

Farm Credit Administration-Mortgage relief was a pressing need for millions of farm owners and homeowners. the FCA which within 2 years refinanced 1/5 of all farm mortgagees was one response to that problem. Despite these efforts, 25% of all American farm owners had lost their land by 1934

Question 34

HOLC

Answer 34

Home Owners’ Loan Corporation-June 1933 the administration established the HOLC, which by 1936 had refinanced the mortgages of more than 1 million householders.

Question 35

FHA

Answer 35

Federal Housing Administration-A year later, Congress established the FHA to insure mortgages for new construction and home repairs.

Question 36

NLRB

Answer 36

National Labor Relations Board-The Supreme Court decision in 1935 to strike down the National Industrial Recovery Act also invalidated Section 7a of the act, which had guaranteed workers the right to organize and bargain collectively. A group of progressives in Congress led by Senator Robert E. Wagner of New York introduced what became the national Labor relations Act of 1935. The new law, popularly known as the Wagner Act, provided workers with a crucial enforcement mechanism missing from the 1933 law: the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) which would have power to compel employers to recognize and bargain with legitimate unions. The president was not entirely happy with the bill, but he signed it anyway. that was in large part because American workers themselves had by 1935 become so important and vigorous a force that Roosevelt realized his own political future would depend in part on responding to their demands.

Question 37

SSA

Answer 37

Social Security Act-1935, established several distinct programs. For the elderly, there were two types of assistance. Those who were presently destitute could receive up to $15 a month in federal assistance. More important for the future, many American presently working were incorporated into a pension system, to which they and their employers would contribute by paying a payroll tax; it would provide them with an income on retirement. Pension payments would not begin until 1942 and even then would provide only $10 to $85 a month to recipients. And broad categories of workers were excluded from the program. But the act was a crucial first step in building the nation’s most important social program for the elderly.

In addition, the SSA created a system of unemployment insurance, which employers alone would finance and which made it possible for workers lade off from their jobs to receive temporary government assistance. It also established a limited system of federal aid to people with disabilities. The framers of the SSA wanted to create a system of insurance, not welfare, and the largest programs were in many ways similar to private insurance programs. But the act also provided direct assistance based on need.

Question 38

WPA

Answer 38

Works Progress Administration-Millions of Americans had immediate needs. WPA (1935) tried to address those. Like the Civil Works Admin. and earlier efforts, the WPA established a system of work relief for the unemployed. But it was much bigger than the earlier agencies. Under the direction of Harry Hopkins, the WPA was responsible for building or renovating 110,000 public buildings and for constructing almost 600 airports, more than 500,000 miles of roads, and over 100,000 bridges. n the process, the WPA kept an average of 2.1 million workers employed and pumped needed money into the economy.

Question 39

NYA

Answer 39

National Youth Administration-provided work and scholarship assistance to high school and college age men and women.

Question 40

FLSA

Answer 40

Fair Labor Standards Act-1938, one of its most ambitious pieces of labor legislation. Established a national minimum wage and a forty hour work week. Also placed strict limits on child labor.