Politicians Flashcards
Tariffs
A tax import on goods and services. It was used to restrict trade, making them more expensive to consumers. They were protecting industries.
Attitudes of the 1920s
They had a very “hands off” policy which caused that stock market to crash.
Scandals
Harding led to the Teapot Dome scandal. A bribery incident in the U.S. The most serious scandal because it involved national security, big oil companies, and bribery and corruption.
Trying to fix Europe’s debt problems
After WWI, Britain and France had huge amounts of debt to finance the war that they owed to the U.S. and couldn’t pay. They created the treaty of Versailles to make Germany pay back the damages they caused to Britain and France so they could pay U.S. Germany couldn’t pay so they created the Dawes Plan by President Dawes, to save them from default.
Hoover’s Response to the Stock Market Crash
The Stock Market crashed in 1929. Everyone looked to the President for help, but he failed them. He thought it was part of a passing recession. He worked nonstop to increase the economy. He found government agencies, encourage labor harmonies, supported local aid, and struggle to balance budget. Work focused on indirect relief from individual states. He wrote a letter to Governor Emmerson from Illinois and it was clear that it was a worldwide economic slowdown.
Franklin Roosevelt
Was the President during WWII. He was charming and witty and sometimes superficial and arrogant “lightweight.” Suffering humbled him. He schooled himself in patience, tolerance, compassion, and strength of will.
New Deal
Roosevelt preached a New Deal for the “forgotten man.” It was a series of experimental projects and programs. It aimed to restore dignity and prosperity to Americans.
Roosevelt’s Three R’s
Relief, recovery, and reform. Short range goals were relief and immediate recovery, especially in the first two years. Long range goals were permanent recovery and reform of current abuses. The three R’s often overlapped and got in each other’s way.
New Deal Laws
Embraced progressive ideas like unemployment insurance, old-age insurance, minimum wage regulations, conservation and development of natural resources, and restrictions on child labor. New schemes like Tennessee Valley Authority. Emergency Banking Relief of 1933 invested the president with power to regulate banking transactions and foreign exchange and to reopen solvent banks.
Critics of the New Deal
Father Charles Coughlin was a Catholic priest he broadcast the slogan “Social Justice” and he had anti-New Deal harangues to 40 million fans. Dr. Francis E. Townsend a retired physician promised everyone over 60 years $200 a month. Senator Huey P. (“Kingfish”) Long wanted to publicize the “Share the Wealth” program in which every family received $5,000. John Keynes a British economists disagreed with the New Deal and went on to create Keynesianism which used the government spending and fiscal policy to “prime the pump” of the economy and encourage consumer spending.
Court-Packing Scheme
Roosevelt wanted to expand the Supreme Court. He wanted to add a new Justice to the Supreme Court for every member over 70 who would not retire. Maximum membership would be 15.
