Unit #8 Flashcards
Election of 1928
Calvin Coolidge decided not to run for a second term. Herbert Hoover became the Republican nominee and Alfred E. Smith was the democratic candidate. Herbert Hoover won in a landslide.
Herbert Hoover as the 1928 Republican Candidate
Hoover used to be the secretary of commerce so the “Coolidge Prosperity” was associated with him as well. His personality sparkled on the new found radio. He had never been elected into public office before but he won.
Alfred E. Smith at the 1928 Democratic Candidate
Smith’s campaign was affected by scandal because he drank during the prohibition era and was a Roman Catholic. This caused dry, rural, fundamentalist democrats to disapprove. Smith had been in elected positions before but he sounded odd on radio.
“Black Tuesday” A.K.A The Stock Market Crash
A devastating stock market crash caused by over-speculation and overly high stock prices built on non-existent credit.
Overproduction/Underconsumtion
The Great Depression might have been caused by an overabundance of farm and factory products. The nation’s capacity to consume goods was outrun by the capacity to produce goods.
Over-Speculation
A cause of the stock market crash - “Black Tuesday”.
Monetarist School
Economic thought that money supply is the main determinant of the current dollar GDP in the long run and the price level over longer periods.
Buying on Margin
Allowed people to borrow most of the cost of stock making very low down payments.
Normal Business Cycle
A peak in the level of output is followed by a recession phase then a recovery phase that leads to another peak. This cycle is steadily growing.
Rugged Individualism
Hoover spoked of this view that America was made great by strong, self-sufficient individuals because he was a self-made millionaire.
Hoover’s Response to the Depression
Hoover believed the Great Depression was part of the normal business cycle at first. He believed in laissez faire business and didn’t want government interference in the economy.
Agricultural Marketing Act
An act passed by Hoover designed to help farmers help themselves through producers cooperatives. It set up the Federal Farm Board.
Federal Farm Board
Created by Hoover’s Agricultural Marketing Act. This board bolstered sagging prices of corn and grain by buying surpluses.
Hawley-Smoot Tariff
Tariff (tax on imports) that was an unbelievable 60%. Widened trade gaps, worsened the depression and foreigners hated the tariff because it ended a promising worldwide trend to reasonable tariffs.
Hoover Dam
On the Colorado River. This was a public works project that Hoover invested in in order to enforce his “trickle down” policy. Hoover vetoes this because the government would be deciding how the electricity would be appropriated (government interference).
Muscle Shoals Bill
Designed to the dam the Tennessee River. Embraced by the Tennessee Valley Authority. It was vetoed by Hoover.
Reconstruction Finance Corporation
A government lending bank. HUGE step for Hoover because it went against the laissez faire policies. Giant corporations ended up benefiting from this because no loans were given to individuals.
1930 Mid-Term Elections
The Republican majority and the Democrats took control of the House and almost took the Senate.
The Bonus Army
Veterans who had not been been paid for WWI marched to Washington and demanded their bonuses. They erected shacks and when troops came to intervene, after Congress failed to pass the bonus bill, riots broke out/ Hoover falsely stated communists were at the riot to justify his excessive use of force against veterans.
Franklin Roosevelt
Democrat candidate in 1932. A cousin of Theodore Roosevelt who was disabled. FDR was suave and conciliatory where TR was confrontational.
Eleanor Roosevelt
The most active first lady ever. Known as the “Conscious of the New Deal”. She had a newspaper column, influential policies and lobbied for her husband.
Democrat Platform 1932
Promised repeal of prohibition, a balanced budget and sweeping economic reforms. They made sure to call the Great Depression the Hoover Depression. FDR attacked Hoover’s spending.
The New Deal
FDR promised a vague and contradictory deal for the “forgotten man”.
The Braintrust
Academic advisors that helped FDR during his campaign. His speeches were ghost written by these people and they created an economic plan that would be the backbone for the New Deal.
Election of 1932
The Republican candidate was Herbert C. Hoover while the Democratic candidate was Franklin D. Roosevelt. Hoover’s nomination was half hearted and he pointed out that his policies made the depression better than it could be. A landslide victory for FDR. The black voted switched from the Republican to the Democratic party.
Lame Duck Period
The period of time when the old president leaves office and new president gets in. Notably, during Hoover and FDR’s lame duck period Hoover tried to initiate some of FDR’s plans but FDR would not cooperate.
The Bank Crisis
After the stock market crash, customers wanted to take out all of their money at once which caused the banks to fail.
FDR’s First Inaugural Address
FDR asserted, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” He promised that the government would wage war on the depression.
Bank Holiday
During FDR’s “Hundred Days” this holiday was created to eliminate paranoid bank withdrawals.
The Hundred Days
The first 100 days of FDR’s administration there was a ton of legislative activity.
Relief, Recovery, Reform
The basis for FDR’s legislation.
Emergency Banking Relief Act
The first legislative act to be passed. This declared a one week “bank holiday”.
Fireside Chats
FDR’s radio broadcasts with the American people. They gave assurance and tried to get people to trust the banks.
“Managed Currency”
FDR canceling the gold-payment clause on all contracts authorized repayment in paper currency. The goal was to inflate the economy and therefore relieve debtors; burdens and stimulate new production.
20th Admendment
Cut the lame duck period down to 6 weeks so FDR began his second term on January 20, 1937 instead of Marsh 4th.
21st Admendment
Repealed prohibition.
The Glass-Steagall Banking Reform Act
Passed during the “hundred days”. It provided the FDIC which insured individual deposits up to $5000 thereby eliminating bank failure and restoring faith to banks.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Created by the Glass-Steagall Act. Insured money for the banks.
Civilan Conservation Corps
Created by FDR to assist in unemployment. Provided employment in government camps for 3 million uniformed young men. The men were required to sent most of their earning to their parents. They reforested areas, fought floods etc. FDR was criticized for militarizing the youths/acting as dictator.
Home Owners Loan Cooperation
Refinanced mortgages on non-farm homes and bottled down the loyalties of the middle class to the democratic party creating democratic homeowners.
Farm Credit Administration
Created low-interest farm loans and mortgages to prevent foreclosures on the property of indebted farmers.
Federal Emergency Relief Act
Looking for immediate relief rather than long-term alleviation this granted 3 billion states for direct dole payment or waged on work projects. Created the Federal Emergency Relief Administration.
Harry L. Hopkins
Head of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and The Civil Works Administration.
Tennessee Valley Authority
Combined advantages of employment with reforming the power company. It sought to discover exactly how much money it took to produce electricity and then keep rates reasonable. It constructed dams on the Tennessee River.
Public Works Administration
Focusing on long range recovery and intended both for industrial recovery and for unemployment relief. Spent of $4 billion on public works projects.
Harold Ickes
Secretary of the Interior and head of the Public Works Administration.
Federal Securities Act
Required promoters to transmit to the investor sworn information regarding the soundness of their stocks and bonds.
Securities and Exchange Commission
Designed as a stock watchdog administrative agency and stock market. Stock markets would henceforth operate more as trading marts than casinos.
Civil Works Administration
It was designed to provide purely temporary jobs during the winter emergency.
American Liberty League
Formed by conservative Democrats and wealthy Republicans to fight “socialistic” New Deal Schemes.
Charles Coughlin
A Catholic priest in Michigan who at first was with FDR then disliked the New Deal and voiced his opinions on radio. His sermons became fascist, demagogic and anti-semantic do he was silenced.
Huey Long
Senator of Louisiana, popular for his “share the wealth program” where he proposed, with no financial basis, that each family should receive $5,000 from the rich.
Dr. Francis Townsend
Gained support of senior citizens with his plan that each senior receive $200 a month and have to spend it within that month. Mathematically silly.
Francis Perkins
First female cabinet member under FDR.
Mary McLeod Bethune
Headed the Office of Minority Affairs, the “black cabinet” and founded a Florida College.
Margaret Mead
Advanced ideas about gender roles, sex and interracial relationships. She was a celebrity.
National Industry Recovery Act
Authorized POTUS to regulate industry and permit cartels and monopolies in an attempt to stimulate economic recovery and established a national public works program.
Schecter vs US
Declared the National Recovery Act because it have legislative power to the chief executive. Declared congressional control of interstate commerce and couldn’t apply to a local business like that of schecters.
Agricultural Adjustment Act
Made millions of dollars available to help farmers meet their mortgages. In 1938, after Butler vs. US this had continued payments for conservation tactics but was accepted by the Supreme Court.
Butler vs US
Declared regulatory taxation provisions unconstitutional. Killed the Agricultural Adjustment Administration which paid farmers to reduce crop acreages etc.
The Dust Bowl
A combination of poor farming techniques and the drought caused furious winds to whip dust into the air.
Resettlement Administration
Charged by FDR with the task of removing near farm-less farmers to better land.
Federal Housing Administration
To speed recovery and better homes, this stimulated the building industry through small loans to householders.
Indian Reorganization Act
In order to reverse the assimilation that was forced on Native Americans during the Dawes Act, this encourages tribes to preserve their culture and traditions.
John Collier
Commissioner of Indian Affairs who sought to reverse forced-assimilation policies.
The Second New Deal
1935-38; in response to critics of the 1st New Deal (particularly Huey Long and the more radical critics); contained more relief programs and greater protection for labor unions (this was radical for the 1920s anti-union atmosphere); the most extensive of the reform programs that emerged was social security
Social Security Act
1935: Created pension and insurance for the old-aged, the blind, physically handicapped, delinquent children and other dependents by taxing employees and employers.
Farm Security Administration
1937: Granted loans to small farmers and tenants for rehabilitation and purchase of small-sized farms; Congress slashed its appropriations during World War II when many poor farmers entered the armed forces or migrated to urban areas
Agricultural Adjustment Act
Substitute for the Agricultural Adjustment Administration; comprehensive and continued conservation payments for farmers but ended the administrations’ s payments for farmers to reduce their crop acreage
Works Progress Administration
1935: Put 11 million on thousands of public buildings, bridges, and hard-surfaced roads and gave 9 million people jobs in its 8 years
Federal Writers/Theatre/Art Projects
The WPA found jobs for actors, musicians and writers.
National Labor Relations Act
After walkouts spiked after axing the NRA, this act guaranteed their rights of unions to organize and to bargain with management.
NLRB
Created by NLRA; unskilled laborer began to organize themselves into effective unions
John Lewis
Boss of the United Mine Workers; formed the Committee for Industrial Organization within the AF of L
Congress of Industrial Organizations
Won a victory against General Motors. Name of CLO after removing themselves from AF of L.
Walter Reuther
UAW official, autoworker, and labor activist was beaten viciously by a group of thugs organized by Ford and Bennett, who hated unions. mapped a campaign to unionize GM, where hostility to organized labor ran deep.
“Sit Down” Strikes
CLO refused to leave automobile factories at general motors and after negotiations the CLO recognized the CLO ad the sole bargaining agency for their employers
Memorial Day Massacre
At the Republic Steel Company of South Chicago, the police fired upon workers leaving them injured or killed.
Women’s Emergency Brigade
Millitant expression of the uNited Auto workers Women’s Auxiliary Movement; 24 hour alert for picket duty, played a crucial role in the UAW members that seized control of the plant that produced General Motor Engines
United Automobile Workers
During the sit-down strikes, they employed the tactic of the sit-down rather than leave the plant, workers halted production but remained inside.
Fair Labor Standards Act
1938: Set up minimum wage and maximum hours standards as well as forbidding children under 16 from working.
The Election of 1936
FDR ran against as the Democratic candidate while Alfred M. FDR appealed to the forgotten man and won.
Alf Langdon
Landon ran as the Republican candidate. Landon was weak on the radio and he favored too much of the New Deal programs to criticize FDR on spending.
The Democratic Coalition
Alignment of interest groups and voting bloc that supported the New Deal and voted for Democratic presidential candidates from 1932 to 1968. It made the Democratic party huge during this period.
FDR’s Second Inaugural Address
Promised to continue New Deal reforms
Supreme Court Reform Plan
FDR proposed the for every member over 70 he should be able to add a member for a maximum of 15 members.
Constitutional Revolution of 1937
Courts shifted from exercising judicial review of legislative act to one that focused on protecting civil liberties.
