Chapter 24: The New Deal

• Fireside Chats

  The informal radio talks President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had with Americans during the Great Depression. They not only unified America with these nationwide speeches, but he roses American spirits by encouraging Americans through the Great Depression. FDR was the first president to effectively use the radio for politics. These talks occurred at least once a month, maybe even more frequently
• Banking New Deal Legislation

  • Emergency Banking Act
  • Glass-Steagall Act
  • FDIC
• Stock Market New Deal Legislation

  • Truth in Securities Act of 1933
  • Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC)
• Economy Act

  reduced the government budget deficit by cutting federal employee salaries & reducing veteran benefits
• 21st Amendment

  ratified in 1933, repealed prohibition
• Agricultural New Deal Legislation

  • Agricultural Adjustment Administration (deemed unconstitutional)
  • Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act
  • The Resettlement Administration (1935) --> Farm Security Administration (1937)
  • Rural Electrification Administration
• National Recovery Administration(NRA)

  • It was designed to assist industry, labor, and the unemployed. The administration made a maximum amount of hours of labor, minimum wages, and gave labor union members the right to choose their own representatives. Led by Hugh S. Johnson
  • NRA codes were not perfect and often favored large producers & raised floors to levels higher than the market could sustain
  • Section 7(a) promised workers the rigt right to form unions and engage in collective bargaining (but no enforcement mechanisms)
• Public Works Administration

  Created for both industrial recovery and for unemployment relief. It aimed at long-range recovery and spent $4 billion on thousands of projects that included public buildings, highways, and parkways.
• Schechter vs. US

  declared the NRA unconstitutional because those legislative powers could not be delegated to the president
• Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

  In 1933, America's government constructed dams on the Tennessee River in order to improve the lives of millions of poor citizens that would not afford electricity, instead the dams turned the water power into hydroelectricity. The dams also decreased America's spending on electricity and made the energy insutry public rather than being owned by private companies.
• Federal Emergency Relief Act & Administration

  focused on immediate relief, headed by Harry Hopkins
• National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (Wagner Act)

  boost to the labor movement, reassured right to collectively bargain, provided for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
• Harry Hopkins

  A New York social worker who headed the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and Civil Works Administration. He helped grant over 3 billion dollars to the states wages for work projects, and granted thousands of jobs for jobless Americans.
• Liberty League

  A conservative anti-New Deal organization; members included Alfred Smith, John W. Davis, and the Du Pont family. It criticized the "dictatorial" policies of Roosevelt and what it perceived to be his attacks on the free enterprise system.
• Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)

  A federation of labor union for all unskilled workers. It provided a national labor union for unskilled workers, unlike the AFL, which limited itself to skilled workers.
• Dr. Francis E. Townsend

  appealed to senior citizens, created a plan for pensions (inspired social security)
• Father Charles E. Coughlin

  enormou radio audience, wanted the nationalization of the banking system
• Huey Long

  senator from LA, promoted sharing wealth, Share-Our-Wealth-Plan