Smoot-Hawley
Tariff
This was enacted in 1930 during the
Great Depression. By taxing imported
goods, Congress hoped to stimulate
American manufacturing, but the tariff
triggered retaliatory tariffs in other
countries, which further hindered global
trade and led to greater economic
contraction.
Bonus Army
A group of fifteen thousand
unemployed World War I veterans
who set up camps near the Capitol
building in 1932 to demand
immediate payment of pension
awards due to be paid in 1945.
fireside chats
A series of informal radio addresses
Franklin Roosevelt made to the
nation in which he explained New
Deal initiatives.
Hundred Days
A legendary session during the first few
months of Franklin Roosevelt’s
administration in which Congress
enacted fifteen major bills that focused
primarily on four problems: banking
failures, agricultural overproduction,
the business slump, and soaring
unemployment.
Emergency
Banking Act
The day after his inauguration in March
of 1933, FDR declare a “bank holiday”
closing all banks. In a special session of
Congress, legislation was passed 4 days
later, permitting a bank to reopen only
if the Treasury Dept. inspection showed
it had sufficient cash reserves to
operate soundly.
Glass-Steagall
Act
A 1933 law that created the Federal
Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC),
which insured deposits up to $2,500
(and now up to $250,000). The act also
prohibited banks from making risky,
unsecured investments with customers’
deposits.
Agricultural
Adjustment
Act
New Deal legislation passed in May
1933 that aimed at cutting farm
production to raise crop prices and thus
farmers’ income. It provided cash
subsidies to farmers who agreed to NOT
grow seven overproduced commodities
such as cotton, corn, and hogs.
National
Recovery
Administration
Federal agency established in June 1933
to promote industrial recovery during
the Great Depression. It encouraged
industrialists to voluntarily adopt codes
that defined fair working conditions, set
prices, and minimized competition.
Public Works
Administration
A New Deal construction program
established by Congress in 1933, it
was designed to put people back to
work. It built the Boulder Dam
(renamed Hoover Dam) and Grand
Coulee Dam, among other large
projects.
Civilian
Conservation
Corps
Federal relief program that provided
jobs to millions of unemployed young
men. Workers in every state lived in
military structured camps. They built
thousands of bridges, roads, trails, and
other structures in state and national
parks, bolstering the national
infrastructure.
Federal
Housing
Administration
An agency established by the Federal
Housing Act of 1934 that refinanced
home mortgages for mortgage holders
facing possible foreclosure. This set the
foundation for the broad expansion of
home ownership in the post-World War
II decades.
Securities &
Exchange
Commission
A group established by Congress in 1934
to regulate the stock market. It had
broad powers to determine how stocks
and bonds were sold to the public, to
set rules for margin (credit)
transactions, and to prevent stock sales
by those with inside information about
corporate plans.
Liberty League
A group of Republican business
leaders and conservative
Democrats who banded together to
fight what they called the “reckless
spending” and “socialist” reforms
of the New Deal.
Wagner Act
A 1935 act that upheld the right of
industrial workers to join unions and
established the National Labor Relations
Board (NLRB), a federal agency with the
authority to protect workers from
employer coercion and to guarantee
collective bargaining.
Dust Bowl
The name for the severe drought
that afflicted the semi-arid states of
Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico,
Colorado, Arkansas, and Kansas
from 1930 to 1941.
Indian
Reorganization
Act
A 1934 law that reversed the Dawes
Act of 1887. Through the law,
Indians won a greater degree of
religious freedom, and tribal
governments regained their status
as semi-sovereign, dependent
nations.
Tennessee
Valley
Authority
The most extensive New Deal
environmental undertaking, this agency
was funded by Congress in 1933. It
integrated flood control, reforestation,
electricity generation, and agricultural
and industrial development by building
dams and generating hydroelectric
power plants.
Father Charles
Coughlin
This “Radio Priest” was one of the
foremost critics of FDR. He
believed the Democratic Party had
not gone far enough in their efforts
to ensure the social welfare of all
citizens.
classical
liberalism
The political ideology of individual
liberty, private property, a competitive
market economy, free trade, and
limited government (associated now
with political conservativism and
laissez-faire capitalism). It is basically
the opposite of “New Deal Liberalism.”
Eleanor
Roosevelt
The most influential first lady in U.S.
history. She advocated for women’s
rights, anti-lynching laws, and improved
working conditions. She descended into
coal mines and visited people in
breadlines. She was “the conscience of
the New Deal.”
Huey Long
Extremely popular governor and senator
from Louisiana. He believed that the
unequal distribution of wealth was the
root of our economic problems. He
proposed a “Share Our Wealth Society”
advocating a tax of 100% on all income
over $1 million and all inheritances over
$5 million. He was assassinated in 1935.