Causes of the Depression
The causes of the depression were a series of flaws, such as the unregulated stock market and bad farming, in the structure of the U.S economy. It resulted in the creation of many agencies that helped workers and attempted to prevent another depression by
Relief, Recovery, Reform
These were the categories into which the New Deal was split. Relief defined by the acts implemented in the area of aid to the unemployment. Recovery put forth measures that would help aid in the speedy recovery of areas hit hardest by the depression. Refo
Fireside Chats
The informal radio conversations Roosevelt had with the people to keep spirits up. It was a means of communicating with the people on how he would take on the depression.
Emergency Banking Act
A government legislation passed during the depression that dealt with the bank problem. The act allowed a plan which would close down insolvent banks and reorganize and reopen those banks strong enough to survive.
Glass-Steagall Banking Reform Act
Government legislation that made 750 million dollars that had once been kept in the governments gold reserves now able to be used in the creation of loans. This allowed the banks to reopen and it gave the president the power to regulate banking transactio
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
An independent federal agency created by Glass-Steagall Reform Act. It insures up to $100,000 for bank deposits, thus helping put faith back into the banks.
Securities and Exchange Commission
Government agency having primary responsibility for enforcing the Federal securities laws and regulating the securities industry. It protected investors, listened to complaints, issued licenses and penalized fraud.
Civilian Conservation Corps
The CCC was a New Deal program created by the Unemployment Relief Act. It provided employment in government camps for 3 million men. The work they were involved in included reforestation, fire fighting, flood control, and swamp drainage.
Federal Emergency Relief Administration
Government agency that was a part of the New Deal. It allocated $500 million to relieve cities and states. To help with the unemployment problem.
Harry Hopkins
The head of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and a friend of FDR. He was very involved in reforms in the Great Depression and in the 30's and 40's in such issues as unemployment and mortgages.
Home Owners Loan Corporation
As part of the Hundred Days that understood the nation's tragedy of foreclosed mortgages, the HOLC refinanced American home mortgages. This effort allowed one-fifth of all U.S. mortgages to become refinanced which would prevent another Great Depression
Dust Bowl
A series of dust storms in the Central U.S caused by many years of bad farming techniques. It caused many farmers to move west as well as remove the top soil.
McNary-Haugen Farm Bill
A proposed law to limit agricultural sales within the United States, and either store them or export them. It was an attempt to prevent an agricultural inflation and to keep prices normal.
Agricultural Adjustment Act
It was a governmental legislation that restricted production during the New Deal by paying farmers to reduce crop area. The Act created the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, to oversee the distribution of the subsidies to alleviate the problems with
United States v. Butler
This was a Supreme Court case during the New Deal. The case ruled the AAA unconstitutional because it taxed one group to pay another.
Second Agricultural Adjustment Act
Same as the first AAA but funded from general taxation, and therefore acceptable to the Supreme Court. The Act created the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, to oversee the distribution of the subsidies to alleviate the problems with farms out west.
Resettlement Administration
Another New Deal program that dealt with the farm-problems of the depression. This agency created loans for small farmers and sharecroppers to buy their own farms, solving the government's sharecropper-problem.
Indian Reorganization Act
Government legislation that allowed the Indians a form of self-government and thus willingly shrank the authority of the U.S. government. It provided the Indians direct ownership of their land, credit, a constitution, and a charter in which Indians could
National Recovery Administration
Government agency that was part of the New Deal and dealt with the industrial sector of the economy. It allowed industries to create fair competition which were intended to reduce destructive competition and to help workers by setting minimum wages and ma
Schechter Poultry Corporation v. United States
This case took place in May 1935 when a New York company was charged with a violation of an NRA poultry code which dealt with wage-fixing and pricess. It resulted in the Supreme Court declaring the NRA unconstitutional by stating that the NRA was regulati
Tennessee Valley Authority
A New Deal agency created to generate electric power and control floods in a seven-U.S.-state region around the Tennessee River Valley . It created many dams that provided electricity as well as jobs.
National Industrial Recovery Act
A New Deal legislation that focused on the employment of the unemployed and the regulation of unfair business ethics. The NIRA pumped cash into the economy to stimulate the job market and created codes that businesses were to follow to maintain the ideal
Francis Townsend
Townshend was a retired physician who developed a plan in which the government would give monetary resources to senior citizens ages sixty and over He and other demagogues pushed FDR to move the New Deal to help people directly and laid the foundations of
Charles Coughlin
A radio priest who was anti-Semetic and anti-New Deal. He catered away some support from FDR.
Huey P. Long
A presidential candidate in the 1936 election known for his Share the Wealth program. He and other demagogues pushed FDR to move the New Deal to help people directly.
Social Security Act
A governmental legislation created to give money to those in need. It created a federal insurance program based on the automatic collection of taxes from employees and employers throughout people's working careers.
Works Progress Administration
New Deal agency that helped create jobs for those that needed them. It created around 9 million jobs working on bridges, roads, and buildings.
Wagner Act
A New Deal legislation that was supported by R. F. Wagner. It established defined unjust labor practices, secured workers the right to bargain collectively, and established the National Labor Relations Board.
NLRB v. Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation
Court case where Jones & Laughlin was accused with discriminating against workers who wanted a union. It declared that the National Labor Relations Act (commonly known as the Wagner Act) was constitutional.
Norris-LaGuardia Act
This was a government legislation that dealt with workers and unions. It forbade "yellow dog contracts" as well as ensuring the freedom to from unions by withdrawing federal power to issue injunctions and prevent employer interference.
Congress of Industrial Organization
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.
John L. Lewis
He was a miner known for creating the United Mine Workers. He helped found the CIO and was responsible for the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Walsh Healy Act
A government legislation that dealt with worker condition, hours, and wages. It stated that workers must be paid a minimum wage; it restricted regular work hours to eight hours a day and 40 hours a week, prohibited the employment of convicts and children
Fair Labor Standards Act
A government legislation that dealt with wages and child labor. It established a minimum wage and prohibited child labor in harsh and dangerous conditions.
National Industrial Recovery Act
an American statute which authorized the President of the United States to regulate industry and permit cartels and monopolies in an attempt to stimulate economic recovery; which established a national public works program BUT it failed and was ruled unco