February 8-12

Monday- No school

Tuesday- Notes below

Wednesday- notes

Thursday- notes

Friday- took test

New Deal

FDR's plan to get us out of the Great Depression
Restore Happiness and hope
Relief for the needy
Economic recovery
Financial reform

How did the New Deal help?

Unemployed people
- Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC)- 1932
  - Gave loans to banks, state and local gov'ts
- Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA)
  - Enacted in 1933
  - FERA distributed more than 20 million dollars in direct aid to the unemployed
  - This in turn would help the unemployed to find new jobs
  - FERA had 3 primary objectives:
    - 1) direct relief measures
    - 2) provide work for employable people
    - 3) provide many different types of relief programs
- Public Works Administration (PWA)
  - Passed in 1933
  - Created as many jobs as possible in many different varieties
  - Great example of FDR's "priming the pump"
  - Between 1933 and 1939, the PWA funded the construction of more than 34,000 projects including airports, dams, aircraft carriers, bridges, etc
  - Was responsible for 70% of the new schools and 33% of the hospitals built between 1933-1939
- Civil Works Administration (CWA)
  - Passed in 1933
  - Created construction jobs, mainly improving or construction building bridges
- Works Progress Administration
  - Passed in 1935
  - Largest and most comprehensive New Deal Agency
  - WPA was a "make work" program that provided jobs and income to the unemployed during the Great Depression
  - Built roads, bridges, buildings, airport runways
  - presented concerts and produced works of art
  - Federal Project No. 1 of the WPA was developed to give artistic and professional work to the unemployed who qualified
  - Not only provided construction, but also helped people involved with music and art
- Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
  - Created to generate electric power and control floods in a seven state region around the Tennessee River Valley
  - FDR signed the Tennessee Valley Authority Act creating the TVA
  - Agency still exists and has grown to become America's largest public power company
  - Some criticized the TVA for only helping a specific region not the whole country
Young people
- Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
  - Passed in 1933
  - CCC was limited to young men age 18 to 25 whose fathers were on relief
  - CCC members worked 40 hours a week and were paid $30 a month, with the requirement that $25 of that be sent home to family
  - Members lived in camps, wore uniforms, and lived under military discipline
  - US Army operated the camps
  - Planted trees, fought forest fires, stopped soil erosion
  - Helped construct military bases during WWII
  - Funding stopped in 1942
  - Slogan was "We can take it!"
- National Youth Administration (NYA)
  - Passed in 1935
  - Pushed by Eleanor Roosevelt
  - Served 327,000 high school and college youth, who were paid $6 to $40 a month for "work study" projects at their schools
  - Allowed thousands of young people to stay in school
  - 155,000 boys and girls from relief families were paid $10 to $25 a month for part-time work that included job training
  - Unlike the CCC, it included young women
  - Youth normally lived at home, and worked on construction or repair projects
Banks
- Emergency Banking Relief Act (EBRA)
  - Passed in 1933
  - Passed in response to the thousands of banks that closed down
  - Passed 4 or 5 days after FDR announced the Bank Holiday in his Fireside Chat, which closed banks down temporarily
  - EBRA would close down the bank, reorganize it and then reopen the bank when it was stable
  - When banks reopened, people put their money back into the bank
- Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
  - Created by the Glass-Steagall Act in 1933
  - Insured people's money in banks up to $1000
  - Passed in response to the bank failures after the stock market crash
  - Insures money in savings and checking accounts, money market accounts and CD's
Stock Market
- Federal Securities Act
  - Passed in 1933
  - Made stock market a safer place for people to invest their money
  - 2 goals:
    - 1. "required that investors receive significant information regarding securities being offered for public sale"
    - 2. "prohibited deceit, misrepresentations, and other fraud in the sale of securities to the public"
- Securities and Exchanged Commission (SEC)
  - Established in 1934 and still around today
  - Organization regulates stock market
    - made market more secure and safer for people's money
Factory Workers
- National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA)
  - Established "codes of fair competition" (paying your works fair wage, giving them a fair wage, and having a fair price on your goods) aimed at supporting prices and wages and stimulating economic recovery from the Great Depression
  - Law created a National Recovery Administration to enforce codes
  - NRA tried to make voluntary agreements with business' dealing with hours of work, rates of pay, and fixing of prices
  - Businesses which voluntarily complied could display the Blue Eagle
  - NIRA also helped create jobs for unemployed workers
  - Declared unconstitutional by Supreme Court
- National Labor Relations Act/Board (NLRA(B))
  - Established in 1935
  - Conducts elections for unions
  - Stresses collective bargaining
  - Investigates and fixes unfair labor practices
  - Governed by a 5 person board whose members are appointed by the President
- Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
  - Established a national minimum wage - 40 cents/hour
  - Established the 40 hour work week
  - Guaranteed time and a half for overtime in certain jobs
  - Prohibited most child labor
  - Still exists today
Farmers
- Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)
  - Established in 1933
  - Restricted production by paying farmers to reduce the amount of crops planted
  - Its purpose was to reduce crop surplus so prices would go up
  - The farmers were paid by the federal government for leaving some of their land untilled
  - AAA oversaw a large-scale destruction of existing crops and livestock in an attempt to reduce surpluses
  - For example, 6 million pigs and 220,000 sows were slaughtered in the AAA's effort to raise prices
  - Cotton farmers plowed under a a quarter of their crop
  - Due to the nature of the Great Depression, many US citizens saw the AAA as cruel
  - People in cities were starving, government was destroying crops and livestock in the country
  - Farm prices more than doubled
  - Declared Unconstitutional
- Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act
  - Allowed the government to pay farmers to reduce production so as to "conserve soil" and prevent erosion
  - Piece of legislation passed in response to the Supreme Court's declaration that the Agricultural Adjustment Act was unconstitutional
  - Educated farmers on how to use their lands without damaging them
- Rural Electrification Administration (REA)
  - REA was created in 1935
  - REA provided farms with inexpensive electric lighting and power and eventually telephone services
  - Brought all the electrical appliances that the citeis had since the 1920's
  - REA made long-term loans to state and local governments, to farmers' cooperatives, and to nonprofit organizations to do the work
- Farm Security Administrations (FSA)
  - Granted small farmers and tenant farmers money to purchase farms
  - Dust Bowl forced a lot of farmers off their farms
  - Many farmers bought tractors with money from the AAA thus forcing tenant farmers off the land
  - FSA provided relief to these people
  - Dorothea Lange took lots of pictures of farmers during the Great Depression
Homeowners
- Home Owner's Loan Corporation (HOLC)
  - People couldn't afford their homes
  - When you are buying a house, banks would require a 50% down payment
  - Had to have the house paid off in 5-7 years
  - Extend loans from shorter, expensive payments of the 15 years to the lower payments of the 30 year loans
- Federal Housing Administration (FHA)
  - Insured loans made by banks and other private lenders for home building and home buying
  - Improve housing standards and conditions and to provide an adequate home financing system
- United States Housing Authority (USHA)
  - Lend money to the states or communities for low-cost home construction
  - Homes were designed for low-income and homeless people
Elderly
- Social Security Administration (SSA)
  - Provides retirement, disability, and survivors' benefits
  - To qualify for these benefits, most American workers pay SS taxes on their earnings
  - Future benefits are based on employees' contributions
  - Everyone is given a Social Security number
Consumers
- NIRA- Blue Eagle's Codes
- Feed, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA)
  - Gave Food and Drug Administration power to regulate these industries
  - Mandated a review of the safety of all new drugs before going to market
  - Banned false therapeutic claims in drug labeling
  - Authorized factory inspections and expanded enforcement powers by the FDA
  - Set new regulatory standards for food and cosmetics
Native Americans
- Indian Reorganization Act (IRA)
  - Abolished the Dawes Act and allowed Native American to govern themselves on a tribal basis
  - Allowed Native Americans to manage and keep their own land
  - Included provisions to help create job opportunities on Indian Reservations

Blogs

February 8-12

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