February Week 8-12

Monday- No school

Tuesday-

Test on Thursday over the 1930s.

New Deal - FDR's plan to get us out of the Depression

New Deal Programs

Three R's
how did the New Deal help...
unemployed people
- Reconstruction Finance Corporation
  - started under Herbert Hoover
  - trickle down theory
- Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA)
  - enacted in 1933
  - distributed more than 20 million dollars in direct aid to the unemployed
  - would help the unemployed find jobs
  - a lot of factory and construction jobs
  - beginning to the welfare system
  - FERA had 3 primary objectives
    - Direct relief measures
    - Provide work for employable people
    - Provide many different types of relief programs
- Public Works Administration (PWA)
  - established in 1933
  - created as many jobs as possible in many different varieties
  - great example of priming the pump
  - funded construction projects (mostly building) that offered tons of jobs
  - construction projects offered jobs because you had to hire people to build buildings, as well as spend money on building materials from other companies
  - built lots of dams because they created energy, which could be sold. self-liquidating project

- Civil Works Administration (CWA)
  - exact same as the PWA
  - only lasted about a year because it was too expensive
  - cost the government over $800 million in the one year it was in effect
- Works Progress Administration (WPA)
  - established 1935
  - designed to employ uneducated workers in construction projects
  - same thing as the CWA and PWA
  - also focused on the arts
  - Federal Project #1 was designed to employ people who worked in the arts
  - aimed to help artists, musicians, actors, writers, etc
  - presented lots of concerts and works of art
  - designed to give artistic and professional work to the unemployed who qualified
  - Camp David, Golden Gate Bridge built by WPA

banks
- Emergency Banking Relief Act (EBRA)
  - passed five days after FDR took office
  - passed in response to the thousands of banks that closed down
  - passed four days after FDR announced the Bank Holiday in his Fireside Chat, which closed banks down temporarily
  - The EBRA would close down the bank, reorganize it, and then reopen the bank when it was stable
  - when banks reopened on March 13, 1933, many people put their money back into banks
  - within a couple of weeks, more than half of the money that people withdrew from banks was put back into banks
  - generally ended the bank runs that was commonplace under Hoover
- Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
  - created by the Glass-Steagall Act in 1933
  - insured people's money in banks up to $1000 (today $250,000)
  - passed in response to the bank failures after the stock market crash
  - insures money in savings and checking accounts, money market accounts and CDs
  - if the bank were to crash, you'd still have money
stock market
factory workers
farmers
homeowners
elderly
consumers
Native Americans
young people
- Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
  - Passed in 1933 during the 100 Days
  - 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 be sent home to the family
  - members lived in camps, wore uniforms, and lived under military discipline
  - the US army operated the camps
  - jobs included planting trees, constructed military bases, fought forest fires, etc
  - funding stopped in 1942

National Youth Administration (NYA)

established in 1935 and was a part of the WPA
endorsed heavily by Eleanor Roosevelt
she was sickened by the fact that a lot of kids were dropping out of school
she didn't want this generation of people to be uneducated
allowed kids to stay in school by giving them part time jobs
hundreds of thousands of students were paid between $6 and $40 a month
allowed hundreds of thousands of young people to stay in school
offered job training
included young women
youth normally lived at home and worked on construction or repair projects

Wednesday-

Test has moved to Friday and Monday.

Unemployed
Banks
Stock Market
- Federal Securities Act
  - Made the stock market a safer place for people to invest their money
  - Had two goals
    - made sure that businesses gave truthful information about themselves to investors
    - stock prices are where they should be
  - got rid of buying on margin
  - got rid of pooling (games wealthy people played)
- Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
  - regulates the stock market
  - enforced Federal Securities Act
  - makes the stock market safe
  - still around today
Factory Workers
- National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA)
  - would help factory workers and consumers
  - established "codes of fair competition"
  - wanted businesses to follow these
  - examples of codes of fair competition
    - give reasonable hours to workers
    - give reasonable wages
    - have reasonable prices for your consumers
  - this was a voluntary organization
  - also created construction projects for people
  - guaranteed workers the right to unionize
  - was eventually declared unconstitutional
  - put blue eagles symbols in the windows of businesses who cooperated with the NIRA
- National Labor Relations Act
  - strengthened labor unions
  - stressed collective bargaining
    - a group of people bargaining for change
  - investigated and fixed unfair labor practices
  - governed by a five-person board whose members are appointed by the President
- Fair Labor Standards Act
  - First national minimum wage - 40 cents/hr
  - 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)
  - Restricted production of crops by paying farmers to reduce the amount of crops planted
  - Paid farmers to destroy crops, animals, products, etc
  - This was in an attempt to drive prices up
  - Destroying food was very controversial
  - AAA was declared unconstitutional because it taxed one group (food processors) to pay farmers
  - the second AAA was passed in 1938 because it was funded by general taxation
- Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act
  - educated farmers on how to better take care of their land
    - i.e. plant trees
    - rotate crops
    - irrigation
  - very successful
- Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
  - built lots of dams in the river valley in Tennessee
  - created to generate electric power and control floods in the Tennessee River Valley
  - helped farmers by eliminating flooding that would damage crops
  - taxed everybody to help a small group of people
  - not popular in its time
  - still exists today
- Rural Electrification Administration (REA)
  - provided farms/the countryside with electric light, power, and eventually phone services
  - brought all the electrical appliances that the cities had since the 1920s
  - only 25% of the countryside was electrified by 1939
- Farm Security Administration
  - granted small 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
Homeowners
- Homeowner's Loan Corporation (HOLC)
  - designed to keep people in their homes by making it easier to make monthly payments
  - homeowners couldn't pay their mortgage
  - stretched home payments to 15-30 years
  - required a smaller down payment
  - established to refinance homes to prevent foreclosure
Elderly
Consumers
Native Americans
Young People

Thursday-

Unemployed
Banks
Stock Market
Factory Workers
Farmers
Homeowners
- Federal Housing Administration (FHA)
  - helped people get loans to either build or buy homes
  - gave loans through the bank
  - stretched loans out to 15-30 years
  - made sure new homes that were built were of decent quality
  - still around today under the Department of Urban Housing and Development
- United States Housing Authority
  - gave loans to communities/state government to build low-cost homes
  - designed for low-income or middle-class people
  - made cheaply
  - not incredibly high quality, but better than renting an apartment
  - gives people an opportunity to live in a home
  - the organization itself did not build the homes
  - absorbed by the National Housing Agency in 1942
Elderly
- Social Security Administration (SSA)
  - provided retirement, disability, and survivors' benefits
  - money is taken out from your paycheck as a tax and sent to the government to be put in your own social security account
  - your benefits are based on employees' contributions
  - mostly benefits retired people
  - still in effect today
Consumers
- Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA)
  - gave the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 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 Americans 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. This has led to many casinos on Indian Reservations.
  - had a lot of poverty and alcoholism
  - The Act is still around today
Young People

Friday-

Test

I was absent all week so got my notes from Alexis Irlbeck.

Blogs

February Week 8-12

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