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US History Student Notes
Wilson outlined his vision for a stable, long-lasting peace in Europe, the Americas and the rest of the world following WW1
14 points was a speech President Woodrow Wilson made to Congress on Jan 8th, 1918
The principle that each nation had the right to choose its own government became central to Wilson’s Fourteen Points (Initiated after Bolshevik party took over Russia)
Fourteen points advocated for peace and the end of World War 1
Fourteen points called for free trade, freedom of the seas, arms reduction, arbitration of international disputes, and adjustment of European borders along ethnic lines - all to be achieved through open negotiation of public treaties
Wilson itemized 14 strategies to ensure national security and world peace
Allies never formally endorsed Fourteen Points
Fourteen Points was the main platform on which the war was sold to the american people, Wilson wanted to stress that the war was not for nationalism but to ensure peace in the world
American support for and opposition to involvement with World War II
Against War:
Roosevelt condemned foreign aggression
But prepared for war even while the U.S remained isolationist through much of 1930s (Believed involvement was inevitable because of America’s belief in democracy)
Government believed through a Senate investigation that Wall Street bankers, corporate munitions makers, and other “merchants of death” had led America into Great War → Believed they should’ve never have been involved in World War 1
Congress passed a series of Neutrality Acts → mandating an arms embargo against both victim and aggressor in any military conflict
Clearly America didn’t want to get involved with any wars → Isolationism
Pro War:
Late in 1930s → people changed views as they became afraid of the threat posed by the rise of fascism abroad
With the Public’s mood shift, especially amongst supporters of New Deal, Roosevelt aligned diplomacy to that of Britain, France, and China. → US must quarantine aggressors and help its allies
US needs to become a great arsenal of Democracy
American businesses and banks had heavily invested into the allies with $3.5 billion invested by businesses, and allies had borrowed $2 billion from American banks.
Anti-Semitism inspired the Jewish community to urge the government to get involved
Japanese Bombing of Pearl Harbor → pushed America into the war
Causes of the Great Depression
It was not just one factor, but instead a combination of domestic and worldwide conditions that led to the Great Depression
Stock Market Crash of 1929 - Occurred on Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929
after two months Stockholders had lost more than $40 billion dollars.
Bank Failures - Throughout the 1930s over 9,000 banks failed.
Bank deposits were uninsured and thus as banks failed people simply lost their savings
Surviving banks, unsure of the economic situation and concerned for their own survival, stopped being as willing to create new loans.
This exacerbated the situation leading to less and less expenditures.
Reduction in Purchasing Across the Board - With the stock market crash and the fears of further economic woes, individuals from all classes stopped purchasing items.
This then led to a reduction in the number of items produced and thus a reduction in the workforce.
As people lost their jobs, they were unable to keep up with paying for items they had bought through installment plans and their items were repossessed.
More and more inventory began to accumulate. The unemployment rate rose above 25% which meant, of course, even less spending to help alleviate the economic situation.
American Economic Policy with Europe - As businesses began failing, the government created the Smoot-Hawley Tariff in 1930 to help protect American companies.
This charged a high tax for imports thereby leading to less trade between America and foreign countries along with some economic retaliation.
Drought - The Dust Bowl in the midwest → many could not even pay their taxes or other debts and had to sell their farms for no profit to themselves
Immigration Act of 1924 (Johnson-Reed Act) (Chapter 7, pg 342)
Shaped immigration policy for the next four decades
1924 law limited immigration from all countries to a total of 165,000 a year, less than 20% of the pre-WW1 average
Based number of immigrants allowed in the country as a percentage of the 1890 census
Meant to limit immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe
In the first decade of the 20th century, avg number of Italians enter → 200,000
In 1924, after annual quota number of Italians was set less than 4,000
All Asian immigrants banned from getting citizenship
Mexicans and Canadians were exception because supply of cheap labor was needed
Half a million Mexicans entered in the 1920s
Craft unionism versus industrial unionism
Craft unionism refers to a model of trade unionism in which workers are organised based on the particular craft or trade in which they work.
The primary goal of craft unionism is the betterment of the members of the particular group and the reservation of job opportunities to members of the union and those workers allowed to seek work through the union's hiring hall.
The American Federation of Labor (AFL)—one of the first national unions—organized workers according to the principles of craft unionism.
The earliest unions were craft unions
Since craft unions revolved around specific trades, their members were predominantly skilled workers and it was very exclusive
the AFL imposed membership restrictions on women, immigrants, and African-American workers.
People argued that since they were focussed on a specific skill, more exclusive and so smaller → they were less effective and supported industrial unionism
Industrial unionism - in which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union, regardless of differences in skill.
One of the foremost industrial unions was the International Workers of the World (IWW); formed in 1905
In 1935, following unsuccessful efforts to encourage the AFL to adopt principles of industrial unionism, nine labor leaders under John L. Lewis abandoned the AFL and formed an industrial union called the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).
The CIO organized workers across entire industries, such as mining and auto manufacturing, and had a membership of more than 2.8 million within seven years of its founding.
The AFL and CIO represented two competing views of labor organization—craft unionism and industrial unionism, respectively—and were bitter rivals, as each fought to poach workers from the other
Eventually, these unions put their differences aside and merged to form the AFL-CIO → represents 12 million people and ended rift between craft and industrial unionism
The Red Scare (Chapter 6, pg 326)
Hysteria of the perceived threat posed by communists, socialists, radicals and leftists in the U.S. was known as the Red Scare
The government was afraid because of the Bolshevik revolt in 1919, afraid it would happen in the US as it contained many immigrants from those countries
Communists were often referred to as “Reds” for their allegiance to the red Soviet flag
Bolshevik group in US formed US communist party
The radicals were largely harmless and posed little threat
Municipal police forces, state militias and federal courts part of large postwar offensive against radicals.
Foremost among the “Red Hunters” was Attorney General Mitchell Palmer who led arrests and deportations of thousands of immigrants and radicals → most never had been charged with a crime
Palmer Raids → January 1920s → Federal agents arrested 6,000 alleged radicals in 33 cities
Officials eventually deported 600 of them
Kickstarter decline of anti-Red drive
Sacco and Vanzetti → two anarchists wrongfully prosecuted because of radical fears of the time
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
First African American labour union to be affiliated with the American Federation of Labor.
The BSCP embodied Randolph’s belief that segregation and racism were linked to the unfair distribution of wealth and power that condemned tens of millions of black and white Americans to chronic misery.
Founded in 1925 by labour organizer and civil rights activist A. Philip Randolph, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) aimed to improve the working conditions and treatment of African American railroad porters and maids employed by the Pullman Company, a manufacturer and operator of railroad cars
Pullman exploited their difficult situation by demanding long hours of hard work with poor compensation
The Pullman Company, arguing that 85 percent of the porters supported the company’s in-house union, refused to recognize the BSCP.
Throughout the ensuing years, the BSCP fought a multifaceted battle against the Pullman Company.
In 1932 their tenacity paid off. Although the weight of the Great Depression virtually crushed the BSCP, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal provided a way out.
The National Industrial Recovery Act, enacted in 1933, reinforced the Railway Labor Act, while the Emergency Railroad Transportation Act (1933) specifically banned company unions. That legislation provided some of the strongest-ever protections for organized labour.
After much stalling, the Pullman Company agreed to begin negotiating in good faith with the porters, and on April 25, 1937, it signed the first agreement between a union of African American workers and a major American corporation.
Labor organizing during the First New Deal (Chapter 8, Pg 416)
In 1933, the number of labor union members was around 3 million, compared to 5 million a decade before
Most union members in 1933 belonged to skilled craft unions, most of which were affiliated with the American Federation of Labor (AFL)
The union movement had failed in the previous 50 years to organize the much larger number of laborers in such mass production industries as steel, textiles, mining, and automobiles.
The tremendous gains labor unions experienced in the 1930s resulted, in part, from the pro-union stance of the Roosevelt administration and from legislation enacted by Congress during the early New Deal
The National Industrial Recovery Act (1933) provided for collective bargaining. The 1935 National Labor Relations Act (also known as the Wagner Act) required businesses to bargain in good faith with any union supported by the majority of their employees.
Meanwhile, the Congress of Industrial Organizations split from the AFL and became much more aggressive in organizing unskilled workers who had not been represented before
Convict lease system and debt peonage
Convict leasing was a system of penal labor practiced in the Southern United States.
Convict leasing provided prisoner labor to private parties, such as plantation owners and corporations (e.g. Tennessee Coal and Iron Company).
The lessee was responsible for feeding, clothing, and housing the prisoners.
U.S. Steel is among American companies who have acknowledged using African-American leased convict labor
Persisted in various forms until it was abolished by President Franklin D. Roosevelt via Francis Biddle's (AG in WWII America) "Circular 3591" of December 12, 1941.
Debt Peonage is when the sharecropper could not pay off their debts and could not leave their property. Virtual Slavery.
Working people’s responses to the Great Depression
By 1932, one of every four workers was unemployed. Banks failed and life savings were lost, leaving many Americans destitute.
With no job and no savings, thousands of Americans lost their homes
People lost welfare in the Great Depression (In addition to jobs and wages)
The poor congregated in cardboard shacks in so-called Hoovervilles on the edges of cities across the nation; hundreds of thousands of the unemployed roamed the country on foot and in boxcars in futile search of jobs
Blaming Wall Street speculators, bankers, and the Hoover administration, the rumblings of discontent grew mightily in the early 1930s. By 1932, hunger marches and small riots were common throughout the nation. (They turned to the Communists and Socialists)
Communists and socialists played a large role in mobilizing discontent and turning the attention of the American people to the federal government as a solution to their problem
They thought inequality and exploitation that were endemic to capitalism had precipitated the Great Depression
Organized many protests - with 50,000 people protesting in Boston and 100,000 protesting in Detroit
Radicals organized crowds of people that would move furniture back into peoples homes if they were evicted
Family farmers took militant direct action as well
When ⅓ of farmland in Mississippi and Iowa was scheduled for sale
neighbors aborted sales by intimidating buyers
or buying the farms and returning to owners at a small price
Crowded courtrooms to prevent sales
In the south → radicals armed themselves because of the tension → were forming an army of the working class
When Ford layed of 60,000 workers → more than 3,000 protestors joined the protest led by communist auto union
Hunger marches demanded jobs for laid off employees
In Washington D.C. veterans marched to receive money due to them in 1945 but needed now in 1932 → Hoover calls out the army → public opinion turns against Hoover
People wanted a “New Deal” out of life → Leads to election of FDR who promises a New Deal
New Deal was a bunch of programs that were designed to restore production and stability in banking, agriculture, and industry
Universal Negro Improvement Association
The Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL) is a black nationalist fraternal organization founded in 1914 in the United States by Marcus Mosiah Garvey, a Jamaican immigrant.
The organization was founded to work for the advancement of people of African ancestry around the world. Its motto is "One God! One Aim! One Destiny!" and its slogan is "Africa for the Africans, at home and abroad!"
Dedicated to racial pride, economic self-sufficiency, and the formation of an independent black nation in Africa.
most black leaders in the U.S. criticized Garvey as an imposter, particularly after he announced, in New York, the founding of the Empire of Africa, with himself as provisional president.
Garvey Deported in 1927 → The UNIA never revived
Although the organization did not transport a single person to Africa, its influence reached multitudes on both sides of the Atlantic, and it proved to be a forerunner of black nationalism, which emerged in the U.S. after World War II.
National Woman’s Party
The National Woman's Party (NWP) is an American women's political organization formed in 1916 to fight for women's suffrage founded by Alice Paul and Lucy Burns.
The National Woman's Party broke from the much larger National American Woman Suffrage Association, which was focused on attempting to gain women's suffrage at the state level.
The NWP prioritized the passage of a constitutional amendment ensuring women's suffrage throughout the United States.
NWP picketed White House to demand Voting Rights for women
NWP formed an alliance with President Wilson and united local and state suffrage groups in a centrally directed effort
NWP used Wilson’s rhetoric to their advantage like pointing out that his speech on “Wilson’s ‘safe for democracy’ speech put compelling logic behind the drive for universal suffrage
NWP and NAWSA (National American Woman Suffrage Association) work together
By 1914 women won right to vote in territory of Alaska and 11 states. They spent next three years keeping pressure on Eastern states. 3 yrs later it won women voting rights in 8 additional states
Achieved its goal with the 1920 adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution,
Then the NWP advocated for other issues including the Equal Rights Amendment, which is still seeking ratification today
National Labor Relations Act
The 1935 Wagner Act encouraged trade unionism as a spur to economic recovery and a bulwark of American democracy. Targeted two main issues:
Social turmoil (unhappy workers meant less work)
Wage stagnation and underconsumption (blamed for depression) → only way to get big companies to raise wages was to allow people to unionize and fight companies
The National Labor Relations Act of 1935 is a foundational statute of United States labor law which guarantees basic rights of private sector employees to organize into trade unions, engage in collective bargaining for better terms and conditions at work, and take collective action including strike if necessary
Helped democratize the workers by giving them a general voice
The act also created the National Labor Relations Board, which conducts elections that can expect employers to engage in collective bargaining with labor unions (also known as trade unions). → oversight to see if any company was voiding the act by creating company unions or suppressing union workers
The Act does not apply to workers who are covered by the Railway Labor Act, agricultural employees, domestic employees, supervisors, federal, state or local government workers, independent contractors and some close relatives of individual employers
Eugenics
Eugenics Movement (1920s -1930s)→ focused on eliminating undesirable traits from the population. Best way to do this was by preventing “unfit” individuals from having children.
Sir Francis Galton argued that social institutions such as welfare and mental asylums allowed inferior humans to survive and reproduce at higher levels
Led to criminals and mentally disabled people to be sterilized.
Euthanasia was considered.
Buck V Bell made sterilization in virginia legal
Red Summer
Around 25 race riots following World War 1 during the summer of 1919.
Called “Red Summer” because of the sheer bloodiness
Especially in chicago
When a young black male swam into a white only area, he was stoned and drowned.
Police didn’t arrest the white man who did it.
Race riot erupted throughout the city.
13 days of rioting:
35 dead, 25 blacks, 13 whites
537 injured
1000+ black family homeless
The Red Summer refers to the summer and early autumn of 1919, which was marked by hundreds of deaths and higher casualties across the United States, as a result of racial riots that occurred in more than three dozen cities and one rural county.
In most instances, whites attacked African Americans. In some cases many black people fought back, notably in Chicago and Washington, D.C.
The racial riots against blacks resulted from a variety of postwar social tensions related to the demobilization of veterans of World War I, both black and white, and competition for jobs and housing among ethnic white people and black people.
Authorities viewed with alarm African Americans' advocacy of racial equality, labor rights, or the rights of victims of mobs to defend themselves
In addition, it was a time of labor unrest in which some industrialists used black people as strikebreakers, increasing resentment.
feared Socialist and communist influence on the black civil rights movement following the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. They also feared foreign anarchists, who had bombed homes and businesses of prominent business and government leaders.
Flint sit-down strike
The 1936–1937 Flint sit-down strike against General Motors (General Motors sit-down strike) changed the United Automobile Workers (UAW) from a collection of isolated locals on the fringes of the industry into a major labor union and led to the unionization of the domestic United States automobile industry.
General Motors (GM) provided many men in Flint, Michigan with jobs in the 1930’s, but the working conditions were horrible and the pay was unfair.
While previous attempts to strike occurred in the Flint plants in 1930 and 1934, they were broken up by the company and the Flint police
1935, Congress passed the Wagner Act → Encouraged by these legal protections, on December 30, 1936 GM employees in the GM Fisher Number One Plant began their 44-day sit-in, during which they refused to work or leave the Fisher One, Fisher Two, and Chevrolet Number 4 plants.
GM decided to make the plant conditions intolerable by cutting the plants’ heat and electricity and by preventing food deliveries
General Motors and their sympathizers found this sit-down form of protest to be an affront to American values, such as right to property
After a series of violent clashes between the strikers, police, and GM “goons,” including the Battle of Bull’s Run, Governor Murphy summoned the U.S. National Guard to establish peace
On February 11, 1937, with its automobile production severely crippled, GM reached an agreement with the UAW to end the labor strike.
Lynching
With the Great Depression → african americans grew even more poor
Worked in industries that were most affected by the economic downturn: unskilled manufacturing, construction, mining, and lumber
Racial tension grew → people thought White people deserved the jobs more than african americans
Atlanta → african American bellhops fired to clear jobs for white people
Fired from Wehr Steel Foundry
In the South with the advent of the Dust Bowl conditions were even worse.
Red Cross reported that both black and white families suffered from hunger, but racist fears prevented a quick response
Community Leaders were afraid african american day laborers would refuse to pick the cotton if there was other ways to put food on table
Violence by planters increase → lynchings of African Americans increased (24 in 1932 alone)
Support for and opposition to the New Deal
New Deal support was widespread as the American people demanded the government to rescue them from the Great Depression
However, some people argued that the federal government had no place spending millions on public works, going into debt, and regulating business and industry
Others argued that the New Deal did not go far enough and that the Federal Government should take over the banks and industry.
Let’s first discuss New Deal policies
First FDR went after the banks → he wanted to restore confidence in the financial system
Some people in Congress favored outright nationalization of the banking system → FDR instead pushed through an Emergency Banking Act that regulated the banks instead
empowering govt. to lend money to troubled banks, to recognize failed ones and to stop hoarding of gold
Banks that were solvent were allowed to reopen within a week
Additional laws established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which guaranteed the security of most family savings, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) → to monitor the truth telling of stock market
Avoided what farmers and others with large debts wanted → inflationary policies → instead he took US off Gold standard (ends deflation that crippled investments)
National Relief → provide funds for the unemployed
Congress set up the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) → spends $1 billion a year
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) → provided temporary work for 3 million young men, who lived in military style camp, constructed recreation facilities, and carried out conservation projects
Civil Works Administration (CWA) → hired 4 million of the unemployed and put them to work on 400,00 small scale projects like road building and repair work
Built lots of infrastructure but gave low priority to teaching, child care, and public health → women (¼ of unemployed) held fewer than 10% of jobs in FERA and CWA
The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) was designed to regulate production and prices in an economic sector from which a quarter of all Americans still derived their livelihood
Agriculture had been in crisis for years because of low prices and chronic overproduction
AAA used federal funds to pay farmers who agreed to reduce the size of their crops (so overproduction and low prices did not happen)
Cause a lot of farmers to destroy crops and slaughter animals for no use → people were angry at the government for instilling policies that caused this
But AAA boosted farm income by 50% within 4 years
Investment in the South and West
Public Works Administration (PWA) had $3.3 billion and produced dozens of government-financed dams, airports, courthouses, and bridges
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) → govt own corporation designed to carry out comprehensive redevelopment of an entire river watershed spanning 7 states
National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) → mandated a government-sanctioned system of business regulara coordinated by a Nation Recovery Administration (NRA) → used govt power to regulate market, raise prices, and increase wages
Enemies of the New Deal
National income had risen by 1/4 , unemployment had dropped by 2 million, total factory wages had leapt upward → BUT the nations annual output remained only slightly more than ½ of what it had been in 1929
10 million workers tried to survive without jobs, and twice that many depended on relief still → recovery had stalled
On the right → businessmen and bankers had become alarmed with the growth of federal power and rise of militant labor movement
Fear that federal job programs would lead to higher taxes and a spirit of working-class defiance (people leaving dirt poor jobs for less but still poor jobs)
Businessmen form American Liberty League in 1934 to oppose New Deal
On the left → people demanded more → ensure fair distribution of wealth and income
Populists claimed that New Deal created huge bureaucracies that interfered in local affairs and for failing to curve the power of the rich
Long (Governor of Louisiana) proposed “Share our Wealth Plan” → taxes on rich that would cap their fortunes and distribute wealth to people to buy homes and cars
People began to grow against NIRA → many farmers and, small businessmen, and consumer groups argued that NRA price and production control had been written primarily by and for large corporation (Prop up prices, stifle competition, and stifle economic expansion)
With so much power against it → New Deal collapsed
SC declared NIRA unconstitutional
People wanted change but at the same time thought the government was too powerful
Double V for Victory
The Double V campaign was a slogan and drive to promote the fight for democracy abroad and within the United States for African Americans during World War II.
The Double V refers to the "V for victory" sign prominently displayed by countries fighting "for victory over aggression, slavery, and tyranny," but adopts a second "V" to represent the double victory for African Americans fighting for freedom overseas and at home
Contributing factors to the campaign's success were the discrimination that black soldiers experienced in the military who drew connections between the United States' treatment of blacks to Nazi Germany's treatment of Jews, as well as wartime injustices such as being housed in segregated housing and receiving inferior housing and training
March on Washington Movement
The March on Washington Movement (MOWM) was the most militant and important force in African American politics in the early 1940s, formed in order to protest segregation in the armed forces
Argued that black workers should work on defense projects since they’re paying taxes as well.
The hypocrisy behind calls to “defending democracy” from Hitler was clear to African Americans living in a Jim Crow society, of which the segregated quota system and training camps of the United States military were only the most obvious examples.
On January 25, A. Philip Randolph, the President of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, proposed the idea of a national, black-led march on the capitol in Washington, D.C. to highlight the issue.
It was estimated that the march would draw over 100,000 people to the capitol.
A week before the protest, an alarmed President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802, establishing the first Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC). In return, Randolph cancelled the march, but established the March on Washington Movement (MOWM) to hold the FEPC to its mission of desegregating the armed forces and to continue agitation for civil rights.
Agricultural Adjustment Act
The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) was designed to regulate production and prices in an economic sector from which a quarter of all Americans still derived their livelihood
Agriculture had been in crisis for years because of low prices and chronic overproduction
AAA used federal funds to pay farmers who agreed to reduce the size of their crops (so overproduction and low prices did not happen)
Cause a lot of farmers to destroy crops and slaughter animals for no use → people were angry at the government for instilling policies that caused this
Negatively impacted small farmers
Tenant farmers and sharecroppers were simply told to stop producing, which meant no money and more debt.
This lead to the creation of Southern Farmers Tenant Union
Consisted of blacks and whites, who fought against this but ultimately failed.
Roosevelt couldn’t help since he did not want to alienate democratic support in the south.
But AAA boosted farm income by 50% within 4 years
Hirabayashi v. United States and Korematsu v. United States
Supreme Court affirmed the legality of Japanese American internment in . . . .
1943 ---> Hirabayashi v. United States 1944 ---> Korematsu v. United States
By the time of the second decision (1944), some Supreme Court Justices had doubts about the detention policy
In 1988, U.S government finally offer the surviving detainees modest financial restitution and a formal apology
Important: US decides in these cases that the internment camps are legal and constitutional
Differences between federal domestic policies before/after the Great Depression
The federal government took over responsibility for the elderly population with the creation of Social Security and gave the involuntarily unemployed unemployment compensation.
The Wagner Act dramatically changed labor negotiations between employers and employees by promoting unions and acting as an arbiter to ensure “fair” labor contract negotiations.
All of this required an increase in the size of the federal government
The Second New Deal
Although production had risen by almost 30% since early 1933, unemployment remained high in 1935
New Dealers blamed “underconsumption” - low wages cause less purchasing, an inequitable distribution of income, and a capitalist system that was no longer growing
Second wave of reform → Second New Deal
FDR and most Democrats pushed for measures that would help workers to establish trade unions, find government-paid jobs, and retire with dignity.
In 1935 Congress passed a $5 billion Emergency Relief Appropriations Act that funded new agencies designed to provide useful and creative employment to millions
National Youth Administration → initiated work projects for 45 million + students
Resettlement Administration → aided rural homeless, owners of small farms, agricultural tenants
Work Progress Administration (WPA) → provided productive jobs, not relief like the CWA
Built or improved more than 2500 hospitals, 5900 schools
Employees thought of themselves as employees not welfare cases
In 1935 Social Security Act passed by Congress → providing social protection to all citizens, including unemployment insurance and aid for poor families
Two types of support for elderly → those who were destitute could receive a small federal pension ($15 a mont) or others could get a federal pension financed by a payroll tax split evenly between themselves
Establishes federal-state program of unemployment insurance (financed by state administered tax)
Won universal support → viewed as insurance instead of relief
Housing Act
United States government agency created as part of the National Housing Act of 1934. Insured loans made by banks and other private lenders for home building and home buying. The goals of this organization are: to improve housing standards and conditions; to provide an adequate home financing system through insurance of mortgage loans; and to stabilize the mortgage market.
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) passed in 1938
Banned child labor
Established first nationwide minimum wage
40 hour work-week a national norm → employees must pay 1.5x for overtime
Established weekend as job restriction
The 1935 Wagner Act encouraged trade unionism as a spur to economic recovery and a bulwark of American democracy. Targeted two main issues:
Social turmoil (unhappy workers meant less work)
Wage stagnation and underconsumption (blamed for depression) → only way to get big companies to raise wages was to allow people to unionize and fight companies
The National Labor Relations Act of 1935 is a foundational statute of United States labor law which guarantees basic rights of private sector employees to organize into trade unions, engage in collective bargaining for better terms and conditions at work, and take collective action including strike if necessary
Helped democratize the workers by giving them a general voice
The act also created the National Labor Relations Board, which conducts elections that can expect employers to engage in collective bargaining with labor unions (also known as trade unions). → oversight to see if any company was voiding the act by creating company unions or suppressing union workers
The Act does not apply to workers who are covered by the Railway Labor Act, agricultural employees, domestic employees, supervisors, federal, state or local government workers, independent contractors and some close relatives of individual employers
Even though in 1937, the US economy was producing as many goods and services as it had in 1929, people were still opposed to the New Deal
Businessmen feared taxes and government regulation (Conservative Republicans)
Further supported by a small nosedive in the economy during 1937
Roosevelt's plan to pack the Supreme Court with judges who favored New Deal → infuriated people (Add 6 new justices)
Also the CIO strikes → made people feel it was an assault on social order
SC invalidates the AAA