Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) 1933 law to reduce overproduction by paying farmers not to grow crops or raise livestock

Alfred Landon Kansas governor who ran unsuccessfully for president as a Republican in 1936

associationalism Hoover’s theory that government could foster economic and social progress by promoting voluntary cooperation among competing groups and interests






Bank Holiday temporary shutdown of banks throughout the country by executive order of President Roosevelt in March 1933

Black Cabinet semiofficial advisory committee on racial affairs made up of African-American members of the Roosevelt administration and organized by Mary McLeod Bethune

Black Thursday 24 October 1929; when the stock market fell dramatically in what provide to be the beginning of the Great Depression

Black Tuesday 29 October 1929; the worst day for the stock market when nearly 16.5 million shares changed hands

blacklisting practice in which businesses share information to deny employment to workers known to belong to unions

Bonus Army unemployed WWI veterans who marched on Washington in 1932 to demand early payment of a promised bonus; Congress refused and the army evicted protestors who remained

Boulder Dam Colorado River dam between Nevada and Arizona, begun during Hoover’s administration and completed in 1935

Brain Trust group of specialists in law, economics, and social welfare who, as advisers to President Roosevelt, helped develop the social and economic principles of the New Deal

Brookings Institute nonprofit, nonpartisan organization founded in 1916 that studies government economic, and international issues

Butler v. the United States 1936 Supreme Court decision declaring the AAA invalid on the grounds that it unconstitutionally extended the powers of the federal government






chloroform used as an anesthetic for surgery; used here as a verb to mean to painlessly to end a person’s life (euthanasia)

Civil Works Administration (CWA) emergency unemployment relief program (1933-1934); it hired 4 million jobless people for federal, state, and local work projects

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) organization created in 1933 to hire young unemployed men for conservation work, such as planting trees, digging irrigation ditches, and maintaining national parks

colonia village settlements of Mexicans and Mexican Americans, frequently constructed by or for immigrant citrus workers in southern California

Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) labor organization established in 1938 by a group of powerful unions that left the AFL to unionize workers by industry rather than by trade






direct relief payments payments that government agencies make directly to the poor and unemployed

Dr. Francis Townsend California public health physician who proposed the Townsend Plan in 1933, under which every retired person over 60 would be paid a $200 monthly pension to be spent within the month

Dust Bowl name given to the Great Plains region devastated by drought and dust storms during the 1930s; the worst years (1936-38) saw over 60 major storms per year, 72 in 1937






Emergency Banking Bill (Act) 1933 law that permitted sound banks in the Federal Reserve System to reopen and allowed the government to supply funds to support private banks






Fair Labor Standards Act 1938 law that established a minimum wage and a maximum workweek and forbade child labor under 16

Farmers’ Holiday Association organization of farmers that called on members to take direction actions – such as destroying crops and resisting foreclosures – to protest the plight of agriculture and the lack of government support

Father Charles Coughlin Roman Catholic priest whose influential radio addresses in the 1930s at first emphasized social justice but eventually became anti-Semitic and profascist

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) agency created by the National Banking Act of 1933 to insure deposits up to a fixed sum in member banks of the Federal Reserve System and state banks that chose to participate

Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) agency created in May 1933 to provide direct grants to states and municipalities on relief

Federal Home Loan Act 1932 law that established 12 banks across the nation to supplement lending resources to institutions making home loans in an effort to reduce foreclosures and to stimulate the construction industry

Federal Housing Administration (FHA) agency created by the National Housing Act (1934) to insure loans made by banks and other institutions for new home construction, repairs, and improvements

fireside chats radio talks in which FDR promoted New Deal policies and reassured the nation; Roosevelt delivered 28 fireside chats

foreclosure confiscation of property by a bank when mortgage payments are delinquent






General Hugh Johnson head of the NRA; consumer and labor advocates accused him of being too favorable to business interests

Glass-Steagall Banking Act 1932 law that expanded credit through the Federal Reserve System in order to counteract foreign withdrawals and domestic hoarding of money

Great Depression 1929-1941; the US economy suffered its greatest decline, millions of people were unemployed, and thousands of businesses went bankrupt






Harold Ickes secretary of the interior and director of the PWA who gained a reputation as an efficient administrator who opposed racial discrimination

Harry Hopkins head of several New Deal agencies, first organizing emergency relief and then administering public works; he remained a close adviser to FDR during WWII

Hawley-Smoot Tariff 1930 tariff passed in response to the Depression, setting the highest tariff rates in US history and thus undermining world trade

Home Owners’ Loan Corporation government agency created in 1933 that refinanced home mortgage debts for nonfarm homeowners and allowed them to borrow money from the agency to pay property taxes and make repairs

Hooverville crudely built camp set up by the homeless on the fringes of a town or city during the Depression; the largest Hoovervilles were outside Oklahoma City and cover 100 square miles

Huey Long Louisiana governor, then US senator, who ran a powerful political machine and whose advocacy of redistribution of income was gaining him a national political following at the time of his assassination in 1935






Indian Reorganization Act 1934 law that ended Indian allotment and returned surplus land to tribal ownership; it also sought to encourage tribal self-government and improve economic conditions on reservations

industrials industrial stocks identified as indicators of trends in the economy






juggernaut an overwhelming, advancing force that crushes or seems to roll over everything in its path






Mary McLeod Bethune African-American educator who, as director of the Office of Minority Affairs within the National Youth Administration, was a strong and vocal advocate for equality of opportunity for African Americans during the New Deal

Milo Reno farm leader from Iowa who led the Farmers’ Holiday Association and in 1932 called on farmers to stroke, to “stay home, buy nothing, sell nothing”; he wanted government codes to control production but rejected FDR’s farm program as a threat to independence and liberty; died in 1936






National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) 1933 law establishing the National Recovery Administration to supervise industry and the Public Works Administration to create jobs

National Recovery Administration (NRA) agency that the NIRA created to draft national industrial codes and supervise their implementation

National Youth Administration program established by executive order in 1935 to provide employment for young people and to help needy high school and college students continue their educations

New Deal Roosevelt’s policies to attack the problems of the Depression; included relief for the poor and unemployed, efforts to stimulate economic recovery, and social security






parity the fair value of something compared with its market value; the parity ratio established by the government was the ratio between the price received for a basket of goods sold compared with its purchase price and was set at a ratio that existed from 1910-1914

price fixing the artificial setting of commodity prices

private sector business run by private citizens rather than by the government

Public Works Administration (PWA) agency that the NIRA established to increase employment and to stimulate economic recovery by putting people to work to expand consumer buying power; it spent more than $4.25 million on 34,000 public works projects

public works projects highways, dams, and other construction projects financed by public funds and carried out by the government






Reconstruction Finance Corporation Hoover established this organization in 1932 to promote economic recovery; it provided emergency financing for banks, life insurance companies, railroads, and farm mortgage associations

Roosevelt’s recession economic downturn that occurred when FDR cut $4 billion from the federal budget, mostly be reducing relief spending

run a rush by depositers to withdraw their funds from a bank

Rural Electrification Administration (REA) government agency established in 1936 for the purpose of loaning money to rural cooperatives to produce and distribute electricity in isolated areas






savings and loan associations cooperative mutual financial institutions that use funds from members to finance long-term real-estate mortgages

Schechter Poulter Corporation v. the United States 1935 Supreme Court decision declaring the NRA unconstitutional because it regulated companies not involved in interstate commerce

Scottsboro Nine 9 African Americans convicted of raping 2 white women in a freight train in Alabama in 1931; their case became famous as an example of racism in the legal system

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) agency created by Congress to license stock exchanges and supervise their activities, including the setting of margin rates

Share the Wealth movement that sprang up around the nation in the 1930s urging the redistribution of wealth through government taxes or programs; launched by Huey Long, its slogan was “Every man a king”

Social Security Act 1935 law to create systems of unemployment, old-age, and disability insurance and to provide for child welfare

Soil Conservation Act legislation that established an agency for the prevention of soil erosion; by paying farmers to cut back on soil-depleting crops, it also reduced overproduction






Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) independent public corporation created by Congress in 1933 and authorized to construct dams and power plants in the Tennessee River valley region






United Automobile Workers (UAW) union of workers in the automobile industry; it used sit-down strikes in 1936-37 to end work speed-ups and win recognizing for the fledgling labor organization






Wagner Act National Labor Relations Act; a 1935 law that defined unfair labor practices and protected unions against coercive measures such as blacklisting

work relief system of governmental monetary support that provided work for the unemployed, who were usually paid a limited hourly or daily wage

Works Progress Administration (WPA) agency established in 1935 and headed by Harry Hopkins that hired the unemployed for construction, conservation, and arts programs