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Location: Fredericksburg, Virginia

Thursday, February 26, 2009

AP Notes from 2-26-09

(Notes continued from February 25, 2009 )

The PWA dams were very important to economic development in the West.
· Boulder Dam provided drinking water for southern California, irrigation water for the Imperial Valley and electricity for Los Angeles and southern Arizona.

Criticism and Alternatives to the New Deal

Some critics complained that the New Deal ignored ordinary people.
· Louisiana Senator Huey Long called for a share the wealth program which would guarantee each American family $5000 estate by redistributing the nation’s wealth.
· Father Charles Coughlin, the Radio Priest founded the National Union of Social Justice.
o Coughlin came to admire Hitler and Mussolini as they rose to power in Europe.
o Coughlin’s denunciation of democracy and Jews cost him his radio.
· Francis E. Townshed called on the government to give every senior citizen $200 a month provided they would spend it.
· Millions of workers, joined labor unions in 1933-1934 encouraged by John L. Lewis, President of the United Mine Workers.
o The NIRA granted workers the right to John Labor Unions of their own choosing and obligated employers to reorganize unions and bargain with them in good faith.
· When employers granted workers little say in their working conditions and ignored the NRA’s wage and hour guidelines workers stayed strikes (2,000) in virtually every industry and region in the U.S. strikes on a number of occasions. Turned violent. Workers took their anger out at the polls with democrats winning 70% of the contested seats in 1934.

The America Communist Party, organization that took its orders from Moscow gained strength.

· Roosevelt turned to “undercomsumption” the argument had been made weakness in consumer demand had caused the Great Depression.
o Therefore boosting consumer demand was the way to recovery,
o This meant that government support for strong labor unions, force up wages, higher social welfare payments, and vast public works projects.

· The Congress of Industrial Organization (CIO) had a huge success when the United Auto workers took on General Motors with a sit-down strike. Neither the state nor federal governments moved to evict the strikers and General Motors caved in.
The Second New Deal-Major Legislation

The second New Deal hit January to June 1935. Two major pieces of legislation were:
· The Social Security Act to provide money for elderly. The unemployed, unmarried with dependent children, and the disable.
· It is also set up a pension program for retired workers.
· Employers and workers were taxed to fund the program.

The National Labor Relations Act (NIRA) gave every worker the right to join a union of his/her choosing and obligated employers to bargain in good faith.
****This was also known as the Wagener Act. The NIRA set up a national labor relations board to supervise union elections and to investigate unfair labor practices.

Other Legislations included:
The holding Company Act was to break up the 13 utility companies that controlled 75% of the Nations electric power.
The Wealth Tax Act increased taxes on the wealthy and corporations.
The Banking Act strengthens the power of the Federal Reserve board.
The Rural Electrification Administration(REA)
The Emergency Relief Appropriation Act $5 billion
Works Progress Administration (WPA) which improved schools, playgrounds, airports, hospitals. It also put struggling artist and writers to work.

New Deal Women

Two very prominent and visible New Deal Women were Eleanor Roosevelt and Secretary of Labor Francis Perkins.
****Others worked in relative obscurity. Women New Dealers had little time to advance the cause of women’s equality.

Effects of the Depression
Men expected to be providers, were psychologically crushed by the loss of their work. The unemployment rate was higher than women.
Some states passed laws outlawing the hiring of married women.
African-Americans who belonged to the CIO or lived in northern cities had some benefits.
But most lived in rural South where they were barred from voting. Largely excluded from AAA and denied federal Protection in efforts to form agricultural Unions.
Blacks received less pay from doing the same jobs as the whites.
American-Indians
Indians had been hurt by the Dawes Severalty Act, and has succeeded as farmers. Many lost their land to whites,

During the New Deal
The Pueblo Relief Act of 1935. Compensated Pueblos for land taken in the 1920s.
Johnson O’Malley Act of 1934 funded states to provide Indian healthcare, welfare, and education...

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