Monday, March 9

First period notes- 3/9/09

We started class out with finishing up the New Deal Party presentations.

Chapter 25 continued

• World Economic Crisis

- Roosevelt pulled the US out of the world economic conference in London which had hoped to strengthen gold standard and help stabilize countires currency

- Roosevelt feared being a party to an agreement which might frustrate efforts to inflate prices of agriculture

• Good Neighbor Policy

-Good Neighbor Policy renounced US rights to intervene in Latin American affairs

-Marines were brought home from Haiti and Nicaragua

-Platt Amendment was revoked

• Court Packing Scheme

-Roosevelt asked Congress to give him authority to appoint one new Supreme Court justice for every current Justice over the age of 70 and who had served for at least 10 years

-His purpose was to prevent the conservative Supreme Court from dismantling the New Deal

-A majority of the court had been appointed by Republican presidents

-Roosevelts request if granted would have resulted in 6 new Justices and a New Deal majority

-Roosevelts proposal was greeted with a storm of indignation that hurt Roosevelts reputation

-Within a month one justice switched from anti-New Deal to pro-New Deal and the constitutionality of the Wagner Act and Social Security Act were upheld

-Some historians believe that court packing scheme caused justices to look more kindly on the New Deal

• The Roosevelt Depression

-A few months after the court-packing scheme there was a sharp recession that hit the economy

-When production began increasing in 1937 unemployment fell to 14 %, Roosevelt began to scale back relief programs out of concern for budget deficit

-With social security kicking in money was coming out of workers paychecks

-No pensions were being paid and consumer spending dropped

-Roosevelt Depression cost New Deal democrats in off-year elections of 1938

Chapter 26

• Rise of the Aggressor States

-September 1931 Japan seized Manchukio from China

- Violated League of Nations charter, the Washington treaties, and Kelogg-Briand Pact

- US Hoover-Stimson doctrine denied diplomatic recognition of Japanese Manchuria but took no other action

-In Germany Hitler rose to power in 1933. He:

1.instituted one party (dictorial state)

2.denounced Treaty of Versailles

3.blamed Germanys problems on the Jews

4.withdrew from the League of Nations

5.reinstituted cumpolsory military service

6.doubled Germanys military expidentures in violation of Treaty of Versailles

-In Italy FAcist Benito Mussolini came to power in 1922 and launched a military buildup. In 1935 he invaded Ethiopia

-The Bye Report (Senator Nye of US investigation) in 1936 emphasized that American bankers and munition markers had developed a huge stake in winning WWI and had manuevered the US into WWI to preserve their profits

-By 1935 public opinion polls were showing that Americans opposed involvement in foreign conflicts

-The US responded to the rise of dictators with the Neutrality Acts of 1935 and 1936 which were designed to prohibit the growth of financial connections to the belligerents or countries involved in war

-The Neutrality Acts of 1935 and 1936:

1.placed an arms embargo on belligerents

2.prohibited loans to belligerents

3.stopped American travel on ships belonging to belligerents

-The Neutrality Act of 1937 broadened the Embargo to cover all trade with belligerents, unless the nation at war pain in cash and carried the products away in its own ships-->Cash and Carry