Test Three Review - Chapter Twenty Four Herbert Hoover...

Chapter Twenty Four
• Herbert Hoover: aggressively used the power of the federal government and the
office of the president to deal with the Great Depression. Called conferences of
businessmen and labor leaders, encouraged mayors and governors to speed up
work projects, created agencies and boards to obtain voluntary action to solve the
problem, supported tax cuts, and assured the American public through the radio.
• Stock Market Crash: In days leading up to Black Thursday the market was
unstable. Periods of panic selling and high volumes of trading were interspersed
with brief periods of rising prices and recovery. Some believe it was the start and
cause of the Great Depression
• Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC): The agency gave $2 billion in aid to
state and local governments and made loans to banks, railroads, farm mortgage
associations, and other businesses. The RFC was bogged down in bureaucracy
and failed to disperse many of its funds. It failed to reverse the growth of mass
unemployment before 1933
• Bonus Army: Many WWI veterans lobbied for their veterans’ bonuses that were
due in 1945 and marched on Washington. The bonus bill was defeated, and many
marchers went home, but some stayed. Hoover sent the US Army against them
and two marchers were killed, even though they weren’t hostile.
• Franklin D. Roosevelt: During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Roosevelt
created the New Deal to provide relief for the unemployed, recovery of the
economy, and reform of the economic system. The economy recovered to levels
of the late 1920s by 1936, except for unemployment, which remained high. Many
of Roosevelt's programs, such as the WPA and CCC, were designed to help
families trapped in unemployment. Many of the New Deal programs were
abolished in the 1940s; his most important permanent legacies include the Social
Security system and the regulation of Wall Street.
• New Deal: The New Deal had three components: direct relief, economic recovery,
and financial reform. Roosevelt responded with a remarkable series of new
programs in the “first hundred days” of the administration. Roosevelt declared a
four-day bank holiday, and reopened them with the promise of the Federal
Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Prohibition was ended and the country
was taken off the gold standard to induce inflation.
• Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC): insured individual deposits up to
$5,000
• Civil Works Administration (CWA): put more than 4 million people to work on
various state, municipal, and federal projects. Closed down because Roosevelt
feared it was costing too much.
• Public Works Administration (PWA): built hospitals, courthouses, and school
buildings. Its purpose was to stimulate the economy though government spending
• Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC): put young (18-25 years old), unemployed
men to work on reforestation, road and park construction, flood control, and other
projects. The men lived in work camps and earned $30 a month, $25 of which had
to be sent home to their families.