Chapter 34: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Shadow of War

I. The London Conference 

1. The Sixty-nation London Economic Conference, meeting in the summer of 1933, revealed how thoroughly in the summer of 1933, revealed how thoroughly Roosevelt's early foreign policy was subordinated to his strategy for domestic economic recovery. 
2. Their goal was to organize an international attack on the global depression. 
3. Exchange rate stabilization was essential to the revival of world trade, which had all but evaporated by 1933.
4. President Franklin D. Roosevelt at first agreed to send Secretary
   of State Cordell Hull, but then withdrew from that agreement and
   scolded the other nations for trying to stabilize currencies.
5. As a result, the conference adjourned accomplishing nothing, and furthermore strengthening American isolationism.

II. Freedom for (from?) the Filipinos and Recognition for the Russians

1. Roosevelt matched isolationism from Europe with withdrawal from Asia. 
2. Remembering its earlier promises of freedom for the Philippines, Congress passed the Tydings-McDuffie Act in 1934.

• The act provided for the independence of the Philippines after a twelve-year period of economic and political tutelage-that is, by 1946.

1. In Tokyo, Japanese militarists were calculating rejoiced, because they were calculating that they had little to fear from an inward-looking America that was abandoning its principal possession in Asia. 

• In 1933, FDR finally formally recognized the Soviet Union, hoping
  that the U.S. could trade with the U.S.S.R., and that the Soviets would
  discourage German and Japanese aggression.

III. Becoming a Good Neighbor 

1. In terms of its relations with Latin America, the U.S. wanted to be
   a “good neighbor,” showing that it was content as a
   regional power, not a world one.
2. He proclaimed, "I would dedicate this nation to the policy to the policy of the Good Neighbor."
3. In 1933, FDR renounced armed intervention in Latin America at the
   Seventh Pan-American Conference in Montevideo, Uruguay, and the
   following year, U.S. marines left Haiti.
4. The U.S. also lifted troops from Panama, but when Mexican forces
   seized Yankee oil properties, FDR found himself urged to take drastic
   action.
• However, he resisted and worked out a peaceful deal.
• His “good neighbor” policy was a great success, improving the U.S. image in Latin American eyes.
• Cuba was released from the worst hobbies of the Platt Amendment, under which America had been free to intervene, although the United States retained its naval base at Guantanamo. 
• The tiny country of Panama received a similar uplift in 1936, when Washington partially relaxed its grip on the isthumus nation.

IV. Secretary Hull's Reciprocal Trade Agreements

1. Intimately associated with Good Neighborism, and also popular in Latin America, was the reciprocal trade policy of the New Dealers. 
2. Responding to the Hull-Roosevelt leadership, Congress passed the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act in 1934.
3. The Act also avoided the dangerous uncertainties of a wholesale revision; it merely whittled down the most objectionable schedules of the Hawley-Smoot law by amending them. 
4. Secretary Hull, whose zeal for reciprocity was unflagging, succeeded in dealing pacts with twenty-one countries by the end of 1939.

• It reversed the traditional high-protective-tariff policy that had persisted almost unbroken Civil War days and that had so damaged the American and international economies following WWI. 

V. Storm-Cellar Isolationism

1. After World War I, many dictatorships sprang up, including Joseph
   Stalin of the Soviet Union, Benito Mussolini of Italy, and Adolph
   Hitler of Germany.
   • Of the three, Hitler was the most dangerous, because he was a great
     orator and persuader who led the German people to believe his
     “big lie,” making them think that he could lead the country
     back to greatness and out of this time of poverty and depression.
   • The Communist USSR led the way, with the crafty and ruthless Stalin family emerging as dictator.
   • Disillusioned and desperate, millions of Germans in the 1930s looked to Adolf Hitler as their savior from the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles, which had concluded WWI. There is a poster that says, "Our Lat Hope: Hitler."
2. In 1936, Nazi Hitler and Fascist Mussolini allied themselves in the Rome-Berlin Axis.
3. Japan slowly began gaining strength, refusing to cooperate with the
   world and quickly arming itself by ending the Washington Naval Treaty
   in 1934 and walking out of the London Conference.
4. In 1935, Mussolini attacked Ethiopia, conquering it, but the League
   of Nations failed to take effective action against the aggressors.
5. America continued to hide behind the shell of isolationism,
   believing that everything would stay good if the U.S. wasn’t
   drawn into any international embroilment's.
• The 1934 Johnson Debt Default Act forbade any countries that still owed the U.S. money from borrowing any more cash.
6. Mired down in the Great Depression, Americans had no real appreciation of the revolutionary forces being harnessed by the dictators. 
7. In 1936, Princeton University students began to agitate
   for a bonus to be paid to the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFWs) while the
   prospective front-liners were still alive.

VI. Congress Legislates Neutrality 

1. As the 1930s lengthened, an avalanche of lurid articles and books condemning the munitions manufacturers as war-fomenting "merchants of death" poured from American presses.
2. A senate committee, headed by Senator Gerald Nye of North Dakota, was appointed in  1934 to investigate the "blood business."
3. The neutrality of 1935,1936, and 1937, taken together stipulated that when the president proclaimed the existence of a foreign war, certain restrictions would automatically go into effect. 
4. The neutrality Acts were specifically tailored to keep the nation out of a conflict like WWI. 
5. If they had been in effect at that time, America probably would not have been sucked in- at least not in April 1917.
6. Congress was not one war too late with its legislation.

VII. America Dooms Loyalist Spain 

1. The Spanish Civil War of 1936-139- a proving ground and dress rehearsal in miniature for World War II-was a painful object lesson in the folly of neutrality-by-learning republican government in Madrid, were headed by fascistic General Francisco Franzo. 
2. In order to stay out of the war, the U.S. put an embargo on both
   the loyalist government, which was supported by the USSR, and the
   rebels, which were aided by Hitler and Mussolini.
3. Washington continued official relations with the Loyalist government.
4. It had been led to believe that huge fleets caused huge wars;it was also trying to spare the complainer taxpayer during the grim days of the Great Depression.
5. When President Roosevelt repeatedly called for preparedness, he was branded a warmonger.

Not until 1938, the year before WWII exploded, did Congress come to grips with the problem when it passed a billion-dollar naval construction act.

VIII. Appeasing Japan and Germany 

1. In 1937 the Japanese militarists, at the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing (Peking), touched off the explosion that led to an all-out invasion of China.
2. Roosevelt shrewdly declined to invoke the recently passed neutrality legislation by refusing to call the China incident an officially declared war. 
3. In Chicago-unofficial isolationist "capital" of America-President Roosevelt delivered his sensational "Quarantine Speech" in the autumn of 1937.
4. During the Civil War, the U.S. just stood by while Franco smothered
   the democratic government. America also failed to build up its fleet,
   since most people believed that huge fleets led to huge wars.
5. In December 1937, the Japanese bombed and sank the American
   gunboat, the Panay, but then made the necessary apologies,
   “saving” America from entering war.
   • To vent their frustration, the Japanese resorted to humiliating white civilians in China through slappings and strippings.
   • The Panay incident further supports America’s determination to stay neutral.
6. Meanwhile, Hitler was growing bolder and bolder after being allowed
   to introduce mandatory military service in Germany, take over the
   German Rhineland, persecute and exterminate about six million Jews, and
   occupy Austria—all because the European powers were appeasing
   him.
   • They naively hoped that each conquest of Germany would be the last.
7. However, Hitler didn’t stop, and at the September 1938 Munich
   Conference, the Allies agreed to let Hitler have the Sudentenland of
   neighboring Czechoslovakia, but six months later, in 1939, Hitler
   pulled the last straw and took over all of Czechoslovakia.
9. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returned to England and
   gave his infamous claim that he’d achieved “peace in our

X.Hitler's Belligerency and U.S. Neutrality

1. Joseph Stalin, the sphinx of the Kremlin, was a key to the peace puzzle.
2. Within the summer of 1939, the British and French were busily negotiating with Moscow, hopeful of securing a mtual-defense treaty that would halt Hitler.
3. On August 23, 1939, the U.S.S.R. shocked the world by signing a nonaggression treaty with Germany.
   • Now, it seemed that Germany could engulf all of Europe, especially
     without having to worry about fighting a two-front war in case Russia
     fought back.
   • In essence, the nonaggression pact opened the door to Poland.
   • Consternation struck those wishful thinkers In Western Europe who had fondly hoped that Hitler might be sicced upon Stalin face that the wily Soviet dictator was ploting to turn his German accomplice against the Western democracies. 
   • With the signing of the Nazi-Soviet Pact , WWII was only hours away. 
4. In 1939, Hitler invaded Poland, and France and Britain finally
   declared war against Germany, but America refused to enter the war, its
   citizens not wanting to be “suckers” again.
   • Americans were anti-Hitler and anti-Nazi and wanted Britain and
     France to win, but they would not permit themselves to be dragged into
     fighting and bloodshed.
5. European powers needed American supplies, but the previous
   Neutrality Acts forbade the sale of arms to nations in war, so a new
   Neutrality Act of 1939 allowed European nations to buy war materials,
   but only on a “cash-and-carry” basis, which meant Europeans
   had to provide their own ships and pay for the arms in cash.
   • Since the British and French controlled the seas, the Germans couldn’t buy arms from America, as it was intended.
X. The Fall of France
1. The months following the collapse of Poland, while France and Britain marked time, were known as the "phony war."
2. Hitler shifted his victorious divisions from Poland for a knockout blowout at France. 
3. The debt-paying Finna, who had a host of admirers in America, were speedily granted $30 million by an isolationist Congress for monetary supplies. 
4. After the fall of Poland, Hitler positioned his forces to attack
   France which led to a lull in the war (so that men could move) that was
   pierced only by the Soviet Union’s attack and conquering of
   Finland, despite $30 million from the U.S. (for nonmilitary reasons).
5. Then, in 1940, the “phony war” ended when Hitler
   overran Denmark and Norway, and then took over the Netherlands and
   Belgium.
6. But despite that, Finland was finally flattened by the Soviet steamroller.
   • Blitzing without mercy, he then struck a paralyzing blow toward France, which was forced to surrender by late June of that year.
b. The fall of France was shocking, because now, all that stood
between Hitler and the world was Britain: if the English lost, Hitler
would have all of Europe in which to operate, and he might take over
the Americas as well.
1. Finally, Roosevelt moved and called for the nation to massively
   build up its armed forces, with expenses totaling more than $37
   million. He also had Congress pass the first peacetime draft in U.S.
   history on September 6, 1940.
   • 1.2 million troops and 800,000 reserves would be trained.
2. At the Havana Conference, the U.S. warned Germany that it could not
   take over orphan colonies in the Americas, as such action
   would not be tolerated.
XI. Bolstering Britain with the Destroyer Deal (1940)
1. Now, with Britain the only power fighting against Germany, FDR had
   to decide whether to remain totally neutral or to help Britain.
   • Hitler launched air attacks against the British in August 1940 and
     prepared an invasion scheduled to start a month later, but the
     tenacious defense of the British Royal Air Force stopped him in the
     aerial Battle of Britain.
2. Those who supported helping Britain formed the Committee to Defend
   America by Aiding the Allies, while those for isolationism (including
   Charles A. Lindbergh) were in the America First Committee, and both
   groups campaigned and advertised for their respective positions.
3. Britain was in dire need for destroyers, and on September 2, 1940,
   FDR boldly moved to transfer 50 old-model, four-funnel destroyers left
   over from WWI, and in return, the British promised to give the U.S.
   eight valuable defensive base sites stretching from Newfoundland to
   South America.
   • These would stay in American ownership for 99 years.
   • Obviously, this caused controversy, but FDR had begun to stop
     playing the silly old games of isolationism and was slowly starting to
     step out into the spotlight.
4.   XII. FDR Shatters the Two-Term Tradition (1940)
1. A distracting presidential election, as fate decreed, came in the midst of this crisis. 
2. In 1940, it was thought that Robert A. Taft of Ohio or Thomas E.
   Dewey would be the Republican candidate, but a colorful and magnetic
   newcomer went from a nobody to a candidate in a matter of weeks.
   Wendell L. Willkie, became the Republican against Democratic candidate
   Franklin D. Roosevelt, who waited until the last moment to challenge
   the two-term tradition.
   • Democrats felt that FDR was the only man qualified to be president, especially in so grave of a situation as was going on.
   • With the galleries in Philly wildly chanting "We Want Wilkie," the delegates finally accepted this political upstart as the only candidate who could possibly beat Roosevelt. 
   • Wilkie, an outspoken liberal, agances and inefficences. Democratic critics branded him "the rich man's Roosevelt" and "the simple barefoot Wall Street lawyer."
3. Willkie and FDR weren’t really different in the realm of
   foreign affairs, but Willkie hit hard with his attacks on the third
   term.
4. Still, FDR won because voters felt that, should war come, FDR was the best man to lead America.
XIII. Congress Passes the Landmark Lend-Lease Law
1. 1940, embattled Britain Britain was nearing the end of its financial tether;its credits in America were being rapidly consumed by insatiable war orders. 
2. Britain was running out of money, but Roosevelt didn’t want
   all the hassles that came with calling back debts, so he came up with
   the idea of a lend-lease program in which the arms and ships, etc. that
   the U.S. lent to the nations that needed them would be returned when
   they were no longer needed.
   • Senator Taft retorted that in this case the U.S. wouldn’t
     want them back because it would be like lending chewing gum then taking
     it back after it’d been chewed.
3. The lend-lease bill was argued over heatedly in Congress, but it
   passed, and by war’s end, America had sent about $50 billion
   worth of arms and equipment.
   • The lend-lease act was basically the abandonment of the neutrality policy, and Hitler recognized this.
   • Before, German submarines had avoided attacking U.S. ships, but
     after the passage, they started to fire upon U.S. ships as well, such
     as the May 21, 1941 torpedoing of the Robin Moor.
XIV. Hitler’s Assault on the Soviet Union Spawns the Atlantic Charter
1. On June 22, 1941, Hitler attacked Russia, because ever since the
   signing of the nonaggression pact, neither Stalin nor Hitler had
   trusted each other, and both had been plotting to double-cross each
   other.
   • Hitler assumed his invincible troops would crush the inferior
     Soviet soldiers, but the valor of the Red army, U.S. aid to the
     U.S.S.R. (through lend-lease), and an early and bitter winter stranded
     the German force at Moscow and shifted the tide against Germany.
2. The Atlantic Conference was held in August 1941, and the result was
   the eight-point Atlantic Charter, which was suggestive of Woodrow
   Wilson’s Fourteen Points. Main points included…
   • There would be no territorial changes contrary to the wishes of the natives.
   • The charter also affirmed the right for people to choose their rulers (self-determination).
   • It declared disarmament and a peace of security, as well as a new League of Nations.
3. Critics charged that “neutral America” was interfering, ignoring that America was no longer neutral.
XV. U.S. Destroyers and Hitler’s U-Boats Clash
1. To ensure that arms sent to Britain would reach there, FDR finally
   agreed that a convoy would have to escort them, but only as far as
   Iceland, as Britain would take over from there.
2. There were clashes, as U.S. destroyers like the Greer, the Kearny, and the Reuben James were attacked by the Germans.
3. By mid-November 1941, Congress annulled the now-useless Neutrality Act of 1939.
XVI. Surprise Assault at Pearl Harbor
1. Japan was still embroiled in war with China, but when America
   suddenly imposed embargoes on key supplies on Japan in 1940, the
   imperialistic nation had now no choice but to either back off of China
   or attack the U.S.; they chose the latter.
2. The Americans had broken the Japanese code and knew that they would
   declare war soon, but the U.S. could not attack, so based on what the
   Japanese supposedly planned, most Americans thought that the Japanese
   would attack British Malaya or the Philippines.
3. However, the paralyzing blow struck Pearl Harbor, as on December 7,
   1941, Japanese air bombers suddenly attacked the naval base located
   there (where almost the entire U.S. fleet was located), wiping out many
   ships and killing or wounding 3,000 men.
4. The next day, the one after “a date which will live in
   infamy” (FDR), the U.S. declared war on Japan, and on December
   11, 1941, Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S.
XVII. America’s Transformation from Bystander to Belligerent
1. Up until the day of the Pearl Harbor attack, most Americans still
   wanted to stay out of war, but afterwards the event sparked such
   passion that it completely infuriated Americans into wanting to go to
   war.
2. This had been long in coming, as the U.S. had wanted to stay out of
   war, but had still supported Britain more and more, and the U.S. had
   been against the Japanese aggression but had failed to take a firm
   stand on either side.
3. Finally, people decided that appeasement didn’t work against
   “iron wolves,” and that only full war was needed to keep
   the world safe for democracy and against anarchy and dictatorship.

Chapter 33 :The Great Depression and the New Deal

I. FDR: A Politician in a Wheelchair

1. In 1932, voters still had not seen any economic improvement, and they wanted a new president.
2. President Herbert Hoover was nominated again without much vigor and
   true enthusiasm, and he campaigned saying that his policies prevented
   the Great Depression from being worse than it was.
3. The Democrats nominated Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a tall, handsome
   man who was the fifth cousin of famous Theodore Roosevelt and had
   followed in his footsteps.
   • FDR was suave and conciliatory while TR was pugnacious and confrontational.
   • FDR had been stricken with polio in 1921, and during this time, his wife, Eleanor, became his political partner.
   • Franklin also lost a friend in 1932 when he and Al Smith both sought the Democratic nomination.
4. Eleanor was to become the most active First Lady ever.

II. Presidential Hopefuls of 1932

1. In the campaign, Roosevelt seized the opportunity to prove that he
   was not an invalid, and his campaign also featured an attack on
   Hoover’s spending (ironically, he would spend even more during
   his term).
2. The Democrats found expression in the airy tune “Happy Days
   Are Here Again,” and clearly, the Democrats had the advantage in
   this race.

III. Hoover's Humiliation in 1932

1. Hoover had been swept into the presidential office in 1928, but in
   1932, he was swept out with equal force, as he was defeated 472 to 59.
2. Noteworthy was the transition of the Black vote from the Republican to the Democratic Party.
3. During the lame-duck period, Hoover tried to initiate some of
   Roosevelt’s plans, but was met by stubbornness and resistance.
4. Hooverites would later accuse FDR of letting the depression worsen so that he could emerge as an even more shining savior.

IV. FDR and the Three R’s: Relief, Recovery, and Reform

1. On Inauguration Day, FDR asserted, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
2. He called for a nationwide bank holiday to eliminate paranoid bank withdrawals, and then he commenced with his Three R’s.
3. The Democratic-controlled Congress was willing to do as FDR said,
   and the first Hundred Days of FDR’s administration were filled
   with more legislative activity than ever before.
   • Many of the New Deal Reforms had been adopted by European nations a decade before.

V. Roosevelt Manages the Money

1. The Emergency Banking Relief Act of 1933 was passed first. FDR
   declared a one week “bank holiday” just so everyone would
   calm down and stop running on the banks.
2. Then, Roosevelt settled down for the first of his thirty famous “Fireside Chats” with America.
3. The “Hundred Days Congress” passed the Glass-Steagall
   Banking Reform Act, that provided the Federal Deposit Insurance
   Corporation (FDIC) which insured individual deposits up to $5000,
   thereby eliminating the epidemic of bank failure and restoring faith to
   banks.
4. FDR then took the nation off of the gold standard and achieved
   controlled inflation by ordering Congress to buy gold at increasingly
   higher prices.
   • In February 1934, he announced that the U.S. would pay foreign gold at a rate of one ounce of gold per every $35 due.

VI. Roosevelt Manages the Money

1. The Emergency Banking Relief Act gave FDR the authority to manage banks.
2. FDR then went on the radio and reassured people it was safer to put money in the bank than hidden in their houses.
   • The Glass-Steagall Banking Reform Act was passed.
   • This provided for the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.) to insure the money in the bank.
3. FDR wanted to stop people from hoarding gold.
   • He urged people to turn in gold for paper money and took the U.S. off the gold standard.
   • He wanted inflation, to make debt payment easier, and urged the Treasury to buy gold with paper money.

VII. A Day for Every Demagogue

1. Roosevelt had no qualms about using federal money to assist the
   unemployed, so he created the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which
   provided employment in fresh-air government camps for about 3 million
   uniformed young men.
   • They reforested areas, fought fires, drained swamps, controlled floods, etc.
   • However, critics accused FDR of militarizing the youths and acting as dictator.
2. The Federal Emergency Relief Act looked for immediate relief rather
   than long-term alleviation, and its Federal Emergency Relief
   Administration (FERA) was headed by the zealous Harry L. Hopkins.
3. The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) made available many millions of dollars to help farmers meet their mortgages.
4. The Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) refinanced mortgages
   on non-farm homes and bolted down the loyalties of middle class,
   Democratic homeowners.
5. The Civil Works Administration (CWA) was established late in 1933,
   and it was designed to provide purely temporary jobs during the winter
   emergency.
   • Many of its tasks were rather frivolous (called
     “boondoggling”) and were designed for the sole purpose of
     making jobs.
6. The New Deal had its commentators.
   • One FDR spokesperson was Father Charles Coughlin, a Catholic priest
     in Michigan who at first was with FDR then disliked the New Deal and
     voiced his opinions on radio.
   • Senator Huey P. Long of Louisiana was popular for his “Share
     the Wealth” program. Proposing “every man a king,”
     each family was to receive $5000, allegedly from the rich. The math of
     the plan was ludicrous.
     • His chief lieutenant was former clergyman Gerald L. K. Smith.
     • He was later shot by a deranged medical doctor in 1935.
   • Dr. Francis E. Townsend of California attracted the trusting
     support of perhaps 5 million “senior citizens” with his
     fantastic plan of each senior receiving $200 month, provided that all
     of it would be spent within the month. Also, this was a mathematically
     silly plan.
7. Congress also authorized the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in
   1935, which put $11 million on thousands of public buildings, bridges,
   and hard-surfaced roads and gave 9 million people jobs in its eight
   years of existence.
   • It also found part-time jobs for needy high school and college students and for actors, musicians, and writers.
   • John Steinbeck counted dogs (boondoggled) in his California home of Salinas county.

VIII. New Visibility for Women

1. Ballots newly in hand, women struck up new roles.
2. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was the most visible, but other ladies
   shone as well: Sec. of Labor Frances Perkins was the first female
   cabinet member and Mary McLeod Bethune headed the Office of Minority
   Affairs in the NYA, the “Black Cabinet”, and founded a
   Florida college.
3. Anthropologist Ruth Benedict helped develop the “culture and
   personality movement” and her student Margaret Mead reached even
   greater heights with Coming of Age in Samoa.
4. Pearl S. Buck wrote a beautiful and timeless novel, The Good Earth,
   about a simple Chinese farmer which earned her the Nobel Prize for
   literature in 1938.

IX. Helping Industry and Labor

1. The National Recovery Administration (NRA), by far the most
   complicated of the programs, was designed to assist industry, labor,
   and the unemployed.
   • There were maximum hours of labor, minimum wages, and more rights
     for labor union members, including the right to choose their own
     representatives in bargaining.
2. The Philadelphia Eagles were named after this act, which received
   much support and patriotism, but eventually, it was shot down by the
   Supreme Court.
   • Besides too much was expected of labor, industry, and the public.
   • The Public Works Administration (PWA) also intended both for industrial recovery and for unemployment relief.
     • Headed by Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes, it aimed at
       long-range recovery by spending over $4 billion on some 34,000 projects
       that included public buildings, highways, and parkways (i.e. the Grand
       Coulee Dam of the Columbia River).
3. One of the Hundred Days Congress’s earliest acts was to
   legalize light wine and beer with an alcoholic content of 3.2% or less
   and also levied a $5 tax on every barrel manufactured.
   • Prohibition was officially repealed with the 21st Amendment.

X. Paying Farmers Not to Farm

1. To help the farmers, which had been suffering ever since the end of
   World War I, Congress established the Agricultural Adjustment
   Administration, which paid farmers to reduce their crop acreage and
   would eliminate price-depressing surpluses.
   • However, it got off to a rocky start when it killed lots of pigs
     for no good reason, and paying farmers not to farm actually increased
     unemployment.
   • The Supreme Court killed it in 1936.
2. The New Deal Congress also passed the Soil Conservation and
   Domestic Allotment Act of 1936, which paid farmers to plant
   soil-conserving plants like soybeans or to let their land lie fallow.
3. The Second Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 was a more
   comprehensive substitute that continued conservation payments but was
   accepted by the Supreme Court.

XI. Dust Bowls and Black Blizzards

After the drought of 1933, furious winds whipped up dust into the
air, turning parts of Missouri, Texas, Kansas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma
into the Dust Bowl and forcing many farmers to migrate west to
California and inspired Steinbeck’s classic The Grapes of Wrath.

• The dust was very hazardous to the health and to living, creating further misery.

The Frazier-Lemke Farm Bankruptcy Act, passed in 1934, made
possible a suspension of mortgage foreclosure for five years, but it
was voided in 1935 by the Supreme Court.

In 1935, FDR set up the Resettlement Administration, charged with the task of removing near-farmless farmers to better land.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs was headed by John Collier who
sought to reverse the forced-assimilation policies in place since the
Dawes Act of 1887.

• He promoted the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 (the Indian
  “New Deal”), which encouraged tribes to preserve their
  culture and traditions.
• Not all Indians liked it though, saying if they followed this
  “back-to-the-blanket” plan, they’d just become museum
  exhibits. 77 tribes refused to organize under its provisions (200 did).

XII. Battling Bankers and Big Business

1. The Federal Securities Act (“Truth in Securities Act”)
   required promoters to transmit to the investor sworn information
   regarding the soundness of their stocks and bonds.
2. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was designed as a
   stock watchdog administrative agency, and stock markets henceforth were
   to operate more as trading marts than as casinos.
3. In 1932, Chicagoan Samuel Insull’s multi-billion dollar
   financial empire had crashed, and such cases as his resulted in the
   Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935.

XIII. The TVA Harnesses the Tennessee River

1. The sprawling electric-power industry attracted the fire of New Deal reformers.
   • New Dealers accused it of gouging the public with excessive rates.
2. Thus, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) (1933) sought to
   discover exactly how much money it took to produce electricity and then
   keep rates reasonable.
   • It constructed dams on the Tennessee River and helped the 2.5
     million extremely poor citizens of the area improve their lives and
     their conditions.
   • Hydroelectric power of Tennessee would give rise to that of the West.

XIV. Housing Reform and Social Security

1. To speed recovery and better homes, FDR set up the Federal Housing
   Administration (FHA) in 1934 to stimulate the building industry through
   small loans to householders.
   • It was one of the “alphabetical” agencies to outlast the age of Roosevelt.
2. Congress bolstered the program in 1937 by authorizing the U.S.
   Housing Authority (USHA), designed to lend money to states or
   communities for low-cost construction.
   • This was the first time in American history that slum areas stopped growing.
3. The Social Security Act of 1935 was the greatest victory for New
   Dealers, since it created pension and insurance for the old-aged, the
   blind, the physically handicapped, delinquent children, and other
   dependents by taxing employees and employers.
   • Republicans attacked this bitterly, as such government-knows-best
     programs and policies that were communist leaning and penalized the
     rich for their success. They also opposed the pioneer spirit of
     “rugged individualism.”

XV. A New Deal for Labor

1. A rash of walkouts occurred in the summer of 1934, and after the
   NRA was axed, the Wagner Act (AKA, National Labor Relations Act) of
   1935 took its place. The Wagner Act guaranteed the right of unions to
   organize and to collectively bargain with management.
   • Under the encouragement of a highly sympathetic National Labor
     Relations Board, unskilled laborers began to organize themselves into
     effective unions, one of which was John L. Lewis, the boss of the
     United Mine Workers who also succeeded in forming the Committee for
     Industrial Organization (CIO) within the ranks of the AF of L in 1935.
   • The CIO later left the AF of L and won a victory against General Motors.
2. The CIO also won a victory against the United States Steel Company,
   but smaller steel companies struck back, resulting in such incidences
   as the Memorial Day Massacre of 1937 at the plant of the Republic Steel
   Company of South Chicago in which police fired upon workers, leaving
   scores killed or injured.
3. In 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act (AKA the “Wages and
   Hours Bill”) was passed, setting up minimum wage and maximum
   hours standards and forbidding children under the age of sixteen from
   working.
4. Roosevelt enjoyed immense support from the labor unions.
5. In 1938, the CIO broke completely with the AF of L and renamed itself the Congress of Industrial Organizations (the new CIO).

XVI. Landon Challenges “the Champ”

1. The Republicans nominated Kansas Governor Alfred M. Landon to run against FDR.
   • Landon was weak on the radio and weaker in personal campaigning,
     and while he criticized FDR’s spending, he also favored enough of
     FDR’s New Deal to be ridiculed by the Democrats as an unsure
     idiot.
2. In 1934, the American Liberty League had been formed by
   conservative Democrats and wealthy Republicans to fight
   “socialistic” New Deal schemes.
3. Roosevelt won in a huge landslide, getting 523 electoral votes to Landon’s 8.
4. FDR won primarily because he appealed to the “forgotten man,” whom he never forgot.

XVII. Nine Old Men on the Bench

1. The 20th Amendment had cut the lame-duck period down to six weeks,
   so FDR began his second term on January 20, 1937, instead of on March 4.
2. He controlled Congress, but the Supreme Court kept blocking his
   programs, so he proposed a shocking plan that would add a member to the
   Supreme Court for every existing member over the age of 70, for a
   maximum possible total of 15 total members.
   • For once, Congress voted against him because it did not want to lose its power.
   • Roosevelt was ripped for trying to become a dictator.

XVIII. The Court Changes Course

1. FDR’s “court-packing scheme” failed, but he did
   get some of the justices to start to vote his way, including Owen J.
   Roberts, formerly regarded as a conservative.
2. So, FDR did achieve his purpose of getting the Supreme Court to vote his way.
3. However, his failure of the court-packing scheme also showed how
   Americans still did not wish to tamper with the sacred justice system.

XIX. Twilight of the New Deal

1. During Roosevelt’s first term, the depression did not
   disappear, and unemployment, down from 25% in 1932, was still at 15%.
   • In 1937, the economy took another brief downturn when the “Roosevelt Recession,” caused by government policies.
   • Finally, FDR embraced the policies of British economist John Maynard Keynes.
     • In 1937, FDR announced a bold program to stimulate the economy by planned deficit spending.
     • In 1939, Congress relented to FDR’s pressure and passed the
       Reorganization Act, which gave him limited powers for administrative
       reforms, including the key new Executive Office in the White House.
     • The Hatch Act of 1939 barred federal administrative officials,
       except the highest policy-making officers, from active political
       campaigning and soliciting.

XX. New Deal or Raw Deal?

1. Foes of the New Deal condemned its waste, citing that nothing had been accomplished.
2. Critics were shocked by the “try anything” attitude of
   FDR, who had increased the federal debt from $19.487 million in 1932 to
   $40.440 million in 1939.
3. It took World War II, though, to really lower unemployment. But, the war also created a heavier debt than before.

XXI. FDR’s Balance Sheet

1. New Dealers claimed that the New Deal had alleviated the worst of the Great Depression.
2. FDR also deflected popular resent against business and may have
   saved the American system of free enterprise, yet business tycoons
   hated him.
3. He provided bold reform without revolution.
4. Later, he would guide the nation through a titanic war in which the democracy of the world would be at stake.

Pro Choice V. Pro life: A Very Opinionated Conversation

After the dramatically influential court case, Roe v. Wade in 1973, it began the ongoing debate of pro choice v. pro life. What's the difference?

Pro choice: A mother has to have her baby no matter what
Pro life: It's the mother choice

I believe that the parents not doctors, not governments, or laws should determine whether they decide to keep the child. Depending on the situation, the mother may have her reasons on why she does not want to keep the baby, or give it up for adoption, or have an abortion. The mother could have gone through sexual abuse of some degree where she may not want to have the child as a constant reminder of what happened to her. Overall, it should be the parents choice, because they are the ones who would be feeding and paying the cost, not anyone else. According to statistics, 1 in 3 women will be victims of sexual violence in her lifetime. It's not their fault, because no one deserves to be treated that way. Considering how many people are killed during childbirth should we allow this further risk to endured on top of what has already been done?

Religious ideology is no foundation for any law. For my confirmation, I had to sit through a three hour discussion on why "abortion was bad." To persuade everyone to not do it, they actually showed a video and the process a women has to go through in order to have a successful abortion. In addition, they also showed the negative consequences, and abortion would have, such as being at risk of getting an infectious disease, and having to be making a trip to the Emergency room.  Freedom of religion is guaranteed to any citizen in the United States; so why would the beliefs and values of one religion mandate actual laws for all citizens? It would be unfair, unjust and immoral. We do not have laws against eating fish, nor do we have laws that declare it is legal to sell one’s daughter, rape someone, or keep a person as a slave—all things that are promoted in religious text.

 Therefore, I believe that it should completely be the mother's decisions on whether she wants to abort, keep, or place her baby upon an adoption agency. She could possibly be giving a child to a couple that unfortunately, can not have children.

World War I: Redefining the 20th Century

       World War I happened from 1914 all the way to 1918. During World War I, we had President Woodrow Wilson serving his term. We had the start of the "Jim Crow" period. We had the Era of Submarines going on. We had cities being bombed by airplanes. We had the boom of of immigration. This however, was a particular group of immigrants. The vast majority of the immigrants were coming from Europe. We also had the mention of a really popular ship called The Lusitania. It was a German ship that carried an estimated 1,200 passengers which ended up sinking. This ship was on its way to Liverpool England from New York. 

         Most of the leaders in 1914 had no real idea of the war machine they were putting into motion. Many believed the War would be over by Christmas 1914. But by the end of the first year, a new kind of war emerged on the battlefield that had never been seen before -- or repeated since: total war-producing stalemate, the result of a war that went on for 1,500 days. Before the official Armistice was declared on November 11, 1918, nine million people had died on the battlefield and the world was forever changed.



The following is a timeline of the most important events that occurred in the year 1918.

• 1918-1919:Two waves of influenza kill more people than did the war.
•  January 8, 1918:President Woodrow Wilson declares his 14 points as the path to permanent world peace. 
• March 21: Germans launch the first of five major offensives to win the war before American troops appear in the trenches. German advance is finally stopped in late June.
•  April 22:Baron von Richthofen, "the Red Baron" is killed in air dog-fight. 
• April 25:British and Australian troops stop the German advance near Amiens.
• May 23:German shells land on Paris.
•  May 31:Germans on the banks of the Marne near Paris are stopped by American forces at Chateau-Thierry.
• July:German troops being shipped from the Eastern to Western Front begin to desert in large numbers from their transport trains.
• July 16-17:Former Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, children, and members of his entourage are murdered by the Bolsheviks.
• August 3:President Wilson agrees to co-operate with Allies in sending "volunteer" troops into Russia.
• August 8:Allied counter offensives on the Somme push the German army back and into retreat.
• September 27:Allied troops break through the German fortifications at the Hindenberg line.
• October 28:German sailors mutiny at port when asked to sail and fight a hopeless navel battle.
• October 30:Turks sign armistice
• November 9:Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates.
• November 10:A German republic is founded.
• November 11:At eleven o'clock on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, the war ends as Germany and Allies sign an Armistice
• December 4:Woodrow Wilson sets sail for the Paris Peace conference.

The Panama Canal

The Following is a powerpoint presentation in regard to the Panama canal.  A few facts about the Panama Canal.

• 200 million tons of products cross every year

• Connects the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean

• Ships the size of skyscrapers cross through the Panama Canal

• Helps move ships an entire country cross and saves ships the drag of making the trip throughout the entire country

• In the midst of the Panama Canal is Gatun Lake and Gillard Cut

• Up to 1,0000 ships crossed in the years 1914

• The so-called, "Panamax" is the  largest ship the Panama Canal can handle.

• The triple locks. each of the triple locks stretches 300 meters enough for the Eiffel tower to lie back and high enough to pack 3,000 buses!

When Muckracker meets Journalist. Meet, Samuel Hopkins Adams

John Samuel Hopkins. He is well known for his extraordinary line of work as an investigative Journalist.  To gain that knowledge, he attended Hamilton College. He was just one of the many so called, "muckraker" journalists, that would many of the times go undercover, all in the work to expose a  lie being hidden by the government. 

From 1891 to 1929, he was a reporter for the New York Sun and then continued his Journalism career by joining McClure's Magazine. It was within this magazine where he gained a reputation as a muckraker for his articles on the conditions of public health in the United States.

In a series of eleven articles he wrote for Collier's Weekly in 1905, "The Great American Fraud", Adams exposed many of the false claims made about patent medicines, pointing out that in some cases these medicines were damaging the health of the people using them. The series had a huge impact and led to the passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act.

Adams series of articles on this subject, compelled the Supreme Court in 1911, to rule that the prohibition of falsifications referred only to the ingredients of the medicine. This meant that companies were again free to make false claims about their products. Adams returned to the attack and another series of articles in Collier's Weekly, Adams exposed the misleading advertising that companies were using to sell their products.

In addition to his line of work for well-known media outlets, Adams also wrote short-stories and novels. They were the following:

•  The Health Master (1913)
• The Clarion (1914)
• The Unspeakable Perk (1916)
• Square and the People in It (1917)
• Success (1921) 
• Siege (1924)
• The Gorgeous Hussy (1934) 
•  Maiden Effort (1937). 
• biography of Warren Harding entitled, Incredible Era (1939). 
• One short story, Night Bus, was turned into a film, It Happened One Night
•  Canal Town (1944)
•  a biography of Alexander Woollcott (1945)
• The Pony Express (1950)
• The Santa Fe Trail (1952) 
• The Erie Canal (1953) 
•  Grandfather Stories (1955)

Samuel Hopkins Adams long Journalism career came to an end when he died at Beaufort, South Carolina, on 15th November, 1958. The cause of death is stated.