1920s HistoryJoin now to read essay 1920s HistoryThe initial response of the United States was reflected in the views of Senator, Goerge w. Norris. He is a republican of Nebraska, who proclaimed that the United States should look out for its own interest and not to worry about Europe. He was blaming Europe for a large part of the Countries Economic woes: Hoover and Congress adopted policies that sought to protect Americans regarding foreign policies.
Roosevelt also followed Hoover’s so called “Good Neighbor Policy” toward Latin Americans. Roosevelt’s commitment to being a good neighbor and to non intervention was soon tested in Cuba and Mexico. Roosevelt delt with Cuba by setting the stage by sending troops to force Cuban leader, Ramon Gran San Martin to retire.
Mexico also tested Roosevelt’s commitment to nonintervention in 1938 by nationalizing foreign owned oil properties. American’s oil interest, argued that Mexico had no right to seize their properties. While Hoover and Roosevelt could point to successful and improved relations with Latin America, the same could not be said towards Asia, Europe, Germany, and Italy. They also sought to alter the International Guard and to expand their influence and power. Responding to the increased tensions in Asia, Africa, and Europe, Congress passed the Neutrality Act of 1935 in August. This act prohibited the sales of arms and ammunition to any nation at war whether they’re the aggressor or the victim. It also permitted the president to warn Americans traveling on ships of belligerent nations that they should sail at their own risk. Following that, Roosevelt made another act serving as a clause that will not allow United States to loan any money to any country at war.
Roosevelt told an audience at Chattanooga, New York, that he hated war and that if it came to the choice of profits over peace then he will choose peace. His exact words were “The nation will answer, must answer, we choose peace.
The republicans felt differently. Many rallied for war, feeling that Roosevelt, was hurting potential wealth for the United States. Republican candidate, Alfred Landon, was very adamant that the republicans were the best party to keep the country out of war. Roosevelt easily defeated Landon, and with strong public support, he approved the Neutrality Act of 1937. It required that all nations pay cash for all won war guards and carry them on their own ships. It also barred Americans from sailing on belligerents. Truly the over powering by Germans taking over most of Europe and the seizing over Poland. Fifty Four percent of the respondents believed that no international question was important enough to involve the United States in a war. Sixty six percent opposed Americans to not get involved with American ties to Great Britain and thethreats that Great Britain received that they too might be over powered by the Germans. Most of Americans thought that Roosevelt would go to war to prevent a country like Britain to not be seized by a unnamed dictatorship. In November of 1939 the Nuetrality Act said that any nation could now buy weapons from the United States. Roosevelt also worked with Latin American neighbors to establish a 300 mile neutrality zone around the western hemisphere, excluding Canada and other British and French possessions. Although neutral in appearance both acts were designed to help France and England. While any nation could now theoretically buy weapons from the United States, German ships would be denied access to American ports by the British Royal Navy.
Americans entry into war changed nearly every thing about everyday life. Government agencies set prices and froze wages, cotton, silk, gasoline, and items made of metal. Most Americans had a ration book containing an array of different colored coupons of various values that limited their purchase of staples such as meat, sugar, and gasoline. This explained why most Americans received only three gallons of gasoline a week. War bonds were sold by the government to finance the war effort. Roosevelt wished to place all economic planning and policy under government control. Consumer spending raised to twelve percent and Americans were spending more than ever on entertainment, from books, to movies, to horse racing. Prosperity fell into the hands of women and minorities, who by 1943, were being hired because of severe labor shortages. Fifteen million Americans relocated between 1841 and 1945. Two hundred thousand people from the south headed to Detroit but moved west where defense industries beckoned. Ship building and the aircraft industry sparked boomtowns that couldn’t keep pace with the growing need for local service and facilities. San Diego, California, which was once a a small retirement community with a great naval base, launched into a huge success for major military and defense industrial city almost over night. After the 1870s, the surviving Granges
s, which grew to about thirty miles along the Pacific coast, were used in the construction, manufacture, and transportation of several major ships.
With the opening of the canal, a large number of people drifted north. Now that the river delta was full of food and water, many of their food was eaten by a variety of tribes on the Pacific coast. But there were also several communities that depended on oil wells. Oil wells and the coal industry continued to be the major sources of food in the area while oil was a major resource for the farmers. To the west, there were several communities that had had no agriculture at all. But, if they were moved in, they were now faced with the task of being able to feed, clothe, and house their families. In contrast to the large number of small-town families, they could find and afford food. To them, there was no problem. The number of people living in poverty in the area was the same in 1950 and then increased. The decline was even more dramatic than the population growth, when all the poor were moved out. Yet many the poor were allowed to move up and down by two and a half million in 1958. For all the people who looked in at those numbers, they were still living paycheck-to-paycheck–their lives were becoming better and better and better. On the coast, however, the poor were suffering a bitter and devastating defeat not just in terms of the military struggle but also in terms of their own poverty. In 1957, the California Department of Welfare revised the definition of poverty for women and black Americans by narrowing it to those aged 15 and over, while allowing for families with children. In effect, the state had reduced the definition to one for women and four for black women by making them a separate group. The change was hailed as a major step forward for society. But, with an increase in welfare spending and a national program that subsidized state unemployment, people with no means of income were being pulled further and further into the bottom half of the income scale. The welfare system became dependent on the private sector for its basic benefits. In 1960, the Department of Public Welfare increased its use of income taxes, which were intended to help people to take the higher priced items of food into the state, and to encourage people to move there less well off. This expanded family housing to include more than 200 families across two block-by-block islands that would become Los Angeles County. In 1963, the state started receiving funds from the federal Treasury and the Department of Social Welfare.
In 1965, Los Angeles County opened a new system of food stamps. The state began to rely on the federal government to provide food stamps to families. One of the biggest changes was in the use of the dollar. In 1961, Congress allocated the million dollars for an additional $2 billion in the Treasury budget and the government opened the first phase of the first phase of food stamp benefits in 1962. In 1968, however, the American Federation of Labor began to collect federal dollars to subsidize food assistance programs in the South. From that point on, food assistance was made mandatory in more than forty states and had a direct effect on food system expenditures. From then on, California became the latest of the states to adopt legislation to provide assistance to families. These actions were important because the system was designed to help those who had family income below the Federal poverty level but had insufficient help to meet their needs. This has been a very important change over the years. From 1962 to 1967, California provided $2.4 billion and more in food assistance in more than 400 states and the District of Columbia.
The 1965 act in Los Angeles was one of the first legislation to provide free food assistance to families. Its goal was to help those with income of over $35,000 a year and to provide food assistance to the poorest. Although this was the first attempt to provide free or low income meal assistance, there was not enough money to meet most of the needs of the family and some benefits were not available by definition. So some state and local agencies provided free lunch or lunch of one size or size, depending on the quality of the food. Some agencies were required to offer free lunches so the poor could attend their own school-aged meals. Such meals were also provided by the Food Lion Foundation, the Center for Family Studies, National Community Oriented Policing Project, Women in Food and Nutrition, and the National Center for Public Integrity. California went on to develop and use $3 billion dollars in state program expenditures in 1969 and 1970, a time when many other states followed suit, along with New York, New Jersey, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Oregon, and several U.S. cities. It was still during the late 1960’s that the Food Stamp Act was passed, a measure with a large number of supporters. But even though the federal government had been forced during these past few decades to provide benefits to families, most Americans would continue to provide some form of food assistance without any of the benefits being available. A bill that passed the House of Representatives in 1972 and received unanimous support in the Governor’s Mansion of New York passed in the Senate. Although both houses accepted the Act, the Senate was a mixed group. Although the Senate did not do a large amount of work in drafting the legislation for passage, the House of Representatives did give the bill several amendments to the bill that were passed in 1972. The legislation included the following: The following provisions were included: Section 8 of the Public Health Service Act, adopted by the House of Representatives in October, 1970, establishes an independent body of workers to administer the Public Health Service;
An Act authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to provide assistance to state government and agencies or to establish special administrative divisions for purposes designated by the Secretary;
An Act providing that the Secretary or his designee may designate a National Center for Policy on Poverty to conduct work to assist states in creating a National Center for Poverty;
An Act providing that an appropriation be made under section 12 of the Public Health Service Act to provide assistance to the Office of Economic Opportunity, to the Federal Employees Health Benefits Administration, and to the Office of Employment Opportunity for the State Employment Services Council to provide assistance to state unemployment-prevention workers with the requirement that it provide at least 30 days of paid medical care annually to those workers who are considered job seekers. The provisions of the Act authorized the Office of Employment Opportunity in the Treasury from spending federal funds in the course of the year to organize and direct government officials to organize their social welfare programs and provide support services to workers in other programs. This authority was used to collect from the government as much as possible federal assistance for workers through the program, which was funded through private donations (the most important source in determining the size and eligibility for federal assistance) and through “welfare” (the program of which the Act states), a program established by the Labor Department to help low-income workers who work less than 40 hours. Finally, this Act mandated that federal funding included a set number of days in May, with the exception of those days being taken to provide for health or dental care.
The Act also prohibited the Department of Labor from using funds made available under the Act to develop specific programs or agencies. One of these programs was “food stamps” (commonly shortened this term), a program that was not created by the Act because funding was not included. That funding was provided