The Seventy-third Congress of the United States was the 73rd meeting of the United States Congress, which took place from 1933 to 1935. All Representatives of this Congress were elected in the House election of 1932, and 34 Senators were elected in the Senate election of 1932.
The Congress took place during The Great Depression, and coincided with the first half of the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Session Dates
Two regular sessions of Congress were held, and one additional special session was called by President Roosevelt. All three took place in
Washington, D.C.
Constitutional Amendments
- The twentieth amendment to the Constitution became effective in January 1934. This amendment changed both the date for convening Congress and the date for beginning each term. Thus the first session of the 73rd Congress convened in March 1933, but the second session convened in January 1934.
- The twenty-first amendment to the Constitution was ratified in December 1933. This amendment repealed the eighteenth amendment which mandated national prohibition in the United States, which had been in effect since the Volstead Act of 1919. The amendment is unsual due to the fact that it was not passed by Congress, but was forced upon the Federal Government by a convention of states. Even though it was not passed by Congress, it still was the most publicized legislation of the day, and had significant effects on the 73rd Congress, particularly in the south, where prohibition was overwhelmingly embraced, and the amendment was seen as a "coup d'etat of immorality," as one southern Congressman remarked.
Legislation
Special Session
The special session of Congress, which took place before the regular seating, was called by President Roosevelt specifically to pass two acts:
- The Emergency Banking Act was passed on March 9, 1933 within four hours of its introduction. It was prompted by the "bank holiday" and was the first step in Roosevelt's "first hundred days" of the New Deal. The Act was drafted in large part by officials appointed by the Hoover administration. The bill provided for the Treasury Department to initiate reserve requirements and a federal bailout to large failing institutions. It also removed the United States from the Gold Standard. All banks had to undergo a federal inspection to deem if they were stable enough to re-open. Within a week 1/3rd of the banks re-opened in the United States and faith was, in large part, restored in the banking system. The act had few opponents, only taking fire from the farthest left elements of Congress who wanted to nationalize banks all-together.
- The Economy Act of 1933 was passed on March 10, 1933. Roosevelt, in sending this act to Congress, warned that if it did not pass, the country faced a billion dollar deficit. The act balanced the federal budget by cutting the salaries of government employees and cutting pensions to veterans by as much as 15 percent. It intended to reassure the deficit hawks that the new president was fiscally conservative. Although the act was heavily protested by left-leaning members of congress, it passed by an overwhelming margin.
First Session
- The Emergency Conservation Work Act was passed on March 31, 1933. It established the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) as a means to combat unemployment and poverty.
- The Agricultural Adjustment Act was passed on May 12, 1933. It was part of a plan developed by Roosevelt's Secretary of Agriculture, Henry A. Wallace, and was designed to protect American farmers from the uncertainties of the depression through subsidies and production controls. The act laid the frame for long-term government control in the planning of the agricultural sector. In 1936 the act was ruled unconstitution by the United States Supreme Court because it taxed one group to pay for another.
- The Tennessee Valley Authority Act passed on May 18, 1933. It created the Tennessee Valley Authority to relieve the Tennessee Valley by a series of public works projects.
- The Federal Emergency Relief Act passed on May 22, 1933. It established the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) which develop public works projects to give work to the unemployed.
- The Securities Act of 1933 was passed on June 5, 1933. It established the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) as a way for the government to prevent a repeat of the Stock Market Crash of 1929.
- The Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 was passed on June 12 1933 and was a follow up to the Glass-Steagall Act of 1932. Both acts sought to make banking safer and less prone to speculation. The 1933 act, however, established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
- The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) was passed on June 16, 1933. It was an anti-deflation scheme promoted by the Chamber of Commerce that reversed anti-trust laws and permit trade associations to cooperate in stabilizing prices within their industries while making businesses ensure that the incomes of workers would rise along with their prices. It guaranteed to workers of the right of collective bargaining and helped spur major union organizing drives in major industries. In case consumer buying power lagged behind, thereby defeating the administration's initiatives, the NIRA created the Public Works Administration (PWA), a major program of public works spending designed to alleviate unemployment, and moreover to transfer funds to certain beneficiaries. The NIRA established the most important, but ultimately least successful provision: a new federal agency known as the National Recovery Administration (NRA), which attempted to stabilize prices and wages through cooperative "code authorities" involving government, business, and labor. The NIRA was seen hailed as a miracle, responding to the needs of labor, business, unemployment, and the deflation crisis. Unfortunately, the "sick chicken case" lead to the Supreme Court invalidating NIRA in 1935, although it was in effect long enough for it to accomlish a good deal of what it set out to do.
Second Session
Hearings
"Merchants of Death" hearings
Committee:
U.S. Senate Committee on Munitions
Chairman: Senator
Gerald P. Nye (R-North Dakota)
Duration:
September 4,
1934-February
1936
The Senate Munitions Committee came into existence souly for the purpose of this hearing. Although World War I had been over for sixteen years, there were revived reports that America's leading munition companies had effectively influenced the United States into that conflict, which killed 53,000 Americans, hence the nickname "Merchants of Death".
The Democratic Party, controlling the Senate for the first time since the first world war, used the hype of these reports to organise the hearing in hopes of nationalizing America's munitions industry. The Democrats chose a Republican renowned for his ardent isolationist policies, Senator Nye of North Dakota, to head the hearing. Nye was typical of western agrarian progressives, and adamantly opposed America's involvement in any foreign war. Nye declared at the opening of the hearing "when the Senate investigation is over, we shall see that war and preparation for war is not a matter of national honor and national defense, but a matter of profit for the few."
Over the next eighteen months, the "Nye Committee" (as newspapers called it) held ninety-three hearings, questioning more than two hundred witnesses, including J.P. Morgan, Jr. and Pierre du Pont. Committee members found little hard evidence of an active conspiracy among arms makers, yet the panel’s reports did little to weaken the popular prejudice against "greedy munitions interests."
The hearings overlapped the 73rd and 74th Congresses. They only came to an end after Chairman Nye provoked the Democratic caucus into cutting off funding. Nye, in the last hearing the Committee held in early 1936, attacked former Democratic President Woodrow Wilson, suggesting that Wilson had withheld essential information from Congress as it considered a declaration of war. Democratic leaders, including Appropriations Committee Chairman Carter Glass of Virginia, unleashed a furious response against Nye for "dirtdaubing the sepulcher of Woodrow Wilson." Standing before cheering colleagues in a packed Senate chamber, Glass slammed his fist onto his desk in protest until blood dripped from his knuckles, effectively prompting the Democratic caucus to withhold all funding for further hearings.
Although the "Nye Committee" failed to achieve its goal of nationalizing the arms industry, it inspired three congressional neutrality acts in the mid-1930s that signaled profound American opposition to overseas involvement.
Party summary
Senate
At seating
Total 96
At adjournment
Total 96
Changes
- Senator Robert B. Howell (R-Nebraska) died and was replaced by a Democrat.
House of Representatives
At seating
Total 435
At adjournment
Total 435
Changes
- Representative Henry W. Watson (R-Pennsylvania) died and was replaced by a Democrat.
- Representative George F. Brumm (R-Pennsylvania) died and his seat remained vacant until the end of the session.
- Representative Thomas C. Coffin (D-Idaho) died and his seat remained vacant until the end of the session.
- Representative James M. Beck (R-Pennsylvania) resigned and his seat remained vacant until the end of the session.
- Representatives Gardner R. Withrow and Gerald J. Boileau (R-Wisconsin) changed to the Progressive Party.
- Speaker Henry T. Rainey (D-Illinois) died and his seat remained vacant until the end of the session. Likewise, a new Speaker was not elected until the next session.
Officers
Senate
Majority leadership
Minority leadership
House of Representatives
Majority Leadership
Minority Leadership
Members
Senate
House of Representatives
Changes in Membership
Senate
| Senator
| State
| Reason for Vacancy
| Successor
| Date of Successor's Installation
|
| Robert H. Howell
| Nebraska
| Died March 11, 1933
| William H. Thompson
| May 24, 1933
|
| Sam G. Bratton
| New Mexico
| Resigned June 24, 1933
| Carl Hatch
| November 6, 1934
|
| Porter H. Dale
| Vermont
| Died October 6, 1933
| Ernest W. Gibson
| October 19, 1933
|
| John B. Kendrick
| Wyoming
| Died November 3, 1933
| Joseph C. O'Mahoney
| January 1, 1934
|
| William H. Thompson
| Nebraska
| Duly elected successor qualified on November 6, 1934
| Richard C. Hunter
| November 7, 1934
|
| John E. Erikson
| Montana
| Duly elected successor qualified on November 6, 1934
| James E. Murray
| November 7, 1934
|
House of Representatives
| Representative
| District
| Reason for Vacancy
| Successor
| Date of Successor's Installation
|
| John Nance Garner
| Texas 15th
| Resigned March 4, 1933 having become Vice President
| Milton H. West
| April 22, 1933
|
| Lewis W. Douglas
|
| Resigned March 4, 1933 to accept a Presidential appointment
| Isabella Selmes Greenway
| October 3, 1933
|
| Clay Stone Briggs
| Texas 7th
| Died April 29, 1933
| Clark W. Thompson
| June 24, 1933
|
| Heartsill Ragon
| Arkansas 5th
| Resigned May 12, 1933
| David D. Terry
| December 19, 1933
|
| Charles H. Brand
| Georgia 10th
| Died May 17, 1933
| Paul Brown
| July 5, 1933
|
| Bolivar E. Kemp
| Louisiana 6th
| Died June 19, 1933
| Jared Y. Sanders, Jr.
| May 1, 1934
|
| Edward B. Almon
| Alabama 8th
| Died June 22, 1933
| Archibald Hill Carmichael
| November 14, 1933
|
| Henry W. Watson
| Pennsylvania 9th
| Died August 27, 1933
| Oliver Walter Frey
| November 7, 1933
|
| Lynn Hornor
| West Virginia 3rd
| Died September 23, 1933
| Andrew Edmiston, Jr.
| November 28, 1933
|
| Ernest W. Gibson
| Vermont At Large
| Elevated to the Senate October 19, 1933
| Charles A. Plumley
| January 16, 1934
|
| James S. Parker
| New York 34th
| Died November 5, 1933
| Marion W. Clarke
| December 28, 1933
|
| John D. Clarke
| New York 29th
| Died December 19, 1933
| William D. Thomas
| January 30, 1934
|
| Edward W. Pou
| North Carolina 4th
| Died April 1, 1934
| Harold D. Cooley
| July 7, 1934
|
| George F. Brumm
| Pennsylvania 13th
| Died May 29, 1934
| James H. Gildea
| January 4, 1935
|
| Thomas C. Coffin
| Idaho 2nd
| Died June 8, 1934
| D. Worth Clark
| January 4, 1935
|
| Henry T. Rainey
| Illinois 20th
| Died August 19, 1934
| Scott W. Lucas
| January 4, 1935
|
| James M. Beck
| Pennsylvania 2nd
| Resigned September 30, 1934
| William H. Wilson
| January 4, 1935
|
Employees
Architect of the Capitol:
David Lynn
Senate
House of Representatives
United States Congresses