Chapter 33 The Great Depression and the New Deal 1933-1939

Chapter 33

The Great Depression and the New Deal1933-1939

1932 Campaign

• Franklin Delano Roosevelt- “a new deal” for the Democrats

• Herbert Hoover- Republicans• FDR’s Brain Trust• Landslide for FDR- 472 EV to 59 shift

in black vote (New Deal coalition)• Lame Duck period until March 4, 1933

100 Days

• “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself” at the inauguration

• 100 Days= momentum to get things done Democratic Congress

• Relief, Recovery and Reform= New Deal policies (progressive reforms)

Banking/Money Reform

• March 6: Bank Holiday to reorganize March 9= Emergency Banking Relief Act

• Glass-Steagall Banking Reform Act to create the FDIC and off of gold standard– Ordered all gold turned in for $35/ounce=

INFLATION!

• Goal= restore confidence in system

Jobs• 25% unemployment in 1933 prime the

pump

• Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

• Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) with Harry L. Hopkins– Civilian Works Administration (CWA)

• Work Progress Administration 1935 with Harry Hopkins

CCC Workers in Alaska, 1939

WPA Mural, by Victor Arnautoff (1896–1979), 1934The Pedestrian Scene, painted on a wall of Coit Tower in San Francisco, was one of a series of murals commissioned by the federal government to employ artists during

the Great Depression.

Opposition to FDR

• Radio priest, Father Charles Coughlin- Social Justice

• Louisiana Senator, Huey P. Long (the Kingfish)– Share Our Wealth: “every man a king”

• Dr. Francis Townsend- Townsend Plan

New Deal- Industry• National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA)

created the National Recovery Administration (NRA)- Blue Eagle– Membership was suppose to be voluntary– Schechter Poultry vs. US 1935- “sick chicken

case”

• NIRA also created the Public Works Administration (PWA)- big projects– Grand Coulee Dam= irrigation and electricity

Grand Coulee Dam Under Construction on the Columbia River, 1939Located in central Washington State, the Grand Coulee Dam was one of the most ambitious

projects of the New Deal’s Public Works Administration. It is the largest concrete structure in the United States and the central facility in the Columbia Basin Project, which generates electricity

for the Pacific Northwest and provides irrigation for half a million acres of Columbia Valley farmland—services that have transformed the life of the region.

New Deal- Farmers

• Overproduction of farm products• Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) 1933-

subsidies to farmers (artificial scarcity)– US vs. Butler 1936

• Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act 1936- stop erosion

• Second AAA- parity prices

Dust Bowl• Drought, overproduction, dry farming,

plowing sod on Great Plains= Dust Bowl• Mass exodus of Okies and Arkies• Frazier Lemke Farm Bankruptcy Act 1934

to stop farm foreclosures- unconstitutional• CCC planted 200 million trees on prairies• Indian Reorganization Act (Indian New

Deal) to reverse the Dawes Act- no more assimilation!

An Okie Family Hits the Road in the 1930s to Escape the Dust Bowl

The Extent of Erosion in the 1930s Note the extensive wind erosion in the western Oklahoma panhandle region, which was

dubbed the “Dust Bowl” in the 1930s. Mechanized farmers had “busted” the sod of the southern plains so thoroughly that they literally broke the back of the land. Tons of dust blew out of the

Dust Bowl in the 1930s and blotted the sun from the skies as far away as New York

TVA

• Cost of utilities up, Tennessee Valley hard hit by Depression

• Tennessee Valley Authority: regional central planning agency– Hydroelectric power, flood control, create

jobs, education for farmers– Socialism?

More than twenty dams were constructed on the river’s tributaries as part of a massive project to control flooding, generate hydroelectric power, and revitalize the Tennessee Valley region, while also creating jobs for the unemployed. The shaded

area represents the area served by TVA electric power.

Social Security• Social Security Act 1935: old age pension,

blind, handicapped, delinquent children payroll tax

• No longer an agrarian society- dependent on boom and bust cycles

• 1945= 41.9 workers to 1 beneficiary, today= 3.3 to 1

• Part of the Second New Deal (1934-1938)

New Deal- Labor

• National strikes- summer 1934, NRA unconstitutional

• Congress replaced with National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act) to allow for collective bargaining– Act created the National Labor Relations

Board (NLRB)– Union membership ↑

New Deal- Labor• John L. Lewis- Congress of Industrial

Organization (CIO) kicked out of AFL• Unionized auto workers Flint, Michigan

strike at General Motors– Sit down strike forced to recognize union!

• US Steel allowed CIO, but Republic Steel refused (Little Steel Strike)

• Fair Labor Standards Act 1938- minimum wage, maximum hours

Court Packing Scheme• Conservative Court- overturned 7 of 9

New Deal programs that came before

• FDR proposed the Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937 (Court Packing Bill)– Public opinion against- checks and balances!

• Justice Owen Roberts switched- “the switch in time that saved nine”

Keynesian Economics

• 2nd term: unemployment still at 15%

• 1937: Roosevelt Recession moved completely away from balanced budget

• Keynesian Economics (John Maynard Keynes)– Planned deficit spending (demand side)– Created a massive national debt