ROOSEVELT & THE NEW DEALUnit 9.5

ELECTION OF 1932

Worst year of the Depression also an election year- FDR defeats Hoover

FDR was governor of NY; suffered from polio and did most of his campaigning from car or train

Pledged a “new deal” for Americans

Repeal of prohibition, aid for the unemployed, and cuts in government spending

Supported by many, regardless of party affiliation

Congress became largely Democratic

20TH AMENDMENT Between the 1932 election in November and

FDR’s inauguration in March 1933, Hoover remained president

He was a “lame duck” president, powerless to do anything about the worsening depression

The 20th Amendment (the “lame duck” amendment) shortened the period between presidential elections and inaugurations Set January 20th as the new date for a president’s

inauguration

BRAIN TRUST & OTHER ADVISORS

In giving shape to his New Deal, Roosevelt relied on a group of advisors who assisted had him as governor of NY

Brain Trust: Columbia professors of law, political science, and economics

Most diverse group of people ever appointed to Cabinet positions (African Americans, Catholics, Jews, and women)

THE FIRST 100 DAYS

After being sworn in on March 4, 1933, Roosevelt immediately called Congress into a hundred-day-long special session

During this time, Congress passed into law every request of President Roosevelt Enacted more major legislation than any other

Congress in history

Bank holiday, repeal of prohibition, fireside chats

RECOVERY PROGRAMS

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Guaranteed individual bank deposits up to $5,000

Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) Offered outright federal grants to state/local

governments operating soup kitchens or other forms of relief for the jobless/homeless

Public Works Administration (PWA) Allotted money to state and local governments for

building roads, bridges, dams, and other public works Provided thousands of public jobs

RECOVERY PROGRAMS

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Employed young men on projects on federal

lands and paid their families small monthly sums

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) A government corporation that hired people

living in the Tennessee Valley to build dams, operate electric power plants, control flooding and erosion, and manufacturing fertilizer

Sold electricity to residents at much lower rates than private companies

RECOVERY PROGRAMS

National Recovery Administration (NRA) Attempted to guarantee reasonable profits for

businesses and fair wages/hours for laborers

Help major industries set codes for wages, work hours, levels of production, and prices; gave workers the right to organize and bargain collectively

The NRA was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in Schechter v. U.S.

RECOVERY PROGRAMS

Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) Similar to what the NRA did for industry

Encouraged farmers to reduce production (and therefore boost prices) by offering to pay government subsidies for every acre they plowed under

Also declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1935

RECOVERY PROGRAMS

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) Hired laborers for temporary construction

projects sponsored by the federal government

Employed over 4 million people to work for $15 a week

RELIEF PROGRAMS

Roosevelt’s first two years in office largely focused on recovery efforts

In 1935, the so-called second New Deal was launched

This batch of new legislation concentrated on relief and reform

RELIEF PROGRAMS

Works Progress Administration (WPA) Spent billions of dollars from

1935-1940 to provide jobs (3.4 million)

Most put to work constructing new bridges, roads, airports, and public buildings

Unemployed artists, writers, and actors were paid by the WPA to paint murals, write histories, and perform in plays

Resettlement Administration (RA) Provided loans to

sharecroppers, tenants, and small famers

Established federal camps were migrant workers could find decent housing

REFORM PROGRAMS

Reform legislation of the second New Deal reflected Roosevelt’s belief that industrial workers/farmers needed to receive more government assistance than members of business and privileged classes

Increased tax rates on incomes of the wealthy, on large gifts from parent to child, as well as on capital gains (sale of stocks or property)

REFORM PROGRAMS

Wagner Act (1935) Guaranteed a worker’s

right to join a union and a union’s right to bargain collectively

Outlawed business practices that were unfair to labor

National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was empowered to enforce the law and protect worker’s rights

Rural Electrification Administration (REA) Provided loans for

electrical cooperatives to supply power in rural areas

THE SOCIAL SECURITY ACT (1935)

Created a federal insurance program based upon the automatic collection of taxes from employees and employers throughout people’s working careers

Social Security trust fund would be used to make monthly payments to retired persons over the age of 65 Also provided compensation for the

unemployed, disabled, and dependent children and their mothers

THE ELECTION OF 1936

Economy improved, but still weak/unstable

Republican challenger Alf Landon criticized the Democrats for spending too much money on the New Deal

Roosevelt wins in a landslide Every state but Vermont and Maine More than 60% of the popular vote

Many African Americans left the Republican party in support of Roosevelt’s New Deal

CRITICS OF THE NEW DEAL

While a large majority of Americans supported Roosevelt, New Deal programs were still highly controversial

New Deal legislation became the target of many liberals, conservatives, and demagogues

CRITICS OF THE NEW DEAL

Father Charles E. Coughlin Attracted a huge following

through weekly radio broadcasts

Called for issuing an inflated currency and nationalizing all banks

His attacks on the New Deal became increasingly anti-Semitic and Fascist before his superiors in the Catholic Church ordered him to stop his broadcasts

CRITICS OF THE NEW DEAL

Dr. Francis E. Townsend Proposed that a 2%

federal sales tax be used to create a special fund

Every retired person over 60 could receive $200 a month

Popularity of this plan persuaded Roosevelt to substitute a more moderate plan- the Social Security system

CRITICS OF THE NEW DEAL

Huey Long Louisiana “Kingfish”

Senator

Proposed the “Share our Wealth” program that promised a min. annual income of $5,000 for every American family to be paid for by taxing the wealthy

In 1935, Long challenged Roosevelt’s leadership of the Democratic party by announcing his candidacy for presidency

Killed by an assassin

CRITICS OF THE NEW DEAL

Conservatives claimed that programs such as the WPA and labor laws such as the Wagner Act bordered on Socialism or even Communism

Alarmed by: Increased regulations

Pro-union stance of second New Deal legislation

Financing government programs by means of borrowed money (deficit financing)

“COURT-PACKING”

Roosevelt did not appoint any Justices to the Supreme Court in his first term

In hopes of removing the Court as an obstacle to New Deal legislation, Roosevelt proposed a judicial-reorganization bill in 1937 Critics called it a “court-packing” deal

Proposed that the president be authorized to appoint to the Supreme Court an additional justice for each current justice over the age of 70.5 years

Would have allowed Roosevelt to add up to six more justices to the Court Many politicians (including Democrats) saw this as an attempt to tamper

with the system of checks and balances; decisively defeated by Congress

RISE OF UNIONS

New Deal measures (National Industrial Recovery Act & the Wagner Act) legalized labor unions

Committee of Industrial Workers (C.I.O.) Led by John L. Lewis Broke away from the American Federation of

Labor (AFL) and became its chief rival Concentrated on organizing union workers in the

automobile, steel, and southern textile industries

LAST PHASE OF THE NEW DEAL

Recession 1937-38 Economy entered a recession in the winter of 1937

Social Security tax reduced consumer spending at the same time Roosevelt was curtailing expenditures for relief and public works programs

Keynesian Economics Deficit spending was acceptable in difficult times because the

government needed to spend well above its tax revenues in order to initiate economic growth

Deficit spending was like “priming the pump” to increase investment and create jobs

As federal spending on public works and relief went up, so too did employment and industrial production

LIFE DURING THE DEPRESSION

Women Added pressures placed on

the family caused many more women to seek work

Accused of taking jobs away from men

Despite efforts on the part of Eleanor Roosevelt, New Deal legislation still allowed for women to receive lower wages than men

LIFE DURING THE DEPRESSION

Dust Bowl Famers Severe drought in the

1930s ruined crops

Poor farming practices over generations and high winds blew away tons of dried topsoil

Thousands of “Okies” and farmers from surrounding states moved westward to California in search of farm or factory work

John Steinbeck- The Grapes of Wrath (1939)

LIFE DURING THE DEPRESSION

African Americans Racial discrimination was

devastating for African Americans in the 1930s

Unemployment rate was higher than the national average

Excluded from state and local relief programs

Civil rights leaders got little support from Roosevelt, who feared losing the support of white southern Democrats

LEGACY OF THE NEW DEAL

Roosevelt’s New Deal was unique and there was nothing quite like it in later decades in terms of the challenges faced and the legislative records achieved

Historians have continued to debate whether the New Deal represented a revolutionary break with the past or an evolutionary outgrowth of earlier movements