The Great Depression and the New Deal Chapter 33 AP

The Great Depression and the New Deal

Chapter 33

AP

Who was FDR?

• Wealthy New Yorker• Harvard• Columbia Law

School• Values:

– Civic duty– Competitive

athletics– Public service

FDR?

• Anna Eleanor Roosevelt

• Democrat• NY State Senate• Asst. Sec of Navy• Dem candidate for

VEEP in 1920• 1921 – Polio• Gov. of NY

What were FDR’s achievements as governor of NY?

• Reform• Unemployment insurance• Strengthened child labor laws• Tax relief for farmers• Pensions for the old• Depression – increased public works• Temporary Emergency Relief

Administration

The Election of 1932

Inauguration Day 1933…

How did FDR restore confidence?

• Inaugural message…

• Roots of New Deal…

• Fireside Chats…

• “Bank Holiday”

• Emergency Banking Act…

• FDIC…

Fireside Chat

What was Keynesian Economics?

• John Maynard Keynes• To get economy going:

– Lower taxes– Spend money – Run up deficit

• “pump priming”• Gov’t could step aside and cut

expenses• Let private business take over

“Prime the Pump”…

The Economy Act?

• FDR had promised to balance the budget

• Asked congress to cut gov’t salaries, pensions, and take steps to reduce deficit

• Legalized light beer and wine • 21st Amendment

What were the key components of the First Hundred Days?

• Civilian Conservation Corps

• Gold Reserve Act

• Federal Emergency Relief Act

• Tennessee Valley Authority

• Agricultural Adjustment Act

• National Industrial Recovery Act

• Federal Securities Act

What was the TVA?

• Hydroelectric network

• Cheap electric power

• Flood control

• Recreational facilities

• Soil conservation

• Improved social and economic well-being of underdeveloped region

Stringing Rural TVA Transmission Line

What was the AAA?

• Producers received subsidies to take acreage out of production

• Tax on food processors – financed subsidies

• Cost passed on to the Am. People in terms of higher costs

• Goal: parity to restore farm prices at 1909-1914 levels

How successful was the AAA?

• Successes:

– Raised farm income

• Failures:

– Hurt tenant farmers and sharecroppers

– Negative affect of crop destruction

• Southern Tenant Farmers Union

– Opposed evictions

– Strikes to raise farm wages

What was the National Industrial Recovery Act?

• Reflects back to trade assoc. of Hoover era• Public Works Administration - $3.3 billion –

Harold Ickes – priming the pump• Drafted codes for fair competition

– Set production limits– Prescribed wages– Forbade price cutting and unfair

competitive practices– NRA administered codes

Why did organized labor like the NIRA?

• Section 7a

–Prohibited employers from discriminating against union members

–Affirmed workers legal right to organize and bargain collectively

Why did the NIRA bog down?

• Too cumbersome

–Code violations

–Used to restrain competition and keep prices high

• Unpopular

–Small businesses said it favored large co.

• Declared unconstitutional

–Gave regulatory powers to the Pres that should have gone to Congress

–Regulated commerce within the states

How did the American people respond to the New Deal?

• Very popular

• 1934 election – Democratic party increased its majority in Congress

Why was Roosevelt challenged from the Right and Left?

• Business leaders saw the New Deal as a threat to capitalism

• Right too far left

• Left not far enough

Who Challenged from the Right?

• American Liberty League - Al Smith (grew conservative) - Top corporate figures - U.S. Chambers of Commerce

• New Deal programs restricted individual freedom Socialism

• FDR was a “traitor to his class”

Al Smith

The American

Liberty League

Father Coughlin

• Radio priest with an audience of 40 million• Royal Oak, Michigan• At first supported N.D. • Later called FDR “a great betrayer and liar”• Anti-Semitic• Wanted to nationalize the banks• National Union of Social Justice – supported

by urban middle class

Who Challenged from the Left?

• Upton Sinclair

• Francis Townsend

• Huey Long

• American Labor

Upton Sinclair

• Ran for Gov. of California – 1934• EPIC – End Poverty in California• $50/month pension for all poor over 60• Government run system of production• Won the Democratic primary• Lost in close election because of “dirty

tricks”

Francis Townsend

• California retired physician

• $200/month to all retirees over 60

• Must spend the entire amount in 30 days

• Help elderly and stimulate the economy

Huey Long

• LA Governor – political machine – controlled the state

• 1932 Senator• Share Our Wealth• 100% tax on all incomes over

$1million• Appropriation of all incomes over $5

million

Every Man a King

• Give every American a comfortable income, house, car, old –age pension, education

• Aspired to the presidency - assassinated

Labor Movement

• Unemployment councils organized by the communist party

• Marches and rallies demanding public works and relief

• Section 7a encourages labor

• Minneapolis – Teamster strike – violence against the workers unites the people

• San Francisco – general strike in response to violence against the Longshoremen

• Power of labor solidarity and mass protest

How did FDR respond?

• Economy had not rebounded as FDR had thought it would – rose 25% from 1933

• Millions still jobless

• 2,000 strikes

• SECOND NEW DEAL - more reform – more relief – social welfare benefits - move further to the left

• The greater threat was ….

What were the goals of the Second Hundred Days?

• Expanding federal relief

• Emergency Relief Appropriation Act – 1935

• Works Progress Administration (WPA)

• National Youth Administration

• Public Works Administration

• National Debt doubles – a means to an end

Emergency Relief Appropriation Act - 1935

• Granted FDR $5 billion to spend as wished

• Set up the WPA

• Harry Hopkins

Works Progress Administration

• Relief assistance from federal government to individuals

• Provided work for the jobless rather than a hand – out

• 8 years – 8 million people employed

• $11 billion economy

Public works

• 650,000 miles of roads

• 124,000 bridges

• 125,000 schools, post offices, etc.

Field House at LSU – WPA project

Federal Writers Project

• Out of work authors wrote state guides, histories of ethnic and immigrant groups

• Transcribed handwritten legal documents from Salem Witchcraft trials

• Interviewed 2,000 ex-slaves

Federal Theatre Project

• Put unemployed actors to work• Brought live theatre to small town America

Other Work Relief Projects

• National Youth Administration – part – time work for high school and college youths

• Public Works Administration – Harold Ickes – Spent $4 billion on 24,000 building projects – bridges, college libraries, Grand Coulee Dam

• FDR reluctantly tolerated deficit spending as the price of other New Deal Goals

Other Projects

• Artists designed posters - taught painting – murals

• Historians employed• Musicians formed symphonies

Why did the Second New Deal turn left?

• FDR tried to appeal to all – gave up

• Conservative criticism

• Offered a program geared to the needs of the poor, disadvantaged and laboring masses

• Feared Coughlin, Townsend, and Long would have a popular appeal

Resettlement Administraton

• Loans to small framers to buy farms

• Allow tenant farmers and sharecropper tilling exhausted soil to resettle

National Labor Relations Act – Wagner Act

• 1935

• Guaranteed collective bargaining rights

• Permitted closed shops

• Outlawed management spying on unions and blacklisting union agitators

• National Labor Relations Board created to supervise union elections and to monitor unfair labor practices

Social Security Act

• 1935• Old age pension• Survivor’s benefits for victims of industrial

accidents• Unemployment insurance• Aid to dependent mothers and children,

blind, crippled• Paid for by taxes on wages• Established the principle of government

responsibility for public welfare

Revenue Act of 1935

• Raised personal taxes and boosted taxes on gifts and estates

• Expressed class conscious spirit of the Second New Deal

What gains were made by labor during the New Deal?

Committee for Industrial Organizations (CIO)• 1935• Organized unskilled labor• Steel workers, auto, rubber, textile mills• Welcomed all workers regardless of race,

gender or skill• 1936 steel workers won recognition from U.S.

Steel – wage increase and 40 hr. week

United Auto Workers

• Organized by Walter Reuther• Struck against GM• Sit – down strike of Fisher Body in Flint –

1936-37• GM called in the police, sent spies to

union meetings, threatened to fire workers• FDR and governor of MI refused to send in

troops• Feb., 1937 – GM recognized the UAW

UAW at Ford Motor Company

• Resisted unionization

• Hired toughs (Harry Bennett and the Service Department) to break the unions

• Violence

• Unions not recognized until 1941

How did the American People respond to the New Deal?

• Election of 1936– Republican candidate – Alf Landon of

Kansas– FDR – only issue in the campaign – carried

every state but Maine and Vermont– Congress – increased the Democratic

margin

What was the New Democratic Coalition?

• Solid South

• Large cities

• Midwestern farmers

• Urban immigrants

• Organized labor

• Northern blacks

• Women

How did the Supreme Court react to the New Deal?

• Schechter v. U.S. – NRA unconstitutional because it gave legislative power to the executive and regulated intrastate commerce

• Butler v. U.S. – AAA unconstitutional – tax used to finance was not constitutional

How did FDR propose to change the Supreme Court?

• “Nine old men”

• 6 over 70

• Appoint one new justice for each one over 70

• Excuse – help older justices keep up with the work load

• Criticized by members of own party for “court packing”

How was the issue resolved?

• Conservative justices began to retire

• Appointed 4 new justices• Social Security, TVA, and Wagner

Act were all upheld• Weakened FDR’s relationship with

Congress

Evaluation of New Deal?

• Fair Labor Standards Act – minimum wage

• Lasting monuments …..

• Successful programs …..

• Changed expectations ….

• Changed government role …