Chapter 33 Presentation
Victoria Yim
Suman Rhee
Allen Ho
Lucy Xiao
Why did Roosevelt ask Congress for a bill that would
allow him to add justices to the Supreme Court?
• Supreme Court kept blocking Roosevelt's
programs
• a member to the Supreme Court for every
existing member over 70 maximum possible
total of 15 total members.
• Congress voted against him because it did not
want to lose its power.
• Roosevelt was ripped for trying to become a
dictator.
What were the consequences of FDR's attempt to
pack the Court?
• Court Packing- Franklin Roosevelt's politically
motivated and ill-fated scheme to add a new justice to
the Supreme Court for every member over seventy
who would not retire. His objective was to overcome
the Court's objections to New Deal reforms.
• Hugo Black- justice appointed by FDR, into the New
Deal, replaced the oldest justice
• FDR’s “court-packing scheme” failed.
some justices to start to vote his way (Owen J.Roberts,
former conservative).
• failure showed Americans did not want to tamper with
the justice system.
How did labor respond to the improvement of
conditions brought about by the New Deal?
• strikes and walkouts in 1934
• Congress struck down the National Recovery
Administration
• passed the Wagner Act
– guaranteed the right of unions to organize and to
collectively bargain with management
• under the management of the National Labor
Relations Board, unskilled workers began to organize
into effective unions
– John L. Lewis - Head of United Mine Workers
• also formed the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO)
– led series of strikes, including the sit-down strike at
General Motors automobile factory in 1936
What was the significance of the 1936
election?
• Republican nomination: Alfred Landon (gov. of Kansas)
– criticized FDR's massive spendings
– however, he supported many of FDR's New Deal =
hypocrite
– weak on radio and personal campaign
• 1934 - American Liberty League formed by
conservative Democrats and wealthy Republicans
– against "socialist" New Deal
• FDR won election: 523 vs 8 electoral votes
– won because he appealed to the "forgotten man"
– forged a powerful and enduring coalition of the South,
blacks, urbanites, and poor
What did William Leuechtenburg mean when he
called the New Deal a “half-way revolution”?
• Not too radical but not conservative
• It was created in response to the Great
Depression
• First time government assisted people to help
hardship
• Going against capital ideals
Assess the sucessfullness of FDR in his second term.
• In 1937, the economy took another brief downturn when
the “Roosevelt Recession,” caused by government policies.
• Finally, FDR embraced the policies of British economist
John Maynard Keynes.
– In 1937, FDR announced a bold program to stimulate the
economy by planned deficit spending.
– In 1939, Congress relented to FDR’s pressure and passed the
Reorganization Act, which gave him limited powers for
administrative
reforms, including the key new Executive Office in the White
House.
– The Hatch Act of 1939 barred federal administrative officials,
except the highest policy-making officers, from active political
campaigning and soliciting.
What criticism of the New Deal seems most fair to you?
Least fair?
• foes of the New Deal condemned its waste,
citing that nothing had been accomplished.
(least fair)
• Critics were shocked by the “try anything”
attitude of
FDR, who had increased the federal debt from
$19.487 million in 1932 to
$40.440 million in 1939. (most fair)