The Great Depression and
The New Deal
1933-1939
Chapter 34
Hoover Loses Popularity


Unemployment and
poverty blamed on
Hoover
Republicans renominated Hoover in
1932
Franklin Delano Roosevelt

The Democrats
nominated Gov.
Franklin Roosevelt of
New York
Eleanor Roosevelt


FDR’s wife, Eleanor,
became the most
active 1st lady in
history
Powerful influence
over American
politics
Election of 1932




FDR attacked Republican
Old Guard
Promised to balance the
budget and reduce deficit
FDR swept election in
popular vote and Electoral
College
Blacks become associated
with Democratic Party and
FDR
Hundred Days




FDR inaugurated March 4, 1933
1st Hundred Days – FDR calls Congress into
special session (Hundred Days/Emergency
Congress) (Mar. 9 - June 16, 1933)
Mar. 6-10 – Banking Holiday – all banks
closed until they were sound to open
3 R’s: relief, recovery, reform. Short-range
goals were relief and immediate recovery, and
long-range goals were permanent recovery and
reform of current abuses.
Roosevelt Tackles Money and Banking

Emergency Banking
Relief Act - (1933) Gave president power
to regulate banking
transactions and
foreign exchange and
to reopen solvent
banks.
Glass-Steagall Banking Reform Act

Created the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation (FDIC). A reform program, the
FDIC insured individual bank deposits up to
$5,000, ending the epidemic of bank failures.
Gold and FDR


In order to protect the
shrinking gold reserve,
President Roosevelt ordered all
private holdings of gold to be
given to the Treasury in
exchange for paper currency
and then the nation to be taken
off the gold standard
FDR wanted inflation which
would reduce debtors’ burdens
Creating Jobs for the Jobless

Civilian Conservation
Corps (CCC) Provided employment
for 3 million men.Their
work included
reforestation, fire
fighting, flood control,
and swamp drainage.
Federal Emergency Relief Act



FERA - headed by Harry
L. Hopkins.
Hopkins’s agency
granted about $3 billion
to the states for direct
relief payments or for
wages on work projects
FDR’s chief
administrator of relief
Civil Works Administration (CWA)



1933 – branch of the FERA
designed to provide temporary jobs during the
winter emergency
Thousands of unemployed were employed at
leaf raking and other manual-labor jobs
Agricultural Adjustment Act




1933
AAA – farmers were given
relief
Made available millions of
dollars to help farmers meet
their mortgages.
Home Owners’ Loan
Corporation (HOLC)
assisted many households
that had trouble paying their
mortgages
Demagogues




Radical opponents to FDR
emerged
Father Charles Coughlin –
anti-New Deal radio program
that was anti-semitic
Sen. Huey P. Long – “Share
Our Wealth” would give
$5000 to each family
Dr. Francis Townsend –
everyone over 60 would get
$200/month
Works Progress Administration



1935
Objective was to employ
men on useful projects like
the construction of buildings,
roads, etc.
Taxpayers criticized the
agency for paying people to
do "useless" jobs such as
painting murals
Industry and Labor




National Recovery Administration (NRA)
designed to assist industry, labor, and the
unemployed
Industries were forced to lower their work hours so
that more people could be hired; a minimum wage
was also established
Workers were formally guaranteed the right to
organize and bargain collectively through
representatives of their choosing, not through the
company’s choosing.
Schechter v. United States



Supreme Court case – the SC struck down the
National Industrial Recovery Act as
unconstitutional
The Court ruled that the Constitution did not
allow Congress to delegate its powers to the
executive branch
Sick chicken case
Public Works Administration


Intended for both industrial
recovery and for
unemployment relief.
Headed by Harold L.
Ickes, the agency spent
over $4 billion on
thousands of projects,
including public buildings
and highways.
Prohibition Ended

In order to raise federal
revenue and provide a
level of employment,
Congress repealed
prohibition with the
21st Amendment in
late 1933.
Agricultural Adjustment Admin.



AAA - established “parity prices” for basic
commodities. “Parity” was the price set for a
product
The agency also paid farmers to reduce their
crop acreage, eliminating surpluses, while at
the same time decreasing unemployment.
The Supreme Court struck down the AAA in
1936, declaring its regulatory taxation
provisions unconstitutional.
Dust Bowl


1933 - a prolonged drought
struck the states of the
trans-Mississippi Great
Plains.
The Dust Bowl was
partially caused by the
cultivation of countless
acres, dry-farming
techniques, and
mechanization.
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) 1933


Government
construction of
damming the
Tennessee River
combine the immediate
advantage of putting
thousands of people to
work with a long-term
project for reforming
the power monopoly.
Housing Reform and
Social Security



Federal Housing Administration (FHA) set
up in 1934 by FDR to speed recovery and
better homes.
Social Security Act of 1935 - provided for
federal-state unemployment insurance. To
provide security for old age, specified
categories of retired workers were to receive
regular payments from Washington.
Republicans were strongly opposed to SS
Unskilled Labor

National Labor Relations Act of 1935
(Wagner Act) - created a powerful National
Labor Relations Board for administrative
purposes and reasserted the rights of labor to
engage in self-organization and to bargain
collectively through representatives of its own
choice
John L. Lewis



Boss of the United Mine
Workers.
He formed the
Committee for
Industrial Organization
(CIO) in 1935.
The CIO led a series of
strikes including the sitdown strike at the
General Motors
automobile factory in
1936.
Election of 1936



Republicans chose Alfred M.
Landon to run against President
Roosevelt.
The Republicans condemned the
New Deal for its radicalism,
experimentation, confusion, and
“frightful waste.”
Roosevelt was reelected as
president in a lopsided victory
The Court Packing Plan




Conservative justices on the Supreme
Court were a threat to the New Deal
Roosevelt asked Congress to pass
legislation to appoint one new justice to
the Supreme Court for every member
over 70 who would not retire
The maximum number of justices
would be 15. This shocked both
Congress and the public
plan received much negative feedback.
The Economy




John Maynard Keynes
British economist who said
that when in recession, a
government needs to spend
heavily
FDR followed this economic
policy
Conservatives wanted to cut
spending and balance the
budget
New Deal or Raw Deal ?


the national debt by 1939 was at
$40,440,000,000
Foes of the New Deal charged the president of
spending too much money on his programs