2nd NEW DEAL AND AFTERWARDS
NRA UNCONSTITUTIONAL?
• The Supreme Court found--Government-imposed
regulations
of
the
poultry
industry, such as price- & wage-fixing, unconstitutional.
The National Recovery Administration (NRA) was closed.
• Many of NRA policies, such as setting minimum wage and
restricting work hours, were successfully reenacted under the
National Labor Relations Act (aka Wagner Act) passed in July 1935.
Roosevelt and Relief
• 1933--Aid to unemployed
• 1933--Civilian Conservation Corps provides
employment to young people
• 1935--Works Progress Administration (WPA) place
unemployed on federal payroll
• Programs never sufficiently funded
Social Security
• 1935--Social Security Act passed
• Criticisms
too few people would collect pensions
• unemployment package inadequate
•
• Establishes pattern of government aid to poor, aged,
handicapped
Labor Legislation
• 1935--Wagner Act
allows unions to organize
• outlaws unfair labor practices
•
• 1938--Fair Labor
Standard Act
maximum hour
• minimum wage
•
Impact of the New Deal
• Had a broad influence on the quality of
life in the U.S. in the 1930s
• Helps labor unions most
Rise of Organized Labor
• 1932--National Recovery Act spurs union organizers
• Congress of Industrial Organization (CIO) formed by
John L. Lewis
• CIO unionizes steel, auto industries
• 1940--CIO membership hits 5 million, 28% of labor
force unionized
Women at Work
• Position of women deteriorates in ‘30s
•
•
jobs lost at a faster rate than men
hardly any New Deal programs help
• Progress in government
•
•
•
Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor, the first woman cabinet
member
women appointed to several other posts
Eleanor Roosevelt a model for activism
End of the New Deal
• 1936--New Deal peaks with Roosevelt’s reelection
• Congress resists programs after 1936
The Election of 1936
• FDR’s campaign
•
•
•
attacks the rich
promises further reforms
defeats Republicans
• Democrats win majorities in both houses of Congress
• FDR coalition: South, cities, labor, ethnic groups, African
Americans, poor
The New Deal in Decline
• 1936--cutbacks for relief agencies
• 1937—Court Packing
• 1937--severe slump hits economy
• Roosevelt blamed, resorts to huge government
spending
• 1938--Republican party revives
The New Deal and American Life
• New Deal’s limitations
depression not ended
• economic system not fundamentally altered
• little done for those without political clout
•
• Achievements
Social Security, the Wagner Act
• political realignment of the 1930s
•