FDR’s New Deal
US History/Napp
Name: _________________
“The 1932 presidential election showed that Americans were clearly ready for a change.
Because of the depression, people were suffering from a lack of work, food, and hope.
Although the Republicans renominated President Hoover as their candidate, they
recognized he had little chance of winning. Too many Americans blamed Hoover for doing
too little about the depression and wanted a new president. The Democrats pinned their
hopes on Franklin Delano Roosevelt, known popularly as FDR, the two-term governor of
New York and a distant cousin of former president Theodore Roosevelt. Indeed, Roosevelt
won an overwhelming victory.
FDR worked with his team of carefully picked advisers – a select group of professors,
lawyers, and journalists that came to be known as the ‘Brain Trust.’ Roosevelt began to
formulate a set of policies for his new administration. This program, designed to alleviate
the problems of the Great Depression, became known as the New Deal, a phrase taken
from a campaign speech in which Roosevelt had promised ‘a new deal for the American
people.’ New Deal policies focused on three general goals: relief for the needy, economic
recovery, and financial reform.
On taking office, the Roosevelt administration launched a period of intense activity known
as the Hundred Days, lasting from March 9 to June 16, 1933. During this period, Congress
passed more than 15 major pieces of New Deal legislation. These laws, and others that
followed, significantly expanded the federal government’s role in the nation’s economy.
Roosevelt’s first step as president was to carry out reforms in banking and finance. By
1933, widespread bank failures had caused most Americans to lose faith in the banking
system. On March 5, one day after taking office, Roosevelt declared a bank holiday and
closed all banks to prevent further withdrawals. He persuaded Congress to pass the
Emergency Banking Relief Act, which authorized the Treasury Department to inspect the
country’s banks. Those that were sound could reopen at once; those that were insolvent –
unable to pay their debts – would remain closed. Those that needed help could receive
loans. This measure revived public confidence in banks, since customers now had greater
faith that the open banks were in good financial shape. March 12, the day before the first
banks were to reopen, President Roosevelt gave the first of his many fireside chats – radio
talks about issues of public concern, explaining in clear, simple language his New Deal
measures. These informal talks made Americans feel as if the president were talking
directly to them.” ~ The Americans
1. Much of Roosevelt’s success in restoring
2. Roosevelt’s first concern as president was
public confidence in government might be
the
attributed to his
(1) Public panic caused by the bank failures.
(1) Consistent application of clear-cut
(2) Collapse of agriculture.
philosophies to economic problems.
(3) Problem of widespread unemployment.
(2) Optimistic and ebullient personality.
(4) Deflationary spiral that had crippled
(3) Refusal to engage in tedious and
business.
politically charged press conferences.
(5) Stagnant farm prices.
(4) Public demonstration of how a man
could overcome physical paralysis.
New Deal Legislation:
Public Works Administration (1933): created federal jobs by building public projects
Civilian Conservation Corps (C.C.C.) (1933): gave jobs to young men, such as planting
trees and cleaning up forests
Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) (1935): created jobs by hiring artists, writers,
and musicians
National Recovery Administration (N.R.A.):Asked businesses to voluntarily follow codes
which set standard prices, production limits, and minimum wages but found
unconstitutional by Supreme Court because federal government had no power to interfere
with business within a state
Agricultural Adjustment Acts: Government paid farmers to plant less in hope of increasing
crop prices but Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional
Second A.A.A.: succeeded in raising farm prices as government bought farm surpluses and
stored them in warehouses until prices went up
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (1933): Insured bank deposits so that people would
not lose their savings in the event of a bank failure
Tennessee Valley Authority (1933): Built 21 government-owned dams along the Tennessee
River, controlling floods and producing electricity
National Labor Relations Act (1935): Often called the Wagner Act, gave workers the right
to form unions, to bargain collectively, and to submit grievances to a National Labor
Relations Board
Social Security Act (1935): Provided workers with unemployment insurance, old age
pensions, and insurance if they died early - workers and their employers paid new taxes to
fund these benefits
~ The Key to Understanding U.S. History and Government
Questions:
1- What did Franklin Delano Roosevelt promise Americans?
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2- What did FDR believe about the government?
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3- Describe the “Brain Trust” and its purpose.
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4- What were FDR’s fireside chats?
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5- What was the Public Works Administration and what was its purpose?
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6- What was the Civilian Conservation Corps and what was its purpose?
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7- What was the Works Progress Administration and what was its purpose?
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8- Why did FDR believe that bank holidays were necessary?
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9- What was the National Recovery Administration and why did the Supreme Court rule it
unconstitutional?
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10- How did the second Agricultural Adjustment Act differ from the first?
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11- Why was the first Agricultural Adjustment Act declared unconstitutional but not the
second Agricultural Adjustment Act?
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12- Were FDR’s actions consistent with laissez-faire capitalism?
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13- How did the federal government’s power increase during the New Deal?
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14- Roosevelt feared that the Supreme Court might declare other New Deal legislation
unconstitutional. In 1937, he proposed to add six new justices to the Supreme Court, to
give him control over the Court. FDR’s plan for court-packing was condemned by the
public and rejected by Congress. Why?
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15- Roosevelt successfully ran for his fourth term as President in 1944. One year later,
Roosevelt died. The 22nd Amendment was ratified in 1951, limiting Presidents to two
elected terms. Why?
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16- What was the purpose of Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation?
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17- What was the Tennessee Valley Authority?
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18- What was the Wagner Act?
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Explain the meaning of the political cartoon.
1. A major result of President Franklin D.
Roosevelt’s New Deal was
(1) a decline in the Federal deficit
(2) an expansion of the power of the
Federal Government
(3) a change in the voting rights of women
(4) a reinstitution of the gold standard for
United States currency
4. Deficit spending by the Federal
Government as a means of reviving the
economy is based on the idea that
(1) purchasing power will increase and
economic growth will be stimulated
(2) only the National Government can
operate businesses efficiently
(3) the National Government should turn
its revenue over to the states
2. A major effect of the National Labor
(4) lower interest rates will encourage
Relations Act (Wagner Act, 1935) was that investment
labor unions
(1) were soon controlled by large
5. Which New Deal reforms most directly
corporations
targeted the basic problem of the victims
(2) experienced increasing difficulty in
of the Dust Bowl?
gaining new members
(1) guaranteeing workers the right to
(3) obtained the right to bargain
organize and bargain collectively
collectively
(2) regulating the sale of stocks and bonds
(4) lost the right to strike
(3) providing farmers low-cost loans and
parity payments
3. Section 202. (a) Every qualified
(4) raising individual and corporate
individual shall be entitled to receive... on income tax rates
the date he attains the age of sixtyfive…and ending on the date of his death, 6. The power of labor unions increased
an old-age benefit…" A major purpose of during the New Deal mainly because
this section of Federal legislation was to
(1) a new spirit of cooperation existed
(1) guarantee an annual income to
between employers and government
experienced employees
(2) a shortage of skilled and unskilled
(2) assure adequate medical care for the
laborers developed
elderly
(3) management changed its attitude
(3) reward workers for their support of
toward organized labor
the union movement
(4) Federal legislation guaranteed labor’s
(4) provide economic assistance to retired
right to organize and bargain collectively
workers
“Ann Marie Low lived on her parents’ North Dakota farm when the stock market crashed
in 1929 and the Great Depression hit. Hard times were familiar to Ann’s family. But the
worst was yet to come. In the early 1930s, a ravenous drought hit the Great Plains,
destroying crops and leaving the earth dry and cracked. Then came the deadly dust storms.
On April 25, 1934, Ann wrote an account in her diary. ‘[T]he air is just full of dirt coming,
literally, for hundreds of miles. It sifts into everything. After we wash the dishes and put
them away, so much dust sifts into the cupboards we must wash them again before the next
meal…Newspapers say the deaths of many babies and old people are attributed to
breathing in so much dirt.” The drought and winds lasted for more than seven years. The
dust storms in Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Nebraska, the Dakotas, Oklahoma, and
Texas were a great hardship – but only one of many—that Americans faced during the
Great Depression.” ~ The Americans