Ch. 23: The New Deal: 1933-1940
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt
20th Amendment
New Deal
– 3 Goals
st
1 00 days
Poor
Brain Trusts
Pragmatism
Bank Holiday
Emergency Banking Relief Act 1933
Fireside Chats
Glass-Stegall Banking Act 1933
Federal Securities Act 1933
Securities Exchange Commission 1933
Agricultural Adjustment Corps.
Civil Conservation Corps.
Public Works Administration 1933
Civil Works Administration
National Industrial Recovery Act 1933
National Recovery Administration
Tennessee Valley Authority
Huey Long
– Share the Wealth
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AAA Challenged
– Parity
nd
2 New Deal
Eleanor Roosevelt
Francis Perkins
– Social Security
1936 Election
Works Program Administration
– Harry Hopkins
WPA & the Arts
National Youth Administration
Wagner Act 1935
– National Labor Relations Board
Court Packing Bill
Black Cabinet
Mary McLeod Bethune
Civil Rights
Committee of Industrial Organization
– Sit Down Strike
Unions
Radio
Results of New Deal
1932 Election
• FDR (Dem) wins
– Defeats Hoover
• Elected 4 times
• Distant cousin of Teddy
• Friendly demeanor & “can do”
attitude attracted voters
• Dems. take control of Senate
• Represented the poor
– Unlike Hoover, who
represented the rich &
business
The New Deal
• FDR’s platform
• Plan to get out of the
depression
• 3 general goals:
– Relief for the needy
– Economic recovery
– Financial reform
• FDR never said exactly what it
was, he might not have had a
clear idea either.
• 1st New Deal (1st 100 Days):
Focused on baking & job
creation
• 2nd New Deal (2nd 100 Days):
Focused on more extensive
help for workers & farmers
Waiting for FDR
• Elected in November 1932, didn’t take office until
March 1933.
• Depression grew worse during these 5 months
• 20th Amendment (1933): Presidential inauguration
moved from March to January (today)
BRAIN TRUST
Group of professors of
economics etc., to help
figure out how to get out of
the depression
Pragmatic
FDR believed in this idea
Value of an idea – try something whether it works or
not, but try something!
Proposed by philosopher William James
Bank Holiday
• 1 day after taking office, FDR
declared a bank holiday
• Purpose: Closed all banks to
prevent further withdrawals.
• Emergency Banking Relief
Act (3/1933): Banks would be
inspected, only financially
sound banks would reopen.
– Renewed confidence in
banks
Fireside Chats
• Weekly radio addresses made by FDR addressing public
concerns, in plain English, about the New Deal
• Felt as if FDR was talking directly to you
• 1st Chat: Explained banking system to nation, next day
people began to deposit their money back in banks
All
legislation
abbreviated
Glass-Stegall Banking Act: 1933
• Created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
(FDIC)
– Insurance on savings accounts up to $5,000
– Reassured people their accounts were safe
– Still used today
More Finance Reform
• 1933 - Federal Securities Act
(FSA): Corporations must
report detailed stock info.
– Held liable for any
misrepresentations
• 1933 - Securities Exchange
Commission (SEC):
Regulates stock market, no
rigging
– Headed by Joseph Kennedy
– Still used today
Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)
• Lowered production to raise
crop prices
• Paid farmers not to grow
crops
– Alleviate erosion & dust bowl
effect
• Hog Farmers paid to
slaughter 6 million hogs
– Upset many Americans
taught not to waste food,
esp. when so many are
hungry
• Successful: prices slowly rose
Work Projects
• Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC): Built roads, cultivated parks &
planted tress (200 mil.) to control flooding & soil erosion
– 3 million went to work, men ages 18-25
– $30/mo., but $25 automatically sent home
– Free food & uniforms
• 1933 - Public Works Administration (PWA): Gave money to states
to create jobs (mainly schools, bridges, airports)
– Spend money to make more jobs
– Didn’t make a dent in unemployment
More ABCs
• Civil Works Administration (CWA): Created to
provide more jobs since PWA failed
– Provided 4 mil. Jobs (roads & schools)
• 6/1933 - National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA):
Promoted industrial growth & set up fair codes of
practice
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
• May, 1933
• Tennessee River Valley badly
depressed area
• Project created thousands of
jobs
• Built 20 dams providing flood
control &hydroelectricity
– Brought electricity to rural
areas improving living
conditions & economy
• Effected 7 states
• Used as yardstick to measure
fair prices for electricity
Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, N. & S.
Carolina & Virginia
SSA: Social
Security
Administration
• Provides retirement income for all workers once they reach
the age of 65, unemployment aid & help to families with
disabled children
Works Progress
Administration (WPA)
• Create as many jobs as possibly as quickly as
possible
• Headed by Harry Hopkins
• Employed 8 mil. People w/i 8 yrs.
– Built roads, schools, libraries, airports etc.
• Great value to nation, restored sense of purpose
Homeowners Loan Corp. gave
gov’t. loans to those who faced
foreclosure
Federal Housing Admin. (FHA)
provides loans for mortgages &
home repairs (even today)
Everyone’s a Critic
• Liberals felt the New
Deal didn’t do enough
& Conservatives
thought it did too much
• Many people thought
New Deal interfered
with Free Market
Economy
Huey Long
“Every Man A king”
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Radical Left Opponent of FDR
Gov. of Louisiana
“Kingfish”
Share the Wealth: Welfare
program that gave $5,000 per
year, division of land etc.
• 7.5 million supporters
• FDR’s most serious threat for
re-election
• Assassinated in 1935 at
Louisiana State House
Challenges to the AAA
• AAA challenged in Supreme Court &
forced to reorganize
• New AAA called for parity:
– Crops would no longer be destroyed, but
stored until they reached parity (a set
price), & then the crops would be sold
• Allowed farmers to repay debt
• 1st New Deal put 4 mil. to work,
but 10 mil. were still unemployed
& production lagged
• 1934: Democrats gain majority in
Congress & help FDR launch the
2nd New Deal
• 2nd New Deal focused on reform
& more extensive relief for
farmers
LADIES!
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Eleanor Roosevelt: Wife, social
reformer, humanitarian & very
persuasive
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Helped shape New Deal policies
to appt. women to administration
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Traveled country to find out what
people needed & wanted &
observed social conditions
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Francis Perkins: 1st woman
cabinet member (Sec. of Labor)
– Social security (1933)
• Insurance 65+
• Unemployment
• Aid to families with
disabled children
• Farmers not included at
1st
More Help for Farmers
Farmers paid for practicing
good soil conservation
techniques
• Resettlement Administration
(1935): Loaned money to
sharecroppers & tenant farmers buy
own land
– Replaced by Farm Security
Admin. (FSA): Helped tenant
farmers become landowners
“Are you better off now than
you were four years ago?”
Election of 1936
•1st time blacks voted Democrat instead of
Republican (why?)
•1st time labor unions supported 1 candidate
•Represented vote of confidence
WPA & the Arts
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Controversy over WPA’s funding of
artists, theaters, etc.
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Hired artists to paint public works of
art, offer free plays, free concerts etc.
– Why would this be important?
• 20% of WPA’s budget went
to the arts
• Many people felt this money
could be better spent
National Youth Administration
(NYA)
Provided children with aid &
employment
Provided organized sports
Segregated
Wagner Act: 1935
• NRA declared unconstitutional, gave
legislative powers to executive branch
• Forced to reorganize
• Wagner Act:
– Listed unfair labor & business practices
– Supported right of workers’ to organize & engage
in collective bargaining
– National Labor Relations Board: Heard
grievances
– Gov’t. on side of unions
Fair Labor Standards Act: 1938
• National minimum wage &
work week
– 40 hour work week, down
from 44 hrs
– $.25 to $.40 per hr. (1st time)
• No one younger than 16 in
factories
• No reforms in health
insurance
– Unions made gains during
the New Deal
Court Packing Bill: 1937
• FDR wanted to reorganize the
Supreme Court
– So his New Deal legislation
would be passed
• Appointed 7 new judges
• Creating Supreme Court
sympathetic to New Deal
• FDR lost support as some see
this as an attempt at
dictatorship.
Black Cabinet
• Group of influential African Americans
that advised FDR on racial issues &
concerns
• Main organizer was Mary McLeod
Bethune: Ofc. of Minority Affairs
– Ensured hiring of African
Americans
• Eleanor Roosevelt played role in
opening doors
• Invited opera star Marion Anderson to
perform at Lincoln Memorial after she
was refused the right to sing at
Constitution Hall
Marion Anderson
Mary Bethune
Civil Rights
• FDR never committed to civil rights
•Didn’t want to upset Southern Democrats
(why?)
•Refused to support Anti-Lynching legislation
& elimination of the Poll Tax
•African Americans paid less
•Discriminated against in federal programs
such as the FHA, CCC & TVA
Committee of Industrial
Organization
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Organized Labor Union
Allowed skilled & non-skilled
Allowed minorities
Used Sit Down Strikes:
– Don’t leave, but don’t work
• 1937 Memorial Day Massacre
– Republic Steel Plant, Chicago
– Police attacked striking workers outside plant,
killing 10, dozens injured
• FDR friend of labor
• Unions flourish during New Deal
– Legalization, Better Working Conditions, &
Increased Bargaining Power
Society & Culture
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Radio most direct
means of
communication
Drama:
– Guiding Light
– Green Hornet
– Lone Ranger
Actors/Actresses
– Bob Hope
– Orson Wells
– Jack Benny
– Clark Gable
– Greta Garbo
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Big Band Music
– Glen Miller
– Benny Goodman
Leading Ladies
– Betsy Davis
– Joan Crawford
– Margaret Mitchell
(Gone w/the Wind)
Amelia Earhart
– 1st women to fly
across Atlantic nonstop
– Tried to fly around
world…disappeared
• Aliens???
Results of New Deal
• By 1939 New Deal over & FDR
faced with European problems
What?
• New Deal did not end
depression, but helped by
creating jobs
• WWII causes end of depression
• New Deal compared to
socialism
– Why?
• Created $40 bil. deficit
• 1st time Fed. Gov’t. took
responsibility for economic
wellbeing of citizens
• Expanded power of Fed. Gov’t.