The
New
Deal
US History
Chapter 15
Section One A New Deal Fights the
Depression
• Electing FDR
• Rep – Hoover, Dem – FDR. Won 23 million
votes
• Dems claimed House and Senate.
• 20th Amendment –
moved inauguration
from March to January
• “Brain Trust” – group of FDR’s advisors
(professors, lawyers, journalists).
• Before the inauguration he began working with
them on his policies – called the New Deal – 3
goals – immediate relief for the
poor/unemployed, economic recovery for
businesses near bankruptcy, and financial
reform that would prevent future depressions
The Hundred Days
• March 9 – June 16, 1933
– period of intense
activity when Congress
passed 15 major pieces
of legislation
Bank Holiday
• March 5 – FDR declared a bank holiday –
4 days the banks closed to prevent withdrawals. Banks
would receive over a billion dollars from the RFC.
• Congress - Emergency Banking Relief Act – authorized
inspections of the banks – allowed those that were safe
to reopen under the supervision of the Federal
Reserve. Those unsafe could not reopen. This revived
confidence in banks b/c the banks that re-opened were
supposed to be sound.
• FDR - emergency power to regulate credit, currency,
and foreign exchange.
Fireside Chats
• Radio addresses that explained his New Deal
policies – educated the public, calmed fears,
restored confidence.
• Encouraged people to return their savings to
the banks.
• Chats heard on 150
stations by 60 million
Franklin D. Roosevelt's Fireside Chats
Regulating Banking and Finance
• Glass-Steagall Act – established the Federal
Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) –federal
insurance for individual bank accounts up to
$5,000.
– made people feel their money was safe.
– banks didn’t risk losing the people’s money.
• Federal Securities Act –regulate the stock
market.
– Required corporations to provide complete
information on all stock offerings and made them
liable for any misrepresentations.
• Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) –
regulates the stock market – no insidertrading.
– Regulates the purchase of stock on credit.
Rural Assistance
• Agricultural Adjustment Act
(AAA) – lower crop production
to increase crop process. The government
would pay farmers to leave a certain amount
of land unseeded.
• Also paid hog farmers to slaughter 6 million
pigs.
• Upset the public, but put money in farmers
pockets.
• Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) –renovated 5
existing dams, constructed 20 new ones –
created thousands of jobs, provided flood
control and electricity.
Providing Work Projects
• Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) – most popular
program – young men age 18 – 25 were put to work
building roads and bridges, developing 800 state
parks, planting trees (200 million planted in the
Great Plains to prevent another Dust Bowl), flood
control projects. The men were paid $30/month,
with $25/month sent back home. Lodging/food
provided.
• Public Works
Administration – PWA $3.3 billion to states to
create jobs in the
construction of schools and
other community buildings.
Didn’t really work to relieve
unemployment, so FDR
established the
• Civil Works Administration
– CWA – Nov. 1933 – 4
million jobs during the
winter of ’33 – ’34 – built
40,000 schools, many
roads, etc.
Promoting Fair Practices
• National Industrial Recovery Act – NIRA –
industries – produce only as much as the
consumers could afford to buy.
• Created the National Recovery Administration –
NRA – set prices of products (fair competition).
Set working hours so that work could be spread
out to more people and banned child labor - (16).
Guaranteed rights to unionize and bargain
collectively.
• Blue Eagle was the symbol – Philadelphia Eagles
got their name from this.
Food, Clothing, and Shelter
• Home Owners Loan Corporation – HOLC –
government loans to homeowners
• Federal Emergency Relief Administration –
FERA - $500 million in direct relief - money
given to states – ½ for food and clothing to the
unemployed, aged, and ill, ½ for work relief
programs.
• Headed by Harry Hopkins.
This is the beginning of federal welfare
The New Deal Comes Under Attack
• Deficit spending – spending more money than
the government has coming in in revenue –
putting money in the hands of the consumer so
they can spend their way out of the depression.
• Opposition growing to the New Deal. LiberalsNew Deal didn’t go far enough to help the poor
or to change the economic system. Conservatives
– FDR had too much control over agriculture and
industry.
The Supreme Court Reacts
• 9 elderly Republican men – voting down New
Deal programs.
• 1935 – Schecter Poultry Co. vs. United States –
NIRA ruled unconstitutional - executive branch
stepped over its boundaries when regulating
interstate commerce because it was involving
itself in local business.
• 1936 – AAA struck down, saying it’s a local matter
that should be handled by states, not the federal
govt.
“Court Packing Plan”
• would allow FDR to
appoint up to 6 new
justices through a
reorganization of the
court – 1 for each
justice over the age
of 70. Senate voted it
down.
• FDR got his wish
anyway w/o the
reorganization.
During his term he
was able to appoint7
associate justices and
a Chief Justice
(Harlan Stone).
Three Fiery Critics
• Father Charles Coughlin –– favored
guaranteed annual income and nationalization of
banks.
• Dr. Francis Townsend – poor and elderly – provide
monthly benefits
• Huey Long – Senator from LA – “Share Our
Wealth” – all people with incomes over $1 million
would be heavily taxed with money
given to the poor - $5,000/family.
Section Two The Second New Deal
Takes Hold
• The Second Hundred Days
– Economy improving a little, but unemployment
still high (11 million) and production still lagged
behind.
• 2nd New Deal, or 2nd Hundred Days – more
extensive help for farmers and workers.
Eleanor Roosevelt
• Eleanor Roosevelt – Most active first lady in
history – gave speeches, traveled the country.
• Social reformer – influenced FDR to support
minorities and the less fortunate.
Eleanor Roosevelt - America's most influential First Lady
blazed paths for women and led the battle for social
justice everywhere
By DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN from
http://www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/el
eanor.html
• Eleanor shattered the ceremonial mold in which the
role of the First Lady had traditionally been fashioned,
and reshaped it around her own skills and her deep
commitment to social reform. She gave a voice to
people who did not have access to power. She was the
first woman to speak in front of a national convention,
to write a syndicated column, to earn money as a
lecturer, to be a radio commentator and to hold regular
press conferences.
Reelecting FDR
• 1936 Election – Rep – Alfred Landon (Gov. of
KS). FDR won big – won all states except
Maine and Vermont. Dems also won large
majorities in both houses.
• First time Af-Am voted Dem and 1st time labor
unions supported a
candidate.
Helping Farmers
• 2/5 mortgaged their farms, thousands of
small farmers still losing their farms
• 1938 – Second AAA – just like the first but
didn’t include the tax that was ruled
unconstitutional.
• Resettlement Administration – loans to
small farmers to buy land. Government
gave equipment and seed to get them
started.
Farm Security
Administration – replaced
the Resettlement Admin.
– helped tenant farmers
become landowners and
provided camps for
migrant workers.
Roosevelt Extends Relief
• Works Progress Administration – (WPA ) - provide jobs as
quickly as possible for youths, professionals, and other
workers.
• 8 million jobs to unskilled workers doing federal
construction projects. 850 airports, 651,000 miles of roads,
125,000 buildings, women sewed garments for the poor. FL
Keys bridge, Lincoln Tunnel connecting NY to NJ, Fort Knox,
finished Hoover Dam.
• Federal Writers Project –guides to cities, wrote slave
narratives
• Federal Arts Project –paint city murals
• Federal Theater Project – actors toured cities performing
• National Youth Administration – set up to
provide jobs, education, counseling and
recreation for youth. Students worked part
time jobs at their schools, like typing – keep
them in school and out of work force if
possible. For drop-outs – found other work,
like working on highways, parks, buildings.
Improving Labor
• National Labor Relations Act, called
the Wagner Act – reestablished the
right to collective bargain, the right
of workers to join a union,
prohibited unfair labor practices
(threatening workers, firing union
members). Set up the National
Labor Relations Board – NLRB –
hear testimony about unfair
practices and hold votes on union
membership.
• Fair Labor Standards Act – 1938 – set
maximum hours at 44/week, 40/week after 2
years. Set minimum wage at $.25/hr, $.40/hr
by 1945. Banned hazardous work under 18.
Time and ½ for overtime.
The Social Security Act
• 1935 – Social Security Act – 3 parts –
– old-age insurance for retirees 65 or older and their
spouses – ½ funds from worker and ½ for the
employer.
– Unemployment Compensation
– aid to families with dependent
children and the disabled –
paid for by federal funds.
Expanding and Regulating Utilities
• 12.6 % of farms had electricity.
• Rural Electrification Administration
– REA – worked with electric coops to get electricity to rural areas
(low interest loans). By 1945 –
45%, 1949 – 90% had electricity.
• Public Utility Holding Company Act
– 1935 – outlawed ownership of
utilities by multiple holding
companies. Hard to enforce b/c of
lobbying.
Section Three The New Deal Affects
Many Groups
• Women Make Their Mark:
• Frances Perkins – first lady cabinet member –
Secretary of Labor.
• 2 female diplomats and a female federal
judge.
• Workplace – still discrimination. NRA even set
lower wages for women. CWA hired few
women, CCC only men.
• African Americans:
• 100 government positions to AF-Am.
• Mary McLeod Bethune – head of the Division
of Negro Affairs of the National Youth
Administration – provide job training. She
organized a “Black Cabinet” – gave FDR advice
on racial issues.
• Mexican-Americans:
• Received few benefits, but hoped it would get
better.
• Native Americans:
• Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 – moved away
from assimilation and toward autonomy
(independence), gave some reservations to tribal
ownership.
New Deal Coalition
• New Deal Coalition – alignment of diverse
groups dedicated to supporting the Dem
Party. The coalition – southern whites, urban
groups, Af-Am, unionized industrial leaders.
Labor Unions Flourish
• Union members – better working conditions
thanks to Wagner Act – made FDR a “friend of
labor.”
• Unions grew to 10 million members.
• Congress of Industrial Organization – CIO –
skilled and unskilled workers.
Section Five The Impact of the New
Deal
• 1937 – beginning to see an end to the
Depression.
• 1939 – New Deal over, FDR watching Europe.
• Shaping the economy:
– FDIC – regulates banking.
– SEC – regulates the stock market.
• New Deal – didn’t end Depression
– did create jobs, gave food, money to
millions. Govt. did go deeply in debt to do it –
deficit –increased $2.9 billion.
• What ended the Depression?
WWII
• Social welfare of its citizens:
– Social Security Act
• The Environment:
– CCC - planted trees, parks
– TVA – used water power for electricity, prevent
floods
– Added national parks, wildlife refuges.