1933 – 1941
Introduction

Listening to the “Fireside Chats”
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No master blueprint contradictory hodgepodge of programs
New Deal didn’t end
Great Depression – only
World War II did that
F.D.R. possessed ability to
inspire and restore
confidence
The Election of 1932

Copyright 2000, Bedford/St. Martin’s Press
Shoring Up the Financial State

 Emergency Banking Relief Act (March 9) allowed
Treasury to reopen solvent banks & reorganize insolvent
ones
 Federal Securities Act (May 27) mandated full disclosure
on all new securities
 Home Owners’ Loan Corp. (June 13) created to refinance
home mortgages
 Glass-Steagall Act (June 16):
 Separated commercial & investment banking
 Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. created to insure bank
deposits up to $5,000.00
 Securities Exchange Commission created in 1934 to
monitor Wall Street
Creating Jobs for the Unemployed

 Civilian Conservation Corps (March 31, 1933) put young,
unmarried men to work planting trees & creating parks
 Almost 3 million men, aged 18-25, participated
 2,650 segregated, military-style camps
 Paid nominal $30 a month, but point was to keep them out of the
labor force
 Federal Emergency Relief Administration (May 12, 1933) gave
grants to states to fund relief efforts
 Run by Harry Hopkins
 Set up some works programs
 Public Works Administration (June 12, 1933) hired private
contractors for large infrastructure projects
 Run by Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes
 Spent $3.3 billion on projects like Triborough Bridge
 Used private contractors who hired union members & did not
discriminate
FDR and the CCC

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Helping the Farmers

Agricultural Adjustment
Administration (May 12, 1933)
 Run by George Peek
 Set crop quotas & prices based on
1909-14
 Worked through state & local officials,
so benefits went to middle & upper
class
 Declared unconstitutional by Supreme
Court in U.S. v. Butler (1936)
 Emergency Farm Mortgage Act (May 12,
1933) allowed refinancing of farm
mortgages
The Dust Bowl

The Tennessee Valley Authority
May 18, 1933

 TVA created to bring economic
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development to poor rural
region
 Cheap electricity used as
yardstick to measure private
companies’ rates
 Government bought nitrates for
military use
 Caused vast pollution
 Rural Electrification
Administration created in 1935
to bring electricity to rural areas
Norris Dam
ELECTRICITY COMES TO RURAL
AMERICA

TVA workers at Norris Dam construction site
REA customer admires her
new electric meter
National Recovery Administration
June 16, 1933
N.R.A. meant to be centerpiece of New
Deal – based on T.R.’s New
Nationalism
 Run by Gen. Hugh Johnson
 Joint committees of labor, management &
government created fair practice codes
 Section 7(a) guaranteed union recognition
 Declared unconstitutional by Supreme
Court in Schecter Poultry Co. v. U.S. (1935)
Critics on the Right

 Conservative Democrats formed the
American Liberty League – opposed
New Deal as corrupt patronage politics
 Hoover & Republicans labeled the New
Deal “socialist” & warned of loss of
personal liberty
 Supreme Court invalidated legislation:
 Schecter Poultry Co. v. U.S. - declared
NRA restricted intrastate commerce &
delegated legislative power to executive
branch
 U.S. v. Butler - invalidated AAA as
attempt to use taxing power to
unconstitutionally regulate agriculture
Justice Owen Roberts
Critics on the Left

 Father Charles Coughlin created the
National Union for Social Justice
Father Coughlin
 Claimed New Deal really benefited wealthy,
not poor
 charged that an international conspiracy of
Jewish financiers was behind Roosevelt
 Dr. Francis Townshend suggested a
revolving pension scheme for the elderly
 Sen. Huey Long (the Kingfish) wrote
Every Man a King & created Share Our
Wealth Clubs
Sen. Huey Long
 Called for seizing incomes above $1 million &
redistributing to all families
 Planned to run for president in 1936
The Second New Deal, 1935:

 Works Progress Administration
 Run by Harry Hopkins
 Spent $4.8 billion
 Employed 8.5 million
 put people to work using their existing talents
 Wagner National Labor Relations Act
 Guaranteed unions right to organize &
bargain collectively
 Est. National Labor Relations Board to
supervise elections & mediate disputes
The W.P.A. at Work

W.P.A. Projects

The Second New Deal (cont.):
Social Security Act

 Social Security Admin.
Provides pensions to elderly &
disabled
 Financed by flat payroll tax
 Aid to Dependent Children
(later AFDC) was 1st federal
direct welfare program
“Soak the Rich” Tax
 Increased income, inheritance,
gift & excess profits taxes
 Didn’t really redistribute
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1937 Recession

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The Third New Deal, 1937-38:

 United States Housing Authority
(1937)
 Long-term loans to local agencies &
subsidized rents
 Redlining continued segregation
 Farm Security Administration
(1937) gave loans to tenant farmers
 Second A.A.A. (1938) required a 2/3
vote in plebiscites to set quotas
 Food, Drug & Cosmetics Act (1938)
forbade false or misleading ads –
regulated by FTC
 Fair Labor Standards Act (1938) set
min. wage & max. 40-hour work
week
New Deal Gains & Losses

Growth of labor unions
 AFL grew from 2.3 million to 6.89
million, 1933-45
 CIO had 3.7 million by 1938
More women working, but often
excluded from relief
Blacks benefited from some
programs (esp. W.P.A.)
Wheeler-Howard Act (1934)
reversed Dawes Act & restored
tribal land & self-government
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