Chapter 33
The Great Depression
and the New Deal,
1933–1939
I. FDR: Politician in a Wheelchair
• FDR’s personality formed because of paralysis
• His wife, another personal & political asset
• Franklin Roosevelt’s political appeal
– Strong orator, popular depression governor of N.Y.
• Nominated by Democrats (1932)
– Balanced budget
– Sweeping social reforms
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II. Presidential Hopefuls of 1932
• Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democrat)
– Preached a New Deal for the “forgotten man,”
• Plan was vague and somewhat contradictory
• Herbert Hoover (Republican)
– Usually campaigned from the White House
• Kept faith in American free enterprise, individual initiative
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III. Hoover’s Humiliation in 1932
• 1932 election
– A distinct shift of blacks to the Roosevelt camp
• 1932 election results
– 22,809,638 for Roosevelt; 15,758,901 for Hoover
– The electoral count 472 to 59
IV. FDR and the Three R’s: Relief, Recovery, Reform
• The New Deal - FDR’s econ & social program
– Relief. Recovery. Reform.
• Hundred Days (March 9-June 16, 1933)
– Nationwide banking holiday
– Congress follows FDR’s lead (Rubber stamp congress)
• New Dealers - Embraced progressive ideas
•
•
•
•
Unemployment and old age insurance, Minimum wage
The conservation and development of natural resources
Restrictions on child labor
Tennessee Valley Authority
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Table 33-1 p755
V. Roosevelt Manages the Money
• Glass-Steagall Banking Reform Act 1933
– Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
• A “managed currency” (inflation) introduced
– Gold bought at increasing prices ($21-35 in 1 year)
• Roosevelt turned to the radio
– “fireside chats”
• Confidence returned; banks opened their doors
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Figure 33-1 p756
VI. Creating Jobs for the Jobless
• Overwhelming unemployment (~25%)
• Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
– The most popular New Deal “alphabetical agencies”
• Hard-pressed Special groups relief
– Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)
– Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC)
– Civil Works Administration (CWA) (1933)
• Least popular program, shovel leaning, “make-work”
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Table 33-2 p758
VII. A Day for Every Demagogue
• The appearance of demagogues
– Father Coughlin (A “microphone messiah”)
– Dr. Francis E. Townsend
– Senator Huey P. Long (The “Kingfish”)
• Links between demagogues, fascism, and crisis
– Authoritarianism was the answer elsewhere
• Works Progress Administration (WPA)
– Built public buildings, bridges, stadiums, roads, artworks
– Critics said WPA meant “We Provide Alms”
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VIII. New Visibility for Women
• First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt
– Variety of political / social efforts
• Francis Perkins
– Secretary of Labor (1st female cabinet member)
• Mary McLeod Bethune
– Minority Affairs Director
• Margaret Mead
– 34 books, American Museum of Natural History
• Pearl S. Buck
– The Good Earth (1931)
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IX. Helping Industry and Labor
• The National Recovery Administration (NRA)
– The most complex, far-reaching New Deal projects
• NRA’s “fair competition” codes
– Self-made rules for both management and labor
• SCOTUS Schechter ruling killed the NRA
• The liquor industry: repeal of the prohibition
– 21st Amendment
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X. Paying Farmers Not to Farm
• Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA)
• Created “artificial scarcity” to establish “parity prices”
• Paid growers to reduce their crop acreage
– Ruled unconstitutional in 1936
• The Second Agricultural Adjustment Act (1938)
• Soil Conservation & Domestic Allotment Act (1936)
– Farmers paid to plant soil-conserving
XI. Dust Bowls and Black Blizzards
• The Dust Bowl: Nature’s unplanned scarcity
– Drought, wind, human misdeeds triggered the storms
• John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (1939).
• Indian Reorganization Act (1934) (“Indian New Deal”)
– Encouraged tribes to establish local self-government
– To preserve their native crafts and traditions
– It helped to stop the loss of Indian lands
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Map 33-1 p765
XII. Battling Bankers and Big Business
• Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) 1934:
– Designed as a watchdog administrative agency
• The Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935
– Designed as a watchdog administrative agency
XIII. The TVA Harnesses the Tennessee
• The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) (1933)
– Part of “planned economy”
• Federally built, owned dams
– Benefits
• Employment, cheap power, low cost housing,
reforestation, better navigation, flood control
– Conservative reaction to “socialistic” program
• Would limit program to Tennessee valley
• Caused westerners to want their own programs
– Columbia, Colorado, and Missouri Rivers
Tennessee Valley
Figure 33-2 p767
XIV. Housing and Social Security
• Federal Housing Administration (1934)
– Building industry stimulated through small loans
• Social Security Act (1935)
– Unemployment insurance and old-age pensions
– Has since expanded to include more people
– Not as comprehensive as European nations
– Republican opposition was bitter (“cult of leisure”)
XV. A New Deal for Labor
• Wagner Act/National Labor Relations Act (1935)
• National Labor Relations Board
– Effective unions began to organize
– Conservatives were upset (private property)
• Fair Labor Standards Act (1938)
– Minimum-wage/maximum-hours, No child labor
• Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)
– 4 mil members (1940), battled rival A.F.L. for control
Memorial Day Massacre @ Republic Steel (1937)
General Motors Sit-down Strikers, Flint, Michigan,1937
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XVI. Landon Challenges “the Champ”
• The presidential election of 1936
– Democrats renominated FDR (New Deal platform)
– Republicans nominate Alfred M. Landon
• Attacked Franklin “Deficit” Roosevelt for his radicalism
• The political battle of 1936
– The most bitter campaign since 1896
• “Class warfare”- the needy vs the greedy
• Election returns of 1936
– Popular vote was FDR 27,752,869 to 16,674,665
– The electoral count FDR 523 to 8
– Dems win veto-proof House and Senate
XVII. Nine Old Men on the Bench
• SCOTUS ultra-conservative and old (6 over 70)
– 7 of 9 nominated by Republicans
– FDR regarded them as conservative obstructionists
• Roosevelt’s failed “court packing” scheme
– Increase size of SCOTUS from 9 to 15
• FDR accused of trying to be a dictator
XVIII. The Court Changes Course
• “Court packing” plan was unsuccessful but…
– SCOTUS became more sympathetic to New Deal
• It upheld the National Labor Relations Act
• It upheld the Social Security Act
– Congress voted full pensions for justices over 70
• Resignations & death unpacked the court
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XIX. Twilight of the New Deal
• FDR’s first term didn’t banish the depression
– Recovery slow & ‘modest’, unemployment 25% to 15%
• FDR embraced John Maynard Keynes ideas
– Keynesianism, use of gov’t $ to help the economy
• Hatch Act (1939)
– Federal administrative officials can’t campaign
• By 1938 New Deal lost most of it’s momentum
– Republicans gained seats in both houses
XX. New Deal or Raw Deal?
• Foes of the New Deal condemned
– Anti-American, anti-capitalistic, socialistic nature
– No balanced budget, deficit larger
– Big Government - “Bureaucratic meddling”
– States’ rights trumped by national government
• Roosevelt’s leadership was denounced
– “one-man supergovernment”, attempted dictatorship
• Failed to cure the depression
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XXI. FDR’s Balance Sheet
• New Dealers staunchly defended their record
– Relieved the worst of the crisis in 1933
– Promoted the “balancing the human budget”
– Averted the collapse of America’s economic system
– Stopped socialism/ communism rebellion
– Fairer distribution of national income achieved
– Citizens regained and retained their self-respect
– Debt caused by war ($40 bil-1939; $258 bil-1945)
– Attacked by left & right, FDR chose a middle road
– Preserved American democracy
– Unwittingly girded the nation for WW II