1933-1940
The New Deal-1933-1940
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt
The Election of 1932—A New Deal
FDR builds hope for Americans
Key programs of the New Deal
Effects of the New Deal
Forgotten Americans
Critics of the New Deal
Court-packing plan
Results of the New Deal
The New Deal
Essential Questions
 How did FDR build hope among Americans during his first
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days in office?
What were the key programs of the New Deal & what
problems were they trying to solve?
How did the New Deal affect Americans?
How did Eleanor & FDR help “forgotten” Americans?
Who were the critics of the New Deal & what plans did
they want to put into action?
Why did FDR try to “pack” the Supreme Court? What were
the results of his efforts?
What were the most important results of the New Deal?
The New Deal
 President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s plan for overcoming
the Great Depression
 Gave government jobs to the unemployed
 Increased government regulation of the economy
 Mixed results of success
Dewey Woodward, WPA worker
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
 Distant relative of Theodore
Roosevelt
 Assistant Secretary of the
Navy under Wilson
 Stricken with Polio in the
1920s
 1929 governor of New York
 Impressive relief program for
New York depression victims
 1932 Democratic candidate
for president
Roosevelt with his dog Fala
1932 Presidential
Campaign
 Roosevelt promised:
 relief for the poor
 public works
programs
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Government-funded
building projects
 Roosevelt won 57% of
popular vote
 Democrats gained
control of both houses
of Congress
FDR
 Great personality
 Cheerful, optimistic, &
confident
 Warm & charming
 Overcame his disability &
used it as a strength
 Fireside Chats
 Radio addresses that FDR
made to Americans
 Spoke plainly to people
FDR shortly after giving one of his famous
fireside chats
Roosevelt’s Philosophy
 Reform-minded
Democrat
 Believed it was the
government’s job to take
direct action to help
people
 Had faith in the ability of
government to solve
economic & social
problems
Eleanor Roosevelt
 FDR’s distant cousin
 Served as FDR’s eyes &
ears
 Strong First Lady
 Involved in social issues
 Women & minorities
 Wrote a newspaper
column
 Had many admirers &
critics
Roosevelt takes office
 FDR inaugurated March
1933
 Lame Duck Hoover had
been unable to do much
 The Depression had
grown worse
 FDR tried to help the
confidence of Americans
“So, first of all, let me
assert my firm belief that
the only thing we have to
fear is fear itself—
nameless, unreasoning,
unjustified terror which
paralyzes needed efforts
to convert retreat into
advance.
FDR, First Inaugural Address,
March 4, 1933
Bank Crisis
• Executive order closing all banks
▫ “Bank Holiday”
▫ To stop panic, run on banks, & bank failures
• Emergency Banking Act, 1933
▫ Gave government power to examine soundness of
each bank before it could reopen
▫ Banks began to reopen
• Glass-Steagall Act, 1933
▫ Created Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
(FDIC)
 Government insurance of depositors’ savings
FDR’s first 100 days in office
Critical period in which Roosevelt pushed Congress to put in place
many of the key parts of his program he called the New Deal
The New Deal
• Three goals:
▫ Relief for those suffering the effects of the Great
Depression
▫ Recovery of the depressed economy
▫ Reforms that would help prevent serious
economic crisis in the future
▫ The Three Rs
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC),
1933
Reform program for
unemployed men 18-25 yrs.
old
Paid to work on a variety of
conservation projects
 Planting trees, improving
parks
Lived in army-style camps
Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)
• Recovery program
• Gave farmers a subsidy to
grow fewer crops
▫ Subsidy—government
payment
National Industrial Recovery Act,
(NIRA)
• Recovery program
• Mandated that businesses
in the same industry
cooperate with each other
to set prices & levels of
production
• Created the Public Works
Administration (PWA)
▫ $3.3 billion for public
works
• Labor unions got federal
protection for the right to
organize
More Reforms
• Federal Securities Act
▫ Forced companies to share certain financial
information with the public
 To help investors & restore confidence in the market
• Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
▫ Government watchdog over the nation’s stock
markets
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
• One of the most far-reaching & ambitious New
Deal programs
• Built dams & other projects along the Tennessee
River & its tributaries
▫ Controlled floods, aided navigation & shipping
along the river, & provided hydroelectric power
Tennessee Valley Authority
Only water source on farm
Flood damage
Tennessee Valley Authority
Civil Works Administration (CWA)
• Provided winter employment
to 4 million workers
• Built miles of highways &
sewer lines, hundreds of
airports, & more
Road Construction
Rebuilding a sewer
Indian Reorganization Act
• “Indian New Deal”
• Reversed previous policies by recognizing the
tribe as the key unit of social organization
• Limited the sale of Indian lands
• Provided assistance to native groups in
developing their resources, economy, & culture
• Granted some limited rights of self-rule
New Deal Critics
• Reformers & radicals didn’t believe that the New
Deal had gone far enough
▫ They wanted a complete overhaul of capitalism
• Conservatives attacked the New Deal as a radical
break with traditional American ideals
Senator Huey P. Long, Louisiana
• Believed FDR’s policies were too friendly to
businesses & banks
• Share Our Wealth Society
▫ “Every Man a King”
▫ To give every family $5000 to
buy a home & $2500/year income
▫ Financed by heavy taxes on the wealthy
▫ Millions of followers
Father Charles Coughlin
• Catholic priest
• One-time FDR supporter who turned
against him
• “radio priest”
▫ One-third of the nation listened
• Critical of nation’s bankers & financial
leaders
▫ Believed FDR wasn’t doing enough against
them
• Radio addresses became increasingly antiSemitic
▫ Catholic Church shut him down
Dr. Francis Townsend
• Criticized the New Deal for
not doing enough for older
Americans
• Proposed a pension plan for
Americans over the age of 60
▫ $200 per month
• Attracted millions of
followers
Townsend supporters rally in
Columbus, Kansas in May 1936.
• Spoke for Conservatives who believed the New
Deal went too far
• Included members from both parties
• Included wealthy business leaders who felt New
Deal was anti-business
Opposition from the Supreme Court
• Critics believed New Deal gave president too
much power
• Several cases reached the Supreme Court
The New Deal
Supreme Court decisions
• Schechter Poultry v. United States
▫ Supreme Court found NRA’s industry codes for
production, prices, & wages unconstitutional
• United States v. Butler
▫ Found a key part of the AAA unconstitutional
 The tax used to raise the money for farmer subsidies
• Put major programs of the New Deal in
shambles
The Second New Deal
First time in history the party in control of
Congress gained seats in both houses
 Democrats now held three-quarters of all
seats
 Liberals were demanding that FDR do
more
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1934 Congressional Elections
Second New Deal
Spring 1935
 Congress passed laws extending
government oversight of the banking
industry & raising taxes for the wealthy
 It funded new relief programs
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Largest peace-time jobs
program in US history
Works Progress
Administration,
1935
◦ Employed 8.5 million
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Built roads, subways,
airports, etc.
Worked in offices,
schools, museums,
factories
Funded artists, writers,
composers, actors
People worked instead
of getting a handout
1935
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A pension, or
guaranteed, regular
payments, for many
people 65 & older
Unemployment
insurance
Congress passed new
taxes to fund the
program
Social Security
Act, 1935
FDR hoped Social Security
would undermine the attacks
of Dr. Francis Townsend
Stronger than the
NIRA
 Outlawed some antilabor practices
 Established National
Labor Relations Board
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◦ NLRB could conduct
polls in workplaces
about unions & could
force employers to
accept voting results
Wagner Act
National Labor Relations Act
American Federation of
Labor (AFL)
• Founded in 1886
▫ Samuel Gompers
• Created as a federation of
smaller unions representing
the interests of skilled
workers
• Looked down upon unskilled
factory workers
Committee for Industrial
Organization
• Broke away from
the AFL in 1935
• Led by John L.
Lewis—head of
the United Mine
Workers
• Devoted to the
interests of
industrial
workers
John L. Lewis
• December 1936 United Auto
Workers began a sit-down strike
at General Motors in Flint,
Michigan
• Workers stayed in the factory day
& night
• Created a complicated situation
for GM
• After 6 weeks GM agreed to
recognize the union
• Helped establish the CIO as a
major force
▫ US Steel strike in 1937
Young striker off sentry duty sleeping on
assembly line of auto seats
Rural
Electrification Act
• Rural Electrification
Administration (REA)
loaned money to farm
cooperatives to bring
electricity to rural
areas
• Number of rural
homes with electricity
grew from 10% to 90%
within 10 years
Election of 1936
• Republicans attacked New
Deal for being overly
bureaucratic & creating a
planned economy
• Republican candidate Alf
Landon
• Union party formed by Father
Charles Coughlin & Dr.
Francis Townsend
• FDR won 48 states
• Democrats gained seats in
both houses
Court-Packing Plan
• FDR frustrated with attacks on
the New Deal by Supreme
Court
• Presented Congress with plan
to increase members of the
Supreme Court
• Most saw it as an attempt to
“pack” the Court with friendly
justices
Aided tenant farmers &
sharecroppers
Gave them a chance to buy land of
their own
Sharecropper’s wife
and children
Recovery in doubt
• 1937 economy had a setback
• FDR had hoped to cut back
government programs he
feared the growing deficit
▫ Deficit—when government
spends more money than it
takes in
• John Maynard Keynes
▫ British economist
▫ Argued that deficit spending
could provide jobs &
stimulate the economy
• Summer of 1938 the economy
was improving
WOMEN IN THE NEW DEAL
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Eleanor Roosevelt
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Played major role in
husband’s
administration
Actively pursued issues
of importance to women
Helped leaders of
women’s groups gain
access to her husband
WOMEN IN THE NEW DEAL
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Frances Perkins
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FDR’s Secretary of Labor
First woman to head an
executive department
Played a major role in the
development of New
Deal policies
WOMEN IN THE NEW DEAL
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Ruth Bryan Owen
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Minister to Denmark
William Jennings Bryan’s
daughter
FDR appointed a lot of
women to important
positions
Women still faced
discrimination
Ruth Bryan Owen, Minister to
Denmark, America's first woman
envoy, taking the oath of office.
AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEW DEAL
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William Haste
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The cabin in
Mayesville,
South Carolina
where Mary
McLeod was
born.
First black federal
judge
Black Cabinet
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Blacks hired to fill
posts in the
government
Led by Mary McLeod
Bethune
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Director of Negro
Affairs in the National
Youth Administration
Mary McLeod
Bethune enters
the White House
AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEW DEAL
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Black Cabinet
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Acted as unofficial
advisers to the president
Blacks still faced
discrimination in the
New Deal
FDR feared southern
Democrats would block
New Deal if he helped
blacks too much
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Majority of Black
Americans voted
Democratic in 1934
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First time since Civil War
Dorothea Lange
 Photographer
 Chronicler of the Great
Depression
 Worked for Farm
Security Administration
 Took photos of jobless
people, tenant farmers,
rural poor
 Photos raised awareness
of the poor
One of Lange’s most famous
photos. A destitute mother of
seven children.
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
 By writer James Agee
& photographer Walker
Evans
 Depicted the lives of
sharecroppers in rural
Alabama
Movies
 Nearly 80 million of the
US’s 127 million
attended movies in
1935
 Movie studios
produced some 5000
films during the 1930s
Movies
 Musicals
 Fred Astaire
 Ginger Rogers
 Comedies
 The Marx Brothers
 Charlie Chaplin
 Director Frank Capra
 Mr. Smith Goes to
Washington
Movies
 New Techniques
 Walt Disney’s Snow
White and the Seven
Dwarfs
 First full-length animated
feature
 The Wizard of Oz
 Color photography &
special effects
 Gone With the Wind
 Color
Radio
 Very important role
 FDR—fireside chats, Father Coughlin
 Religion, news, music, sports, variety
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The Lone Ranger
Fibber McGee and Molly
 The War of the Worlds
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Orson Welles
People believed the world was under attack
Swing
 New, highly
orchestrated type of
jazz swept the country
in the 1930s
 Played by big bands
 Duke Ellington
 Count Basie
 Benny Goodman
Sports
 Baseball
 Joe Dimaggio
 Lou Gehrig
 ALS –”Lou Gehrig’s Disease”
 Babe Didrikson Zaharias
 Multisport star
 Softball, golf, basketball, &
track
 Boxing
 Joe Louis
Babe Ruth hugs Gehrig at Yankee
Stadium on July 4, 1939, “Lou Gehrig
Appreciation Day”. He died two
years later.
Marian Anderson
 Black singer who went
to Europe
 International star
 DAR refused to let her
play at Constitution
Hall
 Eleanor Roosevelt
arranged for her to
play at Lincoln
Memorial
Impact of the New Deal
• Relief
– Millions of people received
some sort of help
• Recovery
– Less successful
– Unemployment remained
high
• Changed the role of
government
– Bigger
– People now looked to it for
help
• Reform
– More successful
• FDIC
• SEC
• Thousands of roads,
buildings, bridges, etc.
Boys goofing
off in a CCC
camp
Limits of the New Deal
• Relief jobs were not
permanent
• Some 4.7 million people
went unserved
• Pay scales were low
• Assistance varied state
by state
• Permitted
discrimination Evans family
flees South
Dakota
End of the New Deal
• Lost support
• Reasons
– Court-packing plan
– Economic downturn of
1937-1938
• Attacks from
Republicans &
southern Democrats
Fair Labor Standards Act
• Last major New Deal law,
1938
• Established minimum
wage
– Lowest wage an employer
can legally pay a worker
• Set maximum number of
work week hours at 44
• Workers had to be paid
1½ overtime
1938 Elections
• FDR attempted to get
congressmen against him
voted out of office
• It backfired and each of
the incumbents he
targeted won reelection
• Incumbent—someone
who is presently in office
After the New Deal
• After the 1938 elections
FDR lacked support for
his New Deal
• Attention turned to
Europe which was
headed toward war
• Within a year, war would
do what the New Deal
could not do—end the
Great Depression