Chapter 16
Section 2
New
Challenges
Critics of the New Deal
• There were people who opposed the New Deal
• Dr. Francis E. Townsend wanted the gov. to grant a
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pension of $200 a month to every American over 60
years of age. All recipients were to spend the $ within
30 days, thus pumping the $ back into the economy
Charles E. Coughlin urged the gov. to nationalize all
banks and return to the silver standard
Louisiana senator {Huey Long proposed the ShareOur-Wealth economic relief program}, in which the
gov could seize wealth from the rich through taxes
and then provide a guaranteed income and home to
every family in America
Long was assassinated in 1935, one month after
announcing that he was going his bid to run for
president against Roosevelt
• Long proposed the "Share Our Wealth"
program which said that no individual
family could hold more than $ 5 mil in
wealth and receive more than $ 1 mil in
annual income. The excess of these
salary caps would trickle down to help
the poor. Long announced he was
interested in running against Roosevelt
in the 1936 election. One month later.
on Sunday, September 8, 1935, Huey
Long was at the capital building in
Baton Rouge. He was attending a
session called by Judge Benjamin Pavy,
one of Long's political enemies. As Long
walked down a corridor, a Dr. Carl Weiss
( Pavy’s son in law ) walked up to him
and shot him in the abdomen. But not
all the accounts of the events coincide.
An alternative theory suggests that
Weiss was actually unarmed, and had
punched Long, not shot him. Instead,
the senator was struck by a stray bullet
from his bodyguards, who shot Weiss
because they mistakenly believed that
Weiss was going to shoot Long.
The Second New Deal
The Works Progress Administration
• After the Civil Works Administration ended, Roosevelt
started the {Works Progress Administration which
ultimately gave jobs to 8.5 million blue collar and
white collar workers}
• The WPA also established the {National Youth
Administration which gave part-time jobs to highschool and college aged people}
• Eleanor Roosevelt {appointed Mary McLeod
Bethune as the director of the Division of Negro
Affairs in the National Youth Administration}
Eleanor Roosevelt helped establish the
National Youth Administration in June 1935.
The NYA helped more than 2 million high
school and college students stay in school
by giving them grants in exchange for work.
They worked in libraries and college labs,
and on farms. The NYA also found work for
2.5 million young people who were not in
school and not working. As World War II
approached, NYA youths worked in defense
industries where they gained useful job
skills. The NYA was an equal opportunity
agency, providing aid to women and
minorities. This feature of the program was
very important to Mrs. Roosevelt. "It is a
question of the right to work," she said,
"and the right to work should know no color
lines."
The Second New Deal
Social Security & other programs
• Another important reform was the Social Security Act, passed
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by Congress in 1935.
First, the act provided unemployment insurance to workers who
lost their jobs
Second, {the Social Security Act provided pensions to
workers aged 65 and older}
• Third, it provided payments to people with disabilities
• Roosevelt then targeted the wealthy with {the Revenue Act of
1935, which drastically increased taxes for the nation’s
wealthy}
• Roosevelt ran for reelection in 1936. Thanks to his progress and
success in reformation and reconstruction he easily won.
Roosevelt and the Supreme Court
• After his presidential victory, Roosevelt sought to
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reform the Supreme Court
Roosevelt was angered the Supreme Court declared
several New Deal measures as unconstitutional.
• {He believed the nine members of the Supreme Court
to be too old and set in their ways}
• Roosevelt petitioned to be allowed to replace the
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justices that are 70 years and older with new justices
that he would appoint
Of course his petition was denied
But over the next 4 years several of the justices either
died or retired, so Roosevelt got to appoint new
people anyway
Joseph Stalin Franklin D. Roosevelt
Winston Churchill
Effects of the Second New Deal
• Congress passed the {Wagner-Connery Act that guaranteed
workers rights to organize unions}
• Laborers were now allowed legally to strike and bargain for
better wages and working conditions
• {Labor leaders organized the Congress of Industrial
Administration to unite workers in several various industry}
• Congress created another program to replace the Agricultural
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Adjustment Act only this time to appease the Court they called
it soil conservation instead of crop reduction
It authorized payment to farmers for soil conservation and
allowed the Department of Agriculture to regulate the amount
the crops in circulation
The Second New Deal also brought aid to sharecroppers,
tenant farmers and migrant farmers
Roosevelt’s Recession
• In 1936 Roosevelt began cutting back on relief
and public works programs but the economy
was not ready yet
• Factories and businesses began going under.
Republican’s called this “Roosevelt’s Recession”
• Roosevelt responded by expanding and
restarting the New Deal programs
• Because of criticism, Roosevelt did not did not
propose any new reforms in 1939
The Eternal Battle by Daniel
Johnston