The First “New Deal”
A collection of actions worked out by
trial and error
“It is the purpose of government to see that not only the legitimate interests of the few are
protected but that the welfare and the rights of the many are conserved”
-FDR---speech in Portland Oregon Sept. 21, 1932
I. The Philosophy of FDR & the New Deal
A. Pragmatism
1. Experimentation
B. Essential Conservatism
1. Design to bolter the capitalist
system
C. Humanitarian
1. elimination of social evils
D. Personal Leadership
1. aggressive leadership
a. “Fireside Chats”
E. Probably the greatest command of practical politics since
Lincoln
II. Banking Crisis and Currency Legislation
A. The Bank Run and Holidays
B. FDR’s “Brain Trust”
C. Emergency Banking Relief
D. Other Banking Laws
1. Glass-Steagall Act [1933] FDIC
E. Currency Changes
1.Removal of gold Standard
a. Fort Knox
b. Silver Purchase Act [1934]
III. Other Emergency Legislation
A. Economy Act
B. End of Prohibition
1. * to raise revenue
C. Securities
1. Securities Act of 1933
2. Honesty in the Stock
Market
IV. Relief
A. PWA-Public Works Administration
1. Purpose was to provide loans to states for
heavy industry-buildings etc
B. Federal Emergency Relief Administration
[FERA]
1. Make work policy
C. Civilian Conservation Corps. [CCC]
1. work for transients
Civilian Conservation Corps.
V. Farm Legislation
A. Purposes
B. Agricultural Adjustment Act
(Henry A. Wallace)
1. Subsidies
VI. Industrial
A. National Recovery Administration
(NRA)
1. suspended anti-trust laws
2. Unions
B. Rejection by Court
1. May 1935, Supreme Court declared
NRA unconstitutional
2. Schechter Poultry Corp. vs. U.S.
3. * Court held that NRA was
regulating intrastate and not merely
interstate commerce
Roosevelt and his Brain Child(ren)
VII. Attacks on the First New Deal
A. Right Wing
1. “Economic Royalist”
B. Left Wing
1. Huey Long
2. Father Charles Coughlin
3. Francis Townsend
Gov. Huey Long
C. Election-FDR and New Deal would have
to move left in search of recovery