The New Deal

1
The New Deal

1. How and why did the federal government influence
   American economic and political issues during the
   1930s?
2. How did President Roosevelt respond to economic
   depression, and why did he respond in this
   manner? What were the primary differences between
   the First and Second New Deal?
3. How did labor unions respond to the New Deal?
4. How did the New Deal affect American society
5. both during the 1930s and thereafter?

2

• The New Deal, 19331939

3

• The 1932 election marked the emergence of a
  Democratic coalition that would help to shape
  national politics for the next four decades.
• In the worst winter of the depression,
  unemployment stood at 20 to 25 percent, and the
  nations banking system was close to collapse.
• The depression had totally overwhelmed public
  welfare institutions, and private charity and
  public relief reached only a fraction of the
  needy hunger haunted both cities and rural
  areas.

4

• The New Deal came to stand for a complex set of
  responses to the nation's economic collapse. The
  New Deal was meant to relieve suffering yet
  conserve the nation's political and economic
  institutions. Through unprecedented intervention
  by the national government, Roosevelt's programs
  put people to work, instilling hope and restoring
  the nation's confidence.

5

• The Great Depression destroyed Herbert Hoover's
  reputation and helped to establish Roosevelt's.
• Roosevelt's ideology was not vastly different
  from Hoover's, but he was willing to experiment
  with new programs to address the current crisis.
  His programs put people to work and instilled
  hope in the future.
• Roosevelt crafted his administration's programs
  in response to shifting political and economic
  conditions rather than according to a set
  ideology or plan.

6
(No Transcript)
7
(No Transcript)
8
(No Transcript)
9

• Roosevelt made his administration's programs
  respond to shifting political and economic
  conditions rather than adhering to a set ideology
  or plan. He established a close rapport with the
  American people his use of radio-broadcasted
  'fireside chats' fostered a sense of intimacy.
  Roosevelt's approach expanded the power of the
  executive branch to initiate policy, thereby
  helping to create the modern presidency.

10

• Roosevelt's promise to act quickly was embodied
  in the legislation of the "hundred days."
  Programs were quickly established to aid
  agriculture and industry, and direct relief was
  provided to millions of suffering families.
  Federal job projects aided millions more.
  Although those actions did not end the
  depression, they offered both hope and sustenance
  to many. Legislation regulating banks and the
  stock market sought to eliminate some of the
  financial excesses of the 1920s that had
  contributed to the depression.

11

• Popular leaders accused the New Deal of moving
  too slowly in redistributing wealth and caring
  for the elderly. This pressure from the left
  caused FDR to inaugurate the "Second New Deal"  a
  program that offered support for organized labor
  and Social Security legislation that included
  unemployment insurance and aid to those who
  couldn't work.

12

• Persistent and pervasive unemployment led to the
  establishment of the Works Progress
  Administration (WPA), an agency that would
  provide millions of federally funded jobs through
  the remainder of the decade. The New Deal
  accelerated the expansion of the federal
  bureaucracy, and power was increasingly centered
  in the nation's capital, not in the states.

13
Public Works Projects
14

• During the 1930s the federal government operated
  as a broker state, mediating between contending
  groups seeking power and benefits. After FDR's
  reelection in 1936, the New Deal began to falter.
  An abortive attempt to alter the structure of the
  Supreme Court undercut FDR's popularity, and his
  premature reductions in federal spending led to
  the "Roosevelt recession" of 1937 to 1938.

15

• Roosevelt's attempt to "purge" the Democratic
  Party of some of his most conservative opponents
  only widened the liberal-conservative rift as the
  1938 election approached. Fresh out of ideas and
  with the nation still in a depression, FDR's
  basic conservatism became more apparent.
  Tinkering with the system had not led to economic
  recovery something more drastic would be
  required.

16

• Even though the New Deal did not end the
  depression, it ushered in an unprecedented
  expansion of the federal government that
  redefined its role. By seeking to spread benefits
  more equitably among neglected portions of the
  population, the New Deal attracted African
  Americans, professional women, and organized
  labor to the Democratic Party.

17

• For the first time, organized labor had federal
  support, and prominent blacks and women were
  brought into government service. The New Deal
  laid the foundation for a modified welfare state
  and created a political coalition that would
  dominate national politics for most of the next
  three decades.

18

• The Great Depression saw a flowering of American
  culture. The WPA employed many writers and
  artists to produce works that celebrated the
  lives of ordinary people throughout the nation. A
  hallmark of the era was the "documentary
  impulse," a presentation in photography, graphic
  arts, music, and film of a social reality
  designed to elicit public empathy. As Europe
  moved toward war and Japan expanded its
  incursions in the Far East, Roosevelt focused
  less on domestic reform and more on international
  relations

19

• The New Deal Takes Over, 19331935
• The Roosevelt Style of Leadership
• The Hundred Days

20

• At the beginning of his administration, Roosevelt
  convened Congress in a special session and
  launched the New Deal with an avalanche of bills.
  Historians refer to this period as the "Hundred
  Days." Roosevelt introduced a new notion of the
  presidency whereby the president, not Congress,
  was the legislative leader. Most of the bills he
  proposed set up new government agencies, called
  the "alphabet soup" agencies because of their
  array of acronyms.

21

• AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Act)--Designed to
  help American farmers by stabilizing prices and
  limiting overproduction, the AAA initiated the
  first direct subsidies to farmers who did not
  plant crops. The United States Supreme Court
  later declared the AAA unconstitutional and an
  unnecessary invasion of private property rights.

22

• CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps)--A public works
  project, operated under the control of the army,
  which was designed to promote environmental
  conservation while getting young, unemployed men
  off city street corners. Recruits planted trees,
  built wildlife shelters, stocked rivers and lakes
  with fish, and cleared beaches and campgrounds.
  The CCC housed the young men in tents and
  barracks, gave them three square meals a day, and
  paid them a small stipend. The army's experience
  in managing and training large numbers of
  civilians would prove invaluable in WWII.
  Wisconsin was a beneficiary of the CCC one of
  the organizations many local projects was trail
  construction at Devil's Lake State Park.

23
Civilian Conservation Corps Workers
24

• TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority)--One of the most
  ambitious and controversial New Deal projects,
  the TVA proposed building dams and power plants
  along the Tennessee River to bring electric power
  to rural areas in seven states. Although the TVA
  provided many Americans with electricity for the
  first time and provided jobs to thousands of
  unemployed construction workers, the program
  outraged many private power companies.

25
NIRA (National Industrial Recovery Act)--

• The NIRA established the NRA (National Recovery
  Administration) to stimulate production and
  competition by having American industries set up
  a series of codes designed to regulate prices,
  industrial output, and general trade practices.
  The federal government, in turn, would agree to
  enforce these codes. In return for their
  cooperation, federal officials promised to
  suspend anti-trust legislation. Section 7A of the
  NIRA recognized the rights of labor to organize
  and to have collective bargaining with
  management. The NIRA was the most controversial
  piece of legislation to come out of the Hundred
  Days and many of its opponents charged it with
  being un-American, socialist, even communist,
  even though it did not violate the sanctity of
  private property or alter the American wage
  system.

26

• The National Industrial Recovery Act launched the
  National Recovery Administration (NRA), which
  established a system of industrial
  self-government to handle the problems of
  overproduction, cutthroat competition, and price
  instability.
• The NRAs codes established prices and production
  quotas, as well as minimum wages and maximum
  hours, outlawed child labor, and gave workers
  union rights.
• Trade associations, controlled by large
  companies, tended to dominate the NRAs code
  drafting process, thus solidifying the power of
  large businesses at the expense of smaller ones.

27
The Federal Emergency Relief Administration

• (FERA), set up in May 1933 under the direction of
  Harry Hopkins offered federal money to the states
  for relief programs and was designed to keep
  people from starving until other recovery
  measures took hold. Over the programs two-year
  existence, FERA spent 1 billion.
• Whenever possible New Deal administrators
  promoted work relief over cash subsidies, and
  they consistently favored jobs that would not
  compete directly with the private sector.

28
Civil Works Administration (CWA)

• Established in November, 1933, the Civil Works
  Administration (CWA) put 2.6 million men and
  women to work at its peak, it employed 4 million
  in public works jobs. The CWA lapsed the next
  spring after spending all its funds.
• Many of these early emergency measures were
  deliberately inflationary and meant to trigger
  price increases thought necessary to stimulate
  recovery.

29

• Roosevelts executive order of April 18,
• 1933, to abandon the international gold standard
  allowed the Federal Reserve System to manipulate
  the value of the dollar in response to
  fluctuating economic conditions.
• In 1934, the Securities and Exchange Commission
  was established in order to regulate the stock
  market and prevent abuses.
• The Banking Act of 1935 placed the control of
  money-market policies at the federal level rather
  than with regional banks and encouraged
  centralization of the nations banking system.

30
New Deal Under Attack

• Business leaders and conservative Democrats
  formed the Liberty League in 1934 to lobby
  against the New Deal and its reckless spending
  and socialist reforms.
• In Schechter v. United States, the Supreme Court
  ruled that the National Industrial Recovery Act
  represented an unconstitutional delegation of
  legislative power to the executive branch.
• Citizens like Francis Townsend thought that the
  New Deal had not gone far enough
• Townsend proposed the Old Age Revolving Pension
  Plan.

31

• In 1935, Father Charles Coughlin organized the
  National Union for Social Justice to attack
  Roosevelts New Deal and demand nationalization
  of the banking system and expansion of the money
  supply.
• Because he was Canadian-born and a priest,
  Coughlin was not likely to run for president the
  most direct threat to Roosevelt came from Senator
  Huey Long.
• In 1934, Senator Long broke with the New Deal and
  established his own national movement, the Share
  Our Wealth Society.

32

• Coughlin and Long offered feeble solutions to the
  depression and quick-fix plans that addressed
  only part of problem. Both men showed little
  respect for the principles of representative
  government.

33
Why the NIRA failed

• Whether radical or conservative, the NIRA
  ultimately failed for three reasons
• The NRA assumed businesses would police
  themselves. The codes, established in the
  interest of protecting workers and consumers,
  were ultimately drawn up by the largest
  companies. This hurt small businesses.
• Corporations rarely respected the rights of labor
  to organize. Because of the number and complexity
  of the codes, the federal government never
  enforced labor's right to collective bargaining.
• The NRA attacked recovery from the wrong
  direction. It tried to stabilize prices by
  lowering production, rather than redistributing
  money to American consumers and encouraging them
  to purchase goods.
• Within two years, the Supreme Court declared the
  NIRA unconstitutional.

34
"The Broker State"

• During his first two years in office, FDR
  promoted a new vision of the executive branch he
  viewed himself as an "honest broker" who would
  negotiate among competing interests. The
  president would mediate conflicts while balancing
  the interests of one group against another. His
  older cousin TR had held a similar idea of the
  presidency, but FDR expanded this concept of the
  broker state. However, the idea of the broker
  state has two inherent flaws

35

• Presidents tend to get weaker the longer they are
  in office, because they have to make tough
  choices that alienate particular interest groups.
  
• The strongest interest groups can pressure even
  the most forceful broker. This was true in FDR's
  administration, when the NIRA and AAA favored big
  business and big agriculture

36

• The New Deal accelerated the expansion of the
  federal bureaucracy, and power was increasingly
  centered in the nations capital, not in the
  states. During the 1930s the federal government,
  then, operated as a broker state, mediating
  between contending groups seeking power and
  benefits. After FDRs reelection in 1936, the New
  Deal began to falter. An abortive attempt to
  alter the structure of the Supreme Court undercut
  FDRs popularity, and his premature reductions in
  federal spending led to the Roosevelt recession
  of 1937 to 1938.

37

• Roosevelts attempt to purge the Democratic
  Party of some of his most conservative opponents
  only widened the liberal-conservative rift as the
  1938 election approached. Fresh out of ideas and
  with the nation still in a depression, FDRs
  basic conservatism became more apparent.
  Tinkering with the system had not led to economic
  recovery something more drastic would be
  required.

38

• The Second New Deal, 19351938
• Legislative Accomplishments
• Stalemate

39
One of the more innovative New Deal programs was
the Federal Theatre Project. Its director, Hallie
Flanagan, envisioned a nationwide network of
community theaters that would produce plays of
social relevance. "Living Newspaper" productions,
such as the one advertised in this 1938 poster
for a performance in Oregon, were documentary
plays designed to expose Americans to
contemporary social problems. One Third of a
Nation by Arthur Arent tackled the history of New
York City's housing problems, while at the same
time it promoted New Deal Housing legislation.
40
When President Franklin Roosevelt dedicated the
just-completed Boulder Dam in Nevada in September
1935, he noted that only four years earlier "the
mighty waters of the Colorado River were
running unused to the sea but now the dam
"translates them into a great national
possession. The massive dam-then the largest in
the world-tamed the river to provide public
services of flood control, hydroelectric power,
and water for crops and people throughout the
Southwest. In 1933, New Dealers had officially
renamed the dam Boulder Dam, and so it remained
until 1947 when it was officially renamed Hoover
Dam in honor of the president who was
instrumental in pushing the long-contemplated
dream into reality. At a cost of less than 200
million, the construction project provided jobs
for over 4,000 men and inspired Americans with
dramatic evidence of the creative potential of
ambitious public works
41
The Social Security Act of 1935 required each
working American who participated in the system
to register with the government and obtain a
unique number-the "SSN familiar to every citizen
today-
42
(No Transcript)
43

• The New Deals Impact on Society
• New Deal Constituencies and the Broker State
• The New Deal and the Land
• The New Deal and the Arts
• The Legacies of the New Deal

44
(No Transcript)
45

• Harder Times for the Down and Out
• African Americans in the Depression
• Dust Bowl Migrations
• Mexican American Communities
• Asian Americans Face the Depression

46
African Americans in the Depression

• African Americans, who had always known
  discrimination and limited opportunities, viewed
  the depression differently from most whites.
• Despite the black migration to the cities of the
  North, most African Americans still lived in the
  South and earned less than a quarter of the
  annual average wages of a factory worker.

47

• Throughout the 1920s, southern agriculture
  suffered from falling prices and overproduction,
  so the depression made an already desperate
  situation worse.
• The Southern Tenant Farmers Union, which some
  black farmers joined, could do little to reform
  an agricultural system based on deep economic and
  racial inequalities

48

• The hasty trials and the harsh sentences in the
  1931 Scottsboro, Alabama, rape case along with an
  increase in lynching in the early 1930s gave
  black Americans a strong incentive to head for
  the North and the Midwest.
• Harlem, one of their main destinations, was
  already strained by the enormous influx of
  African Americans in the 1920s and, in 1935, was
  the setting of the only major race riot of the
  decade, when anger exploded over the lack of
  jobs, a slowdown in relief services, and economic
  exploitation of blacks.

49

• Partly in response to the riot but mainly in
  return for growing black allegiance to the
  Democratic Party, the New Deal channeled
  significant amounts of relief money toward blacks
  outside the South.
• The NAACP continued to challenge the status quo
  of race relations, though calls for racial
  justice went largely unheeded during the
  depression.

50
Dust Bowl Migrations

• The years 1930 to 1941 witnessed the worst
  drought in Americas history, but low rainfall
  alone did not cause the dust bowl.

51
What were the stages of the 1930s dust bowl
disaster?

• A severe drought on the Great Plains, after years
  of ill-advised farming techniques, - To maximize
  profit, farmers stripped the land of its natural
  vegetation, destroying the ecological balance of
  the plains when the rains dried up, there was
  nothing to hold the soil. This created severe
  wind erosion and ultimately a series of dust
  storms. In May 1934 the storms reached the Upper
  Midwest and even the East, where they blackened
  the skies

52
(No Transcript)
53

• The dust bowl was one of the reasons for the
  great migration of Okies from the region. (The
  other was the eviction of farm workers from the
  land due to the growth of large-scale
  agriculture.)
• Okie descendants came to make up a large
  proportion of Californias population, especially
  in the San Joaquin Valley.

54

• John Steinbecks Grapes of Wrath immortalized the
  Okies, ruined by the ecological disaster and
  unable to compete with large-scale corporate
  farms, who headed west in response to promises of
  good jobs in California.
• A few Okies were professionals, business
  proprietors, or white-collar workers, and the
  drive west was fairly easy along Route 66.

55
(No Transcript)
56

• California agriculture was large-scale,
  intensive, and diversified, and its massive
  irrigation system laid the groundwork for serious
  future environmental problems.
• Key California crops had staggered harvest times
  and required a great deal of transient labor a
  steady supply of cheap migrant labor made this
  type of farming feasible.
• At first, migrants met hostility from old time
  Californians, but they stayed and filled
  important roles in Californias expanding economy.

57
Mexican American Communities

• With fear of competition from foreign workers at
  a peak, many Mexican Americans left California
  and returned to Mexico.
• A federal deportation policyfostered by
  racismwas partly responsible for the exodus, but
  many more Mexicans left voluntarily when work ran
  out and local relief agencies refused to assist
  them.

58

• Forced repatriation slowed after 1932, but
  deportation of Mexican Americans was still a
  constant threat and a reminder of their fragile
  status in the United States.
• Discrimination and exploitation were omnipresent
  in the Mexican community César Chávez, a Mexican
  American, became one of the twentieth centurys
  most influential labor organizers.

59

• Many Mexican Americans worked as miners or held
  industrial jobs where they established a vibrant
  tradition of labor activism. For example, Bert
  Corona launched his career as a labor organizer
  with the International Longshoremens and
  Warehousemens Union in Los Angeles.
• Young single women preferred the higher paying
  cannery work to domestic service, needlework, and
  farm labor Mexican American women played a
  leading role in the formation of the United
  Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied
  Workers of America union.

60

• Joining labor unions and becoming more involved
  in American politics were important steps in the
  creation of a distinctive Mexican American ethnic
  identity.

61
Asian Americans Face the Depression

• Men and women of Asian descent constituted a
  minority that concentrated primarily in the
  western states.
• Despite being educated, Asians found relatively
  few professional jobs open to them, as white
  firms refused to hire them.

62

• Asian Americans had carved out a modest success
  by the time of the depression, but a California
  law prohibited Japanese immigrants from owning
  land. Using devices including putting land titles
  in the names of their citizen children, most
  Japanese farmers held on to their land, and the
  amount of acreage owned actually increased.
• Chinese Americans clustered in ethnic enterprises
  in the citys Chinatown although Chinatowns
  businesses suffered during the depression, they
  bounced back more quickly.

63

• In hard times the Chinese turned inward to the
  community, getting assistance from traditional
  Chinese social organizations and kin networks.
• Filipinos were not affected by the ban on Asian
  immigration passed in 1924 because the
  Philippines was a U.S. territory.
• In 1936, Filipinos and Mexican workers came
  together in a Field Workers Union chartered by
  the American Federation of Labor.

64

• The Tydings-McDuffie Act 1934 declared the
  Philippines an independent nation, classified all
  Filipinos in the United States as aliens, and
  restricted immigration as aliens, Filipinos were
  not eligible for citizenship or most assistance
  programs.