New Deal: Big Deal!

1
New Deal Big Deal!

• Although the nation had begun to recover under
  the New Deal, the recovery was incomplete.
  Incomes and farm prices still lagged behind
  pre-crash levels. In addition, more than 20
  percent of the working population was still
  unemployed.

2
New Deal Big Deal! (cont.)

• The AAA did some farmers more harm that good.
  Landowners tended to reduce the number of acres
  planted by evicting tenant farmers and keeping
  AAA subsidies for themselves. The interracial
  Southern Tenant Farmers Union (STFU) tried to
  win a fair share of the subsidies, but it met
  strong opposition from landowners and inaction by
  Roosevelt.

3
New Deal Big Deal! (cont.)

• The NIRA helped spur unionization but did little
  to ease conflicts between workers and management.
  Because unionization tended to increase the
  number of strikes and protests, many business
  leaders and factory owners illegally tried to
  prevent unionizing. Roosevelt, who worried about
  labors power to halt economy recovery, did not
  always protect workers rights.

4
New Deal Big Deal! (cont.)
5
New Deal Big Deal! (cont.)

• Frustrated with the slowness and the limited
  scope of Roosevelts New Deal, many Americans
  turned to leaders who promised simple and
  sometimes radical solutions to the nations
  pressing problems.

6
New Deal Big Deal! (cont.)

• Popular New Deal opponents included (1) Dr.
  Francis Townshend, who proposed retirement and a
  government pension for everyone over age 60, (2)
  Father Charles Coughlin, a demagogue whose
  anti-Semitic tirades called for a redistribution
  of wealth, and (3) Louisiana Senator Huey Long,
  who launched his own Share the Wealth campaign.

7
New Deal No Deal

• Roosevelt not only faced opposition from people
  who demanded that the government do more for the
  needy, but also from people who demanded it do
  less.

8
New Deal No Deal (cont.)

• Many business leaders charged that Roosevelt was
  interfering too much with private businesses,
  spending an excessive amount of money on relief,
  and leading the nation toward socialism. In 1934
  a number of unhappy politicians and
  businesspeople formed the American Liberty League
  to destroy the New Deal, but it never gained much
  support.

9
New Deal No Deal (cont.)

• The Supreme Court had more success in attacking
  the New Deal. In the mid-1930s the Court
  overturned the NIRA and the AAA.
• Commerce Clause
• Article , Section 8, Clause 3
• To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and
  among the several States
• The court read that clause to mean Congress could
  only regulate goods that passed between states

10
Court packing

• FDR introduced a bill to add six new judges to
  the Supreme Court
• While he argued it was only to help lessen the
  workload of the judges, it was clearly an attempt
  to manipulate the court
• The Supreme Court soon changed its interpretation
  of the commerce clause in NLRB v Jones Laughlin
  Steel Company and Wickard v Filburn this
  allowed the government to now regulate almost all
  areas of the economy

11
New Deal No Deal (cont.)

• Faced with attacks by radicals, liberals, and
  conservatives and hampered by the Supreme Court,
  FDR revamped his recovery and reform policies. In
  1935 he launched the Second New Deal.

12
The Second New Deal

• To put more people back to work, FDR proposed the
  Works Progress Administration (WPA) in April
  1935. The WPA, headed by Harry Hopkins, funded a
  variety of building projects and put unemployed
  artists, teachers, writers, and actors back to
  work. ?

• In August 1935 Congress also passed the Social
  Security Act, which instituted pensions and
  survivors benefits for the elderly and the
  orphaned and aid to individuals injured in
  industrial accidents.

13
The Second New Deal (cont.)

• Roosevelt further aided recovery by restoring to
  workers and farmers the rights and privileges
  that the Supreme Court had revoked. ?

• The Wagner Act of 1935 restored the right of
  workers to form unions and to bargain
  collectively. It also set up the National Labor
  Relations Board (NLRB) to ensure that employers
  followed the new law.

14
The Second New Deal (cont.)

• The Soil Conservation Act of 1936 required
  farmers to reduce the acreage of the same crops
  the AAA had previously paid them not to plant.

• To further help farmers, Congress passed the
  Rural Electrification Act of 1935, which lent
  money to groups of farmers who organized to build
  power plants.

15
The Second New Deal (cont.)

• Roosevelt won widespread popular support with
  passage of the Public Utility Holding Company
  Act, which pared down huge utility conglomerates,
  and the Revenue Act of 1935, which increased the
  taxes paid by wealthy corporations and
  individuals.

16
Reelection and Redirection

• Roosevelt geared his 1936 election campaign
  toward the lower and middle classes, which handed
  him a lopsided victory over Alf Landon.