FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT AND THE NEW DEAL

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FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT AND THE NEW DEAL

• America Past and Present
• Chapter 26

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The Great Depression

• 1920s optimism drives increase in expectations of
  a better way of life
• After 1929 despair sets in

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The Great Bull Market

• 1928--soaring stock prices attract individual,
  corporate investment
• 1929--stock market crashes
• Directly affects 3 million
• Credit crunch stifles business
• Businesses lay off workers
• Demand for consumer goods declines

4
The Great Depression

• Hardship affects all classes
• The middle class loses belief in ever-increasing
  prosperity
• Thousands of young homeless, jobless

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Unemployment, 1929-1942
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Fighting the Depression

• Republican attempts to overcome catastrophe
  flounder
• Depression gives Democrats opportunity to regain
  power

7
Hoover and Voluntarism

• Hoover initially seeks solution through voluntary
  action, private charity
• Eventually aids farmers and bankers
• Resists Democratic efforts to give direct aid to
  the unemployed
• Perceived as indifferent to human suffering
• Programs seen as incompetent

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Bank Failures, 1929-1933
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The Emergence of Roosevelt

• Franklin Roosevelt
• Born to wealth and privilege
• 1921--crippled by polio
• 1928--elected governor of New York
• Talented politician
• 1932--defeats Hoover with farmer-
  worker-immigrant-Catholic coalition

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The Hundred Days

• Banking system saved from collapse
• Fifteen major laws provide relief
• New Deal aims to reform and restore, not
  nationalize, the economy

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Roosevelt and Recovery

• National Recovery Administration
• Industries formulate codes to eliminate
  cut-throat competition, ensure labor peace
• Codes favor big business, unenforceable
• 1935--NRA ruled unconstitutional
• Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933
• Farmers paid to take land out of cultivation
• Prices increase
• Sharecroppers, tenant farmers dispossessed

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Roosevelt and Relief

• 1933--Harry Hopkins placed in charge of RFC to
  direct aid to unemployed
• 1933--Civilian Conservation Corps provides
  employment to young people
• 1935--Works Progress Administration place
  unemployed on federal payroll
• Programs never sufficiently funded

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Roosevelt and Reform

• 1933-34--focus on immediate problems
• 1935--shift to permanent economic reform

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Angry Voices

• Father Charles Coughlin advocates nationalizing
  banks, anti-Semitism
• Francis Townsend calls for wealth redistribution
  from young to the elderly
• Huey Long calls for redistribution of wealth by
  seizing private fortunes

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Social Security

• 1935--Social Security Act passed
• Criticisms
• Too few people would collect pensions
• Unemployment package inadequate
• Establishes pattern of government aid to poor,
  aged, handicapped

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Labor Legislation

• 1935--Wagner Act
• allows unions to organize
• outlaws unfair labor practices
• 1938--Fair Labor Standard Act
• maximum hour
• minimum wage

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Impact of the New Deal

• Roosevelts leftward turn erodes support for
  Coughlin, Townsend, Long
• Remains within mainstream of American traditions
• Helps labor unions most
• Helps women, minorities least

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Rise of Organized Labor

• 1932--National Recovery Act spurs union
  organizers
• Congress of Industrial Organization (CIO) formed
  by John L. Lewis
• CIO unionizes steel, auto industries
• 1940--CIO membership hits 5 million, 28 of labor
  force unionized

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The New Deal Record on Help to Minorities

• Crop reduction program allows whites to fire or
  evict blacks, Hispanics
• Public works programs help by providing
  employment
• New Deal figures convince minorities that the
  government is on their side
• 1934--Indian Reorganization Act gives American
  Indians greater control

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Women at Work

• Position of women deteriorates in 30s
• Jobs lost at a faster rate than men
• Hardly any New Deal programs help
• Progress in government
• Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor, the first
  woman cabinet member
• Women appointed to several other posts
• Eleanor Roosevelt a model for activism

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End of the New Deal

• 1936--New Deal peaks with Roosevelts reelection
• Congress resists programs after 1936

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The Election of 1936

• FDRs campaign
• Attacks the rich
• Promises further reforms
• Defeats Republican Alf Landon
• Democrats win lopsided majorities in both houses
  of Congress
• FDR coalition South, cities, labor, ethnic
  groups, African-Americans, poor

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The Supreme Court Fight

• Supreme Court blocks several of FDRs first-term
  programs
• 1937--FDR seeks right to "pack" Court
• Congressional protest forces retreat
• FDRs opponents emboldened

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The New Deal in Decline

• 1936--cutbacks for relief agencies
• 1937--severe slump hits economy
• Roosevelt blamed, resorts to huge government
  spending
• 1938--Republican party revives

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Evaluation of the New Deal

• New Deals limitations
• Depression not ended
• Economic system not fundamentally altered
• Little done for those without political clout
• Achievements
• Social Security, the Wagner Act
• Political realignment of the 1930s