US History since 1865

1
US History since 1865

• The New Deal

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FDR (1933-1945)

• To conservatives, he led the nation onto the
  highway of destruction to liberals, he was
  either in conspiracy with monopolists at heart or
  too pragmatic to give coherence to a program that
  might end up in creating a new system.

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FDR (II)

• He was neither a revolutionary genius nor a
  reactionary bigot but a sympathetic politician
  operating within American reform tradition.
• He was playing the New Deal of the old cards.  It
  was radical only in the sense that it was rapid
  in implementation and it was a good contrast to
  the seemingly do-nothing attitude of the
  Harding-Coolidge-Hoover triumvirate.

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FDR (III)

• Before FDR, Americans believed in administration
  and bureaucracy FDR led through charisma there
  were charismatic leaders before him but he was
  the first one to use it deliberately.
• He was the second president to seize power from
  Congress
• He was the first president to use modern
  technology to manipulate his constituency.
• The only president to be elected four times

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The Age of Dictators (I)
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The Age of Dictators (II)

• Adolf Hitler (Nazism)
• Mussolini (Fascism)
• Stalin (Communism)
• Chiang Kai-shek (Nationalism)
• Hirohito (militarism)
• FDR (?)

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The Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself

• a. Four month interregnum (later changed from
  March 4 to January 3) b. Declaring a national
  emergency "I shall ask Congress for the
  remaining instrument to meet the crisis--broad
  executive power to wage a war against emergency
  as great as the power that would be given me if
  we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe."

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The First Hundred Days (3/9-6/16, 1933) (I)

• banking holiday--it took Congress seven hours to
  pass the Emergency Banking Act
• radio fireside chat "...keep your money in a
  reopened bank.  It is your problem no less than
  mine,  Together we cannot fail."
• Farm Credit Administration--loaning funds to
  struggling farmers
• Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
• Federal Security Act--requiring full disclosure
  about new stocks and bond issues

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The First Hundred Days (3/9-6/16, 1933) (II)

• Federal Emergency Relief Administration federal
  grants, not loans, floated to states work
  programs for student aid, education, rural
  rehabilitation
• Civil Works Administration (CWA) providing jobs
  to those able to work
• The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)
  compensation for voluntary cutbacks in
  production, also known as the plow-under program,
  which led to the epic Dust Bowl migration.  "To
  destroy a growing crop was a shocking commentary
  on our civilization."
• viv. Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC)
  subtreasury plan realized, loans on cotton and
  other crops that were stored and off the market

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The First Hundred Days (3/9-6/16, 1933) (III)

• National Recovery Administration (NRA) to
  stabilize business with codes of fair competitive
  practice and to generate more purchasing power by
  providing jobs and raising wages cooperation
  among management, labor and government
  establishing new standards such as forty-hour
  week, minimum wages, limits of expansion,
  biweekly reports on factory operations and
  provisos against child labor
• Public Works Administration (PWA) big budget
  (3.3 billion for public buildings highways
  programs, flood control and other internal
  improvements.  designed to prime the pump of
  business with new expenditures and to provide
  jobs for the unemployed.  Skyline Drive,
  Triborough Bridge, Overseas Highway and Chicago's
  Subway
• Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) a project of
  growth focusing on control of flood, generation
  of electricity and conservation.  "Giving us the
  example of setting an example of planning, not
  just for ourselves but for generations to come,
  tying industry and agriculture and forestry and
  flood prevention over a distance of a thousand
  miles."

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Attacks from the Left (I)
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Attacks from the Left (II)

• Huey Long Share Our Wealth
• Father Coughlin National Union for Justice
• Francis Townsend Townsend Club, old age
  revolving pensions

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Attacks from the right

• The Supreme Court declared FDR wrongfully used
  his power and ruled that NIRA unconstitutional
• Congress
• Business community

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The second New Deal (I)

• The Wagner Labor Relations Act (7/1935)
  guaranteeing the right of the labor to organize
  and bargain collectively prohibited employers
  from interfering with union activities

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The second New Deal (II)
Social Security Act (8/1935) i. created a
pension fund for retired people over the age of
65--contributions from both employees and
employers ii. set up a shared federal-state
unemployment insurance program financed by a
payroll tax on the employer iii. it committed
the national government to a broad range of
social-welfare activities based on the assumption
that employed would remain a state responsibility
while the national government would provide work
relief
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The second New Deal (III)

• Works Progress Administration (WPA) roads,
  schools, buildings, airports and bridges were
  constructed also included the Federal Theater
  Project, the Federal Art Project and the Federal
  Writers project

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The second New Deal (IV)

• The Revenue Act, a.k.a. the Wealth Tax Act or
  Soak the Rich Act raised surtax on income over
  50,000 and raised graduated income tax to a
  maximum of 75 percent on incomes over 5 million
• The second New Deal underscored the importance of
  social welfare rather than simply providing
  relief in times of depression it deflected the
  offensive from the left while not embarking a
  radical approach of economic reforms it saved
  capitalism.

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Reelection and the Battle with the Court

• won reelection in 1936 in a land slide African
  Americans cast the majority of their votes for
  the first time for a Democratic president
  candidate ("My friends, go home and turn
  Lincoln's Picture to the wall.  The debt has been
  paid in full.") carried all the state except
  Maine and Vermont
• With major New Deal programs being struck down by
  the high Court, FDR attempted to change the
  makeup of the court through expanding it fifty
  new federal judges, including six Supreme Court
  justices. 
• It ran into stiff opposition.  Sudden reversal
  of Court opinion on the New Deal (minimum wage
  law, the Wagner Act, the Social Security Act,
  etc.)

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The Revival of Labor Movement

• The President wanted you to join the union
• CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations) became
  powerful with organizational strength in mining,
  railroad, rubber, oil and textile industries.
• Governmental support and public sympathy

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Deficit spending

• John Maynard Keynes, "The General Theory of
  Employment, Interest and Money"--during
  recessionary times the government should actively
  intervene through deficit spending and easier
  monetary policies to stimulate the economy.

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HUAC

• With a new round of recession in 1937, FDR began
  to introduce new reform measures but he met
  growing opposition
• HUAC--House Committee on Un-American Activities
  Martin Dies from Texas, "Stalin halted his hook
  with a 'progressive worm,' and New Deal suckers
  swallowed bait, hook and sinker."

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The Legacy of the New Deal

• the power of the government was vastly enlarged
  b. FDR's pragmatism was profoundly revolutionary
  and conservative--the New Deal left America
  greatly changed in many ways, its economy more
  managed than before bit it also left the basic
  capitalistic structure of the economic system in
  place
• the old progressive formulation of regulation or
  trsut-busting was replaced by the rise of the
  "broker state", a government that mediated among
  major interest groups an honest broker
  protecting a variety of interests, not just big
  business but also workers, farmers, consumers,
  small business and the unemployed
• steered a course between the extremes of
  laissez-faire and socialism