Franklin D. Roosevelt and His New Deal

1
Franklin D. Roosevelt and His New Deal

• Eighth Grade Georgia History
• Advanced
• Mr. Richard White
• George Washington Middle School
• Third Semester

2
Georgia Performance Standard

• SS8H8 The student will analyze the important
  events that occurred after World War I and their
  impact on Georgia.
• Describe the impact of the boll weevil and
  drought on Georgia.
• b. Explain economic factors that resulted in the
  Great Depression.
• c. Discuss the impact of the political career of
  Eugene Talmadge.
• d. Discuss the effect of the New Deal in terms of
  the impact of the Civilian Conservation Corps,
  Agricultural Adjustment Act, rural
  electrification, and Social Security.
• A full copy of these standards can be found at
• http//www.georgiastandards.org/socialstudies.aspx

3
The New Deal and President Roosevelt

• How did the Civilian Conservation Corps motivate
  citizens?
• What impact did the Agricultural Adjustment Act
  have?
• How did Roosevelt bring about rural
  electrification?
• How did social security develop from the New Deal?

4
The Civilian Conservation Corps

• Most popular of New Deal Programs and first one
  passed.
• Bill introduced March 27, 1933 and passed by both
  houses of Congress.
• Signed into law March 31, 1933.

5
The Civilian Conservation Corps

• Recruited unemployed young men to reforest the
  nations declining woodlands, and help fight the
  soil erosion brought on by deforestation.
• First man enrolled on April 7, 1933. That was
  only 37 days after the passage of the bill.
• Robert Fechner was appointed director on April 5,
  1933.
• By April of 1934 the Corps was on a firm
  foundation, enjoying almost universal approval.

6
The Civilian Conservation Corps

• Workers were paid 30 per month, while their
  families received a 25 per month allotment
  check.
• More than 72 million was poured into towns
  across the country, and this helped boost local
  economies and save many small businesses.
• Towns close to the camps housing the workers
  enjoyed 5000 per month boosts to their economies
  and many small family owned business were saved.

7
Civilian Conservation Corps

• Men were recruited and lived in camps around the
  country at one time there were over 900 of these
  camps.
• They were provided uniforms and tents for living
  quarters.
• The men built roads, strung telephone cable, and
  planted trees to stave off soil erosion.
• At one point there were over 600,000 men enrolled
  in the program.

8
Civilian Conservation Corps

• In the beginning education and job training were
  not available, however, during later years it was
  included and over 40,000 illiterates were taught
  to read and write.
• In 1933 leaders decided that the program should
  include Native Americans, and through the CCC
  approximately 80,000 American Indians were paid
  to save the lands they once occupied.
• Program grew through the 1930s and early into
  the 1940s, however, by June of 1942 the program
  was dying. After Pearl Harbor and the improving
  economy, people were working and going off to
  war.
• In June of 1942, Congress agreed to cut funding
  for the program.

9
Agricultural Adjustment Act

• Passed May 12, 1933 it restricted crop production
  during the New Deal.
• Paid farmers not to plant and grow crops on their
  property.
• This would lower the amount of surplus on the
  market and thus raise crop prices stabilizing a
  volatile market place.

10
Agricultural Adjustment Act

• Many farmers plowed under crops in accordance
  with the act many people complained about this
  because their were hungry Americans who could
  have been fed.
• A lawsuit was filed over the taxation funding of
  the program and on January 6, 1936 the act was
  found unconstitutional because it unfairly taxed
  one group to pay another.
• On February 16, 1938 a second AAA was passed and
  funded from the general taxation fund.

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Agricultural Adjustment Act

• The Thomas Amendment to the Act was approved May
  12, 1933.
• This allowed the President to accept silver on
  the war debt account and to issue silver
  certificates that could be redeemed for silver
  coinage.
• Up to 200 million in silver could be received
  and reissued.
• Over 7 million pieces of silver currency were
  minted and issued through this act.
• This reduced the amount of silver being held by
  citizens and served as a hedge for the government
  against inflation.

12
Agricultural Adjustment Act

• In 1933 paid out over 100 million to cotton
  farmers to plow under crops.
• The government slaughtered 6 million piglets,
  canned the meat, and used it to feed the poor.
• In the end the program worked evictions from
  farms were down, crop prices were rising, and
  farm incomes were on the rise.
• Sharecroppers, who were mostly poor black
  families, were not helped by the AAA. As they
  were told to destroy crops by the farmers who
  hired them, their income was lost. Eventually
  most of them ended up in the inner city ghettos.

13
Rural Electrification

• Rural Electrification Act of 1936 was passed to
  provide funding for electrical distribution
  services to rural areas of the United States.
• At the time the act was passed electricity was
  readily available in cities but farms, rural
  areas, and ranches rarely had electric power.

14
Rural Electrification

• Funding to generate the power was provided
  through local member-owned co-operatives. Many of
  these still exist today.
• These co-ops purchased the power at a wholesale
  price, and distributed it using their own lines a
  transformers. This saved their members money on
  electricity costs.
• REA crews traveled the countryside with teams of
  electricians they would install a fuse panel
  with range and kitchen panels, as well as two to
  three lighting panels.

15
Rural Electrification

• They would also install one ceiling mounted light
  fixture in each room, controlled by a switch, and
  one outlet in each room. Electric appliances were
  expensive and few had them, so more outlets were
  not necessary.
• Many of these installations still exist today,
  however, most have been augmented or upgraded to
  support the abundance of electrical appliances
  available today.
• The REA is considered one of the most successful
  government projects ever. By the end of 1938 the
  REA had 350 co-op projects in 45 states and was
  delivering electricity to over 1.5 million farms.
• This success spawned growth in the manufacture of
  appliances, and allowed television and radio to
  expand to rural areas.

16
Social Security

• The Social Security Act of 1935 was signed on
  August 14, 1935.
• Designed to insure that older retired Americans
  would have a pension or death benefit once they
  were unemployed or no longer working.
• Benefit would be paid from tax collect from those
  currently working, half paid by the employee and
  half paid by the employer.
• One of the most popular government programs ever.

17
Social Security

• Originally only covered primary worker, and
  excluded farmers, the self-employed, and anyone
  who employed less than 10 people.
• Even with these limitations Social Security
  covered over half of the United States civilian
  work force.
• The 1935 Act contained the first
  unemployment-compensation program, aid to states
  for health and welfare programs, and the first
  Aid to Dependant Children Program.
• The initial tax rate was 2 of the first 3000 of
  earnings, shared equally between employer and
  employee.
• This tax known as FICA or the Federal Insurance
  Contributions Act tax was amended in 1939.

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Social Security

• The FICA Tax was amended to include
• The widowed, nonworking spouse of a someone
  entitled to an old-age benefit.
• Survivors (widows and orphans) became eligible
  for a benefit.
• Retirees who had never paid any FICA taxes became
  eligible for old-age benefits.

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Social Security
The program has undergone many changes since its
inception, and is currently threatened by a
shortfall in funding. Questions have arisen in
recent years over the cost of the program. Some
advocate privatization, allowing workers to
choose how their withholdings are invested, while
others want to do away with the program all
together. The question that remains to be
answered is will todays workers be financing
tomorrows retirees?
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For More Information on These Topics Please Visit
http//www.cccalumni.org/history1.html http//en.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_Conservation_Corps ht
tp//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_Adjustment
_Act http//www.historylearningsite.co.uk/New_Dea
l_farmers.htm http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_
Electrification_Act http//eh.net/encyclopedia/ar
ticle/malone.electrification.administration.rural
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_(Uni
ted_States) http//www.ssa.gov/history/35actinx.h
tml