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Franklin D. Rooseveltand the New Deal

CONGRESS GETS BUSY

FDR’s philosophy: get people help & work through “deficit” spending

During the famous “100 Days”(March--June 1933), Congress passed 15 major laws (the New Deal)

The Three Rs Relief: provide

immediate help to the desperate

Recovery: provide jobs & get the economy going

Reform: prevent future depressions

Purposes of the New Deal

Immediately declares 4-day bank holiday

Created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)

Insured account holders up to $5,000

(today up to $250,000)

ALPHABET SOUP AGENCIES

CCC – Civilian Conservation Corps

3 million men ages 18-

25 worked building roads, parks, planting trees

Paid $30/month; $22 went to the family

Civilian Conservation Corps

CCC

FDR believed Depression was caused by too much cutthroat competition

Created partnership of business, labor & government to set prices, wages, work hours

Businesses who participated got to fly Blue Eagle flag

Huge government involvment in the economy

National Recovery Administration (NRA)

ROOSEVELT’S FIRESIDE CHATS

FDR communicated to Americans via radio

His frequent talks explained to Americans what he was doing

ALPHABET SOUP AGENCIES

FERA – Federal Emergency Relief Agency—

$500 million in direct relief (food & clothes) to the neediest Americans

Citizens wait outside a FERA in Calipatria, CA for relief

checks

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

Huge government program to provide work building dams

Provided flood control, electricity & irrigation

Copyright 2000, Bedford/St. Martin’s

Goal: Raise crop prices for farmers

• Paid farmers who reduced production of basic crops such as wheat, corn

• In first year 2 million cows & 6 million pigs destroyed

Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)

Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC)

Created in 1934 to regulate trading practices in stocks and bonds

CRITICS EMERGE

Liberals-- FDR’s NOT doing enough!

Conservatives—FDR’s doing TOO much and interfering with free market economy

• New Deal = socialism (killed individualism)

• Added to national debt ($35 billion)

• Wasted money • FDR reaching toward

dictatorship

Criticisms of Conservative Opponents

This conservative organization had $ but was small in numbers

American Liberty League Forms

Father Charles Coughlin

Every Sunday Coughlin broadcast radio sermons slamming FDR

He called for a guaranteed annual income and nationalized banks

45 million listeners

Increasingly anti-Semitic remarks cost him support

• Elderly doctor from CA.

• Wanted government to pay $200/month to people over 60.

• Each pensioner would have to spend the $ in 30 days.

• Would be paid for by a 2% national sales tax

Dr. Francis E. Townsend

Long said New Deal measures were “mere crumbs” and advocated a share the wealth plan

---a guaranteed annual income of $5,000 for every American ---to be paid for by taking wealth of people who made over $1 million per year)

Senator Huey Long (LA)

• Many were still out of work• FDR took still more action

The Second New Deal (1935-36)

Works Progress Administration

(WPA)

• Biggest New Deal agency; employed 8 million

• WPA workers built 850 airports, 651,000 miles of roads and streets, 125,000 public buildings, reservoirs, irrigation, sewage, schools, playgrounds

• Also hired artists, writers, musicians, photographers to create art

The Davis Street School Extension in Atlanta under

construction as part of the Works Progress Administration

Program, November 2, 1936

Federal Theatre Project

WPA Murals

San Geronimo muralTam Mural WPA Murals In SF

The W.P.A. at Work

Rural Electrification Administration 1935

REA

SUPREME COURT REACTS 1935

• Struck down NRA as unconstitutional (too much govt control over industry)

• Also killed AAA (said agricultural was a local not a federal matter)The Supreme Court --

1935

Wagner Act

Guaranteed unions right to organize & bargain collectively

Established National Labor Relations Board to mediate disputes

SOCIAL SECURITY ACT

Pensions for those over 65

Paid for by tax out of people’s paycheck (payroll tax)

Unemployment compensation

Aid to families with dependent children & disabled (1st direct welfare program)

• Response to Huey Long • Increased taxes on large

incomes & corporations.

Soak the Rich”Act of 1935

Educated farmers how to use land without damaging it

Paid farmers to follow conservation practices

Second Agricultural Adjustment Act

FDR WINS AGAIN IN

1936

Wide appeal, especially in urban areas

Blacks, Jews, Catholics, immigrants all supported the popular president FDR & Eleanor campaign

by rail in 1936

FDR frustrated w/Court’s conservative members

Proposed increasing Court from 9 to 15 members, so he could appoint supporters

Even fellow Democrats outraged

Court-Packing Plan

Court packing plan cartoon here

Fair Labor Standards Act (1938) • Set minimum wage & maximum 40-hour work week

THE IMPACT OF THE NEW DEAL

Opinions range from harsh criticism to high praise – usually along partisan lines

Conservatives feel FDR made government too large & powerful

Liberals feel govt intervention was necessary and effective

LEGACIES OF THE NEW DEAL

FDIC – banking insurance critical to sound economy

Deficit spending has became a normal feature of government

Social Security is a key legacy of the New Deal in that the Feds have assumed a greater responsibility for the social welfare of citizens since 1935