Chapter 25 The New Deal. Section 1 Restoring Hope Pages 740-746.

Chapter 25The New Deal

Section 1Restoring Hope

Pages 740-746

Section 1 Objectives

• 1. Describe how the New Deal provided relief for the unemployed.

• 2. Explain how the New Deal promoted industrial and agricultural recovery.

• 3. Discuss the New Deal goals for the Tennessee Valley region.

• 4. Recount how the Roosevelt administration addressed the concerns of African Americans and American Indians.

Roosevelt Confronts the Emergency

• 1932: During Roosevelt’s campaign he formed an advisory group known as the “Brain Trust.” With the support of the group Roosevelt developed the “new deal for the American people.” This new deal would consist of 15 relief and recovery measures. Roosevelt during his inaugural address told the nation that a change in the balance of power might be needed to move Congress forward in times of emergency.

• March 5, 1933: Roosevelt called a special session of Congress. In the next 100 days measures were passed known as the New Deal.

• March 6, 1933: Roosevelt was concentrating on the banking system. He issued a proclamation closing every bank in the nation. This was known as a bank holiday this was a way of stopping bank withdrawals.

• March 9, 1933: The Emergency Banking Act was passed to allow the federal government to examine the banks and those financially sound would reopen. This would hopefully restore confidence in the banking industry. Many were concerned they didn’t have cash during the bank holiday and were trying to find alternate sources.

• “Fireside chats” Roosevelt communicated with the American people by using the radio as a source of restoring confidence in the banking system. Roosevelt would use the radio chats throughout his terms as president to communicate with the American people.

• Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC): June, 1933, the banks reopened with 1 billion dollars being deposited into the system. Congress passed the FDIC which insured at the time deposits up to $ 5,000. Now the FDIC insures up to $100,000.

• Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC): April, 1933 Congress passed the HOLC to assist the homeowners who couldn’t pay their mortgages. By 1936 over a million Americans had been granted low-interest, long-term mortgage loans.

• Farm Credit Administration (FCA): 1933, the FCA was created to provide long term low interest, long term loans to farmers. FCA supported farmers by allowing them to pay off mortgages and back taxes, buy back farms, and purchases supplies for the farm to operate.

Relief for the Needy

• Eleanor Roosevelt: First lady who supported direct relief to the American unemployed.

• Molly Dewson: Democratic National Committee member also supported direct relief programs.

• Frances Perkins: Secretary of Labor. [Before she became Secretary of Labor Perkins was a social worker. Many misunderstood her desire to be taken seriously and called her colorless. This could have arisen from her habit of wearing black dresses and small hat. Despite some of her conservative ideas, particularly her distrust of labor unions. She was a symbol of the New Deal’s liberal policies.]

• Federal Emergency Relief Administration ( FERA): May, 1933-500 million dollars would be distributed to states and local agencies as direct relief. Half of the FERA’s relief went directly to the states for distribution to families. The other half federal government contributed $1 dollar for every $3 dollars states and local governments spent on direct relief. The government provided direct grants, not loans that the Hoover administration had promoted.

• Harry L. Hopkins: former relief supervisor in New York, headed the FERA.

• By 1935 over 3 billion dollars had been distributed in federal aid.

• At one point in the 1930s 8 million American families were receiving public assistance. Many Americans didn’t like direct relief they wanted jobs.

• Civil Works Administration (CWA): From 1933 to 1934 the CWA created federal, state, and local “make work” projects. These projects were raking leavings or picking up trash in local parks. 740 million dollars was paid out by the CWA.

• Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC): established in 1933 to provide relief to unemployed young men between the ages of 18 and 25. Young men went to CCC army training camps. Once trained they planted trees, cleared the underbrush, created park trails, and developed beaches and campsites in our national parks and forests. The CCC was in existence for 10 years and employed more than 2.5 million young men.

• National Recovery Administration (NRA): General Hugh S. Johnson, head of the NRA, tried to win support for his agency for associating compliance with the NRA codes with patriotism. When labor leaders, liberals, and progressives complained that the NRA catered to big business. Roosevelt created a review board to investigate complaints. Lawyer Clarence Darrow was appointed to head the inquiry. He soon agreed that the NRA was dominated by monopolies and was not solving any economic problems. Businesses didn’t obey the codes and consumers thought the codes pushed prices up. Some called the NRA “National Run Around” in 1935 NRA found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

Helping the Nation Recover

• Roosevelt felt that some business practices needed to be reformed. This was important in the economy’s recovery and guard against stock fraud.

• Roosevelt supported the Federal Securities Act: which created the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulates companies that sell stocks and bonds.

• John Maynard Keynes: British economist in which the new deal program was based. He argued that for a nation to recover from depression they must spend money to encourage investment and consumption.

• “Priming the pump”: Roosevelt dumped money into the U.S. economy through federal loans and government spending.

• National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA): June, 1933. This Act would stabilize prices, raising wages, limiting work hours, and providing jobs. The NIRA Act created two federal agencies.

• 1. Public Works Administration: Secretary of the Interior, Harold Ickes led the PWA. The PWA used federal funds to contract with private industry to build public roads, buildings, and other projects.

• 2. National Recovery Administration: businesses were to create “codes of fair competition” under the codes, competing businesses agreed to work together to set hours, prices, production levels, and wages. Antitrust laws were suspended under the NIRA. The NIRA allowed workers the right to organize and bargain collectively.

Agricultural Recovery

• Agricultural Adjustment Administration: May, 1933; Roosevelt felt if farmers would cut their production prices would rise. The AAA paid farmers to cut their outcomes of corn, cotton, dairy products, hogs, rice, tobacco, wheat, and some other commodities. The money came from taxes on flour millers, meat packers, and canners.

• The outcome: price did rise on the cotton crop and many felt this was from the New Deal. The negative: taxes on processors led to higher prices on consumers.

• Many felt farmers with large landholdings gained from the AAA than smaller farmers. When the large farmers cut production it forced sharecroppers off their land. In 1936 the Supreme Court declared the AAA unconstitutional based on taxes on food processors.

• STFU: Racial Integration and Labor Organizing: 1934. African Americans and white people joined the union in segregated local branches. Eventually the groups merged to form a racially integrated union. The STFU helped gather evidence against planters who denied their tenants a share of AAA subsidies. Members also protested discriminatory practices such as the poll tax, demonstrated in favor of labor reforms, and conducted strikes. Violence did occur against members. The STFU’s work eventually led to the creation of the Farm Security Administration.

Revitalizing a Region

• Tennessee Valley Authority: May, 1933; The TVA was headed by David E. Lilienthal. This program was spread out over a seven state area. It sets out to address the issues of flooding and deforestation. Other issues the TVA would address would be disease, illiteracy, malnutrition, and poverty. The TVA was going to change the economic and social life of the region. The TVA worked towards improving the life in the region and built several dams and power stations for producing electricity.

• Many thought the federal government was abusing power. Private utilities thought the government would cause them to lose money. The Supreme Court refused to strike down the TVA.

Equality Under the New Deal

• New Deal programs supported and supplied aid to all races.

• CCC: African American men received work and training. The men were segregated from white workers.

• TVA: employed African American workers, but were not allowed to live in some of the model town built by the TVA.

• NRA: the codes set wages lower for African Americans than for whites.

• The social attitudes of the time were reflective of Americans. The depression raised social and racial discrimination in the country.

• Roosevelt didn’t support an antilynching law because he feared lack of political support of southern democrats.

• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Supported the antilynching law.

Fighting Discrimination

• Harold Ickes: former leader of the NAACP bought many African Americans to advise the Department of Interior on racial issues.

• Robert C. Weaver: another advisor would held a Ph.D in economics from Harvard.

• Federal Council on Negro Affairs: evolved from the African Americans involved in the Roosevelt administration. Became known as the “Black Brain Trust.”

• Marian Anderson: 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow the singer to perform at their Washington D.C. hall.

Rights of American Indians

• 1920s -the American Indians were suffering from lack of nutrition, poor health care, and inadequate housing –The Dawes Act of 1887:stripped away the Indian culture by ending tribal government and sold off tribal land.

• John Collier: 1920s social worker who worked to help the Indian community.

• 1933: Roosevelt nominated Collier to be Commissioner of Indian Affairs working to improve the lives of Indians.

• 1934, Indian Reorganization Act: reversed the Dawes Act of 1887. Tribal rule was revived, college education was provided for young American Indians, and to provide support for preserving Indian culture.

Assignment

• It is 1933 and you are artists who have been hired by the federal government to create informational posters about New Deal programs. Create posters describing New Deal unemployment relief programs. Example: CWA , created jobs such as raking leaves and picking up trash.