Group 5

Group 5

“Housing and Social Security” – “FDR’s Balance”Mel Rio, Adam Smith, Brooke Ferguson

Housing

New Deal sets up Federal Housing Administration in 1939 – one of the few committees set up by the New Deal that is still alive today

USHA – United States Housing Association – Lent money to states/communities for low-cost housing and construction

Not very effective: opposition from real estate agencies, builders, and landlords stopped expansion of the project

SLUMS stopped growing, and actually shrank during the Great Depression

Insurance and Social Security

Social Security Act of 1935 – incredibly complex legislation providing insurance and compensation for the unemployed, retired, handicapped, and other dependents (including delinquent children)

Republicans were against such social securities

Such social securities were inspired by, but different from European ones – Americans had to work for their compensations

Organized Labor

NRA Blue Eagles New Deal lowered unemployment Despite high unemployment rates, there

were many walk-outs in the summer of 1934

WE DO OUR PART

Legislation and Strikes

Wagner Act of 1935 or National Labor Relations Act of 1935: Created the National Labor Relations Board; allowed workers to assert their rights as workers, such as striking, collective bargaining, etc.

Strikes began to get a little messy: the Committee for Industrial Organization organized to a “revolutionary” strategy and held a sit-in protest in the automobile industry; the United States Steel Company granted Unionization rights to its employees to avoid a costly strike; a strike by workers from a smaller steel company, the Republic Steel Company, turned into a massacre.

Fair Labor Standards Act

Passed by Congress in 1938 Affected interstate commerce companies Strove to set up minimum wage and

maximum hours Goal: 40 hours a week, 40 cents an hour (at

first) Child labor: under 16 forbidden; in dangerous

jobs, under 18 Excluded agricultural, domestic, and service

workers

Twilight of the New Deal Though unemployment rates dropped from 25% to 15%,

the Depression didn’t vanish with FDR’s first term in office (1933-1937)

Another sharp recession, dubbed ‘Roosevelt’s recession’ arrived due to gov’t policies (ex: Social Services)

FDR took on the policies of British economist John Maynard Keynes (thus, “Keynesianism”) – a plan to stimulate the economy based on deficit spending

After two years of urging, Congress passed the Reorganization Act in 1939, which allowed FDR to arrange new administrative reforms

The Hatch Act of the same year prevented federal office officials – except a few select high-ranking policy-makers – from active political campaigning, and forbade the use of gov’t funds for political purposes

John Maynard Keynes

New Deal or Raw Deal?

New Deal was criticized for waste, incompetence, confusion, contradictions and cross-purposes, as well as being criticized for naming of many gov’t agencies (unnecessarily confusing ‘alphabet soup’)

FDR was “willing to try anything,” but had increased federal debt by almost 25 billion dollars in seven years

Businessmen criticized gov’t involvement in economy and business, saying they could get themselves out of their economic slump if the gov’t would just back off

New Deal also criticized as useless – Depression was still happening

WWII finally solved the unemployment problem, but the national debt increased astronomically – from 40 billion to 258 billion dollars

Unemployed in the Great Depression

FDR’s Balance Sheet

Many advocates of the New Deal claimed that it had indeed alleviated the worst of the Depression

Some other New Dealers said the gov’t was obliged to interfere with the economy in order to prevent mass starvation

FDR’s admirers claimed that he was the hero of business and free enterprise

FDR kept himself between the far left and the far right, possibly the “greatest American conservative” since Hamilton

Was vital in preserving democracy in America while it was dissolving all over Europe

FDR

Nine Old Men on the Bench•Supreme Court objects to “New Deal” policies

•Roosevelt challenges the Constitution by changing the Supreme Court

•Proposed that new judges be created, the number of new judges equal to the judges over 70 in the current government

•Roosevelt used the basis of the presidential elections of 1932 and 1936, as well as congressional election of 1934 to prove people overwhelmingly supported the “New Deal” ideas

•Lost a lot of support over proposal

The Court Changes Course•Roosevelt seen as a dictator

•Conservative judges start to lean to liberal policies, based upon fear of “being on the chopping block”

•“A switch in time saves nine”

•Social Security Act, Wagner Act (National Labor Relations Act), and state minimum wage for women all pass the Supreme Court

•Congress passes a bill allowing for full pay for justices over 70 who retired

•Succession of deaths and resignations allow Roosevelt to be the first president since George Washington to make 9 appointments to the tribunal

•Aroused conservatives, thus causing a reduction of reform bills passing after 1937 (year of the court controversy)

1936 Election

Gov. Alfred Landon

FDR with Elenor after hearing results

1937 Supreme Court

Political Cartoon Criticizing FDR

Political Cartoon Criticizing the New Supreme Court

Works Cited

http://www.philadelphia-reflections.com/images/keynes.jpg http://s9.photobucket.com/albums/a79/n-jay/?action=view&current=FDR.jpg http://vastate.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/depression.jpg http://www.newdeal75.org/images/fdr31.jpg http://www.nps.gov/archive/elro/images/iaacf-landon.jpg http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0bAK8T711E2oC/610x.jpg http://pro.corbis.com/images/BE036442.jpg?size=67&uid=%7B5C808E3B-

D583-4446-9092-50DE2965A7EB%7D http://newdeal.feri.org/court/toons/031.jpg http://www.gooznersolar.com/20071016decathlon/MoreDecathlon.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1934_West_Coast_Longshore_Strike Kennedy, David M., Lizabeth Cohen, and Thomas A. Bailey. The American

Pageant A History of the Republic Advanced Placement Edition. 13th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006.