Impact of the New Deal

The New Deal’s Impact on Society

New Deal Constituencies & the Broker State

• Civilian gov’t employees increased by 80%

• # of gov’t employees in Washington, DC doubled in 10 years

• Power of federal gov’t increased drastically

• Acted as a broker state

– Gov’t acted as mediator in national marketplace

– Elevated & strengthened new interests

• Organized labor, women, African Americans, & other groups joined the coalition the Democrats started to build

Organized Labor

• Huge arena for federal intervention

• Factors that led to growth of labor movement– Inadequacy of welfare capitalism

– New Deal legislation; example=Wagner Act

– Rise of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO); est. 1936

• Growing militancy of rank & file workers

• By 1940, unionized workers=9 million– 23% of the non-farm workforce

Organized Labor

• CIO promoted all workers, skilled & unskilled, into one union

– Accepted women, blacks, & Mexican Americans

– John L. Lewis, once leader of United Mine Workers, helped form CIO

– Competed w/ AFL; more militant

– Allied w/ Democratic Party

• Scored a victory with United Auto Workers & GM (1936-1937)

– GM & other auto producers recognized the UAW

Organized Labor

• Steel workers struggled in battle for unionization

• Memorial Day Massacre (1937), South Chicago

• Marching peacefully, fired upon, 10 killed & 90 wounded

• Strike failed

• 1937—4,720 strikes & 80% favored unions

Women & the New Deal

• Gains in government:

– Frances Perkins, 1st female in cabinet

– Molly Dawson, head of Women’s Division of the DNC

– Nellie, Tayloe Ross, 1st female director of the mint

– Eleanor Roosevelt, one of the 1st prominent First Ladies

• The “conscience of the New Deal”

• Setbacks:

– Low wages

– Low levels of employment

– CCC did not hire women

Eleanor Roosevelt in 1933

Sec. of Labor Frances Perkins

Blacks & the New Deal

• New Deal did little to battle racial discrimination

• CCC segregated blacks & whites

• NRA codes did not protect black workers

• FDR repeatedly refused to ban lynching

– Said it would antagonize southern members of Congress

• Their support was needed for New Deal measures

Blacks & the New Deal

• 18% of WPA recipients were black

• Resettlement Administration was set up to help small farmers buy land

• Mary McLeod Bethune hired to run Office of Minority Affairs

• Eleanor Roosevelt was a champion of equal rights

• The belief that the White House was concerned for African Americans shifted voting

– Republican Party had been party of blacks since time of Lincoln

Politicization of Mexican Americans

• Benefited from labor policies

– But agencies paid at different rates based on race

– Tension & conflict between whites & Hispanics in CCC camps

• Increasingly identified with US rather than Mexico

• Democrats made it clear that they welcomed Mexican Americans

Indian Reorganization Act

• Native Americans continued to be among the nation’s most disadvantaged minorities

• Average annual income in 1934=$48!• IRA reversed Dawes Act of 1887 by promoting

extensive self-government; tribal councils & constitutions

• Tribal lands & agricultural profits both increased greatly

• New Deal helped preserve Native languages, arts, traditions

• However, problems were so severe that more change was needed

The New Deal & the Land

• TVA was the biggest New Deal environmental undertaking

• 1933: task was to develop region’s resources under public control

• CCC & WPA created several attractions

New Deal & the Arts

• Federal Art Project gave work to many of 20th

century’s leading painters, muralists, sculptors

New Deal & the Arts

• Federal Music Project employed 15K musicians

• Federal Writers Project employed 5K writers

• Federal Theatre Project, most ambitious, reached 25-30 million in 4 years– Terminated in 1939 over fears

of Communist influence

Legacies of the New Deal

• Set in motion far-reaching changes

• Growth of a modern state of significant size

• People experienced fed. gov’t as a part of everyday life for first time

• In 1930s, over 1/3 of Americans received direct gov’t services from fed. programs, from Social Security, farm loans, relief work, etc.

Legacy of the New Deal

• Gov’t made a commitment to intervene in economy when private sector could not guarantee stability

• Stock market regulation, Fed. Reserve reformed

• Accelerated pattern begun by Progressive of using regulation to bring order to economic life

Problems with the New Deal

• Social Security Act did not include national health care

• Welfare system did not reach a majority of American workers, including domestics & farm workers

• Discriminated against women in terms of jobs & wages

• Did not end Depression, only short-term fixes

Problems with the New Deal

• Forced FDR to be unable to challenge marginalization of blacks in the South

• Needed white southern vote

• Court-packing scheme, recession of 1937, Republican success in 1938 elections, & inevitability of WWII—combined to bring end to the New Deal

Successes

• Great political move; gained support for Democratic Party from various groups– 84% of those on relief

voted for FDR in 1936

– Middle class voters also moved to Democratic side

– Stay w/ Democrats for years to come