Supporting standards comprise 35% of the U. S. History Test 2 (D)

Supporting standards comprise 35% of the U. S. History Test

2 (D)

Supporting Standard (16)The student understands significant economic developments between World War I & World

War II.

The Student is expected to:(D) Compare the New deal policies & its opponents’ approaches to resolving the

economic effects of the Great Depression.

Before Covering this Material, Consult Readiness Standard

19 A, B, & C The student understands changes over time in

the role of government.

and Readiness Standard 20 B

The student understands changing relationship among the three branches of the federal government.

FDR was a President, not a king. His goals were ambitious and extensive, and while he had many supporters, his

enemies were legion.

University of Texas at Arlington historian George Wolfskill did an entire volume on the critics

of the president from 1933-1939.

Liberals and radicals attacked from the left for not providing enough relief and for maintaining the fundamental aspects of

capitalism. Conservatives claimed his policies were socialism in disguise, and that an interfering activist government was destroying a proud

history of self-reliance.

Conservative Democrats and Republicans charged FDR with abuse of power and failed to

support the plan.

Wolfskill’s research took him to Washington, D. C. where he was allowed to examine the government files containing all the

hate mail & threats received by FDR during his presidency.

University of Texas at Arlington historian George Wolfskill did an entire volume on the critics

of the president from 1933-1939.

He was not allowed to take notes on the file but later reported that the

range of threats and vitriol was unnerving.

Voices of Protest—The Scorecard

Challenged to FDR came from both the political right & left . . . but the left was the most dangerous: The Anti-Roosevelt

Triumvirate

Dr. Francis Townsend

And the most serious threat of all . . .

“Collectively they [his critics] represented a threat to Roosevelt; their success helped to make the president see that he must move boldly to restore good times or

face serious political trouble in 1936. Political imperatives had much to do with Roosevelt’s decision.

. . . [FDR's advisors Justice Brandeis & Felix Frankfurter] urged Roosevelt to abandon his pro-business programs, especially the NRA, and stress

restoring competition and taxing corporations more heavily. The fact that most businessmen were turning

away from him encouraged the president to accept this advice; so did the Supreme Court's decision in

Schechter v. United States (May 1935), which declared the National Industrial Recovery Act

unconstitutional.”

Huey Long

• Governor of Louisiana

• Critic of FDR• Preached a “Share

the Wealth” gospel encouraging the redistribution of wealth in America

Long’s Program

• Shrewd• Ruthless• Witty• The absolutism of an

oriental monarch• A demagogue• A racist

Take money from the rich and distribute it.

Long’s Style

• Raffish• Totally unrestrained

“Long did not question segregation or white supremacy. . . . He used the word n****r with total un-self-consciousness.”

Long’s Reform Program

• Hated bankers and “the interests”

• Believed poor people should have chance to earn decent living, get good education. . . regardless of race or color

In late 1935, An assassin’s bullet ended Long’s threat to FDR in the 1936 election.

Huey Pierce Long, Jr. (August 30, 1893 – September 10, 1935), nicknamed The

Kingfish, was an American politician who served as the 40th Governor of Louisiana from

1928 to 1932 and as a member of the U. S. Senate from 1932 until his assassination in

1935.

A Democrat, he was an outspoken populist who denounced the rich and the banks and called for “Share the Wealth.” As the political boss of the state he commanded wide networks of

supporters and was willing to take forceful action. He established the political prominence of the Long political family.

Long is best known for his Share Our Wealth program, created in 1934 under the motto “Every Man a King.” It proposed new wealth distribution measures in the form of a net asset tax on corporations and individuals to curb the

poverty and homelessness endemic nationwide during the Great Depression. To stimulate the economy, Long advocated federal spending on public works, schools & colleagues, & old age pensions. He was an ardent critic of the

policies of the Federal Reserve System.

A supporter of FDR in the 1932 presidential election, Long split with Roosevelt in June 1933 to plan his own presidential bid for 1936 in alliance with the influential Catholic

priest and radio commentator Charles Coughlin Long was assassinated in 1935 and his national movement soon faded.

During Long’s three-year term in the Senate, he often attempted to upstage FDR and the congressional

leadership by mounting populist appeals of his own, most notably his “Share Our Wealth” program. He made

characteristically fiery speeches which denounced the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few. He also

criticized the leaders of both parties for failing to address the crisis adequately,

In 1932, Long believed Roosevelt to be the only candidate willing and able to carry out the drastic redistribution of wealth that Long believed

was necessary to end the Great Depression.

In the critical 100 days in spring 1933 Long was generally a strong supporter of the New Deal, but differed with the president on patronage. Roosevelt wanted control of the

patronage and the two men broke in late 1933. Aware that Roosevelt had no intention to radically redistribute the country’s wealth, Long became one of the few national

politicians to oppose Roosevelt’s New Deal policies from the left. He considered them inadequate in the face of the

escalating economic crisis.

Roosevelt considered Long a radical demagogue. The president privately said of Long that along with General Douglas MacArthur,

“He was one of the two most dangerous men in America.”

In March 1933, Long offered a series of bills collectively known as “the Long plan” for the redistribution of wealth.

The first bill proposed a new progressive tax code designed to cap personal fortunes at $100 million.

Fortunes above $1 million would be taxed at 1 percent; fortunes above $2 million would be taxed at 2 percent, and so forth, up to a 100 percent tax on fortunes greater than $100 million. The second bill limited annual income to $1 million, and the third bill capped individual inheritances

at $5 million.

Long supplemented his plan with proposals for free college education and vocational training for all able students, old-age pensions, veterans’ benefits, federal assistance to farmers, public works projects, greater federal regulation of economic activity, a month’s vacation for every

worker and limiting the work week to thirty hours to boost employment.

Long believed that ending the Great Depression and staving off violent revolution required a radical

restructuring of the national economy and elimination of disparities of wealth, retaining the essential features of

the capitalist system.

Some historians believe that pressure from Long and his organization contributed to Roosevelt's “turn to the left” in 1935.

 In his final year, Long was preoccupied with his presidential ambitions and attempted to limit the influence of his Louisiana opponents. After his assassination, his political machine broke up into factions, although it has remained a strong force in the state's politics into the

21st century.

Charles Coughlin

– Detroit priest who labeled the Depression as an international conspiracy of bankers

– Coughlin’s weekly radio program had an estimated audience of 30-40 million

– He had strident Anti-Semitic racist views

– He proposed various crank monetary schemes

– Monetary inflation– Nationalization of the

banking system

Charles Edward Coughlin, commonly known as Father Coughlin, (1891–1979) and the “Radio Priest” was a

controversial Roman Catholic priest at Royal Oak, Mi., National Shrine of the Little Flower church. He was one of

the first political leaders to use radio to reach a mass audience, as possibly thirty million listeners tuned to his

weekly broadcasts during the 1930s.

Early in his career, Coughlin was a vocal supporter of FDR and his early New Deal proposals, before later becoming a harsh critic of Roosevelt as too friendly to bankers. In 1934 he announced a new political organization called the National Union for Social Justice. He wrote a platform calling for monetary reforms, the nationalization of major industries and railroads, and protection of the rights of labor. The membership ran into the millions, resembling

the Populist movement of the 1890s.

After hinting at attacks on Jewish bankers, Coughlin began to use his radio program to issue anti-Semitic commentary, and later to

support at least some of the policies of Adolf Hitler & Benito Mussolini. The broadcasts have been

called “a variation of the Fascist agenda applied to American culture.” His chief topics were political

and economic rather than religious, with his slogan being Social Justice, first with, and later against, the New Deal. After the outbreak of World War II it was the Roosevelt administration that finally forced the cancellation of his radio program and forbade the dissemination through the post of his

newspaper, Social Justice.

By 1934, Coughlin was perhaps the most prominent Roman Catholic speaker on political and financial issues,

with a radio audience that reached tens of millions of people every week. Alan Brinkley states that “by 1934, he

was receiving more than 10,000 letters every day” and that “his clerical staff at times numbered more than a

hundred.” Coughlin began denouncing Roosevelt as a tool of Wall Street & opposed the New Deal with increasing

vehemence.

In 1935, Coughlin proclaimed, “I have dedicated my life to fight against the heinous rottenness of modern capitalism because it robs the laborer of this world’s goods. But blow

for blow I shall strike against Communism, because it robs us of the next world's happiness.”

Francis E. Townsend

– Retired California doctor who wanted government to help older citizens through pensions

– He proposed a monthly pension to everyone over age 60 of $200 a month

– Recipients had to spend the amount within 30 days

Francis Everett Townsend (1867–1960) was an American physician who was best known for his revolving old-age pension proposal during the Great Depression. Known as the “Townsend Plan,” this proposal influenced the establishment of the Roosevelt administration’s Social Security system. He was

born just outside of Fairbury, Illinois, where he is memorialized by a post office named in his honor.

In September 1933, Townsend wrote a letter to the editor of the local newspaper (the Long Beach Press-Telegram) and launched his career as an old-age activist. Townsend and Earl Clements

then employed the techniques of real estate salesmanship to gain support for the Townsend Plan. Soon there were organizers in almost every state seeking to create Townsend Plan programs.

In 1935 partly in response to the continued growth of the Townsend Plan, President FDR proposed his own old-age policy, which was

less generous than Townsend and Clements's proposal. The president’s policy included a

program for poor older people with matching payments from the federal government,

known as Old Age Assistance, and a national old-age annuity program that later was called

by all Social Security. The president's programs were included in the Social Security

Act, which passed in August 1935.

Fini