Chapter 27 Lecture Outline New Deal America 2013 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
New Deal
New Deal America Competing Proposals Three major challenges awaited (FDR) reviving the economy, relieving human misery rescuing the farms and the farmers. A three-pronged strategy would be introduced. Banks would be propped up, the industrial complex would be recipient of federal funds to keep it afloat farm commodity prices would be raised. The brain trust
New Deal America Strengthening the Monetary System FDR would get Congress to declare a four-day bank holiday Emergency Banking Relief Act, FDR would allow banks to reopen once they could prove that they were sound. 18 th Amendment repealed by 21 st Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) By consolidating all of the federal farm credit agencies into one, FDR was able to lower the payments on farms so that their owners were more able to pay. Fireside Chats
The galloping snail A vigorous Roosevelt drives Congress to action in this Detroit News cartoon from March 1933.
Relief Measures New Deal America Unlike Hoover, FDR would bypass the states to directly aid those in need. Civilian Conservation Corps was created to provide jobs for unmarried males aged eighteen to twenty-five. When Federal Emergency Relief Administration failed, FDR bypassed it. Thus the alphabet agencies of the New Deal were formed. By paying people once they completed jobs instead of the unemployed, FDR hoped to prevent a generation of idlers.
Regulatory Efforts Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 The Agriculture Adjustment Administration sought to raise prices of crops & herds by paying farmers to reduce production. After WWI farmers in debt overproduction of land & vast drought in Central Plains led to the dust bowl, in which topsoil was blown by winds as far as D.C. Not until the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act was added that attempts to contain the dust bowl were initiated. AAA declared unconstitutional
Regulatory Efforts Reviving Industrial Growth The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) dealt with economic recovery & public works projects. The Public Works Administration, built buildings, roads, flood control systems, and other improvements to infrastructure. National Recovery Administration, worked to stabilize businesses by regulating wages & prices and establishing workplace standards. Declared unconstitutional in 1935
Regional Planning Regulatory Efforts The Tennessee Valley Authority brought electrical power and jobs to the interior of the United States. It would build dams capable of generating cheap electricity and would provide electrical lines to rural homesteads.
The Social Cost of the Depression Continuing Hardships The New Deal did not end the Great Depression. By 1939, over 17 percent of the labor force was still unemployed.
The Social Cost of the Depression Dust Bowl Migrants A decade-long drought in the 1930s spawned a human and environmental catastrophe known as the dust bowl. Tilled land left by farmers who could not afford to plant coupled with the drought and the high winds of the region resulted in what were called black blizzards. By 1938, 25 million acres of prime farmland had lost most of its topsoil. Farmers in this area would migrate to the cities to find employment, but would rarely find jobs. Ken Burns https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=myomjqo_umw
Dust storm approaching, 1930s When a dust storm blew in, it brought utter darkness, as well as the sand and grit that soon covered every surface, both indoors and out.
A sharecropper s family affected by the Oklahoma dust bowl When the drought and dust storms showed no signs of relenting, many people headed west toward California.
The Social Cost of the Depression Minorities and the New Deal FDR s New Deal failed to address racism and segregation in the South. The AAA affected African American tenant farmers the worst During the turbulence in Mexico of the 1910s, thousands of Hispanics had immigrated north and were now denied access to government programs because of their lack of citizenship. Hoover s Mexican Repatriation Act
Migratory Mexican field worker at home On the edge of a frozen pea field in Imperial Valley, California, this home to a migratory Mexican family reflects both poverty and impermanence.
The Social Cost of the Depression Court Decisions and Civil Rights During the New Deal, African Americans gained legal victories in the Supreme Court concerning their civil rights. Although they would not be all encompassing, they would set the foundation for future legislation in the 1950s and 1960s. The Scottsboro Case Heywood Patterson (center), one of the defendants in the case, is seen here with his attorney, Samuel Liebowitz (left) in Decatur, Alabama, in 1933.
Eleanor Roosevelt redefined the role of the first lady. She would take a prominent role in the American public through regularly syndicated newspaper articles, press conferences, and promoting labor and women s rights. The New Deal Matures In many areas she advocated issues that her husband dared not, lest he lose support for his programs.
Critics The New Deal Matures Senator Huey Long, known in Louisiana as the Kingfish, Long s Share the Wealth program advocated stealing from the rich to give to the poor. Francis Townshend, who promoted a plan to pay $200 a month to every citizen over age sixty. The plan would have cost more than half the nation s income but helped 9 percent of the populace. Charles Coughlin, known as the Radio Priest, used his show to call for a return to the unlimited coinage of silver from the Populist era in an attempt to increase the monetary supply.
The Kingfish Huey Long, governor of Louisiana. Although he often led people to believe he was a country bumpkin, Long was a shrewd lawyer and consummate politician. Promoters of welfare capitalism Dr. Francis E. Townsend, Rev. Gerald L. K. Smith, and Rev. Charles E. Coughlin (left to right) attended the Townsend Recovery Plan convention in Cleveland, Ohio.
Opposition from the Court The Second New Deal Many of FDR s New Deal programs found themselves outside constitutional authority, and some, like the National Industrial Recovery Act, were killed for this violation by the Supreme Court. FDR would find the judicial branch is greatest obstacle.
The Second New Deal The Second New Deal (1935 1936) FDR s Second New Deal would address labor and unemployment issues. A new agency created under Harry Hopkins, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the National Youth Administration (NYA)
The Wagner Act The Second New Deal Also known as the National Labor Relations Act, the Wagner Act prohibited employers from interfering with union activities and allowed workers to bargain through unions of their own choice. Social Security The Social Security Act of 1935 allowed a stipend to be given to the aged, disabled, or unemployed, to be paid for by a payroll tax on employers.
Soaking the Rich The Second New Deal The Revenue Act of 1935 raised income tax rates on individuals making more than $50,000. This angered business leaders, who feared FDR was leading the nation down a path toward socialism.
The Election of 1936 Roosevelt s Second Term Roosevelt would be nominated by the Democrats for a second term in 1936. The Republicans would nominate the governor of Kansas Alfred Landon. FDR would win a second term for office by courting the African American vote.
The Court-Packing Plan Roosevelt s Second Term He would introduce a plan to increase the size of the Supreme Court from nine to fifteen, along with fifty more federal judges. He appoint these new justices and hope to sway the anti-new Deal interpretations This plan would backfire as his attempts to change their makeup to his favor portrayed him as petty.
A New Direction for Unions The NIRA s requirement that every worker had the right to join a union was picked up by unions & translated by leaders as the president wants you to join a union. Union membership during the New Deal exploded. Split between AFL and CIO General Motors sit down strike Roosevelt s Second Term
A Slumping Economy Roosevelt s Second Term After almost ten years of depression and almost four years of the New Deal, the economy began to show signs of recovery. To control inflation, FDR ordered cuts in government spending to wean the American people off federal pay. However, the stock market entered a slump and 4 million more people found themselves unemployed. In 1938, Congress enacts Fair Labor Standards Act Minimum wage $0.40 per hour Maximum of 40 hours per week
The Legacy of the New Deal Setbacks for the President FDR s decision to court African Americans to win the presidency split the Democrat party. Southern Democrats were unwilling to congregate with them and feared that FDR s ultimate goal was to make them all equal. Plans to reorganize the Executive Branch along with the Democrat Party itself resulted in a victory for the Republicans in the midterm election of 1938. FDR would for the last half of his second term find himself defending his existing legislation in lieu of introducing new laws.
A Halfway Revolution The Legacy of the New Deal The Second New Deal would end just as war once again erupted in Europe. The New Deal shifted the way people thought about government. Gone was the Populist approach of using government to regulate business to the benefit of all. Now, government was seen as an entity to respond directly to the crises and take steps to avoid them.
Meeting of the anti New Dealers Senator Ellison D. Cotton Ed Smith of South Carolina cringes at the thought of a fourth term for Roosevelt, while meeting with fellow anti New Dealers at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington.