The Great Depression and The New Deal1933-1939

Chapter 34

Hoover Loses Popularity Unemployment and

poverty blamed on Hoover

Republicans re-nominated Hoover in 1932

Franklin Delano Roosevelt The Democrats

nominated Gov. Franklin Roosevelt of New York

Eleanor Roosevelt FDR’s wife, Eleanor,

became the most active 1st lady in history

Powerful influence over American politics

Election of 1932 FDR attacked Republican

Old Guard Promised to balance the

budget and reduce deficit FDR swept election in

popular vote and Electoral College

Blacks become associated with Democratic Party and FDR

Hundred Days FDR inaugurated March 4, 1933 1st Hundred Days – FDR calls Congress into

special session (Hundred Days/Emergency Congress) (Mar. 9 - June 16, 1933)

Mar. 6-10 – Banking Holiday – all banks closed until they were sound to open

3 R’s:  relief, recovery, reform.  Short-range goals were relief and immediate recovery, and long-range goals were permanent recovery and reform of current abuses.

Roosevelt Tackles Money and Banking

Emergency Banking Relief Act - (1933) - Gave president power to regulate banking transactions and foreign exchange and to reopen solvent banks.

Glass-Steagall Banking Reform Act Created the Federal Deposit Insurance

Corporation (FDIC).  A reform program, the FDIC insured individual bank deposits up to $5,000, ending the epidemic of bank failures.

Gold and FDR

In order to protect the shrinking gold reserve, President Roosevelt ordered all private holdings of gold to be given to the Treasury in exchange for paper currency and then the nation to be taken off the gold standard

FDR wanted inflation which would reduce debtors’ burdens

Creating Jobs for the Jobless Civilian Conservation

Corps (CCC) - Provided employment for 3 million men.Their work included reforestation, fire fighting, flood control, and swamp drainage.

Federal Emergency Relief Act FERA - headed by Harry

L. Hopkins.  Hopkins’s agency

granted about $3 billion to the states for direct relief payments or for wages on work projects

FDR’s chief administrator of relief

Civil Works Administration (CWA)

1933 – branch of the FERA designed to provide temporary jobs during the

winter emergency Thousands of unemployed were employed at

leaf raking and other manual-labor jobs

Agricultural Adjustment Act

1933 AAA – farmers were given

relief Made available millions of

dollars to help farmers meet their mortgages.

Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) assisted many households that had trouble paying their mortgages

Demagogues Radical opponents to FDR

emerged Father Charles Coughlin –

anti-New Deal radio program that was anti-semitic

Sen. Huey P. Long – “Share Our Wealth” would give $5000 to each family

Dr. Francis Townsend – everyone over 60 would get $200/month

Works Progress Administration

1935 Objective was to employ

men on useful projects like the construction of buildings, roads, etc. 

Taxpayers criticized the agency for paying people to do "useless" jobs such as painting murals

Industry and Labor National Recovery Administration (NRA) designed to assist industry, labor, and the

unemployed Industries were forced to lower their work hours so

that more people could be hired; a minimum wage was also established

Workers were formally guaranteed the right to organize and bargain collectively through representatives of their choosing, not through the company’s choosing. 

Schechter v. United States Supreme Court case – the SC struck down the

National Industrial Recovery Act as unconstitutional

The Court ruled that the Constitution did not allow Congress to delegate its powers to the executive branch

Sick chicken case

Public Works Administration

Intended for both industrial recovery and for unemployment relief.

  Headed by Harold L. Ickes, the agency spent over $4 billion on thousands of projects, including public buildings and highways.

Prohibition Ended In order to raise federal

revenue and provide a level of employment, Congress repealed prohibition with the 21st Amendment in late 1933.

Agricultural Adjustment Admin. AAA - established “parity prices” for basic

commodities.  “Parity” was the price set for a product

The agency also paid farmers to reduce their crop acreage, eliminating surpluses, while at the same time decreasing unemployment.

The Supreme Court struck down the AAA in 1936, declaring its regulatory taxation provisions unconstitutional.

Dust Bowl 1933 - a prolonged drought

struck the states of the trans-Mississippi Great Plains. 

The Dust Bowl was partially caused by the cultivation of countless acres, dry-farming techniques, and mechanization.

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) 1933

Government construction of damming the Tennessee River

combine the immediate advantage of putting thousands of people to work with a long-term project for reforming the power monopoly. 

Housing Reform and Social Security Federal Housing Administration (FHA) set

up in 1934 by FDR to speed recovery and better homes.

Social Security Act of 1935 - provided for federal-state unemployment insurance.  To provide security for old age, specified categories of retired workers were to receive regular payments from Washington.

Republicans were strongly opposed to SS

Unskilled Labor National Labor Relations Act of 1935

(Wagner Act) - created a powerful National Labor Relations Board for administrative purposes and reasserted the rights of labor to engage in self-organization and to bargain collectively through representatives of its own choice

John L. Lewis Boss of the United Mine

Workers.  He formed the

Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO) in 1935. 

The CIO led a series of strikes including the sit-down strike at the General Motors automobile factory in 1936.

Election of 1936 Republicans chose Alfred M.

Landon to run against President Roosevelt. 

The Republicans condemned the New Deal for its radicalism, experimentation, confusion, and “frightful waste.”

Roosevelt was reelected as president in a lopsided victory

The Court Packing Plan

Conservative justices on the Supreme Court were a threat to the New Deal

Roosevelt asked Congress to pass legislation to appoint one new justice to the Supreme Court for every member over 70 who would not retire

The maximum number of justices would be 15. This shocked both Congress and the public

plan received much negative feedback.

The Economy John Maynard Keynes British economist who said

that when in recession, a government needs to spend heavily

FDR followed this economic policy

Conservatives wanted to cut spending and balance the budget

New Deal or Raw Deal ? the national debt by 1939 was at

$40,440,000,000 Foes of the New Deal charged the president

of spending too much money on his programs