FDR and the New Deal

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FDR and the New Deal

• 1933-1940

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt

• Starting with his first inaugural address, in
  1933, FDR offers hope and the promise of a New
  Deal for Americans helping restore Americans
  sense of hope
• FDR also began regular fireside chats over the
  radio with the American people his confidence
  helped renew peoples hopes for the future

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New Deal

• FDRs New Deal was a promise of programs to ease
  the effects of the GD
• In FDRs first hundred days in office, he
  launched programs to provide relief, create jobs,
  and stimulate the economy
• Banks were his first step FDR ordered all banks
  close on Mar 5, 1933, until the govt could
  regulate them to prevent failures Bank Holiday

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First Hundred Days

• FDR also pushed the Glass-Steagall Banking Act
  it established the FDIC (Fed Deposit Insurance
  Corp)
• The Securities and Exchange Commission is set up
  to regulate the stock market
• The Federal Emergency Relief Administration
  (FERA) gives aid to local relief agencies and
  funds public works programs

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First Hundred Days

• Public Works Programs were govt-funded projects
  to build public facilities and provide jobs and
  
• The Civil Works Administration (CWA) and Civilian
  Conservation Corps (CCC) helped provide jobs to
  young men restoring parks, building roads, and
  planting forests

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First Hundred Days

• The govt also turned to help businesses with the
  creation of the National Recovery Administration
  (NRA) helped established codes for business
  practices regulated wages, controlled working
  conditions, production, prices, and set the first
  minimum wage for workers

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First Hundred Days

• One of the most important parts of the NRA was
  the Public Works Admin (PWA) launched massive
  building projects of dams, bridges, and roads
• FDR also turned to help homeowners who had failed
  to pay loans he created the Federal Housing
  Admin (FHA) still active today improved
  housing standards and conditions, insured loans,
  and helped people buy/keep homes

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First Hundred Days

• Farmers also needed help FDR sets up the
  Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) to
  try to raise prices thru subsidies or govt
• The AAA actually paid farmers to plow under their
  crops and dairy farmers to pour out milk supplies
  (why??) many people could not understand why
  the govt destroyed food while millions were
  without enough food

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Tennessee Valley Authority

• The one public works project that most impacted
  our area was the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
  this project built hydro-dams and helped
  provide flood-control, recreational areas, and
  electricity, to rural areas in TN,AL,GA,NC,VA,KY
• Govt agencies created to help people unlike
  anything govt had done before

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Brain Trust and Eleanor

• FDR surrounded himself with key advisors called
  the brain trust, who helped him draft policies
• He also relied heavily on his wife, Eleanor, who
  traveled around the nation, reporting conditions
  to FDR, and endearing her husband to the American
  people his eyes and ears

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Frances Perkins

• FDR appoints the first woman to a Cabinet post
  Frances Perkins Secretary of Labor and many
  Af-Ams to key positions
• Despite all these efforts, the programs of the
  first 100 days fails to bring significant
  economic improvement, and public support turns to
  criticism

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• The Supreme Court also attacks FDRs programs,
  declaring some unconstitutional
• To combat this opposition, FDR launches a second
  New Deal this one addressed to ordinary
  Americans, whom had felt left out of the earlier
  reforms
• The 2nd ND included more social welfare benefits,
  strict control of business, and higher taxes on
  the rich

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Second New Deal

• The Works Progress Admin (WPA) provides work for
  more than 8 million citizens building
  playgrounds, schools, hospitals, and supporting
  artistic and literary work
• The 2nd New Deal addresses the hardships of
  farmers, farm workers, and sharecroppers, by
  loaning to farmers, and setting up camps for
  migrant workers

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Second New Deal

• The govt undertakes rural electrification (REA)
  increasing the demand for electric appliances,
  which in turns benefits manufacturing companies
  and local merchants
• Unions benefit when Congress passes the Wagner
  Act which legalizes collective bargaining and
  outlaws blacklists names of those who arent
  allowed to work

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Social Security

• And, in 1935, Congress passes the Social Security
  Act, setting up the SS system to provide
  financial security () to people who could not
  support themselves offered 3 types of
  insurance
• Old-age pensions and survivors benefits
  retired workers and widows

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Social Security

• Unemployment insurance the govt would give
  to workers who lost their jobs
• Aid for dependent children, the blind, and the
  disabled gave to states to help support
  needy people
• No other program marked the expansion of the
  federal govts role as a caretaker of its
  citizens more than the SSS

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Election of 1936

• Most Americans support FDRs efforts, and FDR
  wins reelection in 1936 by the largest landslide
  in our nations history only Maine and Vermont
  did not vote for FDR
• The landslide victory showed that most Americans
  supported the New Deal yet there were many
  critics forming

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New Deal Support Weakens

• Although most Americans supported FDR and the New
  Deal many became disappointed
• Minimum wage set at 25 cents/hr, well below what
  most were making
• Progressives and Socialists believed the ND had
  not done enough to distribute the nations wealth
  equally

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Upton Sinclair

• Socialist writer The Jungle believed the
  entire economic system needed to be reformed
  sought very socialistic changes in his EPIC plan
  (End Poverty in California)
• Under the EPIC plan, state govt would take over
  factories and farms
• Political opponents began to smear Sinclair, and
  his desire for the governorship of CA was smashed

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New Deal and Gender

• Women and A-A were paid less for the same job
  than white men, and were discriminated against in
  what jobs they could get New Deal programs
  actually preferred (and accepted) only young,
  strong, men
• No ND provision protected domestic service, the
  largest female occupation

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New Deal and Race

• The ND actually reinforced segregation in the
  South and discrimination in the North barred
  A-A from serving in professional jobs
• In the North, even in black neighborhoods,
  white-owned businesses continued to employ whites
  only even while accepting govt

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African-Americans and ND

• Even with this apparent discrimination, FDR was
  widely supported by A-A WHY??
• FDR appointed more A-A to policymaking positions
• The Roosevelts (both) also seemed genuinely
  concerned about the fate of A-A Their concern
  for the average A-A led to their popularity

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New Deal Resistance

• FDR met with stiff resistance from the American
  Liberty League, which charged the ND with
  limiting individual freedom and as being
  un-American
• They claimed that the Social Security paid in
  each paycheck penalized hardworking Americans by
  taking their

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Rise of Demagogues

• Others contended that the ND had not done enough
  chief among this group were two demagogues
  leaders who manipulate people by scaring them
  with half-truths and deceptive promises
• Among these were Father Charles E. Coughlin, and
  Huey Long

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Father Charles Coughlin

• A priest who used the radio to attack the ND
  although he was often contradicting himself on
  issues
• He once called for the nationalization govt
  takeover of banks and the redistribution of
  wealth
• By the end of the 1930s, Coughlin was becoming
  very radical praising Hitler and others and
  he lost his public support

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Huey Kingfish Long

• Of Louisiana, once governor, and US Senator, he
  began to called for real change the
  redistribution of wealth
• Under his Share-Our-Wealth plan, he would limit
  individual income to 1 million, the rest would
  be taken by the govt by income taxes and
  redistributed to every family with a minimum of
  5,000 and an annual income of 2,500

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Huey Long

• Longs programs attracted many followers, and
  helped push FDR to pass new taxes on the rich
• Longs desire for the presidency, though, was cut
  short in 1935 when an assassin killed him
• Long and Coughlin never seriously threatened FDR,
  but their influence warned FDR that he must find
  solutions to the problems, or risk losing support

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• FDR also received criticism for his efforts to
  pack the US Supreme Court when the SC struck
  down many of FDRs early New Deal programs, he
  sent a bill to Congress allowing him to appoint
  six new Justices allowing him to pack the
  court with friendly judges
• Strong opposition forced FDR to withdraw the
  motion, but he still got to appoint (thru deaths
  and retirement) 8 justices to the Supreme Court

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Modern-Day Critics

• Many modern-day critics have claimed the ND
  hindered economic recovery through high taxes and
  undermined the free-enterprise system by taking
  control of key industries
• They also criticize the NDs deficit spending
  paying out more than the govt receives which
  made less available for private borrowing

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Bloated Government

• Others criticize how the federal govt became so
  bloated and dangerously powerful and encouraged
  inefficient use of resources (spilt milk)
• Also critics attack the policy of heavy taxes to
  pay for the programs which they saw as taking
  out of the pockets of Americans

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1937 Recession

• The ND led to improvement, but in 1937 the
  economy collapsed into a recession a period of
  slow business activity
• People had less to spend and some expensive
  programs were cut to slow the national debt the
  amount of the govt borrowed that had to be
  paid back
• FDR does expand some programs and the economy
  improves some

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Labor Unions

• During this time, ND protections helped labor
  unions grow and unskilled workers are organized
  in a coalition alliance of groups with the same
  goals into the new Congress of Industrial
  Organizations
• Through sit-down strikes strikes where laborers
  stop work but refuse to leave workers become
  more successful in improving conditions

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Labor for Workers

• However, these strikes tended to erupt into
  violence, and they were outlawed by the Supreme
  Court in 1939
• The New Deal projects had provided many jobs for
  unemployed artists, musicians, writers, and
  theatre people
• Many of these left an enduring cultural legacy on
  American society John Steinbeck, Orson Welles,
  and Dorothea Lange

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New Deal Legacy

• Radio becomes a major source of entertainment as
  well as movies
• Many bridges, dams, tunnels, public buildings,
  and hospitals built during the ND will last long
  into the future
• Most of all, New Deal programs offered hope at a
  difficult time they were doing something to try
  to help

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New Deal Legacy

• The New Deal also profoundly changed ideas about
  the roles of government and the President
• Govt becomes the caretaker of the people and the
  President becomes the most powerful piece for a
  while
• Economic recovery will not come until well into
  the 1940s, and then, because of another world war

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