THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND THE NEW DEAL

Organizing Principle As the traumatic experience of the Great

Depression unfolded, Herbert Hoover did little to mend the broken economy. In 1932, America sought bold new leadership to heal the ailing nation. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a charismatic, empathetic man rose to the challenge. He promised Americans a “new deal” at a time when political conservatives advocated weathering the storm. Though the New Deal was largely unsuccessful in restoring the economy on the whole, it did restore morale to the hopeless, and patched a hole in a sinking ship of state.

The Growth of Federal Relief Federal Emergency Relief Administration

Cash grants for bankrupt relief agencies Civil Works Administration

Temporary work (4 million people) Civilian Conservation Corps

Tree huggers Home Owners’ Loan Corporation

Refinanced loans

Outspoken Critics

Conservative opponentsAmerican Liberty League—northeastern

industrialistsThink measures violate respect for personal

rights, propertyFather Charles Coughlin

Wants guaranteed income, banks nationalizedDr. Francis Townsend

Devises pension plan for elderlySenator Huey Long

Share Our Wealth Popular social program—5,000/family

Presidential hopeful

Women and the New Deal Frances Perkins—Secretary of Labor

First female in a cabinet post Big hand in Social Security Act

Mary McLeod Bethune National Youth Administration

Director of the Office of Minority Affairs Black Cabinet

Social Sciences Ruth Benedict Margaret Mead

Literature Pearl Buck—The Good Earth

National Recovery Administration

National Industrial Recovery Act Relaxed anti-trust provisions Unionization (section 7a) COLAs Public Works Administration (PWA)

Industrial recovery and relief Public buildings, highways, and parkways

Grand Coulee Dam Failed—big business writing code Supreme Court—Schechter

Government regulation

Depression in Rural Areas 400,000 farms foreclosed on

Tenant farmers Dust Bowl

Exhaustion of soil Droughts/windstorms hit North Dakota to Texas Many migrate west—The Grapes of Wrath

Agricultural Adjustment Act (1933) AAA goal

Raise prices by lowering supply Subsidizing farmers

AAA actions Destroyed crops initially Mill tax

AAA oversights Landed farmers win

Supreme Court—declares unconstitutional Limiting production and processing tax

FDR restructures legislation during 2nd term Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act (1936) Second AAA (1938)

Regional Planning Tennessee Valley Authority

Muscle Shoals Public works—“costs” Dam construction

Improved water transportation Prevented flooding

Housing and Social SecurityHousing

Federal Housing Administration (FHA)gives loans for mortgages, repairs

United States Housing Authority (USHA)Low cost housing—deslumming the cities

Social Security (1935) insurance for retirees 65 or olderunemployment compensationaid to disabled, families with children

Improving Labor Conditions

Wagner Act (1935) Replaces NIRA

- protects right to join unions, collective bargaining- prohibits unfair labor practices Fair Labor Standards Act (1938)

Sets maximum hours (44 hrs/week)

Sets minimum wage (.25 to .40/hour)

Congress of Industrial Organizations

John L. Lewis 4,000,000 million members

Roosevelt Reelected Elections of 1936

FDR (D) v. Alfred Landon (R) FDR—lambastes “economic royalists” Landon—pins FDR as a radical

Franklin “Deficit” Roosevelt Roosevelt wins 523-8 Democrats sweep Upper and Lower House

Trends and notes Republicans charge FDR with class warfare Larger returns from African-Americans voting Democrat First time labor unions support mainstream candidate

Judicial Branch

The Supreme Court Reacts Supreme Court strikes down NIRA,

AAA as unconstitutional FDR proposes “Court-packing bill”

Congress, press protest Starting in 1937, justices retire; FDR

appoints seven new ones (independent of court packing)

Largely unpopular—FDR seen as dictator