Chapter 23:

1. Chapter 23: The New Deal

2. Who won the 1932 election? • Republicans ran Herbert Hoover, while the Democrats ran New York governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt. • Roosevelt won in an overwhelming majority, while Democrats took solid control over the House and Senate. • Roosevelt’s administration focused on relief for the needy, economic recovery, and financial reform. • This reform package was known as the New Deal and took shape during FDR’s first hundred days. • He communicated his plans for the economy to the American people through warm and informal ‘fireside chats’ via the radio.

3. How did FDR reform banking and finance? • He persuaded Congress to pass the Emergency Banking Relief Act, which authorized the Treasury Department to inspect banks. Those that were insolvent would receive loans to insure deposits, so people would not lose their savings in the future. • Congress also passed the Glass-Steagall Act. This established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which provides federal insurance to individual accounts. • The Federal Securities Act required corporations to provide complete information on all stock offerings and made them liable for any misinformation. • The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulates the stock market and prohibits stock manipulation. • The 21st Amendment was also passed to repeal prohibition, allowing the federal government to tax alcohol. This helped raise revenue.

4. How did FDR help farmers? • The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) sought to raise crop prices by lowering production, which government achieved by paying farmers to leave a certain amount of every acre unseeded. This would reduce supply, thereby raising prices. • After the Supreme Court struck down some features of the AAA, FDR passed the second AAA, which restored many of the original AAA’s features. • The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) renovated and constructed dams along the Tennessee River. It provided jobs, flood control, and hydroelectric power to the impoverished region. • The Rural Electrification Administration helped bring electricity to rural areas. By 1949, 90% of America’s farms and rural homes had electricity. • The Soil Conservation, Resettlement Administration, and Farm Security Administration paid farmers for using good conservation methods, gave loans to small farmers to buy land, and helped tenant farmers purchase their own farm, respectively.

5. How did FDR help create jobs? • The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) put young men to work building roads and bridges, developing parks, plating trees, and helping soil erosion and flood-control projects. These helped to prevent another Dust Bowl. • The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) provided money to states to build schools and community buildings through the Public Works Administration (PWA). • The Civil Works Administration (CWA) also helped build schools and roads, but provided salaries for 50,000 teachers. • The Works Progress Administration (WPA) created as many jobs as possible for skilled and unskilled laborers. Jobs included building roads and community buildings, making clothes for the needy, collecting oral histories, like slave narratives, painting murals, and performing artistic pieces. This made special efforts to include women, minorities, and the young.

6. How did FDR help labor relations? • The NIRA created the National Recovery Administration (NRA) which set prices to ensure fair competition, established standards for working hours, reaffirmed labor’s right to unionize, and banned child labor. • The National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act), reaffirmed labor’s right to bargain collectively. It set up the National Labor Relations Board to hear testimony about unfair labor practices. • The Fair Labor Standards Act established the 40 hour work week, established a minimum wage, and banned child labor. As of July 2009, the federal minimum wage is $7.25/hour.

7. How did FDR help America’s youth? • Many acts built schools and paid teachers, such as the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) and the Civil Works Administration (CWA). This renewed educational opportunities and a sense of hope for adolescents. • The National Youth Administration (NYA) was created to establish education, jobs, health care, counseling, and recreation for young Americans.

8. How did FDR help the elderly? • The Social Security Administration (SSA) was created to provide: • an old-age insurance program for retirees 65 years and older; • unemployment compensation; • aid to families with dependent children and the disabled. • It continues to provide benefits to millions of Americans.

9. How did FDR help women and minorities? • FDR appointed the first female Cabinet member, Frances Perkins as Secretary of Labor. She helped create the Social Security System. He also appointed female judges and diplomats. • FDR appointed more than 100 AAs to key government positions, including Mary McLeod Bethune, who led the Division of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration. She also organized a Black Cabinet of influential AA leaders to advise the president on race relations. • Fearful of losing Southern Democratic support, FDR did not push for an end to the poll tax or a federal anti-lynching law. • FDR appointed John Collier as commissioner of Indian Affairs. He helped create the Indian Reorganization Act, which moved away from assimilation and towards NA autonomy. • FDR’s commitment to women and minorities was encouraged by his wife, Eleanor, whose humanitarian efforts are world-renowned.

10. What was the New Deal coalition? • The New Deal coalition was an alignment of diverse groups whom rallied behind FDR and the Democratic Party. These groups created a strong movement which helped solidify FDR’s win in 1936 as well as the Democratic Party’s populist message. • Women, AAs, NAs, MAs, workers, Roman Catholics, Jews, Italians, Poles, Irish, and other Slavic peoples made up the New Deal Coalition. • FDR was known as a ‘friend of labor’ due to the Wagner Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act. As such, union membership grew during the 1930s under the leadership of the AFL and the CIO. Sit-down strikes became common so to prevent management from replacing workers with scabs.

11. What were some influential artistic and cultural developments during the Great Depression? • Movies, like Gone With the Wind, provided an escape. • Radio programs, like Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds, provided inexpensive, family-based entertainment. • The Federal Art Project paid artists to produce public art. Painters, such as Grant Wood, created iconic images, such as American Gothic. • The Farm Security Administration also paid photographers to capture the effect of the Depression on rural areas. • The Federal Writers’ Project allowed authors, such as Richard Wright and Zora Neale Hurston, to produce works, such as Native Son and Their Eyes Were Watching God, respectively. • John Steinbeck created Grapes of Wrath, a period piece that captivated the struggles Oklahomans faced during the Dust Bowl. Dorothea Lange’s famous ‘Migrant Mother’ photo.

12. What were some of the conservative criticisms of FDR and the New Deal? • Conservative critics challenged FDR for moving away from laissez-faire policies. • They believed that he made government too big and reached too far into the economy. • Further, they staunchly contest direct relief and regulation of banking and finance. • They specifically rejected deficit spending and FDR’s reliance on Keynesian economics, which supports government intervention in an economic crisis.

13. What were some of the liberal criticisms of the New Deal? • Liberal critics contend that FDR did not do enough to eliminate the wide gap between the rich and the poor. • For example, • Father Charles Coughlin supported a guaranteed annual income and nationalization of the banks; • Dr. Frances Townshend urged FDR to help the poor and elderly more with a pension plan; and • Huey Long who developed a Share-Our-Wealth program under the banner of ‘Every Man a King,’ which would guarantee housing, food, and clothes for every person. • Liberal critics wanted FDR to regulate the economy and society more to benefit the middle and lower classes.

14. What do most historians believe about FDR and the New Deal today? • Supporters of the New Deal believe he struck a reasonable balance between unregulated capitalism and overregulated socialism, thereby saving the democratic system. • As evidence, they point to countries, like Germany and Italy, whose leaders used the economic crisis to turn from democracy to fascism, just like FDR stated: • “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” • FDR served from 1933-1945.

15. What were some important pieces of legislation during FDR’s First Hundred Days? • Emergency Banking Relief Act • Glass-Steagall Act (FDIC)* • Federal Securities Act • Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)* • Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)* • Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) • Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)* • National Industrial Recovery Act/Public Works Administration (NIRA/PWA)* • National Recovery Administration (NRA) • Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) • National Housing Act (NHA)/Federal Housing Administration (FHA) • Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)*

16. What were some important pieces of legislation under FDR’s Second Hundred Days? • Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act • Second AAA • Resettlement Administration • Farm Security Administration (FSA) • Works Progress Administration (WPA)* • National Youth Administration (NYA) • National Labor Relations Act/Wagner Act/National Labor Relations Board* • Fair Labor Standards Act* • Social Security Act* • Rural Electrification Administration (REA) • Public Utility Holding Company Act