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Spending and Relief Programs (cont.). Harry Hopkins, the head of FERA, set up the Civil Works Administration (CWA), which hired workers directly and put them on the government’s payroll. . It was shut down when Roosevelt became fearful of the amount of money spent on the program.
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Spending and Relief Programs(cont.) • Harry Hopkins, the head of FERA, set up the Civil Works Administration (CWA), which hired workers directly and put them on the government’s payroll. • It was shut down when Roosevelt became fearful of the amount of money spent on the program.
Spending and Relief Programs(cont.) • The most important aspect of Roosevelt’s New Deal was the change in the spirit of the American people. • Roosevelt did not want to simply give money to the unemployed to help stimulate the economy. He and his advisers felt that work skills and self-respect could be maintained if people earned their money. • People became hopeful and optimistic, and their faith in America was restored.
Spending and Relief Programs (cont.) • Roosevelt used deficit spending to pay for his programs. • He abandoned a balanced budget and borrowed money to pay for his programs. • Under FDR the public debt increased more than it had in the nation’s history, reaching $43 billion in 1940 compared with $16.2 billion in 1930.
Challenges to the New Deal • Support of Roosevelt and his New Deal began to fade in 1935. • The effectiveness of the New Deal was questioned by both right and left wing politicians. • The right wing felt the New Deal imposed too many regulations on business and that it expanded the federal government’s power at the expense of states’ rights.
Challenges to the New Deal(cont.) • The American Liberty League was created as business leaders and anti-New Deal politicians from both parties organized to oppose the New Deal. • The American Liberty League had two objectives: to teach respect for the rights of person and property, and to teach that it was the duty of government to encourage private enterprise and protect property. • The left wing believed that Roosevelt had not gone far enough. They wanted the government to intervene even more dramatically in the economy to shift wealth from the rich to middle-income and poor Americans.
Challenges to the New Deal(cont.) • Left-wing Democratic senator Huey Long proposed taking property from the rich and dividing it up amongst the poor. • It was believed that if he ran as a third-party candidate, he would win several million votes, possibly enough for a Republican victory. • Father Charles Coughlin, a Catholic priest in Detroit, gave further support to Huey Long through his popular radio broadcast.
Challenges to the New Deal(cont.) • Dr. Francis Townsend, a former public health official, proposed that the federal government pay citizens over the age of 60 a pension of $200 a month. • This would increase spending and create additional jobs for younger people.
Launching the Second New Deal • In 1935 the Supreme Court case Schechter v. United States, the court struck down the National Industrial Recovery Act. • The Court ruled that the Constitution did not allow Congress to delegate its powers to the executive branch. • It ruled the NIRA codes unconstitutional. • Roosevelt feared that the Court would strike down the rest of the New Deal.
Launching the Second New Deal(cont.) • FDR feared that his political support could be undermined by the attacks from the left and right wings. • He was disturbed that the New Deal failed to generate a rapid economic recovery. • He ordered Congress to remain in session until his new bills were passed. • This was nicknamed the “second hundred days” by the press.
Launching the Second New Deal (cont.) • Roosevelt’s second New Deal began with a series of programs and reforms to speed up recovery and provide economic security to every American. • Roosevelt hoped the plan would increase his chances of being reelected in 1936.
Launching the Second New Deal(cont.) • The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was a federal agency headed by Harry Hopkins. • It spent $11 billion over several years, creating jobs for workers. • Its most controversial aspect was offering work to artists, musicians, theater people, and writers. • Among the most exciting and innovative projects of the WPA was the Federal Theater. Many Federal Theater productions used the “living newspaper” technique, often taking on the style and method of radio and documentary cinema to build morality plays about current events.
WPA artist Alfred Castagne painting WPA construction workers, May 19, 1939 The Works Progress Administration not only built roads and buildings, but also provided employment for teachers, writers, and artists. A common theme among WPA artists and writers was the strength and dignity of common people as they faced their difficult lives. Here, a Michigan WPA artist sketches WPA workers.
As part of the New Deal, the WPA produced posters publicizing a variety of programs and events. Over 2,000 of these graphically diverse posters are known to exist today. The Library of Congress has more than 900 of them.
The Rise of Industrial Unions • New labor legislation was created because Roosevelt believed in high union wages to allow more spending power to boost the economy. • In July 1935, the National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act) was passed, guaranteeing workers the right to organize unions without employer interference. • The law set up the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which organized factory elections by secret ballot to determine if workers wanted to form a union.
The Rise of Industrial Unions(cont.) • Binding arbitration was also set up, in which a neutral party would listen to both sides and decide the issue. • This gave dissatisfied union members a process to voice their complaints. • In 1935 the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO) was formed to organize industrial unions.
The Rise of Industrial Unions(cont.) • After two union men were demoted at the General Motors auto-body plant in Cleveland, Ohio, workers protested with a sit-down strike where they stopped working but refused to leave the plant. • Workers at the company’s plant in Flint, Michigan, did the same. • Violence broke out; finally the company gave in. • The United Auto Workers (UAW) was formed and quickly became one of the most powerful unions in the United States.
Women's emergency brigade with signs During the 1937 sit-down strike by automobile workers in Flint, Michigan, a women's "emergency brigade" of wives, mothers, daughters, sisters, and sweethearts conducted daily demonstrations at the plants. When the police sought to force the men out of Chevrolet Plant No. 9 by filling it with tear gas, the women armed themselves with clubs and smashed out the plant's windows to let in fresh air.
Policemen escorting workers past 5,000 picketers during a strike at the Federal Screw Works (1938).
The Social Security Act • The Social Security Act became law in 1935, providing security for the elderly, unemployed workers, and other needy people. • The bill would provide a monthly retirement benefit and unemployment insurance. • Workers earned the right to receive the benefits by paying premiums. • Social Security helped many people, but initially it left out many of the neediest members of society, such as farmers and domestic workers.
Social Security poster Enacted in 1935, Social Security has been one of the most enduring of all New Deal programs. This poster urges eligible Americans to apply promptly for their Social Security cards.
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt spoke with many people from various groups, and she persuaded her husband to address some of their concerns in his New Deal programs.
Eleanor Roosevelt (left), dressed as a miner, is shown on a coal train about to enter the Willow Grove Mine in Bellaire, Ohio. She went below the surface to visit the miners there. (May 22, 1935).
Eleanor Roosevelt visits West Virginia Coal Mine, 1933 A New Yorker cartoon of 1933 portrayed one coal miner exclaiming to another: "Oh migosh, here comes Mrs. Roosevelt." But reality soon caught up with humor, as the First Lady immersed herself in the plight of the poor and the exploited.
Forgotten Woman President Franklin D. Roosevelt campaigned on helping the "forgotten man." As shown in this political cartoon Eleanor Roosevelt, the First Lady, did not forget women. She worked diligently to ensure that they benefited from the New Deal and had access to government and the Democratic Party.
Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins, was the first woman appointed to a cabinet post. • She served 12 years, longer than any other Secretary of Labor. "I came to Washington to work for God, FDR, and the millions of forgotten, plain common workingmen."
Children living in poverty being cared for by a doctor and nurse.
Mary McLeod Bethune In 1935 Mary McLeod Bethune (front center), became the first African American woman to hold a high-ranking government position, serving as the head of the Office of Minority Affairs in the National Youth Administration. Here, she is shown with the council of Negro Women, which she helped organize in 1935 to focus on the problems faced by African Americans at the national level.
The National Youth Administration provided work-relief, training, and employment to people between ages 16 and 25 who were not full-time students, and provided part-time employment for students to enable them to stay in school .
John Collier and Native Americans John Collier worked to ensure the passage of the Indian Reorganization Act. Designed to restore tribal sovereignty under federal authority, each tribe had to ratify the act to participate. Not all tribes did; seventy–seven rejected it, including the Navajos, the nation's largest tribe. This photo shows a group of Navajos meeting with Collier to discuss government–imposed limitations on the number of sheep each Navajo could own.
Roosevelt’s Second Term • Millions of voters owed their jobs, homes, and bank accounts to the New Deal. • By the election of 1936, Democratic Party membership shifted from mainly white Southerners to include farmers, laborers, African Americans, new immigrants, ethnic minorities, women, progressives, and intellectuals. • Roosevelt won the 1936 election in one of the biggest landslides in American history.
Alf Landon, Kansas Governor • Republican nominee for president in 1936. • Moved to Kansas as a teenager. • Graduated from the University of Kansas in 1908. • Served in the Army during WWI. • Became a millionaire in the oil business by the age of 29. • Was the only Republican governor re-elected in the 1934 elections. • Later in life continued to give speeches around the country.
Roosevelt’s Second Term • The Supreme Court did not support the president’s New Deal programs. • In January 1936, the Court declared the Agricultural Adjustment Act unconstitutional. • After the election, Roosevelt attempted to change the political balance of the Supreme Court with the court-packingplan.
Roosevelt’s Second Term(cont.) • Roosevelt sent Congress a bill to increase the number of justices on the Supreme Court. • It was a political mistake and split the Democratic Party. • Americans felt it would give the president too much power.
Roosevelt’s Second Term(cont.) • In 1937 a sudden rise in unemployment further hurt Roosevelt’s popularity. • When he cut spending just as the first Social Security payroll taxes decreased paychecks, the economy plummeted and two million people were out of work. • This recession led to a debate about how to handle the situation.
Memorial Day Massacre, Chicago, 1937 There is both photographic and medical evidence of the police's culpability. Covering the story at the Republic Steel plant were a cameraman from Paramount News and photographers from Life magazine and the Wide World Photos syndicate. Paramount News suppressed its film footage, claiming that releasing it "might very well incite local riots," but an enterprising reporter alerted a congressional committee to its existence, and a private viewing was arranged. Spectators at this showing "were shocked and amazed by the scenes showing scores of uniformed policemen firing their revolvers pointblank into a dense crowd of men, women, and children, and then pursuing the survivors unmercifully as they made frantic efforts to escape." Medical evidence also substantiated the picketers' version: none of the ten people killed by the police had been shot from the front. Clearly, the demonstrators had been trying to flee the police when they were shot or clubbed to the ground.
Roosevelt’s Second Term(cont.) • Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau wanted to balance the budget and cut spending. • The opposition pushed for more government spending. • They supported “Keynesianism,” the theories of British economist John Maynard Keynes. • In his book, he argued that the government needed to spend heavily during a recession to jump-start the economy. • In 1938 Roosevelt asked Congress for $3.75 billion for the PWA, WPA, and other programs.
The Last New Deal Reforms • Roosevelt’s successes were limited in his second term in office. • The 1937 National Housing Act, promoted by Eleanor Roosevelt, created the United States Housing Authority to subsidize loans for builders willing to buy blocks of slums and build low-cost housing.
The Last New Deal Reforms(cont.) • The Farm Security Administration gave loans to tenant farmers to purchase farms. • Congress kept appropriations low, believing that the plan made agricultural problems worse. • The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 gave protection to workers, abolished child labor, and created a 40-hour workweek for workers.
The Last New Deal Reforms(cont.) • New Deal legislation began to get blocked as Congress began to turn against the New Deal. • The fight over the court-packing scheme and the recession of 1937 had weakened Roosevelt politically. • The New Deal era ended by 1939. • The New Deal had limited success, but gave Americans a stronger sense of security and stability.
