Ch.15

 Four months elapsed between the election and FDR taking office  Worked with his advisors, the Brain Trust, on new policies that came to collectively be called the New Deal  Policies focused on 3 goals  Relief, recovery, and reform  Hundred Days  Congress passed legislation that expanded the government’s role in the economy  Bank Holiday- all banks were closed and only those that could repay their loans were opened

 Fireside Chats  Radio chats about issues of public concern  Banking and Finance Regulation  Glass-Steagall Act (1933) established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)  Federal Securities Act (1933)  Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

 Rural Assistance  Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) sought to raise crop prices by lowering production  Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) renovated existing dams and built 20 new ones which provided jobs, flood control, and hydroelectric power to the region  Works Projects  Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)- built roads, parks, planted trees, worked on soil-erosion and flood-control projects  National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA)- constructed schools and other community buildings

 Promoting Fair Practices  Codes limited production and established prices  Workers could unionize and bargain collectively  Food, Clothing, and Shelter  Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) provided direct relief for the needy and work relief programs

 Deficit Spending  Spending more money than the government was taking in revenues  Roosevelt regarded it as a necessary evil  The New Deal did not end the Great Depression  Liberal critics said that FDR did not go far enough  Conservative critics said FDR was trying to socialize the economy

 Supreme Court Reacts  1935 NIRA & 1936 AAA declared unconstitutional  Court-packing Bill  FDR wanted to add more judges to the Supreme Court because he thought the current ones were going to undo the New Deal  American Liberty League  Conservative New Deal critics who opposed legislation they believed violated individual rights and property rights

 Father Charles Coughlin  Roman Catholic priest; favored a guaranteed income and nationalization of banks  Dr. Francis Townsend  Believed Roosevelt wasn’t doing enough to help the poor and elderly  Huey Long  Senator from Louisiana who proposed Share-Our – Wealth to guarantee a home, food, clothing, and education  Assassinated in 1935

 Roosevelt Recession ( )  Industrial output increased to 1929 levels and unemployment was at 14% so FDR cut back on government spending  Congress then cut the WPA’s funding and the Federal Reserve raised interest rates  Keynesian Economics  British economist John Maynard Keynes argued that government intervention could smooth out the highs and lows of the capitalist economy  “pump priming”- deficit spending and manipulation of interest rates to regulate money supply

 American Federation of Labor (AFL)  Organized skilled workers by craft  Congress of Industrial Organizations(CIO)  Led by John L. Lewis  Broke off from AFL to organize non-skilled laborers

 Women in Government  Frances Perkins- Sec. of Labor  Eleanor Roosevelt- held press conferences for female journalists and traveled the country  Black Americans  Last hired, first fired  Little support from the president  Mary McLeod Bethune  Established the Federal Council of Negro Affairs  Indian Reorganization Act (1934)  Repealed Dawes Act and returned land to tribal control

 Mexicans and Asians  Mexicans living in major western cities received better treatment than in small towns  Overall, the Mexican population declined as many went to Mexico  20% of Japanese immigrants went back to Japan  Chinese were excluded from most federal programs because they were still not allowed to become citizens

 Federal Art Project  Gave work for many young artists to create “art for the millions”  Federal Music Project  Government-sponsored orchestras; cataloged folk songs  Federal Writers Project  Collected oral histories; published state guidebooks  Federal Theater Project  Produced plays for the masses that were socially critical

 Bureaucracy  Foundations of a social welfare state  Government intervention

 Pick one of the following to answer  How did Franklin Roosevelt change the role of the federal government?  How successful do you think Roosevelt was as a president?  How did the lives of minorities’ change during the Great Depression?