1. Chapter 33: The Great Depression and the New Deal, 1933 – 1939 p
1932 – 11 million unemployed
Hoover renominated by R’s
Platform included praise of R antidepression policies
Halfhearted promise to repeal prohibition
D’s
FDR – gov of NY
Rich New Yorker
Suave and conciliatory

2. Hoover vs. FDR, 1932

3. Hoover’s Problems: The Day of the Crash

4. Hoover’s Problems: Bankline

5. Hoover’s Problems: Bonus March

6. More Problems: Breadline

7. Another Line

8. FDR and Eleanor

9. FDR: Politician in a Wheelchair
struck w/ disease – Polio - in 1921
suffering humbled him to level of common man
fought back from complete helplessness
schooled self in patience, tolerance, compassion and strength
Eleanor Roosevelt
Champion of the dispossessed
Conscience of the New Deal
Traveled across country on FDR’s behalf in all his campaigns
Becomes most active First Lady in history
Influenced policies of national gov’t
Battled for poor and oppressed

10. FDR’s political appeal amazing
Commanding presence, great speaking voice
As gov of NY during depression, sponsored heavy state spending for relief – believed that money was expendable
D’s nominate FDR June 1932
Platform
Repeal of prohibition
Assailed Hoover depression
Promised balanced budget and sweeping social and econ reforms

11. Depression Era African American Family

12. Hooverville?

13. Hoover’s Humiliation in 1932
FDR wins 472 – 59
Striking feature of election was distinct shift of African American vote from R to D
As “last hired and first fired” had been among the worst sufferers from depression
Beginning in election of 1932, became vital element of D party especially in northern urban centers
hard times ruined R’s
overwhelming majority of voters appear to have voiced a demand for change: any new deal rather than the old deal
lame duck period
HH during these 4 months continued to try to remedy depression but was helpless to do so w/out support of FDR (FDR was uncooperative) – 20th Amendment = January

14. FDR and the Three R’s: Relief, Recovery, and Reform
Inauguration 3/4/33
Provided people w/ inspirational new hope
Denounced “money changers” who brought on calamity, declared gov’t must wage war on depression as it would on armed foe
“Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”
Moved quickly
Declared nationwide bank holiday 3/6-10/33
4 day gov’t inspection
allow only those that were solvent to re-open
instill confidence in banking so that people would put money back
summons Congress into special session to cope with emergency
Hundred Days congress crank out large amount of remedial legislation

15. New Deal programs aim at 3 R’s – relief, recovery, reform
Short range goals of relief and immediate recovery especially for first 2 yrs
Long range goals of permanent recovery and reform of current abuses (those that produced boom-or-bust catastrophe
Objectives often overlapped
Congress ready to rubber-stamp bills drafted by White House advisers (FDR called “must legislation”)
Congress gives president huge blank-check powers – some laws it passed expressly delegated legislative authority to president (would cause SC to rule much of this as unconstitutional)
FDR inclined to do things by intuition, but mood of country so desperate that any type of movement was better than no movement

16. Hundred Days Congress Pass many essentials of the 3R’s
Reforms owe much to legacy of pre-WWI Progressive movement
Progressive ideas such as:
Unemployment insurance
Old age pensions
Minimum wage regulations
Conservation/development of natural resources
Restrictions on child labor

17. In a 3 column chart, categorize each of the following as Relief, Recovery, or Reform
Glass-Steagall Act (FDIC)
Court Packing Scheme
Tennessee Valley Authority
AAA – first and second
Securities and Exchange Commission
Civilian Conservation Corps
Works Progress Admin
Social Security Act
Resettlement Administration
Hatch Act
20th Amendment
Wagner Act
Home Owners Loan Corp
Repeal of 18th Amend (Beer and Wine Revenue Act)
National Recovery Act/Public Works Administration
Fair Labor Standards Act (Wages and Hours Act)
FDR’s Bank Holiday

18. Relief Civilian Conservation Corps Home Owners Loan Corporation
Agricultural Adjustment Administration - 1 and 2
Federal Housing Administration
Resettlement Administration
Works Progress Administration

19. Recovery National Recovery Act/Public Works Admin Bank Holiday
MOST of the other actions/laws/agencies created had the secondary purpose of recovery

20. Reform Glass-Steagall Act
Repeal of 18th Amend (21st) – Beer and Wine Revenue Act
Court Packing Scheme
20th Amendment
Wagner Act
Fair Labor Standards Act
Hatch Act
Social Security Act
Securities and Exchange Commission
Tennessee Valley Authority

21. Roosevelt Manages the Money
banking needs immediate action
Emergency Banking Relief Act of 1933
Gave president power to regulate banking transactions and foreign exchange and to reopen solvent banks
FDR uses radio to deliver 30 “Fireside Chats”
Millions listen as he gave assurances that was now safe to put money back in banks
Confidence and assurance is what he’s trying to promote
Glass-Steagall Banking Reform Act
Provided for Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
Insure individual deposits up to $5k
Ends epidemic of bank failures
FDR also takes currency off gold standard – can no longer demand payment in gold, must accept paper
“Managed Currency” – idea was inflation – more money available to help debtors pay their debts

22. Fireside Chats

23. The FDIC – look familiar?

24. Creating Jobs for the Jobless
overwhelming unemployment needed quick action
1:4 out of work by 1932; FDR has no hesitancy about using federal $ to assist unemployed and “prime the pump” of industrial recovery
Civilian Conservation Corps – CCC
Most popular of New Deal alphabet agencies
Employed 3 million in fresh air gov’t camps
Useful work – reforestation, firefighting, flood control, swamp drainage
Required to help parents by sending home most of their pay
For males only

25. Join the CCC!

26. CCC Workers

27. More CCC Workers

28. CCC Camp

29. Cont’d Federal Emergency Relief Act Agricultural Adjustment Act – AAA
First major effort to grapple w/ millions of adult unemployed
Aim of immediate relief rather than recovery
Federal Emergency Relief Administration grants $3billion to states for direct payments or wages on work projects
Agricultural Adjustment Act – AAA
Millions to farmers to help make mortgage payments
Home Owners Loan Corporation – HOLC
Refinance mortgages on nonfarm homes
Assists about 1 million
Civil Works Administration
Branch of FERA, established by FDR himself
Provide temporary jobs during devastating winter of

30. A Day for Every Demagogue
even with all new gov’t jobs being created, persistent unemployment still a problem
- allows various demagogues to appear to criticize
Father Charles Coughlin – catholic priest
Hosts radio show beginning in 1930
Was anti-New Deal
Was also anti-Jewish, fascistic – silenced by superiors in 1942
Senator Huey P. Long – Louisiana
“Share Our Wealth” program to make “every man a king”
every family to receive $5k at the expense of the wealthy
shot by assassin in Louisiana state capitol in 1935
Dr. Francis E. Townsend
Retired Dr. in California who had savings wiped out
Attracted support of 5 million senior citizens w/ plan to give every person 60 yrs or over $200/month provided the money be spent within the month

31. Father Coughlin

32. Huey P. Long

33. Works Progress Administration – WPA
Created to quiet crackbrained proposals
Objective was employment on useful projects
Spent $11 billion on thousands of public buildings, bridges, and paved roads
Over 8 yrs provides almost 9 million people with jobs instead of handouts
Also provided work for college students and unemployed white collar workers like actors, musicians, and writers
More than 1 million pieces of art created by WPA

35. Helping Industry and Labor
National Recovery Administration – NRA
Attempt to stimulate nationwide comeback
Most complex and far reaching effort to combine immediate relief w/ long term recovery and reform
Assist industry, labor, and unemployed
Individual industries (over 200) to work out codes of “fair competition”
Hours of labor reduced so employment could be spread over more people
Ceiling on maximum hours of labor
Floor under wages to estab minimum levels
Labor granted additional benefits
Workers guaranteed right to organize and bargain collectively through reps of OWN choosing
Yellow dog, antiunion contracts forbidden
Restrictions on child labor
Problem: too much self sacrifice expected of labor, industry, and the public for it to work
Declared unconstitutional by SC

37. Repeal of Prohibition – 21st Amendment
Same act of Congress that launched NRA also authorized the Public Works Administration – PWA
Intended for industrial recovery and unemployment relief
Long range recovery primary purpose
Spent $4 billion on 34k projects – public buildings, highways, parkways, dams
Repeal of Prohibition – 21st Amendment
Opportunity to raise needed federal revenue
Provide employment

38. Paying Farmers Not to Farm
depression for farmers starts after end of WWI
radical new approach to farm recovery through Agricultural Adjustment Administration – AAA
through “artificial scarcity” would establish “parity prices”
“parity” was price set for a product that gave it the same real value in purchasing power that it had during period of
AAA would eliminate price depressing surpluses by paying growers to reduce their crop acreage
Subsidized scarcity did have effect of raising farm income but did raise criticism
Paying farmers not to farm increased unemployment
Supreme Court kills AAA in 1936 by declaring its regulatory taxation powers unconsititutional

39. Congress quickly passes Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act of 1936 in response
Paid farmers to plant soil conserving crops or let land lie fallow
Second Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 continues conservation payments
If growers observe acreage restrictions, would be eligible for parity payments

40. Dust Bowl – Half Buried House

41. Off to Californy!

42. We’re Going Too!

43. Hey, let’s take the train…oh yeah, never mind.

44. It’s Not Just A Car Anymore

45. Dust Bowls and Black Blizzards
late 1933 – prolonged drought struck trans-Mississippi Great Plains
no rain and high winds – sun darkened by millions of tons of powdery topsoil from eastern Colorado to western Missouri
humans play role in creating these conditions
overproduction, mechanization during WWI and 1920’s
in 5 yrs – 350k Oklahomans and Arkansans trek to southern California
“Grapes of Wrath”
Resettlement Administration – 1935
Removing farmers to better land
Planted 200 million trees on bare prairies as windbreaks by CCC
Native Americans – Indian Reorganization Act of 1934
Encouraged tribes to establish local self gov’t and preserve native crafts and traditions
Helped stop loss of Indian lands and revived tribes interest in identity and culture

46. Whoa!

47. Erie doesn’t sound too bad after all

48. Battling Bankers and Big Business
“Truth in Securities Act” (Federal Securities Act)
required promoters to provide investors with truthful information regarding the soundness of stocks and bonds
Securities and Exchange Commission – 1934
Watchdog administrative agency
Stockmarkets to operate more as trading marts and less as casinos

50. Electricity!

51. Brought to you by the…

52. The TVA Harnesses the Tennessee
electric power industry attracts fire of New Deal reformers
had grown immensely in wealth and power in very short period of time
as public utility it reached directly into pockets of millions of people
New Dealers felt were gouging public w/ excessive rates
Tennessee River provided opportunity for New Dealers to fight against electricity monopolies
Area contained 2.5 million of most poverty stricken people in US
By developing hydroelectric potential of entire area, could combine advantage of putting thousands to work with long term project for reforming electrical monopoly
Tennessee Valley Authority – 1933
Determined to discover how much the production and distribution of electricity cost so that a “yardstick” could be set up to test the fairness of rates charged by private companies
Brought to the area full employment, cheap electric power, low cost housing, abundant cheap nitrates, restoration of eroded soil, reforestation, improved navigation, and flood control

53. Housing and Social Security
Federal Housing Administration – 1934
Building industry to be stimulated by small loans to householders for improving homes and completing new ones
One of few alphabet agencies to outlast age of FDR
United States Housing Authority – 1937
Designed to lend money to states or communities for low cost construction
Built units for 650k low income people but fell well short of needs
For first time in 100 yrs, slum areas in US ceased growing and even shrank

55. Reform Social Security Act of 1935
One of most complicated and far reaching laws ever to pass Congress
Provided for federal-state unemployment insurance
Security for old age – specified categories of retired workers to get regular payments from Washington - $10 - $85 per month
Financed by payroll tax on both employers and employees
Provisions for blind, physically handicapped, delinquent children and other dependents
gov’t recognizing its responsibility for welfare of its citizens

56. Worker Protections

57. A New Deal For Labor - Reform
- When Supreme Court axed the NRA, Congress sympathetic to labor unions fills the void
- National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (Wagner Act)
created powerful National Labor Relations Board for administrative purposes
reasserted right of labor to engage in self organization and bargain collectively through reps of own choice
Under encouragement of NLRB, unskilled workers begin to organize
John L Lewis – boss of United Mine Workers
Formed Committee for Industrial Organization in 1935 w/ in the ranks of the AFL
Friction b/t skilled and unskilled workers
Breaks completely from AFL in 1938
Renamed Congress of Industrial Organizations
By 1940 had 4 million members, including 200k African Americans

58. Reform Fair Labor Standards Act (Wages and Hours Bill) 1938
Set up minimum wage and maximum hour levels
Goals of 40 cents/hr and 40 hr week
Child labor under 16 prohibited
Excluded agricultural, service, and domestic workers
Meant that African Americans, Mexican Americans, and women did not benefit from act

59. FDR vs. Alfred Landon, 1936

60. Landon Challenges “the Champ”
Election of 1936
D’s – renominate FDR – platform squarely endorsing New Deal
R’s – Alfred Landon – moderate who accepted some ND programs
R platform condemned New Deal for radicalilsm, experimentation, confusion and waste
FDR wins in landslide
R’s win only 2 states – 523-8
D majorities return to Congress (over 2/3 in both H and S)
FDR wins because appealed to “forgotten man”
Forged powerful and enduring coalition of the South, African Americans, urbanites and the poor
Very effective in gaining support of “New Immigrants” who came in at the turn of the century whose second generation was coming politically of age

61. FDR and the Supreme Court – Not BFF’s
20th amendment allows FDR to take office for 2nd term on 1/20/37
FDR interprets reelection as mandate to continue ND reforms
Felt that old men on Supreme Court were in the way of progress
Had voted against New Deal reforms 7 times out of 9 cases
Court was ultraconservative
Six of 9 were over 70
FDR did not appoint a single one
Court felt that it was their duty to curb the “socialistic” tendencies of FDR admin
FDR’s “Court Packing Scheme” to fix his problems w/ court
Asked congress for legislation to permit him to add a new justice to the SC for every member over 70 who would not retire
Could boost membership to 15 and inject new blood on court

62. The Court changes course
congress and people unhappy w/ scheme to pack court
FDR accused of attempting to break down checks and balances, grooming self as dictator – criticism from even w/in D party
Court reacts by actually voting more liberal on ND issues
March 1937 – uphold principle of state minimum wage for women, reversing its stand on a different case a year earlier.
Also uphold Wagner Act and Social Security Act
Congress votes full pay for justices over 70 who retired, upon which one of the oldest resigns and is replaced by a New Dealer (Hugo Black)
Court becomes markedly more friendly to ND legislation, and succession of deaths and resignations enable FDR to make 9 appointments
But by attempting to pack the court, aroused conservatives in both parties so much that few New Deal reforms are passed after 1937

63. Twilight of the New Deal
FDR’s first term does not solve the depression problem
Unemployment still at 15% by 1936 (down from 25% of 1933)
1937 – sharp downturn in economy
depression w/in a depression (Roosevelt Recession)
new gov’t policies cause the nosedive
Social Security taxes take bite out of payrolls
Admin cut back on spending out of desire to adhere to balanced budget

64. Criticisms of New Deal
waste, incompetence, confusion, contradictions, cross purposes
gov’t becoming too big – becomes largest single business in country
balanced budget idea out the window
payments to individuals undermining old virtues of thrift and initiative
farmer and laborer doing well at the expense of business
FDR too aggressive of a leader
New Deal failed to cure the depression – still millions of unemployed by 1939

65. New Deal Accomplishments
Had been some waste, but relief had been primary object of war on depression
Relieved the worst of the crisis in 1933
Accepted the principle that fed gov’t was morally bound to prevent mass hunger and starvation by managing the economy
Programs headed off a more radical swing to the left by a mild dose of what was mistakenly called socialism
Provided for bold reform without a bloody revolution at a time when foreign nations suffering armed uprisings – preserve democracy in US at a time when democracies abroad were disappearing
Girded nation for its part in WWII
Provided nation w/ sense of hope – this was the greatest effect of the New Deal