{ Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal. CONGRESS GETS BUSY FDR’s philosophy: get people help &...
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Transcript of { Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal. CONGRESS GETS BUSY FDR’s philosophy: get people help &...
CONGRESS GETS BUSY
FDR’s philosophy: get people help & work through “deficit” spending
During the famous “100 Days”(March--June 1933), Congress passed 15 major laws (the New Deal)
The Three Rs Relief: provide
immediate help to the desperate
Recovery: provide jobs & get the economy going
Reform: prevent future depressions
Purposes of the New Deal
Created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
Insured account holders up to $5,000
(today up to $250,000)
ALPHABET SOUP AGENCIES
CCC – Civilian Conservation Corps
3 million men ages 18-
25 worked building roads, parks, planting trees
Paid $30/month; $22 went to the family
FDR believed Depression was caused by too much cutthroat competition
Created partnership of business, labor & government to set prices, wages, work hours
Businesses who participated got to fly Blue Eagle flag
Huge government involvment in the economy
National Recovery Administration (NRA)
ROOSEVELT’S FIRESIDE CHATS
FDR communicated to Americans via radio
His frequent talks explained to Americans what he was doing
ALPHABET SOUP AGENCIES
FERA – Federal Emergency Relief Agency—
$500 million in direct relief (food & clothes) to the neediest Americans
Citizens wait outside a FERA in Calipatria, CA for relief
checks
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
Huge government program to provide work building dams
Provided flood control, electricity & irrigation
Copyright 2000, Bedford/St. Martin’s
Goal: Raise crop prices for farmers
• Paid farmers who reduced production of basic crops such as wheat, corn
• In first year 2 million cows & 6 million pigs destroyed
Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)
Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC)
Created in 1934 to regulate trading practices in stocks and bonds
CRITICS EMERGE
Liberals-- FDR’s NOT doing enough!
Conservatives—FDR’s doing TOO much and interfering with free market economy
• New Deal = socialism (killed individualism)
• Added to national debt ($35 billion)
• Wasted money • FDR reaching toward
dictatorship
Criticisms of Conservative Opponents
Father Charles Coughlin
Every Sunday Coughlin broadcast radio sermons slamming FDR
He called for a guaranteed annual income and nationalized banks
45 million listeners
Increasingly anti-Semitic remarks cost him support
• Elderly doctor from CA.
• Wanted government to pay $200/month to people over 60.
• Each pensioner would have to spend the $ in 30 days.
• Would be paid for by a 2% national sales tax
Dr. Francis E. Townsend
Long said New Deal measures were “mere crumbs” and advocated a share the wealth plan
---a guaranteed annual income of $5,000 for every American ---to be paid for by taking wealth of people who made over $1 million per year)
Senator Huey Long (LA)
Works Progress Administration
(WPA)
• Biggest New Deal agency; employed 8 million
• WPA workers built 850 airports, 651,000 miles of roads and streets, 125,000 public buildings, reservoirs, irrigation, sewage, schools, playgrounds
• Also hired artists, writers, musicians, photographers to create art
The Davis Street School Extension in Atlanta under
construction as part of the Works Progress Administration
Program, November 2, 1936
WPA Murals
San Geronimo muralTam Mural WPA Murals In SF
SUPREME COURT REACTS 1935
• Struck down NRA as unconstitutional (too much govt control over industry)
• Also killed AAA (said agricultural was a local not a federal matter)The Supreme Court --
1935
Wagner Act
Guaranteed unions right to organize & bargain collectively
Established National Labor Relations Board to mediate disputes
SOCIAL SECURITY ACT
Pensions for those over 65
Paid for by tax out of people’s paycheck (payroll tax)
Unemployment compensation
Aid to families with dependent children & disabled (1st direct welfare program)
• Response to Huey Long • Increased taxes on large
incomes & corporations.
Soak the Rich”Act of 1935
Educated farmers how to use land without damaging it
Paid farmers to follow conservation practices
Second Agricultural Adjustment Act
FDR WINS AGAIN IN
1936
Wide appeal, especially in urban areas
Blacks, Jews, Catholics, immigrants all supported the popular president FDR & Eleanor campaign
by rail in 1936
FDR frustrated w/Court’s conservative members
Proposed increasing Court from 9 to 15 members, so he could appoint supporters
Even fellow Democrats outraged
Court-Packing Plan
THE IMPACT OF THE NEW DEAL
Opinions range from harsh criticism to high praise – usually along partisan lines
Conservatives feel FDR made government too large & powerful
Liberals feel govt intervention was necessary and effective