Chapter 15

Part 1Pages 488-494

FDR

• Born to wealthy family• Married Eleanor Roosevelt (5th cousin and

niece of Teddy Roosevelt)• New York state legislature• Assistant Secretary of the Navy• 1920 VP candidate for Cox (lost to Harding)• Polio• Governor of NY

Election 1932

• Beat Hoover easily• Democrats took over House and Senate

• FDR’s Campaign: Relief, Reform, Recovery• Theme song: Happy Days are Here Again

The New Deal

• FDR’s plam to combat the depression• Will use direct aid• Was called Pump Priming

• John Maynard Keynes: English Economist who advocated deficit spending when economy was in crisis

The Brain Trust

• A group of advisors (most professors from Columbia University)

Fireside Chats

• Used the radio on a regular basis to keep in touch with the American people

• Most Americans believed that he understod their problems and cared abouth them

Banking Crisis

• Between FDR’s election in November of 1932 and his inauguration in March of 1933

• Banks started to collapse nation-wide• Many other banks closed to prevent folks from

taking their money out• Michigan was the first state to declare a

banking holiday

The First 100 Days

• More legislation passed by Congress here than all other presidencies to this point put together

• Congress was frightened and FDR was popular so FDR called the shots (will be different with foreign affairs)

The Emergency Banking Act

• Closed all banks in country• Federal inspectors• Many shored up with federal funds• Banks reopened

Glass-Steagall Act

• New rules for banks: no more selling securities, no more financing corporations, etc.

• Also provided for the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) insured deposits up to $5,000

Fireside Chat

• Convinced people to redeposit their money in banks

• Folks could no longer use gold to purchase products

• So people stopped hoarding their gold and cash

Federal Securities Act

• Corporations were required to give accurate complete information about their companies

The SEC

• Securities and Exchange Commission• To be a watchdog on the Stock Market

• Joe Kennedy was put in charge

the 21st Amendment

• Repealed prohibition (18th)

Farmers

• The AAA Agricultural Adjustment Act• Paid farmers to take land out of production

(they plowed their crops under)

• Paid ranchers and pig farmers to slaughter their meat.

Between 1932-1936

• Farm prices rose 50%• But Problems• People were starving in cities• Sharecroppers were worse off• Dust bowl continued…ecological disaster

• The Supreme Court declared the AAA unconstitutional

Will Be Replaced

• The new AAA• The Domestic Allotment and Soil Conservation

Act

• Fixed problems of the old AAA• Farmers had to share with sharecroppers and

had to plant something to keep topsoil down

The TVA

• Tennessee Valley Authority• The Tennessee Valley was one of the most

depressed areas of the country• The government built 25 great dams• Provided cheap electricity and fertilizer• Employed 40,000 folks• A great success but socialist!• Electric companies very unhappy

Work Relief

• The federal government paid people to work• Alphabet soup

• CWA Civil Works Administration• PWA Public Works Administration• WPA Works Progress Administration• CCC Civilian Conservation Corps• NYA National Youth Administration

The CWA

• People were hired to build roads, schools, hospitals, airports

• The PWA was part of the NIRA (later)• People were hired to build dams, canals,

bridges (stuff related to water)

The WPA

• Works Progress Administration for white collar workers

• Teachers, Nurses, Doctors, Artists, others• Teachers were paid by the government to tutor

or work in a bankrupt school• Nurses were paid to check on folks in the

countryside• Artists were paid to paint murals on

government buildings

The CCC

Paid young single men to do heavy duty outdoor workPlanted trees, raked leaves, etc.

Were paid $30 a month but $25 was sent home to their families

The NYA

• Gave part time work to full time high school or college students

• Full time jobs were saved for heads of households

• More high school graduates

Business and Labor

• The NIRA National Industrial Recovery Act

• Business and labor were to draw up codes of fair competition: decide on hours, wages, prices, etc. together

• Included section 7a. Was supposed to guarantee collective bargaining

By 1934

• Business was recovering• BUT many violations of section 7a

• And the Court declared the NIRA unconstitutional in the Sick Chicken Case

The NIRA

• Will be replaced with the Wagner Act which did protect unions with the NLRB

• The National Labor Relations Board was given the authority to hold secret meetings in the workplace to help workers unionize and it could reinstate workers who had been fired for union activity

Relief

• Home Owners Loan Corporation• Federal Housing Administration• Federal Emergency Relief Administration

• Home mortgages, repairs, direct relief like clothing, food, medical care

New Deal Critics

• Conservatives thought FDR went too far

• Called him a commie dictator• Government was too big, too intrusive

• Hoover wrote: A Challenge to Liberty• Others formed The American Liberty League

New Deal Critics

• Liberals thought FDR had not gone far enough

• Upton Sinclair almost became governor of California. Advocated communal living all over America

• Doctor Townsend: Believed all retired persons over 65 should be given $2000 a month every month as long as they spent it all

Liberal Critics

• Father Coughlin Shrine of the Little Flower at 12 and Woodward

• Was given radio time on WJR every Sunday night…very popular

• Advocated huge taxation of the wealthy and guaranteed income to the rest of us

Huey Long

• The King Fish• Sometimes senator and sometimes governor

of Louisianna

• The Share the Wealth Plan: Take the property of the wealthy and redivide it equally to everyone

All critics were popular

• FDR knew he would never gain the support of the conservatives

• BUT he might gain more support by introducing more liberal programs

• So enter the Social Security Act, Food Stamp Plan