CHAPTER 13: THE NEW DEAL Section 1: Forging a New Deal
BELLRINGER Pick up worksheet from the student desk up front and answer the following questions on the paper in the space provided. Only answer the 3 questions you see on this slide. 1. Imagine a situation in which all members in your household were out of work, had no hope of finding a job, and had no government benefits. How would you want your government to respond? 2. List some current government programs that are designed to help families that are out of work. 3. The underlying assumption of the New Deal: that government can and should help restore economic stability through creation of jobs and funding of economic initiatives. Do you agree or disagree with this basic premise?
THE NEW DEAL The New Deal: President Franklin Roosevelt s (FDR) program of relief, recovery, & reform aimed at combating problems caused by the Depression Remember: Relief, Recovery, Reform
FIRST HUNDRED DAYS Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) wanted to restore a sense of hope & build confidence He didn t wait to do it From March to June 1933 (First Hundred Days) FDR pushed program after program through Congress to provide relief, create jobs, & stimulate economic recovery
FIRST HUNDRED DAYS Closing the Banks March 5: Closed all banks for 4 days, bank holiday Government inspected the financial health of all banks 2/3 s healthy, most reopened by March 15 Americans regain confidence, put money back into accounts banks could make loans to stimulate economy June: Congress established Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to insure bank deposits up to $5,000 (today $250,000)
FIRST HUNDRED DAYS Providing Relief & Creating Jobs Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA): sent funds to local relief agencies Harry Hopkins, the director, is said to have given out $5 million in first 2 hours FERA put money into public works programs (government funded projects to build public facilities) Civil Works Administration (CWA): build\improved roads, parks, airports, & other facilities 4 million employees
FIRST HUNDRED DAYS Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC): 2.5 million young, unmarried men worked to restore & maintain forests, beaches, & parks $1 a day with a place to stay, food, medical care, & job training Similar version for women; only 8,500 took part thou
FIRST HUNDRED DAYS Helping out Business: June 1933: National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) wanted to boost falling industrial prices NIRA established National Recovery Administration (NRA) with a goal to balance economy with sensible planning Planning took the form of industry-wide codes that set up fair practices Regulated wages, working conditions, production, & prices Worked for a bit, but with higher wages higher prices less spending
FIRST HUNDRED DAYS NIRA also set up the Public Works Administration (PWA) Sponsored massive public works projects such as dams & hydroelectric power plants
FIRST HUNDRED DAYS May 1933: Federal Securities Act Required companies to provide information about their finances if they offered stock for sale 1934: Congress set up Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) to the regulate stock market Government also regulated the purchase of stock on margin
FIRST HUNDRED DAYS Home Owner s Loan Corporation (HOLC): refinanced mortgages to make payments more manageable May 1933: An Agricultural Adjustment (AAA): tried to raise farm prices through subsidies (government financial assistance) Paid farmers NOT to raise certain crops or animals Lower production higher demand higher prices Farmers plowed under fields, while others were starving
NEW DEAL PERSONNEL FRD surrounded himself with eager & hardworking advisers Brain Trust: informal group of intellectuals who helped develop policies FDR was the first President to appoint a woman to a Cabinet post; Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor. FDR also broke new ground by hiring African Americans in more than a hundred policymaking posts
NEW DEAL PERSONNEL Eleanor Roosevelt (wife) was one of FDR s most important colleagues Took stands She protested the Jim Crow laws at a meeting where whites were supposed to be seated apart from blacks; She sat in the middle
NEW DEAL FALTERS New programs failed to bring about significant economic improvements; criticism began to build Many worried about the growing power these New Deal agencies were giving the federal government State-controlled or state-directed social or economic system That is not liberalism; it is tyranny former President Hoover Supreme Court Attacks 1935: declared the NIRA was unconstitutional 1936: declared the tax used to pay farmers under the AAA was unconstitutional
SECOND NEW DEAL 1935 FDR launched Second New Deal Response to critics who said he wasn t doing enough for ordinary Americans More social welfare benefits, stricter controls over business, stronger support for unions, & higher taxes on the rich Works Progress Administration (WPA): put more than 8 million people to work making or improving playgrounds, schools, hospitals, & airfields Also supported the creative work of many artists & writers Resettlement Administration: loaned money to small farmers & sharecroppers to resettle to productive land Replaced by Farm Security Administration (FSA) in 1937
SECOND NEW DEAL National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act) Legalized practices of collective bargaining & closed shops (open only to union members) Outlawed spying on union activities, blacklisting (employers agree not to hire union leaders) Set up a National Labor relations Board (NLRB) to enforce provisions 1938: Fair Labor Standards Act banned child labor & set minimum wage 1935: Congress passed Social Security Act Established a Social Security system to provide security (regular payments) to people who could not support themselves
SECOND NEW DEAL System offered 3 types of insurance 1. Old-age pensions & survivor s benefits Workers & employers pay into national insurance fund Retired workers or surviving spouses were eligible to start receiving payments at age 65 2. Unemployment insurance Government distributed money to workers who lost job States managed own programs with help for federal government 3. Aid for dependent children, blind, & physically disabled Federal government sent money grants to state to help support individuals in need
1936 ELECTION FDR had a huge landslide victory in the election Won every state but two (Maine & Vermont) 523-8 in electoral college Showed that Americans supported the New Deal Supported government involvement