Opposition to the New Deal Flashcards

1
Q

Describe the sustainability of the New Deal:

A

When Roosevelt took money away from alphabet schemes unemployment rose, didn’t make any long-term systemic changes

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2
Q

When was the second New Deal?

A

1935-1936 = 2-3 yrs after 1st new deal

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3
Q

What was Roosevelt’s response to the Supreme Court challenging the New Deal?

A

Roosevelt’s response was to start 2nd phase

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4
Q

What were all the new agencies from the Second New Deal?

A
  • The Resettlement Administration (RA)
  • The Social Security Act
  • Works Progress Administration (WPA)
  • Security Farm Administration Project
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5
Q

The Resettlement Administration (RA):

A
  • Helped smallholders and tenant farmers who weren’t helped by AAA
  • Moved 500,000+ families to better quality land and new housing
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6
Q

The Social Security Act:

A
  • Provided state pensions for elderly and widows
  • Allowed state gov to work with federal gov to help disabled
  • Set up scheme for unemployment insurance
  • -> Meant employers and workers made small contributions to fund each week
  • Unemployed workers – received benefits until employed
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7
Q

Works Progress Administration (WPA):

A
  • Brought together all the organisations with the aim to create jobs
  • Extended work beyond building jobs, creating jobs for office workers, actors, artists and photographers
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8
Q

The New deals’ Security Farm Administration Project

A

-Project took 80,000 photos of farming areas during New Deal = jobs + money

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9
Q

What were the 3 Types of Opposition to the New Deal?

A
  1. “The New Deal isn’t doing enough!”
  2. “The New Deal is doing too much!”
  3. Opposition from the Supreme Court
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10
Q
  1. “The New Deal isn’t doing enough!”:
A
  • Socialists, communists etc.
  • High-profile complaints made the New Deal wasn’t doing enough to help the poor
  • Hardest hit were black Americans in poor farming areas
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11
Q

Who was a key figure arguing on behalf of people that thought the New Deal wasn’t doing enough?

A

Huey Long

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12
Q

When did Huey Long become Governor of Louisiana?

A

1928

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13
Q

When did Huey Long become a senator?

A

1932

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14
Q

Huey Long’s Methods of Gaining Power:

A

= unusual and sometimes illegal e.g. bribery and intimidation

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15
Q

What did Huey Long do?

A
  • Relentlessly taxed big businesses in Louisiana and used money to build roads, schools, hospitals
  • Employed black people on same terms as white people – clashed with KKK
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16
Q

Huey Long’s opinion on the New Deal:

A

Supported New Deal at first but by 1934 was scrutinising it for being too complicated and not doing enough

17
Q

What scheme did Huey Long put forward?

A

“Share our Wealth” – maximum fortune = $3 mil, max income per yr = $1 mil, gov taxes shared between all Americans

18
Q

What did Huey Long propose?

A

pension for everyone 60+, free washing machines and radios

19
Q

Characteristics of Huey Long:

A

Aggressive forceful character with many friends and enemies

20
Q

What did Roosevelt regard Huey Long as?

A

as one of the two most dangerous men in USA until Long was assassinated in 1935

21
Q

What did Dr Francis Townsend do?

A

founded a number of Townsend Clubs to campaign for a pension of $200 per month for people 60+, providing that they spent it that month stimulating the economy

22
Q

What did Dr Francis Townsend set up?

A
  • Set up National Union for Social Justice – had large membership
  • By early 1940s, movement had faded in importance
23
Q
  1. “The New Deal is doing too much!”:
A

New Deal quickly came under fire from sections of the business community and from Republicans for doing too much

24
Q

What was the long list or criticisms people who thought “The New Deal was doing too much!” had?

A
  • New Deal was too complicated and there were too many codes and regulations
  • Gov should not support trade unions and it should support calls for higher wages – market should deal with these issues
  • Schemes such as TNA created unfair competition for private companies
  • New Deal schemes were like the economic plan being carried out in the communist USSR and unsuitable for the democratic, free-market USA
  • Roosevelt was behaving like a dictator
  • Wealthy were wealth because they had worked hard and used their abilities – high taxes discouraged people from working hard and gave money to people doing nothing or unnecessary jobs
25
Q

How did Roosevelt feel about the criticisms and tactics used against him by big businesses and Republicans

A
  • upset

- turned on these enemies bitterly

26
Q

Tactics used against Roosevelt by big businesses and Republicans:

A

o Used smear campaign against him
o Said he was disabled because of a sexually transmitted disease instead of polio
-Employers put messages in their workers’ pay pockets saying that the New Deal schemes would never take place

27
Q

Result of 1936 election:

A
  • Roosevelt won 27 mil votes – highest margin of victory ever achieved by a US president
  • Joked triumphantly – “Everyone is against the New Deal except the voters.”
28
Q
  1. Opposition from the Supreme Court:
A
  • Roosevelt’s problems not over with 1936 election

- Now faced most powerful opponent of New Deal – American Supreme Court

29
Q

What was the Supreme Court dominated with?

A

by Republicans who opposed New Deal

30
Q

What strange case came before the Supreme Court in May 1935?

A
  • Schecter Poultry Corporation found guilty of breaking NRA regulations:
  • -> sold diseased chickens for human consumption
  • -> filed false sales claims (to make company worth more)
  • -> exploited workers
  • -> threatened gov inspectors
31
Q

What did the Schecter Poultry Corporation do?

A
  • Appealed to Supreme Court
  • Court ruled that gov had no right to prosecute company because NRA was unconstituitional – undermined too much of power of local states
32
Q

What was Roosevelt’s reaction to the result of the Schecter Poultry Corporation case?

A
  • Roosevelt angry a group of old Republicans should deny democracy by throwing out laws that he had been elected to pass
  • -> asked Congress to give him power to appoint 6 more Supreme Court judged who were more empathetic to New Deal
  • -> Roosevelt had misjudged mood of American public
  • -> alarmed at Roosevelt for attacking American system of gov
  • -> had to back down – plan rejected
  • -> his actions not completely pointless – Supreme Court shaken by his actions + less obstructive in future