The New Deal Flashcards
When did Roosevelt’s presidency begin?
11th March 1933
Who were FDR’s advisors?
Eleanor Roosevelt and the Brains Trust
What were the three main aims of the new deal?
- Relief - relieve extreme poverty, feed the starving and stop people losing their homes or farms
- Recovery - revive the economy by getting industry going and people working again
- Reform - make the USA a better place for ordinary people by bringing in measures such as unemployment insurance and old-age pensions, and help for the sick, disabled and ready
How long did Congress meet for at the beginning of FDR’s presidency?
100 days
Why was Roosevelt being a democrat helpful?
Because democrats had a majority of the seat, making it easier to pass new laws
What was the Emergency Banking Act?
Gave the government power to only reopen banks that were secure
What was the Securities Act?
Improved the regulation of share trading
When was the first fireside chat?
12th March 1933
Why did FDR end prohibition?
To raise spirits and bring taxable income
How was government spending paid for?
Taxation - the top rate of income tax was increased from 64 to 79% in 1935; Borrowing - people were encouraged to buy bonds in return for a fixed interest rate
Agricultural Adjustment Administration
- Payed farmers to produce less food
- Aided modernisation - technologically and by method changes
- The technological advancement put many out of jobs
Civilian Conservation Core
- Gave jobs to U25 single unemployed men
- Lived in a government park working clearing land/cutting trees/manual labour
- Given food, clothing, shelter, purpose and wages
- Able to send money back to family
- 3 million men signed up from 1933-1942
- Learned useful employment skills
Civilian Works Administration
- Set up in Nov 1933
- Specific, short-term manual job supply ranging from building roads to sweeping roads
- Shut down in March 1934
- Gave jobs to 4 million
- Spent $2 million a month
Public Works Administration
- Set up by National Industrial Recovery Act in June 1933
- To build last and valuable projects
- Created jobs and employed skilled workers
- 1933-1939 it built 70% of schools and 35% of hospitals
- Spent $7 billion on employment
National Recovery Administration
- Set up by NIRA in June 1933
- To increase workers’ wages and factory goods’ prices
- To improve working conditions within industry
- Created a voluntary code of practice which improved working conditions, forbade child labour, fixed prices of goods and limited working hours and set minimum wages
- Signs up for “Blue Eagle” approval along with presidential recognition, similar to “red tractor” today
- > 2 million employers signed up
Farm Credit Administration
- Set up in March 1933
- Gave loans to 1/5 of farmers to pay their mortgages
Federal Emergency Relief Administration
- Set up in May 1933
- Used $500 million to help those most in need
- Funded soup kitchens, clothes and bedding, schools and nurseries and limited work schemes
Home Owners Loan Corporation
- Set up in June 1933
- Gave loans to 1 million to stop them from losing their homes
Tennessee Valley Authority
- Covers Tennessee, Missouri, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky and Alabama
- Set up in May 1933
- Area poverty stricken due to soil erosion and flooding
- Built 33 dams to control the Tennessee river
- Created power, attracting industry and creating jobs
- Built 650 mile canal
- Not popular with the republicans
- Successful
- Still exists today
When did FDR begin to face criticism and what did he do?
May 1935 so plans for the second new deal began Tuesday 14th May 1935
When was the second new deal presented to Congress?
June 1935
What did second new deal aim to do?
- Affect ordinary people
- Strengthen unions to fight for members’ rights
- Increase financial security in old age
- Tackle unemployment
Wagner Act
- Forced employers to allow trade unions and to negotiate pay and conditions
- Made it illegal to sack workers for being in a union
Social Securities Act
- Provided pensions for elderly and widowed
- Allowed state help to provide for the sick and disabled
- Unemployment insurance
- Done by workers paying payed towards a fund for if they became unemployed
Works Progress Administration
- Later renamed the Works Project Administration
- Brought together all the organisations which aimed to create jobs
- Extended this work beyond building to create jobs for office workers, actors, artists and photographers
Resettlement Administration
Helped smallholders and tenant farmers who weren’t helped by the AAA
Farm Security Administration
- Replaced the RA in 1937
- Gave special loans to small farmers to help them buy land
- Built camps to provide decent living conditions and work for migrant workers
Why was there need for a second new deal?
- Pressure from advisors’ response - encouragement to radical action to farther benefit the USA
- Pressure from critics - Roosevelt should be doing more
- A shift in emphasis towards reform - aimed to increase welfare, quality of life and wellbeing
- The next step - progression from previously applied laws
Successes of the new deal for the unemployed
Helped unemployment fall; WPA employed 8 million; work relief projects created new parks, roads and schools; the social security act provided unemployment insurance; 35% of the population received government relief
Shortcomings of the new deal for the unemployed
In 1939 unemployment was still at 17.2% compared to 3.2% in 1929; projects relied on government spending; the work relief projects only provided to around 40% of those in need; the government didn’t spend enough on relief; relief varied state to state; the poor needed social housing however the government built very little
Successes of the new deal for Black Americans
A “Black Cabinet” gave them more political power; 30% of black families received relief; early songs of the end of segregation as some CCC camps were integrated
Shortcomings of the new deal for Black Americans
- The AAA forced black tenants off farmland and the NRA caused many black people to lose their jobs
- Relief payments were often less than those given to white people
- Most black workers had no access to social security
Successes of the new deal for Rural Electrification
Electrified 35% of farms by 1941; supported 417 cooperating local groups; boosted demand for electricity- 10,000 new contracts arranged by 1938
Shortcomings of the new deal for Rural Electrification
Utility companies lost profit and slowed down; spite lines were constructed often leaving poorer farms without electricity
Successes of the new deal for Native Americans
The Indian Recognition Act of 1934 restored 7.4 million acres of land to tribes; given the chance to vote and govern themselves; recognition of the right of Native American Women to vote
Shortcomings of the new deal for Native Americans
Some New Deal policies were very unpopular e.g. a plan to kill many of the Narajo Tribe’s sheep; most were still very poor; WPA left Native Americans without help when it closed down
Successes of the new deal for Women
More influence in politics for to the work of Eleanor Roosevelt; given specific help by the Women’s and Progress divisions in the WPA; grants provided for women and dependent children due to social securities act
Shortcomings of the new deal for Women
Paid around half as much as men; women in professional jobs fell from 14.2% to 12.3%; alphabet agencies provided more help for men e.g. CCC gave 2.5 million men jobs whereas camps for women offered only 5000 places a year
Successes of the National Labour Relations Act
Union membership rose to around 9 million by 1940; factory workers began to join unions; National Labour Relations Board grew to defend workers from 14 lawyers in 1935 to 226 in 1939
Shortcomings of the National Labour Relations Act
Many unions had to strike for official recognition; strikes could be violent as employers attempted to stop them
Successes of the Social Securities Act
Provided pensions and unemployment insurance; $50 million set aside for the elderly and $25 million for dependent children; by 1939 grants had helped 7000 children
Shortcomings of the Social Securities Act
Self-funded meaning that it couldn’t pay out pensions immediately and the US economy took longer to recover; pay-outs varied from state to state because it was funded by matching grants; domestic servants and agricultural labourers were not included
Successes of the Banking Act
Strengthened the Central Banking Systems; no national banks closed; modernised the US banking system; little pay outs in deposit insurance; reduced the likelihood of a crisis repeat
Shortcomings of the Banking Act
N/A
Compared the new deal to Stalin’s 5 year plan and said that Roosevelt was a communist; argued that higher taxation was un-American and opposed liberty; said that FDR had set up a federal dictatorship and had taken too much power to the presidency; had some successes, cutting funding for a relief program in 1938 and blocking a housing plan in 1939
Republican congressmen
Disliked the 1935 law that recognised unions in the workplace; felt that governments had become rivals to business by offering good wages and driving up the costs; felt taxpayers money was being wasted on bureaucracy and would be better spent elsewhere
Businesses
Founded in 1934; a national organisation that felt the New Deal was anti-business and was threatening the power of the states; distributed leaflets, broadcast speeches and sponsored dinners to get their message out; despite spending over $1 million, they were broadly unsuccessful and only 150,000 joined and republicans told them to stay out of politics, fearing that they were unpopular
American Liberty League
Huey Long
- Radical “populist” governor of Louisiana
- Heavily taxed the rich and big businesses to provide social services
- Elected senator in 1930
- Urged that the wealth of the rich be distributed among the poor
- His “Share Our Wealth” campaign was set up in 1934 and stated that all income over $1.8 million was to be divided among the poor
- Also demanded a minimum wage, state pension and free education
- Assassinated in 1935
Thought that everyone over 60 should get a pension of $2000 a month; in return they would spend it all and give up their jobs; this would provide more jobs for young people, create a demand for consumer goods and help the elderly; many older people supported him and 7000 “Townsend clubs” were set up across the USA; though the numbers did not add up in this plan
Francis Townsend
Father Coughlin
- Catholic priest with a popular radio programme called The Golden Hour of the Little Flower
- It had 30 million listeners in 1930
- He started off supporting FDR then turned against him as he felt the New Deal was influenced by bankers, who he thought caused the WSC
- He accused FDR of not doing enough, setting up the National Union for Social Justice in 1934
- Successes of the Second New Deal and his increasing anti-semitism and support of Hitler made him a lot less influential
National Union Party
- Coughlin, Townsend, and Long’s successor, Gerald Smith, formed it and put a candidate forward for president in 1936
- William Lemke (their candidate) got 828,000 votes while FDR got 27.8 million
Upton Sinclair
- A novelist who wrote The Jungle to expose the poor conditions of those working in the meat packing industry
- Ran for governor of California in 1934 using the slogan “End Poverty in California”
- He wanted to allow empty land and shutdown factories to be used by the unemployed
- He was not elected
