Unemployment / Industry & the New Deal Flashcards
National unemployment 1932
around 25%
In some areas extremely dependent on industry concentration of unemployment peaked at what %? e.g some towns in Massachusetts
80%
Action : FERA
$500 million of federal grants made available for distribution by state agencies
to go into retirement benefits / unemployment insurance
Who distributed relief made available by FERA? What does this show a culture of?
individual states
great importance of federalism
What did FERA recognise about the government’s responsibility?
set precedent that it was government’s duty to come to rescue of the vulnerable
Who led FERA?
Hopkins
What did Hopkins admit about FERA in 1936?
“we have never given adequate relief”
Limitations of FERA, what did it not include?
- no health insurance
- excluded farmers / domestic workers
- not enough to sustain - especially in winter
- not regular payments
What types of programmes did FERA support, give examples
wide range
e.g food orders / rural rehabilitation / adult literacy
How long was FERA active for?
3years
DATE : National Industrial Recovery Act
November 1933
What were the X2 branches of the NIRA?
PWA & NRA
Action : NRA
- negotiated codes of conduct for industries
- workers guaranteed right to collective bargaining
How many codes eventually adopted in NRA?
541
NRA codes were found in what % of all US industries?
90%
What did the scale of the number of codes result in?
corruption, collusion, inefficiencies
Purpose / Aim : NRA
coordination between government planners & business leaders to create standards for production / prices / working conditions
What was the logo paraded for NRA products and stores?
blue eagle
What was the relationship between patriotic customers and the NRA?
patriots would only patronise stores following NRA codes (products identified via blue eagle)
What % of annual increase in wages was the NRA directly responsible for during its existence?
26%
What X3 factors did the coal NRA codes introduce?
- ban child labour
- equalised wages
- shorter working week
Which highly influential business man did not subscribe to the NRA codes? what did he instead do? What was notable about the way he paid workers?
- Henry Ford and automobile industry
- although observed a minimum wage
- paid workers the same regardless of nationality
X2 criticisms of the NRA
- didn’t provide immediate relief to unemployed and hungry
2. increased production costs by 40% - so did not help problem of underconsumption
What did the PWA stand for?
public works administration
How / what was the PWA funded?
$3.3billion of federal funding for public works
What did the PWA embody in FDR’s vision?
epitomised FDR’s notion of “priming the pump” to encourage growth
How many projects did the PWA eventually fund?
34,000
Name a PWA funded project
Triborough Bridge Construction, 1933 New York
What industry did the PWA propels? What did this do for the USA’s landscape?
stimulation of construction industry
improved infrastructure of USA e.g airports / schools
Limitation of what the PWA failed to build
necessary affordable housing
How many houses did the PWA build in 4 and a half years?
only 25,000
Who ran the PWA? How much did he spent in the first 6 months? What did this show?
Ickes
$110 million in first 6months
deep fiscal conservative who did not take risk
What did Icke’s conservatism show?
still reluctance to deviate from American traditions of self-help and limited gov. intervention
Evidence that the PWA did not immediately turn the economy around
FDR turned to other programmes (WPA / CWA)
Advantage of WPA / CWA over PWA
smaller projects, quicker to mobilise and set up
When was PWA abolished?
1941 during move towards war production
Purpose of the PWA”
keep construction industry alive
provide employment
give public necessary purchasing power to power engine of recovery
What did historian Kirkendall say about building programmes?
“didn’t bring depression to an end”
“enabled people to survive who would have had an impossible time surviving without them”
What did Kirkendall’s perspective on building programmes confirm about the New Deal in general?
wasn’t a means of steering USA out of depression, simply stopped the suffering of the depression getting worse
What credit was given to building programmes in terms of democracy preservation?
Fascist and socialist ideas circulating Europe and entering American
Building programmes helpful in preventing move towards totalitarian direction
e.g owning your own home
What did the CWA stand for?
Civil Works Administration
How many people did the CWa employ in temporary jobs?
4million
How much did CWA spending a month? Was this on budget?
over $200million monthly
What did the CWA’s budget show about the PWA?
Had to compensate for PWA’s limitations
When was the CWA formed? Why?
winter of 1933
slow mobilisation of PWA
What was a criticism of many CWA projects?
deemed “boondoggles” (pointless)
Average weekly wage for CWA
$15.04
Was the weekly wage under CWA greater than FERA? By approximately how much?
Yes
by just under $9
When did the CWA end? What did this mean for employment?
April 1934
ended employment for 4million workers (although intended to be temporary anyway)
What CCC was one of the first initiatives in providing federal relief and attended to conservation?
Civillian Conservation Corps
DATE : Civillian Conservation Corps
March 1933
What qualified men to be employed in the Civilian Conservation corps?
17-24
unemployed
Where did workers of the civilian conservation corps stay?
in quasi-military discipline residential camp placements
What was the monthly wage of a CCC worker? How much of this went home to their families?
$50 dollar wage
$45 home to families
Within 2yrs how many men were resident in how many camps as part of the CCC?
0.5milllion men
2,500 camps
Programme of works carried out by the CCC included;
- dam-building
- marsh draining
- land reclamation
Why did FDR prefer the creation of jobs rather than relief?
didn’t want to create a dependency on handouts
When was the TVA set up?
May 1933
What was the TVA the first of in the USA?
first publicly owned electricity organisation in USA
What was the TVA?
government owned network of dams and hydroelectric plants
Purpose of the TVA
- give construction jobs to unemployed
- aid consumers via lower electricity rates
- increase electrification to increase electrical goods demand
X3 positive consequences across social / economic areas of the TVA;
+ tempted industrialists
+ standard of living rose 200% in 1930s/40s for those involved
+ pioneered areas of malaria control
Criticism of the TVA (X3)
- remained chiefly a corporation to sell power and fertiliser
- did not work as successfully when smaller mock copies were set up in other states
- government in direct competition with private companies
What was notable about some of the states the TVA ran through?
ran through 7 of the poorest states in USA
= temped industrialists to invest here
