Agenda

1. Agenda • Vocabulary Quiz today… • Today we will continue with notes for the New Deal Era… • Take out notebooks and be quiet.

2. The New DealCoach Ricard The New Deal is a program of relief, recovery, and reform aimed at combating problems caused by the Depression.

3. FDR took office on March 4, 1933. • The First Hundred Days is when FDR pushed program after program through Congress to provide relief, create jobs, and stimulate economic recovery. He based some of these programs on the work of federal agencies that had controlled the economy during WWI.

4. FDR’s first step was to restore public confidence in the nation’s banks. • He pushed Congress to pass the Emergency Banking Act. • This act authorized the government to inspect the financial health of all banks.

5. FDR’s next step was to help overburdened local relief agencies. • He persuaded Congress to establish a Federal Emergency Relief Administration, which sent funds to these agencies. • Programs that were set up under FERA were the Civil Works Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps.

6. The sharp decline of industrial prices in the early 1930s had caused many business failures and much unemployment. • National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) • The NIRA sought to bolster those prices. • The NIRA established the NRA, an agency that set out to balance the unstable economy through sensible planning. • This planning took the form of industry wide codes that would spell out fair practices.

7. The codes regulated wages, working conditions, production, and even prices. They also set a minimum wage and gave organized labor collective bargaining rights. • These rights allowed workers to negotiate as a group with employers. • The best part of the NIRA may have been its Public Works Administration. • The PWA launched projects ranging from the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River in the state of Washington, to the causeway connecting Key West to the Florida mainland, to NYC’s Triborough Bridge.

8. The Federal Securities Act, passed in May 1933, required companies to provide information about their finances if they offered stock for sale. • They provided further protection against economic downturns, Congress reformed the Stock Market.

9. The next year Congress set up the Securities and Exchange Commission to regulate the stock market. • The SEC was given the power to tell companies what information much be included in their financial statements. • Congress also gave the Federal Reserve Board power to regulate the purchase of stock on margin – a practice that had contributed heavily to the crash on 1929.

10. The Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) refinanced, or reshaped the terms of, mortgages to make the payments more manageable. • The Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) used proceeds from a new tax to pay farmers not to raise certain crops and animals. • Lower production, it was hoped would raise prices.

11. The Tennessee Valley Authority helped farmers and created jobs in one of the country’s least developed regions. The TVA provided cheap electric power, flood control, and recreational opportunities to the entire Tennessee River valley.

12. Many firsts occurred during FDR’s administration: • For the first time a women held a Cabinet post. Frances Perkins became Secretary of Labor. • FDR’s administration broke new ground by hiring African Americans to more than a hundred policy-making posts. • Mary McLoad Bethune held the highest position of any African American woman in the New Deal.

13. Section 2The Limits of the New Deal • For all its successes, the New Deal fell short of many people’s expectations. • The Fair Labor Standards Act, covered fewer than one quarter of all gainfully employed workers. • It set the minimum wage at 25 cents an hour, which was well below what most covered workers already made. • It was less helpful to women and minority groups than they were to white men.

14. Limits for Women under the New Deal. • The NRA codes permitted lower wages for women’s work in almost a quarter of all cases. • In relief and job programs, men and boys received strong preference. • Jobs went to male “heads of families,” unless the men were unable to work. • No New Deal provision protected domestic service, the largest female occupation.

15. Limits for African Americans under the New Deal. • Federal relief programs in the South, including public works projects, reinforced racial segregation. • As a rule African Americans were not offered jobs at a professional level. • They were kept out of skilled jobs on dam and electric power projects, and they received lower pay than whites for the same work.

16. The Social Security Act excluded both farmers and domestic workers, it failed to cover nearly two thirds of working African Americans. • “AA” in the North had not supported FDR in 1932, but by 1936 they had joined camp. • Often the last hired and first fired, they had experienced the highest unemployment rates of any group during the Depression. • For this reason those who did gain jobs appreciated many of the New Deal programs.

17. The New Deal did nothing to end discriminatory practices in the North. • In the absence of help from the federal government, African Americans took matters into their own hands. • Protesters picketed and boycotted such businesses with the slogan “Don’t shop where you can’t work.”

18. Political Critics • Many Republicans in Congress and elsewhere opposed FDR. • They knew something had to be done about the Depression, but they believed that the New Deal went too far. • These people regarded FDR as their enemy. • The Second New Deal gave them even more to hate, as FDR pushed through a series of higher taxes aimed at the rich.

19. The Revenue Act of 1935, also known as the Wealth Tax Act, raised the tax rate on individual incomes over $50,000 and also increased rates on the income and profits of corporations. • FDR’s enemies claimed that the Social Security Act penalized successful, hard working people.

20. Other Critics • Some New Deal critics were demagogues—leaders who manipulate people with half-truths, deceptive promises, and scare tactics. • Father Chares E. Coughlin attacked FDR and called him Franklin “Double-crossing” Roosevelt and described him as a “great betrayer and liar”. • Huey Long, originally a supporter of FDR, broke from him and developed a program called “Share-the Wealth.”

21. The Court-Packing Scheme • No act aroused more opposition than FDR’s attempt to “pack” the Supreme Court. • FDR asked Congress to pass a bill that might have allowed him to add as many as 6 justices, one for each justice over 70 years of age. • He wanted to “pack” the Court with judges favorable to the New Deal. • Negative reactions came swiftly from all sides. FDR was forced to withdraw his reform bill. He also suffered political damage.

22. Section 3Last Days of the New Deal • The New Deal did not put an end to the Depression, but its massive government spending did lead to some economic improvement. • The improvement did not last long, however, as the economy collapsed again in August 1937. Industrial production fell, as did employment levels.

23. The new Social Security tax was partly to blame for this recession. The tax came directly out of workers’ paycheck, through payroll deductions. • Americans now had less money in their pockets, so they bought fewer goods.

24. Unions Triumph • The New Deal changed the way Americans thought about labor unions. • Union membership rose from about 3 million in 1933 to 10.5 million by 1941, a figure representing 28 percent of the nonagricultural work force.

25. The Wagner Act legalized collective bargaining and told management it had to bargain in good faith with certified union representatives. But the act could not force a company to accept union demands.

26. Lasting New Deal Achievements • The New Deal did not completely vanish when the Depression ended. Its accomplishments continued in many forms. This legacy ranges from physical monuments that dot the American landscape to towering political and social achievements that still influence American life.

27. The End • Study for your test.