Section 2: The Second New Deal Takes Hold
Second Hundred Days/ Second New Deal- Unemployment still high and production still lagged behind so FDR called on Congress to provided more extensive relief for both farmers and workers.
Eleanor Roosevelt- wife of FDR, social reformer who traveled the country observing the social conditions of the country. Urged FDR to appointment women to gov’t positions and reminded him of the nationals suffering people.
FDR reelected in 1936 over Republican Alfred Landon by overwhelming victory
Farmers- 2 of 5 farms were mortgaged and replaced the AAA with…
Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act- this act paid farmers for cutting production of soil depleting crops and reward farmers for practicing good soil conservation methods
Second AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Act) -many similar features as the first but did not include a processing tax to pay for farm subsidies
The Resettlement Administration- Provided monetary loans to small farmers to buy land
Farm Security Administrations replaced the resettlement Administration and loaned more than one billion dollars to help tenant farmers become landholders
The WPA (Works Progress Administration)- between 1935- 1943 it spent 11 billion dollars to give more than8 million workers work (roads/building)
National Youth Administration (NYA)- provided education, jobs, counciling, and recreation for young people. Provided student aide for young people to attend college and in exchange the students worked for their school part time.
Wagner Act (National Labor Relations Act)- replaced NIRA and was named after senator Robert E Wagner protected the right of workers to join unions, engage in collective bargaining, and prohibited unfair labor practices. Wagner Act created the National Labor Relations Board to hear these issues.
Fair Labor Standards Act- Set maximum hours at 44 per week and set minimum wage at 25 cents
Social Security Act (1935)- created by Frances Perking (secretary of Labor) had three major parts:
-Old age insurance for retirees 65 or older and their spouses- retirement plan for millions
-Unemployment compensation system – administered at state, $15-$18 per week funded by federal tax on employees
-Aid to Families with dependent children and the disabled- paid by federal funds distributed by states
Rural Electrification Administration (REA)- financed and worked with electrical cooperatives to bring electricity to isolated areas. By 1945 48% of farms had electricity
NLRB v. Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation (1937)
Section 3: The New Deal Affects Many Groups
Women
Francis Perkins- first female cabinet member, helped create Social Security System and supervised labor leglisation.
-women faced discrimination in the workplace from males (men felt women were taking their jobs)
-1936 Gallup Pool was taken that said 82% of society felt women should not work if their husband had a job
-NRA set wage codes which were lower wages for women
-CCC only hired young men
- married women in the workplace grew from 11.7% to 15.6% through the 1930’s
African Americans
Philip A Randolph- organized the country’s 1st all-black trade union, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. His work would lay the groundwork for what would become the civil rights movement.
Mary McLeod Bethune- educator who promoted opportunities for young African Americans, hired by FDR (one of the 100 African Americans appointed to key positions in the New Deal Government) to head the division of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration.
-“Black Cabinet” organized by Bethune a group of influential African Americans to advise the Roosevelt administration on racial issues (William Hastie and Robert C Weaver appointees of FDR’s Department of Interior)
-Eleanor put together one of the most significant events; a performance by African American Marian Anderson. The Daughters of Revolution chose not to allow her to perform and Eleanor resigned from that organization and arranged for Anderson to perform on the steps of Linclon Memorial on Easter Sunday 1939.
-New Deal agencies discriminated against African Americans by lower wages and less jobs
Mexican Americans
-supported New Deal
-fewer benefits than African Americans
-found work laboring on farms and farm wages fell to 9 cents
Native Americans
-1924 Native Americans received full citizenship by law
-John Collier- appointed as Commissioner of Indian Affairs and created Indian reorganization Act of 1934- mandated economic (lands belong to tribes), political (elect tribal councils to govern reservations) , and cultural (schools on reservations created) changes as well as giving them reservation ownership.
New Deal Coalition- alignment of diverse groups dedicated to supporting the Democratic Party.
Labor Unions Flourished
-Unions grew 3 million to 10 million between 1933-1941
- Better working conditions and hours
-Committee of Industrial Organization (CIO)- created to organize industrial unions and headed by key labor leaders such a John L Lewis and David Dubinsky
Labor Disputes
-sit down strikes- instead of walking off their jobs workers would remain in side their plants and would not work. ( a effective barging tool)
-Republican Steel plant in Chicago clashed with management on Memorial Day and Police attacked striking steelworkers. 10 killed and 84 wounded “Memorial Day Massacre) the steel plant was forced to negotiate.
Section 4: Culture in the 1930’s
Motion Picture and Radio
-65% of the population was attending movies by late in the 1930’s
-15,000 movies theater (more than banks)
- Radio sales increase 13 million to 28 million from 1930-1940
-Gone with the Wind (1939)
-Comedies (Marx Brothers) such as Monkey Business and Duck Soup
-gangster films grew with dark, gritty streets, and looming skyscrapers of Urban America
- Mr. Deeds goes to Town and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington- shed light of the New Deal and social and political accomplishments.
-Orson Welles- radio broadcaster of all time
Arts in depression
-Federal Arts Project- branch of WPA to help promote positive images of American Society through posters and art schools
-Grand Wood- “American Gothic” portrayal of life in the Midwest during the Great Depression. Regionalism style, and familiar subjects in realistic ways!
-Woody Guthrie-used music to capture the hardships of the great depression ( The Dust Bowl)
-Federal Writers Project- branch or WPA to help writers during the Great Depression
-Richard Wright- African American author “Native Son” young men trying to survive the racist world
-The Grapes of Wrath- John Steinbeck revealed lives of Oklahomans who left the Dust bowl and ended up in California.
Section 5: The Impact of the New Deal
The New Deal affected the American Society not only in the 1930’s but in decades that followed
New Deal Endures
-By 1937 FDR contemplated a third New Deal but with deficit spending the economy had improved and many felt the depression was finally ending.
-Congress pressured FDR to scale back New Deal Programs and industrial production dropped and unemployment increased from 7.7 mil to 10.4 mil.
-by 1939 New Deal was effectively over and Hitler was rising to Power in Germany
Supporter of the New Deal
-president struck a reasonable balance between two extremes: unregulated capitalism and overregulated socialism and helped the country recover from its economic difficulties
-more than a temporary solution (existing programs today)
-government assumed greater responsibility for the economic welfare of its citizens
Critics of the New Deal
-made federal government too large
-government messed with free enterprise
-system that penalized hard work and success
Government Role in the Economy
FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation)
SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission)
-regulated banking and investment activities
-Federal Deficit increased up to 54.5 billion in 1943
-NRLB (National Labor Relations Board)- continues to help with labor management disputes
-Social Security is an important legacy of the New Deal
-TVA (TennesseeValley Authority)
-Parity Price- a price intended to keep farmers income steady still exists today