TOPIC 7

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT AND THE NEW DEAL

 

 

A. First, two amendments

 

  1. 20th amendment – Moved the date of the president’s inauguration up from March to January, following the election of 1936.

 

–        Reason: long interval between the election and the inauguration no longer needed because of improved methods of counting votes, better communications and more rapid travel.

 

–        Sent to the states Mar. 1932, and it was ratified by Jan 1933

 

  1. 21st amendment – Repealed the 18th amendment, with the provision that individual states could continue to prohibit alcohol if they chose. (Oklahoma until 1957, Mississippi until 1966).

 

–        Argument over prohibition had been going on throughout the 1920s.

–        As urban population increased gradually a majority of Americans concluded that prohibition was a victory of rural ignorance and was a mistake.

–        February 1933 – December 1933

–        Congress by-passed the state legislatures and sent it to specially elected state conventions. First and only time this has been done since ratification of the Constitution in 1787-88.

 

B. Franklin Roosevelt, the man

 

  1. People did not have mixed views: you loved him or you hated him (a polarizing person, in other words),  And while I admire him greatly, considering him to be one of our greatest presidents, he was not a perfect person.

 

 

 

 

 

  1. The mood and condition of America: worse than anything any of us have ever known

 

 

 

 

 

 

  1. So, what did FDR bring to the table? Certain personal strong points that made him an excellent choice as president at this time:

 

 

–        Courage and optimism

 

 

 

 

–        Could transfer his courage and optimism to the American people: the radio and the press conference

 

 

 

 

–        A very open-minded man who was willing to listen to almost anyone and try almost anything to get the country out of the depression.

 

 

 

 

Said Roosevelt: "It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something."

 

 

 

C. Goals of the New Deal:

 

  1. Relief – help the needy

 

 

  1. Recovery – get the economy back on its feet

 

 

  1. Reform – SAVE capitalism, not destroy it!

 

 

 

 

D. Main Actions, First Term

 

GOAL

ACTION

Relief

·         Civilian Conservation Corps – March 1933 – Put young men to work

·        Public Works Administration

·        Works Progress Administration – construction and non-construction projects

·         National Youth Administration – 1935 Help needy students stay in school

Recovery

·         Banking – Banking Holiday and Emergency Banking Act – restore public confidence in the banking system

 

 

·         Farming – Agricultural Adjustment Act – reduce farm production by reducing acreage. U.S. vs. Butler, 1936

 

 

 

·         Rural Electrification Administration

 

 

 

·         Tennessee Valley Authority Act

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reform – The most controversial goal! Drove conservatives crazy!!

·         Glass-Steagall Act – 1933 – Federal Depositors Insurance Corporation

 

 

·         Securities and Exchange Commission Act – June 1934

 

 

·         Social Security Act – 1935 – Unemployment compensation and old-age pensions – a safety net for the unemployed and senior citizens

 

 

·         National Labor Relations Act – 1935 –  Unions now fully recognized as legal!

 

 

 

 

 

 

E. Election of 1936

 

  1. Roosevelt opposed by Alf M. Landon of Kansas

 

 

 

  1. Strong conservative opposition, but FDR won in a landslide

 

 

 

 

  1. Marks the peak of Roosevelt’s popularity

 

 

 

 

F. Roosevelt tries to pack the Court

 

  1. The basic facts

 

–        FDR had not had appointed anyone to the SC as of 1937.

–        Under the influence of conservative justices, the SC had declared 7 major pieces of ND legislation to be unconstitutional.

–        FDR determined to overcome this roadblock by having a friendlier SC.

 

 

  1. FDR’s proposal

 

–        Judiciary Reorganization Bill – February 1937 – President could appoint an additional justice to the SC for every justice who did not retire after turning 70. (6 of 9)

–        No more than 15 could serve on the court at one time.

 

 

 

  1. Reaction – A firestorm of opposition to FDR’s proposal

 

 

 

 

  1. Something that weakened Roosevelt’s position:

 

–  Supreme Court, in a number of decisions in 1937, approved some of the later ND laws, including the Social Security Act and the Wagner Act.

 

 

 

  1. Consequence of the Supreme Court fight:

 

–        Created a split between liberal and conservative Democrats that never healed completely. Conservative Democrats began working with Republicans in opposing later ND proposals and this situation laid the foundation for many southern Democrats to become Republicans during the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

 

 

G. Later Recovery and Reform Laws

 

  1. Agricultural Adjustment Act – 1938 – Established marketing quotas limiting the amount of cotton, corn, tobacco, wheat etc. that could be sold each year. Each farmer was assigned his portion of the total quota and if you sold more than your share you would be fined by the government.

 

 

 

 

 

  1. Fair Labor Standards Act – 1938 – First minimum wage and first maximum work week.

 

 

 

 

  1. The New Deals ends with the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act

 

 

 

 

J. Evaluation of the New Deal

 

  1. The main thing the New Deal did not do:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  1. Things the New Deal did do: