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The New Deal

Chapter 26

Lesson 2

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Roosevelt in the White House

  • 1932 Election - Economy ensured that Hoover would not be re-elected
  • Democrats nominated New York Governor Franklin Roosevelt (FDR)
  • “I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people”

Franklin Roosevelt

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FDR’s Early Career

  • Distant cousin to Teddy Roosevelt
  • Wealthy New York family
  • Married Teddy Roosevelt’s niece
    • Eleanor Roosevelt
  • 1910 - New York Senator
  • Very persuasive speaker
  • 1913-Assistant Secretary of Navy
  • 1920-Dem. Vice President Nominee
  • 1921-contracted polio, paralyzed

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The Return to Politics

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  • Never discussed illness
  • Asked reporters not to photograph leg braces or wheelchair
  • Won election as governor of NY in 1928, re-elected in 1930
  • Put together group of advisors in 1932, “Brain Trust”
    • Develop new ideas for economy for the campaign
  • “Bold, persistent experimentation”
  • Won 1932 election in landslide

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Rebuilding the Nation’s Confidence

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  • In four months between election and inauguration, economy worsened
  • “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”
  • First had to stabilize banks
    • Many people could not pay back loans - banks failed
  • Closed all banks for 4 days
  • Emergency Banking Relief Act
    • Only solvent banks reopened
  • Fireside Chats

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The Hundred Days

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  • More ideas for combating the Depression would come
  • “Hundred Days”
  • Congress approved many FDR proposals
  • Sense of optimism

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The New Deal Takes Shape

  • FDR proposals passed by congress came to be known as the New Deal
  • Laws and regulations
    • Banking, stock market, industry, agriculture, public works, relief for poor, conservation of resources
  • Changed U.S. dramatically

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Help for the jobless and poor

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  • Work relief programs (CCC)
    • Employed 3 million
    • Plant trees, build levees, improve national parks
  • Federal Emergency Relief Act
    • Money to states for food and assistance
  • Agricultural Adjustment Act
    • Control production to raise prices

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Help for the jobless and poor (cont.)

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  • AAA paid farmers to destroy crops, milk, and livestock
    • Shocked Americans
  • Paid farmers not to use parts of their land
  • Subsidies - pay farmers to make up the difference
  • Farmers’ income rose 50%
  • AAA ruled unconstitutional in 1936

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Rebuilding a Region

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  • Tennessee Valley Authority
  • TVA - economic well-being of the Tennessee Valley
  • Built dams to help control flooding and generate electricity
  • Some argued federal funds should not be used on single region
  • Power companies complained

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Helping Business and Labor

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  • National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA)
    • “Most important and far reaching legislation ever passed in the U.S.”
  • Regulate business
  • National Recovery Administration (NRA)
    • Minimum wage
    • Abolished child labor

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Helping Business and Labor (Cont.)

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  • Codes to govern pricing
  • NIRA established Public Works Administration (PWA)
    • Boost economy through huge public projects
    • Shipyards, hospitals, schools, roads
  • FDIC - guaranteed depositor money in banks
  • Securities and Exchange Commission - (SEC)

Fort Knox

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Impact of the Early New Deal

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  • Did not cure nation’s ills
  • Hardships continued
  • Unemployment remained high
  • Gave hope that government was trying to help