New Deal

What is FCA 1933?

Loans for farmers to maintain homes and farms

AA: didn’t apply to tenant farmers or sharecroppers

What is AAA 1933?

Federal government subsidise agricultural production to raise prices

Ruled unconstitutional in 1936

AA: reducing production means many contacts of sharecroppers ended especially in the south

What is the aim of ND?

Relied to needy, recovery to fix economy in short term such as creating jobs, reform to regulate economy in future

What is the 1933 NIRA?

Introduced codes to control production, prices, labour relations to defuse aggressive employer tactics

Set minimum weekly wage of $12-13, standard 40hr working week

Ruled unconstitutional 1935

AA: authorises separate and lower pay scales for AA

Women: about 25% NRA codes set minimum wages at lower rates to men

What is the 1933 Banking Act and how does it only benefit few?

Investment banks are separated from commercial banks to ensure investor’s money cannot be used in speculative ventures, guarantees deposits and savings

It only benefits those with savings and investments so no AA, NA, women, working class benefit

What is the 1933 TVA?

provided employment, cheap hydro electricity for impoverished areas

AA: racially segregated

What is the 1933 PWA?

4m unemployed gain paid work

Lasted 5 months in winter so millions could cope

What is the 1933 CCC?

Provided work for 3m young men in national parks where a monthly wage is guaranteed

AA: 200k men benefit, segregation in place

NA: 15k men benefit

How is CCC discriminatory to AAs?

Mississippi has a 50% black population, but only 46 in Mississippi were selected for CCC

In Georgia, so few black men were recruited that Washington officials threatened to cut off all CCC money for the state

What is the 1935 SSA?

Guaranteed retirement payment for over 65s, federal insurance for the unemployed, state government to give help to sick and disabled with federal government

Contributors to fund have to pay the same rate regardless of income

AA, women: pensions excluded farmers and domestic servants

What is the 1935 WPA?

Create jobs for artists, actors, photographers especially in FAP where artists are paid to paint pictures to display in cities

AA: Ickes quota system to avoid racial discrimination, Hopkins initiatives to promote black cultures and history like an oral history project to capture testimony of former slaves

Women: employed 460k at its peak in 1936

What is the 1935 NLRA?

It sets up NLRB to preside over labor relations, enable bargaining rights as if majority of workers want a union, company has to agree and negotiate working conditions

Union membership 1935: 3.7m, 1940: 8.5m

What is the 1937 FSA?

Helps to get tenants low interest loans to buy and restock farms, address AAA by helping thousands to stay on land

By 1947, 44k farmers brought own farms

What is 1938 NWA?

Sets up housing projects for low income families

By 1941, 160k homes built for slum dwellers at $12-15 a month

Conservatives afraid it would drive away private landlords

AA: act was discriminatory to them

What is the 1938 FLSA?

Fix minimum wage at 25cents per hour, maximum hours to 44 per week

Children under 16 forbidden from working

AA: to get act accepted, domestic servants and farm workers were excluded for fear the southern industry would loose its competitiveness

How is local implementation of ND policies disadvantageous to AAs?

Southern voices were powerful in the Senate so Roosevelt was reluctant to create federal law against lynching

Local officials in south used federal money to only give work to unemployed white people

Hundreds wrote to President to complain that whites were controlling the new deal relief programs so they have no where to turn

What traditional views did the public hold of women working?

Male trade unionists through married women should stay home

82% Americans opposed to women working

It is only acceptable for married women to work if it is or a second income

Body soap ads reinforce image of women as housewives

How did Eleanor Roosevelt (ER) help ND?

She lobbied those in change in FG relief to make sure work opportunities are given to women

Hosted White House Conference on the Emergency Needs of Women in Nov 1933to draw attention to plight of working women

How does ER go against racist attitudes?

She defied local segregation ordinances to meet with black leaders

She was forceful in pushing officials to ease racial discrimination in federal programs and hosuigjn

How did ER change the role of the First Lady?

She often participated in interviews with the press

She is the first woman to address a national political convention. To write a nationally syndicated column which criticised his husband ocassionally

She brought Labour leaders, women activists, black spokesmen into the White House

How does FERA expand roles of women, and what is its limtiation?

Hopkins who created it appointed Ellen Woodward to head it (unprecedented role in upper echelons of government)

Only 7% jobs created by FERA went to women

What is the significance of Frances Perkin’s role in the new deal?

She is the secretary of Labour and the first female cabinet minister in US history

She led to legislation mandating workplace safety and protection for female workers

Who are other significant women involved in ND?

Hilda Smith: director of Workers’ education in WPA

Clara Beyer: Associate director of Division of Labour Standards

Bethune: head of division of Negro Affairs in National Youth administration

Level of female involvement unmatched until 196ps

Why is only 10% workers unionised by 1933 despite the right to join unions?

Workers didn’t have the right to strike and can be sacked if they do