Chapter 12 BRI

im so tired!!!

FDR & “new deal for the American people”

FDR’s campaign slogan to better the lives of the poor and unemployed which appealed to Southerners, Westerners, and immigrants in Northern cities.  Roosevelt was unprepared with legislative plans once he was inaugurated. 

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”

 FDR said this in his inaugural address and it inspired confidence that he would fix the economy

GDP during Great Depression

Fell by 1/3

Dust Bowl

A drought in the middle of the country that destroyed fields and crops and limited supply and food

Hoover’s response to the Great Crash

He asked people to do their part to fix the economy (pay taxes, control supply, etc.) which didn’t work

Banking Crisis

 Banks closed because of too many customers trying to withdraw money. FDR kept them closed until they were stable enough to reopen. This led to more trust in banks and more laws to regulate them. 

FDR’s “fireside chats”

Used the radio to relate more to voters and calm them down

New Deal goals: relief, recovery, reform:

Wanted to stop poverty, homelessness, and starvation caused by the Great Depression. 

Keynesian economics

The idea that the government should control the business cycle through taxing and spending

Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)

1st new deal: Provided money to states to relieve unemployment

Public Works Administration (PWA)

1st new deal: Responsible for building the Hoover (Boulder) Dam and many bridges

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

1st new deal: Hired hundreds of thousands of young men to plant trees to prevent soil erosion and flooding

Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)

1st new deal: Paid farmers not to plant crops to stop overconsumption

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

1st new deal: Built dams for hydroelectric power to modernize the South and control poverty

National Recovery Administration (NRA)

1st new deal: Suspended antitrust regulations: Businesses within industries could regulate themselves. Protected unions and set limits on hours and wages. 

Huey Long & the Liberty League

Liberty League opposed the centralized government that FDR was developing and criticized him for endangering liberty. Huey Long was the Lousiana governor who opposed the Liberty League and thought the government should control everyone's wealth

Dr. Francis Townshend

Offered to give retired people who were 60+ 200$ monthly in pension if they spent it quickly

Share Our Wealth Program

Proposed by Huey Long. Steep progressive taxes to be redistributed to poor Americans

EPIC plan

(End Poverty In California). Upton Sinclair’s plan while unsuccessfully running for governor of the state. The government would take abandoned factories and farmland and use them for cooperatives. 

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC):

Guaranteed bank deposits, turned the Federal Reserve into a national bank, and regulated the stock market. 

Works Progress Administration (WPA)

2nd new deal: Hired 3 million workers to build bridges, parks, and highways. Also funded arts and theater. 

Wagner Act (1935) & National Labor Relations Board:

2nd new deal: Protected union workers after the NRA was repealed by outlawing anti-union actions. Created executive agency (National Labor Relations Board) 

Social Security Act

2nd new deal: Funded retirees by collecting high taxes from employers and employees. Criticized for taking money from the people without paying it back for 5 years which went against FDR’s idea of an active government

Rural Electrification Administration

2nd new deal: Brought electricity to rural homes. Built on the TVA

New Deal Coalition

3rd new deal:  FDR and the Democrats were so popular that people from across the country allied with them to form a coalition of support

“Court packing” plan

3rd new deal:  FDR wanted to appoint one new justice on the Supreme Court for every justice older than 70 with the goal of gaining support for his New Deal acts instead of having them be ruled unconstitutional. This also decreased his support because people claimed he was tempering with the Constitution. 

Conservative coalition

3rd new deal opposition: The group of Southern Democrats and Conservative Republicans who were both against FDR. Democrats because he was giving aid to African Americans and Conservatives because of expanding government spending and setbacks. The purpose of the coalition was to block ideas for the new deal. 

African Americans and the New Deal

3rd new deal: Although they weren’t treated fairly (lower wages, money in the hands of segregationists), African Americans were receiving the most support they ever had so a lot of them became Democrats

Indian Reorganization Act 0f 1934

3rd new deal: John Collier’s law ending the forced assimilation of Indigenous people and trying to modernize their economies. Western politicians didn’t like it and Indigenous people weren’t as enthusiastic as he thought they would be. 

Immigration policies

3rd new deal: Mexican immigrants were deported if they were found to be in the country illegally and 500,000 eventually left voluntarily or were removed

Eleanor Roosevelt

Lobbied FDR for an anti-lynching bill that wasn’t passed because he didn’t want to offend Southern committee chairs in congress. Also worked with Frances Perkins for the Department of Labor

Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins

 First woman to hold a cabinet position. Instrumental in passing social service acts in the New Deal