Chapter 33 - The Great Depression and the New Deal

I. FDR: A Politician in a Wheelchair

1. In 1932, the American people wanted a new president.
2. Hebert Hoover ran again, but people were not crazy about him.
3. The Democrats nominated Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  
4. FDR had polio so his wife helped him out.
5. Eleanor became a popular First Lady.

Hopefuls of 1932

1. Roosevelt was determined to overcome his polio and campaigned heavily, criticizing Hoover’s spending.
2. “Happy Day are Here Again” was about him.

III. Hoover's Humiliation in 1932

1. Hoover was defeated 472 to 59.
2. There was a transition of the Black vote from the Republican to the Democratic Party.
3. Hoover tried to initiate some of Roosevelt’s plans, but no one wanted to help him out.

IV. FDR and the Three R’s: Relief, Recovery, and Reform

1. He called for a nationwide bank holiday that lasted a week.
2. He had the Three R’s.
3. The Democratic-controlled Congress was willing to do as FDR said,
   and the first Hundred Days of FDR’s administration were busy.

V. Roosevelt Manages the Money

1. Then, Roosevelt had “Fireside Chats” with America on the Radio.
2. The “Hundred Days Congress” passed the Glass-Steagall
   Banking Reform Act which insured deposits of at least $5,000.
3. FDR then took the nation off of the gold standard.
4. Roosevely announced that the U.S. would pay foreign gold at a rate of one ounce of gold per every $35 due.

VI. Roosevelt Manages the Money
The Emergency Banking Relief Act gave FDR the authority to manage banks.

1. He wanted people to turn in gold for paper money and had the Treasuru buy gold with paper money.

VII. A Day for Every Demagogue

1. Roosevelt created the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) But not a lot of people liked that idea, and thought of it as undemocratic.
2. He created the Emergency Relief Act and its Federal Emergency Relief
   Administration (FERA) was headed by the Harry L. Hopkins.
3. The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) made available many millions of dollars to help farmers meet their mortgages.
4. The Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) refinanced mortgages
   on non-farm homes and bolted down the loyalties of middle class,
   Democratic homeowners.
5. The Civil Works Administration (CWA) was established late in 1933,
   and it was designed to provide purely temporary jobs during the winter
   emergency.
6. The New Deal had its critics.
• One FDR spokesperson was Father Charles Coughlin, a Catholic priest
  in Michigan who at first was with FDR then disliked the New Deal and
  voiced his opinions on radio.
• Senator Huey P. Long of Louisiana was popular for his “Share
  the Wealth” program. Proposing “every man a king,”
  each family was to receive $5000, allegedly from the rich, but the plan was ridiculous.
7. Congress also authorized the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in
   1935, which put $11 million on thousands of public buildings, bridges,
   and hard-surfaced roads and gave 9 million people jobs in its eight
   years of existence.

VIII. New Visibility for Women

1. Woman had had the opportunity to vote and many thrived.
2. Pearl S. Buck wrote a beautiful and timeless novel, The Good Earth,
   about a simple Chinese farmer
3. She received a Nobel Prize for it.

IX. Helping Industry and Labor

1.      The National Recovery Administration (NRA) included a maximum hours of labor, minimum wages, and more rights
for labor union members, including the right to choose their own
representatives in bargaining.

X. Paying Farmers Not to Farm .

1.      The AAA evened the balance of supply and demand for farm commodities so that prices would support a decent purchasing power for farmers. This concept was known as "parity."

2.      AAA controlled the supply of seven "basic crops" — corn, wheat, cotton, rice, peanuts, tobacco, and milk — by offering payments to farmers in return for farmers not planting those crops.

3.      The AAA also became involved in assisting farmers ruined by the advent of the Dust Bowl in 1934.

XI. Dust Bowls and Black Blizzards

1.      the depths of the Depression, it seemed things couldn't get worse. But they did. In 1931, drought began to dry out the land. Great Plains farmers saw their crops shrivel up in the fields. The sun burned relentlessly day after day. Temperatures stayed at record highs, and rain was but a memory. The American Midwest was becoming a desert

2.        Decades earlier, farmers had come to the bountiful Plains in droves. They had plowed up the prairie grasses and shrubs. Year after year, they had planted millions of acres of crops. And each year the land had yielded bushel upon bushel. The soil was a rich, dark chocolate color. The climate was moderate, ideal for wheat and other grain crops. It was like farming the Garden of Eden

3.        Now, suddenly, Eden was dying. A hundred million acres of land in the heart of America were no longer growing anything. Parts of five states were black where they should have been golden with ripening wheat. The drought went on and on. Wise growing practices were not yet widely known, so the land was overused and open to erosion. In the hot sun, the soil baked and crumbled into a fine dust.

4.      In 1932, the dust storms started. Raging winds blew across the dry land, gathering up topsoil. The clouds of dust boiled and rolled through the sky, depositing dirt everywhere. People thought the storms were a freak of nature. Surely they would soon end. But year after year, conditions worsened. There were fourteen dust storms in 1932. In 1933, there were thirty-eight. A reporter traveling through the region dubbed it the Dust Bowl.

XII. Battling Bankers and Big Business

1. The Federal Securities Act (“Truth in Securities Act”) forced honest reporting on stocks.
   The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) made sure that stocks were not carelessly gambled.
2. In 1932, Chicagoan Samuel Insull’s empire crash had led to the
   Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935.

XIII. The TVA Harnesses the Tennessee River

1. Thus, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) (1933) wanted to produce its own electricity.

XIV. Housing Reform and Social Security

1. FDR set up the Federal Housing Administration to bring money and homes for those who needed it.
2. They came up with USHA to aid the economy.
3. The Social Security Act of 1935 created a pension for all American which would be funded with taxes.

XV. A New Deal for Labor

1. The Wagner Act allowed Unions to organize.
2. In 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act (AKA the “Wages and
   Hours Bill”) was passed, setting up minimum wage and maximum
   hours standards and forbidding children under the age of sixteen from
   working.

1. Roosevelt enjoyed immense support from the labor unions.
2. In 1938, the CIO broke completely with the AF of L and renamed itself the Congress of Industrial Organizations (the new CIO).

XVI. Landon Challenges “the Champ”

1. The Republicans nominated Kansas Governor Alfred M. Landon to run against FDR.
2. Roosevelt won in a huge landslide, getting 523 electoral votes to Landon’s 8.
3. FDR won primarily because of the poor he helped out.

XVII. Nine Old Men on the Bench

1. He controlled Congress, but the Supreme Court kept blocking his
   programs.
2. He suggested that for every Congress member over 70, a new one would take their place.
• For once, Congress voted against him because it did not want to lose its power.

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XVIII. The Court Changes Course

1. The Supreme Court did start cooperating though.
2. So, FDR did achieve his purpose of getting the Supreme Court to vote his way.
3. Americans still did not wish to tamper with the sacred justice system.

XIX. Twilight of the New Deal

1. During Roosevelt’s he brought down unemployment from 25% to 15%.
2. The Hatch Act of 1939 barred federal administrative officials,
   except the highest policy-making officers, from active political
   campaigning and soliciting.

XX. New Deal or Raw Deal?

1. FDR had increased the federal debt from 13 to 40 million.
2. It took World War II, though, to really lower unemployment.

XXI. FDR’s Balance Sheet

1. New Dealers claimed that the New Deal had alleviated the worst of the Great Depression.
2. Later, he would guide the nation through a titanic war in which the democracy of the world would be at stake.