G Dep and New Deal
Causes of the G Dep; "Brother, can you spare a D.I.M.E.?"
Distribution of income, uneven
Low taxes on businesses and on high incomes
Imbalance in foreign trade
High tariffs
Mechanization of American industry
Overproduction of consumer goods
Failure of farm sector
Easy Credit
Stock market speculation, buying on margin, excessive use of credit, installment buying
Hoover's Response (Too Little, Too Late), 1929-1933; Voluntary action
Hawley-Smoot Tariff (1930)
To protect US markets from foreign competition
Europe retalited, set high tariffs
Result: reduced trade for all nations, economies sank further in to dep.
"Rugged Individualism"
"trickle down" economics
Reconstruction Finance Corporation, 1932
Voluntary agreements by businesses
End of war debts by European nations
Effects of G Dep
Unemployment, homelessness, migration
The Bonus Army, 1932
Growth and solidification of the labor movement
"Hoovervilles"
The Dust Bowl, "Okies"
New Deal: Relief, Recovery and Reform
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
First Hundred Days
First New Deal, 1933
FDIC, HOLC, FERA, PWA, CCC, TVA, NRA, AAA, SEC, FHA
Second New Deal, 1935
WPA, Wagner Act, NLRB, REA, SSA
Relief of human suffering
Emergency Banking Act; Bank "holiday," March 6, 1933
Federal Emergency Relief Act, 1933
PWA, CCC, WPA, TVA
Recovery of U.S. economy
NRA, HOLC, FHA, First AAA, Second AAA
"codes of fair competition"
agricultural price supports
Reform
Banking: Glass-Steagall Act; FDIC
Stock market: SEC
Social Security Act, 1935
National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act), 1935; NLRB
Fair Labor Standards Act, 1938
Controversial aspects of the New Deal
Constitutional Issues
Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, 1935
Supreme Court and the AAA
United States v. Butler, 1936
Roosevelt's "court packing"
1940 Third term controversy (the unwritten Constitution)
Passage of 22nd Amendment, 1951
G Dep and New Deal: The human factor
FDR: Restore public confidence, "Fireside Chats", Brain Trust
New Deal and Women: Eleanor Roosevelt, Frances Perkins
Dust Bowl: "Okies", John Steinbeck;s The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
The New Deal and Minorities
Shift in African-American vote, 1936 New Deal coalition
Latinos
Indian Reorganization Act, 1934; John Collier, Bureau of Indian Affairs
Opposition to the New Deal
Huey Long
Father Coughlin
Dr. Townsend
Republicans
Questions, Great Depression and New Deal:
1. To what extent was the New Deal revolutionary?
2. Did the New Deal lead to socialism?
3. Did the New Deal destroy the "checks and balances" system?
4. Did the New Deal violate the two-term Presidential Tradition?
5. Describe the major controversies over the New Deal.
6. Compare and contrast the responses of Presidents Hoover and FDR to the Depression.
7. Why did Eleanor Roosevelt play such a substantive role as First Lady? How do her
actions compare with more recent First Ladies?
8. Why did African-American voters increasingly change political allegiance from the
Republican Party to the Democratic Party after 1934?
9. What geographic/environmental conditions contributed to the migration from the Dust
Bowl to the West?
10. How did the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 compare with the Dawes Act of
1887 in terms of (a) goals and (b) Native American Indian reactions?
11. How did the New Deal support the arts?
12. Why did "escapist" movies become popular during the Great Depression?
13. What New Deal projects were complete in or around Irvington, Westchester and New York?
A. How does New Deal reform compare to reforms of the Progressive Era (1890s) and
the Great Society (1960s?)
B. How successful was the New Deal in solving the problems of the Great Depression?
C. In The Grapes of Wrath, Ma Joad made stew for the children at the camp, but she wondered if she was "doin' right." On the one hand, she was helping people by giving them much-needed food; on the other hand, she didn't want them to become dependent on her, and she knew she couldn't feed them all for a long time. During the 1930s, FDR greatly increased the role of the government in the economy and people's lives. Do you think FDR was "doin' right" when he put New Deal programs into place?
