Professional Documents
Culture Documents
FDR Beginnings
Intro to FDR and Eleanor
FDR comes from wealthy NY family, was asst. naval secretary during WWI, was Cox’s VP candidate, gets polio/paralysis
in 1921, confined to wheelchair, governor of NY during 20s, public works and aid programs on local level, upper class
hate him which is great for winning elections, speaks on “plight of the forgotten man,” most politically slick man ever born
Eleanor pushes him to continually maintain his political career; first very active first lady; “conscience of the New Deal”;
publishes column; Hillary of the 1930s; actually part of FDR’s cabinet
Transition of Office
Election of 1932: FDR crushes Hoover; almost all blacks shift to Dem Party; FDR: “I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new
deal.”
Hoover’s Lame Duck Period: Hoover tries, unsuccessfully, to pass a bunch of laws to jeopardize FDR’s plans; leads to
20th Amendment, which makes all presidential/VP terms start in January (idea: shorten lame duck period)
FDR inaugural address: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
FDR Cabinet: “brain trust” of experts; SecState Cordell Hull, SecLabor Frances Perkins, SecInterior Harold Icks, Sec
Commerce Harry Hopkins, Eleanor Roosevelt
FDR’s First Hundred Days (Mar 9 - June 16) / First New Deal
Overview
-weekly fireside chats
-plan of relief, recovery, and reform
-ideas: unemployment insurance, minimum wage, conservation, old age insurance
-Congress basically gives FDR a “blank check”
-1933-1935: First New Deal [foundation laid in first 100 days]: SEC, TVA, PWA, CCC
Banking Crisis
-by 1933, 11,000 banks have failed. 38 states have closed their state banks.
-FDR’s first week in office: ten day national banking holiday declared, after which only olvent banks could reopen
-Mar 6: FDR takes America off gold standard; all gold to be cashed in for paper currency; controlled inflation
-Mar 9: Emergency Banking Relief Act: gov’t can open sound banks and merge/liquidate unsound ones; funded by RFC
-Mar 12: first “fireside chat”; brings in 35 mil Americans; assures Americans that new banks are safe; trying to restore faith
in financial/banking system
-June: HOLC (Home Owners’ Loan Corporation) founded; allows tons of homeowners to refinance mortgages and avoid
foreclosure which indirectly helps banks who gave out these loans; middle class shifting toward Dem Party
-Summer: Glass-Steagall Banking Reform Act (“Banking Act”) - creates Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC):
any deposit up to $5K is federally insured; divide between commercial (savings/checking) banking and investment (Wall
St) banking -> banks and big business become regulated
-May: Federal Securities Act: requires that stock buyers given credible info on what stocks are actually worth
- June 6 1934: SEC (Securities and Exchange Corporation) established; designed to protect public against fraud and
deception in stock market; regulates Wall St
-1935: Public Utility Holding Company Act: prevents businesses from buying failing businesses at minimum capital (“on
margin” dying out)
Relief and Unemployment Programs
1. Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC): est. Mar 31 1933; employs close to 3 mil young men at many different jobs
involving conservation, building, etc.; most of monthly payments go to family of CCC member; 3 mil new consumers!
2. Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA): est. May 1933: Harry Hopkins heads it; gives $3 bil to states for
“dole” payments (dole = wages for work projects for unemployed); “on the dole” basically becomes what Hoover feared,
where people take handouts and don’t work for a living; inspires the better CWA
3. Civil Works Administration (CWA): est Nov 1933: basically the FERA but makes you dig ditches or clean sidewalks to
“earn” your money; basically federal chores
4. Public Works Administration (PWA): headed by Harold Icks; over $4 bil to provide jobs on public projects (building
schools, dams, etc.) -> INFRASTRUCTURE, not just “chores”; problem: money not spent quick enough
5. Works Progress Administration (WPA): est. May 1935; “second half of New Deal”; focus on transportation; more
successful than PWA; employed 40% of nation’s workers; part of WPA was the Federal Arts Project (FAP), which found
part-time occupations for students of the arts (basically FDR trying to get artsy votes)
6. National Youth Administration (NYA): provides part-time jobs for students; originally part of WPA; part of “2nd New
Deal”
Agricultural Efforts
1. Agricultural Adjustment Act/Administration (AAA), 1933: eliminate surpluses by paying farmers to farm less and to kill
off excess livestock to be fed to unemployed; works great until ruled unconstitutional by Butler v US after which FDR
makes 48 mini-AAAs.
2. Federal Farm Loan Act: federal loans to farmers to delay foreclosure
3. Dust Bowl in fall 1933 because of drought leads to 2 major measures:
-Frasier-Lemke Farm Bankruptcy Act (spring 1934): delays foreclosure
-Resettlement Administration (May 1935): helps relocate farmers to new communities built by CCC
Industry and Labor
1. National Industrial Recovery Administration (NIRA), June 16, 1933 [100th Day]: designed to prevent extreme
competition, labor management disputes, and overproduction; establishes code (“Codes of Fair Competition”): sets
minimum wages, maximum work hour, minimum prices, and quotas on production, and Section 7A protects right to
organize and collectively bargain
2. National Recovery Administration (NRA): supplementary to NIRA: enforces NIRA policies and promotes enthusiasm for
NIRA; “blue eagles” in storefronts that abide by codes of fair competition; business does improve
3. Wagner Act, aka National Labor Relations Act of 1935: the legal, constitutional version of Section 7A
4. Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO): NOT A FEDERAL THING; this is a union that happens to be founded at this
time; founded by John L. Lewis; difference from AFL: CIO was union for unskilled workers, AFL is for skilled workers
Tennessee Valley Authority
May 1933, very regional, Muscle Shoals area, public corporation, hugely successful
goal: reform monopoly that utility companies had
hydroelectric power plants, dams -> money, energy, and JOBS!
provides full employment to Western TN, reduces price of electricity, stopped flooding, improved navigation
BUT: criticized for being incredibly socialistic; “planned economy”
Election of 1936
1. “New Democratic Coalition” - Democratic candidate is FDR; consists of African-Americans, unions, lower class
unskilled workers, intellectuals/academics, South, city machines/immigrants
2. Republicans (Alfred Landon of KS): wealthy, North, etc.
3. FDR wins by a ridiculous margin (Landon gets 8 electoral votes, literally); New Deal is doing well
People end up arguing that WWII, not the New Deal, actually cured the Great Depression.
One essay will be on the Great Depression, the other on the New Deal. Caution: if doing Great Depression, since it’s so
brief, you gotta know everything; if doing New Deal, since there’s so much info, you gotta make sure you just don’t list a
bunch of crap.