ROOSEVELT AND THE NEW DEAL
In 1933 the new president, Franklin D . Roosevelt, brought an air of con- fidence and optimism that quickly rallied the people to the banner of his program, known as the New Deal . “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” the president de- clared in his inaugural address to the nation .
In one sense, the New Deal merely introduced social and eco- nomic reforms familiar to many Europeans for more than a gen- eration . Moreover, the New Deal represented the culmination of a long-range trend toward abandon- ment of “laissez-faire” capitalism, going back to the regulation of the railroads in the 1880s, and the f lood of state and national reform legislation introduced in the Pro-
gressive era of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson .
What was truly novel about the New Deal, however, was the speed with which it accomplished what previously had taken generations . Many of its reforms were hastily drawn and weakly administered; some actually contradicted others . Moreover, it never succeeded in re- storing prosperity . Yet its actions provided tangible help for millions of Americans, laid the basis for a powerful new political coalition, and brought to the individual cit- izen a sharp revival of interest in government .
THE FIRST NEW DEAL
Banking and Finance. When Roose- velt took the presidential oath, the banking and credit system of the na- tion was in a state of paralysis . With
CHAPTER 11: THE NEW DEAL AND WORLD WAR II
“We must be the great arsenal of democracy.”
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1941
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
215
astonishing rapidity the nation’s banks were first closed — and then reopened only if they were solvent . The administration adopted a policy of moderate currency inflation to start an upward movement in com- modity prices and to afford some relief to debtors . New governmen- tal agencies brought generous credit facilities to industry and agricul- ture . The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insured sav- ings-bank deposits up to $5,000 . Federal regulations were imposed upon the sale of securities on the stock exchange .
Unemployment. Roosevelt faced unprecedented mass unemployment . By the time he took office, as many as 13 million Americans — more than a quarter of the labor force — were out of work . Bread lines were a common sight in most cit- ies . Hundreds of thousands roamed the country in search of food, work, and shelter . “Brother, can you spare a dime?” was the refrain of a popu- lar song .
An early step for the unemployed came in the form of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a pro- gram that brought relief to young men between 18 and 25 years of age . CCC enrollees worked in camps ad- ministered by the army . About two million took part during the decade . They participated in a variety of conservation projects: planting trees to combat soil erosion and maintain national forests; eliminating stream pollution; creating fish, game, and
bird sanctuaries; and conserving coal, petroleum, shale, gas, sodium, and helium deposits .
A Public Works Administra- tion (PWA) provided employment for skilled construction workers on a wide variety of mostly medium- to large-sized projects . Among the most memorable of its many accom- plishments were the Bonneville and Grand Coulee Dams in the Pacific Northwest, a new Chicago sewer sys- tem, the Triborough Bridge in New York City, and two aircraft carriers (Yorktown and Enterprise) for the U .S . Navy .
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), both a work relief program and an exercise in public planning, developed the impoverished Tennes- see River valley area through a se- ries of dams built for flood control and hydroelectric power generation . Its provision of cheap electricity for the area stimulated some economic progress, but won it the enmity of private electric companies . New Dealers hailed it as an example of “grassroots democracy .”
The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), in opera- tion from 1933 to 1935, distributed direct relief to hundreds of thou- sands of people, usually in the form of direct payments . Sometimes, it assumed the salaries of schoolteach- ers and other local public service workers . It also developed numerous small-scale public works projects, as did the Civil Works Administra- tion (CWA) from late 1933 into the spring of 1934 . Criticized as “make
216
work,” the jobs funded ranged from ditch digging to highway repairs to teaching . Roosevelt and his key officials worried about costs but continued to favor unemployment programs based on work relief rath- er than welfare .
Agriculture. In the spring of 1933, the agricultural sector of the econo- my was in a state of collapse . It there- by provided a laboratory for the New Dealers’ belief that greater regulation would solve many of the country’s problems . In 1933, Congress passed the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) to provide economic relief to farmers . The AAA proposed to raise crop prices by paying farmers a subsidy to compensate for volun- tary cutbacks in production . Funds for the payments would be generat- ed by a tax levied on industries that processed crops . By the time the act had become law, however, the grow- ing season was well under way, and the AAA paid farmers to plow under their abundant crops . Crop reduc- tion and further subsidies through the Commodity Credit Corporation, which purchased commodities to be kept in storage, drove output down and farm prices up .
Between 1932 and 1935, farm income increased by more than 50 percent, but only partly because of federal programs . During the same years that farmers were being en- couraged to take land out of pro- duction — displacing tenants and sharecroppers — a severe drought hit the Plains states . Violent wind
and dust storms during the 1930s created what became known as the “Dust Bowl .” Crops were destroyed and farms ruined .
By 1940, 2 .5 million people had moved out of the Plains states, the largest migration in American histo- ry . Of those, 200,000 moved to Cali- fornia . The migrants were not only farmers, but also professionals, re- tailers, and others whose livelihoods were connected to the health of the farm communities . Many ended up competing for seasonal jobs picking crops at extremely low wages .
The government provided aid in the form of the Soil Conserva- tion Service, established in 1935 . Farm practices that damaged the soil had intensified the impact of the drought . The service taught farmers measures to reduce erosion . In ad- dition, almost 30,000 kilometers of trees were planted to break the force of winds .
Although the AAA had been mostly successful, it was abandoned in 1936, when its tax on food pro- cessors was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court . Congress quickly passed a farm-relief act, which authorized the government to make payments to farmers who took land out of production for the pur- pose of soil conservation . In 1938, with a pro-New Deal majority on the Supreme Court, Congress reinstated the AAA .
By 1940 nearly six million farm- ers were receiving federal subsidies . New Deal programs also provided loans on surplus crops, insurance for
CHAPTER 11: THE NEW DEAL AND WORLD WAR II
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
217
wheat, and a system of planned stor- age to ensure a stable food supply . Economic stability for the farmer was substantially achieved, albeit at great expense and with extraordi- nary government oversight .
Industry and Labor. The National Recovery Administration (NRA), established in 1933 with the Nation- al Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), attempted to end cutthroat competi- tion by setting codes of fair competi- tive practice to generate more jobs and thus more buying . Although welcomed initially, the NRA was soon criticized for over-regulation and was unable to achieve industrial recovery . It was declared unconstitu- tional in 1935 .
The NIRA had guaranteed to labor the right of collective bargain- ing through labor unions repre- senting individual workers, but the NRA had failed to overcome strong business opposition to independent unionism . After its demise in 1935, Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act, which restated that guarantee and prohibited employers from unfairly interfering with union activities . It also created the Nation- al Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to supervise collective bargaining, administer elections, and ensure workers the right to choose the orga- nization that should represent them in dealing with employers .
The great progress made in labor organization brought working peo- ple a growing sense of common in- terests, and labor’s power increased
not only in industry but also in poli- tics . Roosevelt’s Democratic Party benefited enormously from these developments .