THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND NEW DEAL
• Conservatives criticized Roosevelt for
abandoning a balanced budget and
borrowing money. Many business leaders
were concerned by the growing deficit.
Concerns about federal interference in
local matters also animated the Right, as
did complaints that businesses were
burdened by too many regulations.
• Huey Long Long’s “Share
Our Wealth” plan
proposed guaranteed
incomes, pensions to
people aged 60 and
older, veterans’ benefits,
and large increases in
taxes.
• Father Coughlin A
popular radio
personality, he blamed
the greed of bankers for
causing the Depression.
He criticized Roosevelt’s
oversight of banks,
despite the regulations
passed on the first
hundred days.
• Dr. Francis
Townsend Townsend
criticized Social Security
benefits as insufficient
and complained that it
excluded people who
had not worked and
paid taxes under the
Social Security program.
• Roosevelt did not try to please most
conservatives, since they were not usually
part of his voting base. To please liberals,
he created a jobs program, the Works
Progress Administration (WPA), to improve
public works. This began the Second New
Deal.
• WPA The Works Progress
Administration (WPA)
was the largest public
works program of the
New Deal. Among the
jobs created were
positions for writers,
artists, and musicians.
• The Wagner Act This
1935 legislation allowed
workers to vote by secret
ballot to determine
whether they wanted to
unionize. It also
established an
arbitration process to
judge employeeemployer disputes and
investigate unfair
practices.
• The Social Security
Act This legislation
allowed retired or
unemployed workers to
receive benefits from a
tax paid to the federal
government. It affirmed
the longstanding
progressive principle
that the federal
government was
responsible for the
welfare of all citizens.
THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND NEW DEAL
• African
Americans Although
African Americans had
traditionally supported
the Republican Party,
FDR’s New Deal and the
work of Eleanor
Roosevelt attracted them
to the Democratic Party.
• Women Women had had
the right to vote for less
than 15 years when FDR
was elected. They also
began supporting
Roosevelt and the
Democrats during the
New Deal era.
• Other Groups Farmers,
workers, immigrants,
progressives, and
intellectuals also
supported the
Democratic Party.
• Court-Packing Plan The
U.S. Supreme Court did
not always support the
New Deal. An angry
Roosevelt tried to
increase the total number
of justices in a way that
would have allowed him
to appoint six new
justices.
• Political Opposition The
plan met significant
opposition. Southern
Democrats feared new
judges would ban
segregation. African
Americans feared new
judges would not support
civil rights.
• Citizen
Opposition Many
believed the plan
granted the president
too much power.
Roosevelt eventually
backed down.
• Economic
Decline Despite
economic growth through
much of the mid-1930s,
a decline in government
spending combined with
the beginning of payroll
taxes caused a second
economic downturn.
• Political Effects This
downturn damaged the
Democrats and paved
the way for the
Republicans to gain
Congressional seats
during the 1938 midterm
elections.
• National Housing
Act Roosevelt called for
the National Housing Act
to create the United
States Housing Authority.
This agency subsidized
loans to those building
low-income housing.
• Farm Security
Administration The
Farm Security
Administration gave
loans to Southern tenant
farmers who had been
expelled from their land.
• Fair Labor Standards
Act This act abolished
child labor, set the
workweek at 44 hours
for most people, and
established the first
federal minimum wage.
• End of the New
Deal Republicans gained
many Congressional
seats in the elections of
1938. They worked with
conservative Southern
Democrats to block
additional New Deal
legislation.
• Increased Federal
Power The New Deal
saw a great expansion
of the federal
government and
increased federal power
over the economy.
• Government Mediation New Deal
reforms established the broker state, in
which the federal government helps work
out disagreements among competing
interests.
• Safety Net New Deal
programs created a
social safety net to see
people through difficult
economic times. The
modern safety net
includes Social Security
and unemployment
insurance, two programs
instituted during the New
Deal.
• How Much Is Too Much? Americans
continue to debate how much power the
government should have to control the
economy.