: FDR to WWII

Germany’s Great Depression (Unemployment)

Japan’s Great Depression (Unemployment)

1 Great Britain’s Great Depression (Unemployment)

United States Great Depression (Unemployment)

•When Bing recorded this song in October, 1932, one out of every four Americans who wanted work could not find work. •The banking system was near collapse. •Record sales had plummeted because Americans did not have the money for such luxuries. •No song captures the dark spirit of the Great Depression more than "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" •Bing recorded the song shortly before President Roosevelt's election and it went to No. 1 in the charts.

Bing Crosby

2 They used to tell me I was building a dream, and so I followed the mob, When there was earth to plow, or guns to bear, I was always there right on the job. They used to tell me I was building a dream, with peace and glory ahead, Why should I be standing in line, just waiting for bread?

Once I built a railroad, I made it run, made it race against time. Once I built a railroad; now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime? Once I built a tower, to the sun, brick, mortar and lime; Once I built a tower, now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime?

Once in khaki suits, gee we looked swell, Full of that Yankee Doodly Dum, Half a million boots went marching through Hell, And I was the kid with the drum! Say, don't you remember, they called me Al; it was Al all the time. Hey don't you remember, I'm your pal? Buddy, can you spare a dime?

Once I built a railroad, I made it run, made it race against time. Once I built a railroad; now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime? Once I built a tower, to the sun, brick, mortar, and lime; Once I built a tower, now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime?

Once in khaki suits, gee we looked swell, Full of that Yankee Doodly Dum, Half a million boots went marching through Hell, And I was the kid with the drum! Say, don't you remember, they called me Al; it was Al all the time. Say, don't you remember, I'm your pal? Brother, can you spare a dime?

3 • Roosevelt’s 100 days was very successful….FDR and Congress went to work providing for direct relief, recovery and reform.

• From March of 1933 to June of 1933, Roosevelt sent 15 proposals to Congress and all 15 were adopted

• Congress and President tried anything reasonable to overcome the Great Depression.

100 days

First 100 Days

• Bank Holiday (March, 1933): closed banks for four days • : Gave President power to regulate banks – FDR closed troubled banks – Gave loans to banks • Ordered private holdings of gold be given back to Treasury in exchange for paper currency – Prevent panic hoarding – Took nation off gold standard – Then ordered Treasury to buy gold at high rates to increase value and cause inflation to help debtors

NEW DEAL CARTOON Govt. programs which provided direct relief to suffering Americans through govt. spending……… · Renew democracy · Restore confidence in the banking · Stimulate economy · Put people back to work. · Restore self confidence How? FDR’s 3 R’s ·Relief: ease suffering of the needy ·Recovery: begin economic growth ·Reform: help prevent future economic crises

4 Part of FDR’s ……Agencies created by the US Govt. to bring about the 3 R’s……Relief, Recovery, and Reform.

alphabet

chats

“I pledge to you, pledge myself to a NEW DEAL for the American People.” “The only thing we have to fear…is fear itself.”

•President Roosevelt began the “fireside chats” on a weekly basis as a way to reassure the American people. •His comforting voice, calming words, confidence in the country and the American people helped restore faith of the American people in democracy.

alphabet RELIEF: Ease Suffering of the Needy

FERA / 1933 Federal Emergency Relief Act •Distributed $500 million of direct aid to unemployed workers such as food, clothing and grants of money to cities. •Will spend a total of $3 billion by end of Great Depression

5 alphabet RELIEF: Ease Suffering of the Needy

WPA / 1933 to 1943 Works Progress Administration •Largest New Deal Program •Employed 8.5 million unskilled workers •Construction of public buildings, roads, bridges and buildings for the arts •Spent $13.4 billion

wpa

•Works Progress Administration (WPA), the New Deals main relief agency. •2,500 hospitals •5,900 schools •13,000 playgrounds •125,000 public buildings

6 alphabet RELIEF: Ease Suffering of the Needy CCC / 1933 to 1942 Civilian Conservation Corps •Sent 3 million young men to work camps to build bridges, replant forests and other conservation tasks. •Develop job skills and improve environment. • Removed surplus of workers from cities, provided healthy conditions for boys, provided money for families.

7 •Created in April 1933. •Within 4 months, 1300 CCC camps were in operation. •Men in 1933 between 18 and 25 •Signed up for 6 months and made $30.00 a month. •Most popular of the New Deal programs

CCC

Planted trees, built public parks, drained swamps to fight malaria, restocked rivers with fish, worked on flood control projects and a range of other work that helped to conserve the environment.

8 alphabet RELIEF: Ease Suffering of the Needy

HOLC / 1933 Home Owners Loan Corporation •US Govt. bought up mortgages and refinanced them so that homeowners could pay their mortgages. •Bailed out mortgage holding banks

alphabet RELIEF: Ease Suffering of the Needy

PWA/1933 Public Works Administration •34,000 public works building projects •Employed 8.5 million unskilled workers •Construction of public buildings and roads •Spent $4 billion

9 RECOVERY: Begin Economic Growth

NIRA / 1933 National Industrial Recovery Act §NIRA allowed the President to regulate industry and establish a national public works program. §Created National Recovery Administration (NRA) to enforce codes of fair competition and minimum wages. §Formally recognized the workers right to organize

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•Schecter Poultry Corp. v. U.S.: Declared NRA unconstitutional •Supreme Court felt it violated the separation of powers as it gave the President legislative power. •Also Schechter was a small company in Brooklyn and Supreme Court felt Congress was reaching when it declared it has power to regulate interstate commerce.

10 RECOVERY: Begin Economic Growth AAA / 1933 Agricultural Adjustment Act

•Protected farmers from price drops and over production.. • US Govt. paid farmers (subsidies) •not to grow crops, produce dairy products such as milk and butter or raise pigs and lambs •Subsidies came through a tax on food processing companies. •Prevent another Dust Bowl, teach farmers methods of preventing soil erosion. •Declared unconstitutional because of the tax.

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TVA •Develop a poor section of the Southeast U.S. •Stimulate the economy and produce cheap electricity. •Control floods, planting new forests. •Bring this section into the 20th century.

·94 percent of property owners and 98 percent of tenants did not have electricity. ·30 percent of property owners and 41 percent of tenants had no toilet facilities whatsoever

11 ·65 percent of property owners and 78 percent of tenants had to travel at least 300 yards to get their household water.

·8 percent of property owners and 3 percent of tenants owned radios (usually battery operated).

·39 percent of property owners and 23 percent of tenants had phonographs (including record players that were operated with a hand crank).

TVA

·50 percent of property owners and 25 percent of tenants read newspapers.

·26 percent of property owners and 16 percent of tenants owned automobiles.

·7 percent of property owners and 4 percent of tenants owned trucks.

TVA

REFORM: Prevent Another Depression FDIC / 1933 Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

Glass-Steagall Act created FDIC which federally insured bank deposits ($2500 per investor at first) to prevent bank failures.

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12 REFORM: Prevent Another Depression SEC / 1934 Securities and Exchange Commission Regulated stock market and restricted margin buying, and frauds.

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• One of the most important features of the New Deal. • Established a retirement for persons over 65 funded by a tax on wages paid equally by employee and employer. • Old age insurance • Protect Americans who were unable to support themselves. • Unemployment compensation • Compensation to disabled workers and assistance to widows and children

REFORM: Prevent Another Depression Wagner Act / 1935 National Labor Relations Act Reaffirmed labor's right to unionize (after NRA was declared unconstitutional), prohibited unfair labor practices, and created the National Labor Relations Board.

alphabet

13 New Deal for Labor

• Union membership = 4.5 million in 1933 • Unskilled, women and farmers often left out • Unions gaining power by end of decade • United Mine Workers head, John L. Lewis will formed the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO)

REFORM: Prevent Another Depression Wages and Hours Bill / 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act •Set minimum wage and maximum hours levels for all industries involved in interstate commerce. •Agriculture and domestic service workers were excluded. •Significantly limited use of child labor

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Criticisms of New Deal ·US government and President too powerful ·Violated laissez faire ·Supreme Court declared NIRA and AAA unconstitutional ·Critics : ·Father Charles Coughlin ·Dr. Francis Townsend ·Al Smith · ·Deficit spending: Govt. spends $$$ to stimulate the economy and help people even if it means US Govt. goes into debt. ·Welfare state----Created a population of Americans who relied on the US Govt. to live

100 days

14 •A Roman Catholic priest. •Radio Priest in Detroit Michigan. •Criticized FDR in weekly radio program. •10 million listeners. •Criticized FDR’s farm program

•Believed an international conspiracy of bankers existed and FDR was influenced by them. •He called for the nationalization of banks and utilities . (US Govt. controls banks, Socialism) •Anti-Semitic overtones got him silenced by the Catholic Church

•He wanted the government to help older citizens. •Retired California Physician. •Suggested a $200 per month pension for people over 60. Open jobs for the younger unemployed.

•Spending all $200 would also be required to boost economic demand. •Townsend Clubs created all over the nation. •Influenced FDR’s creation of Social Security

•Nicknamed “The Kingfish”. •Senator from Louisiana •Would give every family $5000 at the expense of the rich. • “Make every man a king”

•Fear he would become a fasicst dictator. •FDR called him “the most dangerous man in America” . •Assassinated in 1935.

15 Communism in USA

• Communist Party membership in 1930: 7500 • Communist Party membership in 1938: 75,000

Successes of New Deal AMERICANS IN 1939 WHO WANTED THE NEW DEAL TO CONTINUE WAS 55%….. 37% REGARDED IT AS A BAD INFLUENCE AND WANTED A NEW PRESIDENT…………...

·Stimulated the economy ·Put people back to work…. ·Improved morale and self-confidence of the people ·US Govt’s. role changes and became directly involved in helping people ·WWII ended the Great Depression not FDR’s New Deal

100 days

25% to Was able to 40% of lower it to workers out 14% of work

16 Life for Minorities in the 1930s

• Discrimination, low pay, intimidation, lynching • Scottsboro Boys symbolized this (1931) • Northern migration continued

Life for Minorities Continued

• Black unemployment was triple that of whites • Segregation in govt-sponsored facilities – AAA drove blacks off land – CCC segregated – PWA financed segregated housing projects • FDR refused to support civil rights legislation because he needed the white vote for election in 1936 (and 1940) – Black workers in federal government tripled – “Black Cabinet”

Eleanor Roosevelt and Civil Rights • Advocate for Civil Rights • Educated by Mary McLeod Bethune • Resigned from Daughters of American Revolution when Marian Anderson was refused a concert

17 Mexican immigrants and Mexican-Americans • Actively recruited to work in the 1920s – 400,000 migrants/immigrants in Texas alone – Prejudice in Great Depression due to job competition • 200,000 deported in 1932 alone – Some jailed or deported illegally

Women and Great Depression

• becomes Secretary of Labor (first woman cabinet member) • Bethune became director of Office of Minority Affairs • Feminism declined in Depression

Election of 1936

• Landslide victory over Alfred Landon was a signal to FDR to continue New Deal • Will lead to battle over Supreme Court

18 Supreme Court

Congressional opposition was beginning to grow; many of his laws, including the WPA, were taking a long time to get passed and met resistance.

• Schechter v. – The Schechter brothers had a poultry business in Brooklyn. – They had been convicted in 1933 of violating the NIRA’s Live Poultry Code; they had sold diseased chickens and violated the code’s wage-and-hour provisions. – Known as the “sick chicken case.” – The Supreme Court said that the Constitution did not allow the Congress to lend its powers to the executive; the NIRA was unconstitutional. – This suggested that the Supreme Court would make similar decisions in regards to the New Deal.

•Supreme Court was striking down New Deal legislation. •Roosevelt proposed a bill to allow the president to name a new federal judge for each who did not retire by age 70. •6 justices over age limit. •Would have increased the number of justices from 9 to 15, giving FDR a majority of his own appointees on the court. •The court-packing bill was not passed by Congress. •However, the Court was much more friendly to the New Deal.

1937: Economy Dips!

• Another downward trend + Court Packing causes FDRs approval rating to drop • Begins following Keynesian Economic Theory (John Maynard Keynes) – Spend to get out of depression (deficit spending) – Economy slow to recover – FDR criticized for going back on his word to keep budget balanced • More opposition in Congress • World War II will begin to distract American and get U.S. out of Depression

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