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FDR
A. The New Deal Restores
Hope
•  FDR promised a “New Deal” for the
American people
•  He focused on Relief, Recovery &
Reform
•  In his inauguration he stated… “the only
thing we have to fear, is fear itself”
1. Fireside Chats
•  To communicate with the people, FDR
gave bi-weekly press conferences & he
spoke to the nation via the radio
•  These “fireside chats” were comforting
to the nation
•  Joining his coalition and supporting his
cause were:
–  Southern whites
–  Northern urban blacks
–  Small farmers
–  Blue Collar workers
2. Second bonus march
•  Bonus marchers returned to
Washington under the new
administration
•  FDR provided campsites for the
veterans, Eleanor visited the veterans,
and FDR said he would support paying
the veterans a bonus!
•  What a change from Hoover!!
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B. FDR’s Team
Work Relief
Aids and Advisors
•  FDR surrounded himself with eager •  Harry Hopkins
and hardworking individuals
1.  He called his advisors his “Brain Trust”
2.  Cabinet Positions and Heads of
Agencies included Democrats and
Republicans

Secretary of State Secretary of the Interior

•  Cordell Hull •  Harold Ickes

Division of Negro Affairs of the

Secretary of Labor
National Youth Administration
•  Frances Perkins •  Mary McLeod Bethune
•  She also organized a
•  First woman cabinet Federal Council on
member Negro Affairs, this
unofficial group became
known as FDR’s “Black
Cabinet” meeting
weekly to inform FDR
on issues facing the
black community during
the depression

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3. Eleanor Roosevelt
•  Very important to
FDR’s public image
•  She was an
outspoken advocate
primarily for groups
that supported
women and African
Americans

C. John Maynard Keynes

“Keynesian Economics”
•  Eleanor won over the black community •  Deficit spending
when she planned an open concert for •  Gov’t should spend
opera great Marian Anderson on the massive amounts of
steps of the Lincoln memorial money on goods
and services to
•  Anderson would sing “We Shall increase demand
Overcome” and revive
production

D. Domestic Policies 1. Emergency Banking Relief Act

“The first 100 days”
The First New Deal (March-June 1933)
•  Massive projects were pushed through
in the first 3 1/2 months of his
presidency
•  All presidents since FDR have been
judged by what they have accomplished
in their 100 days too.
EBRA
•  Day after his inauguration (March 5,
1933) FDR ordered a total “bank
holiday” closing all banks nationwide
•  The goal was to stop the run on banks
•  The EBRA was passed in 4 hours in
Congress to help the failing banks

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•  Treasury Dept. inspects all banks •  About 2/3 of the banks would reopen by
•  Sound banks can reopen March 15
•  Those moderately bad could reopen •  FDR used the “fireside chat” to explain
with gov’t loans the act to Americans and tell them to go
•  Insolvent banks stay closed back to the banks that were open
•  US taken off the gold standard
*** private ownership with gov’t regulation
NOT nationalization of banks

2. Employment Relief
Providing Relief and Creating Jobs for the
People

a.  Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

•  Harold Ickes (Sec. of Interior)
•  Single men aged 17-28
•  $30/month - $22 sent home
•  Lived in camps run by army officers
•  Free food and uniforms
•  Restored and maintained forests, beaches, parks, build
roads, plant trees, soil erosion & flood control
•  2.5 million men worked for the CCC

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b. Federal Emergency Relief

Administration (FERA)
•  Sending funds to local relief agencies
and states
•  Gave general $ for food, clothing, and
unemployed
•  Directed by Harry Hopkins
–  Within his first 2 hours on the job, he gave
out some $5 million (In total he dolled out
$500 million over the years)

c. CWA - Civil Works

Administration
•  Gave money to local gov’ts
•  Provided jobs to improve roads, parks,
airports and other facilities to the
unemployed
•  In its tenure, the CWA hired more than
4 million Americans
•  Many people took these “boondoggle”
jobs so they could have any job

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3. Farm Relief and Rural a. AAA- Agricultural

Development Adjustment Administration
Help for the farmers and falling prices

•  An important factor contributing to the •  FDR wanted to reduce production in

Great Depression in the US in the order to boost farm prices
1930’s was the decline in farm •  The farm economy could be revived if
prosperity during the 1920’s the amount of land under cultivation
was reduced

b.  Tennessee Valley

Authority
Regional Legislation
•  A new tax was levied to pay farmers not
to raise certain crops and animals
•  The act only helped the large farms, not
the small farmers, tenant farmers, or
sharecroppers
•  FDR faced a lot of criticism in a time
when so many Americans were hungry

TVA - Tennessee Valley

Authority
•  Wanting to revitalize the economic life
of the Tennessee Valley, massive
building projects brought $500 million
into the region and employed 200,000
men and women
•  The TVA
–  Built dams on the Tennessee River to
control floods
–  Generated hydroelectric power and made
rural electrification possible
–  Stimulated economic activity in a
depressed area

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•  The TVA was criticized by

conservatives as a socialistic attempt at
a planned economy
•  In time, the gov’t owned electric power
plants and dams would be sold to
private investors

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4. Business Assistance and
Reform
•  Legislation to regulate finance
b. NIRA - National Industrial
Recovery Act
•  The NIRA sought to combat the Great
Depression by reducing competition and
bolster industrial prices
•  The NIRA set up these administrations:
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a. FDIC - Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation
•  Insured bank deposits up to $5,000
(today it is $100,000)
Legislation to help business
•  The sharp decline of industrial prices in
the early 1930’s had caused many
business failures and much
unemployment
1. NRA - National Recovery
Administration
•  Provided for a system of federally authorized
business codes
•  These codes would spell out fair practices
–  Regulated wages, working conditions, production
and even prices
–  40 hour work week
–  Child labor abolished
–  Minimum wage .30¢-.40¢ hour
–  Organized labor given collective bargaining rights
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2. PWA - Public Works Grand Coulee Dam

Administration (Colorado River)
•  Best part of the NIRA might have been
the PWA which was established for
relief
•  Directed by Sec of Interior - Ickes
•  Gov’t spent money to create jobs
•  The PWA undertook huge projects
which needed many skilled workers
nationwide

Causeways and Bridges to

the FL keys

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c. Federal Securities Act
•  Required companies to provide
information about their finances if they
offered stock for sale
•  Provided further protection against
economic downturns
a. HOLC - Home Owners
Loan Corporation
•  Middle-income homeowners having
trouble paying their mortgage
•  HOLC refinanced mortgages to make
the payments more manageable
•  HOLC made about 1 million low-interest
loans and saved those families from
foreclosure
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Triborough Bridge (NYC)
5. Housing
E. The Second New Deal
The Second Hundred Days
1934-1935
The New Deal Falters
•  When the New Deal programs failed to
bring about significant economic
improvements, criticism began to mount
•  Many were afraid of the growing power of
the New Deal Agencies of the Federal
Gov’t
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A Second New Deal 1.  Employment Relief

Reorganize Relief
•  Most of the public still supported FDR
•  In the mid-term election of 1934, FDR
won even more seats for the Democrats
•  With this support, FDR launched even
more bold programs, called the “Second
New Deal”

a. WPA - Works Progress

Administration
•  Create more jobs
–  8 million
•  Where the PWA employed skilled workers for
big jobs, the WPA employed unskilled
workers for even more jobs
–  Build 20,000 playgrounds
–  Schools
–  Hospitals
–  Airfields
–  Build or repair roads
–  Made garments for the needy

Federal Writers Project

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•  Authors were hired

to survey the
nation’s local gov’t
records, wrote state
guidebooks and
collected life stories
of 2,000 former
slaves

Federal Music Project

•  Started community
symphonies and
organized free
music lessons
•  Preserved fast-
disappearing folk
music from rural
areas

Federal Art Project

•  Put more than
10,000 artist to work
•  Painted some 2,000
murals, mainly in
public buildings
•  Produced some
100,000 other
paintings, 17,000
sculptures and many
other works of art

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Federal Theater Project

•  Employ playwrights,
actors, directors and
composers
•  It became very
controversial when it
was believed it was a
breeding ground for
international
communism, and the
project was killed in
1939

b. National Youth
Administration (NYA)
•  Found part-time jobs for young people
still in school doing odd projects from
–  Auto repair in New York City to
–  Putting up tuberculosis isolation units in
Arizona
•  Employed more than 2.5 million young
adults

2. Farm Relief and Rural a. Resettlement

Development Administration
•  Farm Security Administration (FSA)
•  The AAA had ignored the farmers who did not
own the land the FSA tried to make up for this
•  This loaned $ to owners of small farms and
helped resettle tenants and sharecroppers on
productive land
•  The FSA loaned more than $1 Billion to
farmers and set up camps for migrant
workers

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b. Rural Electrification
Administration (REA)
•  Brought electricity to 90% of farms that
didn’t have it in the 1930’s
a.  SEC - Securities and Exchange
Commission
•  Established to regulate the stock market
from future collapse
•  Protected investors from dishonest
trading practices
•  Financial statements must be public
•  Prevents insider trading
b. Revenue Act of 1935
•  Also known as the Wealth Tax Act
•  Raised the tax rate on individual
incomes over $50,000
•  Taxes went up on gifts and estates
•  Rich are getting taxed more
•  Graduated corporate income tax
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3. Business Assistance and
Reform
•  SEC headed by
Joseph P. Kennedy
4. Housing
a.  Federal Housing Administration (FHA)
•  Trying to help people own homes by
guaranteeing private mortgages.
•  The FHA also instituted the following
•  10% down payment (down from 30%)… still
the standard for many first time homeowners
today
•  Extension of payments from 20 to 30 years
(still the standard for many home loans)
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5. Retirement a. Social Security Act

•  Landmark legislation because it
established the principle of federal
responsibility for the welfare of the
people
•  The act legislated a tax that transfers
money from workers to pensioners

•  Social Security allowed for

–  Old age pensions
–  Financial support for the disabled
–  Financial support for dependent mothers
and children
–  Unemployement compensation

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