New Deal Relief, Recovery, Reform

1 st New Deal Focus on recovery and relief (First Hundred Days) Created alphabet agencies AAA-reset farm prices on goods such as corn and wheat CCC- Civilian Conservation Corps- public work relief program focusing on work related to conserving and developing natural resources (flood control, dams, soil erosion projects)

Tennessee Valley Authority- public works project designed to work on flood control, electricity generation and fertilizer manufacturing in a hard hit area of Tennessee Public Works Administration- set aside 3.3 billion dollars to create jobs for unemployed Americans National Recovery Administration- declared unconstitutional in 1935 because it infringed upon separation of powers. It gave the Administration the power to decide working deals between companies and workers. Works Progress Administration- create jobs for people, largest new deal agency

Other First New Deal Ideas SEC- created to regulate trading on Wall Street FDIC- insure each person’s money up to $5, st Amendment- repeals the 18 th Amendment Four day bank “holiday” – shut down countries banks in order to give the government time to check on each standing bank Emergency Banking Act: shut down poorly function banks, attempted to reorganize them and then reopened banks that were strong enough to stand.

2 nd New Deal Focus on reform in the government to assure that the Depression never happened again Included the creation of Social Security, the FDIC, WPA Relied much more heavily on Keynesian economics (government should heavily interfere) Social Security- creating a federal retiree pension plan funded by a double tax on every working American’s paycheck Also included funneling money to American artists, theaters and writers

Court packing Judiciary Reorganization Bill of a legislative initiative to add more justices to the Supreme Court (all of these would be chosen by FDR because he was the President) Also allowed the President to appoint one supreme court justice for every sitting justice that was over the age of 70 and a ½ This became a big issue because there were many court cases arguing that aspects of the New Deal were unconstitutional. Many believed that FDR’s had attempted to destroy the concept of separation of powers and checks and balances.

Anti New Deal Many Americans felt that New Deal policies were leaning towards Communism People like Huey Long, Father Charles Coughlin and Francis Perkins all worked against the New Deal Huey Long proposed an idea called “Share the Wealth” which stated that the New Deal wasn’t doing ENOUGH and should be strengthened. He proposed that by redistributing wealth, each family could be guaranteed $2,000. Father Charles Coughlin supported FDR initially but eventually began to fight against him. He was one of the first people to truly use radio as a means of communication with the masses.

Effects of the New Deal Renewed sense of hope and trust in the government A stronger national government Social Security Hundreds of public works projects such as the Hoover dam. Criticism that many of the New Deal policies favored Communist ideas. New Deal did NOT help minorities, actually made decisions that negatively affected sharecroppers and other minority workers.