Chapter 23 – Managing the Great Depression, Forging the New Deal, 1929-

1939

Youth and Ambition, Virginia Pitman, 1938. Mural created under the Federal Arts Project.

Herbert Hoover: The Right Man at the Wrong TimeIf you were to write resumes for every president, citing all they had accomplished before they were elected president, Hoover would be one of the best qualified men for the office. He was the classic example of the “rags to riches” American success story. An orphan who made himself into a multi-millionaire businessman by his 30s, he devoted himself during World War I to the effort to feed the people of Belgium, all the while making sure that the Germans did not appropriate the food; it’s estimated that Hoover kept 9,000,000 alive throughout the war. So Hoover knew about suffering and people in need. So why, with this recent experience, and his overall abilities, was he so unable to adequately deal with the problems of the Great Depression, which got worse every year that went by during his presidency? The problem was that Hoover had a very specific and rigid view of what had made the United States great. In his book, American Individualism, Hoover argued that there were only three things owed to the American people by their government: liberty, justice, and equality of opportunity; competition and individual ability would take care of everything else in terms of success or the lack of it.

America, Hoover argued, had been built by individuals who had taken care of their own problems and had not asked the government for a handout. Hoover believed that if the govern- ment even once gave money, food, assistance to people, it would permanently weaken them, and that would be the beginning of the end for the U.S. Instead, he argued that the traditional sources of public assistance would be enough to help people: the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and the YM/WCA. But what he did not take into account is that those organizations received their financing in the form of donations, and in these financially tightened times, people were not able to give as much to charitable groups as they had in the past. So the days, weeks, months, and even years went by, with Hoover and the Congress trying one thing and then another, but they were simply not equipped, in terms of their general ideological perspective (conservative), imagination and ability to think outside of the box, to deal with the catastrophe. The great economist John Maynard Keynes was asked in an interview if anything like the Great Depression had happened before, and he replied, “Yes, it was called the Dark Ages, and it lasted four hundred years.” As the Election of 1932 approached, the majority of American has lost their belief in Hoover and his administration, and were anxious for a change…

Below, you see the Bonus Army on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. The following two images show them camped out on the Mall, waiting patiently for Congress to review their petition for assistance. The next two images after

that show the men fighting with the police and federal troops who were attempting to drive them out of the capital, and the burning of their camp; with grim irony the Capitol Building can be seen in the background…after all, were

they not engaged in a lawful petition to their government?

The Bonus Army - 17,000 veterans, and all told, 43,000 people when wives & children are

included

Election of 1932The single largest victory by a presidential candidate in American history (through today), and in 1936 FDR would win the

second largest victory. When the presidency is won by this wide a margin, it tells us that the American people REALLY wanted a change. It also gives the winner a tremendous mandate (the authority to carry out a course of action based on

the will of the great majority of the voters), ensuring that at least for a year or two, everyone in Congress, even the opposition party, is going to cooperate with just about whatever the president wants – after all, senators and

representatives have to run for reelection, and if their constituents know that they have been voting against the designs of the president…they may not get reelected. Remember, every politician is always thinking about one thing more than

anything else – winning the next election.

FDR to Save the Day!Even though this cover for Vanity Fair is from 1934, it conveys the feeling in the United States after the election – this new president, with the famous last name, conjuring memories of Teddy and the Square Deal (Theodore Roosevelt had only died in 1919), now on his way to the White House with a “deal” of his own, a New Deal – could he be the one to tame the bucking bronco that was the Great Depression?

A clearly unhappy Hoover and an ebullient Roosevelt on their way to theinauguration,January, 1933.

“The Roosevelt Touch”One of the hallmarks of Roosevelt’s presidency would be his trademark grin and generally cheerful demeanor. In his first inaugural address he had said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” and he conveyed the truth of that in the way he conducted himself: getting out as much as he could to meet the people (whereas Hoover had holed up in the White House, rarely leaving), being driven and driving around himself in his specially equipped car that allowed him to operate the gas and brakes with his hands; smiling, chatting, asking people how they were doing, making himself accessible. He confronted one of the greatest challenges any president had ever faced as though there was nothing else he’d rather be doing.

OBAMA and ROOSEVELT

Roosevelt (the Great Depression) and Lincoln (the Civil War) faced the greatest challenges of any

presidents upon entering office. Many observed that President Obama faced the third greatest challenge in 2009 when he began his presidency, and there were

quite a few parallels were drawn between Obama and FDR. In this cover from Time Magazine, published in the second week of his presidency, it’s clear that the editors of Time were expecting big things from this

new president – that he should “learn from FDR.” As to whether he did or not – the verdict of history is still

out.

And six months later in July, 2009, Time was perhaps trying to gently nudge President Obama in the right

direction by reminding him, yet again -- be a little bit more bold, more daring -- like FDR!

It was public knowledge that FDR was crippled from polio, but right from the start there was an unwritten understanding amongst the members of the press that they would refrain from publishing photos of the president in his wheelchair or in his leg braces and crutches: they believed that in this time of trouble the American people needed to see their leader as strong, not crippled. Ironically, many Blacks voted for FDR because even with his handicap he had accomplished so much; they liked that he was not a complainer. Only a half dozen or so photographs of FDR in his wheelchair survive; here you see him with his granddaughter.

The “Handicapped” President

Representative “bread lines” or “soup kitchen” lines, even when the line in question was for coffee and doughnuts or a full meal – the thing that always strikes me about these images is how well dressed the “down and out” people of the Depression were, these folks who needed to stand in line for an hours, hours, even, for a free, or extremely cheap, meal – not exactly the sort of folks you see in line at shelters nowadays.

“Those in need…”This map really gets to the heart of the matter – “Relief” refers to states where ‘x’ percentage of the families in that state could only survive because of money they got from their state governments every month. As you can see, in 1934, when FDR took office, the situation was particularly dire in the South, less so in some other areas. But still, at the beginning of 1933 25% of the working men and women in the United States were unemployed. To put that in perspective, perhaps you remember the worst unemployment numbers from 2008-2011 – they topped out at about 10%, and it was considered to be a national emergency. Now look again – 25%!!! And every sector of the economy was in trouble, but nowhere were things worse than in agriculture…

THE DUST BOWLThe plight of the farmer was nowhere more problematic than in the area where the Dust Bowl had literally destroyed the land’s ability to produce a crop. Planting and replanting on the same land, and not giving the soil time to regain its health, had broken the soil down into dust, and then unprecedented wind storms had howled down out of Canada and blown all of the desiccated top soil up, and off – like Dorothy’s house in The Wizard of Oz – into the distance. It blew across the United States…under the door of the White…across the buildings of New York City…and out onto sailing vessels in the mid-Atlantic, several thousand miles from the Midwest! Any of you see the science fiction film Interstellar? Well, dig the next few images…

TRUTH IS STRANGER THAN FICTION…sometimesStill with me? Didn’t lose you in those pics, did I, kids? Astonishing, huh? Like the end of the world…if you saw

Interstellar, it may interest you to know that the elderly people interviewed about the environmental collapse portrayed in the film and how it was affecting them, well, those were segments from interviews with folks who had lived through

the actual Dust Bowl of the early 1930s – amazing what you learn in a history class, huh?

Mother Earth Laid Bare, Alexandre Hogue, 1936There were many artists who were drawn to and inspired by the ecological disaster of the Dust Bowl. In the next image you see Joe Jones’ ironically titled American Farm, where the farm perches above the ruined landscape like Noah’s Ark, stranded on Mt. Ararat following the flood. Above, the title of Hogue’s painting speaks for itself. The four images following American Farm are by Walker Evans, the foremost photographic chronicler of the toll the Dust Bowl took on its human victims.

The New Deal tried to put people to work at tasks to which they were best suited; perhaps you saw the 2005 remake of King Kong? In the opening scene a group of actors are standing around and complaining because the Federal Theater Project was defunded by Congress and now they are all out of work. That’s how several of them end up employed on the expedition to shoot a movie on

legendary Skull Island. (Amazing what you learn in a history class, what?) The New Deal employed writers to write, builders to build, theatrical folks to stage free theater in towns where no one had ever seen a play, musicians to play concerts free for the public, and

artists to create art, particularly public murals. In the image below, you see New Dealers doing what they did best: building, planning, teaching, designing, surveying, and all in service to the American people.

The image below (like the previous one untitled because I downloaded it so many years ago I’ve lost the title, gimme a break, everybody’s human!) is a tribute to those men who worked their way across vast and inhospitable regions of the United States in the service of one of

the New Deal’s greatest achievement – the Rural Electrification Project. Dig it: when FDR entered office in 1933, less than 50% of Americans had electricity in their homes; by 1945, when he died, nearly 100% of Americans had the juice flowing. Think of how we take

for granted our ability to just push buttons, flick switches, lay down multi-strips…and think of how annoying it is when there is even a brief power outage. Now, think again – HALF of all Americans had NO electricity…until the Rural Electrification Project. Once their work was

done, unless you were some bizarre old hillbilly, like the Unibomber in his cabin at the top of the mountain, then you had electric power, because every small town and every wide spot in the road had a line. No more need for light to read by from the fireplace, or a kerosene lamp – ELECTRICITY. And, as with all of their monumental projects, the people behind the New Deal knew that in order to sell it, they had create a catchy promotional campaign, and sell it to the American people through posters and ads in magazine. You will see some of these

images in the next three slides following.

IMAGE 34

Pro-business critics ofthe New Deal have argued, then and now, that the real strength ofthe United States was crippled, tied down bytoo many federal bureaucracies, too much red tape, too many so-called‘alphabet agencies,’just as Gulliver was tied down by the Lilliputians in Gulliver’s Travels.

Huey Long, the “Kingfish”Long, the architect of the “Share Our Wealth” Society, was one of FDR’s foremost and most problematic critics on the left. Although

Roosevelt loathed him, he had to take him seriously and meet with him when Long came to the White House, because he was so popular with much of the New Deal’s base of support. But Long was crass, a boor who, upon entering the Oval Office, would not sit down opposite the President, but instead would drag a chair around the desk, pull himself up next to to Roosevelt, and have a real heart-to-heart with him, as though they were pals. Long generally wore a straw hat, which he removed in the Oval Office, but rather than hang it on the hat rack by the door, he carried it with him, and whenever he wanted to make a particularly strong point, he would tap FDR on the leg with the brim of

his hat, emphasizing what he was saying. I hope I do not need to point out to any of you that to tap your hat upon a crippled man’s leg…well, let’s just say that when Long was assassinated in 1936, I don’t think the President shed many tears. Below you see on the left, the

Kingfish himself, and to the right, a pic of John Goodman, playing Long in the made-for-TV movie Kingfish.

FDR and the “Court-Packing” DebacleYour textbook leaves out several interesting tidbits on this topic. This was one of FDR’s first big initiatives after starting his second term in 1937. He and his closest advisers were deeply aggravated over the Court having ruled several key New Deal programs unconstitutional. FDR knew that if he could only get several new judges appointed to the Court, all New Deal initiatives would be secure and, of course, while new federal judges are confirmed by Congress, they are nominated by the President; Roosevelt was a Democrat, the Congress was solidly in the hands of the Democrats, so the proposition, as he laid it out to the country, went something like this: “The Founding Fathers were some pretty smart guys, and they did one heck of a good job in writing the Constitution. And at the time, I’m sure it seemed to them that we would never need more than nine justices on the Supreme Court. But after a century and a half it has become clear that there is a need for more; the Court is backlogged with cases that need reviewing, these poor guys are being worked to death, and…” You get the idea, right? At the end of it all, he was recommending the appointment of six new justices which, had they all been good Democrats (and they would have been), would have created an overwhelmingly liberal court – just what Roosevelt wanted. However, the country was not happy with this proposal and indeed, even many from his own party were angered by what they saw as a bold attempt to not just “pack” the Court with liberal or pro-New Deal justices, but an attempt, in doing so, to concentrate more power in the Executive Branch, in the hands of the President. (Continued next slide )

Now FDR would get anything he wanted – the initiative would come out of the White House, Congress would approve it, and the Court would uphold it…it was almost like the President was trying to take over all of the power of the government for himself and the Democratic Party, leaving no power to challenge him, and after all, isn’t that what…dictators did? You have to remember what was happening in the world at this time: in Brazil, in Argentina, in Spain, and in Japan, Italy, and Germany, dictators had seized control of their governments, often dismissed their legislatures, and bent their nations to their will. Was this what FDR had planned for the United States – ? Well, in retrospect, no – there is no evidence of that, but at the time, it was FDR’s first major political miscalculation – he thought the majority of the people would back him up as they’d backed him on nearly everything for four years, but instead, he was seen as power-hungry by many, as in the political cartoon to the right. Here, in a scene from Charles Dickens’ beloved novel Oliver Twist, we see Roosevelt as a monstrous version of Oliver, back in the kitchen, always hungry, and asking for “MORE, please!” But unlike Oliver, it’s not porridge he wants, it’s power, power that the Executive Branch will get if Congress passes the proposed Judiciary Reorganization Program. Well FDR was, I would argue, the sharpest political operator of the American 20th century, and he knew when he’d made a mistake, so he dropped the idea, and so many other things were happening on a daily basis that soon people forgot about that misstep…but Roosevelt still wanted a liberal court, and the thing about a great politician is that they always get at least some version, or some percentage, of what they wanted. They never lose entirely. So, a little while later, maybe it was six months or so… (Continued next slide)

… a proposal was brought forth in Congress to increase the retirement pensions of different sorts of federal employees, among them, judges. When that happened, several of the older judges on the Court (who happened to be conservatives, and anti-New Dealers) took a look at their retirement options, and rather than work a few more years, they decided they now had enough to retire, and so they did. And when that happened, guess what? FDR got to nominate two new justices, and they were both good Democrats, and guess what? The Democratic and generally pro-New Deal Congress appointed those nominees, and guess what? Roosevelt got what he wanted in the end. One way or another, a great politician gets some version, or some percentage, of what they want. Or, as Abraham Lincoln used to say, “There’s more than one way to skin a cat.”

The Unfinished PortraitPresident Roosevelt was sitting for this portrait in the last months of his life, and he passed in the spring of 1945, before it was finished. The war was still being fought in Europe and the Pacific, and when news of his death reached Germany, soldiers on both sides, American and German alike, called cease-fires and came out to talk about it. Along with Hitler and Churchill, Roosevelt had straddled and defined the depression and war years, and they could not believe it, that FDR could be dead. The only man to have been elected president not just three, but four times, he was also the most important and is generally considered by the majority of historians to be the greatest president of the 20th century: everyone that followed him into the Oval Office would, in one way or another, be measured in their successes and failures by the yardstick of his legacy.