How Does FDR Propose to Bring the US out of the Depression?

The country needs and .. Demands bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.

Franklin D Roosevelt, 1932 Campaign Speech

"I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people."

Fireside Chats

The Alphabet Agencies

• FDIC (1933)• NRA (1933)• AAA (1933)• TVA (1933)• CCC (1933)• SEC (1934)• WPA (1935)

Before and after PWA

How did FDR respond to his critics?

• Father Charles Coughlin- wanted more extreme: guaranteed annual income and nationalized banking. Hugely anti-semitic

• Senator Huey Long- nationwide social program called “Share Our Wealth” had political aspirations of his own.

• Francis Townshend – Wanted there to be a retirement policy for the elderly

Protest to New Deal

1934 Midterm Election

2010 midterm elections

1935 Social Security Act

Federal State Unemployment InsuranceSecurity/Pension for senior citizens financed by

a payroll taxProvided for blind, handicapped or children and

dependents

Labor ReformWagner Act or National Labor Relations Act, 1935- allowed for the right of

labor to engage in self-organization and to bargain collectively.

1935 establishes SEC

1936 Election

Republicans :“Franklin Deficit Roosevelt”“Defeat the New Deal and it’s reckless spending”FDR: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”Remembered the “Forgotten Man”Reliefers were not going to bite the hand that doled out

the government checks… “No one shoots a Santa Clause”- Al Smith

FDR wins in an overwhelming landslide. 523 to 8 electoral votes

Conclusion:

How did FDR answer his critics?

BY WINNING ELECTIONS

Think and Write:The Courts found many New Deal practices

unconstitutional. Can you think of reasons why?

How do you think FDR could/ should have responded to the Courts dismantling his New Deal policies?

How did FDR try to pack the Courts?

“We have… reached the point where we must take action to save the Constitution from the Court and the Court from itself. We must find a way to take an appeal from the Supreme Court to the Constitution itself. We want a Supreme Court which will do justice under the Constitution- not over it”

-FDR “fireside chat” March, 1937

Many Americans and especially the media regard the Courts as a “sacred cow” in American politics. -The American Pageant

Yet, in losing the battle, Roosevelt incidentally won his campaign. The Court, as he had hoped, became markedly more friendly to the New Deal reforms. Furthermore, a succession of deaths and resignations enabled him to make nine appointments to the tribunal- more than any of his predecessors since George Washington. Father Time “unpacked” the Court.”

-The American Pageant

Conclusion: How did FDR damage his reputation with the court packing bill?

How do we evaluate the New Deal?

Did the New Deal fix the Depression?Was the New Deal good for the country in the

long term?

FDR’s Balance Sheet

“The most damning indictment of the New Deal is that it failed to cure the depression. Afloat in a sea of red ink, it had merely administered aspirin, sedatives and Band-Aids”

-American Pageant

“The sensational increase in the national debt was caused by WWII, not the New Deal. The national debt was only $40 billion in 1939 but $258 billion in 1945.”

“Governments can err; presidents do make mistakes… but better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a Government frozen in ice of its own indifference.”-FDR’s acceptance speech at the DNC

1936

“Roosevelt, like Jefferson, provided reform without a bloody revolution- at a time in history when some foreign nations were suffering armed uprisings and when many Europeans were predicting either communism or Fascism for America…. FDR helped preserve democracy in America at a time when democracies abroad were disappearing down the sinkhole of dictatorship. And in playing this role, he unwittingly girded the nation for its part in the titanic war that hung on the horizon- a war in which democracy the world over would be at stake.”

-The American Pageant