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+Europe tumbles when US crashes.
+- Develops fascism, naziism, communism
+
+FDR believed large corporations were to blame for the economic state,
+which could only be solved by an active preseident and a strong govt.
+- American Gov't had a responsibilty to help people in distress
+- passed dozens of measures to promote welfare and economic recovery
+- Not specifically ideological, but a pragmatist
+ - New Deal (ND) was experimental, some programs failed miserably
+
+Herbert Hoover just didn't want to do anything
+- Andrew Mellon wanted to liquidate {real estate, stocks, farmers}
+- Let the capitalist system "purge itself of rottenness"
+- Invited business, agricultural, unions to talk (later)
+ - Encouraged them to stop strikes, maintain employment
+ - "Ineffective cheerleader for capitalism"
+- Provided no direct federal relief
+ - biggest emergency since the Civil War
+- Passed 1932 Revevue Act: huge tax increase
+ - worsened economic slowdown
+ - Pushed "self-reliance" narrative
+ - believed in charities, voluntarism
+- New Dem Congress forced Hoover to Reconstruction Finance Corporation
+ - helped out big banks, railroads
+ - Dems still questioned these policies
+ - Hoover only allowed RFC to make loans to states
+- Hoover did not take it as a sign
+
+Bonus Army March
+- Wanted Congress to pay veterans the 4 million cash bonuses they
+ promised for 1935
+ - It is actually 1932, but the House authorized it (Senate denied)
+ - Veterans with no place to go camped in vacant buildings,
+ shantytown (first nonviolent protestors in US)
+ - Congress paid for train tickets home
+ - William Mitchell, Attorney General, ordered buildings cleared
+ - Secretary of War dispatched soldiers to remove them
+ - Horses, tanks, tear gas
+ - General MacArthur
+ - Soldiers, exceeding orders, burned their encampment
+ - PR disaster for Hoover + Republicasn (heartless)
+- Hoover became tired and poor morale
+ - said he "had no Wilsonian qualities"
+ - terrible, cold speaker
+
+1032 Election: FDR met public demand for change (Hoover lost)
+ - FDR is NY governor
+ - Said his campaign was a "call to arms"
+ - Wanted new ideas and agressive action
+ - Hoover lacked vitality and vision
+
+Roosevelt's First 100 Days
+- Asked for broad power from Congress to respond to the emergency
+- Chicago Tribune, Repub newspaper, praised him
+- Presidency defined by leadership and action
+- He and his advisors wanted to build back the economy and help those in
+ need
+ - "Our greatest primary task is putting people to work" - FDR
+ - Gave farmers money to make less crops
+- 100 First Days: created 50 programs, some of which to become the ND
+- Hundreds of banks were failing
+ - FDR asked Congress to pass "Emergency Banking Relief Act"
+ - 4 day bank holiday to stall the bank collapse
+ - Funded banks to restore confidence
+ - "Safer to keep your money in a reopened bank than in your
+ mattress"
+ - Removed Gold Standard
+ - Glass-Steagall Banking Act
+ - Created Federal Deposit Insurance Incorporation (FDIC) to
+ isnure up to 250K.
+ - Divided savings banks from investment banks. Only investment
+ banks could invest in stock mkt after 1933
+ - Securities Act of 1933 regulated sales of stocks and bonds
+ - Required publicly traded companies to disclose all relevant
+ information
+ - Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) enforces this.
+- Helping the Unemployed and Homeless
+ - Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA) gave money to states for
+ unemployed and homeless
+ - Proved ineffective
+ - First large-scale effort to put people on gov't payroll at good
+ wages: Civil Works Admin.
+ - Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) managed by War Dept. employed
+ unmarried unemployed young men as "Soil Soldiers" ($1/day for no
+ more than 9mo)
+ - Cleared brush, constructed roads, trees, parks, taught farmers
+ - National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) established PWA (sewage
+ plants, dams, highways) and National Recovery Administration (NRA)
+ - NRA set prices, wages, and working standards --- unique for
+ the government in peacetime
+ - NRA codes included fair labor policies (like 40hr/8hr, no
+ child labor, unionization), negotiation policies
+ - Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional because it
+ would be a Congressional responsibility
+ - Some NRA policies had lasting effects like
+ national minimum wage, workweek
+ - Farm Credit Administration and Agricultural Adjustment Act/Adm
+ (AAA)
+ - FCA bailed out farmers so they didn't lose homes, farms
+ - AAA paid farmers to destroy cotton crop
+ - Pigs were slaughtered and buried
+ - Wheat, cotton, corn production declined, prices rose
+- In the first 100 days, FDR gained the most pulbic support
+ - Most loved by the people
+ - Twice weekly press conferences won over journalists
+ - Very visible to the people
+ - Hated by some people
+ - Leftists criticized him for not doing enough (decline slowed,
+ but prosperity remained elusive)
+ - Conservatives believed he was bringing in socialism
+ - Prone to idealistic principles and pragmatic politics, allowing
+ compromise and contradiction
+Huey Long, enemy of FDR
+- Classic Demagogue/populist appealing to the people
+- Wore pink shirts, pastel ties
+- King Fish of Louisiana
+- Used bribery, intimidation and blackmail to support his policies
+- Funded schools, lowered taxes
+- Jealous of FDR.
+ - "Share the Wealth Society"
+ - Wanted to raise taxes on wealthiest Americans and redistribute
+ thousands to the poorest
+ - May have unseated Roosevelt
+ - Roosevelt called the senator one of the two most dangerous in the
+ country
+Father Charles Coughlin, the other most dangerous man
+- Fiery Roman Catholic radio priest
+- Criticized Roosevelt as "anti-god" pushing Communist conspiracy
+ - that he wanted to put oil companies, big companies, and god-given
+ resources under gov't control
+- Very anti-semitic, which forced radio stations to drop him by 40s
+- In 30s, he was going strong however
+
+The Court was strongly opposing Roosevelt's New Deal and Congress's
+support of him
+- Businesses were filing lawsuits that allowed this
+- Ex: Court unanimously killed NIRA, saying it violated anti-trust
+
+- US v Butler: tax on middlemen (warehouses, processors) in Agricultural
+ Adjustment Act unconstitutional
+- 7 of 9 cases, SC ruled against ND.
+- Second New Deal tried to undermine the appeal of Huey Long
+ - Banking reforms, taxes on wealthy, continue employing people
+ - Works Progress Administration (WPA) employs hugely: increases by 2
+ million people each year
+ - NLRA "Wagner" Act guaranteed workers the right to unionize and
+ protected them. Required businesses to act in good faith.
+ - Social Security Act: old age pensions and unemployment relief
+ (insurance) through wage and payroll taxes
+ - Only by 1950s did it become seen as primary source of
+ retirement income, previously supplemental
+ - Conservative compared to European countries: other countries
+ used general funds instead of payroll taxes; also used a
+ regressive flat tax
+ - Removed a lot of money from circulation, hurting economy
+ - Excluded about half of workers
+ - Wealth-Tax "Soak the rich" Act
+ - Raised taxes on evasive rich
+ - Called communism; Roosevelt responds that he wanted to "save
+ capitalism" by supporting a more equal dist. of wealth
+Huey Long assassinated in 1939. Roosevelt wins in a landslide against
+Alf Landon
+- Keeps huge Democrat majority in Congress
+- Constructs a new Democrat political bloc
+
+Court-packing
+- If Congress enlarged the Court, it wouldn't block the Second ND
+ - Wanted 6 new justices, one for each over 75 years old
+- Backfired; public focused on constitutionality of proposal
+ - Congressional Reps and Dems decided it was too controversial
+- Justices began to uphold SS Act, Wagner Act.
+ - One conservative justice resigned, replaced by Roosevelt with a
+ New Dealer
+
+Evaluating the New Deal
+- Economy began to grow around 1939, so gov't stopped spending,
+ increasing unemployment, tumbling the economy
+ - Roosevelt relaunched federal spending
+ - Housing funding
+- Conservative Southern Democrats balked at Northerners and
+ African-Americans, acting against New Deal
+- Congressional elections of 1938 lost many seats to Reps
+ - Roosevelt began speaking about "preserving" reforms instead of
+ expanding
+ - Stalemate
+- "more energy than coherence"
+- But it did improve life in many ways: worker protections, bank regs,
+ public health
+ - Demonstrated that American Democracy could handle a collapse of
+ capitalism
+- 10M Americans still remained unemployed
+- Halfway Revolution was its longlasting impact