Did FDR relieve and reform America?

1. Did FDR relieve and reform America? Do Now: How did the New Deal help the people, economy, and government?

4. Banking Reforms • Emergency Banking Relief Act of 1933 • Gave power to the president regulate and reopen banks • Glass-Steagall Banking Reform Act • provided the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation • insured individual deposits up to $5000, thereby eliminating the epidemic of bank failure and restoring faith to banks. • FDR took the nation off of the gold standard and achieved controlled inflation by ordering Congress to buy gold at increasingly higher prices.

5. Jobs & Relief • CCC created 3 millions Jobs for young men • Federal Emergency Relief Act gave $3 Billion to the states for direct relief or wages for works projects • AAA & HOLC refinanced farms and non-farm homes to help them paid mortgages • CWA provided temporary jobs to tens of thousands of homeless. • WPA provided employment on “useful” jobs such as buildings, bridges, and roads

7. Industry & Labor Relief & Reform • NRA There were maximum hours of labor, minimum wages, and more rights for labor union members, including the right to choose their own representatives in bargaining. • Merchants who subscribed to it placed posters in their windows • Supreme Court declared NRA unconstitutional in Schechter Poultry vs. US (Sick Chicken Case) • Public Works Administration aimed at long-range recovery by spending over $4 billion on some 34,000 projects that included public buildings, highways, and parkways

9. Relief to Farmers • AAA paid farmers to reduce their crop acreage and would eliminate price-depressing surpluses. • Destroyed needed food and increased unemployment • Supreme Court killed it in 1936 • Second Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 continued conservation payments but was accepted by the Supreme Court • Various programs for the families in the Dust Bowl

10. Bankers & Big Business • Federal Securities Act required promoters to transmit to the investor sworn information regarding the soundness of their stocks and bonds • Securities and Exchange Commission watchdog administrative agency designed to “watch” trading

11. Tennessee Valley Authority • TVA sought to discover exactly how much money it took to produce electricity and then keep rates reasonable. • It constructed dams on the Tennessee River and helped the 2.5 million extremely poor citizens of the area improve their lives and their conditions.

12. Social Security Act • Created pension and insurance for the old-aged, the blind, the physically handicapped, delinquent children, and other dependents by taxing employees and employers. • 1939 45 million people were eligible for benefits • Republicans like Hoover attack it

13. Labor • Wagner Act (aka National Labor Relations Act) of 1935 • Created a powerful board • Right of workers to join unions and to bargain collectively

14. FDR’s Supreme Court ? • FDR wanted to add one new justice for every justice who was over 70. • He claimed that it would bring new blood into the court and help the older justices with their work • Republicans and Democrats blasted FDR claiming he just wanted to “pack the court” • Congress passed a court reform bill and full pay for justices who retire after 70 • Supreme Court became friendlier to New Deal programs • FDR appointed 9 justices during his presidency because of deaths and retirements

18. Impact of the New Deal • 1933-1937 1st term still in depression • Unemployment at 15 percent • 1937 FDR began to cut back on spending • 1938 Republican Congressmen began replacing New Dealers

19. Raw Deal Waste, incompetence, confusion, contradictions and coruption Federal government became the larges new business National Debt 1932 $19,487,000,000 1939 $40, 440,000,000 Good Deal Relieved the worse of the crisis in 1933 Collapse of American economy averted Fairer distribution of national income achieved Citizens able to gain and retain self-respect New Deal or Raw Deal What do you think?