The Roosevelt Years

Légende alternative :

the banks close until government officials have checked their solidity The Emergency Banking Act quickly passed ➡5.000 banks were allowed to reopen and supported by the government if needed It increased the trust in bank system & Americans who had withdrawn their money brought back to banks Fireside chats: FDR explained his policy on the radio 125 million population listening O In 1933 & 1934, laws created the Security Exchange Commission which regulated stock markets and enforcing the law against market Relief: Fighting poverty O O O manipulation (to protect bank customers and investors) O The Federal Emergency Relief Administration provided help to the poor: food, blankets, nursery schools Poor and jobless were paid to work for local- state governments. It cost more money but had positive impact on people & economy. Between 1933 and 1942, +/- 3 million unemployed-unmarried young men were hired in the Civilian Conservative Corps: national parks, planting trees. ➡ Parents received also some money. Young men lived in camps and received money, shelter, work, food, clothes Recovery: Consolidating the economy O The Agricultural Adjustment Administration helped farmers to modernize their farm. Quotas were also established to improve selling prices. The National Industrial Recovery Act created: The Public Works Administration which built infrastructures, created jobs, supported the economy and developed the country roads, schools, dams, bridges, airports.. ■ The National Recovery Administration proposed to manufacturing corporations → 2 million took part. I It implied paying better wages to workers to enable them to consume and support the economy. It also meant to regulate competition between firms and avoid excessive production to escape a new overproduction crisis. The Tennessee Valley Authority allowed to develop the Tennessee valley struck by poverty, floods, lack of water (summer) erosion and the dust bowl. Valley was transformed with dams, hydroelectricity and improved navigation and general economic development. TO SUM UP The first New Deal gave good results but not enough. The US was recovering less quickly than the UK from the Great Depression. Numerous Americans remained destitute: farmers, Black people, others complained that the New Deal was too limited and too supportive for big corporations and businesses. On the other hand, some businesses like Ford thought that the New Deal was already doing too much: too administrative, unfair with the wealthy, not capitalist-friendly, looking like communism-dictatorship. ● ● C. Second New Deal (1935-1936) "Workers, Infrastructures and Welfare State" Social Measures O In 1935, the National Labor Relations Act (aka Wagner Act) improved workers' right. It guaranteed the right of workers of private compagnies to organize into a trade union and to lead strikes. O In 1935, the Social Security Act established a first form of welfare state in the US. That law established a Social Security Program which provided help to sick, disabled or unemployed people and to widows. Economic Measures O O O In 1937, the former Resettlement Administration was turned into the Farm Security Administration which fought the massive rural poverty? Poor farmers who had not received help from the AAA were helped to buy their land- to move to better lands or to new towns (greenbelt cities) Camps were built to provide better living conditions including running water to the migrant workers fleeing the dust bowl. The Works Progress Administration (Works Project Administration) created jobs in public works projects. It provided jobs to 9.5 million jobless Americans between 1935 & 1943. They built 1 million km of streets, over 10,000 bridges, roads, schools, airports, houses... Even unemployed artists were commissioned by the WPA in the Federal Art Project: Dorothea Lange OPPOSITION FROM THE SUPREME COURT American Supreme Court was dominated by Republicans (FDR was a Democrat). But judges were opposed to the New Deal. Roosevelt who got the power to appoint more judges to the Supreme Court, tried to change it but his plan was rejected. Eventually, this event had an impact because judges were more open to Roosevelt onwards and most of the Second New Deal initiatives were approved.