Presidential Election of 1932:

• Hoover v. Roosevelt
   
• Listen to inaugural speech - March 4, 1933
   
• Franklin D. Roosevelt - Democrat - promised New Deal
  • Avoided making specific promises
   
• Roosevelt favored repeal of prohibition whereas Hoover wanted revision
   
• Herbert Hoover - Republican - widely blamed for the Great Depression; for more than two years Hoover had been issuing statements that the worst was over, only to have the economy make further downturns.
   
• Roosevelt was optimistic and confident
   
• Biggest Democratic victory since Civil War (57.4% of popular vote)
  • Democrats won big majorities in House and Senate

• First hundred days
  • Enormous amount of legislation passed
  • Roosevelt called special session of Congress
   
• Fireside chats
  • Use of radio to explain things and restore confidence
  • First one used to explain Emergency Banking Relief Act
   
• Emergency Banking Relief Act
  • Ordered a nationwide bank holiday
  • Treasury Department would inspect nation's banks
  • Those banks that were sound could reopen at once
  • Those that needed help could receive loans
  • Insolvent ones would stay closed
  • Restored confidence in banking system
  • Took US off gold standard
   
• Civilian Conservation Corps
  • Unemployed single males between 17 and 28
  • Built roads, planted trees, helped in soil erosion and flood control projects
  • Lived in camps run by army officers
  • $30 a month ($22 of which was sent to dependent families)
  • Free food and uniforms
   
• Federal Emergency Relief Act
  • $250 million given to states to be spent on food and clothing for the unemployed
  • Additional $250 million given as matching funds
   
• Civil Works Administration
  • Gave aid to people through local authorities
  • Created government jobs, many of which were unnecessary
   
• Agricultural Adjustment Act
  • Paid farmers a certain amount for land left unseeded
  • Caused prices to rise and farmers to receive more income
   
• Tennessee Valley Authority
  • Regional planning
  • Helped conserve and develop natural resources by building dams to control the Tennessee River and to provide hydroelectric power
  • Resulted in new factories, new energy and new jobs
   
• Economy Act
  • Lowered salaries of government workers
  • Reduced payments to veterans
   
• Home Owner's Loan Corporation
  • Government loans to homeowners facing foreclosures
   
• Glass-Steagall Act
  • Set up Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to protect deposits up to $5000
   
• National Industrial Recovery Act
  • National Recovery Administration
  • Set up fair trade codes
    • Price controls
    • 40 hour work week
    • Abolished child labor
    • Set a minimum wage
    • Recognized right to unionize
    • Set up National Labor Board to settle disputes
   
• Public Works Administration
  • Government spent money on necessary projects to create jobs

• Began in 1935 after 1934 elections gave Democrats an even larger majority in Congress
   
• Emphasis shifted from relief and recovery to reform
   
• Works Progress Administration
  • Create jobs
    • 1935 - 1941
      • Construction
      • Writers, artists, musicians, actors
        • Controversial
        • WPA posters - Library of Congress
      • Accused of exchanging jobs for votes
   
• Social Security Act
  
  • Pension for retired workers
  • Death benefits to children under 18
  • Not tied to need
  • Tax split between employer and employee
   
• Securities and Exchange Commission
  • Power to prevent insider trading
  • Joe Kennedy put in charge
   
• Revenue Act of 1935
  • Attempt to break up large accumulations of wealth
  • Increased gift and estate taxes
  • Increased rates for those with higher incomes
  • Graduated corporate tax that favored small business over large
   
• Banking Act of 1935
  • Replaced old Federal Reserve Board with 7 member board appointed by the president

• NIRA and AAA declared unconstitutional
   
• Liberty League
  • Most members rich
  • Opposed New Deal as an attack on the rich
   
• Extremists
  • Thought New Deal did not go far enough
  • Upton Sinclair
    • Wanted higher income and inheritance taxes
    • $50 a month pension for the elderly
  • Dr. Francis Townsend
    • Devised a plan to pay everyone over 60 $200 a month
    • Defeated in Congress but helped push through Social Security Act
  • Father Charles Coughlin
    • Radio preacher
    • Wanted to nationalize banks, public utilities, and natural resources
  • Huey Long (Kingfish)
    • Louisiana
    • Elected to Senate in 1930
    • Share the Wealth" program
      • $5000 guaranteed yearly income for every family
      • Take over wealth of millionaires
      • Divide up some of nation's land and natural resources
    • Roosevelt's biggest threat until he was killed in 1935

• Roosevelt - Democrat
  • "Are you better off now than you were 4 years ago"
• Alf Landon - Republican
• Landslide for Roosevelt (60.8% of popular vote)
  • Landon got only 8 electoral votes
• Coalition formed
  • Blacks, labor unions, Catholics, the South

• Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937
   
• Claimed federal judiciary could not keep up with caseload
  • More judges needed some judges too old
   
• Proposed that judges retire within 6 months of turning 70
  • If they do not, president has the power to appoint new judges
   
• Six members of Supreme Court over 70
  • Roosevelt would be able to enlarge court to 15
   
• Set off protest that Roosevelt was grabbing too much power
   
• Bill failed to get through Congress
   
• Two judges changed votes on New Deal legislation
   
• Conservative judge died
  • Roosevelt appointed Hugo Black
   
• Attempt to pack Court strengthened opposition to New Deal
  • 1938 elections brought in many Republicans and conservative southern Democrats
  • By 1939 New Deal was over

• Industrial unionism grew
  • Committee for Industrial Organization formed within the AFL
    • Began signing unskilled and semiskilled workers
  • Jealousy caused AFL to expel CIO unions in 1937
  • CIO changed name to Congress of Industrial Organizations
  • AFL-CIO combined again in 1955
   
• Some advances for blacks
  • New Deal programs supposedly color blind
  • Blacks used as administrators of agencies
  • Roosevelt listened to opinions of highly placed black government workers
  • CIO included black members
  • Supreme Court upheld right of counsel for blacks and right to be tried by juries that included blacks
  • Roosevelt entertained blacks at the White House
  • In 1939 the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused use of Constitution Hall for Marion Anderson concert
    • Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from organization and arranged for concert to be held at Lincoln Memorial
  • The "Scottsboro Boys" Trials - 1931 to 1937
   
• Some advances for women
  • Eleanor Roosevelt
    • Very assertive
    • Represented Franklin at meetings
    • Campaigned for him
    • Helped make policy concerning women and minorities
  • Women were most popular movie stars
    • Joan Crawford, Bette Davis
  • Margaret Mitchell wrote Gone With The Wind which won Pulitzer Prize in 1937
  • Amelia Earhart was first woman to fly across the Atlantic alone in 1932
    • Lost in Pacific attempting around the world flight

• Pros
  • Raised income of farmers and workers
  • Helped preserve natural resources
  • Provided cushion for sick and aged
  • Enabled unions to organize
  • Added to material wealth of nation
  • Ended business excesses
  • Guaranteed safety of bank deposits
  • Reduced unemployment
   
• Cons
  • Raised national debt
  • Doubled federal bureaucracy
  • Failed to end the depression
    • 7.5 million still unemployed in 1940
    • The end of the depression was brought about by WWII
   
• Politically it changed people's views about the role of government
  • Government responsible for economic welfare

• By 1940, 2.5 million people had moved out of Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, and New Mexico; of those, 200,000 moved to California
  • All were generally referred to as "Okies"
• John Steinbeck
• Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie
  • "This Land Is Your Land"
  • Woody Guthrie Correspondence, 1940-1950 - Library of Congress
   
• Voices From the Dust Bowl - Library of Congress
• The WPA California Folk Music Project, 1930s - Library of Congress

Will Rogers and Wiley Post:

• "Oklahoma's Favorite Son"
• The "Cherokee Cowboy"
• Referring to Leon Trotsky, Rogers said, "I bet you if I had met him and had a chat with him, I would have found him a very interesting and human fellow, for I never yet met a man that I didn't like."