Dr. Robbins' PowerPoint lecture on major legislation of the New Deal.

1. New Deal
Legislation
A.P. U.S. HISTORY

2. FDR & the Three R’s
RELIEF
REFORM
RECOVERY

3. Agricultural Adjustment Act #1, 1933
 Helped to counteract overproduction and bring up
falling prices that were hurting farmers
 An allotment system with cash subsidies to
farmers who cut production
 “Rent” for uncultivated fields & cash for reducing livestock
 Applied unevenly; helped larger farms, hurt tenant farmers
 Paid for by tax on food processors
 Ruled unconstitutional (violated states’ rights & tax
benefited only a limited group)

4. Later Farming Acts
 Soil Conservation & Domestic Allotment Act,
1936
 Farmers paid to plant soil-conserving crops or
leave fields fallow
 Court approved this act with its emphasis on soil
conservation
 Second Agricultural Adjustment Act, 1938
 Continued conservation payments; gave parity
payments on restricted crops; more fair prices

5. Civilian Conservation Corps, 1933
 One of most popular, least controversial
programs
 Put young men to work in forests and parks
 Fire-fighting
 Reforestation
 Flood control
 Swamp drainage
 Most of money earned was sent to families
 Semi-military discipline

6. Federal Emergency Relief Act, 1933
 Intended to keep people from starving till
recovery programs could work
 Much of it went to direct dole payments to
unemployed for:
 Food, shelter, clothing
 Some went to wages for work projects
(CWA: Civil Works Administration)
 Continued for 2 years

7. Glass-Steagall Banking Reform Act,
1933*
 Created the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation (FDIC)
 Insured individual deposits
 Practically eliminated bank failures
 Separated investment banking from
commercial banking to stop use of
depositors’ funds for speculation

8. National Industrial Recovery Act, 1933
 Created the National Recovery
Administration
 Encouraged 200+ industries to cooperate in
creating codes for “fair competition”
 Intended to:
 provide for minimum wages and maximum hours
 Keep prices and wages high

9. NIRA cont.
 Labor won the right to bargain collectively
with representatives of own choosing*
 ‘yellow dog” contract forbidden
 Proved to be too complicated, unwieldy and
prone to abuse
 Declared unconstitutional in Schechter case
 Congress couldn’t give legislative power to Pres.
or control interstate commerce (chickens!)

10. National Youth Administration, 1935
 Part of the Works Progress Admin (WPA)
 For “emergency relief and employment to
persons between the ages of 16 and 25”
 For on-campus jobs to help high school and
college students stay in school
 Also for young people who had left school

11. Works Progress Administration, 1935
 Main federal relief agency from 1935-1943
 Put relief workers on the federal payroll
 Constructed roads, buildings, parks, airports, and
bridges
 Also employed artists such as actors, writers,
musicians, painters (post office murals) thru
“Federal One“ (Federal Art Project)
 Paid only $55/month (subsistence=$100),
but gave activity and self-respect

12. Rural Electrification Admin., 1935
 Created a national program to bring
electricity to rural areas
 Private companies had bypassed rural
areas: “farmers too poor”
 REA set up 417 rural electric cooperatives
which also spurred private companies to
electrify countryside
 In concert with TVA

13. Federal Securities Act, 1933 & 1935*
 Created the Securities and Exchange
Commission to regulate the stock market
by overseeing
 The buying of stock on “margin” (with credit)
 Restrict insider speculation (Martha Stewart?)
 Full disclosure on stocks and bonds must
be provided to buyers

14. Tennessee Valley Authority, 1933*
 One of most extensive and controversial
New Deal Programs (“too socialist”)
 Built 5 dams on the Tennessee River
 To generate low-cost electrical power
 To establish “yardstick” for regulation of private
power companies
 To create jobs for some of poorest in US
 To improve the environment of the Tenn Valley

15. Wagner Act, 1935
 AKA the National Labor Relations Act
 Set up National Labor Relations Board to
protect workers’ rights, including the right to
collective bargaining
 Outlawed unfair labor practices
(blacklisting, etc)

16. Social Security Act, 1935*
 Provided basic pensions to most retired
private-sector workers over 65
 Paid out of a federal-state pension fund to which
employers & employees contributed
 Also aided dependent survivors, blind and
other disabled
 Joint federal-state unemployment benefits
program, administered by the states

17. Frazier-Lemke Farm
Bankruptcy Act, 1934
 Suspended farm mortgage foreclosures for
5 years (1933)
 Supreme Court found it unconstitutional
 Revised version upheld (1935)
 Allowed suspension for 3 years

18. Public Works Administration, 1935
 Established to employ large numbers of
people on 34,000 useful projects
 Spent billions on long-term projects such as
 Public buildings, bridges, roads and dams
 Grand Coulee Dam on Colombia River

19. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.*
 See Glass-Steagal Banking Reform Act

20. Housing
 Homeowners Loan Corporation, 1933
 Refinancing for homes in danger of foreclosure
(modification of Hoover measure)
 Federal Housing Administration,1934*
 Small loans to householders to build or improve
 Insured home mortgages
 Helped revive the construction industry
 US Housing Authority
 Subsidized slum clearance & housing projects

21. Critics
 Father Charles Coughlin (Michigan)
 Senator Huey Long (Louisiana)
 Francis Townsend (Long Beach, CA)