GDWW - The New Deal Lesson

The New Deal

100 FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT’S FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS (1933), remembered for the line “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” for Roosevelt’s promise “to put people to work,” and perhaps for use of the phrase “good neighbor” when referring to foreign policy. It was an extraordinarily effective speech, but it also contained a good deal of windy political foolishness, and a considerable amount of bad advice. For example, the President felt it necessary to point out that “happiness lies not in the mere possession of money”; he promised to balance the federal budget and urged state and local governments to reduce their expenditures “drastically”; and he claimed that there was an “overbalance of population” in the nation’s cities.

Putting People to Work

In 1932 Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) was elected to the Presidency. Once he took office in 1933, FDR began an ambitious program to combat the Great Depression known as the New Deal. One of Roosevelt's major New Deal programs was the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). This was established in 1933 to build dams and power plants along the Tennessee River and its tributaries. Tennessee Valley itself runs through seven states, so the project was very large. The TVA built dozens of dams to control the environment by preventing disastrous floods. Each dam had its own power plants, parks, and navigation aids, and their construction created hundreds of jobs for unemployed workers. View this chart that summarizes major New Deal programs. Links to an external site.

Second New Deal

The Second New Deal refers to the programs President Roosevelt instituted after his original New Deal failed to completely fix the American economy. The National Labor Relations Act, better known as the Wagner Act, was one of the first reforms of Roosevelt's Second New Deal. This law established collective bargaining rights for workers and prohibited such unfair labor practices as intimidating workers, attempting to keep workers from organizing unions, and firing union members. The law also set up a government agency where workers could testify about unfair labor practices and hold elections to decide whether or not to unionize.

Photograph of a dam built by the Tennessee Valley Authority

After passage of the Wagner Act, industrial workers began to unionize. The American Federation of Labor (AFL) was hesitant to organize industrial unionism, because it was committed to craft-based workers such as carpenters and railroad engineers. As a consequence, the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was created to represent industrial workers who felt they were not being represented by the AFL. The AFL and CIO clashed on and off before merging in 1955 to become the AFL-CIO that exists today.

One of the most important actions of the Second New Deal was the Social Security Act, which was passed in 1935. This law consisted of three programs:

  1. Old-age insurance for retirees aged 65 or older and their spouses, paid half by the employee and half by the employer
  2. Unemployment compensation paid by a federal tax on employers and administered by the states
  3. Aid for the disabled and for families with dependent children paid by the federal government and administered by the states

See each category represented in posters from the era:

Hold on to Your Social Security Card. Don't lose it, because you may need it any day, especially if you take another job, it takes time to get a duplicate, replacing 1,001,071 lost cards last year cost Uncle Sam the price of 550 reps.More Security for the American Family. When an uninsured worker dies, leaving dependent children and a widow, both mother and children receive monthly benefits until the latter reach 18.

More Security for the American Family. The Social Security Act as amended offers greater old-age insurance protection to people now nearing retirement age.More Security for the American Family. The widow of a qualified worker will receive monthly benefits at age 65. In certain cases, an aged dependent parent may get benefits.

Social Security 45th Anniversary. Join the march to old age security.

Posters advertising Social Security. Image Credit: National Archives.

Another key program of the Second New Deal was the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The WPA provided work projects for both blue collar and white collar workers. View the presentation on the WPA below.

 

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