01:512:205 Lecture 34: Chapter 34
18 May 2018
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Chapter 34: The Great Depression and the New Deal,
1933-1939
FDR: Politician in a Wheelchair
• Franklin Roosevelt’s courageous fighting from polio schooled him in patience,
tolerance, compassion, and strength of will—Roosevelt’s personal and
political asset was his wife, Eleanor
• FDR’s political career was as much hers as it was his own; she was to
become the most active First Lady in history—she powerfully influenced the
policies of the national government
• Always she battled for the impoverished and the oppressed—infidelity
between husband/wife
• Franklin Roosevelt’s political appeal was amazing—his commanding
presence, golden speaking voice, belief that money, rather than humanity,
was expendable; he revealed a deep concern for the plight of the forgotten
man and was assailed by the rich as a traitor to his class
• Democrats nominated Roosevelt in 1932 and the Democratic platform for
repeal of prohibition, assailed Hoover depression, and promised a balanced
budget, social and economic reforms
Presidential Hopefuls of 1932
• Roosevelt seized the offensive with an attack on the Republican Old
Dealers—consistently preached a New Deal for the forgotten man, but was
annoyingly vague and contradictory
• The Brains Trust, a small group of reform-minded intellectuals, who were
predominantly college professors authored much of the later New Deal
legislation, wrote many of his speeches
• The high spirits of the Democrats found expression in Happy Days Are Here
Again
• Herbert Hoover remained in the White House battling the depression
advocating Prosperity Is Just Around the Corner, The Worst Is Past, and It
Might Have Been Worse
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Hoover’s Humiliation in 1932
• One striking feature of the election was the beginning of a distinct shift of
blacks, traditionally grateful to the Republican party of Lincoln, over to the
Roosevelt camp (worst sufferers) and by the election of 1932, they became a
vital element in the Democratic party (cities in North)
• Hard times unquestionably ruined the Republicans; an overwhelming majority
voiced a demand for a new deal—any upstanding Democratic candidate
probably could have won
• The preinauguration lame duck period ground slowly to an end and Hoover
was still president until up to March 4, 1933—tried to hold meetings with
Roosevelt to discuss war-debt muddle
• With Washington deadlocked, the American economic machine clanked to a
virtual halt; one worker in four tramped the streets, banks were locking their
doors all over the nation
FDR and the Three R’s: Relief,
Recovery, Reform
• On Inauguration Day, March 4, 1933, Roosevelt provided Americans with
inspirational hope
• He declared a nationwide banking holiday, March 6-10, as a prelude to
opening the banks on a sounder basis and he summoned Congress into
special session to cope with national emergency
• For the Hundred Days, members cranked out remedial legislation—
Roosevelt’s New Deal programs aimed at three R’s—relief, recovery, and
reform of current abuses (overlapped)
• Measures that Roosevelt called must legislation—all the new bills
• Congress gave the president extraordinary blank-check powers—legislative
authority to Pres.
• Roosevelt was delighted to exert executive leadership—he was inclined to act
by intuition
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• The Hundred Days Congress passed many reforms, which owed much
progressive movement—New Deal embraced pre-WWI progressive ideals of
unemployment insurance, old-age insurance, minimum-wage,
conservation/development of national resources, and restrictions on child
labor
Roosevelt Tackles Money and
Banking
• Congress in an incredible eight hours had the Emergency Banking Relief Act
of 1933 ready
• The new law invested the president with power to regulate banking
transactions and foreign exchange and to reopen solvent banks—Roosevelt
turned to the radio to deliver fireside chats
• Through them, he gave assurances that it was now safer to keep money in a
reopened bank than under the mattress—confidence returned an banks
began to unlock their doors
• The Emergency/Hundred Days Congress supported public reliance on the
banking system by enacting the Glass-Steagall Banking Reform Act, a
measure that provided for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which
insured individual deposits up to $5,000
• Roosevelt moved to protect the melting gold reserve and to prevent panicky
hoarding; he ordered all private holdings of gold to be surrendered to the
Treasury in exchange for paper currency and then took the nation off the gold
standard—managed currency was well on its way
• The goal of Roosevelt’s managed currency was inflation, which he believed
would relieve debtor’s burdens and stimulate new production—gold buying
and increasing value of gold
• The gold-buying scheme came to an end in February 1934, when FDR
returned the nation to a limited gold standard for purposes of international
trade only—increased amount of $ circulation
Creating Jobs for the Jobless
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Document Summary
Chapter 34: the great depression and the new deal, Presidential hopefuls of 1932: roosevelt seized the offensive with an attack on the republican old. Again(cid:1689: herbert hoover remained in the white house battling the depression advocating (cid:1688)prosperity is just around the corner,(cid:1689) (cid:1688)the worst is past,(cid:1689) and (cid:1688)it. Hoover"s humiliation in 1932: one striking feature of the election was the beginning of a distinct shift of blacks, traditionally grateful to the republican party of lincoln, over to the. Roosevelt to discuss war-debt muddle: with washington deadlocked, the american economic machine clanked to a virtual halt; one worker in four tramped the streets, banks were locking their doors all over the nation. Hopkins that was designed to provide temporary jobs during the cruel winter emergency. A day for every demagogue: relief from washington to needy families helped pull the nation through winter of 1933-1934, one danger signal was the appearance of various demagogues, notably.
