Chapter 34 Outlines- Baily's

Chapter 34 Outlines

Election of 1932

* As the election of 1932 neared, unemployment and poverty brought dissent of President Hoover and a demand for a change in policy. The Republicans nominated Herbert Hoover to run for president in the election of 1932. The Democrats chose Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He had been born to a wealthy New York family and served as the governor of New York.

FDR: Politician in a Wheelchair

* Franklin D. Roosevelt's wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, was to become the most active First Lady in history. She powerfully influenced the policies of the national government, battling for the impoverished and oppressed.

* Roosevelt's commanding presence and golden speaking voice made him the premier American orator of his generation.

Presidential Hopefuls of 1932

* In the Democratic campaign of 1932, Roosevelt attacked the Republican Old Deal and concentrated on preaching a New Deal for the "forgotten man." He promised to balance the nation's budget and decrease the heavy Hooverian deficits.

* Although the campaign for the Republicans was dire, Herbert Hoover reaffirmed his faith in American free enterprise and individualism. He predicted prosperity if the Hawley-Smoot Tariff was repealed.

Hoover's Humiliation in 1932

* Franklin Roosevelt won the election of 1932 by a sweeping majority, in both the popular vote and the Electoral College.

* Beginning in the election of 1932, blacks became, notably in the urban centers of the North, a vital element of the Democratic Party.

FDR and the Three R's: Relief, Recovery, Reform

* Franklin Roosevelt was inaugurated on March 4, 1933.

* On March 6-10, President Roosevelt declared a national banking holiday as a prelude to opening the banks on a sounder basis. The Hundred Days Congress/Emergency Congress (March 9-June 16, 1933) passed a series laws in order to cope with the national emergency (The Great Depression).

* Roosevelt's New Deal programs aimed at 3 R's: relief, recovery, reform. Short-range goals were relief and immediate recovery, and long-range goals were permanent recovery and reform of current abuses.

* Congress gave President Roosevelt extraordinary blank-check powers: some of the laws it passed expressly delegated legislative authority to the president.

* The New Dealers embraced such progressive ideas as unemployment insurance, old-age insurance, minimum-wage regulations, conservation and development of natural resources, and restrictions on child labor.

Roosevelt Tackles Money and Banking

* The impending banking crisis caused Congress to pass the Emergency Banking Relief Act of 1933. It gave the president power to regulate banking transactions and foreign exchange and to reopen solvent banks. President Roosevelt began to give "fireside chats" over the radio in order to restore public confidence of banks.

* Congress then passed the Glass-Steagall Banking Reform Act, creating the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). A reform program, the FDIC insured individual bank deposits up to $5,000, ending the epidemic of bank failures.

* In order to protect the shrinking gold reserve, President Roosevelt ordered all private holdings of gold to be given to the Treasury in exchange for paper currency and then the nation to be taken off the gold standard--Congress passed laws providing for these measures.

* The goal of Roosevelt's "managed currency" was inflation, which he believed would relieve debtors' burdens and stimulate new production. Inflation was achieved through gold buying; the Treasury purchased gold at increasing prices, increasing the dollar price of gold. This policy increased the amount of dollars in circulation.

Creating Jobs for the Jobless

* President Roosevelt had no qualms about using federal money to assist the unemployed in order to jumpstart the economy. Congress created the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which provided employment for about 3 million men in government camps. Their work included reforestation, fire fighting, flood control, and swamp drainage.

* Congress's first major effort to deal with the massive unemployment was to pass the Federal Emergency Relief Act. The resulting Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) was headed by Harry L. Hopkins. Hopkins's agency granted about $3 billion to the states for direct relief payments or for wages on work projects. Created in 1933, the Civil Works Administration (CWA), a branch of the FERA, was designed to provide temporary jobs during the winter emergency. Thousands of unemployed were employed at leaf raking and other manual-labor jobs.

* Relief was given to the farmers with the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA), making available millions of dollars to help farmers meet their mortgages.

* The Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) assisted many households that had trouble paying their mortgages.

A Day for Every Demagogue

* As unemployment and suffering continued, radical opponents to Roosevelt's New Deal began to arise. Father Charles Coughlin's anti-New Deal radio broadcasts eventually became so anti-Semitic and fascistic that he was forced off the air. Senator Huey P. Long publicized his "Share Our Wealth" program in which every family in the United States would receive $5,000. His fascist plans ended when he was assassinated in 1935. Dr. Francis E. Townsend attracted millions of senior citizens with his plan that each citizen over the age of 60 would receive $200 a month.

* Congress passed the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1935, with the objective of employment on useful projects (i.e. the construction of buildings, roads, etc.). Taxpayers criticized the agency for paying people to due "useless" jobs such as painting murals.

A Helping Hand for Industry and Labor

* The National Recovery Administration (NRA) was designed to assist industry, labor,