The New Deal’s Impact on Society

New Deal Constituencies & the Broker State

• Civilian gov’t employees increased by 80%• # of gov’t employees in Washington, DC doubled

in 10 years• Power of federal gov’t increased drastically• Acted as a broker state– Gov’t acted as mediator in national marketplace– Elevated & strengthened new interests

• Organized labor, women, African Americans, & other groups joined the coalition the Democrats started to build

Organized Labor

• Huge arena for federal intervention• Factors that led to growth of labor movement– Inadequacy of welfare capitalism– New Deal legislation; example=Wagner Act– Rise of the Congress of Industrial Organizations

(CIO); est. 1936• Growing militancy of rank & file workers• By 1940, unionized workers=9 million– 23% of the non-farm workforce

Organized Labor

• CIO promoted all workers, skilled & unskilled, into one union– Accepted women, blacks, & Mexican Americans– John L. Lewis, once leader of United Mine Workers,

helped form CIO– Competed w/ AFL; more militant– Allied w/ Democratic Party

• Scored a victory with United Auto Workers & GM (1936-1937)– GM & other auto producers recognized the UAW

Organized Labor

• Steel workers struggled in battle for unionization

• Memorial Day Massacre (1937), South Chicago

• Marching peacefully, fired upon, 10 killed & 90 wounded

• Strike failed• 1937—4,720 strikes & 80% favored unions

Women & the New Deal• Gains in government:– Frances Perkins, 1st female in cabinet– Molly Dawson, head of Women’s Division of the DNC– Nellie, Tayloe Ross, 1st female director of the mint– Eleanor Roosevelt, one of the 1st prominent First Ladies

• The “conscience of the New Deal”

• Setbacks:– Low wages– Low levels of employment– CCC did not hire women

Eleanor Roosevelt in 1933

Sec. of Labor Frances Perkins

Blacks & the New Deal

• New Deal did little to battle racial discrimination

• CCC segregated blacks & whites• NRA codes did not protect black workers• FDR repeatedly refused to ban lynching– Said it would antagonize southern members of

Congress• Their support was needed for New Deal measures

Blacks & the New Deal

• 18% of WPA recipients were black• Resettlement Administration was set up to help small farmers

buy land• Mary McLeod Bethune hired to run Office of Minority Affairs• Eleanor Roosevelt was a champion of equal rights• The belief that the White House was concerned for African

Americans shifted voting– Republican Party had been party of blacks since time of

Lincoln

Politicization of Mexican Americans

• Benefited from labor policies– But agencies paid at different rates based on race– Tension & conflict between whites & Hispanics in

CCC camps

• Increasingly identified with US rather than Mexico

• Democrats made it clear that they welcomed Mexican Americans

Indian Reorganization Act• Native Americans continued to be among the nation’s

most disadvantaged minorities• Average annual income in 1934=$48!• IRA reversed Dawes Act of 1887 by promoting

extensive self-government; tribal councils & constitutions

• Tribal lands & agricultural profits both increased greatly

• New Deal helped preserve Native languages, arts, traditions

• However, problems were so severe that more change was needed

The New Deal & the Land

• TVA was the biggest New Deal environmental undertaking

• 1933: task was to develop region’s resources under public control

• CCC & WPA created several attractions

New Deal & the Arts• Federal Art Project gave work to many of 20th

century’s leading painters, muralists, sculptors

New Deal & the Arts

• Federal Music Project employed 15K musicians

• Federal Writers Project employed 5K writers

• Federal Theatre Project, most ambitious, reached 25-30 million in 4 years– Terminated in 1939 over fears

of Communist influence

Legacies of the New Deal

• Set in motion far-reaching changes• Growth of a modern state of significant size• People experienced fed. gov’t as a part of

everyday life for first time• In 1930s, over 1/3 of Americans received

direct gov’t services from fed. programs, from Social Security, farm loans, relief work, etc.

Legacy of the New Deal

• Gov’t made a commitment to intervene in economy when private sector could not guarantee stability

• Stock market regulation, Fed. Reserve reformed

• Accelerated pattern begun by Progressive of using regulation to bring order to economic life

Problems with the New Deal

• Social Security Act did not include national health care

• Welfare system did not reach a majority of American workers, including domestics & farm workers

• Discriminated against women in terms of jobs & wages

• Did not end Depression, only short-term fixes

Problems with the New Deal

• Forced FDR to be unable to challenge marginalization of blacks in the South

• Needed white southern vote• Court-packing scheme, recession of 1937,

Republican success in 1938 elections, & inevitability of WWII—combined to bring end to the New Deal

Successes• Great political move;

gained support for Democratic Party from various groups– 84% of those on relief

voted for FDR in 1936– Middle class voters also

moved to Democratic side

– Stay w/ Democrats for years to come