Section 2

• In July 1935 Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act (also called the Wagner Act), which guaranteed workers the right to organize unions and to bargain collectively.

– Congress also set up the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

– The Wagner Act set up a process called binding arbitration.

Reforms for Workers and the Elderly (cont.)

Section 2

• In 1938 the CIO changed its name to the Congress of Industrial Organizations and became a federation of industrial unions.

• After passing the Wagner Act, Congress began work on one of America’s most important pieces of legislation—the Social Security Act.

Reforms for Workers and the Elderly (cont.)

– Although Social Security helped many people, it initially left out many of the neediest—farm and domestic workers.

Chapter Intro 2

The Second New Deal

(from Sections 2 and 3)

Who supported the new deal?

Who thought it did not go far enough?

Who thought the New Deal went too far?

Section 3

• Since the Civil War, African Americans had been reliable Republican voters.

– However, in the 1930s, they became just one part of a new Democratic coalition that included farmers, industrial workers, African Americans, new immigrants, ethnic minorities, women, progressives, and intellectuals.

Supporters: New Deal Coalition (p. 440-441)

Section 3

• African Americans and women made some modest gains during the New Deal.

– The president appointed several African Americans to positions in his administration, where they informally became known as the Black Cabinet.

– FDR appointed the first woman to a cabinet post, Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, and appointed many other women to lower-level posts.

Supporters: New Deal Coalition (p. 440-441))

Section 2

• Three people who challenged Roosevelt were:

Those who felt it had not gone far enough (pg 435)

– Huey Long (Share our Wealth)

– Father Coughlin (Nat’l Union for Social Justice)

– Francis Townsend (Senior $200 Pension Plan)

Section 2

• In August 1934 business leaders and anti-New Deal politicians from both parties joined together to create the American Liberty League. (p. 435)

Those Opposed to New Deal

Section 2

• Although New Deal programs had created more than 2 million new jobs, more than 10 million workers remained unemployed, and the nation’s total income was about half of what it had been in 1929.

• To pay for his programs, Roosevelt had started deficit spending, and many business leaders became greatly alarmed at the government’s growing deficit.

• Roosevelt overstepping Constitutional authority

Why opposition?

Section 2

• In May 1935, in Schechter Poultry Company v. United States, the Supreme Court unanimously struck down the authority of the NRA role in intrastate commerce.

– Roosevelt feared that the Court would strike down the rest of the New Deal.

– Court 2 years later upholds Congress role to regulate interstate commerce in NCLB case.

Those Opposed: Schecter and NLRB Cases (pg.443)

Section 3

– The court-packing plan, as the press called it, was FDR’s first serious political mistake.

– The Senate quietly killed the bill without bringing it to a vote.

– Roosevelt still achieved his goal of changing the Court’s view of the New Deal.

Those Opposed to ND: Court Packing– In March 1937 Roosevelt sent

Congress a bill to increase the number of justices.

Why It Matters Trans

Section 3

• FDR’s programs also succeeded in creating a safety net for Americans.

– By the end of the 1930s, many Americans felt that the government had a duty to maintain this safety net, even though doing so required a larger, more expensive federal government.

The New Deal Ends (cont.)

What New Deal Programs Still Exist Today?

Section 3

• Harry Hopkins, head of the WPA, and Harold Ickes, head of the PWA, pushed for more government spending using a new theory called Keynesianism to support their arguments.

– Keynesianism was based on the theories of an influential British economist named John Maynard Keynes.

Roosevelt’s Second Term (cont.)

Section 3

• The New Deal had only limited success in ending the Depression.

– As a whole, the New Deal tended to balance competing economic interests.

The New Deal Ends (cont.)

• In taking on a mediating role, the New Deal established what some have called the broker state.

– This role has continued under the administrations of both parties ever since.

What New Deal Programs Still Exist Today?

End of Custom Shows

This slide is intentionally blank.