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Although many Americans supported Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s efforts to end the Great Depression, the New Deal received significant criticism from all sides.
Conservative organizations and individuals, including trade associations, wealthy citizens, and Republicans (like Herbert Hoover), opposed the New Deal. They claimed it undermined traditional values (e.g., small government, individualism, and democracy). Some of them even attacked Roosevelt personally, claiming that he lacked character.
EXAMPLE
The National Association of Manufacturers, which represented a number of business organizations, urged businessmen to ignore the “codes of fair practice” mandated by the National Recovery Administration (NRA).Former President Hoover, in a speech to the Republican National Convention in the summer of 1936, defined the New Deal as follows:
Herbert Hoover, Republican National Convention Speech, 1936
“To some people it appears to be a strange interlude in American history in that it has no philosophy, that it is sheer opportunism, that it is a muddle of a spoils system, or emotional economics, of reckless adventure, of unctuous claims to a monopoly of human sympathy, of greed for power, of a desire for popular acclaim and an aspiration to make the front pages of the newspapers . . . .
To other people, it appears to be a cold-blooded attempt by starry-eyed boys to infect the American people with a mixture of European ideas, flavored with our native predilection to get something for nothing.
You can choose either one you like best. But the first is the road of chaos which leads to the second. Both of these roads lead over the same grim precipice that is the crippling and possibly the destruction of the freedom of men.”
Liberal critics of the New Deal felt that it did not do enough to help particular groups of Americans. They proposed different solutions to the crisis, as shown in the table below:
Critic of the New Deal | Proposed Solution to the Crisis |
---|---|
Dr. Francis E. Townsend |
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Father Charles Coughlin |
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Upton Sinclair |
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Huey P. Long |
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Of these critics, Long was the most serious threat to President Roosevelt. Despite the questionable math of his “Share Our Wealth” program, which many economists believed was unworkable, Long gained a significant following. Had he not been assassinated by the son-in-law of a political rival in the fall of 1935, Long likely would have been a contender (running against Roosevelt) for the 1936 Democratic presidential nomination.
The most crushing blow to the First New Deal did not come from Long, Hoover, or any of the critics mentioned above. In May 1935, the Supreme Court, dominated by conservative justices, ruled unanimously that the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) was unconstitutional. The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) was overturned by the Supreme Court in January 1936.
With respect to both acts, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government, particularly the executive branch, had exceeded its authority by attempting to establish business codes and set production quotas.
Roosevelt recognized that some of the criticism of the New Deal was valid, but he was frustrated by the Supreme Court’s rulings on NIRA and AAA. Beginning in the summer of 1935, he launched another wave of legislation that came to be known as the Second New Deal.
One of the most significant components of the Second New Deal was the expansion of work relief programs through the Works Progress Administration (WPA).
The WPA continued the work of the Civil Works Administration (which was disbanded in January 1934) by funding the construction of more than 2,500 hospitals, 5,900 schools, 570,000 miles of road, and more.
Through the Federal One Project, the WPA provided federal support for the arts by employing approximately 40,000 artists, writers, and researchers in theater, art, music, and writing projects. WPA writers and artists produced guidebooks, concerts, and dramatic performances across the country. The project also funded the collection of oral histories, including those of formerly enslaved people.
Additional Resource
Explore the Library of Congress’s audio collection of these narratives collected by the Federal Writers’ Project of the WPA during the Great Depression.
WPA artists painted murals in post offices and other public buildings throughout the United States.
During the Second New Deal, the Roosevelt administration established the foundations of the present-day welfare state by enacting the Social Security Act of 1935.
The Social Security Act established a pension fund for all retired people over the age of 65. Social Security was to be funded by a payroll tax on both employees and employers. The act also included an unemployment insurance program to be funded by a tax on employers. Additionally, it was created to support programs for unwed mothers and the disabled that would be funded by the federal and state governments.
To benefit industrial workers, Roosevelt signed into law the National Labor Relations Act, also known as the Wagner Act (named for its sponsor, Senator Robert Wagner of New York).
The protections previously afforded to labor under NIRA were lost when the Supreme Court ruled that the act was unconstitutional. Roosevelt supported the National Labor Relations Act to protect vulnerable workers, and, in 1937, the court upheld the law. Under the terms of the NLRB, the federal government served as a broker in disputes between labor and capital. The law was strongly supported by labor organizations, and many workers supported Roosevelt’s campaign for reelection in 1936. This began an era of solid support from organized labor for the Democratic Party.
The impact of the New Deal can be seen, in part, in the vast increase in federal power. During President Roosevelt’s administration, the federal government assumed responsibility for the nation’s economic stability and prosperity. By establishing programs for welfare and relief, it also assumed responsibility for the well-being of millions of Americans.
The significance of the New Deal can also be seen in the way it reconfigured the Democratic Party. Before the New Deal, the party was dominated by White Southerners and was considered the party of limited government and White supremacy. Under Roosevelt’s leadership, the New Deal broadened the party’s membership.
While measures like the National Labor Relations Act gained the support of organized labor for the Democrats, it took longer for other key constituents of the modern party to become supporters. Before the Great Depression, most Black voters supported the Republican Party because of its role in ending slavery and defending Black freedom during the Civil War and Reconstruction.
Early in the New Deal, liberal critics pointed out that African Americans had been excluded from many assistance programs.
EXAMPLE
The National Recovery Administration (NRA) was criticized as the “Negro Run Around” or “Negroes Ruined Again” program because it exempted agricultural and domestic employers from the obligation to create “codes of fair practice.”Roosevelt responded to the criticism by making efforts to implement fair hiring practices for work relief agencies.
EXAMPLE
The WPA eventually employed 350,000 African Americans annually—almost 15% of its workforce.This limited response, and others like it, was in part a result of Roosevelt’s precarious position in his party. To preserve the coalition of Democrats who supported the New Deal, Roosevelt could not afford to alienate White Southern Democrats who would oppose him if he advocated equal rights.
EXAMPLE
Although Roosevelt was the first president to publicly speak out against lynching, referring to it as a “vile form of collective murder,” he did not ask Congress to enact an anti-lynching law.Although his actions were limited, Roosevelt acknowledged the importance of peaceful interracial relations and civil rights. He appointed a number of African Americans to positions in his administration, though most of them served in low-level jobs.
EXAMPLE
Mary McLeod Bethune, a prominent African American educator, was appointed by Roosevelt as director of the Division of Negro Affairs for the National Youth Administration, which provided work-study jobs to high school and college students.
The president’s wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, used her position as First Lady to advance the cause of African Americans, women, and the rural poor. For example, she continuously pressured government officials regarding civil rights issues when her husband was unwilling (or unable) to do so. All of these groups became key constituents of the Democratic Party.
EXAMPLE
Eleanor Roosevelt lobbied for the passage of a federal anti-lynching law, which her husband privately supported but did not publicly endorse.When the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused to permit internationally renowned (and Black) opera singer Marian Anderson to perform in Constitution Hall, Mrs. Roosevelt resigned her membership in the DAR and, with assistance from Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, arranged for Anderson to give a public concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
Additional Resource
Listen to “Marian Anderson Performs on the Steps of the Lincoln Memorial, With an Introduction by Harold Ickes, 04/09/1939,” from Archive.org.
The image of Anderson performing a public concert, sponsored by a Democratic administration, in front of Abraham Lincoln—the Republican president who freed enslaved people—reflected a significant change in Black voting during the 1930s. By the end of the decade, many Black voters, especially those in Northern and Western states, left the party of Lincoln for the Democrats.
This transition was due in large part to Franklin Roosevelt, his wife, and other New Dealers who believed that the federal government should be involved in protecting and advancing civil rights. Under Roosevelt’s leadership, the Democratic Party was transformed into an organization that embraced the belief that the government was responsible for providing for the general welfare. In future decades, the Democratic Party worked to extend the government’s reach into other areas of society in an attempt to address economic equality, civil rights, and other issues.
Source: This tutorial curated and/or authored by Matthew Pearce, Ph.D with content adapted from Openstax “U.S. History”. access for free at openstax.org/details/books/us-history LICENSE: CREATIVE COMMONS ATTRIBUTION 4.0 INTERNATIONAL