The Second New Deal

The New Deal > Historiographic Debates

• 1952, Herbert Hoover • New Deal failed because it “attempted to collectivize the American system of life.”

• 1940s-1960s, “liberal consensus” historians• New Deal was a “pragmatic” revolution that expanded the role of the federal government in American life.

• mid-1960s, “New Left” historians• New Deal was fundamentally conservative, it could but failed to redistribute power in American society; it protected American capitalism.

• 1970s-2000s, contemporary historians (including Alan Brinkley)

• New Deal could not have done more than it did, because of conservative Congress, the lack of adequate government bureaucracy, and localist and antistatist political culture.

The New Deal > Stages

• 1932 - FDR elected• First New Deal (“the hundred days”)

• 1934 - Strike wave

• 1934 - Leftist Democrats win the majority in congressional elections

• Second New Deal (“the second hundred days”)

• 1935 - Supreme Court unanimously declares NRA unconstitutional

• 1936 - FDR reelected in a landslide

• 1937 - Court-packing• FDR proposes but fails to implement unpopular Supreme Court reform

• 1938 - Republicans and conservative Democrats regain seats in the House

• As a reform movement, New Deal is over

The New Deal II > Social Security Poster, 1936

The New Deal II > National Youth Administration center, Detroit, MI, 1936

The New Deal II > Works Progress Administration poster

1936 Elections > Alfred Landon, Republican presidential candidate, 1936

1936 Elections > Gallup predicts FDR will be reelected

1936 Elections > Literary Digest and Gallup polls

January 1936 Gallup PollBy Income

Roosevelt LandonUpper third 41% 59%Lower third 70 30Reliefers 82 18

October 1936 Gallup PollFarmers

Roosevelt 52.6%Landon 42.1%

WomenRoosevelt 51.4%Landon 44.8%

Young People (21–24 Years)Roosevelt 57.4%Landon 38.4%

ReliefersRoosevelt 78.8%Landon 14.0%

Literary Digest Final Poll

Landon 57%Roosevelt 43States for Landon 32States for FDR 16

A.I.P.O. (Gallup) Final Poll

Roosevelt 55.7%Landon 44.3States for FDR 40States for Landon 6On the line 2

Election ResultsRoosevelt 61%Landon 49%States for FDR 46States for Landon 2

1936 Elections > Percentage vote for Roosevelt in black districts, 1932 and 1936

1936 Elections > FDR’s Inaugural Address, 1936

… I see a United States which can demonstrate that, under democratic methods of government, national wealth can be translated into a spreading volume of human comforts hitherto unknown, and the lowest standard of living can be raised far above the level of mere subsistence.

But here is the challenge to our democracy: In this nation I see tens of millions of its citizens—a substantial part of its whole population—who at this very moment are denied the greater part of what the very lowest standards of today call the necessities of life.

I see millions of families trying to live on incomes so meager that the pall of family disaster hangs over them day by day.

I see millions whose daily lives in city and on farm continue under conditions labeled indecent by a so-called polite society half a century ago.

I see millions denied education, recreation, and the opportunity to better their lot and the lot of their children.

I see millions lacking the means to buy the products of farm and factory and by their poverty denying work and productiveness to many other millions.

I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.

But It is not in despair that I paint you that picture. I paint it for you in hope—because the nation, seeing and understanding the injustice in it, proposes to paint it out.

Court Packing > Schecter Poultry Corp. v. United States, 1935

• A small company - small firms objected the most to limits on hours and wages

• Charles Evans Hughes for the majority: “Extraordinary conditions do not create or enlarge constitutional power.”

• Congress cannot relegate power to the executive branch, even in an emergency

• NRA infringes on “freedom of contract,” through industrial price and wage codes

Court Packing > “Fall In!,” Richmond Times Dispatch, 1937

Court Packing > “He Just Ain’t Fast Enough,” Brooklyn Citizen, 1937

Court Packing > “Qualifying Test,” New York Herald Tribune, 1937

Court Packing > “Step by Step,” Buffalo News, 1937

New Deal > Anti-Roosevelt cartoon, 1938