THE NEW DEAL

Dave Smith (Disney archivist): "Three Little Pigs," 1933.
“This was a film that came out when America was in the depths of the Depression and everyone was trying to keep the ‘Big Bad Wolf’ away from their doors. The song ‘Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?’ almost became almost a theme song for the Depression years.”


Now, you must make an ethical decision about how this man is remembered before we can move on:

Should the FDR memorial have included a wheelchair, cigarette, neither, or both?
Justify your answer:

Here’s another one, just for discussion:
Would FDR have been elected if the country
had known he was in a wheelchair?
Would someone in a wheelchair be elected president today?

I. The Election of 1932:
Herbert Hoover vs. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Hoover: “General prosperity had been a great ally
in the election of 1928. Great Depression was a major enemy in 1932.”

“Herbert Roosevelt and Franklin Hoover”
--one columnist’s opinion of the two candidates

Campaign Song for FDR:
At first, “Anchors Aweigh”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhCko6qUGuc

“Sounds like a funeral march.” (two campaign workers)

“Happy Days are Here Again.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqsT4xnKZPg

Bonus Army: “Hoover sent the army. Roosevelt
sent his wife.”
FDR: “Above all, be sure there is plenty of
good coffee. No questions asked. Just let free coffee flow all the time.”

Electoral Vote: 472 to 59

Inauguration: March 4, 1933
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX_v0zxM23Q&feature=related


II. THE NEW DEAL

“Brain Trust”
--FDR’s trusted advisers
--politicians and professors

First Hundred Days:
March 9 to June 16, 1933
Will Rogers:
“Congress does pass legislation—they just wave at the bills as they go by.”

John Maynard Keynes(1883 to 1946):
Keynesian Economics
--unemployment leads to money hoarding
--govt. must expand money supply
--short term but massive government spending

Nixon: "We are all Keynesians now."

POLICIES OF THE NEW DEAL

--RELIEF, RECOVERY, REFORM--

A. RELIEF:
1. work relief:
1935--1943
WPA --employed 8.5 million americans
--spent $10.5 billion
--constructed 651,087 miles of roads
--125,110 public buildings
--8192 parks
--853 airports
-- built or repaired 124,087 bridges

2. direct assistance

B. RECOVERY:
1. industry:
2. agriculture:

C. REFORM:

1. Social Security Act:

2. Emergency Banking Act:

Was the New Deal Successful?

C. Political Responses from the Right:
1. Father Coughlin turns Right

2. William Dudley Pelly's "Silver Shirts"

IV. SIGNIFICANCE:
A. desperate times require desperate policy
B. changing expectation of govt. involvement

"It is my contention that no one should be allowed to write about FDR who did not experience that era. It really is one of those cases of you had to be there. Roosevelt may be a myth...today, but 60 years ago that myth looked more like hope. In his fireside chats, he turned our Philco radios into shrines, and when he said that America could not afford to live with one-third of a nation ill-housed and ill-fed, we thought he would do something about it. And he did."

Daniel Schorr, "The FDR 'Myth': You Had To Be There," Christian Science Monitor, 25 October 1996