Contemporary accounts
In 1937, the editors of The Economist published an appraisal of the New Deal in which they concluded that:
"If the criterion be Utopian, the achievements of the New Deal appear to be small. Relief there has been, but little more than enough to keep the population fed, clothed and warmed. Recovery there has been, but only to a point still well below the pre-depression level. The great problems of the country are still hardly touched. There has been no permanent readjustment of agriculture to meet its changed environment. Very little has been done to iron out the fluctuations of industrial production for the future. The monetary structure of the country, on balance, is less under control than formerly." [78]
However, "If the New Deal be compared, not with the absolute standards of Utopia, but with the achievements of other Governments, the former adverse judgement must be modified. If it be compared with either the performance or the promise of its rivals, it comes out well. If its achievements be compared with the situation which confronted it in March, 1933, it is a striking success." [79]
[edit] Art and music
The Works Progress Administration subsidized artists, musicians, painters and writers on relief with a group of projects called Federal One. While the WPA program was by the most widespread, it was preceded by three programs administered by the US Treasury which hired commercial artists at usual commissions to add murals and sculptures to federal buildings. The first of these efforts was the short-lived Public Works of Art Project, organized by Edward Bruce, an American businessman and artist. Bruce also led the Treasury Department's Section of Painting and Sculpture (later renamed the Section of Fine Arts) and the Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP). The Resettlement Administration (RA) and Farm Security Administration (FSA) had major photography programs. The New Deal arts programs emphasized regionalism, social realism, class conflict, proletarian interpretations, and audience participation. The unstoppable collective powers of common man, contrasted to the failure of individualism, was a favorite theme.[80][81]
Murals, painted by artists in this time, can still be found around the country in government buildings.[82] The New Deal, particularly helped American novelists. For journalists, and the novelists who wrote non-fiction, the agencies and programs that the New Deal provided, allowed these writers to describe about what they really saw around the country. [83]
Many writers chose to write about the New Deal, and whether they were for or against it, and if it was helping the country out. Some of these writers were Ruth McKenney, Edmund Wilson, and Scott Fitzgerald.[84] Another subject that was very popular for novelists was the condition of labor. They ranged from subjects on social protest, to strikes.[85]
Under the WPA, the Federal Theatre project flourished. Countless theatre productions around the country were staged. This allowed thousands of actors and directors to be employed, among them were Orson Welles, and John Huston. [86]
The FSA photography project is most responsible for creating the image of the Depression in the U.S. Many of the images appeared in popular magazines. The photographers were under instruction from Washington as to what overall impression the New Deal wanted to give out. Director Roy Stryker's agenda focused on his faith in social engineering, the poor conditions among cotton tenant farmers, and the very poor conditions among migrant farm workers; above all he was committed to social reform through New Deal intervention in people's lives. Stryker demanded photographs that "related people to the land and vice versa" because these photographs reinforced the RA's position that poverty could be controlled by "changing land practices." Though Stryker did not dictate to his photographers how they should compose the shots, he did send them lists of desirable themes, such as "church", "court day", "barns".[87] New Deal era films such as Citizen Kane ridiculed so-called "great men", while class warfare appeared in numerous movies, such as Meet John Doe and The Grapes of Wrath.
By contrast there was also a smaller but influential stream of anti-New Deal art. Thus Gutzon Borglum's sculptures on Mount Rushmore emphasized great men in history (his designs had the approval of Calvin Coolidge). Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway disliked the New Deal and celebrated the organic autonomy of perfected written work in opposition to the New Deal trope of writing as performative labor. The Southern Agrarians celebrated a premodern regionalism and opposed the TVA as a modernizing, disruptive force. Under Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, the Supreme Court built one of the most architecturally striking buildings; its classical lines and small size contrasted sharply with the gargantuan modernistic federal buildings in Washington. Hollywood managed to synthesize both streams, as in Busby Berkeley's Gold Digger musicals, where the storylines exalt individual autonomy while the spectacular musical numbers show abstract populations of interchangeable dancers securely contained within patterns beyond their control.[88]
[edit] Legacies
Some economists argue that although the New Deal did not end the depression, it helped to prevent the economy from decaying further by increasing the regulatory functions of the federal government in ways that helped stabilize previous troubled areas of the economy: the stock market, the banking system, and others. Popular historians, like Thomas Woods in The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History and Jim Powell in FDR's Folly, argue it worsened the depression or delayed recovery. All analysts agree the New Deal produced a new political coalition that sustained the Democratic Party as the majority party in national politics for more than a generation after its own end.
During Roosevelt's 12 years in office, there was a dramatic increase in the power of the federal government as a whole. Roosevelt also established the presidency as the prominent center of authority within the federal government. By creating a large array of agencies protecting various groups of citizens—workers, farmers, and others—who suffered from the crisis, enabling them to challenge the powers of the corporations, the Roosevelt Administration generated a set of political ideas—known as New Deal liberalism—that remained a source of inspiration and controversy for decades and that helped shape the next great experiment in liberal reform, the Great Society of the 1960s, and are widely discussed as the Obama Administration takes office in 2009.
The wartime FEPC executive orders that forbade job discrimination against African Americans, women, and ethnic groups was a major breakthrough that brought better jobs and pay to millions of minority Americans. Historians usually treat FEPC as part of the war effort and not part of the New Deal itself.
[edit] Political metaphor
Since 1933, politicians and pundits have often called for a "new deal" regarding an object. That is, they demand a completely new, large-scale approach to a project. As Arthur A. Ekirch Jr. (1971) has shown, the New Deal stimulated utopianism in American political and social thought on a wide range of issues. In Canada, Conservative Prime Minister Richard B. Bennett in 1935 proposed a "new deal" of regulation, taxation, and social insurance that was a copy of the American program; Bennett's proposals were not enacted, and he was defeated for reelection in October 1935. In accordance with the rise of the use of U.S. political phraseology in Britain, the Labour Government of Tony Blair has termed some of its employment programs "new deal", in contrast to the Conservative Party's promise of the 'British Dream'. FDR also made the Social Security Act of 1935 to help many future elderly not be in poverty.
[edit] Notable New Deal programs
The New Deal had countless programs, labeled an "alphabet soup" by its detractors. Among the New Deal acts were the following, most of them passed within the first 100 days of Roosevelt's Administration. Most were abolished around 1943; others remain in operation today:
- Reconstruction Finance Corporation a Hoover agency expanded under Jesse Holman Jones to make large loans to big business. Ended in 1954.
- Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) a Hoover program to create unskilled jobs for relief; replaced by WPA in 1935.
- United States bank holiday, 1933: closed all banks until they became certified by federal reviewers
- Abandonment of gold standard, 1933: gold reserves no longer backed currency; still exists
- Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), 1933: employed young men to perform unskilled work in rural areas; under United States Army supervision; separate program for Native Americans
- Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), 1933: effort to modernize very poor region (most of Tennessee), centered on dams that generated electricity on the Tennessee River; still exists
- Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA), 1933: raised farm prices by cutting total farm output of major crops and livestock
- National Recovery Act (NRA), 1933: industries set up codes to reduce unfair competition, raise wages and prices;
- Public Works Administration (PWA), 1933: built large public works projects; used private contractors (did not directly hire unemployed)
- Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) / Glass-Steagall Act: insures deposits in banks in order to restore public confidence in banks; still exists
- Securities Act of 1933, created the SEC, 1933: codified standards for sale and purchase of stock, required risk of investments to be accurately disclosed; still exists
- Civil Works Administration (CWA), 1933-34: provided temporary jobs to millions of unemployed
- Indian Reorganization Act, 1934: moved away from assimilation
- Social Security Act (SSA), 1935: provided financial assistance to: elderly, handicapped, paid for by employee and employer payroll contributions; required years contributions, so first payouts were in 1942; still exists
- Works Progress Administration (WPA), 1935: a national labor program for more than 2 million unemployed; created useful construction work for unskilled men; also sewing projects for women and arts projects for unemployed artists, musicians and writers.
- National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) / Wagner Act, 1935: set up National Labor Relations Board to supervise labor-management relations; In the 1930s, it strongly favored labor unions. Modified by the Taft-Hartley Act (1947); still exists
- Judicial Reorganization Bill, 1937: gave the President power to appoint a new Supreme Court judge for every judge 70 years or older; failed to pass Congress
- Federal Crop Insurance Corporation, 1938: Insures crops and livestock against loss of production or revenue. Was restructured during the creation of the Risk Management Agency in 1996 but continues to exist.
- Fair Labor Standards Act (29 U.S. Code Chapter 8[dead link]), 1938: established a maximum normal work week of 40 hours and a minimum wage of 40 cents/hour and outlawed most forms of child labor; still exists
- Federal Surplus Relief Corporation, later changed to the Federal Surplus Commodities Corporation, named the Agriculture Secretary, Administrator of Agricultural Adjustment Administration, and Governor of Farm Credit Administration as its Board of Directors. It was continued as an agency under the Secretary of Agriculture by acts of June 28, 1937 (50 Stat. 323) and February 16, 1938 (52 Stat. 38), consolidated in 1940 with the Division of Marketing and Marketing Agreements into the Surplus Marketing Administration, and finally merged into the Agricultural Marketing Administration by Executive Order 9069 of February 23, 1942.
[edit] Depression statistics
"Most indexes worsened until the summer of 1932, which may be called the low point of the depression economically and psychologically."[89] Economic indicators show the American economy reached nadir in summer 1932 to February 1933, then began recovering until the recession of 1937-1938. Thus the Federal Reserve Industrial Production Index hit its low of 52.8 on 1932-07-01 and was practically unchanged at 54.3 on 1933-03-01; however by 1933-07-01, it reached 85.5 (with 1935-39 = 100, and for comparison 2005 = 1,342).[90] In Roosevelt's twelve years in office the economy had an 8.5% compound annual growth of GDP,[91] the highest growth rate in the history of any industrial country,[92] however, recovery was slow—by 1939 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per adult was still 27% below trend.[59]
| Table 1: Statistics[93] | 1929 | 1931 | 1933 | 1937 | 1938 | 1940 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Real Gross National Product (GNP) (1) | 101.4 | 84.3 | 68.3 | 103.9 | 96.7 | 113.0 |
| Consumer Price Index (2) | 122.5 | 108.7 | 92.4 | 102.7 | 99.4 | 100.2 |
| Index of Industrial Production (2) | 109 | 75 | 69 | 112 | 89 | 126 |
| Money Supply M2 ($ billions) | 46.6 | 42.7 | 32.2 | 45.7 | 49.3 | 55.2 |
| Exports ($ billions) | 5.24 | 2.42 | 1.67 | 3.35 | 3.18 | 4.02 |
| Unemployment (% of civilian work force) | 3.1 | 16.1 | 25.2 | 13.8 | 16.5 | 13.9 |
(1) in 1929 dollars (2) 1935-39 = 100
| Table 2: Unemployment (% labor force) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Lebergott | Darby |
| 1933 | 24.9 | 20.6 |
| 1934 | 21.7 | 16.0 |
| 1935 | 20.1 | 14.2 |
| 1936 | 16.9 | 9.9 |
| 1937 | 14.3 | 9.1 |
| 1938 | 19.0 | 12.5 |
| 1939 | 17.2 | 11.3 |
| 1940 | 14.6 | 9.5 |
| 1941 | 9.9 | 8.0 |
| 1942 | 4.7 | 4.7 |
| 1943 | 1.9 | 1.9 |
| 1944 | 1.2 | 1.2 |
| 1945 | 1.9 | 1.9 |
Darby counts WPA workers as employed; Lebergott as unemployed source: Historical Statistics US(1976) series D-86; Smiley 1983[94]
[edit] Relief statistics
| Relief Cases 1936-1941 | ||||||
| monthly average in 1,000 | ||||||
| 1936 | 1937 | 1938 | 1939 | 1940 | 1941 | |
| Workers employed: | ||||||
| WPA | 1,995 | 2,227 | 1,932 | 2,911 | 1,971 | 1,638 |
| CCC and NYA | 712 | 801 | 643 | 793 | 877 | 919 |
| Other federal work projects | 554 | 663 | 452 | 488 | 468 | 681 |
| Public assistance cases: | ||||||
| Social security programs | 602 | 1,306 | 1,852 | 2,132 | 2,308 | 2,517 |
| General relief | 2,946 | 1,484 | 1,611 | 1,647 | 1,570 | 1,206 |
| 5,886 | 5,660 | 5,474 | 6,751 | 5,860 | 5,167 | |
| Total families helped | ||||||
| Unemployed workers (Bur Lab Stat) | 9,030 | 7,700 | 10,390 | 9,480 | 8,120 | 5,560 |
| coverage (cases/unemployed) | 65% | 74% | 53% | 71% | 72% | 93% |
[edit] See also
 | Wikimedia Commons has media related to: New Deal |
- Arthurdale, New Deal planned community.
- Brain Trust, advisers to President Roosevelt
- Critics of the New Deal
- Fireside chats
- Great Depression
- Great Society, President Lyndon Johnson's economic policy
- New Deal coalition
- World War II
- Interest group democracy
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