Changes

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(1) in 1929 dollars

(1) in 1929 dollars

(2) 1935-39 = 100

(2) 1935-39 = 100

===Relief Statistics===

===Relief Statistics===

===Fiscal Conservatism===

===Fiscal Conservatism===

Fiscal conservatism was a key component of the New Deal, as Zelizer (2000) demonstrates.  It was supported by Wall Street and local investors and most of the business community;  mainstream academic economists believed in it, as apparently did the majority of the public. Conservative southern Democrats, who favored balanced budgets and opposed new taxes, controlled Congress and its major committees.  Even liberal Democrats at the time regarded balanced budgets as essential to economic stability in the long run, although they were more willing to accept short-term deficits.  Public opinion polls consistently showed public opposition to deficits and debt.  Throughout his terms, Roosevelt recruited fiscal conservatives to serve in his administration, most notably [[Lewis Douglas]] the Director of Budget from 1933 to 1934, and [[Henry Morgenthau Jr.]], Secretary of the Treasury from 1934 to 1945.  They defined policy in terms of budgetary cost and tax burdens rather than needs, rights, obligations, or political benefits.  Personally the president embraced their fiscal conservatism.  Politically, he realized that fiscal conservatism enjoyed a strong wide base of support among voters, leading Democrats, and businessmen.  On the other hand, there was enormous pressure to act–and spending money on high visibility programs attracted Roosevelt, especially if it tied millions of voters to him, as did the WPA.   

Fiscal conservatism was a key component of the New Deal, as Zelizer (2000) demonstrates.  It was supported by Wall Street and local investors and most of the business community;  mainstream academic economists believed in it, as apparently did the majority of the public. Conservative southern Democrats, who favored balanced budgets and opposed new taxes, controlled Congress and its major committees.  Even liberal Democrats at the time regarded balanced budgets as essential to economic stability in the long run, although they were more willing to accept short-term deficits.  Public opinion polls consistently showed public opposition to deficits and debt.  Throughout his terms, Roosevelt recruited fiscal conservatives to serve in his administration, most notably [[Lewis Douglas]] the Director of Budget from 1933 to 1934, and [[Henry Morgenthau Jr.]], Secretary of the Treasury from 1934 to 1945.  They defined policy in terms of budgetary cost and tax burdens rather than needs, rights, obligations, or political benefits.  Personally, the president embraced their fiscal conservatism.  Politically, he realized that fiscal conservatism enjoyed a strong wide base of support among voters, leading Democrats, and businessmen.  On the other hand, there was enormous pressure to act–and spending money on high visibility programs attracted Roosevelt, especially if it tied millions of voters to him, as did the WPA.   

Douglas proved too inflexible, and quit in 1934.  Morgenthau made it his highest priority to stay close to Roosevelt, no matter what.  Douglas' position, like many of the [[Old Right]] was grounded in a basic distrust of politicians and the deeply ingrained fear that government spending always involved a degree of patronage and corruption that offended his Progressive sense of efficiency.  The Economy Act of 1933, passed early in the Hundred Days, was Douglas' great achievement. It  reduced federal expenditures by $500 million, to be achieved by reducing veterans’ payments and federal salaries.  Douglas cut government spending through executive orders that cut the military budget by $125 million, $75 million from the Post Office, $12 million from Commerce, $75 million from government salaries, and $100 million from staff layoffs.  As Freidel concludes, "The economy program was not a minor aberration of the spring of 1933, or a hypocritical concession to delighted conservatives. Rather it was an integral part of Roosevelt's overall New Deal."<ref>Freidel 1990, p. 96</ref> Revenues were so low that borrowing was necessary (only the richest 3% paid any income tax before 1942.)  Douglas therefore hated the relief programs, which he said reduced business confidence, threatened the government’s future credit, and had the "destructive psychological effects of making mendicants of self-respecting American citizens."<ref>Zelizer</ref> Roosevelt was pulled toward greater spending by Hopkins and Ickes, and as the 1936 election approached he decided to gain votes by attacking big business.   

Douglas proved too inflexible, and quit in 1934.  Morgenthau made it his highest priority to stay close to Roosevelt, no matter what.  Douglas' position, like many of the [[Old Right]] was grounded in a basic distrust of politicians and the deeply ingrained fear that government spending always involved a degree of patronage and corruption that offended his Progressive sense of efficiency.  The Economy Act of 1933, passed early in the Hundred Days, was Douglas' great achievement. It  reduced federal expenditures by $500 million, to be achieved by reducing veterans’ payments and federal salaries.  Douglas cut government spending through executive orders that cut the military budget by $125 million, $75 million from the Post Office, $12 million from Commerce, $75 million from government salaries, and $100 million from staff layoffs.  As Freidel concludes, "The economy program was not a minor aberration of the spring of 1933, or a hypocritical concession to delighted conservatives. Rather it was an integral part of Roosevelt's overall New Deal."<ref>Freidel 1990, p. 96</ref> Revenues were so low that borrowing was necessary (only the richest 3% paid any income tax before 1942.)  Douglas, therefore, hated the relief programs, which he said reduced business confidence, threatened the government’s future credit, and had the "destructive psychological effects of making mendicants of self-respecting American citizens."<ref>Zelizer</ref> Roosevelt was pulled toward greater spending by Hopkins and Ickes, and as the 1936 election approached he decided to gain votes by attacking big business.   

[[File:Debt29-50.jpg|thumb|400px|left|National Debt as a percentage of GNP climbs from 20% to 40% as Hoover begins relief efforts with the [[Reconstruction Finance Corporation]] and levels off during the New Deal; soars during WW2  from ''Historical Statistics US'' (1976)]]

[[File:Debt29-50.jpg|thumb|400px|left|National Debt as a percentage of GNP climbs from 20% to 40% as Hoover begins relief efforts with the [[Reconstruction Finance Corporation]] and levels off during the New Deal; soars during WW2  from ''Historical Statistics US'' (1976)]]

Morgenthau shifted with FDR, but at all times tried to inject fiscal responsibility; he deeply believed in balanced budgets, stable currency, reduction of the national debt, and the need for more private investment .  The Wagner Act met Morgenthau’s requirement because it strengthened the party’s political base and involved no new spending.  In contrast to Douglas, Morgenthau accepted Roosevelt’s double budget as legitimate–that is a balanced regular budget, and an “emergency” budget for agencies, like the WPA, PWA and CCC, that would be temporary until full recovery was at hand.  He fought against the veterans’ bonus until Congress finally overrode Roosevelt’s veto and gave out $2.2 billion in 1936.  His biggest success was the new Social Security program; he managed to reverse the proposals to fund it from general revenue and insisted it be funded by new taxes on employees.  It was Morgenthau who insisted on excluding farm workers and domestic servants from Social Security because workers outside industry would not be paying their way.<ref>Zelizer 2000; Savage 1998</ref>

Morgenthau shifted with FDR, but at all times tried to inject fiscal responsibility; he deeply believed in balanced budgets, stable currency, reduction of the national debt, and the need for more private investment.  The Wagner Act met Morgenthau’s requirement because it strengthened the party’s political base and involved no new spending.  In contrast to Douglas, Morgenthau accepted Roosevelt’s double budget as legitimate–that is a balanced regular budget, and an “emergency” budget for agencies, like the WPA, PWA and CCC, that would be temporary until full recovery was at hand.  He fought against the veterans’ bonus until Congress finally overrode Roosevelt’s veto and gave out $2.2 billion in 1936.  His biggest success was the new Social Security program; he managed to reverse the proposals to fund it from general revenue and insisted it be funded by new taxes on employees.  It was Morgenthau who insisted on excluding farm workers and domestic servants from Social Security because workers outside industry would not be paying their way.<ref>Zelizer 2000; Savage 1998</ref>

Deficits held relatively constant throughout the 1930s at about 40% of the GDP.<ref>Economists at the time used GNP (gross national product) and today they prefer GDP (gross domestic product). For the US, GNP and GDP are almost the same.</ref>

Deficits held relatively constant throughout the 1930s at about 40% of the GDP.<ref>Economists at the time used GNP (gross national product) and today they prefer GDP (gross domestic product). For the US, GNP and GDP are almost the same.</ref>

===Claims the New Deal adopted or resembled Fascist economic models===

===Claims the New Deal adopted or resembled Fascist economic models===

The term "fascism" in the 21st century has very strong connotations of mass murder and death camps, however, in the 1930s it meant the [[planned economy]] and [[corporativism]] exemplified by the economic plans of Benito Mussolini in Italy. And, comparisons have been made between the economic systems of Fascist Italy and the New Deal programs. Communists, classical liberals, conservatives, and [[Herbert Hoover]] used the term fascism in that manner at that time. Likewise, modern-day [[paleoconservatives]] argue that the New Deal was a major milestone in the rise of America's [[managerial state]].

The term "fascism" in the 21st century has very strong connotations of mass murder and death camps, however, in the 1930s it meant the [[planned economy]] and [[corporativism]] exemplified by the economic plans of Benito Mussolini in Italy. And, comparisons have been made between the economic systems of Fascist Italy and the New Deal programs. Communists, classical liberals, conservatives, and [[Herbert Hoover]] used the term fascism in that manner at that time. Likewise, modern-day [[paleoconservatives]] argue that the New Deal was a major milestone in the rise of America's [[managerial state]].

==Main programs==

==Main programs==

===National Recovery Act===

===National Recovery Act===

In 1933 Italian Premier [[Benito Mussolini]] was a towering figure. Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler,<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,774563-4,00.html Axis (1936-1943)], ''[[TIME magazine]]'', Sep. 20, 1943,</ref>  President of Columbia University and [[Nobel Prize for Peace]], said of [[fascism]], it is as a “form of government of the very first order of excellence”; and found it “safe to predict that just as [[Oliver Cromwell|Cromwell]] made modern England, so Mussolini would make modern Italy.” <ref>[http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/wright/1943/10/italy.htm What To Do With Italy?], John G. Wright, From Fourth International, Vol.4 No.10, October 1943, pp.308-311.</ref>  Chairman [[Sol Bloom]] of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U. S. House of Representatives, suggested Mussolini was a great man and had something the [[United States]] government might well look to for imitation.<ref>John T. Flynn, ''As We Go Marching'', Doubleday, 1944, p. 70.</ref> What they liked particularly was his [[corporative]] system. Mussolini organized each trade or industrial group or professional group into a state supervised trade association. Mussolini called it a corporative.<ref>[http://www.cmre.org/GeneSmileypresentation.pdf The New Deal and Corporatism], Prof. Emeritus Gene Smiley, Marquette University, Presented at the Committee for Monetary Research and Education,October 19, 2006,</ref>  These corporatives operated under state supervision and provided economic planning of production, quality, prices, distribution, labor standards, etc.  The National Recovery Act, or NRA as it came to be called, provided that a corporative system in America for each industry should be organized into a federally supervised trade association. It was not called a corporative. It was called a [[Code Authority]]. In [[Nazi]] Germany such government run planning authorities built on the Italian model were called [[industrial cartel]]s. This was the same as fascism.<ref>[http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/hbzfrm.htm ''The Roosevelt Myth''], John T. Flynn, Fox and Wilkes, 1948, Book 1, Ch. 5.</ref>  These code authorities could regulate production, quantities, qualities, prices, distribution methods, etc., under the supervision of the NRA that had the effect of ending the downward spiral of deflation and falling prices, but which risked the long-term effect of stifling innovation and favoring big business over small.  Anti­-trust laws forbade such organizations. Roosevelt had denounced Hoover for not enforcing these laws sufficiently. Now Roosevelt suspended the anti-trust laws and compelled men to combine.  

In 1933 Italian Premier [[Benito Mussolini]] was a towering figure. Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler,<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,774563-4,00.html Axis (1936-1943)], ''[[TIME magazine]]'', Sep. 20, 1943,</ref>  President of Columbia University and [[Nobel Prize for Peace]], said of [[fascism]], it is as a “form of government of the very first order of excellence”; and found it “safe to predict that just as [[Oliver Cromwell|Cromwell]] made modern England, so Mussolini would make modern Italy.” <ref>[http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/wright/1943/10/italy.htm What To Do With Italy?], John G. Wright, From Fourth International, Vol.4 No.10, October 1943, pp.308-311.</ref>  Chairman [[Sol Bloom]] of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U. S. House of Representatives, suggested Mussolini was a great man and had something the [[United States]] government might well look to for imitation.<ref>John T. Flynn, ''As We Go Marching'', Doubleday, 1944, p. 70.</ref> What they liked particularly was his [[corporative]] system. Mussolini organized each trade or industrial group or professional group into a state supervised trade association. Mussolini called it a corporative.<ref>[http://www.cmre.org/GeneSmileypresentation.pdf The New Deal and Corporatism], Prof. Emeritus Gene Smiley, Marquette University, Presented at the Committee for Monetary Research and Education, October 19, 2006,</ref>  These corporatives operated under state supervision and provided economic planning of production, quality, prices, distribution, labor standards, etc.  The National Recovery Act, or NRA as it came to be called, provided that a corporative system in America for each industry should be organized into a federally supervised trade association. It was not called a corporative. It was called a [[Code Authority]]. In [[Nazi]] Germany such government-run planning authorities built on the Italian model were called [[industrial cartel]]s. This was the same as fascism.<ref>[http://www.rooseveltmyth.com/book/hbzfrm.htm ''The Roosevelt Myth''], John T. Flynn, Fox and Wilkes, 1948, Book 1, Ch. 5.</ref>  These code authorities could regulate production, quantities, qualities, prices, distribution methods, etc., under the supervision of the NRA that had the effect of ending the downward spiral of deflation and falling prices, but which risked the long-term effect of stifling innovation and favoring big business over small.  Anti­-trust laws forbade such organizations. Roosevelt had denounced Hoover for not enforcing these laws sufficiently. Now Roosevelt suspended the anti-trust laws and compelled men to combine.  

The NRA Act provided an appropriation of $3,300,000,000 which the President was given to be spent at his own discretion. He had a sum of money equal to what the government spent in the previous ten years outside of discretionary spending. Roosevelt decided how it should be spent and where. If a congressman or senator needed an appropriation for his district, instead of introducing a bill in Congress, he went to Roosevelt to ask for it. All over the country, states, cities, counties, business organizations, institutions of all sorts wanted projects of all kinds. Instead of going to Congress they went to the President.  

The NRA Act provided an appropriation of $3,300,000,000 which the President was given to be spent at his own discretion. He had a sum of money equal to what the government spent in the previous ten years outside of discretionary spending. Roosevelt decided how it should be spent and where. If a congressman or senator needed an appropriation for his district, instead of introducing a bill in Congress, he went to Roosevelt to ask for it. All over the country, states, cities, counties, business organizations, institutions of all sorts wanted projects of all kinds. Instead of going to Congress they went to the President.  

===No training===

===No training===

A major failing of the New Deal, and especially the CCC and WPA, was the deliberate decision not to provide job training. The reason was that liberals (and especially labor unions) thought there were already too many unemployed skilled workers and there was no need for more.  In retrospect this was one of the major failings of the New Deal, and was reversed in World War II, when the government subsidized job training on a very large scale in industry and the military.  Ever since 1996 the consensus has been that job training is an essential part of any program designed to help the poor.

A major failing of the New Deal, and especially the CCC and WPA, was the deliberate decision not to provide job training. The reason was that liberals (and especially labor unions) thought there were already too many unemployed skilled workers and there was no need for more.  In retrospect, this was one of the major failings of the New Deal, and was reversed in World War II, when the government subsidized job training on a very large scale in industry and the military.  Ever since 1996 the consensus has been that job training is an essential part of any program designed to help the poor.

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==Art and music==

==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 [[United States Department of the Treasury|US Treasury]] which hired commercial artists at usual commissions to add murals and sculptures to federal buildings. The first of these efforts was the [[Public Works of Art Project]], organized by Edward Bruce, an American businessman and artist.  The [[Resettlement Administration]] (RA) and [[Farm Security Administration]] (FSA) had major photography programs.  The New Deal arts programs emphasized regionalism, socialist 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.<ref>Mathews 1975</ref>

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 [[United States Department of the Treasury|US Treasury]] which hired commercial artists at usual commissions to add murals and sculptures to federal buildings. The first of these efforts was the [[Public Works of Art Project]], organized by Edward Bruce, an American businessman and artist.  The [[Resettlement Administration]] (RA) and [[Farm Security Administration]] (FSA) had major photography programs.  The New Deal arts programs emphasized regionalism, socialist 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.<ref>Mathews 1975</ref>

The FSA photography project is most responsible for creating the image of the Depression in the USA. 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, e.g., "church", "court day", "barns".<ref>Cara A. Finnegan. ''Picturing Poverty: Print Culture and FSA Photographs'' (Smithsonian Books, 2003) pp 43-44</ref>  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]]''.  

The FSA photography project is most responsible for creating the image of the Depression in the USA. 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, e.g., "church", "court day", "barns".<ref>Cara A. Finnegan. ''Picturing Poverty: Print Culture and FSA Photographs'' (Smithsonian Books, 2003) pp 43-44</ref>  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.<ref>Szalay 2000</ref>

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.<ref>Szalay 2000</ref>

==See also==

==See also==

*[[The Promise of American Life]]

*[[The Promise of American Life]]

==Notable New Deal programs==

==Notable New Deal programs==