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| | Roosevelt, however, emboldened by the triumphs of his first term, set out in 1937 to consolidate authority within the government in ways that provoked powerful opposition. Early in the year, he asked Congress to [[Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937|expand the number of justices on the Supreme Court]] so as to allow him to appoint members sympathetic to his ideas and hence tip the ideological balance of the Court. This proposal provoked a storm of protest. | | Roosevelt, however, emboldened by the triumphs of his first term, set out in 1937 to consolidate authority within the government in ways that provoked powerful opposition. Early in the year, he asked Congress to [[Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937|expand the number of justices on the Supreme Court]] so as to allow him to appoint members sympathetic to his ideas and hence tip the ideological balance of the Court. This proposal provoked a storm of protest. |
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| + | In the long run the Court shifted to the left. Justice [[Owen Josephus Roberts|Owen Roberts]], switched positions and began voting to uphold New Deal measures, effectively creating a liberal majority in ''[[West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish]]'' and ''[[National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation]]'' thus departing from the ''[[Lochner v. New York]]'' era and giving the government more power in questions of economic policies. Journalists called this change "[[the switch in time that saved nine]]." Recent scholars have noted that since the vote in Parrish took place several months before the court-packing plan was announced, other factors, like evolving jurisprudence, must have contributed to the Court's swing. The opinions handed down in Spring 1937, favorable to the government, also contributed to the downfall of the plan. In any case, the "court packing plan," as it was known, did lasting political damage to Roosevelt and was finally rejected by Congress in July. |
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| − | In one sense, however, it succeeded; Justice [[Owen Josephus Roberts|Owen Roberts]], switched positions and began voting to uphold New Deal measures, effectively creating a liberal majority in ''[[West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish]]'' and ''[[National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation]]'' thus departing from the ''[[Lochner v. New York]]'' era and giving the government more power in questions of economic policies. Journalists called this change "[[the switch in time that saved nine]]." Recent scholars have noted that since the vote in Parrish took place several months before the court-packing plan was announced, other factors, like evolving jurisprudence, must have contributed to the Court's swing. The opinions handed down in Spring 1937, favorable to the government, also contributed to the downfall of the plan. In any case, the "court packing plan," as it was known, did lasting political damage to Roosevelt and was finally rejected by Congress in July. | |
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| | + | [[File:Fdr-reorganize.jpg|thumb|290px|FDR alreads has too much power & demands more]] |
| | At about the same time, the administration proposed a plan to reorganize the executive branch in ways that would significantly increase the president's control over the bureaucracy. Like the Court-packing plan, executive reorganization garnered opposition from those who feared a "Roosevelt dictatorship" and it failed in Congress; a watered-down version of the bill finally won passage in 1939. | | At about the same time, the administration proposed a plan to reorganize the executive branch in ways that would significantly increase the president's control over the bureaucracy. Like the Court-packing plan, executive reorganization garnered opposition from those who feared a "Roosevelt dictatorship" and it failed in Congress; a watered-down version of the bill finally won passage in 1939. |
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| | ===Attacks Right and Left === | | ===Attacks Right and Left === |
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| | One historian remarks, "What Fascist corporatism and the New Deal had in common was a certain amount of state intervention in the economy. Beyond that, the only figure who seemed to look on Fascist corporatism as a kind of model was [[Hugh Samuel Johnson|Hugh Johnson]], FDR's head of the National Recovery Administration."<ref>Stanley Payne, ''History of Fascism'' (1995) p 230.</ref> Johnson strenuously denied any association with Mussolini, saying the NRA "is being organized almost as you would organize a business. I want to avoid any Mussolini appearance -- the President calls this Act industrial self-government."<ref>Hugh S. Johnson, ''The Blue Eagle, from Egg to Earth'' (1935), p 223</ref> Donald Richberg after a series of scandals replaced General Hugh Johnson as head of NRA and speaking before a Senate committee said "A nationally [[planned economy]] is the only salvation of our present situation and the only hope for the future."<ref>Leuchtenburg p. 58</ref> Historians such as Hawley (1966) have examined the origins of the NRA in detail, claiming the main inspiration came from Senators [[Hugo Black]] and [[Robert F. Wagner]] and from American business leaders such as the Chamber of Commerce. The main model was Woodrow Wilson's [[War Industries Board]], in which Johnson had been involved. | | One historian remarks, "What Fascist corporatism and the New Deal had in common was a certain amount of state intervention in the economy. Beyond that, the only figure who seemed to look on Fascist corporatism as a kind of model was [[Hugh Samuel Johnson|Hugh Johnson]], FDR's head of the National Recovery Administration."<ref>Stanley Payne, ''History of Fascism'' (1995) p 230.</ref> Johnson strenuously denied any association with Mussolini, saying the NRA "is being organized almost as you would organize a business. I want to avoid any Mussolini appearance -- the President calls this Act industrial self-government."<ref>Hugh S. Johnson, ''The Blue Eagle, from Egg to Earth'' (1935), p 223</ref> Donald Richberg after a series of scandals replaced General Hugh Johnson as head of NRA and speaking before a Senate committee said "A nationally [[planned economy]] is the only salvation of our present situation and the only hope for the future."<ref>Leuchtenburg p. 58</ref> Historians such as Hawley (1966) have examined the origins of the NRA in detail, claiming the main inspiration came from Senators [[Hugo Black]] and [[Robert F. Wagner]] and from American business leaders such as the Chamber of Commerce. The main model was Woodrow Wilson's [[War Industries Board]], in which Johnson had been involved. |
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| − | 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>
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| − | 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]]''.
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| − | 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>
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| | ==The legacies of the New Deal== | | ==The legacies of the New Deal== |
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| | [[File:FDR-LBJ.png|thumb|left|220px|The New Deal was the inspiration for [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]'s [[Great Society]] in 1960s. Johnson (on right) headed the Texas NYA and was elected to Congress in 1938.]] | | [[File:FDR-LBJ.png|thumb|left|220px|The New Deal was the inspiration for [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]'s [[Great Society]] in 1960s. Johnson (on right) headed the Texas NYA and was elected to Congress in 1938.]] |
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| | Some economists argue that although the New Deal did not end the depression, all in all it helped to prevent the economy from decaying further by increasing the regulatory functions of the federal government in ways that helped stabilize previous trouble areas of the economy: the stock market, the banking system, and others. Others argue that it worsened the depression. 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. | | Some economists argue that although the New Deal did not end the depression, all in all it helped to prevent the economy from decaying further by increasing the regulatory functions of the federal government in ways that helped stabilize previous trouble areas of the economy: the stock market, the banking system, and others. Others argue that it worsened the depression. 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. |
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| | Roosevelt's 12 years in office saw a dramatic increase in the power of the federal government as a whole. Roosevelt also established the presidency as the preeminent 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 to later generations 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. 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. | | Roosevelt's 12 years in office saw a dramatic increase in the power of the federal government as a whole. Roosevelt also established the presidency as the preeminent 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 to later generations 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. 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. |
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| | 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 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. |
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| | In accordance with the rise of the use of U.S. political phraseology in Britain, the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] Government has termed some of its employment programs 'New Deal'. | | In accordance with the rise of the use of U.S. political phraseology in Britain, the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] Government has termed some of its employment programs 'New Deal'. |
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| | ==Brain trust== | | ==Brain trust== |
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| | Roosevelt gathered around himself informal advisors, mostly university professors, dubbed by the media the [[Brain Trust]]. A key advisor was [[Raymond Moley]], who by 1936 broke with Roosevelt and provided the most important conservative critique. | | Roosevelt gathered around himself informal advisors, mostly university professors, dubbed by the media the [[Brain Trust]]. A key advisor was [[Raymond Moley]], who by 1936 broke with Roosevelt and provided the most important conservative critique. |
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| | ==Main programs== | | ==Main programs== |
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| | ===National Recovery Act=== | | ===National Recovery Act=== |
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| | 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> Chariman [[Sol Bloom]] of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U. S. House of Representives, 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> Chariman [[Sol Bloom]] of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U. S. House of Representives, 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. |
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| | In 1935 the Supreme Court said the NRA's procedures were unconstitutional, and it was never revived. In the twenty-three months that NRA was on the Statute books, the average number of workers involved in strikes and lockouts and the number of days of idleness and lost productivity per month resulting were approximately four times as large as during the six months before NRA. After NRA was declared unconstitutional, both the number of workers involved in industrial disputes and the number of days lost declined.<ref>Bureau of Labor Statistics, United States Department of Labor.</ref> | | In 1935 the Supreme Court said the NRA's procedures were unconstitutional, and it was never revived. In the twenty-three months that NRA was on the Statute books, the average number of workers involved in strikes and lockouts and the number of days of idleness and lost productivity per month resulting were approximately four times as large as during the six months before NRA. After NRA was declared unconstitutional, both the number of workers involved in industrial disputes and the number of days lost declined.<ref>Bureau of Labor Statistics, United States Department of Labor.</ref> |
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| | Roosevelt asked [[Clarence Darrow]] to head up a national recovery review board. The Darrow Committee's report stated, "We have here a body not only perfectly equipped to exercise monopolistic control, but endowed with extraordinary powers incompatible with the ideals heretofore entertained in a free country. . . In proportion as the authority of government sanctions regulation by industrial combinations, the inevitable tendency is toward monopoly with the elimination of the small business ." <ref>Special and Supplementary Reports of Darrow | | Roosevelt asked [[Clarence Darrow]] to head up a national recovery review board. The Darrow Committee's report stated, "We have here a body not only perfectly equipped to exercise monopolistic control, but endowed with extraordinary powers incompatible with the ideals heretofore entertained in a free country. . . In proportion as the authority of government sanctions regulation by industrial combinations, the inevitable tendency is toward monopoly with the elimination of the small business ." <ref>Special and Supplementary Reports of Darrow |
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| | + | ==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> |
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| | + | 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]]''. |
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| | + | 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> |
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| | ==See also== | | ==See also== |