Transcript Critics of the New Deal

Critics of the New Deal
The Right, the Left, and the Court
Attack from Right
American Liberty League
American Liberty League
• Formed in 1934 by conservative Democrats such as Al Smith
along with many industrialists, notably members of the Du
Pont family.
• Its stated goal to "defend and uphold the Constitution" and
"foster the right to work, earn, save and acquire property."
• The League spent between $500,000 and $1.5 million in
promotional campaigns; its funding came mostly from the Du
Pont family, as well as leaders of U.S. Steel, General Motors,
Standard Oil, and Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.
• It reached over 125,000 members and supported the
Republicans in 1936.
American Liberty League
• The League used print media and radio to distribute
information including 1,600 newspapers.
• Its political goal was defeating FDR in 1936, backing the
presidential candidacy of Republican Governor Alf Landon.
• Members made large contributions individually to Landon.
“Without Liberty League money,” Republican National
Chairman John D. Hamilton would admit, “we wouldn't’ have
had a national headquarters.”
• FDR’s strategy: Make the Liberty League synonymous with
social and economic privilege, associate it closely with the
Republican Party, then attack the Republicans by attacking
the League.
Election of 1936
Attack from the Left
Huey P. Long
Huey P. Long
• Nicknamed The Kingfish, A Democrat, Long was noted for his
radical populist policies. He served as Governor of Louisiana
from 1928 to 1932 and as a U.S. senator from 1932 to 1935.
• Long split with Roosevelt in June 1933 over Long’s perception
that the New Deal was too conservative.
• Long’s political career was launched in Louisiana attacking
banks, Standard Oil Co., and the ruling oligarchy
• His support of populist issues: free textbooks, lowering utility
rates, revising tax codes endeared him to the powerless.
Share-Our-Wealth
• Long proposed a radical wealth redistribution plan which
called for heavy taxes on accumulated wealth over one million
dollars.
• Revenue would support the following:
1) A family homestead allowance of 5,000
2) An annual guaranteed income of 2,500.
3) Old age pensions at 60
4) Immediate payment of veteran’s benefits
5) Free college and vocational school tuition
6) Govt. purchase and storage of agricultural surplus
• Long boasted 7 million member in Share-Our-Wealth
Societies across the nation
• Long considered challenging FDR in’36, Democratic National
Committee polls showed he would get 10% of the vote as a
third party candidate. An assassin silenced Long Sept. ‘35
Attack from the Left
Father Charles Coughlin
Golden Hour of the Little Flower
• Canadian-born Roman Catholic priest at Royal Oak,
Michigan's National Shrine of the Little Flower Church. He
was one of the first political leaders to use radio to reach a
mass audience,
• Forty million tuned to his weekly broadcasts during the 1930s.
• During the 1932 Presidential election. He was an early
supporter of Roosevelt's New Deal reforms and coined the
phrase "Roosevelt or ruin“ & "The New Deal is Christ's Deal.“
• Coughlin split with FDR because he felt that the
administration did not deal harshly enough with “money
powers” (bankers, stock brokers, & corporate magnates)
National Union for Social Justice
• 1936, preamble, “I believe that wealth … originates from the
natural resources and from the labor which the sons of God
expend upon these resources. It is all ours except for the
harsh, cruel and grasping ways of wicked men who first
concentrated wealth into the hands of a few.”
• His Sixteen Principles called for:
1) A living wage
2) Strict regulation (nationalization) of banking and utility co.
3) Abolition of the Federal Reserve
4) Lifting taxes on the working class
• After ’36 Election the tone of radio messages became more
antiemetic and pro-fascist. Suggesting that the Depression
was a conspiracy of Jewish bankers.
• FCC regulations limited his audience in an attempt to silence
his message. ‘42 the Archbishop of Detroit ordered him to
stop his broadcasts.
Attack from the Left
Dr. Francis Townsend
Townsend Plan
• California physician proposed a revolving old-age pension
plan to ease the impact of the Depression.
• His movement had over 5 million supporters
• “Townsend Plan”
1) Providing a $200 monthly pension for everyone 60 yrs. old
2) Recipients would be required to spend the monthly benefit
within 30 days
3) The plan would be funded by a 2% tax on the production of
goods (value added tax)
Townsend Plan
• The plan was to lower unemployment by removing everyone
over 60 from the labor force, resulting in greater demand for
workers and higher wages.
• Requiring seniors to spend the benefit would increase
demand, also lowering unemployment
• Critics of the Townsend Plan saw it as simply shifting
purchasing power to elderly by taxing younger workers.
• The popular support for the plan prompted action on the
Social Security Act. However, pension plans were considered
early in FDR’s presidency
The List Continues…
Upton Sinclair
• Muckraker, novelist, Socialist,
California gubernatorial candidate
• End Poverty on California (EPIC)
1) Production for use, not profit
2) Replace sales tax with a
progressive income tax
3) Idle land would be used to
create agricultural colonies made
up of unemployed workers.
Surplus would be processed in
state run factories for distribution
to the needy
• Dismissed by FDR, Democrats and
Republicans. Sinclair lost the race
but still carried 45% of the vote
African-Americans
• FDR had a significant number of
African-Americans serving in his
administration:
Mary McLeod Bethune-friend to
Eleanor Roosevelt, she became
a close advisor to FDR through
the Federal Council on Negro
Affairs known as the Black
Cabinet.
• FDR was sympathetic toward
African Americans but failed to
use the New Deal to push racial
issues to keep Southern
Democrats in his political
coalition
African-Americans
• AAA forced scarcity through
crop destruction and federal
subsidies paid directly to
landowners. The result poor
tenant farmers and share
croppers were kicked off the
land with no means of support
• Officials were aware of the
problem of dispossessed
croppers, but landowners
continued to skirt Agriculture
Dept. guidelines to keep
croppers on the land
African-Americans
• 250,000 African Americans
enrolled in nearly 150 all-black
CCC companies. (10% of total)
• Integrated CCC camps were
disbanded in July, 1935, when
CCC Director Robert Fechner
issued a directive ordering the
"complete segregation of colored
and white enrollees."
• In spite of efforts by Harold Ickes,
Fechner continued to
discriminate and prevent blacks
from taking supervisory roles in
the CCC
Attack from the Supreme Court
Supreme Court Challenges
• The Supreme Court of 1937 was occupied by six justices
appointed by Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover
• For 30 years the Court had been interpreting the Constitution
as espousing the doctrine of "freedom of contract,“
• A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States (1935).
– Court rules that price and wage fixing codes exceeded the
proper authority of the commerce clause
– NIRA (part of the executive branch) did not have the
Constitutional authority to write regulatory codes (in effect
making law)
– 9-0 decision, National Industrial Recover Act held to be
unconstitutional
Supreme Court Challenges
• United States v. Butler (1936)
– Provisions of the Agricultural Adjustment Act, placed a tax
on processors of farm products (mills). The proceeds to be
paid to farmers who would reduce their area and crops.
The intent of the act was to increase the prices of certain
farm products by decreasing the quantities produced.
– Court held that the specific target of the tax and the
revenue did not pass the test of “general welfare” as
defined in Article I, sec. 8 of the Constitution
– 9-0 decision, Agricultural Adjustment Administration held
to be unconstitutional tax for an impermissible regulatory
purpose.
Court Packing Scheme
Court Packing Scheme
• Frustrated over the Supreme Court decisions that overturned
six New Deal programs FDR took action to pack the Court
with justices sympathetic to his agenda.
• The "Four Horsemen" was the name given to the conservative
members of the Court during the 1932-1937 terms, who
opposed the New Deal agenda
• The Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937, was a law
proposed by FDR would have allowed the President the
power to appoint an extra Supreme Court Justice for every
sitting Justice over the age of 70½. (Allowing 6 appointments)
• FDR took his case to the public in his ninth fireside chat.
Court Packing Scheme
• Public opinion, Congressional Democrats and Republicans
renounced the scheme "a needless, futile and utterly
dangerous abandonment of constitutional principle… without
precedent or justification."
• FDR depended on Senate Majority Leader Joseph Robinson
to win Senate support. (he died of a heart attack 7-14-37) On
7- 22-37, the Senate voted 70-20 to send the judicial-reform
measure back to committee, where the controversial plan was
stripped.
• Within the year two “Horsemen”, Willis Van Devanter and
George Sutherland retires allowing FDR to appoint pro-New
Deal replacements Hugo Black and Stanley Reed
Consequences of the Scheme
• The new appointments shifted the Court in FDRs favor. Two
liberal justices result in 5-4 decisions in favor of minimum
wage laws, the National Labor Relations Act (unions and
collective bargaining), and the Social Security Act.
• Historians continue to debate the effectiveness of the scheme
1) Was FDR bluffing?
2) Did Justice Owen Roberts voting swing toward FDR as a
result of political pressure over the court packing plan?
3) Did Van Devanter retire once he realized that the Court
was leaning liberal after the NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin
Steel Corp case?