Chaos of Experimentation, A: Critics of Roosevelt and the New Deal
Some of the most strident attacks on the New Deal come from critics on the right who believe Roosevelt is threatening capitalism and waging war against the wealthy. The wealthy hate Roosevelt with a passion, while critics on left blame FDR for being...
Chaos of Experimentation, A: Industrial Recovery
In the face of this economic crisis business leaders push for relaxation of antitrust regulations. The National Industrial Recovery Act provides the relief they want, but demands certain concessions in return--the restriction of production and estab...
Chaos of Experimentation, A: Growth of Federal Relief
The Roosevelt administration does not consider relief a priority at first but comes to realize something must be done to help impoverished people survive. They create a range of relief mechanisms from providing money to relief agencies to creating j...
Chaos of Experimentation, A: Labor's Organizing Battles
Labor leaders, most notably John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers, propose to organize all workers, skilled and unskilled, in a single union to maximize bargaining power. The American Federation of Labor (AFL) staunchly opposes this idea, resulti...
Chaos of Experimentation, A: Launching the New Deal
Roosevelt submits an extraordinary number of bills to Congress in the first 100 days of his administration, diverse experiments designed to combat the Depression. FDR's optimism is contagious; he never doubts something will work. He conveys this bel...
Chaos of Experimentation, A: Limits and Legacies of New Deal
In the 1930s, Roosevelt's principal critics accuse him of abandoning the Constitution and establishing a tyrannical state. Today historians point to problems the New Deal did not resolve and groups it did not represent. In analyzing the three Rs of ...
Chaos of Experimentation, A: Roosevelt's Court Fight
The margin of Roosevelt's victory emboldens him to challenge the Supreme Court.. His fear is that the Court will overturn the Wagner and Social Security Acts. Roosevelt's idea is to add one Supreme Court justice for every justice over age 70. The tr...
Chaos of Experimentation, A: Recession of 1937
In 1937 national income nears pre-Depression levels. Roosevelt is forced to cut programs in order to balance the budget. The recession plunges the economy back to depths not experienced since 1933. New Deal measures are evidently not alleviating the...
Chaos of Experimentation, A: Agricultural Adjustment
The Agricultural Adjustment Act is a stopgap measure which designates the government as the buyer of last resorts when price are low. Farmers are also required to plow under crops and slaughter livestock to reduce the surplus, an action that is crit...
Chaos of Experimentation, A: Social Security
From the earliest moments of the New Deal, members of the administration, most notably Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, have been lobbying for a system of federally-sponsored social insurance for the elderly and the unemployed. Its first job, Sam...