23.2
Civil Works Administration (CWA)
CWA hired workers directly and put them on the federal government's payroll. That winter the CWA employed 4 million people, 300,000 of them women. Under Hopkins's direction, the agency built or improved 1,000 airports, 500,000 miles of roads, 40,000 school buildings, and 3,500 playgrounds, parks, and playing fields. The cost of the CWA was huge the program spent nearly $1 billion in just five months. A former colleague remembered Hopkins as "the kind of guy that seldom wrote a letter. He'd just call and say, 'Send a million dollars to Arkansas, and five million to New York. People are in need.'"
National Recovery Administration (NRA)
June 1933. Controlled industrial production and prices with industry-created codes of fair competition.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
June 1933. Guaranteed bank deposits up to $2,500.
Public Works Administration (PWA)
June 1933. To put them back to work, the PWA began a series of construction projects to build and improve highways, dams, sewer systems, water-works, schools, and other government facilities. In most cases, the PWA did not hire workers directly, but instead awarded contracts to construction companies. By insisting that contractors hire African Americans, the agency broke down some of the long standing racial barriers in the construction trades.
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
March 1933. Employed single men, ages 18-25, for natural resource conservation.
Federal Emergency Relief Agency (FERA)
May 1933. Granted federal money to state and local governments to be used to help the unemployed.
Fireside chats
On March 12, President Roosevelt addressed the nation by radio. Sixty million people listened to this first of many "fireside chats," direct talks FDR held with the American people to let them know what he was trying to accomplish. He told the people that their money would now be secure if they put it back into the banks.
Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)
Reduced agricultural surplus and raised prices for struggling farmers. May 1933.
Glass-Steagall Act
The Glass-Steagall Act separated commercial banking from investment banking. Commercial banks handle everyday transactions. They take deposits, pay interest, cash checks, and loan money for mortgages and other business activities. Under the Glass-Steagall Act, these banks were no longer permitted to risk depositors' money by using it to speculate on the stock market.
Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC)
The HOLC bought the mortgages of many homeowners who were behind in their payments. It then restructured them with longer terms of repayment and lower interest rates. Roughly 10 percent of the nation's homeowners received HOLC loans. It only made loans to homeowners who were still employed. When people lost their jobs and could no longer pay their mortgages, the HOLC foreclosed on their property, just as a bank would have done.
National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA)
The NIRA suspended the antitrust laws and allowed business, labor, and government to cooperate in setting up voluntary rules for each industry. June 1933.
Securities Act of 1933
The Securities Act required companies that sold stocks and bonds to provide complete and truthful information to investors.
Harry Hopkins
The leader of FERA was Harry Hopkins, whose nervous energy and sarcastic manner put off many people. Despite his personality, Hopkins became one of the most influential people in Roosevelt's administration. In the next two hours, he spent $5 million on relief projects. When critics charged that some of the projects did not make sense in the long run, Hopkins replied, "People don't eat in the long run they eat every day." Hopkins realized that unless the federal government acted quickly, a huge number of unemployed would be in severe distress once winter began.
Emergency Bank Relief Act
The new law required federal examiners to survey the nation's banks and issue Treasury Department licenses to those that were financially sound. Passed 38 minutes of debate.
Hundred Days
The new president began to send bill after bill to Congress. Between March 9 and June 16, 1933 which came to be called the Hundred Days Congress passed 15 major acts to meet the economic crisis, setting a pace for new legislation that has never been equaled. Together, these programs made up what would later be called the First New Deal.
Farm Credit Administration (FCA)
Three days after Congress authorized the creation of the HOLC, it authorized the Farm Credit Administration (FCA) to begin helping farmers refinance their mortgages. Over the next seven months, the FCA lent four times as much money to farmers as the entire banking system had done the year before. Though FCA loans helped many farmers in the short term, their longterm value can be questioned. FCA loans helped less efficient farmers keep their land, but giving loans to poor farmers meant that the money was not available to loan to more efficient businesses in the economy. Although FCA loans may have slowed the overall economic recovery, they did help many desperate and impoverished people hold onto their land.
Three programs of the First New Deal that provided jobs for the unemployed.
WPA, the BWA, and the CCC.
Chapter Overview
looks at the flurry of legislation that President Roosevelt introduced during the first months of his presidency. During his first three months in office, a period called the Hundred Days, Roosevelt delivered his First New Deal to the American public. His first priority was to reform the banking industry and restore Americans' faith in the banking system. The Roosevelt administration placed new regulations on banks, brokers, and the stock market, while a slate of programs controlled industrial production and prices, reduced agricultural surplus and raised farm prices, and granted federal money to relief efforts. Millions of workers went back to work thanks to a series of programs that created jobs in construction and conservation. Roosevelt's programs were not enough to restore the nation's prosperity, but the New Deal had begun to restore the people's faith in the nation.
