APUSH Unit 8 Ch 33

artificial scarcity and Supreme Court ruling

"Subsidized scarcity" did have the effect of raising farm income, but the whole confused enterprise met with acid criticism. Farmers, food processors, consumers, and taxpayers were all to some degree unhappy. Paying the farmers not to farm actually increased unemployment, at a time when other New Deal agencies were striving to decrease it. When the Supreme Court finally killed the AAA in 1936 by declaring its regulatory taxation provisions unconstitutional, foes of the plow-under program rejoiced loudly. add?

Fair Labor Standards Act (wages, hours, child labor)

A better deal for labor continued when Congress, in 1938, passed the memorable Fair Labor Standards Act (Wages and House Bill). Industries involved in interstate commerce were to set up minimum-wage and maximum-hour levels. The eventual goals were forty cents and hour (later raised) and a forty-hour week. Labor by children under sixteen (under eighteen if the occupation was dangerous) was forbidden. These reforms were bitterly though futilely opposed by many industrialists, esp. those southern textile manufacturers who had profited from low-wage labor. But the exclusion of agricultural, service, and domestic workers meant that blacks, Mexican Americans, and women - who were concentrated in these fields - did not benefit from the act.

National (Industrial) Recovery Administration (NRA/NIRA)

A daring attempt to stimulate a nationwide comeback was initiated when the Emergency Congress authorized the National Recovery Administration. This ingenious scheme was by far the most complex and far-reaching effort by the New Dealers to combine immediate relief with long-range recovery and reform. Triple barreled, it was designed to assist industry, labor, and the unemployed. ADD?

Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)

A radical new approach to farm recovery was embraced when the Emergency Congress established the Agricultural Adjustment Administration. Through "artificial scarcity" this agency was to establish "parity prices" for basic commodities. "Parity" was the price set for a product that gave it the same real value, in purchasing power, that it had enjoyed during the period from 1909 to 1914. The AAA would eliminate price-depressing surpluses by paying growers to reduce their crop acreage. The millions of dollars needed for these payments were to be raised by taxing processors of farm products, such as flour millers, who in turn would shift the burden to consumers.

Hundred Days

After declaring a nationwide banking holiday, FDR summoned the overwhelmingly Democratic Congress into special session to cope with the national emergency. For the so-called Hundred Days (March 9-June 16, 1932), members hastily cranked out an unprecedented basketful of remedial legislation. Some of it derived from earlier progressivism, but these new measures mostly sought to deal with a desperate emergency.

Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC)

Another law created by the Hundred Days Congress was the House Owner's Loan Corporation. Designed to refinance mortgages on non-farm homes, it ultimately assisted about a million badly pinched households. The agency not only bailed out mortgage-holding banks, it also bolted the political loyalties of relieved middle-class homeowners securely to the Democratic party.

Election 1936, FDR Democrats

As the presidential campaign of 1936 neared, the New Dealers were on top of the world. They had achieved considerable progress, and millions of "reliefers' were grateful to their bountiful government. The exultant Democrats renominated Roosevelt on a platform squarely endorsing the New Deal. The Republicans nominated governor of Kansas, Alfred Landon. Landon himself was a moderate who accepted some New Deal reforms, although not the popular Social Security Act. The Republican platform condemned the New Deal of Franklin "Deficit" Roosevelt for its radicalism, experimentation, confusion, and "frightful waste." A landslide overwhelmed Landon, as the Republicans carried only two states, Maine and Vermont. The electoral count was 523 5o 8. Democrats could now claim more than two-thirds of the seats in the House and a like proportion in the Senate. add?

Emergency Banking Relief Act

Banking chaos cried for immediate action. Congress pulled itself together and in an incredible eight hours had the Emergency Banking Relief Act of 1933 ready for Roosevelt's busy pen. The new law invested the president with the power to regulate banking transactions and foreign exchange and to reopen solvent banks.

"Okies", "Arkies" (also see pg 786-7)

Burned and blown out of the Dust Bowl, tens of thousands of refugees fled their ruined acres. In five years about 350,000 Oklahomans and Arkansans - "Okies" and "Arkies" - trekked to southern California in "junkyards on wheels." The earliest Okies had migrated under better circumstances in better times, and they often bragged of the good life in California. Their ears so long filled with glowing reports form this earlier exodus, the Dust Bowl migrants refused to believe that the depression could sully the bright promise of California. Some Okies and Arkies made their way past the Keep Out sign that claimed there were no jobs in California and into the cities, but many of them favored the San Joaquin Valley, the southern part of central California's agricultural kingdom. add? page 787

Schechter "sick chicken" court case

Complete collapse of the NRA was imminent when, in 1935, the Supreme Court shot down the dying eagle (the symbol of the NRA) in the famed Schechter "sick chicken" decision. The learned justices unanimously held that Congress could not "delegate legislative powers" to the executive. They further declared that congressional control of interstate commerce could not properly apply to a local fowl business, like that of the Schechter brothers in Brooklyn, New York. Roosevelt was incensed by this "horse and buggy" interpretation of the Constitution, but actually the Court helped him out a bad jam.

"court packing" failure and success

FDR bluntly asked Congress for legislation to permit him to add a new justice to the Supreme Court for every member over 70 who would not retire. The maximum membership could then be 15. FDR pointed out the necessity of injecting vigorous new blood, for the Court, he alleged, was far behind in its work. This charge, which turned out to be false, brought heated accusations of dishonesty. At best, FDR was headstrong and not fully aware of the fact that the Court, in popular thinking, had become something of a sacred cow. Congress and the nation were promptly convulsed over the scheme to "pack" the Supreme Court with a "dictator bill." FDR was denounced for attempting to break down the delicate checks and balances among the three branches of government. He was accused of grooming himself as a dictator by trying to browbeat the judiciary. The Court began to support New Deal reforms, including the principle of a state minimum wage for women, the National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act), and the Social Security Act. FDR's "Court-packing" was further undermined when Congress voted full pay for justices over 70 who retired. Congress finally passed a court reform bill, but this watered-down version applied only to lower courts. FDR thus suffered his first major legislative defeat at the hands of his own party in Congress. Yet in losing this battle, FDR incidentally won his campaign. The Court, as he had hoped, became markedly more friendly to New Deal Reforms.

limited gold standard (foreign trade only)

FDR ordered all private holdings of gold to be surrendered to the Treasury in exchange for paper currency and then took the nation off the gold standard. The Hundred Days Congress responded to his recommendation by canceling the gold-payment clause in all contracts and authorizing repayment in paper money. A "managed currency" was well on its way. The goal of FDR's "managed currency" was inflation, which he believed would relieve debtors' burdens and stimulate new production. He instructed the Treasury to purchase gold at increasing prices. This policy did increase the amount of dollars in circulation, as holders of gold cashed it in at elevated prices. The gold-buying scheme came to an end in February 1934, when FDR returned the nation to a limited gold standard for purposes of international trade only. Thereafter, the US pledged itself to pay foreign bills, if requested, in gold at the rate of one ounce of gold for every $35 due.

Amendment 20, shorter "Lame Duck" period

FDR took the presidential oath on January 20, 1937, instead of the traditional March 4. The 20th Amendment to the Constitution had been ratified in 1933. It swept away the post-election lame duck session of Congress and shortened by six weeks the awkward period before inauguration.

Roosevelt Recession of 1937 and causes

FDR's first term, 1933 to 1937, did not banish the depression from the land. Despite the inventiveness of New Deal programs and the billions of dollars in "pump priming," recovery had been dishearteningly modest, though the country seemed to be inching its way back to economic health. Then in 1937 the economy took another sharp downturn, a surprisingly severe depression-within-the-depression that the president's critics quickly labeled the "Roosevelt recession." In fact, government policies had caused the nosedive, as new Social Security taxes began to bite into payrolls and as the administration cut back on spending out of continuing reverence for the orthodox economic doctrine of the balanced budget.

Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt may have been the most visible woman in the Roosevelt White House, but she was hardly the only female voice. Secretary of Labor France Perkins (1880-1965) burst through the gender barrier when she became America's first woman cabinet member.

criticisms of the New Deal

Foes of the New Deal condemned its alleged waste, incompetence, confusion, contradictions, and cross-purposes, as well as the chiseling and graft in the alphabetical agencies. FDR had done nothing, cynics said, that an earthquake could not have done better. Critics deplored the employment of "crackpot" college professors, leftist "pinkos," and outright Communists. Such subversives, it was charged, were trying to make America over in the Bolshevik-Marxist image under "Rooseveltski." Roosevelt was further accused by conservatives of being Jewish and of tapping too many bright young Jewish leftist for his "Drain Trust." ADD PAGE 796

Civil Works Administration CWA

Harassed by the continuing plague of unemployment, FDR himself established the Civil Works Administration late in 1933. As a branch of the FERA, it also fell under the direction of Hopkins. Designed to provide purely temporary jobs during the cruel winter emergency, it served a useful purpose. Tens of thousands of jobless were employed at leaf raking and other make-work tasks, which were dubbed "boondoggling."

Franklin D. Roosevelt / Eleanor Roosevelt

He was nominated by the Democrats for president in 1932. He suffered from infantile paralysis (struck in 1921). In courageously fighting his way back from complete helplessness to a hobbling mobility, he schooled himself in patience, tolerance, compassion, and strength of will. One of his great personal and political assets was was his wife, Eleanor. FDR's political career was as much as hers as it was his. She traveled countless miles with him or on his behalf in all his campaigns, beginning with his run for the NY legislature before WWI. She was to become the most active First Lady in history. add?

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

In 1934 Congress took further steps to protect the public against fraud, deception, and inside manipulation. It authorized the Securities and Exchange Commission, which was designed as a watchdog administrative agency. Stock markets henceforth were to operate more as trading marts and less as gambling casinos.

business codes, maximum hours, minimum wage

Industrial industries - over two hundred in all - were to work out codes of "fair competition," under which hours of labor would be reduced so that employment could be spread over more people. A ceiling was placed on the maximum hours of labor; a floor was placed under wages to establish minimum levels.

Dust Bowl and various causes

Late in 1933 a prolonged drought struck the states of the trans-Mississippi Great Plains. Rainless weeks were followed by furious, whining winds, while the sun was darkened by millions of tons of powdery topsoil torn from homesteads in an area that stretched from eastern Colorado to the western Missouri - soon to be dubbed the Dust Bowl. Drought and wind triggered the dust storms, but they were not the only culprits. The human hand had also worked its mischief. High grain prices during WWI had enticed farmers to bring countless acres of marginal land under cultivation. Worse, dry-farming techniques and mechanization had revolutionized Great Plains agriculture. The steam tractor and the disk plow tore up infinitely more sod than a team of oxen ever could, leaving the powdery topsoil to be swept away at nature's whim.

Indian Reorganization Act; "Back to the Blanket"

Native American also felt the far-reaching hand of New Deal reform. Commissioner of Indian Affairs John Collier ardently sought to reverse the forced-assimilation policies in place since the Dawes Act of 1887. Inspired by the sojourn among the Pueblo Indians in Taos, New Mexico, Collier promoted the Indian Reservation Act of 1934. The new law encouraged tribes to establish local self-government and to preserve their native crafts and traditions. The act also helped to stop the loss of Indian lands and revived tribes' interest in their identity and culture. Yet not all Indians applauded it. Some denounced the legislation as a "black-to-the-blanket" measure that sought to make museum pieces out of Native Americans. Seventy-seven tribes refused to organize under its provisions, though nearly two hundred others did establish tribal governments.

Public Utility Holding Company Act

New Dealers likewise directed their fire at public utility holding companies, those subcorporations. Citizens had seen one of these incredible colossi collapse during the spring of 1932, when the Chicagoan Samuel Insull's multibillion-dollar financial empire crashed. Possibilities of controlling, with a minimum of capital, a half-dozen or so pyramided layers of big business suggested to Roosevelt "a ninety-six-inch dog being wagged by a four-inch tail." The Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 finally delivered a "death sentence" to this type of bloated growth, except where it might be deemed economically needful.

Works Progress Administration WPA

Partly to quiet the groundswell of unrest produced by such crackbrained proposals (from the demagogues), Congress authorized the Works Progress Administration in 1935. The objective was employment on useful projects. Launched under the supervision of the ailing but energetic Hopkins, this remarkable agency spent about $11 billion on thousands of public buildings, bridges, and hard-surfaced roads. Not every WPA project strengthened the infrastructure: for instance, one controlled crickets in Wyoming, while another built a monkey pen in Oklahoma City. Over a period of 8 years, nearly 9 million people were given jobs, not handouts.

John Maynard Keynes,Keynesian (deficit spending) idea

Only during the Roosevelt recession did FDR at last frankly and deliberately embrace the recommendations of the British economist John Maynard Keynes. The New Deal had run deficits for several years, but all of them had been rather small and none was intended. Now, in April 1937, FDR announced a bold program to stimulate the economy by planned deficit spending. Although the deficits were still undersized for the arduous task of conquering the depression, this abrupt policy reversal marked a major turning point in the government's relation to the economy. "Keynesianism" became the new economic orthodoxy and remained so for decades.

"Brain Trust"

Roosevelt consistently preached a New Deal for the "forgotten man," but he was annoyingly vague and somewhat contradictory. Many of his speeches were "ghostwritten" by the "Brain Trust," a small group of reform-minded intellectuals. They were predominantly youngish college professors who later authored much of the New Deal legislation.

"prime the pump"

Roosevelt had no hesitancy about using federal money to assist the unemployed and at the same time to "prime the pump" of industrial recovery. (A farmer has to pour a little water into a dry pump - that is, "prime it" - to start the flow.)

nationwide banking holiday

Roosevelt moved decisively. Now that he had full responsibility (after Inauguration), he boldly declared a nationwide banking holiday, March 6-10, as a prelude to opening the backs on a sounder basis. He then summoned the overwhelmingly Democratic Congress into special session to cope with the national emergency.

FDR and the Supreme Court

Roosevelt saw his reelection as a mandate for more New Deal reforms. But to him the men on the supreme bench stood stubbornly in the pathway of progress. In nine major cases involving the New Deal, the Roosevelt administration had been thwarted seven times. As luck would have it, not a single member of the Supreme Court had been appointed by FDR in his first term. Roosevelt viewed with mounting impatience what he regarded as the obstructive conservatism of the Court. Some of these Old Guard appointees were hanging on with a senile grip, partly because they felt it their patriotic duty to curb "socialistic" tendencies of that radical in the White House. FDR believed that the voters in three successive elections (presidential: 1932 and 1936, and congressional: 1934) had returned a smashing verdict in favor of his program of reform. Democracy, in his view, meant rule by the people. If the American way of life was to be preserved, FDR argued, the Supreme Court ought to get in line with the supreme court of public opinion.

3 R's: relief, recovery, reform

Roosevelt's New Deal programs aimed at three R's - relief, recovery, and reform. Short-range goals were relief and immediate recovery, esp. in the first two years. Long-range goals were permanent recovery and reform of current abuses, particularly those that had produced the boom-or-bust catastrophe. The three-R objectives often overlapped and got in one another's way. But amid all the topsy-turvy haste, the gigantic New Deal program lurched forward. CHART ON PAGE 774 and 777

Mary McLeod Bethune; "Black Cabinet" (caption pg 780)

She was the daughter of ex-slaves and founder of a college in Florida. Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955), director of the Office of Minority Affairs in the National Youth Administration, served as the highest-ranking African American in the Roosevelt administration. From this base she organized the "Black Cabinet" o make sure blacks benefited from the New Deal programs along with whites. In the picture on page 780, she is seen picketing against segregated hiring practices at the Peoples Drug Store chain, one of the earliest targets of the black civil rights movement.

Amendment 21; repeal of prohibition

Special stimulants aided the recovery of one segment of business - the liquor industry. The imminent repeal of the prohibition amendment afforded an opportunity to raise needed federal revenue and at the same time to provide a measure of employment. Prodded by Roosevelt, the Hundred Days Congress, in one of its earliest acts, legalized light wine and beer with an alcoholic content (presumably nonintoxicating) not exceeding 3.2 percent by weight, and levied a tax of $5 on every barrel so manufactured. Disgruntled drys, unwilling to acknowledge the breakdown of law and order begotten by bootlegging, damned Roosevelt as "a 3.2 percent American." Prohibition was officially repealed by the 21st Amendment late in 1933, and the saloon door swung open.

CIO breaks from AFL

The CIO surged forward, breaking completely from the AF of L in 1938. On that occasion the Committee for Industrial Organization was formally reconstituted as the Congress of Industrial Organizations, under the high-handed presidency of John L. Lewis. By 1940 the CIO could claim about 4 million members in its constituent unions, including some 200,000 blacks. Nevertheless, bitter and annoying jurisdictional feuding involving strikes continued with the AF of L. At times labor seemed more bent on costly civil war than on its age-old war with management.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)

The Glass-Steagall Banking Reform Act provided for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which insured individual deposits up to $5,000 (later raised). Thus ended the disgraceful epidemic of bank failures, which dated back to the "wildcat" days of Andrew Jackson.

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

The Hundred Days Congress responded to Roosevelt's spurs when it created the Civilian Conservation Corps, which proved to be perhaps the most popular of all the New Deal "alphabetical agencies." This law provided employment in fresh-air government camps for about 3 million uniformed young men, many of whom might otherwise have been driven by desperation into criminal habits. Their work was useful - including reforestation, firefighting, flood control, and swamp drainage. The recruits were required to help their parents by sending home most of their pay. Both human resources and natural resources were thus conserved, though there were minor complaints of "militarizing" the nation's youth.

Glass-Steagall Banking Reform Act

The Hundred Days Congress supported public reliance on the banking system by enacting the memorable Glass-Steagall Banking Reform Act. This measure provided for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Second Agricultural Adjustment Act

The Second Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 was a more comprehensive substitute than the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act of 1936, although it continued conservation payments. If growers observed acreage restrictions on specified commodities like cotton and wheat, they would be eligible for parity payments. Other provisions of the new AAA were designed to give farmers not only a fairer price but a more substantial share of the national income. Both goals were partially achieved.

Federal Housing Administration (FHA)

The New Deal meanwhile framed sturdy new policies for housing construction. To speed recovery and better homes, Roosevelt set up the Federal Housing Administration as early as 1934. The building industry was to be stimulated by small loans to house-holders, both for improving their dwellings and for completing new ones. So popular did the FHA prove to be that it was one of the few "alphabetical agencies" to outlast the age of Roosevelt.

Hatch Act and election reform

The New Dealers were accused of having the richest campaign chest in history, and in truth government relief checks had a curious habit of coming in bunches just before ballot time. To remedy such practices, which tended to make a farce of free elections, Congress adopted the much-heralded Hatch Act of 1939. This act barred federal administrative officials, except the highest policy-making officers, from active political campaigning and soliciting. It also forbade the use of government funds for political purposes as well as the collection of campaign contributions from people receiving relief payments. The Hatch Act was broadened in 1940 to place limits on campaign contributions and expenditures, but such clever ways of getting around it were found that on the whole the legislation proved disappointing.

Social Security Act (list parts)

The New Dealers's greatest victory was the epochal Social Security Act of 1935 - one of the most complicated and far-reaching laws ever to pass Congress. The measure provided for federal-state unemployment insurance. To provide security for old age, specified categories of retired workers were to receive regular payments from Washington. These payments ranged from $10 to $85 a month (later raised) and were financed by a payroll tax on both employers and employees. Provision was also made for the blind, the physically handicapped, delinquent children, and other dependents. add?

1938 Democratic party purge and failure

The aggressive leadership of Roosevelt also came in for denunciation. Heavy fire was especially directed at his attempts to browbeat the Supreme Court and to create a "dummy Congress." FDR had even tried in the 1938 elections, with backfiring results, to "purge" members of Congress who would not lockstep with him. The three senators whom he publicly opposed were all triumphantly reelected.

demagogues (Father Coughlin, Huey Long)

The disheartening persistence of unemployment and suffering demonstrated that emergency relief measures had to be not only continued but supplemented. One danger signal was the appearance of various demagogues (rabble-rousers), notably a magnetic "microphone messiah," Father Charles Coughlin, a Catholic priest in Michigan who began broadcasting in 1930 and whose slogan was "Social Justice." His anti-New Deal harangues to some 40 million radio fans finally became so anti-Semitic, fascistic, and demagogic that he was silenced in 1942 by his ecclesiastical superiors. Also notorious among the new brood of agitators were those who capitalized on popular discontent to make pie-in-the-sky promises. Most conspicuous of these individuals was Senator Huey Long of Louisiana. He used his abundant rabble-rousing talents to publicize his "Share Our Wealth" program, which promised to make "Every Man a King." Every family was to receive $5,000, supposedly at the expense of the prosperous. Fear of Long's becoming a fascist dictator ended when he was shot by an assassin in the Louisiana state capital in 1935.

John Steinbeck "The Grapes of Wrath"

The dismal story of these human tumbleweeds (Okies and Arkies) was realistically portrayed in John Steinbeck's best-selling novel "The Grapes of Wrath" (1939), which proved to be the "Uncle Tom's Cabin" of the Dust Bowl.

Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA); work relief

The first major effort of the new Congress to grapple with the millions of adult unemployment was the Federal Emergency Relief Act. Its chief aim was immediate relief rather than long-range recovery. The resulting Federal Emergency Relief Administration was handed over to zealous Harry Hopkins. Hopkins's agency in al granted about $3 billion to the states for direct dole payments or preferably for wages on work projects.

unemployment and old age insurance, minimum wage, restrictions on child labor

The frantic Hundred Days Congress passed many essentials of the New Deal "three R's," though important long-range measures were added in later sessions. The New Dealers, sooner or later, embraced progressive ideas as unemployment insurance, old-age insurance, minimum-wage regulations, conservation and development of natural resources, and restrictions on child labor.

Public Works Administration (PWA)

The same act of Congress that hatched the NRA eagle also authorized the Public Works Administration, likewise intended both for industrial recovery and for unemployment relief. The agency was headed by the secretary of the interior, acid-tongued Harold Ickes, a free-swinging former bull mooser. Long-range recovery was the primary purpose of the new agency, and in time over $4 billion was spent on some thirty-four thousand projects, which included public buildings, highways, and parkways. One spectacular achievement was the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River - the largest structure erected by humans since the Great Wall of China.

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

The tempestuous Tennessee River provided New Dealers with a rare opportunity. With its tributaries, the river drained a badly eroded area about the size of England, and one containing some 2.5 million of the most poverty-stricken Americans. By developing a hydroelectric potential of the entire area, Washington could combine immediate advantage of putting thousands of people to work with a long-term project for reforming the power monopoly. An act creating the Tennessee Valley Authority was passed in 1933 by the Hundred Days Congress. This far-ranging enterprise was largely a result of the steadfast vision and unflagging zeal of Senator George W Norris of Nebraska, after whom one of the might dams was named. From the standpoint of "planned economy," TVA was by far the most revolutionary of all the New Deal schemes. add page 788?

CIO, General Motors, sit-down strike

Undaunted, the rebellious CIO moved on a concerted scale into the huge automobile industry. Late in 1936 the workers resorted to a revolutionary technique known as the sit-down strike: they refused to leave the factory building of General Motors at Flint, Michigan, and thus prevented the importation of strikebreakers. Conservative respecters of private property were scandalized. The CIO finally won a resounding victory when its union, after heated negotiations, was recognized by General Motors as the sole bargaining agency for its employees.

John L. Lewis; Committee for Industrial Organization

Under the encouragement of a highly sympathetic National Labor Relations Board, a host of unskilled workers began to organize themselves into effective unions. The leader of this drive was beetle-browed, domineering, and melodramatic John Lewis, boss of the United Mine Workers. In 1935 he succeeded in forming the Committee for Industrial Organization within the ranks of the skilled-craft American Federation of Labor. But skilled workers, ever since the days of the ill-fated Knights of Labor in the 1880s, had shown only lukewarm sympathy for the cause of the unskilled labor, esp. blacks. In 1936, following inevitable friction with the CIO, the older federation suspended the upstart unions associated with the new organizations.

National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act)

When the Supreme Court axed the blue eagle, a Congress sympathetic to labor unions undertook to fill the vacuum. The fruit of its deliberations was the Wagner, or National Labor Relations, Act of 1935. This trailblazing law created a powerful new National Labor Relations Board for administrative purposes and reasserted the right of labor to engage in self-organization and to bargain collectively through representative of its own choice. The Wagner Act proved to be one of the real milestones on the rocky road of the US labor movement.

Election 1932 and New Deal Democrats

Voters were in an ugly mood as the presidential campaign of 1932 neared. Hoover may have won the 1928 election by promising "a chicken in every pot," but three years later that chicken seemed to have laid discharge slip in every pay envelope. Hoover was renominated by the Republican convention, without great enthusiasm. The platform indulged in extravagant praise of Republican antidepression policies. , while halfheartedly promising to repeal national prohibition and return control of liquor to the states. The rising star of the Democratic firmament was Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt of New York. The Democratic platform came out more forthrightly than the Republican for repeal of prohibition, assailed the so-called Hoover depression, and promised to not only a balanced budget but sweeping social and economic reforms. FDR electrified the delegates and the public (after being nominated) with these words: "I pledge you, I pledge myself to a new deal for the American people." He won with 472 electoral votes to 59. ADD?