Chapter 33 Presentation

Victoria YimSuman Rhee

Allen HoLucy Xiao

Why did Roosevelt ask Congress for a bill that would allow him to add justices to the Supreme Court?

• Supreme Court kept blocking Roosevelt's programs

• a member to the Supreme Court for every existing member over 70 maximum possible total of 15 total members.

• Congress voted against him because it did not want to lose its power.

• Roosevelt was ripped for trying to become a dictator.

What were the consequences of FDR's attempt to pack the Court?

• Court Packing- Franklin Roosevelt's politically motivated and ill-fated scheme to add a new justice to the Supreme Court for every member over seventy who would not retire. His objective was to overcome the Court's objections to New Deal reforms.

• Hugo Black- justice appointed by FDR, into the New Deal, replaced the oldest justice

• FDR’s “court-packing scheme” failed.some justices to start to vote his way (Owen J.Roberts, former conservative).

• failure showed Americans did not want to tamper with the justice system.

How did labor respond to the improvement of conditions brought about by the New Deal?

• strikes and walkouts in 1934• Congress struck down the National Recovery Administration• passed the Wagner Act

– guaranteed the right of unions to organize and to collectively bargain with management

• under the management of the National Labor Relations Board, unskilled workers began to organize into effective unions– John L. Lewis - Head of United Mine Workers

• also formed the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO)– led series of strikes, including the sit-down strike at General Motors automobile

factory in 1936

What was the significance of the 1936 election?

• Republican nomination: Alfred Landon (gov. of Kansas)– criticized FDR's massive spendings– however, he supported many of FDR's New Deal = hypocrite– weak on radio and personal campaign

• 1934 - American Liberty League formed by conservative Democrats and wealthy Republicans– against "socialist" New Deal

• FDR won election: 523 vs 8 electoral votes– won because he appealed to the "forgotten man" – forged a powerful and enduring coalition of the South, blacks,

urbanites, and poor

What did William Leuechtenburg mean when he called the New Deal a “half-way revolution”?

• Not too radical but not conservative• It was created in response to the Great

Depression• First time government assisted people to help

hardship• Going against capital ideals

Assess the sucessfullness of FDR in his second term.

• In 1937, the economy took another brief downturn when the “Roosevelt Recession,” caused by government policies.

• Finally, FDR embraced the policies of British economist John Maynard Keynes.– In 1937, FDR announced a bold program to stimulate the economy

by planned deficit spending.– In 1939, Congress relented to FDR’s pressure and passed the

Reorganization Act, which gave him limited powers for administrativereforms, including the key new Executive Office in the White House.

– The Hatch Act of 1939 barred federal administrative officials,except the highest policy-making officers, from active politicalcampaigning and soliciting.

What criticism of the New Deal seems most fair to you? Least fair?

• foes of the New Deal condemned its waste,

citing that nothing had been accomplished. (least fair)

• Critics were shocked by the “try anything” attitude ofFDR, who had increased the federal debt from $19.487 million in 1932 to$40.440 million in 1939. (most fair)