farm, industry, and relief 19-1. farms and industry fdr: farmers/businesses suffering because prices...
TRANSCRIPT
Farms and Industry
FDR: farmers/businesses suffering because prices were too low and production was too high
Competition inefficient and bad for economy
Create federal agencies to manage the economy
The AAA
Prices too low because supply too high
Program (Agricultural Adjustment Administration): gov’t pay some farmers not to raise certain livestock and not to grow certain crops
Some farmers not to produce dairy
Farmers slaughtered 6 million baby pigs
Plowed under 10 million acres of cotton
The AAA
Farmers received $1 billion in support payments
Farm surplus fell by 1936
Food prices rose as did farm income
BUT: country in a Depression…so this hurt the public
Not all farmers benefited. Large commercial farmers (one crop) benefitted more than small farmers
Poor tenant farmers became homeless and jobless when landlords stopped using fields
The NRA
National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) Suspended antitrust laws and allowed
business, labor, and gov’t to cooperate in setting up voluntary rules for each industry
Codes of fair competitions Prices, min wages, two shifts per day, shorter
hours, unionize
National Recovery Administration (NRA) Ran NIRA Displayed NRA symbol in window
The NRA
Small companies complained Large corporations wrote the codes to favor
themselves
Employers didn’t like unions
High min wages forces higher prices
Codes hard to enforce, business owners didn’t have to sign agreement
Productions fell after the NRA was established
NRA unconstitutional in 1935
Relief Programs
Fundamental cause of GD low consumption?
Money to needy = recovery
Solution = work programs
The CCC
Civilian Conservation Corps Offered unemployed men 18-25 opportunity to
work under the direction of the forestry service planting trees, fighting forest fires, and building reservoirs
Planted 200 million trees to prevent another Dust Bowl
Lived in camps, earned $30 a month, $25 of which sent directly to families
Average: returned home after 6-12 months 40,000 recruits taught to read and write
FERA and the PWA
Federal Emergency Relief Administration
Harry Hopkins ran agency
In two hours he spent $5 million on relief projects
Didn’t make sense in the long run “People don’t eat in the long run—they eat every day”
FERA and PWA
Public Works Administration
1/3 of nation’s unemployed were in construction agency
PWA build highways, dams, sewer systems, schools, and other government facilities
Awarded contracts to construction companies
Insisted on no discrimination against African Americans
CWA
Neither FERA nor PWA reduced unemployment significantly
Civil Works Administration Hired workers directly Employed 4 million people (300,000 women) 1,000 airports, 50,000 miles of road, 40,000
school buildings, and 3,500 playgrounds/parks Spent $1 billion in just 5 months
The CWA
FDR shut it down in the spring of 1934, afraid that people would get used to the gov’t providing them with jobs
Success of the First New Deal
Tons of legislation passed during FDR’s first year
Did not restore prosperity, but reflected FDR’s zeal for action and willingness to experiment
Did reopen banks and less people were losing their houses and farms
Most important change: change in spirit of American people