The New Deal’s Impact on Society
New Deal Constituencies & the Broker State
• Civilian gov’t employees increased by 80%• # of gov’t employees in Washington, DC doubled
in 10 years• Power of federal gov’t increased drastically• Acted as a broker state– Gov’t acted as mediator in national marketplace– Elevated & strengthened new interests
• Organized labor, women, African Americans, & other groups joined the coalition the Democrats started to build
Organized Labor
• Huge arena for federal intervention• Factors that led to growth of labor movement– Inadequacy of welfare capitalism– New Deal legislation; example=Wagner Act– Rise of the Congress of Industrial Organizations
(CIO); est. 1936• Growing militancy of rank & file workers• By 1940, unionized workers=9 million– 23% of the non-farm workforce
Organized Labor
• CIO promoted all workers, skilled & unskilled, into one union– Accepted women, blacks, & Mexican Americans– John L. Lewis, once leader of United Mine
Workers, helped form CIO– Competed w/ AFL; more militant– Allied w/ Democratic Party
• Scored a victory with United Auto Workers & GM (1936-1937)– GM & other auto producers recognized the UAW
Organized Labor
• Steel workers struggled in battle for unionization
• Memorial Day Massacre (1937), South Chicago• Marching peacefully, fired upon, 10 killed &
90 wounded• Strike failed• 1937—4,720 strikes & 80% favored unions
Women & the New Deal
• Gains in government:– Frances Perkins, 1st female in cabinet– Molly Dawson, head of Women’s Division of the
DNC– Nellie, Tayloe Ross, 1st female director of the mint– Eleanor Roosevelt, one of the 1st prominent First
Ladies• The “conscience of the New Deal”
• Setbacks:– Low wages– Low levels of employment– CCC did not hire women
Eleanor Roosevelt in 1933
Sec. of Labor Frances Perkins
Blacks & the New Deal
• New Deal did little to battle racial discrimination
• CCC segregated blacks & whites• NRA codes did not protect black workers• FDR repeatedly refused to ban lynching– Said it would antagonize southern members of
Congress• Their support was needed for New Deal measures
Blacks & the New Deal
• 18% of WPA recipients were black• Resettlement Administration was set up to
help small farmers buy land• Mary McLeod Bethune hired to run Office of
Minority Affairs• Eleanor Roosevelt was a champion of equal
rights• The belief that the White House was
concerned for African Americans shifted voting– Republican Party had been party of blacks since
time of Lincoln
Politicization of Mexican Americans
• Benefited from labor policies– But agencies paid at different rates based on race– Tension & conflict between whites & Hispanics in
CCC camps
• Increasingly identified with US rather than Mexico
• Democrats made it clear that they welcomed Mexican Americans
Indian Reorganization Act
• Native Americans continued to be among the nation’s most disadvantaged minorities
• Average annual income in 1934=$48!• IRA reversed Dawes Act of 1887 by promoting
extensive self-government; tribal councils & constitutions
• Tribal lands & agricultural profits both increased greatly
• New Deal helped preserve Native languages, arts, traditions
• However, problems were so severe that more change was needed
The New Deal & the Land
• TVA was the biggest New Deal environmental undertaking
• 1933: task was to develop region’s resources under public control
• CCC & WPA created several attractions
New Deal & the Arts• Federal Art Project gave work to many of 20th
century’s leading painters, muralists, sculptors
New Deal & the Arts
• Federal Music Project employed 15K musicians
• Federal Writers Project employed 5K writers
• Federal Theatre Project, most ambitious, reached 25-30 million in 4 years– Terminated in 1939 over fears
of Communist influence
Legacies of the New Deal
• Set in motion far-reaching changes• Growth of a modern state of significant size• People experienced fed. gov’t as a part of
everyday life for first time• In 1930s, over 1/3 of Americans received
direct gov’t services from fed. programs, from Social Security, farm loans, relief work, etc.
Legacy of the New Deal
• Gov’t made a commitment to intervene in economy when private sector could not guarantee stability
• Stock market regulation, Fed. Reserve reformed
• Accelerated pattern begun by Progressive of using regulation to bring order to economic life
Problems with the New Deal
• Social Security Act did not include national health care
• Welfare system did not reach a majority of American workers, including domestics & farm workers
• Discriminated against women in terms of jobs & wages
• Did not end Depression, only short-term fixes
Problems with the New Deal
• Forced FDR to be unable to challenge marginalization of blacks in the South
• Needed white southern vote• Court-packing scheme, recession of 1937,
Republican success in 1938 elections, & inevitability of WWII—combined to bring end to the New Deal
Successes• Great political move;
gained support for Democratic Party from various groups– 84% of those on relief
voted for FDR in 1936– Middle class voters also
moved to Democratic side
– Stay w/ Democrats for years to come
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