Comprised
of university professors, businessmen & economists. He next declared a
national “Bank Holiday” where all US
banks were closed for 4 days. During
that time the federal govt. determined which banks were solvent and which were
not & would have to close. His purpose was to restore confidence in the
banking system & to encourage Americans not to withdraw their savings but
to continue to make deposits in these safe banks.
the govts. efforts to end the depression and to give the people courage & confidence in the govt. & the future.These weekly talks were known as “Fireside Chats”.
During the first hundred days of his administration a largely Democratic Congress passed a large number of laws intended to improve the economy. Some of these bills were not effective & others would be later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, but FDR had to try everything he could think of to improve the economy. His emphasis at this time was on the 3 R’s of Relief, Recovery & Reform! FDR’s plans for reviving the economy were known as the “New Deal”.
Many of FDR’s critics said he was not doing enough to help the economy, while others, particularly businessmen & conservatives, said that he was trying to destroy capitalism and spending too much to improve the economy. They also said that he was concentrating too much power in the central govt. was making the federal govt. too large!
In an effort to help the elderly & retired, he created the Social Security Act, which provided pensions, help for the disabled, for families with small children & for widows. FDR created a whole series, of what became known as alphabet soup agencies, or govt. programs & departments, which attempted to help the unemployed by providing jobs in public works programs. He also sought to help farmers (AAA), unemployed youths (CCC) workers (WPA). The WPA & PWA were the best known because they employed so many & spent so much for building schools, dams, highways, public buildings etc. Refer to chart on page 737!
However FDR had never realized that a conservative Supreme Court, made up largely of
justices appointed by conservative Republican presidents of the 1920s, could be
such an impediment to his plans. The Court declared many New Deal laws unconstitutional & threatened FDR’s
future plans! FDR then requested that Congress increase the number of justices
to 15 from 9! These6 new justices, appointed by FDR, could then prevent the
Court from declaring the New Deal laws unconstitutional. This “Court Packing Plan” as it was called
was not passed by Congress. Eventually FDR did replace 5 justices as the older
ones retired, but his plan did hurt his reputation & gave ammunition to his
critics who accused him of trying to grab too much power & upsetting the
system of checks & balances!
FDR’s New Deal programs were very expensive. The money was raised by increasing taxes & the use of deficit spending, or borrowing to cover expenses. His critics said that these programs were too expensive for the nation, & did not do enough to reduce unemployment, that stood at over 25% when FDR became President.
HOMEWORK: Read pgs. 739 – 743. Do pg. 738 ques. 3B & C & pg 750 ques 5. Do pg. 739 T&N ALL.