Learn
Limits and Critics of the New Deal
Limits of the New Deal for Women
Women's rights did not progress under New Deal Legislation. The NRA codes permitted lower wages for women's work in almost a quarter of all cases. Men and boys received strong preference over women in relief programs. No New Deal provisions protected domestic services (like house cleaning) where many women worked.
Limits of the New Deal for African Americans
African Americans abandoned the Republican Party in droves in the 1932 election, in hopes that Franklin Roosevelt would lend his support. However, the New Deal did nothing to end discrimination against African Americans. FDR refused to approve a federal anti-lynching law and end the poll tax. African Americans received lower pay for the same work. In many ways, the federal relief programs reinforced segregation. Social Security excluded 2/3 of working African Americans because it excluded farmers and domestic workers.
Limits of the New Deal for Mexican Americans
Mexican Americans supported the New Deal, but received even fewer benefits than African Americans. Approximately 400,000 Mexican Americans were deported by the federal government in an attempt to streamline relief efforts and solidify jobs for native-born Americans. Many returned to Mexico willingly, but others were deported including some who were U.S. Citizens.
Limits of the New Deal for Native Americans
Native Americans received strong government support from the New Deal. The New Deal provided full citizenship for all Native Americans by law. The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 helped restore some reservation lands to tribal ownership. In some cases, Native Americans began to move away from assimilation (The process by which a group's language and/or culture come to resemble those of another group) and toward Native American autonomy.
Read Native Americans to learn more about the impact of the New Deal on Native Americans.
Critics - The Court-Packing Scheme
FDR received high criticism for attempting to "pack the court" with judges that would agree with him. FDR's ill-conceived Court-Packing Scheme was a plan to add several judges to the Supreme Court, making that branch more sympathetic to New Deal legislation. Many people disagreed with this scheme because it seemed to inject politics into the judiciary.
Roosevelt's Reelection in 1936
In 1936, questions arose concerning Roosevelt's reelection. After he won by a landslide, Roosevelt went toe-to-toe with the Supreme Court over disagreements concerning the New Deal.
Critics - The Conservatives
Conservative critics believed that the New Deal allowed the government to get too involved in the individual citizen's life. Moreover, wealthy Americans viewed the New Deal programs as socialist programs aimed at raising taxes on the rich. To counter the New Deal's "radicalism," the American Liberty League was organized by conservative business leaders.
Critics - The Liberals
Liberal Critics believed the New Deal did not do enough to help the individual. Progressives and Socialist groups attacked the New Deal. They argued that the New Deal had only limited success in eliminating poverty.
Upton Sinclair (Remember that he is a "muckraker," known for writing The Jungle) was a liberal critic of the New Deal who started End Poverty in California (EPIC).
Other Critics of the New Deal
There were several demagogues (Leaders who manipulate people with their half truths, deceptive promises, and scare tactics) who openly criticized FDR and his New Deal in the 1930s. These three men thought the New Deal did not do enough to help the individual.
Father Charles E. Coughlin
Father Charles Coughlin was a Catholic priest whose radio program called for much more liberal and populist actions than those taken by FDR. He launched reckless attacks on FDR. By the end of the 1930s, Coughlin was issuing openly anti-Jewish statements on air. He began to shower praise on Hitler and Mussolini. In 1942, the Roman Catholic Church ordered him to stop broadcasting his radio show.
Huey P. Long
Huey Long was a Governor (1928) and Senator (1932) from Louisiana. He worked to help the underprivileged to improve education, medical care, and public service. He originally supported FDR and the New Deal, but then thought it did not do enough. He developed an alternative to the New Deal called Share the Wealth. It was a program to take money from the rich and provide for the poor.
Dr. Francis Townsend
Dr. Francis Townsend developed his own plan to help end the Great Depression. It was an aggressive idea for people over the age of sixty to retire, opening many new jobs for younger Americans who were unemployed. The federal government would then pay each retired person a $200 monthly pension. This plan was not actually feasible or financially possible, but it paved the way for the Social Security Act, which became law in 1935.
1930s Culture
New Deal Culture - Motion Pictures
The 1930s were considered the Golden Age of motion pictures with 65% of the population attending movies. With films like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Gone with the Wind (1939), viewers could escape into the stories of struggles and hope.
New Deal Culture - Motion Pictures
Some film analysts suggest that The Wizard of Oz (1939) symbolically represents certain aspects of the New Deal.
- Emerald City = New Deal
- Tornado = Great Depression/ Dust Bowl
- Yellow Brick Road = Hope and freedom
- Dorothy = Search to escape the depression
- Scarecrow = Midwest farmer
- Tinman = Unemployed industrial worker
- Lion = Bankrupt businessman
- Wizard = FDR
- Brain = Brain Trust
- Heart = Massive relief programs
- Lullaby League and Lollipop Guild = Unions
New Deal Culture - Art
New Deal programs, like the Works Progress Administration, put a number of unemployed artists and writers to work. The Federal Arts Project was a branch of the WPA that paid artists a living wage to produce public art. Much of the art during the time portrayed the dignity of ordinary Americans at work.
Grant Wood's famous painting, American Gothic, pictured, depicts farmers during the Great Depression.
New Deal Culture - Literature
The Federal Writers' Project, also part of the WPA, was created to provide income to writers. Similar to the art, the literature of the 1930s was heavily influenced by the Great Depression.
John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939) revealed the lives of people, particularly migrant workers, during the Dust Bowl. Zora Neale Hurston was an African-American author from Alabama who wrote Their Eyes Are Watching God (1937).
New Deal Culture - Literature
William Faulkner was another influential writer during the 1920s and 1930s.
The Sound and the Fury (1929) and As I Lay Dying (1930) are two of his most famous books. Both novels have received numerous awards and are listed on Modern Library's 100 best English-language novels of the 20th Century. Faulkner is from Mississippi, and he is considered one of the most important writers in Southern literature.
New Deal Culture - Radio
Families who owned a radio spent several hours a day gathered together listening to their favorite programs, such as The Lone Ranger and various soap operas. Actor Orson Welles presented The War of the Worlds, which is still one of the most renowned radio broadcasts of all time. Many people who tuned in late to the broadcast truly thought the earth was being invaded by aliens!
Listen to some of The War of the Worlds.
New Deal Culture - Music
Americans listened to happier tunes as a refuge from the hard times of the Great Depression. However, some musicians used music to capture the hardships of America. One of the most famous was Woody Guthrie, a singer and songwriter forced to seek a better life in California due to the Dust Bowl. He told of his troubles in his songs. Guthrie's lyrics appealed to those who suffered similar hardships.
Listen to a variety of songs from the era.
New Deal Culture - 1936 Olympics
Jesse Owens was an African-American athlete from Alabama who won four gold medals at the Munich Olympics of 1936, infuriating Adolf Hitler, Germany's Nazi dictator.
Lasting New Deal Achievements
Several public works projects and federal agencies created during the New Deal are still impacting Americans today.
- TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority)
- SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission)
- FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation)
- Social Security
- Rural farm practices
- Bridges, dams, and tunnels
A legacy of hope has been carried on through the lives of the "greatest generation."
 |