The New DealI. BackgroundII. Creating the Safety Net

A. ReliefB. JobsC. Social insurance

III. Union LegitimacyA. Norris-LaGuardiaB. NRAC. Anti-Racketeering Law of

1933D. NLRA

IV. ResponseA. WorkersB. EmployersC. Constitutional Conflict

Values• Public control

– Economic morality

– Progressivism• SOL Frances Perkins

• Cooperation

– End of individualism

• Experimentation

– Emergency mentality

Public Works Administration

Construction of the Triborough Bridge

Relief

• In 1933, Congress enacts $4.8B relief bill

• $1B per year

• 2% of GDP

Relief line, San Antonio, TX, 1939

Civilian Conservation Corps

• Plant trees• Build parks

Works Progress

Administration

• Culture– Writers, artists,

actors

• Promotes unions, Democratic policies

Social Insurance

• Old Age benefits• Payroll tax

Norris-LaGuardia

• Precedes New Deal

• Passed in 1932 by new Congress– Democratic majority– Progressive Republicans

• Rep. Fiorello LaGuardia (R-NY)

• Sen. George Norris (R-NB)

• Declared labor’s right to organize

• Outlawed yellow dog contracts

• Barred federal judges from issuing labor injunctions

“The Little Flower”

National Recovery

Administration

• Economic Planning– Agricultural Adjustment

Administration

• Industrial self-governance• Right to join labor union—Section

7A

National Labor Relations Act

• Also known as the Wagner Act (1935)

• Encourage collective bargaining to stabilize wages

• Guarantees worker’s right to join a union

• NLRB– arbitrates– counts ballots

Senator Robert Wagner (D-NY)

Anti-Racketeering Act of 1933

• New legitimacy requires policymakers redefine criminality

• Federal, state, local campaign against racketeering ensues

• Word is vague

• AFL uses to establish itself as the source of legitimacyAl Capone, 1929

Workers Respond• Progressive

unions make big gains– United Mine

Workers– Amalgamated

Clothing Workers

• AFL confronts manufacturing– Federal locals– Automobile

• Toledo• Auto-lite

• General strikes– Minneapolis– San Francisco

Minneapolis teamsters fight police, 1934

Employers

• Rhetorical

– Call NIRA fascism

– Call Democrats “communists”

• Practical– TextilesJames H. Rand, Jr.

President of Remington-Rand, Inc.Cited for "wholesale violations" of

NLRA

Constitutional Conflict

• Corporate manufacturers fund legal challenge

• USSC voids NIRA in 1935

• Employers refuse to abide Wagner Act until court rules

• Jones & Laughlin case (1937)– Justice Roberts switches– Court upholds NLRA &

federal economic regulation generally

U.S. Supreme Court, 1932