FDR passed new banking legislation to stabilize the financial system and regulate banks. This included giving the president power over banking transactions and foreign exchange to reopen solvent banks. FDR also sought to protect gold reserves and stabilize the dollar against "panicky hoarding". Unemployment was also a major issue, so FDR used federal funds to create programs like the CCC to employ young men in conservation work and send most of their wages home to support families. The WPA was also created to provide useful public works projects and part-time jobs to address continued unemployment and quiet critics like Huey Long and Father Coughlin.

2. ROOSEVELT TACKLES MONEY & BANKING
Banking chaos cried aloud for immediate action. In an eight hour session, Congress
passed the Emergency Banking Relief Act of 1933. The new law gave the president the
power to regulate banking transactions and foreign exchange and to reopen solvent banks.
FDR moved swiftly elsewhere on the financial front, seeking to protect the melting gold
reserves and to prevent panicky hoarding. How did he accomplish this?
What was the goal of FDR’s “managed currency?” And describe the steps he took
to stabilize the dollar.

3. CREATING JOBS for the JOBLESS
Overwhelming unemployment clamored for prompt remedial action. One out of every four
workers was jobless when FDR took office. FDR did not hesitate to use federal money to
assist the unemployed and at the same time to “prime the pump” of industrial recovery.
The Hundred Days Congress responded by creating the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC),
which proved to be perhaps the most popular of all the New Deal “alphabet agencies.”

4. The CCC provided employment in fresh-air govt. camps for about 3 million uniformed young
men, many of whom might otherwise have been driven to desperation into criminal habits.
What type of work did these men do? The men were required to their parents by
sending home most of their pay. Were there critics of the program?
Describe the following New Deal programs:
* Federal Emergency Relief Act
* Agricultural Adjustment Act
* Home Owner’s Loan Corporation

6. A DAY for EVERY DEMAGOGUE
Direct relief from Washington to needy families
helped pull the nation through the ghastly winter
of 1933-1934. But the disheartening persistence
of unemployment and suffering demonstrated that
emergency relief had to be continued.
One danger signal was the appearance of various
demagogues, notably Sen. Huey (“Kingfish”) Long of
Louisiana. Like some others, he capitalized on
popular discontent to make pie-in-the-sky
promises. Describe his “Share Our Wealth”
program.

7. Another prominent demagogue was the “microphone messiah,” Father Charles Coughlin, a
Catholic priest from Michigan. His “Social Justice” slogan led anti-New Deal diatribes
that were also anti-Semitic and fascistic. He was finally silenced by his superiors in 1942.

8. Partly to quiet and discredit the demagogues, Congress authorized the Works Progress
Administration (WPA) in 1935. The objective was employment on useful projects.

9. The agency ultimately spent $11 billion on thousands of public buildings, bridges, and
roads. Agencies of the WPA also found part-time occupations for needy high school and
college students, and for unemployed white-collar workers.
Women working in a govt. funded canning center
Men work on a govt. funded drainage system