The New Deal greatly expanded the power and reach of the federal government. It increased the number of civilian government employees by 80% and doubled the number in Washington D.C. within 10 years. The New Deal also strengthened groups like organized labor, women, African Americans, and boosted their support for the Democratic Party. However, it did not end the Depression and still discriminated against many groups, such as through segregating New Deal programs. Overall, the New Deal set the stage for an expanded role for the government in addressing economic issues.

1. The New Deal’s Impact on Society

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. Eleanor Roosevelt in 1933
Sec. of Labor Frances Perkins

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. New Deal & the Arts
• Federal Art Project gave work to many of 20th
century’s leading painters, muralists, sculptors

15. 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

16. 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.

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. Successes
• Great political move;
gained support for
Democratic Party from
various groups
– 60% to 36.5%
• 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
• “New Deal Coalition”