Quick questions on The Second New Deal: HSC Modern History USA 1935-1938

The 1934 mid-term elections, against all precedent, strengthened the Democratic majorities (74 to 21 in the Senate, 322 to 103 in the House). The First New Deal had stabilised the economy, but unemployment remained around 22 per cent and the political mood was radicalising on both sides.

The Second Hundred Days (June to August 1935) produced four major Acts.

The Republican convention nominated Governor Alf Landon of Kansas. The Liberty League and conservative Democrats endorsed Landon. Long's successor Gerald L.K. Smith ran with the Union Party candidate William Lemke (a Townsend, Coughlin, and Smith composite).

The Supreme Court had struck down the National Industrial Recovery Act in Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States (27 May 1935), the Agricultural Adjustment Act in United States v. Butler (6 January 1936), and the Bituminous Coal Conservation Act in Carter v.

Confident of recovery, Roosevelt cut spending and Morgenthau pushed for budget balance in 1937. The Federal Reserve doubled reserve requirements between August 1936 and May 1937. The "Roosevelt recession" followed: industrial production fell around 30 per cent and unemployment rose from 14 to 19 per cent between August 1937 and June 1938.

Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. (The Age of Roosevelt, 1957 to 1960) is the founding liberal interpretation.

Replaced Section 7(a) of the unconstitutional NIRA. It established the National Labor Relations Board, banned a list of unfair labour practices, and required employers to bargain in good faith with unions chosen by majority vote of workers. Union membership rose from around 3.5 million (1935) to around 8.4 million (1939); the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was founded in November 1935 and organised the mass-production industries.

Established: - Old-age pensions (payable from 1940) funded by employer and employee payroll taxes. - Federal-state unemployment insurance. - Federal grants for Aid to Dependent Children, the blind, and the disabled.

Under Harry Hopkins, the WPA was a direct federal employer rather than a grant-maker to states. By its end in 1943 it had employed around 8.5 million Americans on around 1.4 million projects: schools, libraries, airports, post offices, the Lincoln Tunnel, La Guardia Airport, and the WPA Federal Theater, Federal Writers', and Federal Art Projects.

Raised top marginal income tax to 75 per cent on incomes over 5 million dollars and lifted estate, gift, and excess profits taxes. Critics called it the "Soak the Rich" Act.

Justice Owen Roberts switched sides. On 29 March 1937 the Court upheld a Washington state minimum wage in West Coast Hotel Co. v.

Conservative Justice Willis Van Devanter retired on 2 June 1937. Roosevelt appointed Senator Hugo Black of Alabama. Five further retirements in the next four years gave Roosevelt the most extensive remake of the Court in American history.

(The Age of Roosevelt, 1957 to 1960) is the founding liberal interpretation.

First and Second New Deals are distinct.

8 September 1935, six weeks after Social Security.