Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Abbreviations Used in the Footnotes
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I The Old Regime
- Part II Early Progressivism
- Part III Late Progressivism
- Part IV The New Deal
- 18 The Hundred Days
- 19 To the Brink
- 20 The Second New Deal
- 21 The Court Fight
- 22 The Abortive Third New Deal
- 23 The New Deal Court
- Appendix A
- Appendix B
- Primary Sources
- Index
- References
20 - The Second New Deal
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Abbreviations Used in the Footnotes
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I The Old Regime
- Part II Early Progressivism
- Part III Late Progressivism
- Part IV The New Deal
- 18 The Hundred Days
- 19 To the Brink
- 20 The Second New Deal
- 21 The Court Fight
- 22 The Abortive Third New Deal
- 23 The New Deal Court
- Appendix A
- Appendix B
- Primary Sources
- Index
- References
Summary
THE SECOND HUNDRED DAYS
The judicial setbacks of “Black Monday” accelerated a presidential move to the left. Roosevelt took several steps that alienated the business community. In 1934, Congress created the Securities and Exchange Commission, an agency to enforce the Securities Act of 1933. Roosevelt did away with air mail contracts, which had provided subsidies for private aviation firms. (Several crashes and deaths among Army pilot substitutes soon restored them.) The Communications Act of 1934 extended the Radio Act of 1927 and created a new agency to enforce it. The Railroad Retirement Act and amended Railway Labor Act added costs to that industry. Mounting deficits also indicated that Roosevelt’s initial fiscal concerns were gone; conservative Budget Director Lewis Douglas resigned in August 1934. New Deal opponents – including many of Roosevelt’s former allies – established the American Liberty League. The American Bar Association began a study of the growth of the administrative state, led by Roscoe Pound, who became increasingly hostile to New Deal bureaucracy. Even the soundly repudiated former president rejoined the political world with The Challenge to Liberty, which displayed a greater sympathy to old liberalism. At the same time, Roosevelt faced a growing challenge on the left – from Louisiana Governor Huey Long’s “Share Our Wealth” movement, the “social justice” campaign of Father Charles Coughlin, the old-age pension scheme of Francis Townshend, and the “End Poverty in California” campaign of Upton Sinclair. The unusually large midterm election gains for the president’s party did not indicate whether the electorate endorsed the president or his policies.
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- Information
- The American State from the Civil War to the New DealThe Twilight of Constitutionalism and the Triumph of Progressivism, pp. 257 - 274Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013