Second New Deal & WPA: US Economic Recovery 1935-1937
The Second New Deal (1935-1937)
Through intense publicity campaigns, consumers were encouraged to do business with companies that displayed the Blue Eagle as a sign of their cooperation with the NRA.
The U.S. Supreme Court invalidated the NIRA in May 1935, but President Roosevelt went on to introduce new policies to implement the New Deal.
Though public support for Roosevelt remained high as 1934 ended, the Depression had not significantly subsided. First New Deal experiments aimed at relieving major symptoms of the economic downturn had energized the public but had not relieved the suffering. By 1935, New Dealers determined that a permanent system of government employment for the unemployed was preferable to any sort of direct payments or dole system. In this scheme, the government would take the role of employer of last resort. When an economic downturn increased unemployment, the government would provide jobs, and when the economy improved, government employment programs would shrink as workers re-entered the private economy.
Harry Hopkins was one of FDR’s closest advisers and the architect of the New Deal, especially of the relief programs of the WPA, which he directed and built into the largest employer in the country.
The Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration (WPA) received congressional approval in early 1935. It aimed to employ men and women over age twenty-four in a growing range of projects. From its launch in 1935 until it ended in 1943, the WPA employed a total of 8.5 million workers. At its height, 3 million people worked for the massive organization, roughly 20 percent of the American workforce. It built 650,000 miles of highways and roads, 125,000 public buildings, 8,000 parks, and various other projects. WPA jobs paid less than the prevailing wage, so an incentive remained to seek employment in the private economy. The WPA reached beyond normal public works and into the arts, historic preservation, and social research. WPA’s cultural projects included the Federal Writers’ Project, the Federal Music Project, the Federal Theater Project, and the Federal Arts Project. The latter employed artists such as painters and sculptors to produce public art, advertising for government relief efforts, and exhibiting their work.
Promotional Newsreels
Apart from American parlors, the programs and achievements of the New Deal also reached the American public through the so-called newsreels. Before the era of television, people received their news from one of three venues: radio, newspapers, and movie theaters through the means of newsreels. A newsreel was exactly a reel of film (usually spanning ten minutes in length) and presented filmed news stories and items of topical interest. In the US, it was a source of current affairs and entertainment for millions of moviegoers until television supplanted its role in the 1950s. Agencies such as the WPA also produced longer video programs to highlight the achievements of the New Deal. Newsreels, which are now considered significant historical documents, kept their propagandistic function in wartime.