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THE SECOND NEW DEAL
In its early years, the New Deal sponsored a remarkable series of legislative initiatives and achieved significant increases in production and prices – but it did not bring an end to the Depression. And as the sense of immediate crises eased, new demands emerged. Businessmen mourned the end of “laissez-faire” and chafed under the regulations of the NIRA. Vocal attacks also mounted from the political left and right as dreamers, schemers and politicians alike emerged with economic panaceas that drew wide audiences of those dissatisfied with the pace of recovery. They included Francis E. Townsend’s plan for generous old-age pensions; the inflationary suggestions of Father Coughlin, the radio priest who blamed international bankers in speeches increasingly peppered with anti-Semitic imagery; and most formidably, the “Every Man a King” plan of Huey P. Long, senator and former governor of Louisiana, the powerful and ruthless spokesman of the displaced who ran the state like a personal fiefdom. (if he had not been assassinated, Long very likely would have launched a presidential challenge to Franklin Roosevelt in 1936. In the face of these pressures from left and right, President Roosevelt backed a new set of economic and social measures. Prominent among these were measures to fight poverty, to counter unemployment with work and to provide a social safety net. The Works Progress Administration (WPA), the principal relief agency of the so-called second New Deal, was an attempt to provide work rather than welfare. Under the WPA, buildings, roads, airports and schools were constructed. Actors, painters, musicians and writers were employed through the Federal Theater project, the Federal Art Project and the Federal Writers project. In addition, the national Youth Administration gave part-time employment to students, established training programs and provided aid to unemployed youth. The WPA only included about three million jobless at a time; when it was abandoned in 1943 it had helped a total of 9 million people. But the New Deal’s cornerstone, according to Roosevelt, was the Social Security Act of 1935. Social Security created a system of insurance for the aged, unemployed and disabled based on employer and employee contributions. Many other industrialized nations had already enacted such programs, but calls for such an initiative in the United States by the Progressives in the early 1900s had gone unheeded. Although conservatives complained that the Social Security system went against American traditions, it was actually relatively conservative. Social Security was funded in large part by taxes on the earnings of current workers, with a single fixed rate for all regardless of income. To Roosevelt, these limitations on the programs were compromises to ensure passage. Although its origins were initially quite modest, Social Security today is one of the largest domestic programs administrated by the U.S. government.
GLOSSARY
stock market market trading in securities prediction prognosis; forecast to evaporate to disappear; to vanish to be unemployed to be jobless; to be out of work to consume to buy goods at the market sound investment financially secure investment speculation engagement in a risky venture on the chance of making huge profits real estate property in land and buildings detonation blast; explosion remedy cure; solution; means of salvation to stem from to arise from; to originate from flaw a defect, weakness, imperfection to aggravate to worsen; to complicate further repercussion an effect or result, often indirect, of some event or action implication suggestion; meaning smashing victory decisive victory to rally the people to bring the people together “laissez-faire” the absence of governmental control over industry and capitalism business to suspend (here) to stop; to discontinue solvent able to pay off legal debts commodity an article of trade or commerce facilities (here) relief; concession deposit money placed into a bank account securities stocks and bonds relief assistance; support; help to enroll (here) to give work; to enlist welfare (here) a direct governmental and public financial aid to needy and unemployed people adjustment changing so as to fit subsidy (here) a direct governmental financial assistance to farmers voluntary done or brought about by one’s own will to levy taxes to impose taxes on to be underway to be well advanced; to be moving forward abundant crops rich, plentiful crops to ravage to devastate; to ruin; to bring terrible destruction to harm to injure retailer a person who sells goods directly to consumers in small qualities livelihood means of living or of supporting life food processor a powerful multi-purpose kitchen appliance insurance guarantee against risks of loss or harm recovery (here) regaining of lost strength, balance cut-throat competition ruinously ruthless competition to foster to promote the growth or development administered prices controlled prices gains profits or winnings union activities to intervene into inner union’s life and affairs board a group of administrators; council to supervise to watch over; to oversee; to control to administer elections to conduct and supervise elections framework a basic structure or system to chafe to be impatient and annoyed panacea a remedy for all diseases or troubles fiefdom (here) a feudal estate to be assassinated to be killed treacherously by a hired assassin cornerstone smth.basic and essential disabled deprived of physical or mental health and unable to work to go unheeded to be disregarded; to be unnoticed Read and translate the text
Franclin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States, was from a wealthy, well-known family. As a child, he attended private school, had private tutors, and traveled with his parents to Europe. He attended Harvard University, and afterward studied law. At age 39 Roosevelt suddenly developed polio, a disease that left him without the full use of his legs for the rest of his life. Even though the worst of his illness, however, he continued his life in politics. In 1924 he appeared at the Democratic National Convention to nominate Al Smith for president, and eight years after that he himself was nominated for the same office. Roosevelt was elected to the presidency during the Great Depression of the 1930s, at a time when more than 5,000 banks had failed and thousands of people were out of work. Roosevelt took action. First he declared a bank holiday that closed all the banks so no more could fail; then he reopened the banks little by little with government support. Roosevelt believed in using the full power of government to help what he called the “forgotten people”. And it was these workers, the wage earners, who felt the strongest affection toward Roosevelt. There were others, however, who felt that Roosevelt’s policies were destroying the American system of government, and they opposed him in the same intense way that others admired him. In 1940 the Democrats nominated Roosevelt for an unprecedented third term. No president in American history had ever served three terms, but Roosevelt felt an obligation not to quit while the United States’ entry into World War II was looming in the future. He accepted the nomination and went on to an easy victory.
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