In his address to Congress on 4 January 1935, Roosevelt called for five major goals: improved use of national resources, security against old age, unemployment and illness,slum clearance, and a national work relief program (theWorks Progress Administration) to replace direct relief efforts.[4] It included programs to redistribute wealth, income, and power in favor of the poor, the old, farmers and labor unions. The most important programs includedSocial Security, the National Labor Relations Act ("Wagner Act"), the Banking Act of 1935,rural electrification, andbreaking up utility holding companies. Theundistributed profits tax was only short-lived.
After trying since 1920, millions of organized World War veterans demanded their bonus. They never convinced FDR but New Deal liberals in Congress passed theBonus Bill of $1.5 to 3 million veterans over FDR's veto.[5]
Liberals strongly supported the new direction, and formed the long-term voterNew Deal Coalition of union members, big city machines, the white South, and ethnic minorities to support it. In reaction, conservatives—typified by theAmerican Liberty League—were strongly opposed but not as well organized at the grass roots. Big business took the lead in opposition.[6] Few liberal programs were enacted after 1936; liberals generally lost control of Congress in 1938.[7] Old programs continued for a while. Many were ended during World War II because unemployment was no longer a problem. These included theWPA,NYA and theResettlement Administration. Social Security and the Wagner Act, however, survived.
Most of the major laws had been under consideration by New Dealers for years. However, the increasing presence of agitators on the left, likeHuey Long of Louisiana andUpton Sinclair'sfailed gubernatorial campaign in California, may have forced Roosevelt's hand.[8][9][10] Other historians point to the influence of millions of organized World War veterans who wanted their bonus money for being a good citizen.[11]
^Edwin Amenta, Kathleen Dunleavy, and Mary Bernstein. "Stolen thunder? Huey Long's 'Share our wealth,' political mediation, and the second New Deal."American Sociological review (1994): 678–702.online
^Gregory, James N. (December 2015). "Upton Sinclair's 1934 EPIC Campaign: Anatomy of a Political Movement".Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas.12 (4):51–81.doi:10.1215/15476715-3155152.
^Stephen R. Ortiz,Beyond the Bonus March and GI Bill: how veteran politics shaped the New Deal era (NYU Press, 2010).[ISBN missing]
Amenta, Edwin, Kathleen Dunleavy, and Mary Bernstein. "Stolen Thunder? Huey Long's 'Share Our Wealth', Political Mediation, and the Second New Deal."American Sociological Review (1994): 678–702.JSTOR2096443
Best, Gary Dean. "Stuart Chase and the Second New Deal." inPeddling Panaceas ( Routledge, 2017) pp. 145–168.
Kennedy, David M.Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1945 (2001)[ISBN missing]
Leuchtenburg, William.Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal: 1932–1940 (1963).online
Marty, Frédéric, and Thierry Kirat. "The late emerging consensus among American economists on Antitrust laws in the second New Deal (1935–1941)." inThe late emerging consensus among American economists on Antitrust laws in the second New Deal (1935–1941) (2021): 11–51.online
Ortiz, Stephen R.Beyond the Bonus March and GI Bill: how veteran politics shaped the New Deal era (NYU Press, 2010).[ISBN missing]
