One Hundred Days of 1st FDR US Presidential administration (in 1933) brought in astonishing changes: Beer, Farm Relief, Civilian Conservation Corps, Federal Emergency Relief Administration, Public Works Administration and Tennessee Valley Authority

This post follows up on my recent post: One Hundred Days of 1st FDR US Presidential administration (in 1933) brought in astonishing changes: New Bank Law, https://ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/2020/11/one-hundred-days-of-1st-fdr-us.html .

Sources: 1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt#First_New_Deal_(1933%E2%80%931934)

2) FDR Book: FDR (Franklin D. Roosevelt) by Jean Edward Smith (referred as FDR book below).

Some other key measures taken in the first 100 days, besides the new bank law, were:

* As mentioned in his campaign pledge, sale of beer and light wine was permitted. FDR is said to have signaled that this work should be taken up by saying, "I think this would be a good time for a beer", as the new bank law was received with great support and praise across the USA. The FDR book mentions that FDR's assistant, Louis Howe (whose official designation then seems to have been Secretary to the President), acted on FDR's signal and started the work that led to passage of the Cullen-Harrison act, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cullen%E2%80%93Harrison_Act, which legalized sale of beer and wine of low alcohol content. Note that earlier the Volstead act had established prohibition (of alcohol) in USA from 1919/1920.

* A farm relief bill was passed. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_Adjustment_Act, "The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) was a United States federal law of the New Deal era designed to boost agricultural prices by reducing surpluses. The government bought livestock for slaughter and paid farmers subsidies not to plant on part of their land. The money for these subsidies was generated through an exclusive tax on companies which processed farm products." ... "The AAA, along with other New Deal programs, represented the federal government's first substantial effort to address economic welfare in the United States.[7]" [Reference 7: Gates, Staci L. 2006. "Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933." Federalism in American: An Encyclopedia.]

The FDR book covers the opposition to this bill in US Congress on behalf of the food products companies who would have to pay these new taxes, and how FDR won over Senate members by allowing amendments to the bill, thereby ensuring the bill passed with a 64-20 big majority in the Senate. 

The FDR book says, "Roosevelt saw the farm program as the centerpiece of the New Deal. Not only was agriculture the most perennially depressed sector of the economy, but ever since his experience as a state senator, FDR (who had chaired the Agriculture Committee in Albany) had stressed the relationship between farm prosperity and the well-being of the rest of the country. If farmers had no money to buy what industry produced, the cities suffered as well." [Ravi: Albany is a reference to when FDR was in New York state Congress or was Governor of New York state. Albany is the capital of New York state, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albany,_New_York .]

But there seem to have been some strange actions associated with the Farm Relief bill/act. Given below are extracts from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_Adjustment_Act :

The juxtaposition of huge agricultural surpluses and the many deaths due to insufficient food shocked many, as well as some of the administrative decisions that happened under the Agricultural Adjustment Act.[12] For example, in an effort to reduce agricultural surpluses, the government paid farmers to reduce crop production[13] and to sell pregnant sows as well as young pigs.[14] Oranges were being soaked with kerosene to prevent their consumption and corn was being burned as fuel because it was so cheap.[12] There were many people, however, as well as livestock in different places starving to death.[12] Farmers slaughtered livestock because feed prices were rising, and they could not afford to feed their own animals.[12] Under the Agricultural Adjustment Act, "plowing under" of pigs was also common to prevent them reaching a reproductive age, as well as donating pigs to the Red Cross.[12]

In 1935, the income generated by farms was 50 percent higher than it was in 1932, which was partly due to farm programs such as the AAA.[15]

The Agricultural Adjustment Act affected nearly all of the farmers in this time period. (Around 99%).

[References:]

12. Poppendieck, Janet (1986). Breadlines Knee Deep in Wheat: Food Assistance in the Great Depression. Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. pp. 1–306. ISBN 978-0813511214. OCLC 12132710.

13. Powell, Jim (2003). FDR's Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression. New York: Crown Forum. pp. 134. ISBN 978-0761501657.

14. Fleetwood, Jonathan (May 1993). "The Hog Reduction Program of the AAA". Illinois History. Archived from the original on 2015-01-03. Retrieved 5 December 2014.

15. Rasmussen, Wayne D., Gladys L. Baker, and James S. Ward, "A Short History of Agricultural Adjustment, 1933-75." Economic Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Information Bulletin No. 391 (March 1976), pg. 4.

--- end extracts from Agricultural Adjustment Act wiki page ---

* The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was established. The FDR book says (pages 319,320), "The CCC was Roosevelt's personal idea. Throughout his life FDR had an abiding interest in conservation, and reforestation ranked high on his list of personal priorities." FDR faced some opposition from organized labor in USA but he sorted it out with them. The CCC bill was passed by voice vote in the Senate and the House, and signed into law on March 31st 1933 by FDR.

Given below are extracts from the wiki page, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_Conservation_Corps :

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28.[1] Robert Fechner was the first director of this agency, succeeded by James McEntee following Fechner's death. The CCC was a major part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal that provided manual labor jobs related to the conservation and development of natural resources in rural lands owned by federal, state, and local governments. The CCC was designed to provide jobs for young men and to relieve families who had difficulty finding jobs during the Great Depression in the United States. Maximum enrollment at any one time was 300,000. Through the course of its nine years in operation, 3 million young men participated in the CCC, which provided them with shelter, clothing, and food, together with a wage of $30 (equivalent to $590 in 2019) per month ($25 of which had to be sent home to their families).[2]

The American public made the CCC the most popular of all the New Deal programs.[3] Sources written at the time claimed[4] an individual's enrollment in the CCC led to improved physical condition, heightened morale, and increased employability. The CCC also led to a greater public awareness and appreciation of the outdoors and the nation's natural resources, and the continued need for a carefully planned, comprehensive national program for the protection and development of natural resources.[5]

The CCC operated separate programs for veterans and Native Americans. Approximately 15,000 Native Americans participated in the program, helping them weather the Great Depression.[7]

[References:]

1. "Timeline. The Civilian Conservation Corps". American Experience. WGBH - PBS. Archived from the original on December 25, 2016.

2. John A. Salmond, The Civilian Conservation Corps CCC 1933–1942: a New Deal case study (1967)

3. Perry H. Merrill, Roosevelt's Forest Army, A History of the Civilian Conservation Corps (1981) p. 196

4. "CONSERVATION: Poor Young Men". Time. February 6, 1939 – via content.time.com.

5. Robert Allen Ermentrout, "Forgotten Men: The Civilian Conservation Corps," (1982) p. 99

7. Landry, Alysa (August 9, 2016). "Franklin Delano Roosevelt: A New Deal for Indians". Indian Country Today. Archived from the original on August 12, 2016. Retrieved August 9, 2016. 

--- end extracts from CCC wiki page --- 

The FDR book says (on page 321), "The CCC did more than reclaim natural resources. It literally gave 3 million young men a new lease on life. The money they sent home supported many times their numbers, and the funds spent on constructing and running the camps were a constant source of revenue for the communities in which they were located."

* Federal Emergency Relief Administration was established. Given below are extracts from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Emergency_Relief_Administration :

The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) was a program established by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1933, building on the Hoover administration's Emergency Relief and Construction Act. It was replaced in 1935 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

Prior to 1933, the federal government gave loans to the states to operate relief programs. One of these, the New York state program TERA (Temporary Emergency Relief Administration), was set up in 1931 and headed by Harry Hopkins, a close adviser to Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt asked Congress to set up FERA—which gave grants to the states for the same purpose—in May 1933, and appointed Hopkins to head it. Along with the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) it was the first relief operation under the New Deal.

FERA's main goal was to alleviate household unemployment by creating new unskilled jobs in local and state government. Jobs were more expensive than direct cash payments (called "the dole"), but were psychologically more beneficial to the unemployed, who wanted any sort of job, for self-esteem. From May 1933 until it closed in December 1935, FERA gave states and localities $3.1 billion (the equivalent of $55.4 billion in 2017).[1] FERA provided work for over 20 million people and developed facilities on public lands across the country.

[References:]

1. Trowbridge, D.J. (2016). A History of the United States: 1865 to present. Asheville, NC: Soomo Learning. http://www.webtexts.com/courses/19333-schaller/traditional_book/chapters/1696149-the-new-deal-and-origins-of-world-war-ii-19321939/pages/1428876-the-first-hundred-days?q=FERA

--- end Federal Emergency Relief Administration wiki extracts ---

In the context of FERA, the FDR book states (on page 322): "On March 30 the Senate approved (55-17) FDR's request for $500 million for grants-in-aid to assist the states in their relief efforts. Three weeks later the House concurred, 326-42." The book goes on to say that Harry Hopkins worked with great speed and minimal overhead costs in disbursing the funds to where it was needed. It states, "At the end of its first year, FERA had assisted 17 million people and disbursed $1.5 billion. All of this with a staff of 121 persons and a monthly payroll of $22,000."

* Public Works Administration was established. The FDR book says in this context (on page 323), "By the time the bill was presented to Congress in May, the cost of the projects included (in Public Works Administration bill) had risen to $3.3 billion, a figure the Bureau of the Budget thought was sustainable. It was passed in the early morning hours of June 16, 1933, the final piece of legislation enacted during the hundred days."

Given below are extracts from Public Works Administration wiki page, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Works_Administration :

Public Works Administration (PWA), part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was created by the National Industrial Recovery Act in June 1933 in response to the Great Depression. It built large-scale public works such as dams, bridges, hospitals, and schools. Its goals were to spend $3.3 billion in the first year, and $6 billion in all, to provide employment, stabilize purchasing power, and help revive the economy. Most of the spending came in two waves in 1933–35, and again in 1938. Originally called the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works, it was renamed the Public Works Administration in 1935 and shut down in 1944.[1]

The PWA spent over $7 billion in contracts to private construction firms that did the actual work. It created an infrastructure that generated national and local pride in the 1930s and remains vital eight decades later. The PWA was much less controversial than its rival agency with a confusingly similar name, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), headed by Harry Hopkins, which focused on smaller projects and hired unemployed unskilled workers.[2]

[References:]

1. National Archive. "Records of the Public Works Administration". 135.1.

2. Smith (2006)

--- end extracts from Public Works Administration wiki page ---

* Passed the Tennessee Valley Authority act. Some extracts from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee_Valley_Authority are given below :

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned corporation in the United States created by congressional charter on May 18, 1933, to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development to the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly affected by the Great Depression. Senator George W. Norris (R-Nebraska) was a strong sponsor of this project. TVA was envisioned not only as a provider, but also as a regional economic development agency that would use federal experts and rural electrification to help modernize the rural region's economy and society.[3]

TVA's service area covers most of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small slices of Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia. It was the first large regional planning agency of the federal government and remains the largest.

...

Background

During the 1920s and the 1930s Great Depression years, Americans began to support the idea of public ownership of utilities, particularly hydroelectric power facilities. The concept of government-owned generation facilities selling to publicly owned distribution utilities was controversial and remains so today.[9] Many believed privately owned power companies were charging too much for power, did not employ fair operating practices, and were subject to abuse by their owners (utility holding companies), at the expense of consumers.

During his presidential campaign, Franklin D. Roosevelt said that private utilities had "selfish purposes" and said, "Never shall the federal government part with its sovereignty or with its control of its power resources while I'm president of the United States." The private sector practice of forming utility holding companies had resulted in their controlling 94 percent of generation by 1921, and they were essentially unregulated. In an effort to change this, Congress and Roosevelt enacted the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 (P.U.H.C.A.).

After Roosevelt was elected, the federal government bought many private utility companies in the Tennessee Valley as part of the Tennessee Valley Authority project. Others shut down, unable to compete with the TVA. The government passed regulations to prevent competition with TVA.

In 1920 Senator George Norris (R-Nebraska) blocked a proposal from industrialist Henry Ford to build a private dam and utility to modernize the valley. Norris deeply distrusted privately owned utility companies, which controlled 94% of power generation in 1921. He gained passage of the Muscle Shoals Bill, to build a federal dam in the valley, but it was vetoed as socialistic by President Herbert Hoover in 1931. The idea behind the Muscle Shoals project in 1933 became a core part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal Tennessee Valley Authority.[10]

Even by Depression standards, in 1933 the Tennessee Valley was in dire economic straits. Thirty percent of the population was affected by malaria. The average income in the rural area was $639 per year, with some families surviving on as little as $100 per year. Much of the land had been exhausted by poor farming practices, and the soil was eroded and depleted. Crop yields had fallen, reducing farm incomes. The best timber had been cut, and 10% of forests were lost to fires each year.[9]

Early history

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Tennessee Valley Authority Act (ch. 32, Pub.L. 73–17, 48 Stat. 58, enacted May 18, 1933, codified as amended at 16 U.S.C. § 831, et seq.), creating the TVA. TVA was designed to modernize the region, using experts and electricity to combat human and economic problems.[11] TVA developed fertilizers, and taught farmers ways to improve crop yields. In addition, it helped replant forests, control forest fires, and improve habitat for fish and wildlife. The most dramatic change in Valley life came from TVA-generated electricity from the dams it constructed on area rivers. With electricity, farms could be provided with lights and modern home appliances, making the lives of residents easier and farms more productive. The available electricity attracted new industries to the region, providing desperately needed jobs.[3]

The development of the dams provided numerous construction jobs. At the same time, however, they required the displacement of more than 15,000 families. This created anti-TVA sentiment in some rural communities. In related projects, three towns had to be relocated, as were cemeteries. The TVA relocated and reinterred remains at new locations, together with replacing tombstones.[12]

Many local landowners were suspicious of government agencies, but TVA successfully introduced new agricultural methods into traditional farming communities by blending in and finding local champions. Tennessee farmers would often reject advice from TVA officials, so the officials had to find leaders in the communities and convince them that crop rotation and the judicious application of fertilizers could restore soil fertility. Once they had convinced the leaders, the rest followed.[13]

At its inception, TVA was based in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, but gradually moved its headquarters to Knoxville, Tennessee, where it is still based.[14] 

[References:]

3. Neuse 2004, pp. 972–979.

9. Hubbard, Preston J. (1961). Origins of the TVA: The Muscle Shoals Controversy, 1920–1932. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press. OCLC 600647072.

10. Wengert, Norman (1952). "Antecedents of TVA: The Legislative History of Muscle Shoals". Agricultural History. 26 (4): 141–147. ISSN 1533-8290. JSTOR 3740474. OCLC 971899953

11. Schulman, Bruce J. (1991). From Cotton Belt to Sunbelt: Federal policy, economic development, and the transformation of the South, 1938–1980. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195363449. OCLC 300412389

12. Creese 1990, pp. 95-105.

13. Philip Selznick, TVA and the Grass Roots: A study in the sociology of formal organization (1949).

14. "T.V.A. Fights Order to Move Headquarters From Tennessee to Alabama". The New York Times. February 6, 1979. Retrieved 2020-05-08.

--- end extracts from Tennessee Valley Authority wiki page ---

The FDR book says about the Tennessee Valley area prior to TVA Act being passed (on page 324): "Only two out of every hundred farms had electricity. Infant mortality was four times greater than elsewhere, pellagra and tuberculosis were endemic, medical care was sparse, and sanitation was primitive. There was no industry to speak of, little commercial life, and few prospects other than further descent into squalor."

The FDR book covers the resistance from some quarters in US Congress to the TVA bill as socialist. But Roosevelt and his supporters pushed it through with Senate passing it 63-20 and House passing it 306-91. Roosevelt signed the TVA act into law on 18th May 1933.

[I thank Wikipedia and publishers & author of FDR book mentioned above, and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extract(s) from their website and book (very small extracts from FDR book) on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]