History HW - Write 2 page paper,answer 13 questions, create complex thesis per instructions

698 CHAPTER 23

PROMOTING FAIR PRACTICES The NIRA also sought to promote industrial growth by establishing codes of fair practice for individual industries. It created the National Recovery Administration (NRA), which set prices of many products and established standards. The aim of the NRA was to promote recovery by interrupting the trend of wage cuts, falling prices, and layoffs. The economist Gardiner C. Means attempted to justify the NRA by stating the goal of industrial planning.

A PERSONAL VOICE GARDINER C. MEANS “ The National Recovery Administration [was] created in response to an overwhelm- ing demand from many quarters that certain elements in the making of industrial policy . . . should no longer be left to the market place and the price mechanism but should be placed in the hands of administrative bodies.”

—The Making of Industrial Policy

The codes of fair practice had been drafted in joint meetings of businesses and representatives of workers and consumers. These codes both limited production and established prices. Because businesses were given new concessions, workers made demands. Congress met their demands by passing a section of the NIRA guaranteeing workers’ right to unionize and to bargain collectively.

Many businesses and politicians were critical of the NRA. Charges arose that the codes served large business interests. There were also charges of increasing code violations.

FOOD, CLOTHING, AND SHELTER A number of New Deal programs concerned housing and home mortgage problems. The Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) provided gov- ernment loans to homeowners who faced foreclosure because they couldn’t meet their loan payments. In addition, the 1934 National Housing Act created the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). This agency continues to furnish loans for home mortgages and repairs today.

Another program, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), was funded with $500 million to pro- vide direct relief for the needy. Half of the money was given to the states as direct grants-in-aid to help furnish food and clothing to the unemployed, the aged, and the ill. The rest was distributed to states to support work relief programs—for every $3 within the state program, FERA donated $1. Harry Hopkins, who headed this program, believed that, whereas money helped people buy food, it was meaningful work that enabled them to gain confidence and self-respect.

The New Deal Comes Under Attack By the end of the Hundred Days, millions of Americans had benefited from the New Deal programs. As well, the public’s confidence in the nation’s future had rebounded. Although President Roosevelt agreed to a policy of deficit spending— spending more money than the government receives in rev- enue—he did so with great reluctance. He regarded deficit spending as a necessary evil to be used only at a time of great economic crisis. Nevertheless, the New Deal did not end the depression, and opposition grew among some parts of the population.

D

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

D Evaluating

How did the New Deal support labor organizations?

DEFICIT SPENDING John Maynard Keynes, an influen- tial British economist, promoted the idea of deficit spending to stimulate economic recovery. In his view, a country should spend its way out of a depression by putting money into the hands of consumers. This would make it possible for them to buy goods and services and thus fuel eco- nomic growth. Therefore, even if a government has to go deeply into debt, it should spend great amounts of money to help get the economy growing again. (See deficit spending on page R39 and Keynesian economics on page R42 in the Economics Handbook.)

ECONOMICECONOMIC