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 32^nd 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.

Fireside Chats

By F.D.Roosevelt.

“Last autumn, on several occasions, I expressed my faith that we can make possible by democratic self-discipline in industry general increases in wages and shortening of hours sufficient to enable industry to pay its own workers enough to let those workers buy and use the things that their labor produces. This can be done only if we permit and encourage cooperative action in industry because it is obvius that without united action a few selfish men in each competitive group will pay starvation wages and insist on long hours of work. Others in that group must either follow suit or close up shop. We have seen the result of action of that kind in the continuing descent into the economic hell of the past four years.

There is a clear way to reverse the process: If all employers in each competitive group agree to pay their workers the same wages—reasonable wages—and require the same hours-- reasonable hours—then higher wages and shorter hours will hurt no employer. Moreover, such action is better for the employer than unemployment and low wages, because it makes more buyers for his product. That is the simple idea which is the very heart of the Industrial Recovery Act.

On the basis of this simple principle of everybody doing things together, we are starting out on this nation wide attack on unemployment…It goes back to the basic idea of society and of the nation itself that people acting in a group can accomplish things which no individual acting alone could even hope to bring about”.

“The New Deal”

By F.D.Roosevelt

Various and effective measures were undertaken by WRA (Works Progress Administration) to give work to the unemployed in the USA at the time of the Great Depression. During the eight years (1935-1943) there were built 651, 000 miles of highways, over 125,000 public buildings, over 124,000 bridges, 853 airports, there were laid out over 8,000 parks, among other things. Under the FWP (Federal Writers Project) and projects similar to that (aimed to aid unemployed writers, musicians, actors, artists, designers) more than 8.5 million people got jobs.

Translate without using a dictionary

The first industrial revolution is now a thing of the past and it is idle to ask whether men would have refrained from starting it, or would have directed its course more wisely, had they been able to forеsee the distant consequences of their acts.

But it is urgent that we should have these questions in mind as we enter the second industrial revolution. One of the reassuring aspects of the modern world is that much thought is now being given to the possible effects of the future applications of science.

The ethical problem posed by the utilization of knowledge are as old as mankind. But it is only during modern times that the question has become practically important as a result of increasing effectiveness of scientific methods. It is, of course, for society to decide what goals it wishes to reach and what risks it is willing to talk. But it is the task of science to formulate as clearly as possible and to make public the probable consequences of any step it takes and any action it advocates.

Three hundred years ago Bacon and his followers were justified in claiming that the important problem was to learn how to do things. There was so little that could be done! Now the main issue for scientists and for society as a whole is to decide what to do among that could be done. Unless scientists are willing to give hard thought to this latter aspect of their social responsibilities, they may find themselves unable to control the forces they have unleashed.

Date: 2015-02-28; view: 778