The American Nation A History of the United States, Combined Volume (14th Edition)

690 Chapter 26 The New Deal: 1933–1941

whereby the efficiency—and thus the rates—of pri-
vate power companies could be tested, it took on
other functions ranging from the eradication of
malaria to the development of recreational facilities.

The Tennessee Valley Authorityat
http://www.myhistorylab.com

The New Deal Spirit

By the end of the hundred days the country had made
up its mind about Roosevelt’s New Deal, and despite
the vicissitudes of the next decade, it never changed
it. A large majority labeled the New Deal a solid suc-
cess. Considerable recovery had taken place, but
more basic was the fact that Roosevelt, recruiting an
army of officials to staff the new government agen-
cies, had infused his administration with a spirit of
bustle and optimism. The director of the presidential
Secret Service unit, returning to the White House on
inauguration day after escorting Herbert Hoover to
the railroad station, found the executive mansion
“transformed during my absence into a gay place, full
of people who oozed confidence.”
Although Roosevelt was not much of an intellec-
tual, his openness to suggestion made him eager to
draw on the ideas and energies of experts of all sorts.
New Deal agencies soon teemed with college profes-
sors and young lawyers without political experience.
The New Deal lacked any consistent ideological
base. While the so-called Brain Trust (a group
headed by Raymond Moley, a Columbia political
scientist, which included Columbia economists

SeetheMap

Rexford G. Tugwell and Adolf A. Berle Jr., and a

number of others) attracted a great deal of atten-

tion, theorists never impressed Roosevelt much. His

New Deal drew on the old populist tradition, as

seen in its antipathy to bankers and its willingness to

adopt schemes for inflating the currency; on the

New Nationalism of Theodore Roosevelt, in its dis-

like of competition and its de-emphasis of the

antitrust laws; and on the ideas of social workers

trained in the Progressive Era. Techniques devel-

oped by the Wilsonians also found a place in the

system: Louis D. Brandeis had considerable influ-

ence on Roosevelt’s financial reforms, and New

Deal labor policy was an outgrowth of the experi-

ence of the War Labor Board of 1917–1918.

Within the administrative maze that Roosevelt

created, rival bureaucrats battled to enforce their

views. The “spenders,” led by Tugwell, clashed with

those favoring strict economy, who gathered around

Lewis Douglas, director of the budget. Roosevelt

mediated between the factions. Washington became

a battleground for dozens of special interest groups:

the Farm Bureau Federation, the unions, the trade

associations, and the silver miners. While the system

was superior to that of Roosevelt’s predecessors—

who had allowed one interest, big business, to

predominate—it slighted the unorganized majority.

The NRA aimed frankly at raising the prices paid by

consumers of manufactured goods; the AAA process-

ing tax came ultimately from the pocketbooks of

ordinary citizens.

Tenne

ssee

R.

CumberlandR.

OhioR

.

Tennessee River

watershed

Major TVA dams

ILL.

KENTUCKY

W. VA.

NORTH

CAROLINA

VIRGINIA

SOUTH

GEORGIA CAROLINA

ALABAMA

TENNESSEE

Paducah

Muscle

Shoals

Nashville Knoxville

Asheville

Chattanooga

Bristol

MISS.

The Tennessee Valley AuthorityAlthough the Tennessee Valley
Authority (TVA) never fully became the regional planning
organization its sponsors had anticipated, the TVA nevertheless was
able to expand the hydroelectric plants at Muscle Shoals, Alabama,
and build dams, power plants, and transmission lines to service the
surrounding area.

Table 26.1First New Deal and First Hundred

Days (March–June, 1933)

Legislation Purpose

Banking Act Provided federal loans to

private bankers

Beer-Wine Revenue Act Repealed Prohibition

Civilian Conservation

Corps (CCC)

Created jobs for unemployed

young men

Federal Emergency

Relief Act (FERA)

Gave federal money to states and

localities to provide relief of poor

Agricultural Adjustment

Act (AAA)

Raised farm prices by

restricting production

Tennessee Valley

Authority ( TVA)

Massive construction project that

generated employment—and

electricity—in Tennessee Valley

National Industrial

Recovery Act (NIRA)

Created structure for business

and labor to cooperate to

make particular industries

more profitable