WEBVTT 1 00:00:17.440 --> 00:00:21.600 Hello, and welcome to Western CIV. Episode five hundred and 2 00:00:21.640 --> 00:00:25.640 fifty five. Muddling through. So we last left the United 3 00:00:25.679 --> 00:00:28.480 States the summer of nineteen thirty three, while we jumped 4 00:00:28.480 --> 00:00:32.640 forward with Europe and Asia. This point's the hottest days 5 00:00:32.719 --> 00:00:35.960 the year. Settling over DC, and for the first time 6 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:38.960 in months, as you'll recall, the men running the United 7 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:42.240 States government can actually pause and catch their breath because 8 00:00:42.640 --> 00:00:45.600 behind them was one of the most astonishing stretches in 9 00:00:45.640 --> 00:00:49.560 the history of American politics, one hundred days, in which 10 00:00:49.560 --> 00:00:53.079 a new president and a willing Congress rewrote the relationship 11 00:00:53.119 --> 00:00:58.000 between citizens and their governments. Banks reopened, farmers got relief, 12 00:00:58.479 --> 00:01:01.840 A million young men were put to work clearing forests 13 00:01:01.840 --> 00:01:05.280 and trails. The country, which in March had felt like 14 00:01:05.319 --> 00:01:08.519 it was sliding off a cliff, now felt, at least 15 00:01:08.599 --> 00:01:12.159 for some people, like it had grabbed the edge. But 16 00:01:12.280 --> 00:01:15.599 here's the thing people forgets. The one hundred days was 17 00:01:15.640 --> 00:01:19.480 actually the easy part. What came next the next six 18 00:01:19.599 --> 00:01:24.000 years be harder, messier, and in many ways far more consequential. 19 00:01:24.599 --> 00:01:27.599 It's the story of how the New Deal grew, hit 20 00:01:27.640 --> 00:01:31.280 a wall, and then reshaped American life anyway, and today 21 00:01:31.319 --> 00:01:34.159 it's a story about the president who won the biggest 22 00:01:34.239 --> 00:01:38.040 landslide in modern history and then managed to somehow almost 23 00:01:38.120 --> 00:01:42.319 wreck his own presidency a few months later. And of course, 24 00:01:42.719 --> 00:01:45.159 because of what we've talked about in the last two episodes, 25 00:01:45.480 --> 00:01:48.879 we can't ignore the interconnectedness of the world. Now, you know, 26 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:51.760 this isn't the episodes that I was doing about the 27 00:01:51.799 --> 00:01:54.680 eighteenth century or the seventeenth century, or hack even the 28 00:01:54.799 --> 00:01:59.079 nineteenth century. To some extent, the world was woven together. 29 00:01:59.239 --> 00:02:02.840 And so the affair is in Asia and Europe that 30 00:02:02.879 --> 00:02:06.120 are happening in the late nineteen thirties, those are impacting 31 00:02:06.120 --> 00:02:10.199 the United States too, in ways that are incredibly profound. 32 00:02:10.840 --> 00:02:12.800 So today I'm going to tell the story in the 33 00:02:12.879 --> 00:02:16.240 United States from the one hundred Days to that day 34 00:02:16.280 --> 00:02:20.719 in September when the tanks rolled into Poland. So let's 35 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:25.039 set the table. The famous First hundred Days ran from 36 00:02:25.120 --> 00:02:28.680 Roosevelt's inauguration in March nineteen thirty three through the middle 37 00:02:28.719 --> 00:02:32.080 of June. By the time Congress goes home that summer, 38 00:02:32.400 --> 00:02:36.080 fifteen major pieces of legislation are on the books. The 39 00:02:36.120 --> 00:02:40.759 banking crisis has been stopped. Basically, there's an alphabet soup 40 00:02:41.039 --> 00:02:44.840 of new agencies, the CCC, the AAA, the TVA, and 41 00:02:44.879 --> 00:02:47.680 the NRA, not that one a different one, each one 42 00:02:47.840 --> 00:02:52.800 a piece of enormous, improvised legislative experiment trying to pull 43 00:02:52.840 --> 00:02:56.439 the nation out of the Great Depression. But Roosevelt's presidency 44 00:02:56.479 --> 00:02:59.400 doesn't pause when the legislation does. And one of the 45 00:02:59.400 --> 00:03:02.960 most interesting things about this period is that while everyone's 46 00:03:02.960 --> 00:03:07.439 attention is on the domestic emergency, Roosevelt is already making 47 00:03:07.680 --> 00:03:10.599 moves on the world stage, moves to tell you a 48 00:03:10.599 --> 00:03:14.560 lot about him. The first big one comes that very summer, 49 00:03:14.919 --> 00:03:17.719 and it's a foreign policy decision that infuriated a lot 50 00:03:17.759 --> 00:03:21.479 of people. In June and July of nineteen thirty three, 51 00:03:21.680 --> 00:03:25.319 the leading economic powers gathered in London for what was 52 00:03:25.400 --> 00:03:29.280 called the World Monetary and Economic Conference. The idea was 53 00:03:29.400 --> 00:03:34.319 pretty grandiose. Get the major nations to stabilize their currencies, coordinate, 54 00:03:34.599 --> 00:03:37.080 and then lift the whole world out of the depression together. 55 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:40.960 And what's interesting is that Roosevelt blew it up. He 56 00:03:41.039 --> 00:03:45.159 said what became known as his Bombshell Message, essentially telling 57 00:03:45.199 --> 00:03:47.319 the delegates that the United States would not tie its 58 00:03:47.319 --> 00:03:52.199 hands to some international currency agreement. America's recovery he said, 59 00:03:52.240 --> 00:03:55.599 came first. He was not going to sacrifice his freedom 60 00:03:55.639 --> 00:03:58.520 to inflate the dollar and raise prices at home just 61 00:03:58.560 --> 00:04:03.000 to please the banker in Europe. And so the conference collapsed. 62 00:04:03.599 --> 00:04:07.919 Internationalists and globalists were horrified, But it told you Roosevelt's 63 00:04:07.919 --> 00:04:11.240 priority in nineteen thirty three and one move. The American 64 00:04:11.280 --> 00:04:15.360 President was focusing on the table in front of him, 65 00:04:15.639 --> 00:04:18.560 and that mattered a heck of a lot more than 66 00:04:18.600 --> 00:04:24.759 any abstract global copper operation concept. It was America first, 67 00:04:24.879 --> 00:04:28.360 in other words. Now, at the very same time, he 68 00:04:28.480 --> 00:04:30.639 was doing something that looked very opposite because he was 69 00:04:30.720 --> 00:04:35.079 reaching outward. In November of nineteen thirty three, Roosevelt did 70 00:04:35.079 --> 00:04:38.279 something no president had done since the Russian Revolution. He 71 00:04:38.439 --> 00:04:43.399 formally recognized the Soviet Union. For sixteen years, the United 72 00:04:43.399 --> 00:04:46.800 States had just simply pretended the Bolshevik government didn't exist. 73 00:04:47.360 --> 00:04:50.399 But what's that on the map, that enormous space, you know, 74 00:04:50.439 --> 00:04:53.199 that's kind of above China and right next to the 75 00:04:53.240 --> 00:04:56.360 rest of Europe. Well, that's nothing, We'll just ignore that. 76 00:04:57.319 --> 00:05:01.639 So that policy came to an end in nineteen thirty three. Roosevelt, 77 00:05:01.680 --> 00:05:04.680 the pragmatic man he was, looked at the situation and 78 00:05:04.720 --> 00:05:07.800 He saw two things, a potential trading partner during a 79 00:05:07.839 --> 00:05:11.639 depression and a possible counterweight to Japan, which was expanding 80 00:05:11.639 --> 00:05:16.000 aggressively in Asia. So he opened up relations. The hope 81 00:05:16.040 --> 00:05:20.360 for it of trade never really materialized, and the diplomatic 82 00:05:20.439 --> 00:05:23.480 relationship would be rocky for years, but it was a 83 00:05:23.600 --> 00:05:26.800 signal this was a president who intended to deal with 84 00:05:26.839 --> 00:05:29.639 the world as it was, not as he wished it 85 00:05:29.680 --> 00:05:32.360 to be. And then there's the policy that may be 86 00:05:32.480 --> 00:05:35.720 his most durable foreign achievement of the whole decade, what 87 00:05:35.879 --> 00:05:40.279 was called the good neighbor policy. For a generation, the 88 00:05:40.399 --> 00:05:43.279 United States had thrown its weight around in Latin America 89 00:05:43.800 --> 00:05:49.079 like an arguing landlord, Marines landing in this country, customs 90 00:05:49.120 --> 00:05:54.199 houses seized over here, the long shadow of gunboat diplomacy. Basically, 91 00:05:55.079 --> 00:05:59.480 Roosevelt announced, starting in his inaugural address and then indeeds, 92 00:05:59.720 --> 00:06:02.160 that the this was over, the United States would be 93 00:06:02.240 --> 00:06:05.920 a good neighbor, one that respected the sovereignty of other states. 94 00:06:06.360 --> 00:06:10.560 At the Montevideo Conference in late nineteen thirty three, the 95 00:06:10.720 --> 00:06:13.279 US signed on to the principle that no state had 96 00:06:13.279 --> 00:06:16.439 the right to intervene in the international affairs of another. 97 00:06:17.160 --> 00:06:20.519 The following year, the hated Platt Amendment, which had given 98 00:06:20.560 --> 00:06:23.279 the US a legal right to medal in Cuba, was 99 00:06:23.360 --> 00:06:26.759 officially ended, and the Marines that were stationed in Haiti, 100 00:06:27.120 --> 00:06:30.959 we brought those home. Two. Why does this matter? Well, 101 00:06:30.959 --> 00:06:33.399 I want you to hold that thought, because in just 102 00:06:33.800 --> 00:06:37.319 a few years, when the world catches fire, Roosevelt is 103 00:06:37.319 --> 00:06:40.399 going to want the entire Western hemisphere standing behind him, 104 00:06:40.600 --> 00:06:43.319 and the goodwill he's banking now is going to pay off. 105 00:06:44.560 --> 00:06:47.480 So if nineteen thirty three was the year of rescue, 106 00:06:47.759 --> 00:06:50.759 nineteen thirty four was the year of construction and the 107 00:06:50.839 --> 00:06:54.319 year the opposition starts to find its voice on the 108 00:06:54.360 --> 00:06:57.040 domestic side. The big achievement is the one we still 109 00:06:57.079 --> 00:07:01.319 live with every single day. In June of four, Congress 110 00:07:01.360 --> 00:07:04.839 passed the Securities Exchange Act, which created the Securities and 111 00:07:04.920 --> 00:07:08.759 Exchange Commission as we call it today, the SEC. Remember 112 00:07:09.040 --> 00:07:11.519 the stock market crash in nineteen twenty nine was the 113 00:07:11.560 --> 00:07:15.600 symbolic beginning of the whole catastrophe, and the markets in 114 00:07:15.639 --> 00:07:18.120 the twenties had been in a wild west of insider 115 00:07:18.160 --> 00:07:21.800 deals and manipulations. The SEC was built to bring the 116 00:07:21.879 --> 00:07:25.839 cops to Wall Street. Now there'd be disclosure requirements, registration 117 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:30.639 rules against fraud. And here's a detail people love. Roosevelt's 118 00:07:30.720 --> 00:07:34.639 choice to run the new SEC was Joseph P. Kennedy. Yes, 119 00:07:35.199 --> 00:07:39.000 that Kennedy, the father of a future president, the man 120 00:07:39.040 --> 00:07:42.240 who had made himself a fortune doing exactly the kind 121 00:07:42.279 --> 00:07:46.079 of stock manipulation the SEC was designed to stop. When 122 00:07:46.120 --> 00:07:49.839 advisers objected, Roosevelt supposedly said that to catch a thief, 123 00:07:50.439 --> 00:07:53.680 you need a thief. Kennedy turned out to be an effective, 124 00:07:53.720 --> 00:07:57.920 no nonsense chairman. Sometimes I guess being cynical is the 125 00:07:58.000 --> 00:08:03.199 right decision. Also in nineteen thirty four, Roosevelt Secretary of 126 00:08:03.279 --> 00:08:07.360 State Cordell Hall, a man with an almost religious faith 127 00:08:07.399 --> 00:08:11.720 in free trade, got his signature achievement, the Reciprocal Trade 128 00:08:11.759 --> 00:08:16.360 Agreements Act. This let the president negotiate teriff reductions with 129 00:08:16.480 --> 00:08:20.000 other countries on his own authority. In the long run, 130 00:08:20.319 --> 00:08:24.600 this would quietly reverse decades of American protectionism and laying 131 00:08:24.680 --> 00:08:27.319 the groundwork for the trading world that would be built 132 00:08:27.399 --> 00:08:30.360 after the next war. It was a little bit of 133 00:08:30.399 --> 00:08:33.399 a sleeper, but it was a hit. But nineteen thirty 134 00:08:33.399 --> 00:08:36.000 four is also when the political weather starts to shift, 135 00:08:36.600 --> 00:08:40.159 because Roosevelt is now getting attacked from both directions at once. 136 00:08:40.840 --> 00:08:43.919 From the right came the American Liberty League, founded in 137 00:08:43.960 --> 00:08:48.879 nineteen thirty four by conservative Democrats and business titans, including 138 00:08:48.919 --> 00:08:52.159 members of the DuPont family in Al Smith, the man 139 00:08:52.240 --> 00:08:56.120 Roosevelt has succeeded as the great hope of the Democratic Party. 140 00:08:57.039 --> 00:08:59.960 They saw the New Deal as a march towards social 141 00:09:00.720 --> 00:09:04.639 a betrayal of the Constitution, an assault on free enterprise. 142 00:09:05.320 --> 00:09:09.320 They had money, and they had voluminous microphones. Let's just 143 00:09:09.320 --> 00:09:13.120 put it that way. But honestly, the attacks from the 144 00:09:13.200 --> 00:09:15.679 right were the ones that Roosevelt could push off in 145 00:09:15.720 --> 00:09:18.919 his sleep. It was the attacks from the left are 146 00:09:18.919 --> 00:09:23.759 more precisely from a strange, populous flank, that genuinely scared him. 147 00:09:24.200 --> 00:09:27.399 Because those men weren't promising less than the New Deal. 148 00:09:28.320 --> 00:09:31.960 They were promising more, and they were brilliant at reaching ordinary, 149 00:09:31.960 --> 00:09:34.879 frightened people. Let me tell you about three of them. 150 00:09:35.559 --> 00:09:37.679 I talked about these a little bit last time, But 151 00:09:37.720 --> 00:09:39.840 the first and the most important one was Huey Long, 152 00:09:39.919 --> 00:09:44.080 the Kingfish, a senator and former governor of Louisiana who 153 00:09:44.159 --> 00:09:48.039 ran the state very much like a personal kingdom. Corrupt, ruthless, 154 00:09:48.080 --> 00:09:52.759 and massively popular. Long had a slogan that landed like 155 00:09:52.799 --> 00:09:56.639 a thunderclap in the middle of the depression. Share our wealth, 156 00:09:57.320 --> 00:10:00.240 cat big fortunes, he said, and guarantee every fing family 157 00:10:00.279 --> 00:10:03.639 a homestead and a decent annual income. He also said, 158 00:10:03.919 --> 00:10:08.279 every man a king. It was economically impossible and politically electric. 159 00:10:08.960 --> 00:10:12.399 By nineteen thirty five, his organization claimed millions of members, 160 00:10:13.039 --> 00:10:16.279 and there were whispers, serious whispers, and he might run 161 00:10:16.320 --> 00:10:19.559 for president and split the vote. Second was another gud 162 00:10:19.639 --> 00:10:22.840 that I talked about, Father Charles Kaughlin, the radio priest 163 00:10:22.919 --> 00:10:26.240 of Detroit. At his peak, tens of millions of Americans 164 00:10:26.279 --> 00:10:29.759 tuned into his Sunday broadcasts. He started out a passionate 165 00:10:29.840 --> 00:10:33.720 Roosevelt supporter. Roosevelt are ruined, he said, but he soured 166 00:10:33.759 --> 00:10:37.399 attacking bankers and the gold standard, and over time his 167 00:10:37.519 --> 00:10:41.799 rhetoric curdled into something darker and openly antisemitic. But in 168 00:10:41.840 --> 00:10:45.279 the mid thirties his reach was staggering. Radio was the 169 00:10:45.320 --> 00:10:49.159 new mass medium, and Kauflin had mastered it. The last 170 00:10:49.159 --> 00:10:51.480 one I want to talk about is doctor Francis Townsend, 171 00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:56.039 a mild mannered California physician with one big idea pay 172 00:10:56.120 --> 00:11:00.639 every American over sixty a generous monthly pension on the 173 00:11:00.639 --> 00:11:03.799 condition that they spend it within thirty days. It would 174 00:11:03.840 --> 00:11:07.559 care for the elderly and pump money into the economy. 175 00:11:07.799 --> 00:11:11.759 Townsend clubs sprang up across the country, especially among older 176 00:11:11.799 --> 00:11:15.879 Americans who would watch their savings vanish. Now, why does 177 00:11:15.919 --> 00:11:19.799 any of this matter to this story? Because Roosevelt was 178 00:11:19.840 --> 00:11:23.960 a master politician, and a master politician doesn't just crush 179 00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:27.639 his rivals. He steals from him. He steals their best ideas. 180 00:11:28.240 --> 00:11:31.480 The pressure from long, Claughlin and Townsend, combined with a 181 00:11:31.519 --> 00:11:33.879 Supreme Court that was about to start swinging a wrecking 182 00:11:33.919 --> 00:11:37.720 ball at his programs, is going to push Roosevelt sharply 183 00:11:37.799 --> 00:11:42.120 to the left in nineteen thirty five. The critics, they 184 00:11:42.279 --> 00:11:46.080 thought they were cornering him, but they were actually writing 185 00:11:46.120 --> 00:11:49.960 his next chapter. Now, one more thing about nineteen thirty four. 186 00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:52.080 That's a little bit of an anomaly, and that's the 187 00:11:52.080 --> 00:11:57.360 midterm elections. Almost always, the party in power loses seats 188 00:11:57.360 --> 00:12:01.960 in a midterm, that's almost an iron rule of American politics. Instead, 189 00:12:02.519 --> 00:12:08.000 Roosevelt's Democrats gained seats, building even bigger majorities in both houses. 190 00:12:08.799 --> 00:12:13.960 The voters were saying, keep going and Roosevelt he intended to. 191 00:12:21.679 --> 00:12:23.960 Nineteen thirty five is the year that's really the hinge 192 00:12:23.960 --> 00:12:26.399 of our whole story. It's the year the New Deal 193 00:12:26.519 --> 00:12:29.759 kind of gets a second wind. Historians actually refer to 194 00:12:29.759 --> 00:12:32.559 it as the Second New Deal, or sometimes the Second 195 00:12:32.679 --> 00:12:36.200 hundred Days, but it begins with a bit of a blow. 196 00:12:36.919 --> 00:12:40.200 On May the twenty seventh, nineteen thirty five, the day 197 00:12:40.240 --> 00:12:43.679 the administration called Black Monday, the Supreme Court of the 198 00:12:43.799 --> 00:12:48.320 United States struck down the National Industrial Recovery Act. The 199 00:12:48.399 --> 00:12:53.720 case is famous Schnecktor Poultry Corporation versus United States, and yes, 200 00:12:54.240 --> 00:12:57.320 it really did come from a Brooklyn kosher chicken business. 201 00:12:57.919 --> 00:13:00.919 The court ruled unanimously that the the NRA had handed 202 00:13:00.919 --> 00:13:04.519 the executive branch far too much lawmaking power and had 203 00:13:04.559 --> 00:13:08.720 reached too far into local commerce. The centerpiece of the 204 00:13:08.759 --> 00:13:13.240 New Deal, the Great experimented industrial planning with its blue 205 00:13:13.279 --> 00:13:18.519 eagle posters in every shop window, was officially dead. Roosevelt 206 00:13:18.600 --> 00:13:21.759 was furious. He gave a press conference complaining that the 207 00:13:21.799 --> 00:13:24.360 court had dragged the country back to a horse and 208 00:13:24.440 --> 00:13:28.440 buggy definition of interstate commerce. But here is where his 209 00:13:28.559 --> 00:13:33.240 genius shows. Instead of retreating, he charged forward, and the 210 00:13:33.320 --> 00:13:36.080 legislation that poured out of Congress in the summer nineteen 211 00:13:36.159 --> 00:13:40.639 thirty five was bolder, more permanent, and more clearly aimed 212 00:13:40.639 --> 00:13:44.279 at ordinary working people than anything in the First New Deal. 213 00:13:45.039 --> 00:13:48.879 So let's talk about the Big four. Number one, the WPA, 214 00:13:49.000 --> 00:13:53.080 or Works Progress Administration, set up in the spring of 215 00:13:53.200 --> 00:13:57.480 nineteen thirty five under the absolutely relentless Harry Hopkins. The 216 00:13:57.600 --> 00:14:01.240 WPA was a jobs program on a colossal scale. Over 217 00:14:01.279 --> 00:14:03.679 its lifetime, it would employ around eight and a half 218 00:14:03.879 --> 00:14:07.720 million Americans. It built and listened to the scale of 219 00:14:07.720 --> 00:14:11.639 this hundreds of thousands of miles of roads, tens of 220 00:14:11.720 --> 00:14:16.080 thousands of bridges, thousands of schools, parks, airports, and public buildings. 221 00:14:16.440 --> 00:14:24.000 But Hopkins did something visionary too. He hired artists, writers, actors, painters, musicians, 222 00:14:24.639 --> 00:14:28.240 the Federal Writers Project, the Federal Theater Project, the idea 223 00:14:28.279 --> 00:14:31.360 that a starving painter or a laid off actor deserved 224 00:14:31.440 --> 00:14:34.120 just as much as a laid off bricklayer. That was 225 00:14:34.159 --> 00:14:38.159 a genuinely radical statement about what a society owes its people. 226 00:14:39.159 --> 00:14:43.200 Number two, and this is the biggie. The Social Security Act, 227 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:48.039 signed into law on August the fourteenth, nineteen thirty five, 228 00:14:49.039 --> 00:14:53.120 just sit with how revolutionary this was before social security. 229 00:14:53.360 --> 00:14:57.200 Growing old in America with no money meant very often destitution, 230 00:14:57.799 --> 00:15:00.639 moving in with relatives if you were lucky, poorhouse if 231 00:15:00.679 --> 00:15:04.440 you weren't. Roosevelt created a system of old age insurance 232 00:15:04.759 --> 00:15:08.559 funded by payroll taxes plus unemployment insurance and aid for 233 00:15:08.600 --> 00:15:13.440 dependent children that disabled. And notice how he answered doctor Townsend. 234 00:15:13.440 --> 00:15:16.759 From the beginning. He took the popular demand security for 235 00:15:16.799 --> 00:15:20.279 the elderly and built a real, sustainable system around it. 236 00:15:20.840 --> 00:15:24.600 Roosevet himself was clear eyed about politics. He insisted it 237 00:15:24.639 --> 00:15:29.039 be funded by worker's own contributions, specifically so that, in 238 00:15:29.080 --> 00:15:32.519 his words, no future politician could ever take it away. 239 00:15:33.320 --> 00:15:36.720 And guess what he was right. Ninety years later, and 240 00:15:36.759 --> 00:15:40.440 it's still here, arguably the most important piece of domestic 241 00:15:40.559 --> 00:15:43.360 legislation of the twentieth century. Now, Unfortunately, as I said 242 00:15:43.399 --> 00:15:46.600 here recording this, it's about four years away from running 243 00:15:46.600 --> 00:15:51.200 out of money. Hopefully someone in Congress can share Roosevelt's 244 00:15:51.279 --> 00:15:55.000 vision and get on board. The Number three was the 245 00:15:55.080 --> 00:15:57.960 National Labor Relations Act, better known as the Wagner Act 246 00:15:58.279 --> 00:16:01.399 after Senator Robert Wagner of New York, passed in July 247 00:16:01.480 --> 00:16:04.279 of nineteen thirty five. This was a charter of rights 248 00:16:04.279 --> 00:16:07.679 for organized labor. It guaranteed workers the right to form 249 00:16:07.799 --> 00:16:11.279 unions and bargain collectively, and it created the National Labor 250 00:16:11.279 --> 00:16:15.240 Relations Board to enforce those rights and referee disputes. With 251 00:16:15.320 --> 00:16:19.440 the NRA. Struck Down labor had lost its earlier legal footing. 252 00:16:19.919 --> 00:16:23.399 The Wagner Act gave it something far stronger. An American 253 00:16:23.559 --> 00:16:27.519 union membership, as a consequence, was about to explode. The 254 00:16:27.600 --> 00:16:30.080 last one is number four, and that's the Revenue Act 255 00:16:30.360 --> 00:16:34.440 of nineteen thirty five, which opponents nicknamed the Wealth Tax. 256 00:16:34.919 --> 00:16:37.960 It sharply raised taxes on the highest incomes, on big 257 00:16:38.000 --> 00:16:41.399 est states and on corporations. Now in dollar terms, didn't 258 00:16:41.440 --> 00:16:45.519 actually raise that much money. His real purpose was as 259 00:16:45.559 --> 00:16:49.320 much symbolic and political as was fiscal. It was Roosevelt 260 00:16:49.320 --> 00:16:52.360 planting a flag, drawing a line between himself and the 261 00:16:52.360 --> 00:16:55.759 men of great wealth, and frankly stealing a march on 262 00:16:55.840 --> 00:16:59.519 Huey Long's share our wealth policy before Long could run 263 00:16:59.559 --> 00:17:03.039 on it. And of course there was more. A Banking 264 00:17:03.080 --> 00:17:06.519 Act that centralized real power in the Federal Reserve under 265 00:17:06.559 --> 00:17:10.519 the able Mariner Eccles, giving Washington genuine control over the 266 00:17:10.599 --> 00:17:14.519 nation's money. Supply for the first time, a rural electrification 267 00:17:14.640 --> 00:17:18.319 administration to bring electric light to the millions of American 268 00:17:18.400 --> 00:17:21.799 farms that still in nineteen thirty five had none. Think 269 00:17:21.799 --> 00:17:24.119 about that. I mean, there were whole stretches of rural 270 00:17:24.119 --> 00:17:27.920 America essentially living as their grandparents had in the early 271 00:17:28.039 --> 00:17:32.640 nineteenth century, with kerosene lambs and no refrigeration. It was 272 00:17:32.680 --> 00:17:36.359 the New Deal that changed, that put it all together, 273 00:17:36.400 --> 00:17:38.759 and you can start to see the shift. The first 274 00:17:38.759 --> 00:17:42.079 New Deal was about rescue and recovery, just propping up things, 275 00:17:42.400 --> 00:17:47.119 stabilizing prices. The second New Deal was about reform and security, 276 00:17:47.640 --> 00:17:51.720 building permanent structures to protect ordinary people from I guess, 277 00:17:51.799 --> 00:17:55.559 the raw edges of capitalism. This is the moment modern 278 00:17:55.599 --> 00:17:58.920 American welfare state is born. And it's the moment the 279 00:17:59.000 --> 00:18:04.039 New Deal coalition, working people, union members, immigrants, black voters 280 00:18:04.240 --> 00:18:07.440 in the North, shifting away from the Party of Lincoln, farmers, 281 00:18:07.440 --> 00:18:11.720 white Southerners, intellectuals, locks into places the dominant force in 282 00:18:11.759 --> 00:18:18.119 American politics for the next thirty five years. Now. Unfortunately, 283 00:18:18.519 --> 00:18:22.319 while Roosevelt is rebuilding America at home, the international sky 284 00:18:22.400 --> 00:18:26.200 is getting darker by the month, and Congress is reacting 285 00:18:26.240 --> 00:18:29.559 in a way that's going to tie Roosevelt's hands for years. 286 00:18:30.400 --> 00:18:33.319 The mood of the American people in the mid nineteen 287 00:18:33.400 --> 00:18:36.920 thirties can be summed up in one word, never again 288 00:18:37.000 --> 00:18:39.960 and never again. The trenches, the gas, the slaughter of 289 00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:43.359 the Great War, and a powerful idea took hold, pushed 290 00:18:43.359 --> 00:18:46.480 hard by Senate committee led by Gerald and I of 291 00:18:46.519 --> 00:18:50.400 North Dakota, that the United States had been dragged into 292 00:18:50.400 --> 00:18:55.359 that war, dragged by greedy bankers and arms manufacturers, the 293 00:18:55.400 --> 00:18:58.160 so called merchants of death, who only cared about profit. 294 00:18:58.880 --> 00:19:01.839 The NI Committees here in running through nineteen thirty four 295 00:19:01.839 --> 00:19:05.359 and nineteen thirty six, hammered this theme, and they convinced 296 00:19:05.440 --> 00:19:07.640 millions of Americans that the way to stay out of 297 00:19:07.640 --> 00:19:10.960 the next war was simply to pass a law against 298 00:19:11.000 --> 00:19:15.440 getting involved. And so Congress did. Beginning in August of 299 00:19:15.519 --> 00:19:18.480 nineteen thirty five. It passed the first of the Neutrality Acts, 300 00:19:18.880 --> 00:19:21.519 when the President proclaimed that a state of war existed 301 00:19:21.519 --> 00:19:26.400 somewhere and embargo would automatically slam down on shipping American 302 00:19:26.519 --> 00:19:31.640 arms to anyone involved, aggressor and victim alike. More acts 303 00:19:31.680 --> 00:19:34.559 followed in nineteen thirty six and nineteen thirty seven, tightening 304 00:19:34.599 --> 00:19:38.799 the rules no loans, no arms, and eventually thinking about 305 00:19:38.799 --> 00:19:42.880 the Lusitania, No American could travel on a belligerent ship. 306 00:19:43.920 --> 00:19:48.400 Here's the problem, and Roosevelt saw it immediately by treating 307 00:19:48.440 --> 00:19:51.839 the aggressor and the victim exactly the same. These laws 308 00:19:51.839 --> 00:19:55.039 didn't keep American neutral in any moral sense. They just 309 00:19:55.119 --> 00:19:59.599 helped whoever was doing the attacking. They removed America's ability 310 00:19:59.640 --> 00:20:01.559 to put a on the scale for the side that 311 00:20:01.640 --> 00:20:07.279 deserved it. Roosevelt disliked the neutrality acts intensely, but in 312 00:20:07.319 --> 00:20:11.480 the mid thirties, isolation as sentiment was just so overwhelming 313 00:20:11.480 --> 00:20:14.720 that he couldn't fight it hand on. So he signed them, 314 00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:17.440 and he waited, and he hoped for room to maneuver, 315 00:20:18.599 --> 00:20:22.640 and events that proved his point came almost immediately. In 316 00:20:22.680 --> 00:20:27.519 October of nineteen thirty five, Mussolini's Italy invaded Ethiopia, one 317 00:20:27.519 --> 00:20:31.119 of the only remaining independent nations in Africa, and the 318 00:20:31.160 --> 00:20:35.160 world watched as a modern army with aircraft and poison 319 00:20:35.240 --> 00:20:38.480 gas crushed a country that was defending itself with little 320 00:20:38.559 --> 00:20:41.319 more than rifles. The League of Nations, as I talked 321 00:20:41.319 --> 00:20:44.839 about two episodes ago, wrung its hands and did effectively nothing. 322 00:20:45.680 --> 00:20:50.079 The lesson that dictators took was unmistakable, aggression pays, and 323 00:20:50.079 --> 00:20:54.039 no one's going to stop you. Then, in July of 324 00:20:54.119 --> 00:20:58.359 nineteen thirty six, the Spanish Civil War erupted, a brutal 325 00:20:58.440 --> 00:21:01.759 conflict in which Hitler and Mussolini openly backed the Fascist 326 00:21:01.839 --> 00:21:05.960 rebels under Franco, testing their new weapons and tactics, while 327 00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:09.960 the Western democracies stood aside, and as to their credit, 328 00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:12.599 the Soviets did chip in to try to help out 329 00:21:13.000 --> 00:21:17.440 the Congregationalists. Roosevelt, hemmed in by the neutrality laws and 330 00:21:17.480 --> 00:21:21.480 by American Catholic opinion, kept the United States out. It 331 00:21:21.559 --> 00:21:23.799 haunted many on the left for the rest of their lives. 332 00:21:24.680 --> 00:21:28.440 The world is sorting itself into democracies and dictatorships, and 333 00:21:28.480 --> 00:21:33.640 the dictatorships are winning all the early rounds. But at home, 334 00:21:34.160 --> 00:21:38.640 nineteen thirty six belonged to Franklin Roosevelt. The year opened 335 00:21:38.680 --> 00:21:41.400 with another slab from the Supreme Court in January, in 336 00:21:41.440 --> 00:21:44.400 the case of United States versus Butler, the Court struck 337 00:21:44.480 --> 00:21:47.640 down the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which had been the cornerstone 338 00:21:47.640 --> 00:21:51.319 of New Deal farm policy. Roosevelt's lawyers scrambled to find 339 00:21:51.640 --> 00:21:55.039 new legal footing to keep helping farmers, and they largely did. 340 00:21:55.799 --> 00:22:00.759 But the pattern was now glaring. An aging Conservative Supreme 341 00:22:00.799 --> 00:22:05.440 Court was systematically dismantling the New Deal peace by peace. 342 00:22:06.200 --> 00:22:08.440 File that away because he's going to detonate nineteen thirty 343 00:22:08.440 --> 00:22:11.880 seven for now. Though it was election season and Roosevelt 344 00:22:11.880 --> 00:22:14.720 was about to win one for the ages, the Republicans 345 00:22:14.759 --> 00:22:18.839 nominated Alf Landon, the moderate governor of Kansas, a decent 346 00:22:18.880 --> 00:22:21.240 man who, let's be fair, had no chance at all. 347 00:22:21.759 --> 00:22:24.400 The campaign was a referendum on the New Deal, and 348 00:22:24.480 --> 00:22:27.240 Roosevelt leaned all the way in. He didn't run from 349 00:22:27.240 --> 00:22:29.599 his enemies among the wealthy, in the bankers. He ran 350 00:22:29.640 --> 00:22:34.319 against them, gleefully. In a thunderous speech at Madison Square 351 00:22:34.319 --> 00:22:36.880 Garden on the eve of his election, he listed the 352 00:22:36.880 --> 00:22:40.640 forces of organized money arrayed against them and declared that 353 00:22:40.680 --> 00:22:43.519 they were unanimous in their hatred of him, and said, 354 00:22:44.119 --> 00:22:48.559 quote and I welcome their hatred end quote. The crowd 355 00:22:48.759 --> 00:22:53.960 absolutely roared. The result on November the third, nineteen thirty 356 00:22:54.000 --> 00:22:56.599 six was one of the greatest landslides in American history. 357 00:22:57.160 --> 00:23:01.920 Roosevelt carried forty six of the forty eight states. Landon 358 00:23:01.960 --> 00:23:05.279 won exactly two, Maine and Vermont, and a grand total 359 00:23:05.319 --> 00:23:10.799 of eight electoral votes against Roosevelt's five hundred and twenty three. 360 00:23:11.039 --> 00:23:14.279 The old saying had been as Main goes, so goes 361 00:23:14.279 --> 00:23:18.559 the nation. Roosevelt's campaign manager joked that it was now 362 00:23:19.200 --> 00:23:23.400 as Main goes, so goes Vermont. And there's a famous 363 00:23:23.400 --> 00:23:27.359 footnote here. A popular magazine called Literary Digest ran a 364 00:23:27.400 --> 00:23:30.680 huge poll and confidently predicted Land and would win. They 365 00:23:30.720 --> 00:23:35.359 were catastrophically wrong. Their sample was skewed toward wealthy Americans 366 00:23:35.519 --> 00:23:39.119 who could afford telephones and automobiles, and the magazine was 367 00:23:39.559 --> 00:23:44.039 so humiliated it soon folded. But there's the story is 368 00:23:44.200 --> 00:23:47.759 interesting for this because there was a young polster who 369 00:23:48.440 --> 00:23:53.559 used smarter scientific sampling, and he got it right, and 370 00:23:53.599 --> 00:23:57.039 he started to create methods that we still use to 371 00:23:57.119 --> 00:24:01.039 measure public opinion in the United States today. His name 372 00:24:02.240 --> 00:24:07.960 was George Gallup. Oh and one of Roosevelt's most dangerous 373 00:24:08.000 --> 00:24:09.759 rivals never made it at the campaign trail at all. 374 00:24:09.799 --> 00:24:13.519 By the way, remember Huey Long. He was shot in 375 00:24:13.599 --> 00:24:16.640 the Louisiana State capitol in September of nineteen thirty five, 376 00:24:16.680 --> 00:24:19.799 and he died two days later. We'll never know how 377 00:24:19.880 --> 00:24:23.240 much trouble the Kingfish might have caused in nineteen thirty six, 378 00:24:23.839 --> 00:24:26.799 But as it was, Roosevelt stood at the absolute summit 379 00:24:26.839 --> 00:24:30.160 of his power, which, as anybody who studied power nos, 380 00:24:30.240 --> 00:24:31.960 is exactly the moment that you need to watch out. 381 00:24:40.279 --> 00:24:43.920 Franklin Roosevelt became in nineteen thirty seven the most powerful 382 00:24:43.960 --> 00:24:48.839 president since Abraham Lincoln. He had just won a historic mandate, 383 00:24:49.279 --> 00:24:52.720 he had enormous majorities in Congress, and he was about 384 00:24:52.759 --> 00:24:57.160 to make the worst political miscalculation of his career. The 385 00:24:57.200 --> 00:25:01.119 target of his frustration was the Supreme Court, nine men, 386 00:25:01.400 --> 00:25:04.039 several of them quite elderly, who had been striking down 387 00:25:04.079 --> 00:25:08.400 his programs one after another. Roosevelt looked ahead and saw 388 00:25:08.480 --> 00:25:12.599 the Wagner Act, social Security itself, the whole edifice of 389 00:25:12.680 --> 00:25:16.079 the New Deal, heading toward those same nine justices, and 390 00:25:16.119 --> 00:25:19.039 he feared they'd tear it all down. He just won 391 00:25:19.160 --> 00:25:25.279 forty six states. Why should an unelected, ancient court overrule 392 00:25:25.440 --> 00:25:30.279 the clear will of the people. So in February nineteen 393 00:25:30.400 --> 00:25:34.079 thirty seven, he sprang a plan on a stunned Congress. 394 00:25:34.680 --> 00:25:39.599 He framed it disingenuously as a matter of efficiency. He said, 395 00:25:39.640 --> 00:25:44.759 the courts were overburdened and the older justices needed help 396 00:25:44.799 --> 00:25:48.279 with the workload. His proposal was that for every federal 397 00:25:48.359 --> 00:25:51.799 judge over the age of seventy who didn't retire, the 398 00:25:51.839 --> 00:25:54.839 president could appoint a new one, an additional one to 399 00:25:55.640 --> 00:25:59.279 help carry the load, up to six new justices on 400 00:25:59.319 --> 00:26:04.640 the Supreme Court. Everyone saw through this instantly. This wasn't 401 00:26:04.640 --> 00:26:07.880