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Economic Recovery

With economic depression the appreciation of jazz declined in the United States, except for the "sweet jazz" of Guy Lombardo. Then in 1935, when people were more hopeful about the economy, a "new jazz" appeared. With prohibition over, bands were playing in hotels and ballrooms again. Benny Goodman was playing his clarinet as the King of Swing, and Tommy Dorsey and Glen Miller were rising as bandleaders.

The economy had improved, but it was still depressed. Unemployment was a little higher than in 1934, perhaps around twenty percent of the workforce, while many were working only part-time and many others had dropped out of the workforce. Roosevelt and most business leaders still did not understand the depression as well as people would decades later. Roosevelt was giving himself credit for having stopped the downward spiral - something that had happened during the Hoover administration. And Roosevelt and Congress were still pursuing measures that were less than the massive government intervention that would eventually get the economy going in 1939 and 1940.

In 1935 the government enacted the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Social Security, creating old age and unemployment pensions, the latter taking the United States close to what Otto von Bismarck had accomplished in Germany five decades before. The WPA started building roads and bridges across the country. It put women to work on useful sewing projects. The WPA included programs in the arts: in theater, music, literature and painting. And it included programs in education, including vocational training for needy youths.

Meshed with this new assault on the depression by the Democrats, Roosevelt and his administration tried to maintain good relations with big business, but they increased taxes for the wealthiest people to seventy-five percent of their income. And in July came the National Labor Relations Act, designed to free interstate commerce from the effects of strikes. This act displeased some business leaders, as it gave workers the right to organize without interference from employers, compelling employers to bargain in good faith with unions. And the act included a National Labor Relations Board to hear complaints. Some supporting the bill saw strong labor unions as protection against fascism and communism and a way of increasing purchasing power, while opponents of the act complained that it gave too much power to labor, denied individual rights sacred to the American way of life, and was unconstitutional.

The slow recovery was worse regarding the national debt than would have been a quick and deep borrowing and spending and a fast recovery as in Sweden. Low income brought low revenues to the government, and by August 1935 the national debt rose above 30 billion dollars, exceeding by 4 billion the debt incurred during World War I and twice what it had been under President Hoover.

Neutrality and Isolationism

In 1935 much attention was being given to re-examinations of America's entry into World War I. A best-selling book by Walter Millis, Road to War, was giving Americans a new vision about World War I. Some were saying that Americans had been "saps" or "suckers," that the atrocity stories during the war had been British propaganda, that Germany had not been as guilty most American thought in 1917, and that Germany had been treated unfairly at the Paris Peace Conference. Some were claiming that the United States had gone to war not because of German submarines or the rights of neutrals but because of a few greedy capitalists. And some people were calling for assurances that their country would not take itself into another war in Europe.

The leading war resisters were members of the United States Senate. Among them was the cantankerous Gerald P. Nye of North Dakota, a fighter for the farmer against the interests of the big financial interests, a progressive Republican who chaired a committee investigating the munitions industry, described by some as the "merchants of death." Nye's committee dramatized points that he and others wanted to make: that the arms industry had made huge profits, had bribed some politicians and had evaded paying taxes. Nye and others in the Senate were opposed to the United States going to war again in Europe. They pushed for legislation prohibiting the export of arms to any power at war and authorizing the president to prohibit people from traveling on the ships of nations at war, and their bill, the Neutrality Act of 1935, passed in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Bill was in tune with public opinion - many Americans believing that the United States should not get involved in Europe's troubles.

It was more of the isolationism that had kept the United States out of the League of Nations. The idea of preventing war by being involved with allies in a readiness to punish aggression was for some people a bit too complex, or at least lacking in common sense. The idea that pacifism could encourage aggression was more easily understood but dismissed on the grounds that it was not America's business to be involved in far away Europe or Asia in deterring aggression. President Roosevelt, facing the popularity of isolationism and wishing to get legislation on domestic matters through Congress, signed the Neutrality Act into law in late August.

This came with Mussolini's announcement that he would attack Ethiopia in October, after the rainy season ended there. Roosevelt requested a resolution from Congress authorizing him to ban arms exports as an emergency measure. But because of isolation sentiments in Congress, this was denied him.

Roosevelt was ahead of some of his critics in his lack of admiration for Mussolini. Roosevelt saw Mussolini as partly buffoon. Responding to a photo of Mussolini goose-stepping, he commented: "It's wonderful what middle-aged men can do when driven to extremes." [note]

Many failed to see Hitler or Mussolini as much of a threat. Many saw Hitler as an anti-Communist and Mussolini as having saved Italy from communism. And there were those who found little wrong in Mussolini sending his troops and airforce into Ethiopia. Representing this latter view was one of Roosevelt's critics, Henry Luce, publisher of Time, Life and Fortune magazines. Luce was a fervent anti-Communist. He had devoted his July 1934 issue of Fortune magazine to praising Mussolini. He might have tempered his admiration for Mussolini with some criticism, but in 1935 his magazine, Time, described Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia as a "civilizing mission" and it ridiculed the Ethiopians. [note]  Luce was no critic of the white man's mission to civilize the colored peoples of the world.

Mussolini was encouraged by an assessment that the United States would remain passive. In October, Mussolini sent his army and airforce into Ethiopia, and, in the coming months, merchants in the United States would continue sending to Italy the materials that Italians needed to conduct their aggression - despite Nye's distaste for arms dealers.

Labor Troubles and a Presidential Election in 1936

In January, 1936, Roosevelt asked Congress for 1.4 billion dollars for more relief work, to add to the 4.9 million he had asked for in 1935. And as the nation entered another presidential election year, conservatives continued to deplore the taxation they saw involved in servicing the debt.

As in France, a reform government had given more power to labor unions. John L. Lewis organized an industrial union, which broke away from the American Federation of Labor and began organizing unions as allowed by provisions of the Wagner Act - building what was called the Congress of Industrial Organization (CIO). Sit-down strikes in the steel and automobile industries followed - over issues of union representation, the closed shop, and wages. General Motors gave in and signed a contract with the CIO's United Auto Workers, recognizing as this union as the sole bargaining agent for its workers. The Ford Motor Company resisted, using a gang of enforcers and resorting to violence.

Economic recovery was slower than was being realized in Germany and Sweden, but the United States remained the world's leader in manufacturing and in agricultural production. And reforms were occurring. In 1936 the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided that federal obscenity laws did not apply to legitimate activities of physicians, allowing doctors to prescribe contraceptives for the health and well being for their patients. The American Medical Association approved of the court's decision. Margaret Sanger felt victorious, while birth control remained banned in three states: Massachusetts, Connecticut and Mississippi.

In 1936,Alfred Landon was the Republican candidate for president. He spoke of Roosevelt's "broken promises" and of  Roosevelt being big on talk and short in performance. Landon spoke of continuing high unemployment. He criticized the "old order" that had preceded Roosevelt's presidency. Landon spoke in support of social security, the right of workers to labor unions, and the abolition of sweatshops and child labor, but he denounced Roosevelt's New Deal as filled with mistakes. Comparing the federal government to an individual household he complained that the government could not continue spending more than it received. He spoke of the need to subordinate material rewards and to "enthrone the things of the spirit." Then, turning to things material, he said that the Roosevelt administration's intentions were laudable but that the remedy for the depression was to "start all over again" - with, of course, a Landon presidency.

On foreign affairs, Landon sided with the isolationist majority. He advocated remaining outside of any defensive pact with a European power. He was against any plan that might involve the United States in the building of "a false peace on the foundation of armed camps."

Also running against Roosevelt was the National Union for Social Justice, known also as the "Union Party." This group included the anti-Communist radio priest, Father Coughlin, who was speaking of "Roosevelt and ruin." Coughlin saw the Jews as Christ killers and Christ rejecters, but at this point in his career he was mute in his anti-Semitism. Another Union Party activist was Gerald L.K. Smith, of Louisiana, a fire and brimstone preacher who had associated himself with Huey Long. With Long now dead, Smith wished to lead what remained of Long's movement, and he joined Coughlin in accusing Roosevelt of taking the country toward communism. Also a part of the Union Party coalition was Francis Townsend and his movement. Townsend described the Roosevelt administration as linked to both communism and fascism. The Union Party candidate for president was Senator William Lemke of North Dakota, who was angry with Roosevelt for opposing farm refinancing.

Some conservative democrats broke with their party and became a part of what was called the Liberty League. Alfred Smith, the Democrat candidate for president in 28, was among them. He accused Roosevelt of having abandoned the Democrat's party platform of 1932. With the Liberty League were a number of Roosevelt haters and representatives of some major corporations: DuPont, U.S. Steel, General Foods, all of them opposed to deficit spending and progressive taxation. Against the Liberty League were Father Coughlin and others of the Union Party, who attacked the Liberty League as the party of the fat cats.

Those opposed to Roosevelt tended to be white, middle-class Protestants who were employed. A few anti-Semites were among them, arguing that the Jews were controlling Roosevelt. On the other hand, those who favored Roosevelt and the Democrats tended to be the poor, blacks, big-city Catholics, and Jews. Despite Roosevelt's failures in ending the depression many liked and trusted Roosevelt, believing that he cared about the common people. And Roosevelt tried to appeal to everyone. He spoke of the interdependence between workers, businessmen, farmers, consumers and state and national governments, and he gave himself credit for all improvements that had taken place since he had taken office.

A poll taken for Literary Digest gave Landon a lead in the voting, and it predicted a Landon victory. But the results were a greater victory for Roosevelt than in 1932. Roosevelt won 60.8 percent of the vote and every state except Vermont and Maine. In the House of Representatives, the Democrats came away with 331 seats against the Republics 89, and in the Senate they held 76 seats against 16 for the Republicans.

The Union Party candidate, Senator William Lemke, received 882,479 votes, about one for every nineteen votes for Landon. Father Coughlin was upset over the results of the election and said that Roosevelt could become a dictator if he wished and predicted that the National Union for Social Justice would make a comeback.

The Communists, despite all their efforts and their talk about the decline of capitalism, did worse than they had in 1932, winning only 1 out of 564 votes, proving that they were less of a threat than some excited Rightists portrayed them to be - unless one associated Roosevelt as leading the Communist cause.

In his inaugural address in January 1937, Roosevelt spoke of the nation as being one-third ill-housed, ill-clad and ill-nourished. Then he did harm to the economy by supporting budget balancing and deflation measures.

In 1937, Congress passed a new Neutrality Act, amending the Neutrality act of 1935. War between Japan and China and increasing tensions in Europe attracted some interest, but the news that created the most interest for Americans was about the economy and floods in Ohio. The public continued to favor staying out of foreign wars, and the Roosevelt administration's response to the war in China suited the neutralists and pacifists. The Roosevelt administration denounced the use of force and called on Japan and China to settle their differences through peaceful negotiations - while the Neutrality Act prevented the U.S. from sending the Chinese help for their defense.

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