New Deal Aims and the Constitution

Report Outline
Elections Results and Roosevelt's Second Term
The New Deal and Regulation of Industry
Regulatory Proposals in Congress
Constitutional Amendment and the New Deal

Elections Results and Roosevelt's Second Term

President's Statement of New Deal's Objectives

The overwhelming endorsement given President Roosevelt at the I polls on November 3 has revived discussion of the possibility that the administration will make a renewed effort in the President's second term to attain the objectives sought through the invalidated National Industrial Recovery Act, Supported by a general but decisive popular ratification of New Deal aims, and commanding majorities in both houses of Congress unprecedented since Reconstruction days, the administration, it is urged, is now in a position of such great prestige as to warrant expectations that it might, successfully sponsor not only a legislative program reinstituting certain controls over industry but a constitutional amendment clarifying and enhancing federal powers in the field of industrial regulation. These questions did not become a clear-cut issue in the recent political campaign. At Madison Square Garden on October 29, Governor Landon challenged the President to state clearly his intentions with respect to the Constitution and the principles of the National Recovery Act and the Agricultural Adjustment Act. Two days later at the same place, Roosevelt gave his answer:

Of course, we will continue to seek to improve working; conditions for the workers of America –to reduce hours over-long, to increase wages that spell starvation, to end the labor of children, to wipe out sweat-shops. Of course, we will continue every effort to end monopoly in business, to support collective bargaining;, to stop unfair competition, to abolish dishonorable trade practices. For all these we have only just begun to fight. …

Of course, we will continue our efforts in behalf of the farmers of America. With their continued cooperation we will do all in our power to end the piling up of huge surpluses which spoiled ruinous prices for their crops. We will persist in successful action for better land use, for reforestation, for the conservation of water all the way from its source to the sea, for drought and flood control, for better marketing facilities for farm commodities, for a definite reduction of farm tenancy, for encouragement of farmer cooperatives, for crop insurance and a stable food supply. For all these we have only just begun to fight.