Who opposed the New Deal and why?
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Figure false: Evicted Sharecroppers
Figure false: The New Deal’s Agricultural Adjustment Administration maintained farm prices by reducing acreage in production, often resulting in the eviction of tenant farmers when the land they worked was left idle. These African American sharecroppers protested AAA policies that caused cotton farmers to evict them from their homes. They were among the many rural laborers whose lives were made worse by New Deal agricultural policies. © Bettmann/Corbis.
CHRONOLOGY
1934
- – Upton Sinclair loses California governorship bid.
- – American Liberty League is founded.
- – Dr. Francis Townsend devises Old Age Revolving Pension scheme.
1935
- – Father Charles Coughlin founds National Union for Social Justice.
THE FIRST NEW DEAL INITIATIVES engendered fierce criticism and political opposition. From the right, Republicans and business people charged that New Deal programs were too radical, undermining private property, economic stability, and democracy. Critics on the left faulted the New Deal for its failure to allay the human suffering caused by the depression and for its timidity in attacking corporate power and greed.