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| Image courtesy of The Hulton Archive |
With my social media feed filled with the UK’s current
general election, I thought I’d get political on here too. With my impending
visit to the “land of the free and the home of the brave” (no, not Scotland), I’m
going to look briefly and with shocking naivety and uninformedness at the
dynasty that this great travelling scholarship is named after.
On both sides of the Atlantic there is a divisive
politics, with President Trump’s “Muslim ban” and repeal of “ObamaCare” whilst over
here we are dealing with the effects of a bitter Brexit vote and the chronic
underfunding of our public services for the last 7 years. With the Conservatives,
last week dusting off one of Ed Milliband’s policies on capping energy bills
and Labour today announcing that there would be a renationalisation of water
utilities, this is exactly the municipal socialism that got me interested in
politics in the first place. I’ll not drone on about Joseph Chamberlain and his
mayoralty of Birmingham however, instead I’ll try and speak about Franklin D. Roosevelt
and the New Deal (though both can be categorised as great post-Gladstonian
liberals) and the role of the state in social policy.
Elected in a landslide for the Democrats, Roosevelt’s New
Deal, which had been a core campaign promise, began to take shape immediately
after his inauguration in March 1933 effectively ending the
non-interventionalist social policy of previous laissez-faire administrations.
Based on the assumption that the power of the federal government was needed to
get the country out of the depression, the first days of Roosevelt's
administration saw the passage of banking reform laws, emergency relief
programs, work relief programs, and agricultural programs.
Later, a second New Deal was to evolve; it included union
protection programs, the Social Security Act, and programs to aid tenant
farmers and migrant workers. Many of the New Deal acts or agencies came to be
known by their acronyms. For example, the Works Progress Administration was
known as the WPA, while the Civilian Conservation Corps was known as the CCC.
Many people remarked that the New Deal programs reminded them of alphabet soup.
As an artist, I love that the New Deal also included the
Federal Art Project and other measures
that provided work for jobless artists, but they also had
a larger mission: to promote American art and culture and to give more
Americans access to what President Franklin Roosevelt described as "an
abundant life." The projects saved thousands of artists from poverty and
despair and enabled Americans all across the country to see an original
painting for the first time, attend their first professional live theatre, or
take their first music or drawing class.
By 1939, the New Deal had run its course. In the short
term, New Deal programs helped improve the lives of people suffering from the
events of the depression. In the long run, New Deal programs set a precedent
for the federal government to play a key role in the economic and social
affairs of the nation.
Under the New Deal, the country gained from public works
projects - dams, roads, airfields, schools, bridges, reforestation schemes, and
similar projects. These brought lasting benefits to local communities. In its
efforts to help the poor and the destitute, the New Deal had many successes.
The many relief schemes provided jobs and support for millions of people. The
numbers out of work fell steadily - from 14 million in 1933 to under 8 million
by 1937. The New Deal also restored the confidence of the American people in
their government. They retained their belief in democracy at a time when, in
Europe, democracy was facing major challenges from far-right, anti-democratic
politics.
America, for me, is enshrined in Emma Lazarus’ The New Colossus,
the poem on the tablet of the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your
poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” – I also feel that
Roosevelt’s New Deal was one of the real giant leaps for America on their road
to achieving it. It’s a huge privilege to be traveling under the auspices of such
an American colossus.