The New Deal

1930s Party Platforms

Democratic Party Platform

June 25, 1936

We hold this truth to be self-evident -- that the test of a representative government is its ability to promote the safety and happiness of the people.

We hold this truth to be self-evident -- that twelve years of Republican leadership left our nation sorely stricken in body, mind and spirit; and that three years of Democratic leadership have put it back on the road to restored health and prosperity.

We hold this truth to be self-evident -- that twelve years of Republican surrender of the dictatorship of a privileged few have supplanted by a Democratic leadership which has returned the people themselves to the place of authority, and has revived in them new faith and restored the hope which they had almost lost.

We hold this truth to be self-evident -- that this three-year recovery in all the basic values of life and the reestablishment of the American way of living has been brought by humanizing the policies of the Federal Government as they affect the personal, financial, industrial and agricultural well-being of the American people.

We hold this truth to be self-evident -- that government in a modern civilization has certain inescapable obligations to its citizens, among which are:

(1)  Protection of the family and the home.

(2)  Establishment of a democracy of opportunity for all the people.

(3)  Aid to those overtaken by disaster.

These obligations, neglected through twelve years of the old leadership, have once more been recognized by American Government.  Under the new leadership they will never be neglected.

[A] Savings and Investment

We have safeguarded the thrift of our citizens by restraining those who would gamble with other people's savings, by requiring truth in the sale of securities; by putting the brakes upon the use of credit for speculation; by outlawing the manipulation of prices in stock and commodity markets; by curbing the overweening power and unholy practices of utility holding companies; by insuring fifty million banks accounts.

[B] Old Age and Social Security

We have built foundations for the security of those who are faced with the hazards of unemployment and old age, for the orphaned, the crippled and the blind.  On the foundation of the Social Security Act we are determined to erect a structure of economic security for all our people, making sure that this benefit shall keep step with the ever-increasing capacity of America to provide a high standard of living for all its citizens.

[C] Consumer

We will act to secure to the consumer fair value, honest sales and a decreased spread between the price he pays and the price the producer receives.

[D] Rural Electrification

This administration has fostered power rate yardsticks in the Tennessee Valley and in several other parts of the nation.  As a result electricity has been made available to the people at a lower rate.  We will continue to promote plans for rural electrification and for cheap power by means of the yardstick method.

[E] Housing

We maintain that our people are entitled to decent, adequate housing at a price which they can afford.  In the last three years the Federal Government, having saved more than two million homes from foreclosure, has taken the first steps in our history to provide decent housing for people of meager incomes.  We believe every encouragement should be given to the building of new homes by private enterprise, and that the government should steadily extend its housing program toward the goal of adequate housing for those forced through economic necessities to live in unhealthy and slum conditions.

[F] Veterans

We shall continue just treatment of our war veterans and their dependents.

[G] Agriculture

We have taken the farmers off the road to ruin.

We have kept our pledge to agriculture to use all available means to raise farm income towards its pre-war purchasing power.

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By Federal legislation we have reduced the farmer's indebtedness and doubled his net income.  In cooperation with the States and through the farmers' own committees, we are restoring the fertility of his land and checking the erosion of his soil.  We are bringing electricity and good roads to his home.

We shall continue to improve the soil conservation and domestic allotment program with payments to farmers.

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We recognize the gravity of the evils of farm tenancy, and we pledge the full cooperation of the government in the refinancing of farm indebtedness at the lowest possible rates of interest and over a long term of years.

We favor the production of all the market will absorb, both at home and abroad, plus a reserve supply sufficient to insure fair prices to consumers; we favor judicious commodity loans on seasonal surpluses; and we favor assistance within Federal authority to enable farmers to adjust and balance production with demand, at a fair profit to the farmers.

We favor encouragement of sound, practical farm cooperatives.

By the purchase and retirement of ten million acres of sub-marginal land, and assistance to those attempting to eke out an existence upon it, we have made a good beginning toward proper land use and rural rehabilitation.

The farmer has been returned to the road to freedom and prosperity.  We will keep him on that road.

[H] Labor

We have given the army of America's industrial workers something more substantial than the Republicans' dinner pail full of promises.  We have increased the worker's pay and shortened his hours; we have undertaken to put an end to the sweated labor of his wife and children; we have written into the law of the land his right to collective bargaining and self-organization free from the interference of employers; we have provided Federal machinery for the peaceful settlement of labor disputes.

We will continue to protect the worker and we will guard his rights, both as wage earner and consumer, in the production and consumption of all commodities, including coal and water power and other natural resource products.

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[I] Business

We have taken the American businessman out of the red.  We have saved his bank and given it a sounder foundation; we have extended credit; we have lowered interest rates; we have undertaken to free him from the ravages of cutthroat competition.

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[J] Youth

We have aided youth to stay in school; given them constructive occupation; opened the door to opportunity which twelve years of Republican neglect had closed.

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[K] Monopoly and Concentration of Economic Power

Monopolies and the concentration of economic power, the creation of Republican rule and privilege, continue to be the master of the producer, the exploiter of the consumer, and the enemy of the independent operator.  This is a problem challenging the unceasing effort of untrammeled public officials in every branch of the government.  We pledge vigorously and fearlessly to enforce the criminal and civil provisions of the existing anti-trust laws, and to the extent that their effectiveness has been weakened by new corporate devices or judicial construction, we propose by law to restore their efficacy in stamping out monopolistic practices and the concentration of economic power.

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[L] Unemployment

We believe that unemployment is a national problem, and that it is an inescapable obligation.  Where business fails to supply such employment, we believe that work at prevailing wages should be provided in cooperation with State and local governments on useful public projects, to the end that the national wealth may be increased, the skill and energy of the worker may be utilized, his morale maintained, and the unemployed assured the opportunity to earn the necessities of life.

[M] The Constitution

The Republican platform proposes to meet many pressing national problems solely by action of the separate States.  We know that drought, dust storms, floods, minimum wages, maximum hours, child labor and working conditions in industry, monopolistic and unfair business practices cannot be adequately handled exclusively by 48 separate State legislatures, 48 separate State administrations and 48 separate State courts.  Transactions and activities which inevitably overflow State boundaries call for both State and Federal treatment.

We have sought and will continue to seek to meet these problems through legislation within the Constitution.

If these problems cannot be effectively solved by legislation within the Constitution, we shall seek such clarifying amendment as will assure to the legislatures of the several States and to the Congress of the United States, each within its proper jurisdiction, the power to enact those laws which the State and Federal legislatures, within their respective spheres, shall find necessary in order adequately to regulate commerce, protect public health and safety and safeguard economic security.  Thus we propose to maintain the letter and spirit of the Constitution.

[N] The Merit System in Government

For the protection of government itself andpromotion of its efficiency, we pledge the immediate extension of the merit system through the classified civil service -- which was first established and fostered under Democratic auspices -- to all non-policy-making positions in the Federal service.

We shall subject to the civil service law all continuing positions which, because of the emergency, have been exempt from its operation.

[O] Civil Liberties

We shall continue to guard the freedom of speech, press, radio, religion and assembly which our Constitution guarantees, with equal rights to all and special privileges to none.

The administration has stopped deflation, restored values and enabled business to go ahead with confidence.

[P] Government Finance

When national income shrinks, government income is imperiled.  In reviving national income, we have fortified government finance.  We have raised the public credit to a position of unsurpassed security.  The interest rate on government bonds has been reduced to the lowest point in twenty-eight years.  The same government bonds which in 1932 sold under eighty-three are now selling over 104.

We approve the objective of a permanently sound currency so stabilized as to prevent the former wide fluctuations in value which injured in turn producers, debtors, and property owners on the one hand, and wage earners and creditors on the other, a currency which will permit full utilization of the country's resources.  We assert that today we have the soundest currency in the world.

We are determined to reduce the expenses of government….Our retrenchment, tax and recovery programs thus reflect our firm determination to achieve a balanced budget and the reduction of the national debt at the earliest possible moment.

[Q] The Issue

The issue in this election is plain.  The American people are called upon to choose between a Republican Administration that has and would again regiment them in the service of privileged groups and a Democratic Administration dedicated to the establishment of equal economic opportunity for all our people.

We have faith in the destiny of our nation.  We are sufficiently endowed with natural resources and with productive capacity to provide for all a quality of life that meets the standards of real Americanism.

Dedicated to a government of liberal American principles, we are determined to oppose equally, the despotism of Communism and the menace of concealed Fascism.

We hold this final truth to be self-evident -- that the interests, the security and the happiness of the people of the United States of America can be perpetuated only under the democratic government as conceived by the founders of our nation.