The Limits of New Deal Reform

Abstract This chapter traces the unraveling of Josephine Roche’s experiment in cooperative industrial reform during the Great Depression and her parallel ascent into New Deal policymaking. After the failure of Hoover’s voluntary regulation efforts and the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company’s near collapse because of price wars waged by Colorado Fuel &Iron, Roche came to believe that reform required federal intervention. Though she championed collective bargaining, she increasingly depended on secret loans from the United Mine Workers (UMW) to stay afloat—revealing the fragility of her reforms. Disillusioned by the constraints of private reform, Roche threw herself into New Deal reforms, playing a major role in drafting politics and legislation. These efforts too met defeat or dilution, often blocked by the Southern Democrats’ insistence on preserving racial and labor hierarchies, revealing the intrinsic limitations of both private and public reform. Ultimately, Roche’s vision of an industrial democracy—where labor, management, and government collaboratively ensured social welfare—was eclipsed by the exigencies of war and the enduring conservatism of American political structures.