Fair Deal

Fair Deal, in U.S. history, President Harry S. Truman’s liberal domestic reform program, the basic tenets of which he had outlined as early as 1945.

In his first postwar message to Congress that year, Truman had called for expanded social security, new wages-and-hours and public-housing legislation, and a permanent Fair Employment Practices Act that would prevent racial or religious discrimination in hiring. Congress was preoccupied with problems of inflation and of converting the country to a peacetime economy, however, and paid little heed to the proposals. In 1946 Congress did pass the Employment Act, clearly stating the government’s responsibility for maintaining full employment and establishing a three-member Council of Economic Advisers to help assure a continuing healthy national economy. After his surprise victory at the polls in November 1948, Truman reasserted (Jan. 20, 1949) his reform proposals under the catchphrase Fair Deal. The economy-minded 81st Congress would agree to legislate only a few of the president’s recommendations: it raised the minimum wage, promoted slum clearance, and extended old-age benefits to an additional 10,000,000 people.