Explain why Roosevelt introduced the New Deal
Explain the main features of the new deal.
Roosevelt had promised to take immediate action after the elections. Roosevelt had three main aims, these were; relief, recovery and reform as this was to be a "New Deal" for the Americans. The New Deal was to bring back confidence and stability in banking and finance. He did this by setting up alphabet agencies. This period when he was in office was known as the "hundred days". The "hundred days" was the period in which Roosevelt set up the agencies whilst in office. This gave back a great deal of strength to the economy.
These were the agencies which helped America.
Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) was created in order to reduce the surplus of food that farmers were producing. Farmers were paid for not planting crops and eventually prices increased and as a result of this farm income increased also.
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and Civil Works Administration (CWA) were both set up in 1933 to reduce the number of unemployment. The CCC employed unmarried men aged 18-25 from relief, and in return for their hard work, $15 per month would be sent home to help their families get out of poverty and depression. Whereas the CWA paid $15 per week to men who helped to construct schools, buildings etc to help with the problem of unemployment and to help families who had to live in poverty.
Federal Housing Administration (FHS) was also set up in 1933; this organisation gave $15 million to poor households in order to get families out of poverty. Furthermore, the FHA gave literacy lessons to poor children who needed education.
Public Works Administration (PWA) was set up in 1933. This organisation intended to recover industry and unemployment relief. Eventually $4 billion was spent on construction including public buildings.
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was created in 1933 for the economic development of the Tennessee River watershed. The TVA built 20 damns to control flooding, generate hydro-electrical power, and increase agricultural production and to revive the Tennessee Valley region. The TVA also provided jobs, low-costing housing, reforestation and other services.
Works Progress Administration (PWA) was a relief organisation that employed at least 8.5 million people. They built thousands of roads, bridges, schools, post offices to help people and families get out of poverty by providing jobs so that they could earn a living.
Roosevelt needed to restore trust and confidence in the American people and in order to achieve this he had to give American people back their jobs. The Civil Conservation Corps, otherwise known as the CCC were set up to deal with this. They provided work for thousands, although not the best of jobs. This gave Americans back an income. The CCC ensured that American people got a wager, a source of income, which meant people could buy items. This meant confidence would slowly be restored and as confidence was restored people started to take risks. Roosevelt had dealt with the confidence issue that had ruined America. However people were still not confident enough to trust the banks.
Roosevelt used a simple but effective plan for this. A huge amount of banks were effected by the depression, some of those banks were good others were bad, so Roosevelt closed the bad ones and re-opened the good ones as well as pumping money to them. How were people to know about this and what was being done. "Fireside chats". Roosevelt would talk on the radio to all the Americans about the new changes to the banks and why they could now trust them. This gave the economy a huge increase of trust. Banks were reopened and people ...
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Roosevelt used a simple but effective plan for this. A huge amount of banks were effected by the depression, some of those banks were good others were bad, so Roosevelt closed the bad ones and re-opened the good ones as well as pumping money to them. How were people to know about this and what was being done. "Fireside chats". Roosevelt would talk on the radio to all the Americans about the new changes to the banks and why they could now trust them. This gave the economy a huge increase of trust. Banks were reopened and people trusted them. To be completely sure that there would not be another crash, Roosevelt supervised the stock market and banks and made sure there was a limited amount of speculation. People began to deposit money into the bank and trust was regained. Roosevelt had solved many of the problems produced by the depression, however he still had the industry to deal with.
The Industry was so important and needed to be restored. The Industry had been through the spiral of depression and failed because this. Roosevelt used yet another simple technique. He reversed the spiral of depression. In order to do this Roosevelt had to spend a lot by the means of "prime pumping". This was when he would put a large amount of money into the industry to keep itself going. Roosevelt also set up more alphabet agencies to deal with this. They got people jobs, which gave people an income, which meant more spending, so demand for good increased and more goods were produced. The industry were giving jobs out, which meant more spending and yet again demand for goods increased so more goods were produced again and more pay means more taxes. The government got more money from the taxes and the spiral continued, as did the up rise of the industries. People were now very confident and trusted banks.
Roosevelt had restored confidence and trust back into finance, American people and industry as well as making America more advanced. His work all links back to his three aims. His first aim was "relief"; to help people right away, which he did by taking immediate action; the 100 days. "Recovery" was the second, and this was designed to get the USA out of the depression, which he also did by reversing the spiral of depression. Finally "reform" was designed to make sure another depression did not happen which again he did by having banks and the stock market supervised with limited speculation. Roosevelt had ticked off all of these aims.
The New Deal had solved the big problems for America, however other problems still existed, and Roosevelt was put under pressure about this and formed the "Second New Deal". The second new deal dealt with pensions for the elderly, security of the future and other features. These were, union protection programs, the Social Security Act, and programs to aid tenant farmers and migrant workers.
The New Deal had many features to it and each one helped America back to where it was before the depression. Roosevelt set himself three main aims and included in each of these aims were federal agencies that provided America with everything. The New Deal's Main features were reform, recovery and relief. These were meant to give America immediate help, recover from the depression and stop any future depressions. The aims worked in a chain happening one after the other.
Explain why Roosevelt introduced the New Deal:
"In Hoover we trusted, now we are busted!" This saying is summing up the presidential election campaign of 1932. Hoover had not done a good job; he failed to deal with the Economic Depression. People were poor and now lived in Hoovervilles. Hoover had already lost the election before it had even begun because of this. The presidential election took place against the backdrop of the biggest economic depression in American History. Franklin D Roosevelt's campaign promised the Americans "A New Deal". The New Deal was the title given to a sequence of events and promises that Franklin D Roosevelt initiated between 1933 and 1938. Franklin D Roosevelt was a Democratic candidate who came from a privileged background, however this did not affect the way in which he understood the USA due to a polio attack in 1921. He fought Polio and this gave him the ability to relate to ordinary Americans. Roosevelt was able to beat Hoover by promising to do better than him, by introducing a new deal.
In 1929 America was a booming industrial country, and the richest in the world. In June 1929 this all started to change. Factory outputs started declining due to the simple fact that everyone had the thing being produced. On September the 5th Roger Babson said, "sooner or later there will be a crash in the market". This caused a decline in the stock market by 3%. The market however recovered rather quickly. The stock market then started to change rapidly. Speculation increased to an all time high, then days after a huge fall happened, this lead to people buying and selling for whatever they could. On Tuesday the 29th October; the stock market collapsed and the banks went bust. The crash did not have an immediate impact, however it did affect the speculators and they were the immediate losers. Hoover was president at the time of the Wall Street crash and depression, but he failed to solve the problem. Hoover believed in 'rugged individualism' and 'laissez faire'. He thought that the government should not interfere in peoples' lives as this would encourage them to work less hard and rely on government support more. Hoover thought that countries became wealthy because individuals had to work hard as they were responsible for their own lives. When the depression came around, he thought it would go away by itself, hence his saying, "prosperity is around the corner". The economy however did not get better it got worse and Hoover did not help himself by not paying unemployment benefit. This made the economy worse. When Hoover finally realized the economy was not going to get better itself he started to lend money out and solve financial problems. This did not work for the simple reason he did too much too late.
The election campaign of 1932 was very one sided and Roosevelt just needed to promise to be better than Hoover. He caught the mood of voters with his New Deal promise and people were prepared to risk the change in style of government-they had nothing to loose. The people of America were given a new hope from Roosevelt. Roosevelt needed to keep his promises to America. If he did not America would keep deteriorating and it would become a poor and ruined country. The promises he made would give Americans back confidence and restore America's economy. If he did not keep them confidence in America would drop even lower and America's economy would become so bad it would have to be completely rebuilt and that would cost billions.
"The New Deal was not a complete success" how far do you agree with this statement?
Roosevelt introduced the new deal in his election plan. The New Deal had three main aims. These were relief, recovery and reform. Therefore the criteria for success were improving American welfare and their lives, to rebuilt industry and trade, and to think to the future to guarantee the country stayed in a good position.
The New Deal was part of Roosevelt's election campaign. The New deal was hope for the Americans; it was something to depend on. The new deal was meant to restore confidence and stability in the banks and the stock market. It was to make sure the banks would not go bust again and make sure that the stock market would be able to keep steady for the future.
People did not trust the remaining banks due to constant failures of many banks; therefore Roosevelt had to stop the failures. This would then result in more cash deposits, which would then result in confidence being restored.
This was however one of many problems, another problem was unemployment, little income and farming. To solve these problems Roosevelt set up Federal agencies also known as alphabet agencies. Agencies were formed to rebuild each problem. The CCC, civil conservation corps and the PWA, public works administration were in charge of the unemployment that devastated America. They would give people jobs in forestry, housing, schools and soil conservation. This benefited many other things as well as unemployment. Hiring people in the building and forestry meant that more houses would be built and more goods would be produced, increasing the economy and industry. The problem for farming was to be solved by the AAA agricultural adjustment act. They paid farmers to produce less. This meant prices had to increased which meant a better income for farmers. They were able to modernize and recover with the money they made. There were many other agencies that came together and brought America back to the booming country it was years before. Or did it?
Roosevelt's agencies had done a lot for America and most of what they had done was successful. However many were not efficient and often wasted taxpayers money. Agencies like the CCC and the PWA often hired people for useless things like, scaring birds away and putting on shows in the street. These were not what the agencies were made for and they were a waste of money as it meant the workers got easy money and did not have to work hard. It gave them the impression that they could rely on the government to everything. This would make things a lot harder for the government. With other agencies, money was not pumped out fast enough and farmers continued to suffer resulting in them being displaced from their land. Along with all of this the agencies faced harsh oppositions like the liberty league. This helped to delay Roosevelt's plans.
The New deal was very much successful in achieving its main aims. He gave need to the needy, and he restored confidence in America and the stability in the banks. Possibly the most important thing Roosevelt fixed was the unemployment to an extent. Millions now had jobs however the unemployment number still stood at 13 million. Roosevelt had given back the lives of millions of Americans. The unemployment was finally solved in 1941 when America entered world war two.
The New Deal had been successful in many areas and not so successful in little others. America was climbing back up to prosperity and it was all thanks to Roosevelt and his new deal to the Americans.