He opened soup kitchens, gave unemployment benefit and set up poor homes in New York. He instructed the chef at Hyde Park to give food to anybody who came to ask for it. In 1928 his concern is so much that he ran for President presenting the New Deal.
I think that there were many factors in Roosevelt’s life that changed his views. The first is Eleanor. Before he met her he had had no contact with the under privileged in his entire life. Through his life she was his social conscience, always reminding him of those less fortunate than himself, and urging him to help them. Polio was another main reason why he changed so much. During Polio, he suffered, and this part of his life was described as his “darkest hour”. He realised that others lives were like this and he wanted to help them. He set up Warm Springs and there met ordinary people, which changed him and helped him understand them more. He saw people a lot worse off than himself. This helped him to mature in character and understand the people. Touring the countryside talking to farmers helped him also. He learnt what needed to change, and who needed a lot of help.
How far was Roosevelt himself Responsible for his Victory in the 1932 Election?
The year 1932 was the peak of the depression in America after the Wall Street Crash in 1929.There were 12 million people unemployed and 5000 banks went bankrupt in that year alone, six out of ten people did not have enough money for food, and the few jobs that remained vastly under paid, for instance women in a textiles factory worked a 56 hour week and received just 18 cents an hour. Around 42% of people were below the poverty line. People are admitted into hospital in New York for starvation, in supposedly, the richest part of America. In the November 1932 election Roosevelt won the election over Herbert Hoover.
Herbert Hoover was born in 1874. He was an orphan. He became an office boy after leaving school. He saved money, and paid for himself to go to university. He was a multi-millionaire by the age of 40 and he decided to go into politics. No one helped him in his life, and therefore he believed strongly in “rugged individualism” and self help. He was a candidate for the Republicans and won the 1929 election on the promise of “continued prosperity”. He said there would be a “chicken in every pot” and “two cars in every garage”.
When the “Wall Street Crash” happened in 1929, he did not seem too bothered, and certainly did not do anything much about it; he said it was just a cycle, the boom and bust theory. He reassured people, “Prosperity is just around the corner.” And the problem was with Europe not America. He was nicknamed the “Do-nothing President”. He believed in “Laissez Faire”, no government intervention. He said it was the job of charities to help people.
Banks were repossessing thousands of people’s houses. People made little shacks out of whatever they could find lying around. They formed large slums on the out skirts of towns; they called them “Hoovervilles” and the newspapers people used to keep warm were called “Hoover blankets” Everybody blamed Hoover. According to them he was uncaring and selfish. So Hoover was not popular, this made Roosevelt look even better when he stood for President. Over 42% of people were below the poverty line and many couldn’t afford food, people were eating from dumps. There were miners reported to be surviving only on dandelions and grass. This is just one example of the extremes people were going to stay alive. The country desperately needed help.
1932 was a crisis year. There were marches by farmers from Iowa in protest of how they were receiving no help from the government. Their slogan was “In Hoover we trusted, and now we are busted” Hoover was booed at in cinemas, so much so cinemas had to stop showing Hoover on the newsreels. The public were completely against him.
In June 1932, five months before the election, 20,000 ex service men marched to Washington to receive their promised war bonus, which was due in 1945. They set up a gigantic Hooverville in full view of the White House. The U.S Congress refused to pay the bonus. Many went home but between 2000 and 4000 remained. Hoover called them “hoodlums, criminals and thugs”. After clashes with the police Hoover sent in the army on the 28th of July. Tanks, bulldozers, cavalry and tear gas were used. Two people, died one of which was a baby. Hoovers only comment was “ Thank God in America we still know how to deal with a mob”. This outraged the public further. A comment in the newspapers at the time was “the country is on the verge of civil war”
Roosevelt was a complete opposite to Hoover. He was happy, smiley, and charismatic and he came across to the public that he really cared about ordinary people. He listened to people, talked to them. He did a grand train tour around America, stopping to talk to people. He attacked Hoover’s policies, and the idea of “laissez faire”. He promised an active government. His slogan was “Action and action now.” People believed him because as the Governor of New York he did exactly that and spent money on unemployment benefit, soup kitchens and tax relief. He had well thought out electoral slogans, promising the people exactly what the wanted, “I pledge a New Deal for the American people” and “I am waging a war against destruction, delay, deceit and despair.” He was all the time blaming Hoover for America’s situation. This enhanced how bad Hoover looked compared to the friendly, confident, nice, cheery and good-looking Roosevelt who appeared to over come the crippling disease polio. This showed strength of character, which was exactly what America needed at that time, strength
Eleanor in the mean time and had been for a long-time, re-housing families in slums, and was well known for that. She was campaigning for women’s rights in the workplace, women’s trade unions and the controversial subject of birth control. She was one of the first to address the subject properly; she said that women could lead their own life, instead of having all their time taken up tending to the needs of her family. Eleanor appealed to the women who there fore liked Roosevelt as they came across as a team.
So, I think the reasons Roosevelt won the election are mostly to do with how bad Herbert Hoover was as a President. People blamed Hoover for America’s downfall and people thought anything could be better than Herbert Hoover. Supposing the Wall Street Crash had not happened and America had not fallen into a depression then maybe Hoover would have won the election, but a crisis really does show people’s true colours. Eleanor’s work to help the homeless and with women’s rights also helped Roosevelt in his election chances. The fact that Roosevelt was actually a good caring person who was ready to help those who needed it mostly helped him to win the election. He gave them hope which was exactly what the American people needed at the time.
Life did get better for all Americans in the 1930’s. How far was Roosevelt responsible for this, or was it due to other factors?
During the depression life was bad for most of America, 42% of the population was below the poverty line. People could not afford to eat, let alone pay the mortgage on their houses, so they lost them and ended up building shantytowns and eating from rubbish bins. In 1932 alone 5000 banks went bankrupt, leaving 1000s of people with no money. In 1932 14 million people were unemployed.
In November 1932 Roosevelt came to power. The first act he passed was the Emergency Banking Act. He shut all the banks, and appealed to the public to not withdraw any more money, and he also guaranteed that their money would be safe. He did this by way of his famous “fire side chats”. He talked to the public on the radio. It made him seem more caring as they actually heard it coming from him, rather than spokes people, and it also reassured them he was telling the truth. When the banks reopened, thousands of people put their money back into the bank. One billion pounds was deposited into the banks. No more banks went under after then. Life improves for most people after then, if only slightly.
After Roosevelt came to power, the first hundred days were vital. In this period he and others devised a number of schemes to help the public and try to pull America from the depression. These were called the Alphabet Agencies. They were based upon the principles of Relief, Recovery and Reform. Roosevelt and a man called Harry Hopkins mostly created these agencies. Roosevelt was more interested in agriculture so the agencies he created are mostly based around this, whilst Harry Hopkins focused on industry, employment and the economy. These are the Alphabet Agencies devised by Roosevelt:
- AAA (Agriculture Adjustment Administration). The AAA tried to raise food prices. This was mainly to help farmers and the trade industry. It paid farmers not to raise specific crops and livestock. Acres and acres of crops were burnt and thousands of pigs were slaughtered. The food was promised to go to the starving, but very little actually did. This helped farmers, but did not help the poor and starving, as they could not afford to buy the food at the higher prices. This also disadvantaged farm labourers as if there is less land being farmed; less people are needed to farm it.
- CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) – Roosevelt prided this as the most successful agency. It was a program that gave 2.5 million unmarried men work for six months. The pay was $30 dollars a month with $22 dollars of it being sent home to dependents. The men planted trees, built public parks, drained swamps to fight malaria, restocked rivers with fish, worked on flood control projects and a range of other work that helped to conserve the environment. In return were given food, accommodation and taught a skill. So when they left they were much fitter, able to be employed and their families were slightly better off .The CCC also ran a scheme similar to this for women, but it helped only 8,500 compared to the 2.5 million men it helped. This scheme helped most people in some way or another.
- FCA (Farm Credit Association) - This basically gave loans to farmers who owed money to the bank. This helped them as the interest levels were lower. $100 million was loaned out in total. This helped farmers only.
- FSA (Farming Security Administration) – This gave millions to farmers so they could buy their farms rather than being shareholders and they could purchase new machinery and increase the size of their crops and therefore increase their profit. This did not benefit farm labourers as the new machinery replaced them and therefore they became unemployed. Most farm labourers were blacks, which had stemmed form slavery. Still blacks were considered second-class citizens therefore they found it hard to get new jobs.
- TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority). This was set up to develop the Tennessee Valley, a vast area that cut through seven states. It helped an entire region it was a poverty stricken area with soil erosion and flooding. The TVA organised 33 dams to be built to control the Tennessee River so the area could be farmed again. Power stations were built. Massive sums of money were spent and the new developments gave thousands of people jobs. It was beneficial to only those who lived in the area, and still does today with many of the dams still in use today.
These are the Agencies devised by Harry Hopkins, a formal social worker; they mainly focus on economics and industry.
- FERA (Federal Emergency Relief Association) – This agency spent money depleting local relief such as soup kitchens. It handed out money, food, clothing, housing, seeds, tools and livestock. Within two hours $5 million was given out and $500 million was spent in total on the scheme. Hopkins persuaded Roosevelt to spend huge amounts of money on airport repairs and maintenance, road repairs and getting people back to work. Hopkins believed that a man should get a job himself rather than rely on charity. This agency mainly helped those in towns and cities and did not help women very much or people who lived in the country.
- NRA (National Recovery Administration) –Their aim was to increase workers wages so they would have more money to spend on goods. It helped the factory owners to increase the prices on goods and therefore they could make more money and employ more people and to give workers a fairer deal in the workplace, including better working hours and working conditions. It also banned child labour. This only helped factory workers and these were mainly in the towns and cities. It did not help women, blacks or people who lived in the country.
- PWA (Public Works Association) – This was basically making America a better place. It involved projects such as public buildings, bridges, dams and housing developments. There were many schools and hospitals built. $3,300,000,000 was spent on this act alone. It employed men only as it was manual labour and so women were not helped in this act either.
- WPA (Works Progress Administration) – This was similar to the PWA and worked to decrease employment in a similar way to the PWA. WPA's building program included the construction of 116,000 buildings, 78,000 bridges, and 1,047,000 km of road and the improvement of 800 airports. Also a part of WPA's diversified activities were the Federal Art Project, the Federal Writers' Project, and the Federal Theatre Project. Close to 10,000 drawings, paintings, and sculptured works were produced through WPA, and many public buildings (especially post offices) were decorated with murals. This was the first Agency that tried to improve the arts and decoration in America.
At the time John Maynard Keynes, one of Roosevelt’s advisers explained the best way to get the country back on his feet was to spend money and more money. He said that the money went in a cycles, the money that went into the economy and helped improve the country and employment levels rose, then the money was taxed back to the government. He reassured Roosevelt that most of the money would come back to him in the end. Roosevelt spent huge amounts of money, signing blank cheques almost.
In 1937 the economy had picked up rapidly although it was still not back to normal. Roosevelt was receiving a lot of criticism about the amount of money he was spending. He stopped spending money in 1937 and the unemployment rose from 8 million to 10 million in one year. When he returned to spending the money the unemployment levels dropped again to 8 million.
The Second New Deal was basically the same as the first one although some of the acts were changed slightly as the Supreme Court classified them as unconstitutional. They were said to be too interfering with other people’s lives. Roosevelt solved this simply by passing an act passing an age limit on the Supreme Court forcing the older members to resign and he brought in members who agreed with his points of view so he got his own way in the end. Not everybody liked Roosevelt, and these were the people who complained about him and in a way can understand their point, as they were mostly rich people who were being taxed hugely to pay for the poor people’s help. The people who did not like Roosevelt were: Republicans, Businesses, Supreme Court and taxpayers.
These are the additions and changes he made to the New Deal:
The WPA (Works Program Administration). This gave work to around two million people. It was similar to the CCC and PWA. It also ran a scheme for younger people. This is the first time they have been targeted specifically. There was a social security act which gave unemployment benefit, sick pay, old age pensions and maternity leave. Money was given to old, handicapped, single mothers and widows. The pension for elderly people was $85 a month.
The Wagner Act - This was created to legally protect and support those workers who wanted to form a trade union and prevent employers sacking workers who were union members. Trade unions gradually began to gain more and more power and employers had to listen to them. In 1933 Trade union members totalled 3 million. In 1939 the figure had risen to 9 million. However not all employers accepted this Act and Henry Ford for example hired Thugs to beat up the protesters and trade union leaders.
The AAA of 1933 had helped farm owners but put many farm workers out of jobs. The Farm Security Administration aimed to home 500,000 families in better land. The FSA also set up camps so migrant farmers would have better accommodation. Despite this help, the plight of poor farm workers remained grim.
Looking at the New Deal now it seems unfair in the people it helped. There was only one small act passed to help North American Indians. This was ending the sale of tribal lands and restored ownership of unallocated lands to Native American Groups. This was good in a way, but after that Native Groups got little or no money from the Government to help schools and buildings. They had to fend for themselves. Women also were not treated very well in the New Deal. The acts were mainly aimed at men. Women were still paid half the amount of men on average.
There was also no acts aimed directly at blacks as they were considered second class citizens as it had not been that long since slavery and whites still considered themselves higher than blacks. There were huge amounts of racism in the South at the time, and lynching was common. One example of this is Rubin Stacey. He was an unemployed black man who went from door to door asking for work. He knocked on one door and a white woman answered. She panicked and screamed rape. Rubin Stacey was hung him from a tree without a trial. The Blacks pressed for an anti lynching law, but Roosevelt refused to pass it, as he was afraid he would loose votes in the South. These were the former slave states and although slavery had ended 65 years previously there was still a feeling of white superiority. This is the first time we see that Roosevelt isn’t only concerned with the welfare or the people, he wants to stay as president for his own benefit and thinks this more important that the Black Protection laws.
In the end we see that it is the Second World War that really pulls America from the depression. From 1939-42 America was not involved in the war. But at the time it was providing Britain with iron and steel and engine parts. This was very good for the American industry. On the 7th of December 1941 Pearl Harbor happened and on the 11th of December Germany and Italy (Japan’s allies) declared war against America. In 1941 twenty thousand planes were built and in 1943 ninety thousand planes were built. American production doubled and unemployment fell to virtually zero.
The war really brought upon the disappearance of unemployment, but if the New Deal hadn’t happened I don’t think America would have been able to cope and probably would have lost the war. It made a solid base for the industry to expand upon.
So in conclusion I think life improved for most Americans really, but mostly it helped farmers and those who worked in factories and towns. It also helped elderly people, disabled, unemployed and single mothers. It certainly didn’t help women, North American Indians, Blacks and Farm Labourers very much. However I think Roosevelt was mainly a good person who really tried to help people because he cared about them. He focused on the agricultural side, but tried to help as many people as he could, sometimes they did not work perfectly, but I think the New Deal was the best thing a president has ever accomplished, but then again there has never been a crisis to that scale before. He laid foundations for a better America; he gave millions of people a chance to learn a new trade which in turn increased the rate of development in America. The Tennessee Valley Authority certainly helped in the long term and is still in action today, however most of the acts in the New Deal were for emergency short-term relief. I think he had a good balance of both, and the New Deal helped millions, not just during the depression.