Another great success for the government was the ‘Tennessee Valley Authority’ (TVA). This was an organisation which went about improving the huge Tennessee Valley dustbowl. They did this by building dams along the river creating jobs, electricity and making it possible to irrigate the surrounding area. The TVA revitalised an area hard hit by the depression.
Despite all that he did people still felt that Roosevelt had not done enough whilst others felt that the New Deal was doing too much. The USA was recovering slowly and businesses were losing their enthusiasm for the NRA. Something had to be done. Roosevelt decided that he would introduce new radical steps and on 14th June 1935 he presented to Congress his plans for a second New Deal. The second New Deal was quite similar to the first. However, it did make some changes and additions to the New Deal such as ‘The Wagner Act’ which forced employers to allow trade unions into their companies. The ‘Social Security Act’ introduced pension schemes, the works progress administration which brought together the organisations that created jobs, they also gave work to artists and they formed the ‘Resettlement Administration’ which further helped farmers. The New Deal was a series of Acts, Laws and organisations that tried to pull America out of the depression. The Acts I have mentioned went a long way to enabling Roosevelt to achieve his aims.
Why Did Roosevelt Introduce the New Deal?
The USA was in a bad state before Roosevelt introduced the New Deal. The main problems were the attitude of the previous government, unemployment, the consequences of the Wall Street Crash, the high number of people living in poverty and a loss of confidence in the American government. Many of these problems were linked to the consequences of the Wall Street Crash.
In 1929 the American stock market, Wall Street, crashed. This was due to the fact that people lost confidence in the stock market and sold their shares. Many speculators followed them and the whole structure collapsed. Many people lost everything. This led to many of the problems Roosevelt looked to tackle.
Unemployment was high because many companies had to let workers go to save money after the Wall Street Crash. This wasn’t the only reason. Many companies had been over-producing and could not sell their goods. This was because of a number of reasons: those who could afford the products had already bought them and workers wages weren’t rising and prices weren’t falling. The US could not sell their surplus goods abroad because those in Europe could not afford their goods and had introduced tariffs in response to those put in place by America in the 1920’s. They could not sell their goods and so as the demand fell so did the work force.
The people looked to Hoover for help. He did nothing, he even blocked the Garner-Wagner Relief Bill, which would have created many jobs using congress money. As well as those who were unemployed there were many people living in poverty. Many of these people had lost everything in the Wall Street Crash or were farmers who had been hit hard by the depression. Many of these people lived in shantytowns known as ‘Hoovervilles’. It seemed that under Hoover prosperity was not ‘just around the corner’.
However, Hoover did attempt to bring back the prosperity by cutting taxes to try and restart the economy. He persuaded business leaders not to cut wages, but Hoover and the Republicans did very little to help those suffering the most.
Surely it was time for Roosevelt and the New Deal - the people agreed and in 1932 Roosevelt was elected. He would introduce the New Deal to solve the problems of unemployment and poverty. Roosevelt’s New Deal was introduced to show the people that he had a radically different view of the government’s role in American society. His style of active government would restart the economy and give people back their confidence in the President.
‘The New Deal was not a complete success’
Explain how far you agree with this statement
I would agree that the New Deal was not a complete success because there were certain groups of people in society who were not fully helped by it. However, on the whole it was very successful. It was set up to solve unemployment, restore American confidence, help the poor and get American industry back on its feet.
Some of the main successes of the New Deal were its tackling of unemployment by introducing schemes such as the ‘Civilian Conservation Corps’ and the ‘Public Works Administration’. These created millions of jobs and provided the USA with schools, roads and power stations. Deprived parts of the USA were helped by the Tennessee Valley Authority which provided electricity and created thousands of jobs in an under-developed area. The New Deal also cut the number of business failures by introducing the ‘Emergency Banking Act’ which closed untrustworthy banks and provided those in need with government support. This helped to get the American banking system back on its feet. The New Deal was also very successful at changing the attitudes of the American people. It radically changed the way government policies worked and also restored people’s faith in their government by investing money in society. People trusted the government because there were no corruption scandals.
The New Deal also set out to improve life for minority groups and to have equal rights for all. Those they tried to help were the Black Americans and Native Americans. Many Black Americans were helped by the CCC and by housing projects. The Native Americans were helped by two acts: the ‘Indian Re-organisation Act’, which helped them buy and improve land and the ‘Indian Reservation Act’, which helped them to preserve their history, culture and way of life. The New Deal also tried to help women. It succeeded in allowing them more access to equal rights and many women took up important positions within the government. One such example was Frances Perkins who was the Secretary of Labour and a key to making the second New Deal work.
Despite all this there were many people who felt that the New Deal was not successful, and they may have had a point. Some of the New Deal’s weaknesses and failures were:
Its treatment of industry, which felt it had been treated harshly because it was mainly their workers who were helped with the introduction of government backing for unions and higher wages. Roosevelt had been successful at creating jobs for the unemployed but unemployment remained high and was only ended by the USA’s entry into the war. America still recovered slower than Europe and the New Deal didn’t solve all of America’s economic problems. It divided the USA and undermined local government. However, it was successful at altering public attitudes and setting standards for future government policies.
Another failure was that the New Deal did not do enough to help Black Americans who were still widely and badly discriminated against. Roosevelt also failed to pass laws to stop the lynching of Black Americans. Native Americans were helped too but not enough and they remained a poor and excluded race. Roosevelt tried to provide equal rights for women. However, many of the New Deal policies were aimed at helping men rather than women and local governments avoided paying women social security money. The New Deal tried to help Black Americans, Native Americans and women but didn’t really do enough. This is perhaps one of the reasons why the New Deal was not a complete success, because not everyone was helped enough.
Many high profile figures agreed that the New Deal wasn’t doing enough to help the poor, the Black Americans and those in the farming industry. An important man in fighting for more help in these sections of society was Huey Long who was assassinated in 1935. Before his death he campaigned hard for equal rights and taxed large companies and shared the money out to the poor. At first he supported the New Deal but then began to criticise it for being too complicated and not doing enough. Others who criticised the New Deal were Dr. Francis Townsend and Catholic Priest Father Coughlin who founded the National Union for Social Justice. Whilst some thought that not enough was being done many felt the New Deal did too much. Many of these critics were business leaders and Republicans. Some of their complaints were that the New Deal was too complicated. They also believed the government should not interfere with business. Roosevelt was accused of behaving like a dictator and some people felt that America was no longer democratic. They were also upset that people who were working hard were having their money taken away in taxes and given to the poor who had not worked hard. They also launched smear campaigns about Roosevelt’s personal life. Roosevelt also found opposition from the Supreme Court, many of which were Republicans and tried to block him passing new acts and regulations.
Despite all these problems, failures and opponents of the New Deal, it was a great success in general and the voters agreed. Roosevelt won his second term in office in 1936 with the highest margin of victory ever achieved in an American presidential election. Although not everyone was helped, the vast majority were, and Roosevelt and the New Deal were a huge improvement on the depression years of Hoover.