F.D.R aimed to protect Americans’ savings and their property, as well as restoring confidence and restoring the economy. The New deal cut the number of business failures and stabilised the American banking system. Banks were lent money and checked to make sure they were suitable to continue as safe, good banks. However, the New Deal never solved the underlying economic problems. The US economy took longer to recover than most European countries. Confidence remained low – throughout the 1930s Americans only spent and invested about 75% of what they had before 1929. Roosevelt encouraged people to spend and invest again – however the little boost this gave was not enough to make confidence rise by such an amount that it would be able to make things back to “normal” (like before the depression). When F.D.R cut the New Deal budget in 1937, the country went back into recession! Only the USA’s entry into the war brought an end to unemployment and helped America prosper once more NOT the new deal.
The New Deal helped with social issues and aspects arising at the time. The New Deal introduced the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, to help meet the needs of the poor. A sum of 500 million dollars was spent on soup kitchens, blankets, employment schemes and nursery schools. The unemployed were found work due to alphabet agencies. Huey Long was the Governor of Louisiana and a Democratic Senator. He invented the ‘Share Our Wealth’ scheme, calling for a greater taxation of the rich and confiscation of money and fortunes worth over 5 million dollars. This scheme was to begin giving poorer families an allowance to spend. The scheme did have its oppositions: the extremely wealthy families who thought that they were being heavily deprived of their wealth. Huey Long was soon to be assassinated as a result of the many assassinations that shadowed the ‘Share Our Wealth’ scheme. Overall, the attempt to help the people was a success!
Blacks were benefiting from the new deal agencies too! 200,000 blacks (approx. figure) gained benefits from the CCC, amongst other agencies. Many blacks benefited from New Deal slum clearance and housing projects. Also concerning blacks, to do with Roosevelt’s New Deal, was the failure to pass laws against lynching black Americans – F.D.R feared that Democrat senators in the southern states would not support him. All in all, Blacks were still discriminated against and were not equal to regular Americans.
Women were not targeted by the alphabet agencies as much as men. E.g. there were only about 8000 women in the CCC. Some women achieved prominent positions – e.g. Eleanor Roosevelt became an important campaigner on social issues. Frances Perkins was the secretary of Labour. She removed 59 corrupt officials from the labour department and was a key figure in helping the second new deal to practically work. Eleanor Roosevelt was able to campaign for women’s rights with her new powerful position. The New deal was a step forward for woman. However, local governments tried to avoid paying social security payments to women by introducing special qualifications and conditions. Women were also affected by the intolerance and paranoia that consumed America at the time e.g. Frances Perkins was attacked in the press as a Jew or soviet spy!
Native Americans benefited slightly from the New Deal. The Indian Reorganisation Act 1934 provided money to help them buy and improve land. The Indian Reservation Act 1934 was an attempt to help them preserve and practice their traditions, law and culture.
However, they still remained a poor and excluded section of American society. So the New deal did not do a great amount for the Native Americans.
The final major aim was to help get American Industry and agriculture back on their feet. The Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) tried to take a long-term view of problems facing farmers. It set quotas to reduce produce, forcing prices to rise gradually. At the same time the AAA helped farmers to modernise their methods and become more efficient. However the modernisation would end up putting quite a few farm labourers out of work. The NIRA (National Industrial Recovery Act) set up two important organisations:
- Public Works Administration (PWA) to manage money to build schools, roads, dams, bridges, airports, etc. – things useful in the long term, but useful in Short-term as they created jobs!
- The National Recovery Administration (NRA) which improved working conditions in industry and outlawed child labour. Over 2 million employers signed up.
The NRA and second new deal measures strengthened the position of trade unions against the large US industrial giants. F.D.R’s government generally tried to support unions and make large corporations negotiate with them – The Wagner Act played a vital role here. The Union Of Automobile Workers (UAW) was recognised by the two most anti-union corporations: GM (after a major sit-in strike in 1936) and Ford (after a ballot in 1941). However, big business remained immensely powerful in the USA, despite being challenged by government. Unions were treated with suspicion, many strikes were broken up by brutal violence and companies such as Ford and Chrysler employed their own thugs or controlled local police forces! Industrial workers ended up having the larger half of the stick from the New Deal(s), the second one in particular.
The New Deal had restored the faith of the American people in their government.
It was a huge social and economic programmer. Government help on this scale was not seen before! The New Deal handled billions of dollars of public money, but there were no corruption scandals. E.g. head of CWA, Harold Hopkins, distributed $10Bn in schemes and programmes, but never earned more than his salary of $15,000. There were extreme measures taken to make sure there was no corruption and also the government became slightly more tolerant (government not American society!). The New deal did, however, divide the USA, mainly because of the intolerance, particularly towards communism. The New Deal also undermined local government.
Overall, the New Deal did more good than bad. The situation ended up better than it would have if Herbert Hoover were president re-elect. Roosevelt took action from day one of office – a very sincere attempt to drag America back into prosperous times! It did not do as well as it was hoped to do, but it certainly was not a failure. The most important thing was that it stopped the problems and the situation Hoover left behind, from getting worse. Some aspects were successes; others were as well, but not as well as they had been intended to do. Franklin Delano Roosevelt certainly did a good job of “holding ground.” When the war broke out, America had found its ticket back to prosperity (even if it was not because of F.D.R himself), but if F.D.R had not stopped the situation from becoming worse, America may not have been in a position to join the war (with comfort and confidence), let alone prosper from it!
