History Sources
In 1933 Franklin Delano Roosevelt set about sorting out America’s problems with his theory ‘The New Deal’. Firstly he decided on a period of ‘Relief’ where he went to sort out the problems of the Wall Street crash. This period lasted from 1933-1935. The next period was the period of ‘Reform’ where he set about making it impossible for something like the Wall Street crash happening again. This period lasted from 1935-1939.His new deal had several aims: Getting Americans back to work, Protecting their savings and property, Providing relief for the sick, old and unemployed, Getting American industry and agriculture back on their feet, Restore confidence and faith, Recognise the use of natural resources, Distribute people across the country and finally Provide a better use of the land. To combat these aims he came up with laws, which are now called the alphabet laws.
To combat the first aim, Getting Americans back to work, he came up with 3 laws. These were the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps), the PWA (Public Works Administration), WPA (Works Progress Administration) and finally the CWA (Civil Works Administrations). The CCC and the PWA were both passed during the period of Relief while the WPA was passed during the period of Reform and so was brought in to combat these earlier problems. The CCC was concerned with protecting the environment. It provided work for two million young people who dug reservoirs, planted trees and re-stocked lakes with a billion fish. The PWA employed four million skilled workers. They built 75% of new schools and 35% of new hospitals. The WPA tried to provide jobs in cultural area and set up the FTP-Federal Theatre Project, FAP-Federal Art Project and FWP-Federal Writers Project. The CWA was formed after the FERA changed its name. They spent 500 million dollars on public work schemes e.g. Airports and Nursery Schools were built.
