Although source D holds an overall negative message of the New Deal, the poster shows us that some people were benefiting from the New Deal. The poster depicts a typical white family in a car, with a dog. They are all smiling, showing that they are happy. The message of the poster is basically that the New Deal is benefiting the white people in America, but the photo shows the contrasting lifestyles of the black people in America. These people in the photograph are receiving benefits, handed out by the government. The people in the poster are leading a good lifestyle, which was almost unheard of in the first years of the depression, therefore showing an improvement in lifestyle. This shows that everybody in America was benefiting from the New Deal. Therefore this source can be used as a piece of evidence to support the statement, in Interpretation I; “the New Deal helped many Americans”.
Source F explains how the New Deal gave “ordinary people…a better chance in life”. Once more, this backs up Interpretation I by saying that it “helped many Americans”.
A graph showing the USA’s GNP shows a definite increase from 1932 to 1937. It shows that in 1929, USA’s GNP was $103 billion, in 1932, USA’s GNP was $59 billion and in 1937 USA’s GNP was $90 billion. A definite increase in production in America from 1932 to 1937. The failure rate of businesses decreased dramatically from 1932 to 1937. A decrease of 1,110,000 in 5 years. The failure rate of banks also decreased dramatically. In 1933, the failure rate was around 4,000 compared to 1934, where the failure was less than 100. A graph of unemployment shows how the figures dropped from 14.5 million in 1933 to 8 million in 1937. All these graphs show how the New Deal helped American people, in some way or another.
A source entitled ‘The New Deal In Review 1936-1940’ backs up the points made in Interpretation I very well. It states “The New Deal has clearly done far more for the general welfare of the country and it’s citizens than any administration in the previous history of the Nation”. This strongly backs up the statement in Interpretation I, which says the New Deal “helped many Americans”.
Interpretation II does not support the New Deal. It says that the New Deal wasted a lot of money and made people dependant upon the government.
Source A backs up this Interpretation as it shows Roosevelt wasting money. Source A is a cartoon which holds the message “Roosevelt is wasting the tax payers money”. It does this by comparing the New Deal to a broken pump, which Roosevelt is trying to fix. The broken pump does not do its job very well; taking in a lot of water but giving outlittle. In this cartoon, water is used to represent money. This cartoon backs up sveral points of Interpretation II. It shows how “The New Deal wasted a lot of money” and how “It did not solve the U.S economic problems”.
Source C describes how badly the New Deal did, from a book entitled ‘The Roosevelt Myth”. It shows how “The New Deal wasted a lot of money” and “made people dependant on the Government” and “led to the government becoming too powerful” and how WWII managed to lead the US out of the economic struggle. Source C states how “one in four people depends on employment by the government” and how there “is a national debt of $250 billion, compared to a pre-Roosevelt debt of $19 billion”. These two sentences alone provide good evidence to back up Interpretation II. Source C also mentions how “more people are on government relief” and “Roosevelt is calling for more power”. Source C also states how the Economic problem was solved by the outbreak of WWII, not Roosevelt and the New Deal “By leading his country into war, he was able to put every man and woman into work”
Source D only shows how many people were “dependant” on government relief. It does this by showing a large group of black people queeing for relief.
Source E gives a very strong opinion and argument against the New Deal. It describes how “men lost there confidense in themselves” because Roosevelt gave them soup. It says how “welfare kills a man’s initiative”. This is all evidense to support Interpretation II. The man who wrote source E was a self-made business-man, who was, no-doubt, a republican. He was totally aghainst the idea of receiving help from any one, and he believed that everyone should use there own initiative only, to get somewhere in life. This businessman was probably bought up in a middle class home, where he didn’t have many luxuries. He may be jealous of Roosevelts upbringing, as he had everything given to him. This source was written in 1980. In those times, a plan like the New Deal didn’t seem such a big thing, so Fuller would have looked on it even less favourably. In 1980, Fuller would only be able to see the long term effects of the New Deal, and probably not the whole picture. I think that this source is not very reliable.
After reading through and analysing the sources, I think that Interpretation I is more accurate. I believe this because my knowledge and the sources all back this interpretation better. I also think that most of the sources for the New Deal are more reliable than those that opposse it. I also believe that the graph which supprot Interpretation I are facts and therefore are very reliable and should be trusted.
