The concept of Relief, Recovery and Reform was explained as so: Roosevelt had to tackle to handle the huge linked problems of poverty and unemployment. He called this Relief. America had to get its unemployed back to work. All areas of American life needed a boost to stop factories, mines, trucks, trains and farms from standing idle. This was called Recovery. Reform was that Americans must never let the depression repeat. This means changing the way they ran America.
To beat the depression, Roosevelt had many agencies designed to help. The following were agricultural: The Civil Conservation Corps (CCC) which was designed by Roosevelt. It was to put young people to work to help preserve the countryside. The unemployed men of America would be given six months work. They lived in work camps on schemes such as digging ditches, building dams and planting trees to stop soil erosion. Altogether, two and a half million (approximately) men were working in this.
The Farm Credit Association (FCA) scheme gave one hundred million dollars in loans to farmers who owned money to the banks.
The Federal Security Administration (FSA) scheme gave grants at low rates of interest to enable many thousands of farmers to buy their farms.
The Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) granted sub slides to farmers to reduce production. In 1933, about ten million acres of land were taken out of growing cotton, eight million acres were taken out of growing wheat, and tobacco harvest was cut by about a third. In 1934, the AAA spent one hundred and twenty million dollars. This pushed up prices. As to many Americans were living in ‘Hoovervilles’, the Resettlement Administration set up camps for people, to lower the rates of people living in these. It aimed to make more farmers from areas with poor soil on to good land. They helped over six hundred and fifty thousand families.
The Tennessee Valley Commission (TVA) scheme was setup in 1933 to deal with the problems of farming in the valley of Tennessee. In the area, there were massive counts of erosion, and lots of farmers were leaving the land. The commission bought, build and ran dams for electric power and irrigation. These dams also controlled the flooding that swept away the rich topsoil. The TVA sold cheap electricity from the dams to farms, homes and factories: around one hundred and sixty local electric companies sold the electricity. It was used to make cheap fertiliser.
In order to help people keep their homes, the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) refinanced the mortgages of middle-income home owners.
Working on the industrial side of the New Deal, was a member of the Brains Trust named Harry Hopkins. The following are the Alphabet Agencies he set up:
The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) handed out money for food, clothes, housing, tools, seeds and livestock to the poor and needy. They spend huge sums of money on public work schemes to get the unemployed back to work.
The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) setup the National Recovery Administration (NRA). The NRA tackled two problems- how to get people back to work, and how to stop civil war breaking out between workers and their employees. The NIRA also set up the Public Works Administration (PWA) which ran schemes along the same lines as the CWA and CCC. Furthermore, the National Industrial Recovery act created the work union, where people could stand up for workers’ rights.
The Public Works Administration (PWA) ran large- scale projects such as building dams, bridges and highways.
The Civil Works Administration (CWA) put four million people to work in the first thirty days of its existence. In less than four months, the CWA inaugurated one hundred and eighty thousand works projects and spent over nine hundred and thirty three million dollars.
Even though the New Deal was a part success, it was not fully. Many people complained it interfered with them. Businessmen complained it interfered with their freedom and the rich wanted to see the results for all the extra taxes paid. Many conservative newspapers in 1935 were claiming Roosevelt to be a communist as the rich were paying for the poor through the New Deal. The Supreme Court saw some parts of the New Deal as illegal as the government were interfering in peoples’ lives and state affairs. Many judges felt Roosevelt was acting as some sort of dictator. Senator Huey Long complained that he was doing too little, others, too much. Everyone had different ideas, but they all agreed the New Deal cost too much. Therefore, in 1935, Roosevelt met with a group of Senators and close advisors and they set out a new way to approach depression, they created the Second New Deal. The most significant aspects of this Second New Deal were:
The Wagner Act which forced all employers to allow trade unions to operate in their companies and to let them negotiate with employers for better pay and conditions. The new Act made it illegal to sack workers for being in a union. It was named the Wagner Act as it was sponsored by Robert Wagner.
The Social Security Act provided state pensions for the elderly and for widows. It also allowed state governments to work with the federal government to provide help for the sick and the disabled. Most importantly, the Act set up a scheme for unemployment insurance. This meant that employers and workers made a small contribution to a special fund each week. If workers became unemployed, they would receive a small amount of benefit to help them out until they could find work. This Act was one not organised by Roosevelt.
The Works Progress Administration (WPA), later renamed the Works Project Administration, brought together all the organisations whose aim was to create jobs. It also extended this work beyond building projects to create jobs for office workers and even unemployed actors, artists and photographers. The government paid artists to paint pictures to be displayed in the city or town they featured.
The Resettlement Administration (RA) helped smallholders and tenant farmers who had not been helped by the AAA. This organisation moved over five hundred thousand families to better-quality land and housing.
The Farm Security Administration (FSA) replaced the RA in 1937. It gave special loans to farmers to help them buy their own land. It also built camps to provide decent living conditions and work for migrant workers.
As life started to return in America, Roosevelt did what all conservatives wanted him to he cut the New Deal Budget. As a result, almost straight away unemployment rose once more. In 1938, he reinstated the budget and employment rose! This must show that the New Deal had some effect on the economy.
Although people got help, some did not. White working class to middle class farmers or industrial workers were the people receiving aid: many women, Black Americans, and Native Americans were left out of the plans for this country:
The New Deal saw some women such as Eleanor Roosevelt achieve prominent positions in society, although most of the New Deal programmes were aimed to help manual workers, rather than women. This was backed up in a statistic that only around eight thousand of three million people involved in the CCC were women. Also, local governments tried to avoid paying out social security payments by introducing special qualifications and conditions.
Approximately two hundred thousand Black Americans gained benefits from New Deal agencies, and many benefited from the New Deal slum clearance and housing projects. Although, many New Deal agencies discriminated blacks and they either received no work, worse treatment, or lower wages. Also, Roosevelt failed to pass laws against lynching black Americans and he feared that Democratic senators in southern states would not support him for this.
The Indian Reorganisation Act of 1934 provided money to help Native Americans to buy and improve their land, and the Indian Reservation Act of 1934 helped Native Americans to preserve and practise their traditions, laws and culture. Even so, these people remained poor and were excluded from normal society.
There were other factors which contributed to the fact that life got better for many Americans in the 1930s, mainly the Second World War. This was the one factor although that ended the Depression. World War Two hard started in September 1939 as Poland had been invaded by Germany. To start with, America did not participate in the war, although they did supply equipment to Europe. This was under the ‘Lend- Lease’ scheme which was created in the early 1940s. America would lend supplies to Britain for a fee, although they would need the artillery back. If any items were damaged, then fees would be paid to cover the cost. America’s industry started to stimulate from there-on.
In December 1941, America joined the war. The Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbour and so the Americans fought back. This meant that jobs were available for women. Nearly everyone was working during WWII and between 1939 and 1945, US industrial production had doubled.
Overall, there were many factors that contributed to the good life of many Americans returning in the 1930s, and some of it was Roosevelt’s. Although there were other factors, and certainly other people contributing: John Maynard Keynes created the idea of a new deal, and Harry Hopkins created some of the Alphabet Agencies. Along with Roosevelt, these became quite successful. But the factor that helped America the most was the Second World War as it had everyone working and producing; after life became a lot better for Americans.
