To conclude, it is evident that Roosevelt won the presidential election due to his effective policies and tactics and winning the love of the American people. However, not only did he win the election but Hoover also lost it, as he proved he wasn’t able to handle the problem of the Great Depression. Although Roosevelt was able to benefit from the Depression as he promised solutions to the nation’s problems.
- How much opposition did Roosevelt face to his New Deal policies?
Roosevelt had a great deal of opposition to his New Deal policies. Many feared he was attempting to become a dictator and others believed he didn’t know what he was doing.
One of Roosevelt’s main sources of opposition was the Republican Party. They had been elected three times and were worried how Roosevelt would handle his authority and control of the USA. They feared he would attempt radical new experiments in his New Deal and also that he wouldn’t know what he was doing. However, this opposition obviously didn’t bear enough strength as Roosevelt triumphed in a landslide victory winning in all but 6 states. Republicans however were not impressed by his inaugural speech by the following evidence. A republican wrote in his diary on the day of the speech ‘I am thoroughly scared… it was full of weasel words and would let him do about what he wanted.’ Also from an article in the New republic ‘The thing that emerges most clearly is the warning of a dictatorship.’ Republicans showed an obvious concern as to whether or not Roosevelt would attempt dictatorship.
Another source of opposition were the Supreme Court, 1936. They believed that Roosevelt was acting like a dictator and was taking too much power. They also thought that he was plotting to override the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court proved to be fairly successful as they altered one of his alphabet agencies, the NRA in Roosevelt’s New Deal. The NRA was the National Recovery Administration. This involved organizing thousands of businesses under fair trade codes drawn up by trade associations and industries. About 23,000,000 people worked under the NRA fair code. However, violations of codes became common, and attempts were made to use the courts to enforce the NRA. However, in 1935 the Supreme Court found the NRA to be unconstitutional. The reasons given were that many codes passed under the NRA were an illegal delegation of legislative authority and the Roosevelt had invaded fields reserved to the individual states. Therefore The Supreme Court proved to be successful.
Charles Coughlin, a Canadian priest living in Detroit put forward plans to nationalise the banks and to introduce a minimum wage. He also wanted greater state control along with more intervention. This demonstrates that it is not only people opposing Roosevelt’s beliefs but also people wanted more extreme versions of it. Charles Coughlin had audiences and he became anti-sematic although in 1934 he managed to gain a lot of support and had largest regular radio audience, even more than Roosevelt’s fireside chats. However, soon he became almost too radical and so lost support.
Another source of opposition of Roosevelt was Dr Francis Townsend. He obtained the support from old people as he proposed a pension of $200 a month to over 60’s. Many of the elderly supported him although Dr Francis Townsend was not a great enough threat to Roosevelt as he was appealing to a minority whereas Roosevelt managed to reach out to many different types of people with his many views and aims.
Huey Long was also opposing Roosevelt however he was from the Democratic Party. He was nicknamed ‘The Kingfish’ and was the governor pf the state of Louisiana. He wanted to replace Roosevelt. He had a ‘Share our Wealth’ campaign which promised to confiscate all personal fortunes over 3 million dollars so that every American would receive between $4000 and $5000. He had a national popularity although was not of a great enough threat as he was eventually assassinated.
Another opposition to Roosevelt was the business people. They didn’t like the NLRA, National Labour Relations Act, as they believed that it preferred trade unions. However, they were not a large enough threat as like Dr Francis Townsend as he was appealing to a minority group.
To conclude, it is evident that all these sources of opposition proved to be ineffective as Roosevelt still won three Presidential elections, in 1932, 1936 and 1940. However, the Supreme Court did have some effect on Roosevelt’s New Deal as the NRA was found unconstitutional and so Roosevelt had to change his policies. Each opposition was targeting a different aspect of his aims and guidelines and so were unsuccessful.
- To what extent were the policies of Roosevelt successful by 1941?
The success of Roosevelt’s policies can be measured by looking at his three main aims of Relief, Recovery and Reform. Each aim can be assess by looking at who did and did not benefit from them.
Roosevelt’s aims were helped to carry out by the alphabet agencies set up. The Works Projects Administration gave wages to those who were currently employed. By 1936 over 3.5 million people were employed on various WPA programs. This included the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which focussed on young unemployed males, and others didn’t get relief. Also the National Youth Administration (NYA) and the Public Works Administration (PWA) under Harold Ickes, the Secretary of the Interior. The Federal Emergency Relief Act passed by Congress in May 1933, was the first step in the program of relief at the beginning of the New Deal. It created the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), which was allocated an initial fund of $500,000,000 to help those in need and provided instant help for the unemployed. Harry Hopkins was appointed director of FERA. Over the next two years a total of $3,000,000,000 was distributed. Most of this money went to Home Relief Bureaus and Departments of Welfare for Poor Relief. The work of FERA was taken over by the Social Security Board in 1935.
The First World War severely disrupted agriculture in Europe. This worked to the advantage of farmers in America who were able to use new machines such as the combine harvester to dramatically increase production. During the war American farmers were able to export the food that was surplus to the requirements of the home market.
By the 1920s, European agriculture had recovered and American farmers found it more difficult to find export markets for their goods. Farmers continued to produce more food than could be consumed and consequently prices began to fall. The decline in agricultural profits meant that many farmers had difficulty paying the heavy mortgages on their farms. By the 1930s many American farmers were in serious financial difficulties.
When Roosevelt was elected as president, he appointed Henry Wallace as his Secretary of Agriculture. In 1933 Wallace drafted the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA). The AAA paid farmers not to grow crops and not to produce dairy produce such as milk and butter. It also paid them not to raise pigs and lambs. The money to pay the farmers for cutting back production of about 30% was raised by a tax on companies that bought the farm products and processed them into food and clothing. The AAA also became involved in trying to help farmers destroyed by the creation of the dust bowl in 1934. Therefore, farmers benefited from relief. More and more people gained relief, and this in turn led to recovery.
However, people such as the ‘Arkies’ and ‘Okies’ didn’t get relief and still suffered. They had to migrate to the west to find new farmland due to the dust bowl. The dust bowl was an external factor and so was not the fault of Roosevelt. Black people in America also didn’t receive relief. Roosevelt failed to do anything about the lynching in America at that time.
However, not all agreed with Roosevelt’s New Deal. Republicans didn’t like his interventionist views and believed that he was too involved in the everyday lives of the American people.
The economic depression in the early 1930s had a disastrous impact on the banking system in America. Private banks, which had invested in stocks and shares, found that the Wall Street Crash had severely reduced their funds. In December 1930, the Bank of the United States was forced to close. Many banks found it difficult to continue and within a few years a fifth of all banks in America were forced to close. As a consequence, around 15% of people's life-savings had been lost.
By the beginning of 1933 the American people were starting to lose faith in their banking system and a significant amount were withdrawing their money and keeping it at home. When Roosevelt was elected as president, he made it clear that his first concern would be to solve this banking crisis. The day after his inauguration he called Congress into a special session and declared a 4-day bank holiday.
On 9th March 1933, Congress passed the Emergency Banking Relief Act, which provided for the reopening of the banks as soon as examiners had found them to be financially secured. Within three days, 5,000 banks had been given permission to be re-opened.
Later that year Congress passed the 1933 Banking Act. The Federal Reserve Board was given tighter control of the investment practices of banks and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was set up to insure all deposits in banks up to $5,000.
The aim of recovery was to rebuild America, which had been shattered after the Depression. Banks and businesses were refinanced due to the RFC. Banks had recovered by $15 million by 1940.
However, it failed to reduce unemployment to fewer than 10 million until WW2. Also many people were left out of the New Deal such as black people and married women. The jobs that the WPA was providing weren’t particularly well paying and so it was false to say that the economy was recovering. The recession in 1937 backs this up. By this time 10 million people were unemployed again. After the Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression, people were very cautious of how to spend their money and so the economy never really lifted again as Roosevelt had once hoped. During this recession, unemployment rose and Roosevelt was forced to lay off WPA workers. As products weren’t being sold, businesses were failing and so again share values went down. The industrial activity decreased rapidly. However, due to WW2 employment rose once again.
Reform was the laws passed to create a fairer and more just society. Women benefited as they were for the first time, taken seriously in public life. They were also given important government roles. However, women had a partial success. Not all women benefited from reform. Married women weren’t allowed to work and had to stay at home. Women were not equal in 1930’s America. This was allowed by the NRA and allowed women to be paid less than men.
The FLSA was set up which gave workers more rights. Also the NRA. The NRA wasn’t compulsory although it was recommended. However, the NRA didn’t provide medical care. Black people also didn’t benefit from the New Deal. Roosevelt was worried that if he supported the anti-lynching then he would lose total support from the South.
It is evident that Roosevelt’s polices proved successful although this was a lot to do with the start of WW2. Employment rose dramatically. This had a knock on effect on economy as more goods were in demands, there was more employment and slowly the economy returned to normal. However it was not only the war that decreased unemployment. Employment had been rising all throughout the New Deal, proving that Roosevelt was to a great extent responsible for the recovery of the American economy.
To conclude, it is evident that Roosevelt played a vital part in restabilising the American economy by 1941, although the start of the war greatly helped with the incretion of employment.
