Roosevelt and the new deal

Roosevelt’s first objective was to pull America out of the depression. He tried to do this during his “first hundred days”. He promised there would be action in the first hundred days of his appointment. He worked at a fast pace to get things done. The first hundred days were important, as he went on to force a 15 new laws through congress that restructured the U.S. banking industry, saved American agriculture and allowed time for industrial rehabilitation. Also what he did was do a lot of fireside chats on radio so that  he could talk to the American public on a regular basis and tell them what his plans are, ensure they know how he will go about them and make sure that the American people know what he is doing. The first 100 days was important as it showed the American public that things were happening quickly to get things sorted. It also got the people on his side quickly which gave him the momentum to go achieve better things.

Another main feature of the New Deal was ‘The Alphabet Agencies’. The Alphabet Agencies were basically new government departments but were specialised to dealing with certain features. There were many agencies, for example; AAA helped the farmers and the agricultural business, WPA gave work to 8 million unemployed people, the CCC worked on and helped the environment, TVA they built dams and with the dams then came cheap electricity for the local people and finally the NRA who were the people to raise wages for the people. The result of these agencies was that the Government played a much larger role in the average American life than ever before, therefore accomplishing Roosevelt’s objective of being the opposite of Hoover.

Although Roosevelt restored hope and fought off the collapse of the banking system, the problem of working conditions and pay was still evident. So with this in mind Roosevelt created “The Wagner Act”. The Wagner Act made it possible for employees to achieve better pay and conditions from their bosses. The act forced the employers to recognise trade unions and the rights they possess to negotiate their pay and the conditions they work under. The Wagner Act was a crucial part of the new deal as it gained the majority support of labourers, thus gaining a huge amount of backing from the American people.

In conclusion, I believe the main features of Roosevelt’s New Deal were: the first 100 days as it showed the people the government were not sitting around waiting for things to happen, but that they were working at a frantic pace to get the economy back on it’s feet again, this gained the people’s support early on in his campaign. The Alphabet Agencies demonstrated that the government were more involved in the daily lives of the American people. Also the agencies got the support of different groups by giving them their own specialised government department to aid their recovery. And finally The Wagner Act reached out to the workers and made their lives easier. Also got a huge group of people supporting him.