The New Deal – Reforming to Preserve

After the great Depression the farmers were worst off. The crop prices had fallen to worthless. By 1933 one in twenty farmers had been evicted from their land. On 12th May, the AAA or Agricultural Adjustment Administration was formed. The aim of the organization was to enhance farmer's profits by monitoring the crop harvesting. $100 million was split between thousands of farmers. The AAA had at its core, a plan to raise crop prices by paying farmers a subsidy to compensate for voluntary cutbacks in production. All the meat and crops bought by the AAA were given to the homeless at the "Hoovervilles." The AAA policy worked and prices began to increase. By 1940 nearly 6 million farmers were receiving federal subsidies. But for the people who worked on the land, mostly of the black community the problems had just started. Thousands left their slum homes and went to find work in other parts of the country. The unforgiving droughts between 1932-36, lead to the land literally turning into a desert. Throughout May 1936, A Huge desert like Dust bowl was produced, full of loose, dry topsoil. Sand and dust storms swept across the Mid-West. Tens of thousands of farms were destroyed.

On the 18 May, the most ambitious and enterprising plan of Roosevelt's. The TVA was to build 21 dams that would provide work for thousands of workers and produce cheap hydro-electrical power. The Tennessee Valley was prone to flooding, so the dams would construct fortification against America's biggest environmental problem the Tennessee River. 3.2 billion kilowatts of electricity were produced each year. On March 31, 1933, President Roosevelt signed the Emergency Conservation Work Act, establishing the Civilian Conservation Corps into law. Under the direction of Robert Fechner, the CCC employed young men between the ages of 17 and 25 to work in camps, where they were assigned to various conservation projects. Planting trees restored historic battlefields and cleared beaches are but a few of the projects. Enrolees were paid thirty dollars a month, twenty-five dollars of which was sent home to the enrolee's families. From 1933 to 1942, over three million young men enrolled in the CCC, including 250,000 African Americans who were enrolled in nearly 150 all-black CCC companies. One CCC member states, " I weighed about 160 pounds when I went there, and when I left I was 190 pounds. It made a man out of me alright."

After the relief of the county, now all endeavour was to be set on Recovery. A more complex look at the new deal for industry, demanded for rubber, iron and steel drops due to the depression. Industry was the source of the prosperous and economically sound America. In 1933 however, industry had almost ground to a halt. Many workers set up trade unions to try to raise wages. As the first one hundred days came to a close, Roosevelt produced two more important reforms. The Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) and the National Industrial Recovery Act. The HOLC helped homeowners to keep up with their mortgage repayments by lending them low interest rate loans. The National Industrial Recovery act had two key parts the Public Work Administration (PWA) and the Nation Recovery Administration. (NRA) General Johnson drew up fair codes of competition. The NRA wore the symbol of the blue eagle. " We do our part." The aims of the NRA were to encourage companies to raise wages and charge fair prices for products. A fair exchange, some profit but not excessive amounts, was the NRA's motto. People refused to buy products without the blue eagle logo; this meant the majority of companies joined the NRA. The NRA also stopped child labour and the lowest wage possible.

By September 1933, over 500 industries had signed the NRA codes. They covered 2 million employers and 22 million workers. There was a famous march down Fifth Avenue as people sang," Happy days are hear again" Nevertheless, the problems arose when employers e.g. Henry Ford, refused to sign the codes and workers went on strike. By September 1933, nearly 300,000 workers were on strike. Also, business battles occurred between small companies, complaints about breaking the code from rival companies often caused chaos in the NRA. The NRA was finally destroyed in 1953, the Schechter brothers were taken to court about violation of the code, once found guilty, they complained to the Supreme Court. Here they affirmed the code illegal and overnight the 750 codes and the NRA were destroyed. Just like the NRA the AAA was found guilty of being unlawful as it went against the constitution.

Roosevelt still had his critics. He faced resistance from the Socialists, the communists and the rich who felt he was a traitor to his class. He faced them face on, using the radio as his weapon. He was the first president who realised the effect of the media and used it to his advantage. Unfortunately there was still unemployment. In 1935 congress passed the National Labor Relations Act, which defined unfair conditions of labour and prohibited employers from interfering with union activities. It stopped employers who punished workers. The National Labor Relations Board was set up to make sure people stuck to the act. In 1932-33, a social security act, a sort of reform passed through congress to make sure if there were an additional depression it wouldn't be so appalling. This social security act set up a pension scheme, help for the disabled and mistreated children and insurance for the un-employed. It also meant the un-employed could receive money from the government rather than charities.

Before Roosevelt could "paint out," poverty and desire for nutrition. He had to satisfy the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court threw out the "alphabet agencies" as they went against state rules. The problems of poverty weren't a federal problem. The Supreme Court branded the agencies "unconstitutional". The Wagner act of 1935 gave American workers the right to structure trade unions e.g. CIO. These often helped apply, staff holidays, lower working hours, set wage and stop underage workers. Companies didn't like these unions and tried to stop them. Sit down strikes were organised. The strikes did succeed, the pressure meant that companies buckled and the CIO rights were enforced, nevertheless these strikes damaged Roosevelt's popularity. November 1936, Roosevelt completed the greatest landslide victory of all time, with all but two states voting for the Democrats. He promised he would carry on this second part of the new deal. However by 1937, production and stock prices had fallen, un-employment risen and the CAA had anti-climaxed. As Roosevelt tried to balance the books, dept was ever increasing. Consequently, unemployment once again sky rocketed to 10.5 million, share prices fell and steel and car production fell. Ironically, it was World War II not the new deal, which brought an end to a drought of unemployment. In 1939, Britain and France needed to buy weapons from America. Unemployment dropped to less than 1 million.

Until 1939 Roosevelt kept America out of foreign affairs. But between 1935-1937, congress passed neutrality laws to keep peace. America feared all the European countries would be conqueror by Germany and America would be in the firing line thus he changed the neutrality laws, so help could be granted to the allies. The cash and carry plan was that France and Britain could collect weapons from America for set prices. The "Lend lease Bill" allowed America to lend Britain weapons. However big anti-war demonstrations were held, which lost Roosevelt popularity. In 1941, a huge turning point in the war occurred as Japan bombed Pearl Harbour. Eight battle ships were sunk and 2000 sailors were killed. When America declared war and new factories were built to supply the war effort. After winning his fourth election in 1944, the three allied leaders (Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin) met at a conference agreed on a world peace treaty. By signing to the United Nations, Roosevelt effectively joined into world affaires.

The New Deal had its successes and failures. The new deal met resistance from the rich, poor, blacks, minorities and famous critics such as Father Cathleen. Despite criticism from Huey long, who stated that not enough money was invested into schools, roads and hospitals. Roosevelt did get the ball rolling for industry. During this time of depression there wasn't much help for blacks, women or the education system. But at no point in the depression did America fall into total devastation and poverty, which would almost of certainly happened if Roosevelt hadn't stepped in. The New Deal did create temporary jobs between the early and mid 1930's with the WPA, CAA and others. This helped ease the low moral and meant men could feed and clothe their families. The dilemma was, it was complicated to hoist employment with such a devastated economy. Nobody had any conviction in the American economy or stock market, so little to no investments were made. After the AAA intervened, farmer's income increased by 50%. The film industry produced role models and relieved some of the depression. There were changes that are still practised today. In Europe many vast grain mountains are produced as crops are slashed to keep prices high, a stable banking system, insurance, welfare system, pensions and working standards were all produced during the depression. In my eyes the cornerstone was the social security act of 1935, which created general insurance for the aged, unemployed and disabled. The Wagner Act is the foundation of all labour rights. By the trade unions setting rules on staff holidays, working hours, and setting minimum wages, a sense of security was produced. Roosevelt did save America from rugged individualism and reformed the distorted economy, by raising agricultural prices and starting the ball of industry turning. He won four presidential elections and is regarded by many as one of the greatest American presidents.