Roosevelt soon began to inundate congress with legislation. On the 15th March Congress passed The Economy Act, cutting government salaries by 15%, reducing war veteran’s salaries, imposing excess profit and dividend taxes and promising a budget reduction of 25%. One billion dollars was saved through the Economy Act and was used to provide much needed relief. The Beer and Wine Revenue Act 20th March 1933 amended the definition of intoxicating liquor made in the Volstead act, allowing the production of beer. This created jobs, lowered certain crop surpluses and effectively ended prohibition.
The first “Alphabet Agency” was created on the 31st March 1933. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) gave young men a dollar a day to do conservation work across the United States, this not only helped the environment but helped to relieve unemployment. By August 1933, 250,000 men had been given work.
On the 12th May the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) And the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) Agencies were set up. FERA was given $500 million for relief of the starving and destitute citizens of America and for every three dollars it spent on relief, one dollar was given to state governments to do the same. The AAA aimed to increase farmer’s profits by reducing the surplus, paying farmers to destroy or to produce fewer crops. Although effective in raising prices, it only helped wealthier farmers, not the poor farmers or sharecroppers.
The Tennessee Valley Authority was set up on the 18th May 1933. It’s aims were flood control, agricultural re-generation, cheap electricity and relieving the farmers of the Tennessee valley who were plagued with annual crop destroying floods. The TVA provided relief and recovery to the area, reforming one of the most barren areas in America into a rich and bountiful region. Many new industries flocked to the region to take advantage of the cheap electricity and farmers also reaped the benefits.
The National Industrial Recovery Act was passed by congress in June 1933, creating two important agencies. The (PWA) Public Works Administration founded the construction of public buildings, initiated the first public housing scheme and made the government the nations leading supplier of power. This helped America recover from the recession and also to reform America into a (partial) welfare state. The National Recovery Administration represented a step away from the economic philosophy of laissez faire. It aimed at ensuring fair competition by having businesses sign their ‘codes of practice’ in return for displaying the ‘blue eagle’ of the NRA to show governmental approval. Although it was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1935 the NRA helped to reform peoples views in regard to labour and helped in bringing about certain changes in the law. The Wagner Act 1935 forced employers to recognise trade unions after the NRA was shut down so that employees still had the protection the NRA had previously afforded to them.
The First New Deal 1933-1935 was predominately emergency measures aimed at relief and partial recovery to help America over the depression. The Second New Deal 1935-1938 saw a change of direction for Roosevelt; his main philosophy was now based on the concept of reform.
The Social Security Act 1935 set up an unemployment and old age welfare scheme, although less comprehensive than similar systems in Britain and Germany, it was another considerable step towards reforming America into a (semi) welfare state.
Roosevelt was determined that the depression could not re-occur. He set up the Securities Exchange Commission whose main purpose was to regulate the stock exchange to ensure speculation, which had caused the crash, could not happen again.
Franklin D Roosevelt faced plenty of opposition to his ‘New Deal’. His fiercest opponent was the Supreme Court who declared much of Roosevelt's legislation unconstitutional. This issue was famously brought before the court in the ‘sick chicken’ case in 1933, where two brothers, found guilty of breaking an NRA code had their conviction quashed by the Supreme Court because it was an issue for the state, not federal government. The Supreme Court verdicts were not crushing, as new legislation could be passed to circumvent them, they only served to temporarily prevent relief getting to people when they needed it most and to anger FDR.
Senator Huey Long of Louisiana was another high profile opponent to Roosevelt; his ‘share our wealth’ campaign, proposed to confiscate riches of over $3 million and re-distribute the money between ordinary people. His radical ideas were abruptly halted in 1935 when he was fatally shot outside his office. Father Charley Coughlin a Catholic priest also opposed FDR, he used his religious vocation to his advantage, claiming that Roosevelt was anti-god. Coughlin set up the ‘National Union for Social Justice’ and ran for presidency in the 1936 elections but lost due to a second Roosevelt landslide. Only Maine and Vermont didn’t vote to re-elect FDR in 1936, hardly a surprise, as these were (and still are) very affluent areas and Roosevelt was considered by many in the higher echelons of society to be a ‘class traitor’. The general public however (on the whole) adored Roosevelt.
This opposition is significant as it shows that the New Deal was not agreeable to everyone.
Roosevelt not only reformed American law, but also the role of presidency. Roosevelt was famed for his ‘fireside chats’ yet he was not the first president to employ such means; the difference lay in the approaches and FDR's ‘silver tongue’. FDR, the ‘crippled man leading a crippled country’ used his wife Eleanor as his legs. Eleanor (like her husband) reformed and revolutionised her role as first lady, taking a leading role in FDR’s presidency, even becoming more popular than her husband. She travelled the states as FDR’s emissary reporting on the effectiveness, strengths and weaknesses of the New Deal and through her, FDR could sense his boundaries. FDR was the first president to use the new technology to fully explain his measures to the American public. Because they knew what Roosevelt was doing, Americans could feel reassured that the depression was being tackled.
There were major weaknesses in the New Deal. The failure of individual agencies meant progress was limited in certain areas; the AAA didn’t help the worst off farmers, the NRA was famed for its clumsy interference in industrial relations and the New Deal failed to tackle the long term housing problems, with only 180,000 new houses constructed. Race issues were also left untouched by Roosevelt's policies. The ‘Roosevelt Recession’ 1937/1938 provides evidence that the underlying problems of over production and under consumption in American economy had not been solved.
Yet in 1941, as the New Deal wound down, America saw a return to full employment and prosperity so it is safe to say FDR brought partial recovery. It was however, only the occurrence of World War two and the war stimulated economy that finally brought America out of the last dregs of the depression.
“The New Deal brought ‘Relief, Recovery and Reform’ to the United States 1933-45 “.We must remember when assessing this statement that the New Deal lost momentum in the late 1930’s and had ended by 1941, any progress after this time was completed by other forces and not the New Deal. I do however believe that Roosevelt did indeed bring relief, recovery and reform to America. America is now the world’s only superpower, yet in the early years of Roosevelt's presidency, America was in the grips of an economic slowdown. America had pulled itself out of the depression with the help of Roosevelt in the space of eight years, a remarkable achievement for a remarkable man.
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