In 1937, unemployment went up again by 2.5 million, this was because Roosevelt had lost his audacity, and this was because of the government’s debt of $4 billion. Keynes a British economist had argued the government should not alleviate its budget yet borrow and go into debt, now this sounds ridiculous, with the idea of leading anyone into more debt, but he felt it was the key to ending the depression, he felt the western governments should increase their expense on the public works such as railways and building schemes, and this extra spending would create millions of new jobs, which would give the workers money to spend on the goods such as clothing and food, which soon is followed by the industries producing these goods would need to take on more jobs who then in turn would have more spending supremacy. This would then lead to yet more industries expanding and so on, all new workers would therefore be paying taxes which would result to in the end the government getting returned most of its money. Roosevelt chose not to listen to this, and although the unemployment numbers decreased slightly, none of the workers were working or even being encouraged to work for private industries but actually working for the government’s alphabet schemes.
The farmers had been suffering from the depression, the farm prices were low many farmers were in debt and had to face loosing their farms, and so much was being produced. The prices did double within four years due to the AAA telling the farmers to reduce their crops in return to being awarded with cash payments and it was easy for them to borrow money from the governments funds; yet then seemed to drop dramatically, because farmers producing too much for people to afford. Keynes felt the governments spending could eventually reverse the downward spiral, 1937 to 1938 were also years of industrial conflict, in 1937 the CIO otherwise known as the newly formed Congress of Industrial Organisations, started a series of sit down strikes, in many of America’s largest companies, this included the US Steel, Ford, General Motors and General Electric. The workers were striking back for better pay. The companies hit back by trying to employ strike-breakers to do their work instead. From this it led to serious rioting in many of the factories. The company managers found that they could not break any of the sit-down strikes, unless all their work and factories were being ruined in the process which increased the unemployment again by over one million.
The one of the starts the successes was the Tennessee Valley is a huge river basin, in the early 1930’s the land was dry and old, also infertile. The land was in an eroding state and ruined from winter rain which caused floods. The Tennessee Valley Authority was set up to stop this or decrease it, hopefully bring back electricity and make the land fertile again. It was decided building dams would be the essential aim of the programme. This gave out thousands of jobs, therefore helping decrease the numbers of the unemployed, in all due to filling up the TVA with jobs, therefore getting all the work done, it provided twenty new dams six hundred and fifty miles of waterways and several reforestation programmes. The workers gained a lot from the work, even physical improvements i.e. their muscles grew harder, bodies filled out and their self respect got rightfully returned. The workers also learned about trades, and most importantly they learnt more about their country and fellow civilians, they gained new skills in trade, industry, and life. Hundreds of thousands of square miles of ruined farmland were reclaimed and thousands of square miles added to the national parks, jobs had been created for millions of desperate people and help given to the poor.
In 1938 Roosevelt had the congress to pass the Fair Labour Standards act, to tense up its law on the child labour act and the then establish a national minimum wage for all of those working in inner state companies. This was seen as the last significance of the New Deal, and the supremacy of the President greatly increased. The government accepted that they must have been somewhat to blame for the welfare, health and safety of all the American citizens, they then became more involved in trade affairs and in the daily lives of regular Americans, this was exposed in such matters such as the Tennessee Valley Authority, the AAA and several more. This then also helped increase the power of the Federal Government over the state government which helped the American system of government to therefore go on.
The final solution to the depression was World War 2, in September 1939, the war started in Europe, Roosevelt and his country originally decided to stay isolated from the war, this was decided through opinions polls, ever since 1919 all American presidents has stuck to an isolation act. In 1937 he had passed over a Neutrality act which would stop America giving affective help to other countries, but soon Great Britain had placed orders for weaponry, many American’s admired the British to how they would not give in, the American’s accepted and the U.S.A industries expanded rapidly by hundreds of thousands.
To conclude there are many points to consider, both being positive and negative. From it they had created hundreds of thousands of jobs, available, hundreds of square miles of land became reclaimed, improvement was made on welfare, health and security and the new deal enabled the American system of government to survive. Through out America’s population, 30,000 hundred got pay rises under the wage hour law, many seasonal workers got helped out during the slack months by the unemployment benefits. Up to 500 youths during the worst of the depression were given WPA jobs. Up to the same amount, old people received pensions and another 600 got aid for dependant children. The farmers suffered badly from the depression, the farm prices were too short and many farmers were in obligation facing the issue of loosing their farm land, it got worse when so much was being produced. The costs did double in four years, yet then seemed to crash dramatically, due to the farmers producing too much for the public to afford. Congress of Industrial Organisations, started sit down strikes, with some of the largest companies, and the workers were striking back for better pay. The companies would hit back by trying to employ strike-breakers to do their work instead soon leading rioting in many of the factories. The company managers found they couldn’t stop any of the strikes, unless all their factories were being destroyed in the process. Unemployment went up and down during the course of time and unemployment went up again by 2.5 million in 1937, because Roosevelt had lost his courage, and all because of the government’s stupid debt of $4 billion.
The unemployment in the U.S.A fell to 8 million and when Hitler invaded the USSR $50,000 million was supplied to all American allies. Due to the war, people were needed for weaponry, footmen and machinery, the New Deal of course did decrease the unemployment by a quarter, by providing jobs in these areas, to build the armoury and to fight in the war, but once the war was over it decreased the amount of available jobs dramatically.
The New Deal made a lot of problems, and a lot of dramatic changes. Overall I feel it was a fifty, fifty answer to being a success and failure. I feel it had a similar amount of successes to it did to problems and should not be judged on being a bad situation because it helped a lot of people, yet caused some destruction in the process. I think it could have worked more positively if people were prepared to present a little more give and take, i.e. more help to the unemployed, would give more help to the government.
Finally I think, the New Deal bought a lot of controversy to America and therefore causing many people to suffer in the long run however also helped improve many areas around America such as the unemployment decreasing by supplying people with jobs all over whether it being within the Tennessee Valley or by being asked for the war in areas such as weaponry or machinery. Many of the Americans got pay rises also after getting their jobs, but however it does show America were still suffering with some issues such as the sit down strikes, Hoover-villes and the dust bowl. Overall I do think the New Deal had a great mixture of effects on the U.S.A, and some being successes and some being failures. I do not think they should be blamed for trying it as a new scheme to America and it was expected to have some problems and not to work perfectly therefore I do not believe it was a complete success but in the long run helped America. Many people expectedly and probably considered the New Deal a start to a down fall but I feel the only reason it had its main problems was because people were not prepared to work together. If more people had, had faith in the deal and the results it could outcome I feel the new deal could have been a lot stronger.
