Explain the main features of the New Deal

Vicki Smith

11WAN

Coursework

In the 1930s America hit its worst slump in history, in attempt to get Americans back to work, protect savings and property, and to provide relief for the sick, old and unemployed Roosevelt created the New Deal. The three main aims were relief, recovery and reform.

The first period of Roosevelt’s presidency was named ‘The First Hundred Days’, during this first hundred days Roosevelt worked around the clock to get America back on its feet. The first law to be passed was the ‘Emergency Act’, it meant that banks with properly managed accounts and with plenty of cash would be allowed to re-open. The ‘Economy Act’ was the next law to be passed. Nearly a billion dollars were saved when Roosevelt cut the pay of the government and cut budgets of government departments. The ‘Beer Act’ was later passed to make the manufacturing and selling of beer legal again.

Roosevelt gained the trust of the Americans by his ‘fire-side chats’; Roosevelt would talk over the radio to people in the country.

Roosevelt set up various government agencies designed to help the American people. They were called the ‘Alphabet Agencies’. One of the main aims of the alphabet agencies was to cut down unemployment. New public buildings, bridges and schools were many of the things built during the New Deal, it employed thousands of construction workers to build them.

The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) was the government’s main weapon in saving the industry.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was made to help young unemployed men. Whilst living in camps the men carried out work, they planted new forests and helped solve flooding.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) helped to solve unemployment. Hundreds of schemes involving building new hospitals, roads and schools were created.

The Social Security Act set up pension schemes and unemployment insurance.

To help farmers in drought-hit areas the Resettlement Administration (RA) was set up.

Some of these agencies were set up through the Second New Deal, which Roosevelt created later on. It was thought that his aims of the Second New Deal were mainly reform, making long-term changes in America.

All these factors made it seem as if the New Deal was for the better and that it helped to turn around America.

Explain why Roosevelt introduced the New Deal

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All these factors made it seem as if the New Deal was for the better and that it helped to turn around America.

Explain why Roosevelt introduced the New Deal

Due to the Wall Street Crash in 1993 the American economy collapsed and fell into a state of depression. There were a number of problems in America in 1933, all of these problems mainly stemmed from the Wall Street Crash. Americans needed to be rescued from this depression and quickly. At the time of the depression Herbert Hoover was in charge, it seemed as if he was running away from economic failure rather than helping to solve it. This made Roosevelt confident when it came to the 1932 election. Roosevelt toured the USA before the elections and attacked the attitude of Hoover. He made campaign trips and major speeches, and promised America a New Deal. I think the most important reason Roosevelt won the election was because of this campaign, Americans were sick and tired of Hoover’s old ways and when a New Deal was offered to them they saw light at the end of the tunnel and took an immediate liking to Roosevelt.

Roosevelt’s ideas were based on the theory that by putting money into setting up programmes and providing jobs then American people would have money, therefore they would spend this money and this would increase the demand for goods. This would then mean companies needed to take on more workers to help supply goods that were demanded.

Roosevelt introduced the New Deal in attempt to salvage the economy. He collided the problems of the Great Depression head on and started to tackle and solve the problems caused by the Wall Street Crash. He proved to Americans that his promises were not just made to win the election by starting to help straight away; in his ‘First Hundred Days’ he passed many laws to help restart the American economy.

‘The New Deal was not a complete success’ Explain how far you agree with this statement

During the 1930s Roosevelt’s New Deal was seen as a blessing, Roosevelt helped people and improved the quality of the American lifestyle.

Though a small minority of people at the time would argue against this, women and blacks were two of the groups in which Roosevelt gave little help to. There were three main individuals who strongly opposed the New Deal; Huey Long, Father Coughlin and Dr Townsend.

Huey Long, also known as ‘Kingfish’, supported the New Deal in the beginning. Four years after being elected Senate of Louisiana, he announced a ‘Share Out Wealth’ movement. It was aimed at sharing all the wealth from the rich to the poor. He promised every American a home worth $5,000, an annual income of $2,500, a car, a radio and a better education. Huey Long hoped to stand in the 1936 Presidential Elections after gaining 7 million supporters but he was assainated in September 1935.

Dr Townsend’s aims were focused on the elderly. Many savings were lost when the banks collapsed. Townsend’s idea was to provide a pension of $200 per month.

Father Coughlin set up his own National League for Social Justice in 1934. He attacked bankers and Jews. He also made personal threats on President Roosevelt.

Women hardly benefited from the New Deal, most of the New Deal was aimed at manual and construction labour, in those days only seen as the work of men. During the 1930s the number of women unemployed went down, this was due to them being seen as cheap labour, their wages were half of what the men earned. Local governments avoided the task of paying out social security to women; they delayed it by introducing special qualifications and conditions concerning women.

Throughout the New Deal blacks remained second-class citizens. In the New Deal, isolation in education, transport and public places was still continued, racism and discrimination against blacks still remained. Roosevelt’s argument against this was that to make the New Deal successful he needed the help of Democratic congressmen in the South, these of which strongly opposed civil rights to blacks. Therefore no laws were ever passed against the lynching of black Americans. On the other hand thousands of blacks received more relief than ever before.

Many upper-class citizens believed Roosevelt’s New Deal policies went against their way of living; wealthy Americans hated having to pay higher taxes, especially knowing it was to pay for the work of the New Deal agencies.

Business owners resented Roosevelt’s support for trade unions and campaigns to raise wages. By introducing trade unions and social security it seemed as if America’s workers had lost their independence, they saw the social security act as a leaning post for the dependent and lazy workers. Many strikes against companies were formed; these were often broken up by violence. This caused problems for Roosevelt, as it was him who passed the law saying workers in the trade had the right to strike and not get sacked. This annoyed employers because their workers were not working. Business owners turned against Roosevelt; they claimed he was ruining businesses and trade. This put doubts in the back of people’s minds, the NRA was set up to help bring employers and employees; in this case it was the opposite.

Despite all this Roosevelt still had America’s support behind him. Roosevelt gave back America’s hope, self-esteem and self-confidence; he learned the most important factor of his success was to gain the trust of the American people. He became popular with his ‘fireside chats’, each and every American who listened to his tactics over the radio felt part of his actions, and he asked the Americans to work with him.

The New Deal produced better social security for American citizens. The New Deal provided schools, roads and other landmarks; this was seen as a basis for future prosperity. On the other hand government and public money was wasted, to begin with the money was given out to those he needed it but Roosevelt knew this money would not last forever and just hoped it would work.

Though America had doubts when Roosevelt introduced the ‘Second New Deal’, it looked as if he hadn’t been doing anything to overcome America’s problems therefore he created a ‘Second New Deal’ perhaps to try once again to get the success he aimed for. Towards the end of the New Deal the Supreme Court declared many of the provisions of the New Deal illegal. Roosevelt threatened the Supreme Court by saying he would appoint six new judges, this threat scared the Supreme Court and made them agree with his tactics. This made him very unpopular with the public; they thought Roosevelt wanted to be a dictator.

In 1936 things started to change for Roosevelt. Roosevelt was also cutting back on spending therefore there were fewer jobs to go around. Unemployment was raised once again after Roosevelt lay off many workers who been employed by organisations set up through the New Deal. At the same time the rest of the world was falling into depression, therefore Roosevelt couldn’t borrow money from other countries to get the government out of debt.

Regardless of all this Roosevelt still won the 1940 Presidential elections, the New Deal was probably seen to work more compared to the work of Hoover or lack of it. Nothing was done to solve the problems while Hoover remained president, his face was even banished from cinema screens to avoid embarrassment. Roosevelt became the first American President to serve three consecutive terms in office.

Overall I think that the New Deal was a success to a certain extent. America definitely benefited from some of the schemes of the New Deal and Roosevelt still remained very popular with the citizens of America but I think that a lot of Roosevelt’s success depended on the failure of Herbert Hoover. Hoover refused to solve the problems of the depression; he insisted ‘prosperity is just around the corner’. Hoovers tactics were described as ‘too little, too late’. If Hoover hadn’t ran away from the problems facing his country would Roosevelt be as popular? I think all Roosevelt did was restore the American Dream back into people’s heads. By giving back confidence to the Americans they felt like they were getting out of the depression and back onto the right track. In the beginning Roosevelt was confident of victory against Hoover in the 1932 elections yet he still toured the country giving speeches and promising the nation a New Deal, this seemed as if he really did want the best for America but still his ideas were vague and general. When Roosevelt created the New Deal it seemed as if he was helping them, getting stuck in straight away. I doubt the New Deal was thought through properly, the money they were giving out and the promises Roosevelt was giving were not going to last forever. Many of Roosevelt’s laws weren’t permanent. By the end of it one third of the nation became the New Deals ‘unfinished business’.