The WPA extended the range of jobs provided from building to the Federal Theatre Project which gave unemployed artists and writer’s jobs.
The RA and FSA were designed to help farmers. It helped small holders who had not yet been helped by the AAA. They gave loans to farmers, built camps to provide decent living conditions and provided work for migrant workers.
The Social Security Act was designed to help the Elderly, Widows, the sick and/or disabled and the unemployed. It provided pensions and benefits as a form of relief which had never been done before.
The Wagner Act was implemented after the NRA was declared illegal. It was introduced by Senator Robert Wagner because during the depression the workers were constantly having their wages lowered or being sacked. It forced businesses into allowing trade unions and stated that a person was not allowed to be sacked if he/she was part of one. This meant that workers were given more protection and security. This was a long term act as it meant that companies were not allowed to sack anyone for being part of a Union therefore giving the average worker more power, which then meant an improvement in working conditions. However, relations between workers and their bosses were strained.
In conclusion, the main features of Roosevelt’s New Deal were the alphabet agencies and acts which were designed to help America recover from the depression by giving many people forms of relief e.g. the AAA and CCC. There were also many agencies which were designed to reform America in the long term so that an economic crisis wouldn’t happen again. For example, the TVA was a huge project aimed at reforming and revitalising the area for the future.
2) Explain why Roosevelt introduced the New Deal.
In the 1920’s, America was going through its economic boom however there was very poor distribution between the rich and the poor. The rich bought consumer goods while the poor couldn’t afford them. When the demand for the consumer goods fell because all the rich already owned the goods, industries, who had overproduced, could no longer make a profit. They were forced to lay off workers. The American industries could’ve survived if they had been able to sell goods to Europe but they weren’t able to due to high European tariffs and because many people in Europe simply weren’t rich enough. This caused share prices for the industries to drop in 1929 and then cause the economic depression as many Americans became involved in the stock market. Americans were relatively rich compared to Europe and so many Americans invested money in the stock market. Even those who were poor were able to take part as banks lent out money as credit. Many poor people became speculators who bought shares, then sell them quickly to make a profit and pay back the banks. When in 1929, the share prices started to fall, many Americans decided to sell their shares trying to get as much money as possible. Soon, shares became worthless, causing billions of dollars to just vanish. The poor who had borrowed money from the banks couldn’t pay the banks back which meant that thousands of banks went bust. The stock market collapsed causing a worldwide economic depression, destroying America’s economy with many people losing their life savings therefore thrusting them into unemployment and poverty. Unemployment reached highs of over 13 million whilst the GNP for the country reached as low as $58 billion, compared to the $100 billion+ pre depression figures, because demand and production fell so dramatically. By 1933, there were 14 million people unemployed in America while average wages fell by 40% because production fell by 60%. People were forced out of their homes and moved to shantytowns known as ‘Hooverville’s’. The president in power at the time, J. Edgar Hoover, refused to use the government funds in order to help the American people. He believed that America was a land of ‘rugged individuals’ and that ‘prosperity was just around the corner’ and so people didn’t require any help. He did however help set up the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which lent money to banks, industry and agriculture. However, the public believed that it was: ‘too little, too late’ and the suffering continued.
In the 1932 elections, Franklin Delano Roosevelt won the presidency in a landslide promising the American people a ‘New Deal’. When Roosevelt entered the office in March 1933, he had an uphill struggle with the USA in deep economic crisis. He spent the first 100 days from March 9th to June 16th with a group of his employees working on various different legislations which he managed to make the Congress pass. This was Roosevelt’s New Deal. Its main aims were to help America recover by giving relief and reducing unemployment and poverty so that people would have enough money and confidence to invest their money once again and to reform capitalism so that a similar incident to the Wall Street Crash could be prevented in the future.
Roosevelt had to implement the New Deal simply because doing nothing wasn’t working.
Each feature of the deal was aimed at improving different things. Firstly, he had to end the depression and help get America back on its feet. This caused him to introduce the Emergency Banking Act. To do this he closed all the banks and then only reopened them when they were deemed officially safe. By doing this, Roosevelt had restored the American’s confidence back in the banks so people would invest their money once again. This worked as soon after over $1billion dollars were put back into the banks.
He then set out to help the American farmers, the unemployed, poor and elderly etc. He did this by setting up the Agricultural Adjustment Agency (AAA), the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) as well as others. Each was designed to help people using government funds, which was completely against Republican views.
The AAA was set up and it helped farmers by advising them on marketing and farming techniques whilst also modernising farms which made them more organised, however many farm labourers lost their jobs. This was because during the 1920’s, farms began to overproduce to compete with each other as their crop prices lowered.
In order to reduce the unemployment levels, Roosevelt set up the CCC. This gave 18-25 year old men the chance to work for 6 months. Most of the money they earned, they sent to their families so that the number of people living in poverty could also be reduced. This employed 2 million men by 1940. Another agency which was designed to reduce unemployment was the Public Works Administration (PWA) which employed millions of people to build roads, dams schools etc this was necessary for when the country had recovered.
FERA was an agency which invested over $500 million to help relieve the suffering of the poor. The money helped set up soup kitchens, employment schemes and gave out blankets and seeds and equipment to the poor and to farmers. FERA had to be introduced by Roosevelt because the crash caused widespread poverty, homelessness and hunger.
Another reason why Roosevelt felt it necessary to introduce the New Deal was because of the long term problems with the American economy. He had already solved the banking crisis but something needed to be done to make sure that it could never happen again. For this, Roosevelt decided to reform and regulate the stock market by implementing the Securities Exchange Act.
He also tried to improve relations between workers and their employees as they were so bad before the Depression. Many people were sacked simply because the companies wanted to make larger profits. To sort this, Senator Robert Wagner introduced the Wagner Act which made it illegal to sack someone for being part of a Union. This was meant to help give workers more power, a voice, so that employers would know how their workers felt. Workers were given minimum wages and many companies wore the Golden Eagle, a sign showing that they had voluntarily taken part of the scheme. This did however cause many problems and arguments between some employers.
A badly hit area was the Tennessee Valley. It covered large amounts of 6 states which constantly suffered from flooding ruining the livelihoods of the farm workers. There were no alternative jobs available in the area until Roosevelt introduced the Tennessee Valley Authority. Huge public work programs and projects began with Dams, canals, irrigation and water transportation all being built. Farmers were given loans and were trained in soil conservation, whilst new housing was built. The area became revitalised and soon hydro-electric power was created by the thousands of men employed. Tennessee became the biggest provider of electricity in the whole of America. This helped with another one of Roosevelt’s aims. He understood that the consumer boom depended on the middle class. He wanted to reduce the number of working class as well as the gap between the rich and the poor which did help cause the depression. By revitalising Tennessee he created a larger middle class for the future. This was also the reason why he introduced the Social Security Act. This was a form of insurance as it gave widows, the elderly, the unemployed and the disabled benefits and pensions. By doing this, poverty was reduced however it was only implemented as part of the second New Deal.
In conclusion, the main reasons why Roosevelt introduced the New Deal were to deal with the depression. He wanted to improve the various aspects of America which had been caused by the depression, i.e. the increased poverty, homelessness, hunger etc by providing relief and to help America recover through reformation. He decided to regulate the stock market, whilst also bridging the gap between the rich and the poor as he understood that for the country to truly improve it would require a larger middle class and to do this he invested government money from increased taxes, back into the country, making him very popular and successful, so much so that he is to this day, the longest running American president.
3) ‘The New Deal was not a complete success’- How far do you agree with this statement?
In the 1920’s, America was going through its economic boom however there was very poor distribution between the rich and the poor. The rich bought consumer goods while the poor couldn’t afford them. When the demand for the consumer goods fell because all the rich already owned the goods, industries, which had overproduced, could no longer make a profit. They were forced to lay off workers. The American industries could’ve survived if they had been able to sell goods to Europe but they weren’t able to due to high European tariffs and because many people in Europe simply weren’t rich enough. This caused share prices for the industries to drop in 1929 and then cause the economic depression as many Americans became involved in the stock market.
Americans were relatively rich compared to Europe and so many Americans invested money in the stock market. Even those who were poor were able to take part as banks lent out money as credit. Many poor people became speculators who bought shares, then sell them quickly to make a profit and pay back the banks. When in 1929, the share prices started to fall, many Americans decided to sell their shares trying to get as much money as possible. Soon, shares became worthless, causing billions of dollars to just vanish. The poor who had borrowed money from the banks couldn’t pay the banks back which meant that thousands of banks went bust. The stock market collapsed causing a worldwide economic depression, destroying America’s economy with many people losing their life savings therefore thrusting them into unemployment and poverty. Unemployment reached highs of over 13 million whilst the GNP for the country reached as low as $58 billion, compared to the $100 billion+ pre depression figures, because demand and production fell so dramatically. By 1933, there were 14 million people unemployed in America while average wages fell by 40% because production fell by 60%. People were forced out of their homes and moved to shantytowns known as ‘Hooverville’s’. The president in power at the time, J. Edgar Hoover, refused to use the government funds in order to help the American people. He believed that America was a land of ‘rugged individuals’ and that ‘prosperity was just around the corner’ and so people didn’t require any help. He did however help set up the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which lent money to banks, industry and agriculture. However, the public believed that it was: ‘too little, too late’ and the suffering continued.
In the 1932 elections, Franklin Delano Roosevelt won the presidency, beating Herbert Hoover in a landslide promising the American people a ‘New Deal’. When Roosevelt entered the office in March 1933, he had an uphill struggle with the USA in deep economic crisis. He spent the first 100 days from March 9th to June 16th with a group of his employees working on various different legislations which he managed to make the Congress pass. This was Roosevelt’s New Deal. Its main aims were to help America recover by giving relief and reducing unemployment and poverty so that people would have enough money and confidence to invest their money once again and to reform capitalism so that a similar incident to the Wall Street Crash could be prevented in the future. He also wanted to reduce the economic gap between the rich and the poor understanding that a larger middle class would enable a longer run of prosperity.
To understand whether or not the New Deal truly was a success or not we must first learn of its successes and failures compared to a pre depression booming America. If Roosevelt’s New Deal could re-establish America to the status it was at during the boom years after such an economic decline in which over 14 million people were unemployed then surely it was a success.
Firstly, Roosevelt introduced the Emergency Banking Act which closed all the banks in the country. After 8 days of investigations, a few banks were finally opened. These banks were deemed to be safe for people to re-invest their money. Soon after over 5000 banks were officially re opened giving the American public confidence once again in their banking system proven by the re investment of over $1 billion. This was definitely a success. By from 1929 up until the New Deal was introduced the number of bank failures continued to rise, as soon as Roosevelt introduced the New Deal, the figures lowered to 0, lower than ever before. This prevented the problem from escalating further and even benefited America for the future being an improvement in comparison to the ‘booming twenties.’
Roosevelt also reformed the way the stock market used to regulate by introducing the Securities Exchange Act which regulated the Stock market ensuring that the chances of another crash were minimal, which was also a success.
He also raised taxes which was questioned and criticised by many Republicans and the wealthier business men and upper class. The Republican belief was that people shouldn’t have to be taxed so highly and so the government shouldn’t really get involved. Roosevelt being a Democrat went against this as he understood that the recovery and prosperity of America was dependant on a larger middle class. This was one of his aims and also one of the reasons why he is to this day, America’s longest running president. He remembered the forgotten man, the working class. By increasing taxes he was able to distribute the nations wealth more evenly therefore reducing poverty. By doing so he gained a great amount of support thus proving his success.
Roosevelt also helped the poor, unemployed, sick, disabled, homeless, hungry, widows and the elderly etc all through his New Deal. He introduced the Agricultural Adjustment Agency (AAA), the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the Civilian Works Administration (CWA), the Public Works Administration (PWA) and the Farm Credit Administration all to help the unemployed and the agricultural industries. Each was designed to provide relief and employment. For example the AAA and the FCA were designed to help farmers. They gave out loans and advice to farmers as well as reduce the farm quotas which meant that they could get more money for their crops and even moved some farms to areas of bad land to more fertile land. The AAA also helped modernise farms increasing time and efficiency however this was not a complete success as it caused many farm workers or labourers to lose their jobs and it wasn’t able to help everyone.
The programs designed to reduce unemployment were however more successful. The peak depression figures of 14 million unemployed were almost halved to 8 million by 1936 by Roosevelt. They were designed to give people jobs so that poverty could be reduced which would mean that more people had money to spend which would then in turn create larger profits for industries and businesses causing them to expand and increase wages or employ more and more people who could then go and spend more money in a ‘Cycle of prosperity’. Roosevelt understood this and knew that this would be an easy way for America to recover and redeem its status as the richest and most powerful nation which is why he made reducing unemployment and poverty one of his priorities.
The reduction of unemployment and poverty is also linked to Roosevelt’s success in reducing the number of businesses that collapsed each year. After the implementation of the New Deal, these figures reduced to lower than those during the boom years making it a great success. The GNP figures during the boom years were over $100 billion yet the depression caused this to go down $58 billion. Roosevelt’s success in reducing unemployment and decreasing the number of businesses that collapsed was proven when by 1940, America was once producing over $100 billion.
On the other hand, despite so many successes, Roosevelt still had his critics and failures. Senator Huey Long was one of Roosevelt’s critics. He claimed that Roosevelt was simply not doing enough based on the fact that America was recovering at a slower pace than Europe. Similarly, W E Leuchtenburg claimed that Roosevelt couldn’t have been doing enough as there were still 8 million people unemployed. In contrast, many wealthy business men were completely opposed to how much Roosevelt was doing. They claimed that he had raised taxes too high.
One of Roosevelt’s biggest failures was his attempt at trying to improve relations between workers and employers. He introduced the National Recovery Administration which outlawed child labour and improved working conditions and as part of his second New Deal he introduced the Wagner Act which meant that workers had more power. This annoyed employers as they were no longer able to reduce wages and/or sack an employee for being a part of a union. This created arguments between workers and employers making it a huge failure.
This barrage of criticism, which included some from Congress, caused Roosevelt to try and please everyone which would’ve been impossible. He tried to regain some support by reducing government expenditure. This meant cutting the New Deal budget. Immediately, unemployment rose again. However, Roosevelt was very fortunate. Although he personally never did solve the unemployment problems, by 1942, America had joined the Second World War taking place in Europe between the Allies and Germany. This solved the unemployment problem as millions of men went to fight in the war.
He did also face a lot of criticism for his lack of support for ethnic minorities. America was a popular place to be during its boom years creating a surge of immigrants to enter the country. The ethnicity of the people became very diverse although these minorities seemed to be separated i.e. the Polish had their area where most of them lived, same for the Russians and Mexicans, Puerto Ricans etc. Roosevelt did what he could for the ‘forgotten man’ yet ethnic minorities such especially those who were black didn’t seem to be getting any help. Even women were slightly left out, in comparison to men, although, Roosevelt did help a majority of the American people. As part of his New Deal, Roosevelt introduced the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) which invested over $500 million into employment schemes, blankets, soup kitchens etc. As well as this he introduced the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) which helped people pat their mortgages although this too couldn’t help everyone. The Social Security Act was a part of the second New Deal. It was one of the first times the government was willing to pay benefits the unemployed, the disable, sick, widows etc and it even gave pensions to the elderly which was deemed a great success. Despite all his criticisms, he did receive a lot of thank you letters and words of encouragement from the millions of people he helped.
By far one of Roosevelt’s biggest successes has to be the Tennessee Valley Authority. It covered large amounts of 6 states of America where farming was the main source of income. However, this area was prone to flooding due to the Tennessee River running through it. It was due to the floods that the area had become fairly poor, even during the boom. There were very few alternative jobs available in the area until the TVA was set up. Huge public work programs and projects were started employing millions in the area. Tennessee Valley was completely transformed and revitalised. Over 33 dams were built to protect the area from flooding by being able to control the water flow, while a 650 mile long water way was created. The soil was irrigated and afforestation was also started. Soon Tennessee became the biggest producer of hydro-electric power in the whole of America providing cheap electricity for the surrounding areas.
In conclusion, I agree with the statement in saying that the New Deal was not a complete success although the level of success may vary depending on different people’s interpretations. Roosevelt’s main aims for his New Deal were to help America recover and to reform capitalism in order to prevent another crash. If we were to judge his success depending on his aims then he succeeded completely. Roosevelt did successfully manage to help the American economy recover and the reformation of capitalism also worked as another crash similar to that in 1929 hasn’t occurred to this day. He did also succeed in many other things. For example, he provided aid in the form of pensions and benefits for the poor, widows, unemployed, disabled and the elderly etc and he completely revitalised and improved the Tennessee Valley area whilst also bridging the economic gap between the rich and the poor by distributing money more evenly. He even managed to improve many things compared to America during the boom. For example, he reduced the number of banks and businesses that failed to an all time low. However, it is not possible for us to say that he succeeded at everything. He failed to help everyone, with many parts of America receiving very little in the form of aid and he worsened the situation between workers and employers whilst also angering many wealthy business men.
In my personal opinion, I feel that Roosevelt successes do easily outweigh his failures. He was extremely successful considering his own personal problems with polio. He did what he had to do to help America recover and improve unlike Hoover who simply waited for something to happen. He was genuinely popular as he seemed as if he actually wanted to help everyone. His regular fireside broadcasts and travels all across America showed his personal side, portrayed him a family man who cared. This restored a lot of confidence back into America, which we know was one of the causes of the boom. Whether or not people believe that Roosevelt succeeded, you couldn’t fault him for his determination in times of pain and suffering which helped build the foundations for a better America. He has the record for spending the most terms in power and only forced to stop due to his health because of his popularity which I believe is the best way to reflect how successful he truly was.
