By 1941 the ‘New Deal’ had both its successes and its failures. FDR poured tax payers money to reverse the ‘spiral of depression’, which was known as ‘pump priming’. He had used the ‘alphabet agencies’ to use get the skilled and unskilled unemployed workforce to work on federal funded projects. The Public Work’s administration (PWA) built roads, bridges hospitals and schools. This was intended to give the workforce more money so they could spend more if they spent more there would be more demand for products and so more jobs, and therefore the government would recoup their losses in the added tax, so the economy would recover. This was successful as it helped the economy to recover and it also built much needed public services. The Tennessee valley authority did help farmers by regenerating the ‘dustbowl’. The ‘Dustbowl’ was regenerated by building hydro-electric power stations; using flood control for soil conservation, the federal government paid subsidies to farmers who left land fallow or planted crops that put nitrogen back into the soil. The federal government also financed research into soil conservation The Agricultural Adjustment Act paid farmers to limit the amount of crops they grew or destroy some they already had. The federal government bought farm animals and then slaughtered them. This was intended to raise the price of farm products. The alphabet agencies provided Recovery. However the Alphabet agencies were accused of ‘Boondoggling’ because the alphabet agencies wasted government money by giving people worthless jobs such as scaring pigeons with balloons from federal buildings in Washington D.C! Also after the projects were completed the workers were either made unemployed once more or sent to work on new projects which were unnecessarily expensive. This was intended to give the workforce more money so they could spend more if they spent more there would be more demand for products and so more jobs, so the economy would recover. Successes were that he had lowered unemployment, and although it was not lower than the level of unemployment in the ‘boom years’ it was still a significant improvement over the level of unemployed during the depression. Another of the New Deal’s successes was that it introduced the first social security act in America’s history. It was introduced at a time when it was most needed this provided relief as well as reform. However there were many factors that prevented the Social security act from being as successful as it could have been. The payments were relatively small, the old age pensioner would get $10 a month, and a disabled person $5 a week, where the average wage a month was $80. The social security acts only helped the strong and well organised groups such as the trade unions, and the people who didn’t benefit were tenant farmers, unskilled labourers, domestic servants and ethnic minorities. Alphabet agencies such as the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Public Works Administration (PWA) employed men to work on Federal funded projects, this was successful as it produced needed government buildings, and in the short-term lowered unemployment. However it didn’t really solve unemployment, the workforce were only employed for a short while, it wasn’t really solving unemployment as when the projects were completed the workers were once more unemployed, it only really worked in the short-term . The new deal was successful in lowering unemployment until 1937 when he lowered his spending, and the so-called ‘Roosevelt recession’ came into effect, and once more there was more unemployment and until the start of the Second World War in 1941 it continued to climb. The New Deal was not successful in helping women, nor did it intent to. The National Industrial Recovery Act even required women to be paid less then men. The Civilian Conservation Corps only employed 8 000 women, out of the 2,750,000 involved in the project. The way the New Deal helped women cannot be classed as neither success nor a failure, as Roosevelt and his New Deal did not intend to specifically help women. Roosevelt did little to help African-Americans. Over 40% of black women worked, and were paid even lower than women. The only thing Roosevelt did for black people’s civil rights were to make it illegal for segregation in the armed forces. Many African-Americans were hired as sharecroppers to destroy the surplus food for the AAA; once they had done this they were made redundant, and made to go live in the ghettos in the cities. Most Farmers did not prosper in the ‘roaring twenties’ as a result of the tariff wars. Farmers were producing too much for use in America, and so farmers had to sell as low as a price they could in order to sell their goods. Too much product for too few people caused prices to plummet. The New Deal was relatively successful in helping farmers. The New Deal introduced the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA). The AAA helped farmers by encouraging them to grow fewer crops, therefore the prices would rise. The AAA paid farmers to destroy their crop and farm animals. Some of the food was packaged and given to the unemployed for free. This was successful as the farmers produce did increase in price, farmers income increased, and the amount of tenant farmers evicted from their land decreased. The failures of the New Deal for farmers were when the dust storms hit, and destroyed many farms. However successful the New Deal was Roosevelt had many opponents and had made many enemies who criticised his measures. Roosevelt was born in to a rich family in the east-coast of America. To finance his New Deal he raised taxes for the rich, the rich did not like this, he was even expelled from his social club ‘for letting down his people’. Maybe the most powerful enemy Roosevelt made was the U.S Supreme Court. The AAA had been a relative success, however it was still deemed ‘unconstitutional’ by the US Supreme Court. The US Supreme Court decreed that the AAA was unconstitutional as the Federal Government had no right to interfere in the running of state issues as the states were given the power by the constitution, and it was the states’ responsibility. Consequently the AAA was eventually abandoned. The Supreme Court also declared the National Recovery Administration (NRA) illegal. 11 out of 16 of the Alphabet Laws were deemed unconstitutional for the same reason as the AAA, which was that it went against the states’ powers. The most famous single opponent of Roosevelt was Huey Long a senator from Louisiana. He targeted only the poor in his ‘share our wealth’ campaign where he promised to confiscate any personal fortune over $3 000 000 and give $4000 to $5000 to each poor family in America. Long made promises of a minimum wage, OAP, cheap food for the poor, and free education. Long was considered to be communist, and so was killed during an attempted assassination attempt by one of his bodyguards. However Long was only targeting the poor, and the poor don’t vote well in elections, so he probably wouldn’t have beaten Roosevelt, had he lived. Another one of Roosevelt’s enemies were a catholic priest called Charles Coughlin, and Frances Townsend. Charles Coughlin opposed Roosevelt on his radio station, and wanted a high minimum wage, Townsend wanted higher OAP. The two men allied themselves with Gerald Smith, Huey Long’s successor, and they teamed up in 1936 election.
In my opinion the New Deal was successful in providing partial recovery from the depression. It succeeded in relieving
Whatever the views of some, FDR was voted the second greatest president of all time by the U.S public. This is apparent in his famous quote:-
“Everybody is against me except the voter.”
How far had the New Deal been successful by 1941? Gurpal Kanwal 11mEPO