Roosevelt created the New Deal on March 1933 and this was the day the rehabilitation of America was enforced. The New Deal was created to help restore America to its rightful place as the most powerful country in the world. The New Deal consisted of different techniques to help recover the nations economy. Roosevelt hoped to achieve this by applying useful procedures and helped crucial social groups to help his country from this disaster.
One of Roosevelt’s regimes in his New Deal was to apply the famous the three ‘r’s, these were known better as relief, recovery and reform. Relief was practical help that was urgently needed for the homeless and unemployed, recovery was action that was urgently needed to revitalise industry and agriculture and reform was changes that were needed to prevent such a depression happening again. These three aims were certainly achievable as the scheme was supported by Federal government money provided by Roosevelt and the three aims were realistically able to achieve for a country like America. The, relief and recovery aspect of his aims proved to be a success as he helped America back to their feet with his determination. However, questions can be asked on whether his third aim reform proved to be successful as when America withdrew their money from the nation, the country fell into another slump. Although we cannot make judgements on his third aim as the Second World War was underway in Europe which may have proved an important part in the future of America.
Another proposition by Roosevelt’s New Deal was to solve the banking crisis, which was caused due to the depression, as millions of Americans withdrew their savings from their banks and couldn’t repay the money they had borrowed, which in turn left the banks bankrupt and therefore was one of the main reasons why America fell into a depression. To solve the banking crisis Roosevelt deployed the Trading with the Enabling Act, which granted him with emergency powers. This gave him the right to close all of the American banks until they were reopened within 6 days; this gave enough time for the banks to tackle their inconveniences. Roosevelt felt that this would be appropriate for America, as confidence would be restored in the nation, which proved to be successful, as the banks were regenerated and full with money.
The first hundred days of activity when the New Deal was placed into action proved to be very important for America. During these one hundred days many laws and new methods were passed in order to help America recover. In this period of time different organisations, set up by the government, helped the poor and unemployed which was the first aim in Roosevelt’s three ‘r’s, relief. The first 100 days of the New Deal proved to be a success and helped slowly, but surely, America to recover to the nation they once was.
During the famous 100 days and thereafter Roosevelt’s New Deal, promised one of his priorities, as he was to set up large-scale government projects to cut unemployment. Roosevelt then deployed alphabet agencies to help the business to recover, the agencies were designed to target and help the industry and banks to recuperate.
The agencies wee known as alphabet agencies from their distinct arrangement, the AAA, CCC, CWA, FERA NIRA and the PWA. All these agencies were created in the first 100 days of the New Deal, which again expresses how important and successful the first 100 days were. As Roosevelt promised, the Civil Works Administration, AAA, provided over 4 million jobs and helped the unemployed. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration, FERA, gave immediate help to the poor and the National Industrial Recovery Act, NIRA, set up the public building scheme. These schemes proved successful and gave hope to America that the government was actually achieving a good cause, however unemployment was still high and the people still remained in poverty.
The majority of America was satisfied with the efforts Roosevelt had attained although, politicians and businessman opposed his regime. Businessmen criticized Roosevelt for interfering with the freedom of business and industry, however Roosevelt’s proposal’s were to help industries, this showed that his New Deal had a element of failure. The rich and privileged also opposed the President as he was a threat to their position and wealth and despised higher taxes opposed on them. Again this shows that Roosevelt’s ideas had some faults, but the taxes imposed to the rich were for the benefit of the country. Some socialists also believed that owners of industry had much of the power and that wages were too low. This is another group, which criticized the President and believed that his policies stayed the same, but wages were increased and workers were allowed to join trade unions.
Projects issued by the government did help the majority of America as unemployment decreased steadily and the people in extreme poverty were helped however some social groups were targeted more than others.
Farmers were regarded as more than unfortunate and unlucky after the Wall Street Crash as the American whether took a turn for the worse. A dust ball full effect swept the majority of America and with it brought sand and dust storms, which badly eroded the soil on the land. Farmers were in ruins, not only were they affected by the weather, the price of crops and meat dropped.
Roosevelt knew that a third of American voters depended on farming for their living. This made him deploy his Agricultural Adjustment Act, AAA. This project was designed to help farmers and the AAA gave millions to help the farmers survive, and gave advice to the farmers to help look after the well being of their farm. The act also slaughtered millions of pigs to raise the price of pork, and that farmers had an increase of 50% of income and that billions were saved from the project, the AAA seemed to be a successful policy.
However, hungry desperate farmers were outraged that the AAA were allowing crops to rot and ordering the slaughter of animals. Also the AAA only helped richer farmers with more land and machines that could help the country, more than 3 million farmers were out of business and decided to move to cities, some felt as if the Deal was a failure.
However, I believe that the AAA was a brilliant scheme, as it helped farmers who could provide food for the country as well as themselves and that the money provided was for the benefit for his nation.
The majority of whites in America treated black people in America like a lower class. The majority of black people in the USA originated from Africa and became slaves and therefore were regarded as unequal. Most black were in poverty already and when the depression hit they were the social group that was least affected.
As blacks were seen as a lower class they missed out on vital developments such as the Social Security Act, which favoured the majority of white people in America. The president, Roosevelt, had little concern for the black community, as he did not pass a law which banned lynching, which would have helped blacks from violent attacks. He may have refused to support the law, as it would lose support from the Democratic Southern whites, this is evident as only 23% of blacks voted for Roosevelt at the election compared to 57% of whites. Again another failure of the New Deal for black people were that 50% of blacks were unemployed in cities and black farmers were hit the hardest due to the price drop in cotton. However schemes which were aimed at the majority of America favoured blacks as a minimum wage law was passed and a alphabet agency was established, the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, this improved the lifestyles for blacks however the were still left in poverty and the New Deal proved unsuccessful for this ethnic minority.
Overall the minimum wage and the NAACP were important changes introduced by Roosevelt, but they did not make life easier for black people as they were regarded as a lower class and were still faced with racial injustice.
Another ethnic minority inside the United States of America were Native Americans; similar to blacks they were treated like second-class citizens. The New Deal didn’t target any real propositions for this social group and therefore suffered.
Nevertheless, like that of black people a organisation called the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People was created to help Natives, but this scheme didn’t truly help the Natives in a particular way and there was still a divide between ethnics and whites. The alphabet agencies did help some Natives escape from unemployment and the minimum wage was passed which did favour the Natives.
But overall an accurate assumption is that there was no real help for this ethnic minority to escape from the depression and therefore stayed in the trap of poverty, and the New Deal didn’t affect this community in a helpful way.
In the present time, American women were regarded as unequal to men and were perceived to be the recessive gender. During the New Deal there were no real schemes aimed towards the benefit for women as all the schemes were targeted towards workers. The New Deal did affect women however it may have been a negative one as 75% of American school boards refused to employ women, also the civil service only employed one family member to work for them and this was mainly the male. Also many women lost their jobs during the years of the New Deal as there was mass unemployment, also women remained as housewife’s during this period which showed that the New Deal was a failure for the benefit of women. Along with the negative facts only 8,000 women belonged to a Civilian Conservation Corps, CCC, out of a possible 2,750,000.
Although, Roosevelt was a clever politician as he passed laws, which allowed women to be appointed as judges, to the Senate and the House of Representatives, but these jobs were almost full with males. More plans were aimed to set a minimum wage and to fix maximum working hours, however, the New Deal offered very little women and the opportunities and rights for women made slow progress in the 1930’s.
After the depression over 12 million American citizens were unemployed, the unemployed were suffering badly as they had no money to provide for their themselves or their families and this lead to controversy. Roosevelt’s main policy was to help America to recover and to achieve this he needed to slash the numbers of unemployment. He did this by creating schemes, which helped the unemployed with new projects, and jobs, along with this Roosevelt passed an act that raised the wage for the average man and gave more protection with the arrival of trade unions. The majority of the fund available by the New Deal was mainly focused to tackle unemployment and therefore the government pumped money into organisations such as the Workers Progress Administration, WPA, the National Labour Relation Act, NLRA, and the Social Security Act, SSA. These proved successful as they provided jobs for 2 million people each year. The alphabet agencies also gave workers the right to join with trade unions and finally gave the poor and unemployed welfare payments.
Although the unemployment figures decreased by 5 million in the space of five years only white males largely benefited from the organisations as the other social groups were left stranded. However this was a big success for Roosevelt as he achieved two of his three ‘r’s relief and recovery and this may have been the reason on why he was elected for another term to serve as President in 1936.
The New Deal was created in 1933 and later retired on the year 1937. During this time it helped the unemployed and farmers drastically yet I believe that there was still a sense of sexual and racist injustice and therefore blacks, natives and women were treated differently to white males or rich farmers. However the New Deal was a success during its operation as all the groups benefited in one way or another.
President Roosevelt felt that his New Deal had been a success and thought that his scheme would revolutionise America for the better. His third and last ‘r’ was none other than reform, and this was the policy that would carry America into the future. He therefore believed that he had achieved enough to stabilise America yet he proved to be incorrect. Roosevelt withdrew his funds and at this vital moment America fell into another depression, this evidence considerably shows that his reform policy came to avail and that his New Deal was only successful whilst it was in term. Since the New deal regime had began the unemployment rate slowly declined from 12.06 million in 1932 to 7.70 million in 1937. However when the new depression erupted the unemployment level rose to nearly 11 million, something was wrong and Roosevelt’s struggle continued. However we cannot make clear judgements that the New Deal was a complete failure for his reform policy as, the depression only lasted a year thanks to Federal Government spending and the abrupt start of World War Two.
The start of World War Two had began due to German troops invading their neighbour, Poland. Almost everyone could say that the real savour for America was World War Two and not Roosevelt’s New Deal. As the World War cut unemployment from the beginning of the war, as in 1939 the current of unemployed was 9.48 million and in only five years the unemployed was down to just 1.07 million. This evidence again shows how the War created more jobs than Roosevelt campaign in the 1930’s. This was due to the Cash and Carry Act of 1940, which allowed Britain and France to buy and collect weapons from the USA, there was a higher demand of military equipment and this in turn reduced unemployment by millions, something Roosevelt could not achieve with his New Deal. America industry was harnessed, but we can suggest that if it were not to the New Deal these industries would have been bankrupt.
The overall implication that we receive from the question, ‘how far was the new deal a success by 1941?’ is that it was overall a success, although it did have some drawbacks. The New Deal was the vital lifeline America needed to kick-start their regime, and proved to be successful when it was deployed.
The unemployed benefited and the poor in extreme poverty were rescued. Farmers were also saved and received advice from the government to ensure that they could provide for the country and was a success. The New Deal must have been a success as Roosevelt was elected for another term in office and the economy slowly recovered. The minimum wage was also created and maximum hours were established, workers could even join trade unions for protection. Plenty of alphabet agencies were created to ensure that America would complete its revival.
However the New Deal still had opposition in that the rich and industrialists were annoyed that the government should withdraw from its scheme. Social groups were also against the New Deal, as they believed that there was sexual and racial injustice and believed other communities were helped throughout the depression more than their own. Unlike the relief and recovery aspect of his aims Roosevelt did not manage to complete the reform of his famous three ‘r’ also proved to be unsuccessful as America fell into another depression.
Some experts could say that America only recovered thanks to the start of World War Two, however I believe that without Roosevelt and his regime America would not have recovered from the great depression. Overall I believe that yes the New Deal was a success till America joined World War Two as it gave hope and belief to America who definitely needed this in order for the country and its population to recover.
