Another source that supports FDR is source 5. Source 5 was part of a song which was sung by Roosevelt’s supporters in the 1930s. This source tells us that Roosevelt’s supporters thought they were once again living in happy days. This is because Roosevelt employed the unemployed who were forgotten by others and created hundreds of jobs also because he helped pensioners by returning their furniture to them and helping them with their mortgages and loans.
There are some sources in my assignment that do not support Roosevelt and are against him. One of the sources that are against Roosevelt is source 6. Source 6 shows that the Norris dam which was the first dam to be completed by the TVA in the 1936. The dams built by the TVA allowed 630 miles of river to be navigated for the first time. This produced hydro-electricity for the local farms. It encouraged businesses into the area and helped tourism to flourish. Some historians believed that the Tennessee Valley was the only real success to the New Deal.
Another source that is against Roosevelt is source 7. Source 7 is an American cartoon of 1937, commenting on Roosevelt’s quarrel with the Supreme Court. By looking at the title of the cartoon ‘Tying to change the umpiring’ you would know that this source is against Roosevelt because it suggests that Roosevelt was trying to change the laws and the Supreme Court was not happy with this. Also another reason why you would now that the source is against Roosevelt because in the cartoon there is a referee who represents the Supreme Court and a batsman who represents FDR. The batsman is telling the referee that he does not like the referee’s decisions and that the referee is going to have to work with someone who can see things the batsman’s ways. Also in the cartoon it is shown that the batsman has got a bat in his hand that says ‘More New Deal laws’ and there are many other bats that represent programs like the NRA and the AAA are shown as ‘out’. This cartoon is trying to show that Roosevelt wanted to create more New Deal laws and wanted to chuck out programs such as the NRA and AAA. From the source you can also tell that the Supreme Court was totally against this and did not want this to happen.
Source 8 is also against Roosevelt. This source is a cartoon which was published by Roosevelt’s opponents during the New Deal. It shows Roosevelt using more and more money to prime the New Deal pump. It also shows that the money that Roosevelt is pouring into the pump is leaking away. This means that the money Roosevelt was spending way too much money and all of it was being wasted. For example Roosevelt had set up the CWA program. Although the CWA did find jobs for millions of people within two months, not all of the jobs had an obvious public value. The CWA hired people to sweep up leaves in their local parks and hired hundreds of people in Washington to walk the streets with balloons to frighten pigeons away from public buildings. This was wasting money because the some of the jobs that were given to people were known as boondoggle which meant passing time. People were given jobs to pass time. The government had to pay wages to these people and the jobs that they did were useless. This wasted a lot of money. In this cartoon it shows that a tax payer is bringing more money to FDR. FDR used to collect more taxes from the rich because they had more money from the poor.
This source suggest that the money that people paid as taxes was wasted by Roosevelt who spent them on unimportant things such as hiring people to walk around in the streets with balloons to scare the birds away.
Another source that is against FDR is source 9. This source was by William Leuchtenburg. The source describes how the New Deal left many problems unsolved and how it even created some new ones. It explains that as late as 1914 there was still approximately six million unemployed and it was not until the war years of 1943 the unemployed found jobs.
The reason why source 9 is against FDR is because FDR was in charge of the New Deal program. He left many problems and also created some as well. The types of problems that he left were mainly about the unemployed and the Depression. William Leuchtenburg thought that the New Deal did not go well because the New Deal did not get the country out of depression. This was because there were still six million unemployed and it was not until the war that the unemployed were finally employed. Others like Schlesinger also thought that the New Deal was not good. He thought the New Deal did not make any changes in the American economy. This source is against FDR because it suggests that Roosevelt did not do anything good fro his country and that he just created more problems. We know this because it was not until the war that the army of the unemployed had finally disappeared. This shows that the FDR did not do anything for the unemployed; it shows that he just waited until all the problems disappeared for him.
Source 10 is also about unemployment and the great depression. This source is views of a modern historian on the New Deal. The source tells us that the most damning criticism of Roosevelt’s policy was that it failed to cure the depression. Despite some $20 billion poured out in spending and lending, there were still millions of dispirited men unemployed.
Unemployment began to rise again as FDR had cut funds to the states this was because he could not run any work schemes which was another headache for FDR. FDR wasted a lot of money by lending goods to Great Britain when she was on her own. By the autumn 0f 1940 Britain was on her own in the war. FDR now got congress to agree in lending goods to Britain free of charge. This money was never repaid by Britain and couldn’t be repaid in the future. Some people thought that FDR wasted more money by creating the Social Security act. FDR created a new law which allowed to give benefits to the old, children, unemployed and the disabled.
