4) Source E is against Roosevelt. In this source the cartoonist shows a pump representing Roosevelt New Deal and is shown to be leaking. This shows that the New Deal is not working as Roosevelt told it. There are ‘leaks’ in the New Deal, which means there are faults with the New Deal and Moneys is being thrown away as the water represents money and the water leaking shows money is leaking, otherwise being wasted. There is also a taxpayer who is shown as a normal working person who is suffering to help Roosevelt with the New deal, which is not even functioning properly and that person’s hard work is going to waste. It is a Source, which criticises the New Deal and shows it to be a failure with hard work constantly being put into it.
Source F is in favour of Roosevelt. It shows a cartoon sketch of Roosevelt throwing out the ‘rubbish’, which is all of president, Hoover’s ideas to solve the depression, which at the time seemed useless. The cartoon represents America being cleaned up by Roosevelt and having a new start. In the ‘rubbish bin’ there were examples such as “every family will have a car,” and “prosperity is around the corner.” The cartoonist shows that Roosevelt will not lie to the American people by saying everything will become normal in a matter of weeks, he offered them hope by being truthful to the American people and cleaning up the country to make a better America.
Source G is against Roosevelt. The cartoonist shows and ‘Uncle Sam’ representing America who is ill. Beside him are the laws of the New Deal shown to be medicine trying to ‘cure Uncle Sam’ but are not working. The cartoonist is basically trying to say New Deal is not helping America. There is also a picture of Roosevelt shown to be very happy trying to help ‘Uncle Sam,’ as in America, but will still take no achieve anything. Beside Roosevelt is a picture of an old maid who is helpless shown to be representing Congress. The Congress are meant to be a strong shown as a figure, but seems to have been weakened by Roosevelt.
The three different sources have various different ways in showing their views of the progress or failure of Roosevelt. Sources E and G show the New Deal as a failure. Source G also mentioning that Roosevelt has weakened Congress. Source E particular concentrates on the New Deal being a waste of money as well as being a failure it also shows a symbol of taxes being to high.
It is possible that the cartoonist was a republican or a part of an upper class family. Source F shows that Roosevelt is giving America fresh start, possibly drawn by a Democrat or a person who has benefited from Roosevelt being there although the cartoonist shows no sign of taken sides and merely pointing out something which Roosevelt had done.
5) Source H is obviously in favour of Roosevelt as she mentions that he is very ‘kind.’ She also says that she represents millions of other people, but this cannot be guaranteed. It is a letter from a woman and repeatedly compliments president Roosevelt and also say “god bless you.” It is obvious that this person is full of praise for Roosevelt. The person mentions in the letter how she lost all her furniture and one of Roosevelt’s representatives got it back for them. This woman is obviously happy that Roosevelt has helped her and surely is now a supporter of him. The letter shows that Roosevelt is good person by noticing the public’s problems and helping too solve them in some sort of way.
Source I also talks about how good of a person Roosevelt is. It is a song written about Roosevelt. At the time it was a very popular song. This shows that Roosevelt had many supporters for it to spread that well and be very popular. It is a song about the re-election of President Roosevelt and mentions its good he’s back. The song is full of optimism for the New Deal, ‘He’s got things in full sway’, so for people to sing this they may have been full of hope at the time, showing their confidence in Roosevelt as their new president
Both sources are in favour of Roosevelt so it is difficult to tell, which is a better public opinion. I feel that source I is more useful as it is a song and being popular gives a wider public opinion. It shows that the public are agreeing what the songwriter’s lyrics. Source H Is only the problems solved of one person. Not everyone may have got the same outcome as that woman had. Therefore it only has the opinion of one person and of course you cannot base that one persons opinion as the publics voice.
Q6) Source J is without a doubt portraying a negative view of the New Deal: ‘The New Deal hurt us’. The man writing this believes that the New Deal has left America in a worse condition that it had been in the past. He mocks Roosevelt’s methods to help American citizens: ‘Welfare kills a mans initiative.’ The person who wrote this was a wealthy businessman. He must have worked all his life, for what he had earned, and expects that if others try they will be able to achieve to his level. He cannot understand with the situation the other American citizens were in, and cannot comprehend the fact that even if he ‘made’ it in life others could not. As a rich man, this person was obviously expected to pay the high taxes the New Deal enforced. This may have caused hatred towards the New Deal, therefore is why he possessed nothing but negativity towards the subject. In his view, he had to give up his hard-earned money to people who couldn’t be bothered to work. The main reason S B Fuller is against the New Deal is his life experience; he had to work for everything he possessed, so he expected others to do so. Despite this view being slightly stubborn it holds importance, as it is likely that many other businessmen agreed with this outlook of the New Deal. Source I praises Roosevelt and his New Deal for what it has achieved. The main influence for Frances Perkins’ view on the New Deal was her career position. She was obviously attempting to appeal to the ordinary American citizens, ‘these people were desperate’, and as she believed they needed more government help than the rich. She did however agree that the rich had been affected by the New Deal, but still were able to survive whereas the ordinary people were suffering a great deal more. Her view was basically to help those in the worst positions. Her view was obviously influenced by her job, as she was expected to honour Roosevelt for what he had achieved: ‘The New Deal meant that ordinary people would have a better chance in life.’ She emphasises on the fact that ‘ordinary people’ were helped by the New Deal, and this had been its aim. These two people had disagreed with each other and their views on the New Deal because they were two completely different people. Source J is written by a wealthy businessman who did not benefit, but had lost out on the New Deal so was obviously going to have negative thoughts towards it. Source K will always be in favour of the New Deal because the person was working for Roosevelt, therefore a democrat and shared the same views as Roosevelt had.
Q7) after investigating the sources thoroughly, I came to the conclusion that numerous support interpretation 1 whereas others support interpretation 2.
i) Interpretation 1 was views, which were in flavour of the New Deal. The sources try to influence us to believe the good aspects of the New Deal and have a far more advanced analysis of the New Deal. Most of these sources focus on all the positive achievements of the New Deal. The success were spoken or shown throughout the source with no mention of failure. Source F is a good example of this and of course is in favour of the New Deal. The source will only make positive comments such as “Roosevelt was a kind man” and Americans were given their “self respect” back and their lives before the disastrous affects of the depression took place even longer. Source B is also a good source, which is back interpretation 1. It portrays all the effective methods of curing the depression that had been unforced such as “unemployment assistance,” “old age pension” and the prohibition of “child labour.” Source F also backs interpretation 1 of the New Deal. It shows how Roosevelt was “GETTING RID OF THE RUBBISH” with hard work, showing other Americans he was with them in their fight against depression. In the picture he is shown to be a strong and confident man who is willing to make anew start for America. This cartoon would influence individuals who saw it to support the New Deal.
ii) Interpretation 2 is against the New Deal. The sources, which back interpretation 2 only talk about frailties and failures of the New Deal and mention no positive aspect what so ever. Source is a good example of this as it merely talks about the failures of the New Deal. Comments were made such as “There is a national debt of £250 billion dollars compared to a pre-Roosevelt debt of £19 billion dollars” This fact pointed out only because “ the New Deal wasted a lot of money.” The historian only based his views on the financial crisis throughout the 1930’s and doesn’t mention what the money was actually used for. Source D and J sustain the relevance of the statement, ‘it made people dependent on the government’, Both sources obviously did not benefit from the New Deal and shared a similar view to the former president Hoover. Interpretation 2 holds the belief that the Second World War solved America’s economical problems because it had offered many jobs to both men and women. ‘The war rescued him and he seized on it like a drowning man,’ this shows source C supporting interpretation 2 and the fact that the War had saved Roosevelt’s presidency. I can conclude by saying both the interpretations are importance and they are supported by different sources on two opposite views of the New Deal. Both of the interpretations have straightforward information so for that reason both have to be well thought-out when looking at the subject of the New Deal. These interpretations do not illustrate the complete story of the New Deal. So, although these interpretations are enormously dissimilar, if they were to be combined it would show a perfect analysis in view of all views, opinions and aspects of the New Deal.
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Q8) In America there was much difference over the effects of the New Deal. This was mainly because of conflicting views coming from all different types of people who were after different things from their new president. Although many facts may have been altered through time there is no doubt there are always conflicting views on political and economic issues, from the past to the present day. The New Deal was no exception.
The New Deal brought change, new techniques to cure the depression and moreover an immense amount of controversy. Although the New Deal had a majority of supporters, clearly due to Roosevelt winning the election, his presidency also had its critics: ‘The cities were filling with jobless workers. Taxes were rising. The debt was soaring.’ This divide in opinions was primarily brought about by different experiences of the New Deal. All the sources possessed strong beliefs also in favour or against the New Deal; some hard to determine i.e. Source G. Financial position and the profession of certain people affected their view of the New Deal. This is portrayed by the conflicting philosophies of Sources J and K. Source J is from a self-made businessman that believes that, ‘The New Deal hurt us’, as the free aid provided had destroyed their confidence and initiative to work for food. Once again re-iterating the fact that experiences influenced people’s perspectives of the New Deal; he had work for what he got, and expected others to do the same. Source K, however, believes that without the New Deal America’s condition would worsen. Frances Perkins, as being a part of Roosevelt’s New Deal government, was expected to praise his achievements or she may have jeopardised her job position. Her job ultimately influenced her perception of the New Deal. Source H is also extremely diverse to Source J. As Source J ridiculed the aid given whereas the man in Source I owes his livelihood to it: ‘…praying for you every night. God bless you.’ This shows once again how different people were affected by the New Deal.
Many people’s perception of the New Deal was distorted due to their actual experiences of it. People who had been helped by Roosevelt obviously would possess positive attitudes towards him: ‘I have never heard of a President like you.’ Millions did actually gain employment in the new government schemes that were initiated in the 1930’s, so were extremely grateful for this fact. Many despised the New Deal, mainly because of increasing taxes and the intervention of the government into businesses. Rich businessmen soon found themselves paying high taxes to fund Roosevelt’s schemes; for this they despised the New Deal, ultimately deciding their view on it. Source J shows us that many people, mainly consisting of businessmen, thought the government was wrong to provide relief: ‘Welfare kills a man’s initiative.’ They conceivably possessed this view as they earned what they owned with hard work, they expected others to follow this example. Others thought government relief was necessary for the rehabilitation of America: ‘The idea was that all the forces of the community should be directed to making life better for ordinary people.’ These conflicting beliefs all stemmed from different experiences.
The New Deal proved the saying that ‘anything new is controversial’. The New Deal lived up to its name as it was completely new, no one new what to expect, and for this it was supported and criticised. Roosevelt always had support, however, he always did have critics. Some people were impartial but there would always be contradicting views on the subject. Many critics say that even after the New Deal was introduced unemployment still rose in 1937. Despite this, Roosevelt’s supporters would state the fact that without the New Deal it would have raised at a more rapid rate. Even thought the welfare did not ultimately solve the depression, Roosevelt helped raised the spirits of the American citizens.
As we can see from all the evidence given, every single person was affected by the Depression and the formation of the New Deal. What we can also see, is that the reason for the disagreement over the establishment of the New Deal is that all the different groups had different things they wanted to get out of it. Historians are not able to agree on it because the sources are so biased towards each other. Therefore, there were diverse views on it, some liked it because they were obviously benefiting from it, but others despised it, as they were not gaining from it.
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