Roosevelt began his political career with the Emergency Banking Act, which helped bring America out of the depression. Roosevelt had realised that he had to restore faith in the capitalist business system. To help America to recover, he needed people to start investing in industry once again. But before he could achieve this, banks had to be seen stable again. On March 6th, the president ordered a four-day bank holiday in which all banks would close. He then managed to get the Emergency Banking Act passed by congress on Sunday 12th March. Roosevelt followed up his actions by his first ‘fire-side chats’ (which are mentioned once again in source A). Roosevelt made a very dramatic effect in this fire-side chat. He restored confidence in the American people. Slowly but surely, people began to return money to banks.
Roosevelt had given the American society hope and faith. Source I is a speech made by the president on 6th Jan 1941. His confidence and strong personality gave Roosevelt votes.
After the Emergency Banking Act, the ‘first 100 days’ began. This period of time is believed to be a unique period in American history. It was a time when the president and his team made a number of new laws that were all passed by congress, Roosevelt’s first focal point was restoring and protecting the environment. The Civilian Conservation Corps (shown in Source D), did just this. It was set up to supply work for unemployed 18-25 year old men on conservation schemes. The men were provided with food and shelter along with a wage of $30 per month ($25 of which was sent home). Over 9years, over 2million young men benefited from the work. However, the scheme received much criticism from critics and Trade Union Leaders.
In the main, Roosevelt succeeded in his early Presidential years in making America a country of higher standards. Source H was made and financed by big American companies. The Big companies in fact opposed the new deal but used its success to exploit themselves.
The Big Companies were not the only opposition of the New Deal. Conservatives backed up the opinion of businessmen that the New Deal interfered with their freedom to manage their businesses the way they wanted. The rich citizens of America were charged extra taxes, much to their disgust. The press disliked Roosevelt being a socialist and a communist. Socialists and communists even criticised the New Deal for not helping the poor and underprivileged enough. With all these enemies of the New Deal it is not surprising the complete opposite view Source G represents to Source C.
Roosevelt’s main priorities of the New Deal involved reducing the numbers of unemployment levels in America. This was not succeeded and in fact the amount of unemployed reached a staggering 24.9% at the end of 1933. In his first year of power, unemployment did not suffer any change for the better. Although the numbers were reduced (Source E) over the next four years, 1938 saw a sudden increase in unemployment. It seems that the success of reducing unemployment had come to an end, along with Roosevelt when he unfortunately died in 1945.
There are many different opinions on the success of the New Deal and the boldness of Roosevelt. My opinion is that Roosevelt was bold enough to make it a total success. Although he did not manage to completely solve the problems of America and the depression. He gave millions hope and the will to carry on. Roosevelt’s boldness will always remain a matter of opinion.
