Explain Why President Roosevelt introduced the New Deal
Roosevelt introduced the New Deal for several reasons. He had many aims of what he wanted the New Deal to accomplish. He wanted to get Americans back to work so that more money would be exchanged; he also wanted to protect people’s savings and properties. Roosevelt also offered relief to the old, sick and unemployed to get them through the depression and back into good times. Roosevelt’s main aims of the New Deal was to get American industry and agriculture back on their feet. To do this Roosevelt offered numerous amounts of relief. Many businesses and banks were closing daily and throughout the late 1920s and early 1930s things continued to get worse. The farmers were one of the hardest hit, as many farmers could not afford mortgages, and things were made worse by over- farming and drought in Southern states of America. To improve the conditions for the farmers, Roosevelt decided to set up relief for them in the form of The New Deal. The New Deal helped the farmers by setting up agencies that benefited the farmers such as the AAA, which helped modernise farms and improve the conditions. By giving the farmers relief they were able to recover from the depression. Many people in the Tennessee region of America were suffering from the depression, as well as the farms becoming dust bowls, thousands of homes were without electricity. By setting up the TVA many jobs were created for building dams and the dams made it possible to irrigate the “dust bowls”. The TVA also introduced electricity to the area. The New Deal helped America get back on its feet; the next stage was recovering from the depression.
Roosevelt didn’t just want Americans to collect aid; he wanted to help them help themselves. By setting up the social security act in 1935, many unemployed people were given the chance to look after themselves and find jobs. As there were more people in work because of organizations such as the PWA and the CCC there was an increased amount of production. An increased amount of production requires and increased amount of buyers, and this was now possible because if there are more jobs, there was more money being circulated. Living conditions were also improved because of Roosevelt’s laws and agencies. For example there were an increased amount of new roads, schools, airports, bridges and dams. All of these facilities built by the PWA either made life easier or created more jobs for American people. It was evident that the laws and agencies were allowing the USA to recover. The New Deal also helped America recover from the problems that had already been evident before the boom years. Many workers were working very long hours and getting poor pay for doing it, but by introducing the Fair Labour Standards Act employers were prevented from doing this. Roosevelt also introduced the National Recovery Administration, which outlawed child labour and improved working conditions. With the help of all the new organizations, America was able to recover and get back to living “the American Dream”. American people also restored their confidence in banks, after around 15% of people’s savings had been lost, as Roosevelt introduced the emergency banking act which meant that banks were allowed to be reopened as soon as examiners found them to be financially secure. Roosevelt introduced the New Deal to revive the faith in banks, businesses, the government and most importantly themselves. The New Deal allowed people to get back into work and reform the economy. After all the organizations had been set up, bank closures had hit rock bottom and business failures had also decreased. In fact the New Deal had not only allowed America to recover, it had allowed America to reform to create a stronger economy.
“The new Deal was not a complete success”. How far do you agree with this statement?
I agree with this statement. The New Deal was a huge success but not a complete success. For example The New Deal was very successful in getting many Americans back into work. Organizations like the TVA were set up to create more jobs for the unemployed and improve facilities in the USA. However many millions remained unemployed aside with the many organizations Roosevelt set up. The unemployment level remained disgracefully high for the “land of the free”.
It must be said that The New deal was very successful by the means of reducing the amount of businesses closing down. This helped the American economy greatly, as Roosevelt urged people to spend more money in shops, thus allowing the circle of money to be created again. However, saying this, Roosevelt gave in to the republicans very easily. When the republicans told Roosevelt to cut back on the amount of money going into the New Deal, Roosevelt did just that. As a consequence businesses began to go bust again and unemployment rates began to rise again.
Many millions of Americans benefited when Roosevelt introduced the Wagner act, the new act made it illegal for workers being sacked for being in a union. Employers were forced to allow trade unions to operate in their companies and let them negotiate with employers for better pay and conditions. Many workers benefited greatly from this new act. The new Deal failed to give relief to different groups of people. For example, Roosevelt was at first criticised for not helping the poor, black Americans and many farmers who were still living in poverty.
However Roosevelt did eventually give relief to the poor, he set up the Social Security act which gave a small fee to the unemployed, old and widows.
The New Deal was also criticised for being too complicated and that there was too many codes and regulations which made it very hard to manage and therefore not as effective.
Many jobs were created through the organization WPA, the WPA found work for builders, office workers and even actors. More jobs were being supplied so more money was going into shops this meant that everyone benefited.
Roosevelt did have some opposition to the New Deal. Some people did not like Roosevelt because they said he was acting too much like a dictator, this is because he made so many changes to the USA and whether they benefited America or not they were still concerned that one man had so much power. The TVA also got some criticism; some people deemed it unfair as it created competition for private companies. Many Americans who were wealthy disliked the high taxes; they felt annoyed that their tax should go into the social security act where people who were “lazy” got money for doing nothing. Possibly the biggest thing the New deal created was the restoring of faith of the American people in their government and their country. On the other hand Roosevelt was insulted for acting like a communist and anti-business as well as undermining local governments. The New Deal was also criticised for not solving the underlying economical problems and confidence remained low. Throughout the 1930’s Americans spent only 75% of what they had done before 1929. Many Americans felt embarrassed that its economy had taken longer to recover than most European countries and the only thing that brought an end to unemployment was the Second World War.
In conclusion, Roosevelt helped recover the spirit of American people. The New Deal proved to be an enormous success, but to say The New Deal was a complete success would be wrong. The New Deal had several faults and not everyone benefited, for example the rich complained the poor were getting too much and the poor complained they were not getting enough. The Republicans criticised the New Deal from the right saying that the New Deal was doing too much and getting too involved in people’s lives and should not be supporting trade unions and should not say that wages needed to be higher. The Republicans thought that the market should deal with these issues not the government. However the New Deal was also being criticised from the left with key figures such as Huey Long saying that there was still many poor people starving despite the new measures. Huey Long also criticised the New Deal for being too complicated and not doing enough. It must be said that the benefits of the new deal hugely outweighs the criticisms of the New Deal. After all the New Deal did create millions of jobs, stabilised the banking system, cut business failures, provided valuable resources to the USA (such as schools, roads and power stations) and improved the standard of living in deprived areas, which in turn stimulated the economy into creating many new jobs, meaning more money was circulating. The New Deal created a better America for the majority of people living in America, but not everyone.
