For the New Deal to take place it came across a number of enemies. They were the businessmen and press barons criticising Roosevelt for interfering with the freedom of business and industry. The rich and privileged saw President Roosevelt as a threat to their position and wealth, and disliked the higher taxes imposed on them. Socialists and communists complained that Roosevelt’s government had not changed the basic structure of society, the owners of industry still had all the power and the wages to workers were still low. The Supreme Court ruled that several Alphabet agencies, including the NRA and the AAA, were illegal because Federal government was interfering in state affairs. The judges stopped their opposition after 1937.
Even of these problems the New Deal still managed to achieve its aims which were to recover the damage the Wall Street Crash caused. FDR also managed to reduce the unemployment rate by a huge amount, but the problem of unemployment still exists and the numbers were still very high.
The effects of the Supreme Court were major. The Supreme Court controls all law passed down to people. Perhaps the most serious threat to the New Deal came from the Supreme Court. The nine judges of the Supreme Court can decide whether laws passed by Congress are “in harmony with the constitution” If the answer was no the Supreme Court can veto that particular law. The problem came when the NRA was declared illegal because of the company selling diseased chicken and the whole organisation had to carry up to court. The results were against them and they complained, due to this the Supreme Court had upheld their appeal and said that had no right to interfere in state affairs so they were declared illegal. After this the Supreme Court went to rule the AAA and 11 other Alphabet agencies (Known by that because of their initials) who were also declared unconstitutional.
The reactions of this to Roosevelt is a major shock, he believed these agencies helped people and made the lives of people better. These also lowered the likeliness of a revolution. The effects of this Roosevelt started up a Judicial Reform Act which was saying the Supreme Court is causing the economy to recover so slowly and that if anyone gets in the way anymore he will get rid of him and replace him with someone who knows how to work at a suitable standard. After this the nine judges had stopped all actions and let Roosevelt carry on the acts which were the Wagner Act, Social Security Act and the Soil Conservation Act. Roosevelt later on was rather unpopular because people thought the wanted to rule the whole of America and wanted to become the dictator so people started to go on strikes.
One major strike was the CIO (Congress of Industrial Organisation) which is a organisation for unskilled workers who set up a industry for cars and steel the number of men in this industry was about three million people. The big industry refused to let people do this because it was just a waste of people and space so they sent spies to see who the organiser of this organisation was. Later on people knew they couldn’t work so they went on strike. There was two kinds of strike one was the sit down strike which is if I can’t work you can’t either. So they just took up all the space, the other kind is the aggressive and violent type so they went around places destroying them. They were known as the goon squad.
Due to the effect of the Second World War is that a lot of events happened these were the rise of the dictators. These dictators were Adolf Hitler the leader of Germany, Mussolini the leader of Italy and General Franco the leader of Spain. The Cash and Carry plan was introduced this plan was when Britain and France was declaring war against Germany and if they ever needed military supply they can purchase from the US as long as they were transported from America in British or French ships.
The fall of France which led to only the British against the Germans. Here Roosevelt said he will lend the British every last piece of equipment they had so they will win. In Britain Winston Churchill pleaded the Americans so if they gave Britain the equipment they can finish the job.
America agreed but the Lend-Lease Scheme was taken in. The scheme was that America would lend Britain equipment and a bill was passed to allow for the loan of war materials to any country whose defence was necessary for American safety.
In August 1941 Winston and Roosevelt agreed to meet up in the American Cruiser the USS Augusta in the mid Atlantic. The aim of this meeting was that Britain and America is forever in peace after the war. So the effect of the Second World War was the friendship bond between Britain and America and because of the shortage of weapons unemployed was down to only under 1 million people. So the effect on America was quite major.
Roosevelt achieved a major of his aims so he did play a major part. The aim of the New Deal is to recover the state of America back to its original state and into full working order. Besides from recovering the economy back to its original state the New Deal also had the following effects unemployment was reduced from the 1932 level, workers were given protection through trade unions, the principle of welfare and social security was established, the American people were given renewed faith and hope in their country, the New Deal saved USA from the threat of revolution and dictatorship, there was some redistribution of wealth and power throughout American society. So he managed to achieve the whole of the aims but the only aim he failed to achieve was the unemployment matter, people may think that the unemployment rate was down to under 1 million people but this was simply because the Second World War so once everything returns back to normal the unemployment rate will increase dramatically. Roosevelt’s wife Eleanor also played a part as she spook out for the poor and unemployed but since she was a female people did not listen to her and said she should just stay by her husbands side. Roosevelt got attacked by the conservative Republicans and Democrats for not going far enough.
I think the New Deal was a major success but there was one drawback the number of unemployed was still standing high and the problem did not get solved. The ultimate aim was to restore the American economy back to its original state which was completed so the main aim was completed. So I agree with the statement completely.