New Deal Dbq

New Deal
In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt enacted the New Deal to counter the effects of the Great Depression, which focused on the three ‘R’s: Recovery, Reform and Relief. It’s mostly split into two sections “First New Deal” which took place between 1933 and 1934 and the “Second New Deal” which took place between 1935 and 1938.
Relief came in the form of public works. Many unemployed people were put to work on government financed public works projects, such as building highways, airports, and bridges. From 1933 to 1935, $3.3 billion was spent on these public projects. Food stamp programs, a welfare program that provides stamps to lower/no income people to allow them to purchase food. FDR believed in the reform and recovery of rural areas would allow for the depression to heal and enacted several groups (i.e. Tennessee Valley Authority, National Youth Administration, Civilian Conservation Corps) and several laws (i.e. the Agricultural Adjustment Act and the Rural Electrification Act) in order to combat poverty in rural areas.

Reform came with banking and regulation changes.

With unemployment rates reaching 25% of the population, declining wages and runs on banks, Roosevelt started his presidency by having 100 days of meeting with Congress to enact laws, bills and organizations that would help protect the people, such as the FDIC to insure bank accounts. Roosevelt created an “emergency budget” which was unbalanced on a temporary basis in order to combat depression. Roosevelt also created the Emergency Banking Act, which provided a system for reopening banks under the Department of Treasury’s supervision. After it was passed, many Federal Reserve banks opened and hoarded currency flowed back into the banking system to sustain it. We also suspended the gold standard for currency (a standard in which every US dollar was could be converted and back by

gold.)
Recovery was the effort to bring the economy back to normal via campaigns and programs. The social Security Act, established a system of retirement and welfare to families. The housing sector was stimulated by federal agencies and increased the number of Americans who owned homes.
Amongst the laws and bills passed was the Wagner Act, which allowed workers the right to bargain with their employers as a collective and the Fair Labor Standards act which set maximum set hours and minimum wages for thousands of people. Child Labor was also affected by the act, children under 16 were not allowed to work and children under 18 years of age were prohibited from working in the more hazardous jobs.
The New Deal’s reach can still be seen today with our many highways and bridges that now stamp the land. It’s used as the foundation and inspiration for many other legislative efforts, such as Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society and many of its efforts continue on (i.e. the FDIC, Social Security.) With his efforts, FDR finally achieved a balanced budget in 1937 and the US reached full employment in 1941.