New Deal Dbq

The New Deal

On October 29 1929 the United State’s stock market crashed and plunging the country into its most severe economic downturn which is known as The Great Depression, also referred to as “Black Tuesday”. Because of the Great Depression, banks began to fail, speculators lost their shirts, the nation’s money supply diminished and the companies went into bankruptcy, which caused them to fire many of their employees. The current president, President Hoover, thought this crisis was just a passing problem. But by the year 1932 the great depression was still occurring and was in its worst year. In 1932 at least one-quarter of the American workforce was unemployed and nearly about to lose their homes.

When President Franklin Roosevelt took office in 1933, he acted quickly on these issues to try and stabilize the economy and provide jobs and relief to the suffering. In the next eight years the nation and government instituted a series of experimental projects and programs, known as The New Deal. The New Deal aimed to restore the dignity and prosperity to the Americans. The New Deal also permanently changed the federal government’s relationship in the U.S population. On March4, 1933 former President Roosevelt delivered his first inaugural speech before 100,000 people on Washington’s Capitol Plaza. He said

“First of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” He made a promise that he would act strongly to face the “dark realities of the moment” and assured the citizens that he would “wage a war against the emergency” just as “we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.” Roosevelt’s speech gave many of the American people confidence and hope that they’d elected a man who was not afraid to take the bold steps into solving the nation’s problems.
The very next day after his speech, President Roosevelt declared a four day bank holiday to stop people from withdrawing their money from shaky banks. Congress passed Roosevelt’s Emergency Banking Act on March 9th. The Emergency Banking Act reorganized the banks and closed the ones that were not fixable. Three days later, in his first “fireside chat”, Roosevelt encouraged and urged the Americans to put their money back in the banks; and by the end of March, almost three quarters of the banks reopened. Roosevelt’s next task was to make it legal once again for Americans to buy beer. By the end of the year Congress agreed and created the 21st Amendment and ended the prohibition to buy beer for good. Later in May, Congress passed a bill that paid commodity farmers to leave their fields in order to end agricultural surpluses and boost prices.
In June the National Industrial Recovery Act was passed, which guaranteed that worker would have the right to unionize and bargain collectively for higher wages and better working conditions; this act also suspended some antitrust law and established a federally funded Public Works Administration.

In Addition to those acts, President Roosevelt won passage of 12 other major laws, including the Banking Bill and the Home Owners’ Loan Act. Almost every American found something positive or negative to say about the motley collection of bills, but it was clear to Roosevelt that he was taking the “direct, vigorous” actions that he promised in his inaugural

speech.
Despite the best efforts of Roosevelt and his cabinet, the Great depression continued. Unemployment persisted, the nation’s economy continues to wheeze and the people grew angrier and more desperate. In hope to resolve the continuation of these issues, President Roosevelt created the Second New Deal in the spring of 1935. Roosevelt created the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to give jobs to unemployed people. The WPA also provided jobs to artists, writers, theater directors and musicians. Soon after the WPA was in place, Roosevelt created the National Labor Relations Act, also known as the Wagner Act. The Wagner Act Board supervised the union elections and prevented business from treating their workers unfairly. In 1935, FDR signed the Social Security Act, which guaranteed pensions to millions of Americans, set up a system of unemployment insurance and stipulated the federal government would help care for dependent children and the disabled.
Former President Roosevelt later on addressed the nation again during his second term campaign. He promised the nation he would fight aggressively fight against the people who were profiting from the Great Depression-era troubles of ordinary American. Because of this speech he won the election by a landslide. The Great Depression still dragged on for many more years and the workers grew more frustrated, by 1937 to the dismay of most corporate leaders some of the 8 million workers joined unions and were loudly demanding their natural rights. The New Deal confronted and resolved one political setback after another, many argued that they represented an unconstitutional extension of federal authority. In order to protect his programs and acts, in 1937 Roosevelt announced a plan to add enough liberal justices to the Court to neutralize the “obstructionist” conservatives. Many voted to uphold the New Deal but because of the past damage done it failed and gave power to the president’s Congressional opponents. That same year the economy slipped back into a recession the government reduced its stimulus spending, but because of the increasing of the anti-Roosevelt sentiment, it made it very difficult for FDR to create any new programs. Then on December 7th 1942, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States entered into what is known as World War II. Because of World War II the Americans were motivated to work harder, which in result successfully ended the Great Depression.