New Deal Dbq

It is such an awe-inspiring eye opener to read between the lines of letters sent to President Roosevelt and his wife during the Great Depression. Going through things like the ‘big boom’ America was still a transforming nation during the 1920’s.. At the end of the 1920’s a time of an economic recession we call today the Great Depression occurred. A quarter of the nation was losing jobs left and right, weekly income dropped severely such as from “$24.76 per week in 1929 to $16.65 per week in 1933.” With President Hoover failing to resolve the situation, Franklin D. Roosevelt began his term with his hopeful New Deal to start making changes. Roosevelt hoped to relieve short term suffering with his first term, and to hopefully distribute money

amongst the poor with his second term. Many Americans were outspoken during this time period by writing letters to whom they felt was in charge. Many frowned upon Hoover’s policies of the early Depression and praised the thought of Roosevelt’s efforts.

Every opinion about any cause or solution of the Great Depression were based upon economic, racial, and social standings in America.

Many conservatives during this time were “absolutely opposed to any ideas of redistribution.” In my opinion, most conservatives were with the thought of Social Darwinism; this meant that the conservatives fully believed “the down and out are in that condition because they deserve to be” which goes along with Darwin’s survival of the fittest. Roosevelt’s New Deal aroused for criticism from the right for being ridiculously “socialist” and from the left for not being liberal enough. The federal government however had never particularly done much to get involved in the economy before

the beginning of the New Deal. Conservatives, like the ones I have mentioned, loved the idea of this because they fully believed in laissez-faire economics. When Roosevelt started started the New Deal, conservatives felt as if he was pushing the United States toward a more socialist, centrally-planned economy. The New Deal was socialism to the conservatives. People had “taxpayers tell them that their children came from school and asked why they couldn’t have nice lunches like the children on relief.” The New Deal used the hard-working taxpayer’s money for those individuals that were ‘in need’. They sent letters to Mr. Roosevelt’s wife saying things such as “Some of us (conservative democrats) regret the prevalence of certain graft in minor county officials, Relief offices, Welfare, etc. but I know it’s all too far away for you to control.” His aggressive use of federal power angered the conservatives, but his declared willpower to rescue American capitalism and his non-ideological approach to the depression’s major problems irritated the critics on his left even though both sides offered strong criticism of the New Deal.
There are several reasons why you could say that the conservatives were opposed the New Deal.

One that is expected, was partisan which means that the Republicans had lost to the Democrats and many Republicans were not very happy about it at all. Many conservative Republicans (and even a small amount of conservative Democrats) really believed the New Deal was an expansion of government and that it was going to require too much spending. They believed that “The so called social security act… is nothing but a downright stealing.” Many individuals were very sincere “small government” Republicans and suspected that the market would eventually self-correct, and government intervention was wrong. They were also fearful that President Roosevelt was going to become too powerful. Thus, they opposed and criticised his New Deal, even when there was evidence proving it was

working.
On the opposite sides of things were those people on the left who were more liberal. Critics on the left felt that the New Deal done very little. These people “show scant signs of adherence to a formal socialist ideology. Most such writers appear to have been poorly educated.” They wrote letters to President Roosevelt saying, “The poor class of people down here is treated like dogs.” The left felt that the government should do more to directly help the poor people. Two very good examples of this were Huey Long’s “Share the Wealth” proposal and Francis Townsend’s proposition to give money to retired people to spend. Dr. Francis Townsend came up with a monthly pension plan in which the federal government would pay a pension to all people over the age of 60. Then the pensioners would have to spend all the monthly pension before getting the next months check, and keep in mind that they could not work. The left side wrote in their letters that “The $200 old age pention plan of Townsend and Rev. Coughlin social justice plan is the only plan that will restore this nation to prospairty and hew disputs it is not telling the trough.” to help argue the New Deal didn’t do enough. Huey Long (The Kingfish) gained some support for his “Share The Wealth” program with his motto being ‘Every Man A King’. His program would place taxes on the very wealthy and no personal incomes on more than one million dollars a year would be allowed. Long’s plan of action appealed to the poor and middle class. The liberals wanted more radical action than President Roosevelt was willing to take at that time.