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Responses of Franklin D. Roosevelt to the Great Depression
Franklin D Roosevelt Analysis
History grade 11.new deal
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The New Deal: An Unsuccessful Solution
Millions of American citizens were starving. In 1929, the stock market had just crashed, causing the amount of unemployed people to rise by the millions. The Great Depression had just begun. A plan needed to be made as soon as possible to fix this predicament. Fortunately, the newly elected president of 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, came up with a constructed plan to fix the dilemma facing the United States. He called his strategy the New Deal, and it was meant to provide jobs and bring America back to stability. There was a total of two New Deals during the Great Depression, each with their own programs. Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) was later re-elected in 1936. The Great Depression finally ended in
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1939, when World War II had just begun. However, many believe that the New Deal was not as successful as it was meant to be, due to the amount of work that needed to be done. In fact, the New Deal was not a total success, because many still remained unemployed, countless endured miserable experiences, and the New Deal did not include all of America’s citizens. The New Deal lacked total success, because many Americans remained unemployed. As previously stated, the New Deal was intended to provide Americans with jobs to help bring the economy back to solidity, however, the majority of American’s were still unemployed, as stated by President Roosevelt himself in his Second Fireside Chat on May 7, 1933. FDR specifically stated, “First, we are giving opportunity of employment to one-quarter [25 percent] of a million of the unemployed…” However, this reveals that still seventy-five percent of the unemployed remained in great peril. Some may argue that though the New Deal was rough in the beginning, it would continue to help more of those in need. However, the Unemployment Statistics from Gene Smiley in “Recent Unemployment Rate Estimates for the 1920s and 1930s”, suggests otherwise. When the Great Depression started, the percent of the unemployment spiked up by at least 10 percent. Furthermore, when the New Deal was first being used, between the years 1933 and 1935, the unemployment rates were above 10 percent, ranging between 14.2 percent and 20.6 percent, until it finally dropped in 1936 to 9.9 percent and then to 9.1 percent in 1937. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough time to celebrate for the unemployment rate shot right back up to 12.3 percent in 1938 and did not drop until 1940 when the New Deal programs were no longer being put to use. This, in turn, confirms that some of the highest unemployment rates occurred during the use of the New Deal programs and that it did not actually help an abundance of people. Therefore, the New Deal fell short of its stated goal. The New Deal was not a triumph because many hard working civilians had horrible living conditions during this time. If the New Deal had been a complete success, then there would not have been as many people living in the streets. “During the Great Depression, there were 2 million homeless people in the United States” (Stock Picks System). In fact, some people were so miserable, that they would rather die than live through this economic depression. This can be depicted from the song “No Depression in Heaven” by the Carter Family written in 1936. “I’m going where there’s no depression, To the lovely land that’s free from care, I’ll leave this world of toil and trouble, My home’s in heaven, I’m going there.” This song further implies that these homeless people are starving and dying. “In that bright land there’ll be no hunger, No orphan children crying for bread, No weeping widows toil or struggle, No shrouds, No coffins, And no dead” (The Carter Family). If the New Deal had completed its mission of providing people with needed care, then there would not have been as much homelessness, with people struggling to support themselves. Some may argue that the WPA (Works Progress Administration) helped feed millions of school children and therefore was successful. However, in the speech made by Ellen S. Woodward about the WPA, she states that, “For many children who are required to leave home early in the morning and travel long distances after school hours to reach their homes, the WPA lunch constitutes the only hot meal of the day…” Some children, however, did not have the option of going to school during this time period due to lack of transportation or having to drop out to try and find a job to support their family. This means that this program only helped children who were able to go to school. “Some children had to leave school to take jobs and help support the family. Most of the time it was 16 and 17 year old children who dropped out of school to go to work, but sometimes younger ones had to drop out and try to find work as well” (Teacher’s Guide). Also, this program did not include homeless adults or elders, meaning that they also had no source to find food. The New Deal failed to help all the starving and miserable people and in turn, was not fully successful. Yet another reason why the New Deal was not a success, is because it excluded certain groups of Americans.
“Most New Deal programs discriminated against blacks. The National Recovery Administration, for example, not only offered whites the first crack at jobs, but authorized separate and lower pay scales for blacks” (African Americans and the New Deal). There are also many other instances of how African American’s were not included into the New Deal programs. “White landlords could make more money by leaving land untilled than by putting land back into production. As a result, the AAA’s [Agricultural Adjustment Administration] policies forced more than 100,000 blacks off the land in 1933 and 1934” (African Americans and the New Deal). Furthermore, some New Deal programs helped one certain group, but ruined other people’s lives. For instance, the political cartoon ‘DON’T CRUSH THEM’ depicts FDR and a U.S. farmer using the Farm Relief Bill to figuratively crush business men and women, consumers, and taxpayers. This proves that some New Deal programs favored some people more than others. Some may argue that nothing is going to be perfect and the New Deal could not have possibly helped every single person in the United States. However, this does not justify discriminatory acts towards one race or class. In general, discriminating against one group of people is seen as immoral, meaning that the New Deal did not complete its delegation. Therefore, the New Deal was not a …show more content…
success. In conclusion, the New Deal was not a total success, because many still remained unemployed, countless endured miserable experiences, and the New Deal did not include all of America’s citizens.
Essentially, the New Deal did not work to include and employ as many people as it could or should have, even excluding major population types from any possible benefit from the programs. It failed to provide hard-working citizens with a steady job and food to eat. This question of whether or not the New Deal was a success has a substantial significance. If any country goes into a economic collapse like one of the Great Depression, one could use America’s experience as an example as to what steps should or should not be taken though such a time. Afterall, the importance of studying history is to learn from mistakes made in the
past.
In the Roaring Twenties, people started buying household materials and stocks that they could not pay for in credit. Farmers, textile workers, and miners all got low wages. In 1929, the stock market crashed. All of these events started the Great Depression. During the beginning of the Great Depression, 9000 banks were closed, ending nine million savings accounts. This lead to the closing of eighty-six thousand businesses, a European depression, an overproduction of food, and a lowering of prices. It also led to more people going hungry, more homeless people, and much lower job wages. There was a 28% increase in the amount of homeless people from 1929 to 1933. And in the midst of the beginning of the Great Depression, President Hoover did nothing to improve the condition of the nation. In 1932, people decided that America needed a change. For the first time in twelve years, they elected a democratic president, President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Immediately he began to work on fixing the American economy. He closed all banks and began a series of laws called the New Laws. L...
The era of the Great Depression was by far the worst shape the United States had ever been in, both economically and physically. Franklin Roosevelt was elected in 1932 and began to bring relief with his New Deal. In his first 100 days as President, sixteen pieces of legislation were passed by Congress, the most to be passed in a short amount of time. Roosevelt was re-elected twice, and quickly gained the trust of the American people. Many of the New Deal policies helped the United States economy greatly, but some did not.
In his book, A New Deal for the American People, Roger Biles analyzes the programs of the New Deal in regards to their impact on the American society as a whole. He discusses the successes and failures of the New Deal policy, and highlights the role it played in the forming of American history. He claims that the New Deal reform preserved the foundation of American federalism and represented the second American Revolution. Biles argues that despite its little reforms and un-revolutionary programs, the New Deal formed a very limited system with the creation of four stabilizers that helped to prevent another depression and balance the economy.
The region later became known as the dust bowl. The election of Franklin D Roosevelt and the introduction of the new deal in 1932 helped restore the confidence in the United States and marked the beginning of the end of the depression there. In many countries the great depression resulted in a big shift in public attitudes and in government policy towards welfare provision. The second reason was the unpopularity of Hoover. Hoover was the 31st president of the United States and held office during the great depression.
Coming into the 1930’s, the United States underwent a severe economic recession, referred to as the Great Depression. Resulting in high unemployment and poverty rates, deflation, and an unstable economy, the Great Depression considerably hindered American society. In 1932, Franklin Roosevelt was nominated to succeed the spot of presidency, making his main priority to revamp and rebuild the United States, telling American citizens “I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people," (“New” 2). The purpose of the New Deal was to expand the Federal Government, implementing authority over big businesses, the banking system, the stock market, and agricultural production. Through the New Deal, acts were passed to stimulate the
Franklin D. Roosevelt once asserted “I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people,” in belief for a change, for a better nation, and for guidance to those who have lost all faith in humanity. During the Great Depression, the United States faced many different scenarios in which it caused people to doubt and question the “American Dream.” The Great Depression began in 1929 and ended in 1939. In these ten years, people went through unemployment, poverty, banks failed and people lost hope. President Herbert Hoover thought it wasn’t his responsibility to try and fix such issues in the nation.
New Deal programs, such as the W.P.A., were supposed to provide work equally, but this was not the case. Jobs in the south were often given to whites over blacks making it nearly impossible for blacks to make a living. One writer criticizes the Works Progress Administration, a large part of the New Deal, and asks, “do the government insist on Jim Crow on the W.P.A. projects?” (McElvaine, 89). The Great Depression impacted everyone but the african-americans had to face poverty and discrimination
In his presidential acceptance speech in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed to the citizens of the United States, “I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people.” The New Deal, beginning in 1933, was a series of federal programs designed to provide relief, recovery, and reform to the fragile nation. The U.S. had been both economically and psychologically buffeted by the Great Depression. Many citizens looked up to FDR and his New Deal for help. However, there is much skepticism and controversy on whether these work projects significantly abated the dangerously high employment rates and pulled the U.S. out of the Great Depression. The New Deal was a bad deal for America because it only provided opportunities for a few and required too much government spending.
After the depression America was in a state mass hysteria as the Wall Street crash had caused a massive crisis among the American public because the impact of the wall street crash caused 12 million people out of work, it also caused 20,000 companies to go bankrupt and there were 23,000 suicides in one year because of the wall street crash this was the highest amount of suicides in a year ever. The main aims of the new deal were Relief, Recovery and Reform, Relief was for the Homeless and Unemployed, recovery was for Industry, Agriculture and Banks and Reform was to prevent the depression form happening again. The structure of The New Deal was the First Hundred Days (1933) where he would focus on relief by helping the homeless and unemployed and recovery by helping industry, agriculture and banks, there was also the Second New Deal where he would focus on Reform, preventing the depression from happening again. Roosevelt believed that the government should help those people worst affected by the depression, this is why he created over 50 alphabet agencies to deal with the problems caused by the depression, this is why he introduced the new deal because he wanted to ease the pressure
The New Deal was a set of acts that effectively gave Americans a new sense of hope after the Great Depression. The New Deal advocated for women’s rights, worked towards ending discrimination in the workplace, offered various jobs to African Americans, and employed millions through new relief programs. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), made it his duty to ensure that something was being done. This helped restore the public's confidence and showed that relief was possible. The New Deal helped serve American’s interest, specifically helping women, african american, and the unemployed and proved to them that something was being done to help them.
In response to the Great Depression, the New Deal was a series of efforts put forth by Franklin D. Roosevelt during his first term as United States’ President. The Great Depression was a cataclysmic economic event starting in the late 1920s that had an international effect. Starting in 1929 the economy started to contract, but it wasn’t until Wall Street started to crash that the pace quickened and its effects were being felt worldwide. What followed was nearly a decade of high unemployment, extreme poverty, and an uncertainty that the economy would ever recover.
The New Deal period has generally - but not unanimously - been seen as a turning point in American politics, with the states relinquishing much of their autonomy, the President acquiring new authority and importance, and the role of government in citizens' lives increasing. The extent to which this was planned by the architect of the New Deal, Franklin D. Roosevelt, has been greatly contested, however. Yet, while it is instructive to note the limitations of Roosevelt's leadership, there is not much sense in the claims that the New Deal was haphazard, a jumble of expedient and populist schemes, or as W. Williams has put it, "undirected". FDR had a clear overarching vision of what he wanted to do to America, and was prepared to drive through the structural changes required to achieve this vision.
The United States faced the worst economic downfall in history during the Great Depression. A domino effect devastated every aspect of the economy, unemployment rate was at an all time high, banks were declaring bankruptcy and the frustration of the general public led to the highest suicide rates America has ever encountered. In the 1930’s Franklin D Roosevelt introduced the New Deal reforms, which aimed to “reconcile democracy, individual liberty and economic planning” (Liberty 863). The New Deal reforms were effective in the short term but faced criticism as it transformed the role of government and shaped the lives of American citizens.
In 1929 our nation underwent an economic collapse worse than any other called the great depression. The stock market crashed, leading to the greatest Economic depression our nation has ever known. Within a matter of days, 8 million people lost their jobs and even more lost all of their money. In response to this crisis, president Franklin Delaware Roosevelt made the first new deal in 1933. The new deal was a program to help fight the depression. It made many public programs aimed towards helping people find work, feed children, gave people pensions, and many other things. However, in 1935, the new deal died, but was resurrected as the second new deal which focused mainly on social reform. I do believe that the new deal was successful because, it gave people pensions and money, gave food to the needy, and it employed more people.
The New Deal did not help the Great Depression. The Great Depression started on October 29 1929 when the stock market that had been steadily climbing crashed. Companies started firing their workers because they themselves were going bankrupt which resulted in 1932 when the great depression was at its worst when one quarter of the American workforce were unemployed. Two months after Roosevelt gained his presidency on March 4 1933 he worked swiftly to get the economy running again and get the united states out of the Great Depression by creating the New Deal.The New Deal was a set of programs that were set to help end the Great Depression in 1933 trying to lower the unemployment rate from 22.5% in the year before. The second new deal would come in at 1935 and would also come in to help with the problem