HISTORY 161 The New Deal

The New Deal During the 1930s, the role of the federal government was greatly expanded with the New Deal. This occurred through its efforts to help the economy recover, with programs such as the National Recovery Ad ...

The New Deal During the 1930s, the role of the federal government was greatly expanded with the New Deal. This occurred through its efforts to help the economy recover, with programs such as the National Recovery Administration (NRA), to provide relief to the unemployed by creating jobs and to institute reforms for the protection of the elderly, farmers, investors and laborers. In the election of 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt promised Americans a New Deal, to put them back to work. Hoover’s inability to end the depression allowed Roosevelt to easily defeat him in the election. Roosevelt’s New Deal was a turning point in U.S. History. The New Deal marked an end to the view that government and the economy should be completely separate. It established the principle that the federal government is chiefly responsible for ensuring the smooth running of the American economy. The New Deal also permanently increased the power of the federal government. As soon as Roosevelt was sworn in as president, he began to submit a lot of legislation to Congress. This legislation became known as The Hundred Days. Roosevelt submitted hundreds of bills, explaining these measures in terms of the three R’s Relief, Recovery and Reform. Relief Relief measures were short term measures to tide people over until the economy recovered. They were important in the first year of the New Deal. To stabilize the banking situation and restore consumer confidence. Roosevelt declared a “Bank Holiday”, closing all of the nation’s banks. Each bank reopened only after government inspectors found the bank was financially sound. (FERA, CCC, PWA, WPA) Recovery Roosevelt realized that the key to recovery was to stimulate demand. His recovery measures sought to rebuild people’s purchasing power. Roosevelt believed in pouring money into the economy to get it working again. By putting government money into consumers’ hands, they would spend more, increasing demand for products. This would lead to more workers being hired, further increasing purchasing power and consumer demand. (NRA, AAA) Name : Maddy Chenoweth Date : March 20th, 2020 Period : 10th Reform Reform measures were aimed at remedying defects in the structure of American economy to ensure that such a depression would never strike again. Many of these measures were based on the belief that the government should protect individuals against risks they could not handle on their own. (FDIC, TVA, SEC, NLRA) Hundred Days In Roosevelt’s first hundred days he got a number of bills through Congress including: FERE: Federal Emergency Relief Act- funded state and local governments to provide emergency relief, and enabled millions of people to be hired on “work” projects CCC: Civilian Conservation Corps- Gave jobs to young men, such as planting trees and making roads. Members lived in CCC camps and were clothed and fed. Most of the money was sent home to parents. NLRA: National labor Relations Act- called the Wagner Act, gave workers the right to form unions, to bargain collectively, and to submit grievances to a National Labor Board AAA: Agricultural Adjustment Act: Paid farmers to plant less in the hope of increasing prices. The government would also buy surpluses and store them in warehouses until prices went up. TVA: Tennessee Valley Authority- built 21 government owned dams along the Tennessee River to control flooding and give electricity to Appalachia FDIC: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporationinsured bank deposits so that people would not lose their savings in the event of bank failures. PWA: Public Works Administration- created federal jobs by building public projects, such as schools, roads, courts, post offices, and bridges. WPA: Works Progress Administration- created jobs by hiring artists, writers, and musicians to paint murals, produce plays and create artworks SEC: Securities and Exchange Commission- was created to watch over the stock market, prevent fraud, and guard against another stock market crash SSA; Social Security Act- most important legislation passed. It provided workers with unemployment