Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal

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It was called "relief." Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal provided relief to millions of Americans who had lost their homes, their jobs, and their hope. Many others felt that the radical new policies of FDR threatened the sanctity of the Constitution and free enterprise. Roosevelt's New Deal policies had many critics but among the most vocal were groups like the American Liberty League and powerful Socialists who argued that the New Deal policies either went too far or not far enough in solving the problems that faced the nation.

Roosevelt's critics came from both ends of the political spectrum. The American Liberty League was an opposing group made up of conservative businessmen and corporate leaders. Believing that the free enterprise system was being attacked, they accused Roosevelt of trying to install a dictatorship in place of the federal government. In an excerpt from a 1935 article in Fortune magazine, the Roosevelt Administration is thought to be a government of men and not laws. The author compares Roosevelt to a dictator and calls his theory of federal administration "menacing and dangerous". Another political cartoon printed in the June 1936 issue of Current History, ridicules the Liberty League as being alarmist in accusing Roosevelt of bringing communism into the country.

Herbert Hoover, a former president, agreed with the conservative ideas of this

group. He disagreed with New Deal Legislation such as the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) or the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA). The basic idea of these New Deal programs was to lower the supply of goods to the current, depressed level of consumption. Under the AAA, the government sought to raise farm prices by paying farmers not to grow surplus crops. Other ...

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...ved that Roosevelt did not care about ending poverty, but instead was more concerned about the fortunes of his wealthy associates.

Known as being the most dramatic and innovative movement in modern history, the New Deal helped Americans find a new sense of hope for the future that was once thought to be forever lost. Although the New Deal didn't necessarily end the Great Depression, it successfully played a major role in relieving the distress of unemployment and poverty for many. However, it was the first time that government had played such an active role in the nation's economy and because of that many worried about the future of the nation. Some of Roosevelt's experimental programs are still in effect today. Programs such as Social Security, the FDIC and the SEC have become an integral part of society and they play as important a role today as they did in 1935.

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