During the Great Depression families hardly survived. People lived in shanty towns and lean-to’s. People would spend all of their money then not have enough to buy a place to live. Jobs were almost impossible to find and if you could find a job it would not pay enough to survive. The President could not anything else to the economy but what was already done. In situations like this, should the government help? Yes. The government should help people that are trying to get back on their feet, not sitting on the couch eating chips waiting for your monthly government check to come in.
During the great depression for most families barely had enough to eat. “With half enough to eat” (Shafter 1). Even though the people did not make enough to fill their their stomachs they would still “rather not be on the rolls of relief” (Shafter 1). If a jobs opened for hardly any pay the people would run to the farmers looking for the job. “Like a swarm of bees we come” (Shafter 1). The families did not want anything special, just the necessities to survive. People wanted to work for their money even though they were about to starve. They would rather die with a job and an empty stomach then be living, and have stuff handed to them.
Unemployment rates were at an all time high. 23.6% of people in America were unemployed during the Great Depression. President Roosevelt was elected president in 1932. Roosevelt made the American citizens feel secure about themselves when he said “The only thing we have to fear is itself” (Roosevelt “First Inaugural”). He explained what his plans were for his presidency. “Our greatest primary task is to put people to work” (Roosevelt “First Inaugural”). Roosevelt believed in the American spirit. He knew that America was s...
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...g America was and still is. Yes, the government should help in times like this. The American Citizens need help sometimes and the government needs to take care of its people. The country pulling out of a depression as strongly as they did and turn into a country like we have today would make anyone proud to be an American Citizen.
Works Cited
“C.V.B. (female, 11, OH).” Dear Mrs. Roosevelt. New Deal Network. Web. 13 February 2014.
Harris, Nathaniel. Witness to History: The Great Depression. Chicago: Heinemann Library, 2003. Print.
“1930’s: President Hoover.” Digital History. 2012. Web. 13 February 2014.
Roosevelt, Franklin D. “First Inaugural Address of Franklin D. Roosevelt.” 4 March 1933. Yale Law School Lillian Goldman Law Library. Web. 24 January 2014.
Shafter, Lester Hunter. “I’d Rather Not Be On Relief.” 1938. Library of Congress. Web. 22 January 2014
The stock market crash of 1929 set in motion a chain of events that would plunge the United States into a deep depression. The Great Depression of the 1930's spelled the end of an era of economic prosperity during the 1920's. Herbert Hoover was the unlucky president to preside over this economic downturn, and he bore the brunt of the blame for the depression. Hoover believed the root cause of the depression was international, and he therefore believed that restoring the gold standard would ultimately drag the United States out of depression by reviving international trade. Hoover initiated many new domestic works programs aimed at creating jobs, but it seemed to have no effect as the unemployment rate continued to rise. The Democrats nominated Franklin Roosevelt as their candidate for president in 1932 against the incumbent Hoover. Roosevelt was elected in a landslide victory in part due to his platform called "The New Deal". This campaign platform was never fully explained by Roosevelt prior to his election, but it appealed to the American people as something new and different from anything Hoover was doing to ameliorate the problem. The Roosevelt administration's response to the Great Depression served to remedy some of the temporary employment problems, while drastically changing the role of the government, but failed to return the American economy to the levels of prosperity enjoyed during the 1920's.
Roosevelt addressed the economic crises throughout his speech. Unemployment was a priority and he asks the nation to come together as an army to fight the war against this Great Depression. His plan was to produce more jobs and generate the money to bring the nation up from the ashes. He promises that to all that he can, as his constitutional duty, to resolve the issues crippling the
As the United States became engulfed in the hardships of the Great Depression, a controversy regarding the Federal Government’s involvement with charity and relievement of suffering became apparent. Was it the Government’s responsibility to aid in relieving Americans of such misery? Or, was it the job of the People to work together to reach a solution? An analysis of the two presidents who took turn in office during the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover, reveals their opposing perspectives and philosophies regarding this controversy, and subsequently, Roosevelt’s and Hoover’s contradicting views played a fundamental role in America’s rise out of the Great Depression and the nature of government in today’s society.
There was a Great Depression in the 1930's. During this time President Hoover was trying to fight against unemployment. The percentage of unemployed people rose 25 percent during this time. With unemployment continuing to rise, President Hoover urged congress to provide up to 150 billion dollars for public works to create jobs.
During the 1920’s, America was a prosperous nation going through the “Big Boom” and loving every second of it. However, this fortune didn’t last long, because with the 1930’s came a period of serious economic recession, a period called the Great Depression. By 1933, a quarter of the nation’s workers (about 40 million) were without jobs. The weekly income rate dropped from $24.76 per week in 1929 to $16.65 per week in 1933 (McElvaine, 8). After President Hoover failed to rectify the recession situation, Franklin D. Roosevelt began his term with the hopeful New Deal. In two installments, Roosevelt hoped to relieve short term suffering with the first, and redistribution of money amongst the poor with the second. Throughout these years of the depression, many Americans spoke their minds through pen and paper. Many criticized Hoover’s policies of the early Depression and praised the Roosevelts’ efforts. Each opinion about the causes and solutions of the Great Depression are based upon economic, racial and social standing in America.
“The only thing that we have to fear is fear itself “said Franklin Roosevelt the thirty-second president of the United States in one of the most powerful political addresses ever delivered by an American president. President Roosevelt assumed the presidency during some of the darkest times in American history. He addressed the nation in a time of uncertainty and in a time of great fear. American Citizens were insecure about the economical situation the Unites States, as they were in the middle of the Great Depression. The Great Depression was a result of the stock market crash of 1929, also known as Black Tuesday. After the crash, profits plunged, prices dropped, and income fell. Unemployment rose to 25 percent in the United States. The nation was hungry for physical and emotional sustenance and Roosevelt's speech came at just the right time to satisfy and alleviate the minds of many Americans. Roosevelt delivered his first inaugural address to the masses that were in need of reassurance. In his Inauguration Address, Roosevelt acknowledges the faults that the government is accountable for, and illuminates the confidence he has in himself to get the country back on track. He aimed to declare war on the Great Depression and needed all the executive latitude possible in order to wage that war. By mentioning that we must not be afraid of fear Roosevelt inspired a nation that was fighting through a time of great economic and emotional hardship. In his speech Roosevelt hopes to give Americans courage to work at putting the country back on track and to earn their confidence as their newly elected leader. With the delivery of his Inaugural Address, Franklin Roosevelt attempted to pacify those wor...
The Great Depression was the worst period in the history of America’s economy. There is no way to overstate how tough this time was for the average worker and there was a feeling of desperation that hung over the entire country. Current political wisdom leading up to the Great Depression had been that the federal government does not get involved in business or the economy under any circumstances. Three Presidents in a row; Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover, all were cut from the same cloth of enacting pro-business policies to generate a powerful economy. Because the economy was doing so well during the “Roaring 20s”, there wasn’t much of a dispute
This quote from his inaugural speech, sums up the mood of the American people as Roosevelt was elected to be President of the United States in the deepest part of the depression. He faced numerous challenges as a result of the mismanagement of the previous successive Republicans governments such as a large proportion of the American population were out of work and the banking crisis. Roosevelt had promised the American people a ‘new deal’ at his acceptance of the democratic nomination for president in 1932, however, his campaign only offered vague hints of what it would entail. He put the question of economic security on the agenda. President Roosevelt explicitly and consciously defined the New Deal as the embodiment of freedom, but of freedom of economic security rather than freedom of contract, or freedom of every man for himself.
Roosevelt, Franklin D. "Second Inaugural Address." Washington D.C. 20 Jan. 1937. Web. 24 Apr. 2014. .
In response to the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt was ready for action unlike the previous President, Hubert Hoover. Hoover allowed the country to fall into a complete state of depression with his small concern of the major economic problems occurring. FDR began to show major and immediate improvements, with his outstanding actions during the First Hundred Days. He declared the bank holiday as well as setting up the New Deal policy. Hoover on the other hand; allowed the U.S. to slide right into the depression, giving Americans the power to blame him. Although he tried his best to improve the economy’s status during the depression and ‘pump the well’ for the economy, he eventually accepted that the Great Depression was inevitable.
The best way to understand the then situation is to evaluate documents that reveal individual households that were destitute. I. L. M. Ida Moore writes one such document under the title “Bill Branch's Works Progress Administration Life History.” This document reviles how people were feeling desperate and helpless. The main informant in this document is Bill Branch who lost his job because of the economic depression. Expressing his desperation and disappointment in the relief programs government put in place he said, “They Don’t seem to be anyone around here to take any interest to us,….We just live here some of us half starving and the folks outside don’t seem to care” (Moore,1983). This was story of most households at the time. People wondered around without jobs and solely dependent on insufficient assistance from the government.
The idea of the United States government assisting the poor financially, originated nearly 70 years ago (Modern Welfare Programs). The depression was in full flux and the American people were demanding help from the government. Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the first federal poverty assistance act called Aid to Dependent Children Act in 1935 (Background: Time for a new Approach). This laid the foundation of the current government entitlement program now called welfare. World War II brought thousands of jobs to America and slowed the growth of the entitlement program. A vast majority of people were employed either directly by the government or through other war related jobs. After the war the economy held strong for the next ten years (Modern Welfare Programs).
Herbert Hoover did not believe in government supporting its people; he was convinced that the government is not able to provide for the people effectively and that local and county governments are more effective. At a 1931 press conference, Hoover made the point that it is the “American” way to solve the crisis: “The basis of successful relief in national distress is to mobilize and organize the infinite number of agencies… That has been the American way of relieving distress among our own people and the country is successfully meeting its problem in the American way today” (Hanes and Hanes 9). Hoover builds off this point by claiming that it’s not the government's job to do so and that local charities do better and give Americans a sense of
The great depression was a very sad and hard time. This was a time where people had little money, no available jobs and just had a hard time with everything. Many people had nd any way to make money whether it was cutting kid’s hair in neighborhood, picking fruit, selling iron cords house to house or even painting a house for 5 dollars. Even though this was a very hard time some people still had hope that things would get better. This was a really bad time until Franklin Roosevelt who was for the government supporting the Americans and not the other way around became president.
crash, that left many Americans homeless and jobless. During this era many people struggle to very badly, many of them lost their homes, and had to look for other resources to survive which was not there at all. So it caused many people lost their homes, they struggling for food, and struggling to take care of their families. Before the Great Depression began, many people were already starving and being denied a place to live, being denied food, and clothing; this was Erickson high hierarchy of needs for survival. Then in 1935 the Social Security Act was passed, by President Roosevelt, who goal was to help the poor get back to work and find jobs. (Ambrosino, Ambrosino, Heffernan, & Shuttlesworth, 2016 p. 13). When President Ronald was in office