The Success of the New Deal

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The Success of the New Deal

In 1932 the citizens of the USA were eager to see Herbert Hoover out

of office. From the start of The Wall Street crash (1929), President

Hoover had done next to nothing to try and counter the Depression

following. He and the republicans argued that Economy went in cycles

of "bust" and "boom". He kept insisting, "Prosperity is just around

the corner." This gave the Democratic Party, led by Franklin Delano

Roosevelt, a great chance to attack the Republicans and their

policies.

"I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a New Deal for the American

people.."

-An extract from Roosevelt's pre-election speech in 1932.

Roosevelt promised. from his speeches, a new deal for the American

people. It was clear that F.D.R planned to use the power of the US

government to attempt to pull America out of depression and back into

prosperity. His main aims were as follows:

§ -Getting Americans working again (cutting down on unemployment!)

§ -Protecting American's savings and property

§ -Providing relief for the sick, old and unemployed

§ -Getting American industry and agriculture running again (and doing

well!)

The best way to assess the New Deal is to analyse how well it had

achieved what it had been set out to do.

F.D.R had set one of his goals, for the New Deal, as ending

unemployment and getting Americans back to work. In 1933,

approximately ¼ of the labour force were out of work. Hoover did

nothing (introduced no dole - unemployment benefit!!). By 1940,

unemployment had fallen 10%, but mostly due to war in Europe - still 6

million unemployed, but F.D.R had taken action already in the form of

t...

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...uld have if Herbert Hoover were president re-elect.

Roosevelt took action from day one of office - a very sincere attempt

to drag America back into prosperous times! It did not do as well as

it was hoped to do, but it certainly was not a failure. The most

important thing was that it stopped the problems and the situation

Hoover left behind, from getting worse. Some aspects were successes;

others were as well, but not as well as they had been intended to do.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt certainly did a good job of "holding

ground." When the war broke out, America had found its ticket back to

prosperity (even if it was not because of F.D.R himself), but if F.D.R

had not stopped the situation from becoming worse, America may not

have been in a position to join the war (with comfort and confidence),

let alone prosper from it!

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