The 1930’s were one of the most difficult times in American history. It was the time of the Great Depression. Millions of Americans suffered hardships as the economy was in a free fall. Many Americans were unemployed and lost almost everything they had owned. In 1932, America realized it was time for a change, and elected Franklin Delano Roosevelt in a landslide vote. Roosevelt promised to help end the depression and with his New Deal. The New Deal was Roosevelt’s plan to end the Great Depression. Through increased government spending, FDR enacted numerous public works programs in an effort to simulate the economy. The New Deal’s “alphabet soup” (this was the nickname for the numerous programs FDR enacted) was FDR’s plan to people out of the depression. The New Deal affected different industries and groups of Americans in unique ways and helped save the nation.
One of the groups hardest hit by the Great Depression were the farmers. Due to overproduction and under consumption after World War I and during the 1920’s, the prices of crops fell dramatically. Because of the low prices, Farmers’ incomes fell. The farmer was in a crisis as the Great Depression hit. The farmers were crucial to the American economy and FDR and the New Deal intended to help them.
In the first one hundred days of the New Deal, Roosevelt attempted to help the farmers by establishing the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA). The AAA was intended to help restore purchasing power of farmers. It restored the price takeoff that helped farmers make all that money during the war. Its’ main plan was to reduce the size of crops by paying farmers to plow their crops under. This, in theory, would shoot the price of the crops. There were a few problems with the AAA though. It seemed as cruel because the government was destroying crops that could be used to feed all the starving people. The AAA also didn’t do much to help tenant farmers and sharecroppers. This was because the money that the government was paying the owners of the farm to plow the fields under was never shared with the tenant farmers and sharecroppers. Even though the farmer owners were told to give some of the money to the people who worked their land they never did.
The New Deal also set up other agencies to help farmers. FDR set up the Farm Resettlement Administration, the Rural Electrification Administ...
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...al aid for the elderly, but it was not meant to be the main source of retirement. It also provided unemployment insurance, aid for persons who were blind or crippled, and aid to dependent children. Roosevelt would pay for this act with a tax on corporations and rich people. This act gave the people comfort because they now believed that the government would help them financially when they needed it. It also gave unions more initiative to strike because the government has security for them.
FDR’s New Deal gave American hope during a time when there was little optimism. It gave Americans jobs; it put food on the table, and started to restored confidence in the economy. FDR’s New Deal might not have ended the Great Depression, but it left a legacy. A legacy that you can see in the unions, in the numerous public works projects, in the big government we have today, in the acts like Social Security, and most importantly in the people whose lives it changed forever.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1) Encarta® Concise Encyclopedia Article. (http://encarta.msn.com)
2) Encyclopedia.com (http://www.encyclopedia.com)
3) Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal (http://www.geocities.com)
This made the government spend a lot of their money on programs to help recover all the lost jobs and to give businesses the confidence to spend money also. When the businesses saw that the government was actually willing to spend money it gave the business owners confidence to spend their money. Once the money started circulating around the economy would start slowly growing. The New Deal Programs were diverse relief schemes such as the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Public Works Administration (PWA), Civil Works Administration and the National Recovery Administration (NRA).
In New Deal Agricultural Policy: An Evaluation, Theodore Saloutos comes to the same conclusion as Kennedy, except he focused on agricultural aspects of the New Deal that helped revive the economy. On the other hand, Harold L. Cole and Lee E. Ohanian use statistics to argue that the New Deal policies were the reason why the economy was unable to recover following the Great Depression in their piece, New Deal Policies and the Persistence of the Great Depression: A General Equilibrium Analysis. After examining all three articles, Cole and Ohanian’s findings seem to overpower the opinions of Kennedy and Saloutos, resulting in the conclusion that the New Deal policies did more harm than good for America. David M. Kennedy outlines the effects of the New Deal on society in his piece What the New Deal Did. He begins by pointing out the negative outcomes of the New Deal, which included creating an ineffective tax system and an increase in the government’s deficit spending....
The Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 was established to raise the value of crops in America. Through tax implements on companies producing farm products, famers were paid subsidies to reduce agricultural production. Farmers were not allowed to plant on all of their available land and were to kill off extra livestock in order to reduce any surplus. Supply and demand for farm and agricultural commodities were now a policy of Congress. The New Deal plan controlled seven basic crops including; corn, wheat, cotton, rice, peanuts, tobacco and milk. Though seemingly completely justified, the Supreme Court ruled the AAA unconstitutional. The basic concept was later rewritten and passed into law. The Agricultural Adjustment Act had a major influence to farm families during the Great
Overall, FDR’s response to the crisis in America proved beneficial to many Americans, at least for the short term. As Document J demonstrates, it was WWII that truly solved the problem of depression and spurred America’s recovery. However, FDR’s New Deal impacted the future of America mentally. It instilled trust for FDR and his leadership which would be critical as America was heading into WWII, and FDR would have to serve three terms. As Document H states, “the government as an instrument of democratic action in the future has…been strengthened and renovated.”
During the first Hundred Days, Congress passed immediate relief measures for the American people that Hoover had failed to provide. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration, for example, provided millions of Americans with enough money to make ends meet. The Civil Works Administration put four million unemployed people to work. Roosevelt encouraged the creation of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration to assist farmers. The AAA temporarily reset prices for farm commodities and then began subsidising farmers to reduce production. Before the depression, many debt-ridden farmers had increased crop production in order to earn more money. Ironically, this led to overproduction, which flooded the market and drove prices down, forcing farmers to plant even more in a never ending cycle o...
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 America’s interests, specifically helping women, African Americans, and the unemployed and proved to them that something was being done to help them.
The farmers of the Great Depression did benefit from “New Deal”. The New Deal was mainly focused one them and the government tried many ways and started many organizations to help them from being taken advantage of like they had been in previous years.
Therefore, they made a very small profit. This insufficient profit wouldn't allow the farmers to purchase new machinery and because of this they couldn't produce goods quick enough (Drewry and O'connor 559). A new plan was created called the installment plan. This plan was established because many Americans didn't have enough money to buy goods and services that were needed or wanted.
Farmers were greatly affected by The Great Depression. In the early 1930’s prices dropped so low that many farmers went bankrupt and lost their farms (“The Great Depression hits farms and cities in the 1930’s”). The stock market crash prevented the farmers from being able to sell their produce (McCabe). Through the depression farmers were still producing more food than consumers were buy, and now the consumers could buy even less. Farm produce prices fell even lower (“The Depression for Farmers”). Some farm families started burning corn rather than coal in their stoves because the corn was cheaper (“The Great Depression hits farms and cities in the 1930s”). Non-farmers had also been hit hard by the depression. With the banks failing and businesses closing, over fifteen million people became unemployed (“The Great Depression”). The unemployment rate skyrocketed from three percent to nearly twenty five percent (McCabe). The Great Depression brought a rapid rise in the crime rate as many unemployed workers restored to petty theft to put food on the table. Suicide rates rose greatly as did recorded cases of malnutrition (“Social and Cultural Effects of the Depression”). More and more people were found standing in bread lines, hungry and homeless (McCabe). The depression affected people and businesses but many programs later America pulled out of their
Legacy of the New Deal For the opposition and supporters alike, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was revered as a man who helped keep the United States intact during the lamentable days of The Great Depression. After a decade of unprecedented economic ruin, most recognized that Roosevelt took necessary measures to ensure the survival of American society. However, where disagreement resided was in the question of whether the New Deal did too much or too little in regards to implementing lasting political, economic, and societal change. Emphasizing this divide, many of the leading politicians and thinkers of the Depression era vocalized their thoughts on Roosevelt’s New Deal policies. Roosevelt’s adversaries, for example, were starkly damned.
During World War I, England’s agricultural economy was badly damaged. This inconvenience for the English was a blessing to American farmers. Since the invention of the combine, and various other mechanical harvesting machines, American farmers could increase their crop yield. In turn they could export the extra crops to England for more money. Once England got back on it’s feet, American farmers could not find any exports for their crops. As they continued to produce more than the American people could consume, the prices of agricultural goods dramatically dropped. By the 1930’s many farmers were in serious need of help, with heavy farm loans and mortgages hanging over their head’s. Nothing had been done to help the farmer’s during The Hoover Administration. So in 1933 as part of Roosevelt’s New Deal, the Secretary of Agriculture, Henry Wallace devised a plan to limit production and increase prices. Which came to be known as the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933, also known as the AAA. The AAA was established on May 12, 1933 it was the New Deal idea to assist farmers during the Great Depression. It was the first widespread effort to raise and stabilize farm prices and income. The law created and authorized the Agricultural Adjustment Administration to: Enter into voluntary agreements to pay farmers to reduce production of basic commodities ( cotton, wheat, corn, rice, tobacco, hogs, milk, etc..), to make advanced payments to farmers who stored crops on the farm, create marketing agreements between farmers and middlemen, and to levy processing taxes to pay for production adjustments and market development. Basically the AAA paid farmers to destroy their crops and livestock in return for cash. In 1933 alone cotton farmers were paid $100 million to plow over their cotton crop. Six million piglets were slaughtered by the government after they bought them from farmers. The meat was canned and given to people without jobs. In order for this new bill to work there needed to be money to pay the farmers, this money came from the companies that bought farm products in the form of taxes. While it seemed like a good idea to pay farmers to cut back on crops to lowering the surplus and boost the economy, The Supreme Court found the Act unconstitutional in 1936.
Aid was given to farmers and poor citizens through acts and agencies such as the Rural Electric Act, Red Cross, Salvation Army, and Taylor Grazing Act (“New” 9; Young 159). This government support helped alleviate the poverty resulting from the Great Depression. Over time, these programs assisted in forming a middle class, lowering the poverty rate and allowing a better quality of living for American citizens. In addition to providing assistance to the lower class, the New Deal formed government entitlement programs. Service organizations, such as Social Security and Financial Aid, were created (Brinkley 597).
The FDR administration responded well to the challenge of the Great Depression. The Depression was on a scale that had never been seen before, and required an unorthodox response. The administration responded with the New Deal, which had some very successful programs, such as the works programs, and other programs which failed miserably, such as the AAA. The New Deal also made the federal government much more involved with the lives of individual Americans, rather than people as a whole, which it had been. This is mostly the result of the works programs and social security where the government pays attention to the economic needs of specific workers and elderly people. As a result, the precedent of the welfare state was set and has remained to modern day.
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.
Through the AAA, Roosevelt proposed to pay farmers for cutting back on production or producing nothing at all. It was supposed to help increase farm prices by decreasing the supply. Now, the government has to deal with the existing surplus. The Roosevelt administration decided to destroy much of what had already been produced, as to create a shortage so farm prices would increase. About six million pigs were slaughtered and ten million acres of cotton were destroyed.