New Deal Essay Outline

The U.S. government tried to solve the problems of the Great Depression with acts and administrations, some with great success and others with little, barely effective success of helping to fix the problems of the Great Depression. The Emergency Banking Act helped to restore faith in banks, the Civilians Conservation Corps helped to give jobs to the unemployed, the Social Security Act helped to give benefits to retired people and more, and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration helped to raise crop prices and lower crop and livestock production.
I. The problems facing Roosevelt
A. No trust in banks
1. after the great wall street crash everyone tried to take their money out of the banks, but they ended up not being able to pay all their costumers because they invested their money in stocks and the stock market had crashed so they had lost all their money
2. and the people that owed the banks money couldn’t pay them back because they used credit which added more to the banks not being able to pay their costumers
B. A very high number of unemployment
1. less demand of things, overproduction of everything, increase in prices so employers either having to cut wages or fire people
C. Over-production of crops and livestock
1. there were so many products that weren’t getting sold because there was less demand in them and so there were trying to be sold at very low prices and most weren’t even selling, so there was more selling than buying and products weren’t being used
D. Homelessness
1. since businesses couldn’t afford to have as many workers as they did they fired some to stay in business and those unemployed workers couldn’t find jobs after and then became homeless (couldn’t afford a place to stay, they either were homeless where they had already been living or had moved away from home in search of work and couldn’t find anything.)
II. Emergency Banking Act
A. first official day in office he closed down all banks
1. had them investigated, those who were able to be re-opened were re-opened
B. Civilians Conservation Corps
1. made millions of jobs for the unemployed (2.5 million)
a. it restored forests, beaches, and parks
b. it payed them a dollar a day, free food and board,
c. women were also able to get jobs from CCC
C. Social Security Act
1. payed retired men (pensions)
2. women with children with no provider also got payed even though they didn’t have a job
3. workers would get benefits if they survived a serious injury on the job
4. unemploymenet insurance
5. the blind and physically disabled would get payed
D. Agricultural Adjustment Administration
1. tried getting rid of overproduction of crops and livestock by the government buying them and destroying them
a. because the demand in these foods lessened after WWI and then farmers were losing their farms and going into debt
III. Actions FDR took
A. for the banks
1. Congress passed the Emergency Banking Act
a. closed all banks and they were to be inspected
b. those who passed (were able to re-open) re-opened
c. FDR reassured the people that these re-opened banks were good, so faith in banks returned
d. He explained furthermore what was going on through the radio which became known as fireside chats
I. in one of these fireside chats he said that the reason the banks closed and some people weren’t able to get their money was because many people rushed to the banks to take their money out when they didn’t have the money at that time because they invested it, so people didn’t get their money (this is called bank runs)
B. For unemployment
1. The Civilians Conservation Corps
a. it created 2.5 million jobs for the unemployed
b. the jobs restored forests, beaches, and parks
c. it payed them a dollar a day plus free board and food
C. Also for the unemployed who weren’t able to get jobs to begin with or just couldn’t provide for their family
1. Social Security Act
a. retired workers (over 60) would receive pensions
b. women with children and without a husband would receive benefits
c. the blind and physically disabled would receive benefits
d. unemployment insurance
e. benefits to workers who survived a serious injury on the job
D. for farmers
1. Agricultural Adjustment Act
a. tried to keep farmers in business and not go into more debt or get foreclosed on
b. the government bought the “extra” crops and livestock but they were never used they were destroyed so that they could raise prices on crops and livestock in the market
c. by doing this they helped farmers (from the buying of their crops)
IV. Success and failures of these programs and acts
A. Emergency Banking Act
1. returned faith in banks
2. many people, after his fireside chat and the banks reopening went and put their money back in the banks
B. Civilian Conservation Corps
1. created 2.5 million jobs for Americans who were unemployed
2. their self-esteem increased
C. Social Security Act
1. government recognized citizens social rights
2. made many americans feel more secure
3. failed to recognize sickness, farm and domestic workers too
D. Agricultural Adjustment Act
1. provided some relief
2. wasted many pigs (livestock)
3. plowed over many fields
4. both the killing of livestock and plowing of fields cost over $200 million
5. this modernization did put some farmers out of work
6. later declared unconstitutional because farmers were benenfitting and being payed off of processors money
V. Reasons for Being Against It
A. Senator Huey Long of Louisianna
1.didn’t think it was doing enough
a. his “share the wealth” program included:
• more money would be taken from the wealthy and given to the poor or things such as helping the poor, building schools, and etc.
• it set a maximum national income of $3 million
• the average person could only earn $1 million a year
• proposed pensions for people over 60 and unemployed
B. Father Coughlin
1. didn't think government was moving fast enough to inflate the currency
C. Big Businesses and Republicans
1. didn't like the support for unions and higher wages, the market should deal with these issues themselves
2. it was too complicated, there were too many codes and regulations
3. they said that some administrations were unfair competition to private businesses (like the TVA)
4. compared these administrations to the schemes going on in USSR (communism)
5. the wealthy were wealthy because they worked hard for it, high taxes discouraged people from working hard and gave money to people for doing nothing or unnecessary jobs
6. accussed FDR of becoming a dictator
VI. I believe that FDR’s New Deal was moderately successful because it did solve some problems but then it failed to recognize all groups that needed help and the areas of those groups that needed help.
A. African Americans
1. failed to stop lynching and discrimination (either got no work, low wages, or worse treatment)
B. Women
1.most programs were never aimed to help women
2. local governments tried to avoid paying social security to women by putting in special requirements to receive pensions/benefits
3. were also discriminated against
C. Native Americans
1. they remained poor and secluded from society
D. Industrial Workers
1. the employers hated that it supported unions so they didn’t really listen to it
a. they hired thugs to beat up leaders of labor unions
2. workers took advantage of this by having huge boycotts where they would just sit around and do nothing (called sit-ins)