Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal

With the inactivity, and poor decision made by the previous president, Herbert Hoover. Franklin Roosevelt easily defeated Hoover in the reelection. With Roosevelt now in charge, all hope of Americans lay in his hands. In the end he did ease the hardships of The Great Depression, and became a hero.

"New Deal"

This term came from his speech, "I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people." Roosevelt's "New Deal" was a series of solutions to the economic crisis. The first thing he did was declared the "Emergency Banking Act" March 9. With all the banks either bankrupted or closed down, banks are no longer stable. Banks were ordered to be closed down, and to be reopened only when it is stable.

Economy Act (March 20), cutting the federal costs, and cuts in salaries and veteran pensions.

Beer - Wine Revenue Act (March 22). President Franklin Roosevelt legalized wine and beer. Though with the legalization, wine and beer were also taxed.

Civilian Conservation Corps Act (CCC) (March 31). This is one of the greatest solutions created to solve the crisis. With the number of the unemployed sky high, this act is designed to lower the number of unemployed. For the first time in "The Great Depression," something was done in attempt to lower the number of unemployed. Furthermore, this proved to be very successful. Approximately 3 million people ages 18-25 were finally given work. Work in road building, forestry labor, flood control, etc.

Federal Emergency Relief Act (May 12). Distributing 500 million dollars to states and localities.

Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) (May 12). Another, very big change is this act. With the effects of "The Dust Bowl," now increasing, something has to be done to stop it. Farms all over the country effected by the storms, or the soil erosion, are either closed down, and stunned. Because of the overproduction of food in farms, the soil has totally worn out. This act was established to decrease crop surpluses by giving money to farmers who voluntarily decrease production. Although this act was frown upon, it did help in the long run. As for the food prices already high enough, since the farms were idle. Making this act, trying to cut down food surplus production angered the people.


Tennessee Valley Authority Act (TVA) (May 18). In this act, the government build dams and power plants. This was carefully planed to work with agriculture and industrial planning, to generate wealth, energy, and area development.

There are more of the acts, in response to The Great Depression. Though with the great changes, it would take alot of money. The big question is where did all that money came from? To fund all the new legislation, the government's spending rose. from 697 million dollars in 1916, to 9 billion in 1936. Modifications to taxes were made to tax the wealthy the most, raised tax, and borrowing money. The national debt spiked up.


1. How did the government emerge and what conditions led to its implementations?
The government emerged from the election of 1932, with the victory of Franklin Roosevelt, because of the inactivity of the previous president, with Franklin now president, all hopes were on him to fix the economic crisis. The new government focused all its resources and power, all to solve the hardships of The Great Depression. The triple Rs was the goal of this government at that time. Relief, Recovery, and Reform.

2. What social, political, and economic events shaped the activities of the government?
The stock market crashing, and the banks bankrupted, can only mean one thing, economy is crushed to dust. With the economy down, most of the new laws, and acts were designed to revive the economy. For example closing down all banks, stabilizing it before reopen. the TVA, the tax on beer and wine, the AAA, etc. The primary social problem that shaped the activities of the government was the number of unemployed, and the amount of poverty that exists at that time. The CCC proved to be immensely effective. Because of the huge number of unemployed, the CCC allowed the unemployed to finally have work to do, and most importantly, money.

3. Judge the effectiveness of this particular government in regard to its actions and agendas. The effectiveness was great, as the new acts greatly reduced the effects of the depression. The acts, CCC, AAA, TVA proved to be very effective. Although the government's actions did not totally heal the economy from the depression, but it eased alot of its effects.

4. What particular individuals played key roles? Franklin Roosevelt was like the hero. As his actions, implementations, and his decisions proved to be effective in healing the economy. As for proving Americans, that there was still hope in reviving the economy. As for saving America from The Great Depression, he became a hero. While the previous president, Herbert Hoover, was blamed for making everything worse. Some even blamed him for the stock market crashing. As for his inactivity, and his poor decisions made.

This political cartoon is displaying the government in the middle, surrounded by the legislative.








Sources used:
http://history1900s.about.com/od/1930s/p/greatdepression.htm
http://www.sparknotes.com/history/american/depression/section5.rhtml
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1851.html
http://www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/connections_n2/great_depression.html

The Great Depression

The Great Depression

Conditions of the "Great Depression," started out small, but as time goes by it got horrifyingly terrible, until Roosevelt was elected and solved the economic crisis. It all started when the stock market crashed. Stock markets seemed like a guaranteed way to become rich. The majority of Americans, invest in stocks. But in October 29, 1929, everything went south. In October 29, the event called Black Tuesday, was the day when the stock market crashed. Since so many people had invested in their stocks, and the stock crashed, there was a great loss of money. Masses of people stormed stock markets, in their desperate attempt to sell their stocks. The only problem about that is, they can't sell their stocks if no one is going to buy them. With the stock market crashed, the Great Depression had officially begun. With the stock market crashed, it had created an ugly chain of events. Since banks had also invested in large proportions of their client's money in stock market. Banks that did this, are forced to close, causing panic all over the country. Fear ran through the country. People were afraid they are going to lose their savings in the bank, people rushed into banks to withdraw their money. With the massive withdraw, banks eventually go bankrupted. Because of the massive withdraw of money, banks are now in debt. With the bank unable to recover it's client's money, additional banks went bankrupted, alongside the people who did not withdraw their money in time. The chain of events does not stop here, businesses and industry are also greatly affected by it. Having much of their money from the stock market, or the bank, they started to cut worker's wages. Customers refrain from purchasing goods, as the majority of the customers are now poor, leaving the industries, or businesses no choice. They either have to reduce the wages of the workers even further, hugely reduce the price of the goods, or close down. With the reduction of the wages, the bankruptcy, or the closing down of businesses and industries. Workers all over the country are left unemployed. In addition to the stock market crashing, there are other factors that contributed in the Great Depression. For example The Dust Bowl. Farmers are usually safe from depressions, or economic crisis, as for being able to feed themselves. With the constant overproduction in farms, soil in farms had lost it's fertility. Years of overproduction had turn soil into dust, the soil is totally worn out, unusable. Dust storms start to happen, destroying other farms. With many farms unable to produce, or destroyed by the dust storms, food prices spike high, and more workers are added in the unemployed list.


During the Great Depression, President Herbert Hoover was in charge. President Hoover spoke often of optimism. People blamed with for everything that is happening. Shantytowns are called Hoovervilles, as a reference to his name. Hoover Blankets, Hoover wagons, etc. With the inactivity, and the poor decisions made by Hoover, he was easily defeated by Franklin Roosevelt in the following election. America has high hopes and expectations, that President Roosevelt is going to solve all this chaos.

With Franklin Roosevelt now president, many changes were implemented. President Franklin Roosevelt closed all the banks, and only allowed them to reopen once they are stabilized. And the program know as "The New Deal," was established.

Sources used:

http://history1900s.about.com/od/1930s/p/greatdepression.htm

http://www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/connections_n2/great_depression.html

http://www.sparknotes.com/history/american/depression/section5.rhtml

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/snprelief1.htm

The Great Depression on Dipity.