America: Opportunity and Inequality - The Effect of the New Deal in Society

Question 1

what were the three changes that FDR made in his first 100 days?

Answer 1

• introduced Emergency Banking Act which closed all banks for a four-day “bank holiday”. Every bank was inspected and only honest, well-run banks with enough cash were allowed to reopen. The government lent some money to the banks to help them - when the banks reopened people put money back into their accounts (totalling $1 billion). Well-run banks could now lend money to well-run businesses which would create jobs as businesses expanded
• the government needed money to help the unemployed, so FDR introduced the Economy Act, which cut the pay of everyone working for the government and the armed forces by 15%. This saved nearly $ 1 billion
• the Beer Act made it legal to make and sell alcohol again - legalising alcohol put the gangsters out of business

Question 2

what was the new deal?

Answer 2

• in a famous speech FDR promised a “new deal” to help America

Question 3

what was Roosevelt’s “brain trust” and how was it intended to deal with the problems of the Great Depression?

Answer 3

• FDR surrounded himself with clever men and women calling them his “Brain Trust” - sometimes their ideas would work, sometimes they didn’t

Question 4

how was Roosevelt able to pass legislation so quickly?

Answer 4

• he asked Congress, the American Parliament, to give him extra powers to introduce laws quickly.
• Amazingly, Congress went along with the idea and for 100 days (8 March - 6 June 1933), it gave him the same powers as if the country were being invaded

Question 5

why was Congress so willing to give Roosevelt extensive powers?

Answer 5

• they were so desperate to improve the economy

Question 6

what does priming the pump mean?

Answer 6

• the government creates jobs by spending money
• once the workers earn wages, they start buying goods
• firms and businesses then start hiring new workers
• these new workers spend money

Question 7

what were the Alphabet agencies for?

Answer 7

helping people recover from the Great Depression

Question 8

how did the New Deal help farmers?

Answer 8

• the Farm Credit Administration lent $100 million to farmers who could not keep up with loan repayments. Having borrowed loans to purchase farming equipment in the 1920s, farmers had struggled with overproduction and falling prices.
• the (AAA) Agricultural Adjustment Agency paid farmers to produce less + destroy some of the food they had already produced
• as a result, food prices rose because the supply decreased
• between 1933 and 1939, farmers’ incomes doubled
• However, it faced heavy criticism - food was being destroyed at a time when millions in the city were going hungry

Question 9

how did the New Deal help industry and workers?

Answer 9

• NRA (National Recovery Administration) encouraged workers and employers to work out a code of fair conditions, wages and prices for their workplaces. It stated that workers should have the right to trade unions. However, as a voluntary scheme, many refused to join and codes of practice weren’t always observed leading to strikes
• HOLC (homeowners loan corporation) gave loans to people who were struggling to pay their mortgages. It helped 300,000 homeowners in the first year
• TVA ( Tennesse Valley Authority) provided work building dams and electric power stations along the Tennesse River, one of the poorest areas in America

Question 10

how did the New Deal help the unemployed?

Answer 10

• the CCC (civilian conservation corps) employed 18-25-year-olds to plant trees, dig canals, clear footpaths and strengthen riverbanks against flooding. It started a programme to control mosquitoes = ended malaria in America. the CCC created jobs for 25 million
• CWA (civil works Administration) provided temporary work for 4 million men, building schools, airports, roads + 150,000 public toilets. The work schemes meant that these people earned money once more - so were able to buy things and provide much-needed income for shops and business
• FERA (Federal Emergency Relief Agency) gave $500 million to states to help homeless, starving people. Money was spent on soup kitchens, blankets, clothes and nursery schools

Question 11

what happened in November 1936?

Answer 11

• FDR faced his second election
• he won easily, receiving more votes than any other president in American history
• in a speech after his victory, FDR joked, “it seems everyone is against the New Deal…except the voters!”

Question 12

why did the rich oppose the new deal?

Answer 12

• to help pay for the New Deal, FDR made rich people pay more tax, which most of them didn’t like
• they thought the way some Alphabet Agencies paid people to plant trees paint buildings and stock rivers with fish was a waste of money

Question 13

why did business people oppose the new deal?

Answer 13

• many wealthy business owners didn’t like the way the New Deal “interfered” with business and gave more rights to workers
• the NRA codes, for example, allowed workers to join trade unions and forced employers to pay minimum wages, improve conditions and set limits on hours of work

Question 14

why did the Supreme Court oppose the New Deal?

Answer 14

• The Constitution states that the president is only responsible for national affairs affecting all states
• local state governments are responsible for other affairs
• in 1935 the Supreme Court ruled that AAA Alphabet Agency was illegal
• As a result, all the help that the AAA gave to farmers stopped - the Supreme Court also declared many of the NRA codes illegal

Question 15

why did Republicans oppose the New Deal?

Answer 15

• many Republicans were horrified by the way the New Deal was dominating people’s lives
• some said that Roosevelt was behaving like a dictator and making the government too powerful
• others claimed that all this government help would make Americans “unable to stand on their own two feet”
• some even worried that America would soon be controlled by the government and this was the type of system that communist Russia had

Question 16

what were radical politicians’ ideas for an alternative New Deal?

Answer 16

• Huey Long. a politician from Louisiana, suggested an alternative for the New Deal called “Share Our wealth” - he said if he were president, all fortunes over $5 million would be confiscated and shared out. He also promised every family $5000 to buy a radio a car and a house as well as cheap food for the poor, houses for war veterans and free education - radical but popular
• Francis Townsend, a retired doctor from California wanted everyone to retire at 60 to give more job opportunities to younger people
• Charles Coughlin set up the National Union for Social Justice. Its aim was to provide work and fair wages for everyone. However, he made speeches attacking Jews and trade unions and his support declined

Question 17

how successful was the New Deal in helping Poverty?

Answer 17

• despite Alphabet Agencies, millions of people remained poor
• By 1935, FDR still thought work needed to be done and introduced a series of new laws - one of which was the social security act
• America’s first system of social welfare and set up a national system of pensions for the elderly, widows and disabled people and payments for the sick and unemployed

Question 18

how successful was the New Deal in helping workers?

Answer 18

• the Alphabet Agencies provided work for many skilled and unskilled workers, giving millions at least a basic wage
• FDR introduced the Wagner Act, giving workers the right to join a trade union + stopping employers from punishing those who did so
• many strikes ended with striking workers being attacked by thugs employed by the companies

Question 19

how successful was the new deal in helping women?

Answer 19

• no direct help from New Deal programmes but many found jobs
• some of the NRA codes set wages for women lower than men; the yearly wage for a woman in 1937 was $525 compared to just over $1000 for a man
• only around 10,000 women were employed by the CCC out of the 2.5 million involved in the scheme

Question 20

how successful was the New Deal in helping farmers?

Answer 20

• most of the help went to large-scale farmers and small farmers and farm workers did not see much benefit
• there was still severe poverty in much of Rural America and poor farmland in parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Colorado meant that many farmers had to look for work elsewhere

Question 21

how successful was the the New Deal in helping African Americans?

Answer 21

• CCC campsites were segregated and African-Americans were not allowed to live in the newly built town of Norris in the Tennessee Valley
• Indeed, Roosevelt refused to take steps to end discrimination because he feared he might lose support in the south
• however, 200,000 African-Americans did gain jobs in the CCC, and one African-American woman, Mary McLeod Bethune, was appointed to an important post in the government

Question 22

how successful was the New Deal in helping Native Americans?

Answer 22

• FDR was one of the first presidents to help Native Americans increase the amount of land they owned. Government loans were provided for them to buy more land, set up businesses and buy farming equipment
  -The Indian Reservation Act of 1934 gave Native Americans the right to manage their own affairs, such as setting up their own law courts
• However, many Native Americans still lived in great poverty and suffered discrimination - a situation which persists to this day

Question 23

what did FDR do in 1936 and why?

Answer 23

• he cut down the amount spent on New Deal programmes as he was worried about cash
• unemployment jumped to 3 million because the government was no longer providing so many jobs

Question 24

who was going on strike in the late 1930s and why?

Answer 24

• Workers in cars and steel industries went on strike as part of the campaign for better wages and conditions

Question 25

what happened to the New Deal by January 1939 and why?

Answer 25

• unemployment rose to 10.5 million and coal and steel production kept falling
• even FDR himself acknowledged that the New Deal had come to an end by January 1939

Question 26

why was radio important in the 1930s?

Answer 26

• jazz - Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington
• radio increased the popularity of Glenn Miller and Judy Garland because it was a way people listened to music and broadcast shows
• gramophone sales increased in the 1930s as gramophone vinyl records became a common method of listening to recorded music

Question 27

what role did cinema play in society in the 1930s?

Answer 27

• a trip to the cinema remains a popular activity and 85 million people went a week to escape the depression
• a ticket cost around $0.25
• popular movies - musicals such as 42nd Street, Comedies such as Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy, Walt Disney Cartoons such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Question 28

what role did comic books play in the 1930s?

Answer 28

• popular
• popularity soared after 1938, with the publication of Action comics, including the debut of Superman
• comics were popular as they were bright, cheap and easy to read

Question 29

what role did writers have in the 1930s?

Answer 29

• Erskine Caldwell, John Steinbeck and James T Farrell wrote about poverty, racism and social problems
• arguably the most profitable fictional author of the Great Depression, Steinbecks “grapes of wrath” tells the story of a poor farming family from Oklahoma who travel to California in search of a new life
• farrell’s “Studs Lonigan” trilogy - is about an Irish American teenager who turns into an angry alcoholic