DEPTH: 4 How successful was the New Deal?

Question 1

What were the three main aims of the New Deal?

Answer 1

• Relief for assistance for the unemployed and poor
• Recovery and rebuilding of the American economy
• Reform and create more fair and just society

Question 2

What was the first 100 days?

Answer 2

The first phase of the new deal and the creation of alphabet agencies between march and June 1933

Question 3

What were the alphabet agencies?

Answer 3

Government agencies created by Roosevelt and his advisers to solve particular problems name for convenience by their initials

Question 4

What were the fireside chats?

Answer 4

Series of 30 national evening radio broadcasts made by FDR to reassure Americans and explain the the policies of the New Deal

Question 5

What did Roosevelt do to restore confidence in the banking system?

Answer 5

FDR ordered a 4-day national bank holiday while the Emergency Banking Act was passed through congress in March 1933. Unsound banks were closed down; good banks were backed by the federal reserve to insure 100% of deposits. When the banks opened people returned their savings and confidence was restored.

Question 6

What did Roosevelt do to help the unemployed?

Answer 6

”- Set up the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to provide employment for young men age 18 to 25.

• Set up the Public Works Administration (PWA) which provided jobs in major construction projects such as dams, bridges, railways, schools common hospitals and houses.
• Set up the Civil Works Administration (CWA) which aimed to provide temporary work over the winter of 1933- 4.”

Question 7

What was the CCC?

Answer 7

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) provided employment for young men age 18 to 25. Living in government camps that carried out conservation work, planted forests, strengthened river banks and clear scrub land. Low wages but work for over 2 million men over 9 years.

Question 8

What was the PWA?

Answer 8

Public Works Administration (PWA) established by the National Industrial Recovery Act (1933) provided jobs in major construction projects such as dams, bridges, railways, schools common hospitals and houses. $7 billion was spent between 1933 and 1939 creating millions of jobs for skilled workers.

Question 9

What was the CWA?

Answer 9

Civil Works Administration (CWA) which aimed to provide temporary work over the winter of 1933- 4. 4 million jobs were created building roads common airports and schools.

Question 10

What was the AAA?

Answer 10

Agricultural Adjustment Agency (AAA) which paid farmers to take millions of acres of their land out of cultivation, reduced their livestock and modernise farming methods. Prices rose in between 1933 and 1939 farmers’ incomes doubled but many farm labourers lost their jobs.

Question 11

What was the NRA?

Answer 11

The National Recovery Administration (NRA) established by the National Industrial Recovery Act (1933) helped to stabilise production and prices, and improve working conditions and fair pay. Voluntary codes for drawn up for each industry and 2 million businesses were able to display the NRA badge (a blue eagle with the motto ‘we do our part’) to encourage the public to buy their products and services. The scheme favoured large companies you sometimes forced small firms out of business and it was declared unconstitutional by the supreme court in 1935.

Question 12

What was the FERA?

Answer 12

The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) had $500 million to assist the poor through soup kitchens, clothing, bedding, work schemes and nursery schools.

Question 13

What was the TVA?

Answer 13

The Tennessee valley authority (TVA) was a vast geographical area across 7 states which had been badly affected by floods and soil erosion creating a dust bowl and poverty. Newly planted forests, flood prevention schemes and dams brought irrigation, flood control, electricity, industry and jobs to the region.

Question 14

What was the HOLC?

Answer 14

The Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) took over 1 million mortgages of middle-income Americans who were struggling so the banks did not repossess their homes.

Question 15

What was the Second New Deal?

Answer 15

By 1935 Roosevelt was facing criticism on the pace of recovery. He took radical steps between 1935 and 1937 to help victims of the depression and creative a fairer and more just America.

• The Wagner Act
• The Social Security Act
• The Works Progress Administration (WPA)
• The Resettlement Administration (RA)

Question 16

What was the Wagner Act (1935)?

Answer 16

The Wagner Act (1935) replaced the National Industrial Recovery Act (1933) declared unconstitutional but the Supreme Court. It supported the rights of workers to form trade unions and bargain with their employers for better pay and conditions. It also made it illegal to sack workers of being in a union.

Question 17

What was the Social Security Act (1935)?

Answer 17

The Social Security Act (1935) the Federal government provided old age pensions, unemployment benefit and help for the sick and disabled. The insurance scheme was paid for by taxes on workers and employers.

Question 18

What was the WPA?

Answer 18

The Works Progress Administration (WPA), 1935 provided jobs building schools, hospitals, highways and windbreak of trees to prevent soil erosion. There were also schemes for artists, actors and writers along with part-time work and training for young people

Question 19

What was the RA?

Answer 19

The Resettlement Administration (RA), 1935 helped farm labourers, sharecroppers, smallholders and who had not been helped by the AAA. 500,000 families were moved to better land and housing. It was replaced by the Farm security Administration (FSA) in 1937.

Question 20

What was the FSA?

Answer 20

The Farm security Administration (FSA) replace the Resettlement Administration (RA) in 1937 by providing loans to small farmers and camps for migrant workers.

Question 21

What laws were passed to help Native Americans in 1934?

Answer 21

“Indian Reorganization Act (1934) provided money to help native Americans buy and improve land.

Indian Reservation Act (1934) help native Americans to preserve and practice their traditions, laws and culture”

Question 22

Why did the New Deal encounter radical opposition from the left?

Answer 22

The radical opposition didn’t think Roosevelt had gone far enough in applying communist or socialist solutions to nationalise industries or redistribute wealth. [e.g. Senator Huey Long, the Radio Priest, Townsend Clubs]

Question 23

Why did the New Deal encounter opposition from conservatives?

Answer 23

Conservative Americans felt that Roosevelt was too radical and the state had become too involved in people’s lives undermining core American values. [e.g. Republicans, The Liberty League, States’ Rights campaigners]

Question 24

Who was the “Radio Priest”?

Answer 24

Father Coughlin from Detroit believed the New Deal had not done enough to tackle the problems of the poor and broadcast his ideas on radio every Sunday evening to a national audience of 40 million. He also founded the National Union for Social Justice with a membership of 7 million.

Question 25

What were Townsend Clubs?

Answer 25

Campaign groups for the Townsend plan by Dr Francis Townsend from Illinois to go further than the New Deal. Everyone over 60 would get a pension of $200 a month provided they retired to spend the money within the month. Funded by taxation the aim was to help older people, create jobs for younger people and inject money into the economy.

Question 26

Who was Huey Long?

Answer 26

A senator and former governor of Louisiana who wanted FDR to go further by redistributing wealth to stimulate the economy. His “Share our Wealth” scheme would limit personal wealth to $3 million and share government taxes between all Americans to provide pensions, minimum wages and free education. With many radical supporters and enemies he was assassinated in 1935.

Question 27

Why did Republicans oppose the new deal?

Answer 27

• Republicans still believed in laissez-faire policies; minimal government intervention, low taxation, low government expenditure, self help and ‘rugged individualism’.
• They compared FDR’s new deal initiatives such as the TVA and the NIRA with Stalin’s economic planning of Soviet Russia.
• They claimed FDR had become too powerful and was acting like a dictator.

Question 28

What was the Liberty League?

Answer 28

An organisation of business leaders formed in 1934 to oppose the new deal. They accused FDR of moving towards socialism and destroying three enterprise. They campaigned against trade unions the unemployment insurance scheme and the codes of the NIRA.

Question 29

Why did States’ rights campaigners oppose the New Deal?

Answer 29

They argued that the New Deal laws and regulations went against the rights of state governments to manage their own affairs under the 10th Amendment of the constitution.

Question 30

Which New Deal initiatives did the Supreme Court rule as unconstitutional and overturn?

Answer 30

The NRA and the AAA

Question 31

What did Roosevelt attempt to do to the Supreme Court after his landslide election victory in 1936?

Answer 31

He threatened to appoint an additional 6 judges to support his policies and outvote the existing 9 mostly old, conservative Republican judges. After was public outcry that he was trying to ‘pack the court’ and overthrow the constitution he backed down. The court began to accept the latter measures of the New Deal and upheld the the Social Security Act in 1937.

Question 32

How many people were unemployed by the end of 1941 when America entered WWII?

Answer 32

5.6 million

Question 33

Why did unemployment persist despite the New Deal?

Answer 33

• Low incomes and prices especially in rural areas recovered the very slowly reducing consumption.
• The global depression, high levels of foreign unemployment and tariffs reduced the growth international trade.
• Improve production methods required less labour
• The global business cycle improved between 1933 and 1937 but briefly fell back into recession and unemployment rose to 10.4 million in 1938.
• Cutting overproduction to save the farming sector increased unemployment
• Roosevelt could not take over total control of the economy, only provide solutions to different problems of the depression.

Question 34

Why was the New Deal a failure?

Answer 34

• Unemployment never fell below 5 million between 1933 and 1939.
• Businesses disliked pro Union Wagner Act and used violence to break strikes (10 dead steel workers in Chicago 1937)
• Small farmers, labourers and sharecroppers suffered under the AAA.
• Roosevelt needed the support of democrats in the south which prevented him introducing civil rights laws to end racial discrimination.
• Industry taxation, Trade Unions, rules and regulations may have slowed recovery.
• WWII increase defence spending and supply of armaments to the allies through the Lens Lease programme stimulated the American economic revival of 1940-41.

Question 35

Why was the New Deal a success?

Answer 35

• Unemployment fell from 13 million to 5 million between 1933 and 1939.
• Trade union membership increased to over 7 million, many strikes were resolved, working conditions and pay improved.
• Large scale farmers benefited from the AAA
• Welfare and emergency benefits protected millions of Americans from the worst of the depression.
• The Emergency Banking Act saved many businesses and and infrastructure development stimulated industrial recovery.
• Roosevelt policies gave many Americans hope, confidence and purpose. The new deal helped America survive the depression without communism or fascism.