#1: Was the New Deal a Success?
Whether the New Deal was a success or not, depends on the definition of success. Did the New Deal
eliminate unemployment and turn America around? No. Did the New Deal eliminate poverty? No. It would
be easy to run off questions such as these with an economic bent and come up with the answer no. However,
an analysis of whether the New Deal was a success or failure requires a larger scope of questioning than
simply looking at economic statistics. Rather than look at the New Deal from 1933 on, an analysis of what
America was like in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash is important. What exactly had Roosevelt inherited
in March 1933?
From the collapse of Wall Street in October 1929 to the presidential election in November 1932, to many
Americans it appeared as if Hoover, the Republican president, was either doing nothing or too little. "Too
little, too late" was a frequent label pinned to the presidency of Hoover. That a president, Roosevelt, was
actually doing something positive was a huge boost to the American public - they were not being left to fend
for themselves. Some who had been badly affected by the Depression had labeled their cardboard box homes
"Hoovervilles" in disgust of what Hoover was doing for them. The free food handouts they got were nicknamed "Hoover Stew". Those at the bottom end of society had no faith in Hoover and the new president gave
1928 to 1939:
bought 1928 to 1939:
1928
$100 billion
1933
$55 billion
1939
$85 billion
1928
$15 billion
1933
$2 billion
1939
$10 billion
Increase or decrease over
the period?
What does this mean for
business?
Private investment in industry:
1928
$80 billion
1933
$45 billion
1939
$65 billion
1929
2.6 million
1933
15 million
1935
11 million
1937
8.3 million
1938
10.5 million
1939
9.2 million
1940
8 million
# People Unemployed
Are employment numbers more or less
significant than the other statistics?
Why or why not?
#2: Amount of consumer goods
Increase or decrease over
the period?
#1: America's Gross National Product
Increase or decrease over
the period? By how much?
them exactly this - faith and hope. Here was a president doing something for them.
#2: The Ultimate Success of Roosevelt's New Deal
During his presidency, Franklin D. Roosevelt developed and carried out a plan of getting the United
States of America out of the Great Depression of the 1930s, and it included many different tactics to reach those
goals. The goals of the New Deal were known as the three R's, or relief, reform, and recovery, relating directly
to the Depression and rough times the American people were going through. Many new programs and
devices, some of which are mentioned below, were put into place during Roosevelt's Hundred Days, and the
success of the three R's was immense.
During his Hundred Days, the first one hundred days of Roosevelt's presidency, he created new
legislature and programs that would help his New Deal system be of greater effect and success in later years.
The New Deal program included a goal of relief, and this relief was aimed mostly toward the unemployed.
During Hoover's presidency, unemployment rates reached their peak of 24.9% (Huppi.com), and though they
were lower when Roosevelt took office, unemployment was still a major problem in America during this
period.
Relief took multiple forms under Roosevelt and his New Deal, and there were many problems that
Hoover left for him to fix, including the banks. Roosevelt decided to put into place the Emergency Banking
Act, which put all the banks on a national holiday in order to give Congress time to figure out how to fix the
banking problem. Congress had time to reorganize the banks as well as release more money on the market,
and ended up putting a deposit insurance on all the banks, making them seem much safer to the public. After
this bank holiday, many banks reopened and massive collapse of America's banks was avoided.
Government spending was another problem during Roosevelt's presidency, as well as before, and we
were simply spending too much money that we should not have been spending on nonessentials. To fix this
problem, Roosevelt the Economy Act, which got rid of $500 million from the federal budget and enforced the
Beer Wine Revenue Act, which legalized the sale of weak beers and wines, heavily taxed them, and therefore
made money for the government.
To solve the unemployment crisis, Roosevelt started the Civilian Conservation Corps, which gave
much of the nation's unemployed population job opportunities. Roosevelt also created FERA, the Federal
Emergency Relief Agency, which increased unemployment assistance to the states and put the government in
control of welfare. Overall, through all the measures Roosevelt put into place to reach the New Deal goal of
relief, he improved the country greatly, and therefore the goal was a huge success, even if it did not completely
eliminate unemployment from the US, because that would be and will always be impossible.
Reform was endeavored by the New Deal by creating change for business and the way America dealt
with finances. The goal was simple, to create change, and the Depression showed that this was obviously very
badly needed. There was also a lot of poverty in the South, in direct correlation with the fact that there was a
lot of unemployment in the South, and to contest this problem, Roosevelt installed the Tennessee Valley
Authority. The TVA helped spread electricity throughout farms in the South, as well as gave jobs to some
unemployed men looking for jobs, and helped regulate prices for the newly-founded hydroelectric industry.
Roosevelt's attempts at reform for the nation's business and finances, while somewhat lesser than how he
attempted to meet the other goals of the New Deal, were extremely successful, because they changed the way
banks ran themselves as well as helped change the neglect of the South.
The goal of recovery, as attempted by Roosevelt's New Deal, involved helping different aspects of the
economy recover from the terrible circumstances they dealt with during the Depression. There were many
problems among business and agriculture that needed to be dealt with in order to better the economy, and in
order to do this, reform needed to be created. One of these problems was the overproduction of crops driving
down prices, in turn ruining farmers, and in order to combat this Roosevelt put the Agriculture Adjustment
Act in place, which paid farmers not to plant so many crops. This greatly helped farmers and agriculture in
general, and Roosevelt also ended up lifting the gold standard, which helped many more people in the US
than the gold standard ever had. Doing this greatly helped recover the farmers and common people and small
business owners from the way they were suffering during the time without recovery plans.
Businesses were dealing with many problems before and during Roosevelt's presidency, including the
fact that everything was very unorganized. In order to fix this problem and try to reduce the amount and
intensity of workers' strikes against companies, Roosevelt created the National Recovery Act.. While the NRA
was also unorganized because smaller parts of the industries were able to create codes, it was successful
because it helped businesses recover from the madness of industry in earlier years, no matter how weak the
effort was. The NRA also led to the Wagner Act, which protected labor unions, as was a part of the NRA.
While the country was not completely out of the woods after Roosevelt's New Deal, the three goals of relief,
reform, and recovery were all immensely successful. For one single president serving three terms, the
improvements that Roosevelt made and the help that he gave this country in order to get out of the Great
Depression were extremely remarkable. The three R's being accomplished by one president is an amazing feat
for an amazing president.
#3: The New Deal In South Carolina….Helpful
Carolina .Helpful or harmful?
Clearing for mountain roads
Planting Trees
Building Roads
Employing Men 18-25
CCC Cabin near Chimney Rock State Park
State Parks
Post Office Art
Art/Artists Employed