America From Apple Pie to Ziegfeld Follies Book 4 Events

"N: New Deal (p. 79-80)

The stock market crash of 1929 began a period of economic depression in the United States that lasted into the next decade. When Franklin D. Roosevelt became President in March of 1933, his first political task was to pull the ailing country out of the Great Depression. He called his economic strategy the ""New Deal."" Roosevelt planned to provide relief for the unemployed, start the recovery of the nation at large, and introduce longrange economic reform.

Between 1933 and 1935, these ideas were put to work through several newly created agencies. The Civilian Conservation Corps employed young men and women on conservation and reforestation projects. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration and the Civil Works Administration spent more than $2 billion on work relief programs. Also, President Roosevelt took the U.S. off the gold standard in 1933. But the most important program of the New Deal was the Work Progress Administration (WPA). Created in 1935, the WPA built or improved about 2,500 hospitals, almost 6,000 school buildings and nearly 13,000 playgrounds in eight years.

The WPA also provided funds for cultural programs and gave financial aid to more than 4 million high school and college students. These short-term relief efforts all did their job of kick-starting the American economy. Many of President Roosevelt’s critics were silenced, so, he continued with his longer-term goal of strengthening and improving agriculture, business and employment. The Agricultural Adjustment Administration encouraged commercial farmers to cut production of basic crops and livestock. It was hoped that a reduction in supply would increase market prices. The National Recovery Administration was an innovative venture in government-business cooperation.

It encouraged business and labor leaders to sign codes of fair competition within their industries. And the Public Works Administration helped build scores of courthouses, sewage plants, bridges, hospitals and city halls during the 1930s. The American economy improved between 1933 and 1936 under Roosevelt’s leadership, so, the voters returned him to office in 1937, expecting more of the same. But a sharp economic recession stalled the recovery until the government increased spending, for national defense, in 1939 and 1940. It was then that the Great Depression finally seemed to end.

Even though critics of Roosevelt’s New Deal said his policies either failed completely or fell short of their intended goal, several domestic reforms of the 1930s have had lasting effects. Among them are the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation which helped prevent further banking panics, the Securities Exchange Commission which now federally regulates the stock market, and the Social Security Act of 1935. This law involved the government in programs for old-age pensions and unemployment insurance. When Franklin D. Roosevelt became President, his inaugural address was broadcast on radio across the nation. His words went a long way in restoring public confidence that there might finally be an end to the economic hardship that had gripped the country. In his address Roosevelt told Americans that ""the only thing to fear was fear itself."" Not all New Deal ideas proved successful, but Roosevelt proved that he had a plan and that he was a man of action."