“How Effective were the increased powers of the Federal Government, adopted during the New Deal, in solving problems of the times?”
The 1930s were hard times for Americans; this was due to a number of reasons. The Great Depression, mass unemployment, the loss of confidence in banks and the government itself. The man voted into power to tackle these mounting problems was Franklin D. Roosevelt. On 4th March 1933, Roosevelt, the newly elected 32nd President of the United States, told his citizens that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”. A fairly bold, optimistic statement for a man who had inherited a country suffering from a crippling economic depression. Roosevelt deeply sympathised with his people; he was determined to help them, and so he then demised a plan to confront the country’s economic difficulties. He restores confidence in the American public and makes them believe in the capitalist system again. To do so effectively, he increases his powers and uses the alphabet agencies and the new deals to tackle the problems of the time.
The New Deal had three aims: Relief – Roosevelt was determined to help the victims of the depression, many of whom faced unemployment, hunger and poverty; recovery – rebuild the economy and create the conditions needed for optimum economic growth; and reform – create a more just society by giving a fairer distribution of wealth. To achieve these objectives, Roosevelt decided that direct action and intervention by the federal government would be necessary. The New Deal challenged the power of the federal government whilst increasing the power of the president, as Roosevelt was able to regulate businesses and industries in a manner, which, prior to the depression, would have been unacceptable. The days of laissez-faire and “rugged individualism”, were over.
The Term Paper on Franklin Delano Roosevelt And The New Deal
... government should not be involved in social reform. Now that idea was brought back in the Great Depression by President Roosevelt, ... United States. In addition to increasing the involvement of the government in people’s lives, the New Deal created a number of ... Above all, progressivism changed American attitudes toward the power of government. In both cases, the attention was turned from ...
FDR’s first 100 days in office were chaotic yet effective, and the New Deal had been put into place by the introduction of many ‘alphabet agencies’ across America, for example, the Civil Works Administration (CWA).
The aim of the CWA was to provide work of public value to the unemployed, in the belief that “work preserves a man’s morale” Leader of CWA. This agency was successful in that it provided 4 million people with jobs in only two months, built 800,000 kilometres of road, 150,000 public toilets and 500 airports, and, perhaps most importantly, increased the national purchasing power and contributed to the economic recovery. However, the CWA failed when the wealthy businessmen of America refused to support it after they deemed several of the jobs provided by the CWA “Boondoggles”, for example, people were hired to walk around with balloons or to scare away pigeons from public building and some paid to paint fences a colour one day and other the next. The New Deal failed to achieve much with the CWA aside from temporary employment and aiding the economic recovery to a certain extent.
Another example of an alphabet agency set up by Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’ was the National Recovery Act (NRA), their aim was to persuade businesses and industries to introduce codes of practice that would give both fair wages and fair prices of goods for consumers. The employers were encouraged to put in place a minimum wage and maximum working day, allow their workers to form trade unions and help abolish child labour. Many of the huge corporations felt that the government were intervening too much in company affairs. As a result of the NRA, the profit margins of businesses fell, but workers were much better treated in all aspects. The Act at first seemed very successful, however, in a short space of time, things were to go downhill for the NRA and in fact FDR himself.
The Essay on Comparison Between The Prairies And On The Emigration To America
Settlement. What does it mean to settle? In terms of the American experience settlement is at the basis of all that America is. This country was founded on the aspect of settlement. Websters dictionary defines settlement as the act of establishing residence in a particular place. There were many reasons that the early Americans came to the new world; whether it be because of religious persecution, ...
The case of the ‘Sick Chickens’ brought about the demise of the NRA. It began with a small poultry farm based in New York, selling a batch of diseased chickens in 1935. The NRA then took them to court where they were found guilty of breaking NRA code. However the company appealed to the Supreme Court and won their case, after they ruled that the NRA had no right to meddle in New York State matters, and that the code of their Corporation was illegal. This decision acted as a catalyst for the collapse of the NRA and the New Deal as a whole. Congress ruled that the NRA had acted against the American Constitution and that Roosevelt had abused his presidential power. This gives the impression that the increased powers of the Federal Government were not an effective way of solving the country’s problems and that instead it was failing. Although the case of the sick chickens may make the NRA – and the New Deal – look like a complete failure, they did give Roosevelt a chance to re-think his plans for America. It was a turning point for both Roosevelt and American politics. FDR would start anticipating solutions instead of waiting for the problem to occur and then dealing with the aftermath. Roosevelt then decided to begin all over again; to introduce new legislation that would come to be known as the Second New Deal, which this time would be officially in the constitution and therefore legal, no matter what the Supreme Court had to say about it. This new legislation would be a win or lose situation for the president and the effectiveness of his government in such a harsh economic climate.
The first of these new laws, and perhaps the most important, was the Social Security Act. America was far behind Europe in regards to social welfare only 27 states offered old age pensions and only one state provided any kind of unemployment benefit, and the Social Security Act was an attempt to provide a standard level of security for the lowest people of society. The Act set up a national system of pensions for the elderly and widows and provided help for the physically handicapped. This act, however radical, could be deemed as a failure too due to the many problems it ran into, such as the uneven distribution of wealth between states making payments extremely different. For example, mothers in Arkansas received $8.10 per month, whereas in Massachusetts the rate was $61.07 per month. Although it ran into many issues, the Social Security Act succeeded, as it is the foundation upon which the building blocks of American social welfare have been built to present day. Also, the Act sent out a prominent message that the government cared about the people of America and that they were doing their best to help them, this in turn raised confidence and morale within the country, and many people started to believe in their government again.
The Term Paper on The Decline Of Social Security
The Decline of Social Security Introduction Social Security is a contributory social insurance providing benefits to millions of Americans. Every state bears responsibility for its citizens. Social security is the way to help people who need state support. In every country there is more or less developed social security system, and it is states duty to make a social security efficient. Although ...
The increased powers of the Federal Government and Roosevelt and their effectiveness can be argued for on both sides. The fact that the increased federal powers were able to establish a minimum wage, the right to form trade unions and also to create 4million jobs for the unemployed was a huge accomplishment. However by 1939, 9 million Americans were still unemployed, national income was down $13 billion from 1929, despite a rise in population of 9 million, and there was still not a completely fair and even distribution of the country’s wealth. Nevertheless, Roosevelt and his federal government must be admired for what was achieved in the face of such economic uncertainty.
