Great Depression and New Deal

Jules Le Jamtel

09/25/15

Mrs. Meyers

10 r3

SST

DBQ: GREAT DEPRESSION AND NEW DEAL

Were the Roosevelt Administrations and the New Deal Programs effective in overcoming the Great Depression and rebuilding the U.S. economy?

During his sentence, Roosevelt as a response to The Great Depression created a series of Programs called The New Deal. The New Deal revolved around FDR’s plan to save and change the U.S. Most historians refer to this as the Three R’s. They are Relief, Recovery and reform. Recovery to stabilize the economic levels, Relief for the jobless and Reform to prevent another depression. To create employment and make the American public regain faith, he loaned or money to big companies and firms. He had the help of his Fireside chats which helped people to invest in local banks.

        The terrible living condition of the working class represent the consequences of The Great Depression: My Father walked the streets everyday”, We would pick out the best rotted potato and greens and carrots that were already soft. Than we would go to the butcher and beg a marrow bone.” (Clara Hancox)  This exert from document one shows that families ate all the bad vegetables and the bones of the butchers shop. They had to go so far to eat as to dig for bad food. In 1933, 31 million Americans were jobless. The amount of foreclosures and firms were unbelievable: “ And the little farmers… lost their farms, and they were taken by the great owners, the banks and companies.” The Great Depression lead to lots of people leaving New York for western states. “ We got out to the West Coast broke” (Guthrie). This is horrible for the economy, production is at its lowest and firms are getting downsized. There are no more services because people are jobless. The government is making ads to promote job possibilities. Document 8 is an ad that promotes jobs for women, and makes people envy jobs because they are promising good  working conditions and good pay. In the 1930’s, the economy is bad, American exports are down 60%.

        The economy was terrible it had to be fixed so Roosevelt created a series of many laws that are passed called The New Deal. Document 10 demonstrates that a lot of bills were passed in five years. In fact, in 6 months Roosevelt passes 15 major laws in office, these laws were about job creation, and investment in public services. Many parks, bridges, highways were built while Roosevelt’s was in office. Also he created the CCC which was relief program for the jobless man. In document 7 we observe a couple men pushing a sort of machine. They were in fact working for the CCC in which they earned a living and helped improve the environment. The WPA, was advantageous to mostly unskilled men because they could participate in public works like building parks. The main purpose was to prevent another depression and set a precedent for future economic laws. Roosevelt’s main mission was to save America but also make it better, by change the prices of products which creates tension with republicans they do not want to change the prices because they think it will slow down economy.

        The legacy of The New Deal is a very delicate subject. Some argue that the New deal did not do anything to help the depression, but World War II did. The New Deal did change the way the government handles free economies, which lead to federal laws like minimum wage, child labor regulation, social security and a bank deposits. The New Deal created dependent Americans. Some say it is good and of course some do not. Which lead to debates between conservatives and liberals on how much the government is needed.  The result of the New Deal is that it became a post on which American citizens can lean on in desperate times.

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