Roosevelts New Deal - Essay Example

Roosevelt’s New Deal “As a response to the Great Depression, the New Deal was a total failure.” Not only is the preceding ment harsh, especially taken out of its historical timeframe; it is not accurate. In order to support the statement, there would have to be a demonstrably complete lack of progress made during Roosevelt’s first one hundred days in office; and that cannot be demonstrated. While many of the components, or programs, of the New Deal were poorly thought out and implemented in haste, there were components that were hugely successful, as well as components that were somewhat successful; and then the components that were disastrously flawed and failures. But what cannot be denied is that the programs implemented under Roosevelt’s New Deal were unique and previously untried in the history of the United States, making them a bold effort to confront serious economic and social problems that existed in the country when he took office in March, 1933. Roosevelt Wins In Landslide Election Roosevelt’s predecessor, Herbert Hoover, proved himself to be inept in the face of the crisis of the Great Depression, which had begun in “October of 1929, when the stock market fell to a 1927 low, which lasted until 19331.” Not only did Hoover prove himself incapable of rising to the challenge of the Great Depression, he proved himself to be out of touch with Americans when in the “summer of 1932 he moved to silence World War I veterans who had come to Washington, DC to lobby for veterans benefits, and ordered General Douglas to move the vets out of the area along the Potomac where they had set up shanties2.” “The move proved disastrous when tear gas was used against the non-violent veterans, and the shanties they had constructed were set afire3.” “Roosevelt was elected to office in a sweeping victory that also saw the Democrats gain a majority on Capital Hill that would last for the next fifty years4.” The Situation “Hoover and the incoming Roosevelt administration did not agree in philosophy on how the Great Depressions began, and Roosevelt was not of a mind to cooperate with Hoover by giving Hoover’s suggestions any consideration at all once he was elected5.” As much as Hoover would have “liked to place blame for the Great Depression before leaving office, it was the results of the Great Depression that Roosevelt and his administration were faced with upon assuming office in March, 19336.” “That reality was one of human hopelessness and despair as men walked the streets in search of jobs that didn’t exist, families stood for hours in food lines, and cardboard villages that housed the country’s poor expanded daily; not to mention bank closures and foreclosures and a stagnant Wall Street that showed no sign of recovery7.” “The public responded favorably to Roosevelt, who had suffered the childhood disease of polio, and, unlike Hoover, seemed to be in touch with the American spirit8.” Where there had been hopelessness, suddenly there was, in Roosevelt, a spark of hope. “Hoover left office still pointing the finger at Wall Street as the culprit behind the depression, his own bitterness like a mirror image of the mood of the nation that Hoover had seemed so out of touch with9.” The Response Roosevelt was aggressive, and “moved to shut down what few banks remained open, which he was able to do because he had called an emergency session of Congress and presented them with a request for emergency relief, and a plan to revise the banking system in the country that would lend government support in protection of customer deposits10.” Congress, of course, “cooperated with Roosevelt and passed emergency relief both empowering the president to take swift action, and accepting his proposed banking plans11.” “This step was taken within the Roosevelt administration’s first ten days in office12.” The banking legislation served as the spark to jump-start the nation, and “people begin putting their money back into the banks that reopened13.” “President Roosevelt addressed the nation on March 12, 1933, assuring Americans that the banking crisis was over14.” Riding the wave of public enthusiasm and support, and “feeling energized by the speed with which Congress had responded to his banking legislation, by March 16 Roosevelt asked Congress to consider a plan for a national agriculture program15.” Roosevelt found an advantage born out of the depression; there was a “surplus of well educated young men eager to work from amongst who Roosevelt recruited the brightest to join his administration to help frame his proposed legislation to be submitted to Congress16.” Backed by his enthusiastic and aggressive young lawyers and analysts, Roosevelt’s administration moved forward with legislation like a tornado ripping through Kansas. During the month of “March, the administration had submitted to Congress legislation proposals on the Emergency Banking Act, Economy Act, and the Civilian Conservation Corps17.” On “March 21 the president sent a message to Congress asking them to consider unemployment relief18.” April followed March with the same aggressive approach, “the president worked legislation through Congress abandoning the gold standard, and the months of May and June were equally aggressive with legislation that passed Congress addressing the proposed unemployment relief, a national agriculture policy, an Emergency Farm Mortgage Act, Tennessee Valley Authority Act, and, for those who accused Wall Street of dirty deeds, the Truth-in-Securities Act providing government regulation and oversight of Wall Street; and the progress continued through June with the Home Owner’s Loan Act, National Industrial Recovery Act, Glass-Stegall Banking Act, Farm Credit Act, and the Railroad Coordination Act19.” One of the most successful programs was the Tennessee Valley Authority Act, “impacting five water tributaries in six states, which not brought employment to the areas impacted by the project, and in constructing a series of eight dams, was the single most aggressive engineering and building project the country had ever seen20.” Swift and radical changes aimed at reversing poverty, hunger, and a broken American morale; and it seemed to be working – or at least parts of it were. Given the swiftness with which Roosevelt acted, it was perhaps inevitable that failures of short-sightedness would begin to crop up. “By 1935, the country’s elderly still had found little relief, and there was a disparity between racial groups as far as the benefits of Roosevelt’s programs21.” “Public figures who had at the onset of Roosevelt’s term put their weight behind him, withdrew support and accused the administration of leaving behind the country’s most dispossessed22.” “Roosevelt responded with the 1935 Social Security Act,” one of the most important pieces of legislation to come out of the era23. Still, even with a successful bid at re-election, disparities continued to exist. Roosevelt’s legislation virtually “left behind America’s black community, employed in America’s south as sharecroppers24.” “Left behind, too, were migrant Mexican farm workers, who were perceived as a burden to the country because of what was often their illegal immigration status25.” However, “hardest hit were the American Indians,” who were completely left behind in Roosevelt’s New Deal26. Agricultural legislation, the impact of which is still being felt today, “left behind the subsistent farmer/tenants, who lost their homes when the property owners who benefited from legislation by planting certain crops while leaving parts of their land unproductive in an effort to reduce overproduction; evicted the subsistent farmers in order to claim the land for greater profit by claiming the financial incentive through the government program27.” Even given what are surely considered shortcomings of Roosevelt’s New Deal, it cannot be accurately described as a total failure. Much of the legislation that came out of the era exists today, or served as the basis for the legislative changes, which since that time have made a significant impact on the American way of life. Reference List S. Ambrose, D. Brinkley, Witness to America: An Illustrated Documentary History of the United States From Revolution to Today, (Harper Collins Publisher, 1999), p. 361-364. R. Divine, T. H. Breen, G. Fredrickson, R. Williams and R. Roberts, America Past and Present (Glencoe, Illinois: Scott, Foresman/Little Brown, 1990), pp. 438-455. W. Leuchtenburg, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal 1932-1940 (Harper & Row Publishers, 1963), pp. 33-52 A. Schlesinger, Jr., The Coming of the New Deal, (Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1959), p. 16. Read More