What was the New Deal?
The New Deal was designed to solve America’s problems, both financial (money) and social (people). Because Roosevelt was so popular he was able to pass laws without too much trouble and was given lots of freedom to introduce his New Deal.
Roosevelt wanted to spend money on employing people but his government didn’t have much money to spend. One idea he came up with to solve this was to cut the wages of all the people who worked for the government.
Next Roosevelt ended prohibition (when alcohol was illegal). Prohibition had never been very popular and people were pleased to be able to drink a beer again without being a criminal, plus the government made more money from taxes.
Now Roosevelt had some money he could get started on the New Deal. So what was it?
The
New Deal was basically the idea of the government stepping in to help people and
businesses recover. All sorts of agencies and departments were set up to
give people jobs, organise food, make sure people had a fair deal and to try and
encourage recovery. Below just a few of the more important agencies are
listed:
|
Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) |
Farmers
were paid to limit their crops. This
meant that prices of food stayed high and farms didn’t go bankrupt which
would have led to starvation. |
|
Civilian
Conservation Corps (CCC) |
This employed jobless single men
between the ages of 18 and 25. They worked for 6 months in mountains and
forests where they were taught forestry, flood control and fire
prevention. |
|
National Recovery Administration (NRA) |
Set limits on working hours, wages,
unfair competition and outlawed child labour to make sure desperate people
weren’t taken advantage of |
|
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) |
Spent
lots of money redeveloping poor farmland in central USA. |
|
Works Progress Administration (WPA) |
Spent
over $10.5 billion employing men to build 77,000 bridges, 24,000 miles of
sewers, 664,000 miles of road, 285 airports, 122,000 public buildings and
11,000 schools. |
There were an awful lot of these agencies to keep track of, and as you can see they had confusing letter for names (called acronyms). Click here to see a few of the other departments.
But was the New Deal a success or a failure? Find out
To have a go at examining a source on the New Deal click here
