Name:

US HistoryTeacher:

Year Completed:

Assignment commentary:

Juliana

Mr. Ulffers

2002

An essay on the Great Depression and the New Deal, and how it changed America

Juliana Olsson US History 9th IB

The Great Depression as a Turning Point in American History

One of the ways that the Great Depression was a turning point in history was that a depression of such magnitude, and one that came so suddenly and affected everyone, had never happened before. Also, there was never such a high point in the economy as there was in the 20s that came right before the economy tumbled. After Hoover's failed efforts to revive the economy with methods which had been used for smaller depressions, Roosevelt tried completely new methods for his New Deal, and succeeded in making many changes which will be discussed in this essay.

President Roosevelt tried something completely new in the way of public relations: he held an unprecedented number of press conferences which required the first ever press secretary, and held "fireside chats" over the radio to his country to calm the people. Another first was that the First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, became as visible to the public eye as her husband (and slightly more popular), and held her own press conferences, radio broadcasts and newspaper correspondences. She was the one who tested out the President's ambitious ideas to revive the economy. Many people, even the poorest of Americans, supported the president and held great faith in his ability to get them back on their feet, which was quite a change from the way that many Americans had distrusted Hoover during the earliest years of the Depression. This could be seen from the thousands of letters that came to the white house daily thanking the president.

A great change from the "hands- off" method preferred by previous Presidents such as Herbert Hoover, Roosevelt decided to make the government more involved in businesses and social welfare. First, he helped the banks stabilize by signing the Emergency Banking Act and closing all the banks for a brief "holiday". The government guarded against another crash by regulating stock transactions, restricting bank speculation with money, and managing currency after taking away the gold standard. Roosevelt also tried to provide for the people with programs such as the Federal Emergency Relief Fund which supplied food and necessities to the needy. Many organizations like the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Rural Electrification Administration supplied much needed electricity to work machinery for industries and homes that had not been available before the Depression. The Civilian Conservation Corps, the Works Progress Administration and the Civil Works Administration supplied millions of Americans with jobs while giving back to the community by building parks, schools, and roads and by helping people with disabilities; programs like these and of this magnitude had never been made before. Also, yet another first, the government passed the Social Security act in 1935 which helped the elderly, dependent children, jobless and infirm, thereby establishing a "broad responsibility [in the government] to protect the social rights of its citizens". However, like the women being excluded from many work relief programs, farm workers and domestic help, most of whom were African Americans, were excluded from social security benefits.

Since all that President Roosevelt was doing to get America out of the Depression had never been done before, he had to learn by trial and error. The National Recovery Administration was supposed to help industries and improve conditions for the workers, but there were too many strict codes, and no industry was forced to comply with all the regulations, so it never really worked out. The NRA was also greatly criticized for the way that it paid women and blacks significantly less than white males. The Supreme Court got rid of the NRA in 1935. Roosevelt tried to add more justices to the supreme court to replace those over 70 years of age, but so many people (even his supporters) disapproved that he was forced to abandon this idea. Eventually, Roosevelt had to start listening to his competitors, like Francis Townsend, and make programs for what their followers needed, like Social Security.

Minorities were gaining more recognition from the government, but not enough to free them from forms of segregation. Roosevelt integrated blacks into the government and created a "black cabinet" and hired other African Americans as advisors, yet there was still much discrimination in the New Deal where blacks found it hard to get fair paying work. Latinos also found it hard to get their fair representation, since they did not take advantage of government aid by voting or seeking aid. Native Americans became an issue again, and not even they could agree whether reestablishing tribal government was the best thing to do or not. Women became influential members of the Roosevelt coalition, but their jobs in the work relief programs were few, for "women only" and not as well paying as the men's jobs.

In many ways the Great Depression marked a turning point in American history, and though the New Deal never really got America fully out of the Depression, it helped tremendously and gave birth to many new concepts that are still around today, like Social Security, the TVA, civil service jobs, government involvement in businesses, and numerous presidential press conferences. Some things, however, did not change, like job discrimination against women and minorities and the competition between the Democrats and Republicans in Washington, but over all, the Depression and recovery period did make many important changes in the way American society and government worked. It proved that for changing times, politics needed to change too, and the hands-off method would not work if the country were to be saved.