The New Deal and the 3 R's- relief, reform and recovery

The New Deal was a program that responded to the Great Depression which focused on the "3R's": relief, recovery, and reform. Relief was temporary for those who were unemployed. Many of the nation's parks, highways, and bridges were built during the Great Depression, projects designed and overseen by the WPA as part of Roosevelt's New Deal to put Americans to work (Croft Communications, Inc, 2010).

     In order to help the economy get over the depression, they would have to abandon the gold mines, and  limit their farming production so they can increase the prices on all their crops.  Many rural people lived in severe poverty.  Major programs addressed to their needs included the Resettlement Administration(RA), the Rural Electrification Administration (REA), rural welfare projects sponsored by the WPA, NYA, Forest Service and CCC, including school lunches, building new schools, opening roads in remote areas, and purchase of marginal land to enlarge national forests(Schlesinger,1959).

     Many different programs were directed at farmers.  The first 100 days produced the Farm Security Act to raise farm incomes by raising the prices farmers received, which was achieved by reducing total farm output.  The Agricultural Adjustment Act reflected the demands of leaders of major farm organizations, especially the Farm Bureau (Schlesinger, 1959).  The AAA was to raise prices for commodities; the output of corn, cotton, dairy products, hogs, rice, tobacco, and wheat (Heinemann, 1983).  The AAA established an important and long-lasting federal role in the planning on the entire agricultural sector of the economy and was the first program that was successful on the behalf of the troubled agricultural economy (Cushman, 1998).

     FDR’s “First Hundred Days” saw a whirlwind of activity as Roosevelt worked tirelessly, then and throughout his three terms, to pull America out of the Great Depression.

 President Roosevelt’s New Deal programs were designed to tackle the economic crisis on many

levels:

·         federal assistance for people who had lost their jobs, houses, savings, and livelihoods

·         job creation for the unemployed through massive public work projects

·         agriculture assistance for troubled industries

·         stricter banking regulations to prevent bank failures

·         creation of the FDIC to protect bank customers deposits

·         investment in the banking system to free up credit

      The long contraction and painfully slow recovery led many in the American population to accept and even call for a vastly expanded role for government, though most businesses resented the growing federal control of their activities. The federal government took over responsibility for the elderly population with the creation of Social Security and gave the involuntarily unemployed unemployment compensation.  The Wagner Act dramatically changed labor negotiations between employers and employees by promoting unions and acting as an arbiter to ensure “fair” labor contract negotiations (Smiley, 2002).

References:

Schlesinger, Arthur M Jr. (1959).  The Coming of the New Deal

   pp 27-84.

Heinemann, Ronald L. (1983). Depression and New Deal in Virginia

     pp 107.

Cushman, Barry. (1998).   Rethinking the New Deal Court p 107.

Smiley, Gene. (Dec. 2002).  Rethinking, the Great Depression.  A new view of it's

  cause and consequences.  Chicago.  Ivan R.

Ramos, Roberto (image) President and CEO of "The Vox Collective".  Dec. 29, 2008

An Idea web for The Great Depression (image) Courtesy of the Liberty of Congress Library.

Evans, Walker (image)  Family During the Depression.  Alabama, 1935.   http://www.publicdomaincontent.com

Public Domain Pictures of the Great Depression.  http://www.publicdomaincontent.com/,  1930.