Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal

Pain and suffering are not things that most human beings would welcome with open arms, especially the people of America. The "roaring twenties" sounds exactly how the world views America today: fresh, innovative, daring, and flourishing. Average Americans alive in that exciting decade could not foretell that our good fortune would soon vanish, and the educated people who were equipped with this knowledge were too afraid to admit that America's seemingly perfect economy was failing. In 1929, America fell into a deep depression. The nation was flooded with poor men, women, children, and obviously whole families after a tsunami of lost bank accounts, overproduction of goods, stock market failure, employment cuts, and severe homelessness. As this series of unfortunate events occurred, America went wild. In addition to the anxiety and worry, people across the nation were exhausted, depressed, hungry, and distrustful. Four years into the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) became President of the United States in 1933, and rapidly began to pull America out of the cold, salty sea of hassles and troubles that it was in by starting three super successful programs: the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, and the Works Progress Administration.

Every bank in America closed on March 5, 1933 and remained closed for four days under the order of FDR. Restoring America's trust in the nation's bank was FDR's primary step in his triathlon of a presidency. The banks were the "weakest element in the whole situation."(Encyclopedia of Money p. 133) While the banks were closed, FDR pleaded with Congress to pass the Emergency Banking Act. This act would allow government officials to evaluate the health of all banks and see if they are fit to reopen and allow people to once again invest in their accounts. The act was passed on March 9, 1933 and, surprisingly, two-thirds of the banks were diagnosed healthy. By March 15 most banks were again opened and ready for business. FDR cleverly and efficiently persuaded America to reuse banks they were adamant on never using again. Moreover, when the Glass-Steagall Banking Act of 1933, started the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), America would never have to worry about losing their money in banks again because their money would always be guaranteed as long as it did not surpass a maximum limit. This corporation would ensure bank deposits. It still was a possibility that financial institutions could have experienced recession and disinflation even then, but FDR made a lot of people happy with that transition. Unfortunately, that was just one step that took a few months of trouble. FDR still had six more years and countless more programs to create to pull America out of its hole.

"When President Franklin Roosevelt took office in January 1933, 15 million people were unemployed." (Washington Libraries) FDR's position could be compared to that of one just deemed head of a soup kitchen and on the first few moments on the job, is faced with two hundred smelly, bony bodies facing him and waiting to be fed only after discovering that there is no food left, anywhere, for even the smallest child to eat. That chairperson has one cafeteria full of souls to feel sorry and sad for. FDR had an entire country. Before the Great Depression, American citizens did not pay mind to the broad spectrum of the role of the government. At this time, people relied on their families, local churches, neighbors, or state government to provide them with relief. The poverty in America was so out of control that "only the federal government had the resources and funds to take care of the impoverished masses." (Stein p 109) The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) was inaugurated on May 22, 1933. FDR appointed one of his best friends and fellow politicians, Harry Hopkins, to head FERA. FDR and Hopkins agreed on three primary ground rules. First, the amount of relief would not be as small as to take away the meaning. Relief was not giving everybody a dollar and a piece of bread and then walking away. FDR wanted his forms of relief to leave an impact. Next, FERA would offer work to people fit and healthy enough to complete the jobs. Lastly, the relief would be diversified, allowing people skilled in trades, from seamstressing to carpentry, to work. Most of these jobs required building because that kind of work was a necessity around the nation: America was still trying to improve transportation and move forward. Jobs for women provided by FERA included sewing room projects where goods were fabricated and distributed. Sadly, but understood, persuading state relief agencies to agree with the terms of FERA was most times difficult. "Most states had little experience with running genuine work relief programs" (Washington Libraries) and did not want to give up their authority to the unknown. Therefore, even though the states' relief programs knew they were not doing a fine job trying to provide for their state, they did not want to release their programs to a new organization that could be even worse. As some states began to realize that others were benefiting from FERA, the more questionable states became more open for change.

The biggest change in America was the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The goal of this organization was to fight off unemployment head on by giving people jobs and helping them eventually get money and food so the consumer economy of America could again flourish as time ticked slowly by. Though the WPA was one of several agencies made specifically for giving out work to the unemployed, it was the absolute largest. Between 1935 and 1943 the WPA put 8.5 million to work on more than a million sites around the nation. (Greenhaven p 39) The WPA can be compared to most need based scholarships. In school, one may be given a scholarship if that individual shows interest, are physically able to attend the school, has their high school diploma, and needs the scholarship (in someone's opinion) more than someone else does. To be included and work for the WPA one must have wanted to, have been physically able to (not too elderly or sick in any way), have accreditation for the trade they claimed, and needed the money to pay for their children and wife to eat, more than the next person. There was no discrimination between race of gender in the WPA and about 400,000 women were working within this organization. Though this sounds great, it is supremely hard work. There are steps that qualify you such as the steps that one takes when filling out an application for a scholarship. A few rules were as follows: No one could have more than one family member in the organization at any given time, if one were working outside of the organization they would not qualify for WPA, and lastly, one was prohibited from sending their child younger than the age of eighteen to work for the organization. (Greenhaven p 38-43) The WPA was not the same as emergency relief, where you are merely given the money. Harry Hopkins also the head of WPA believed that people should earn their money and not just be given it. This may sound harsh but Hopkins seemed to be a very pleasant and extremely dedicated person. Hopkins would work up to eighteen hours a day and constantly would be driving out to other projects to see how things were going. (Stein p 98) Some inevitable downfalls that came out of the WPA were delays in checks, wages based on experience, and possible loss of job after project completion. Still, grateful Americans realized that this opportunity was better than nothing and were happy to receive whatever was going to be given to them. These checks kept America hopeful and the WPA, and (Placeholder1) its subprograms were most likely the most successful of all.

It is truly amazing how big of an impact FDR, Congress, and the Federal Government had on America during the Great Depression. Equally terrific, is how the citizens of our country could trust a brand new president and almost all of his new ideas, programs, and organizations. These are only three programs out of many. Everyday US citizens enjoy things like sidewalks, parks, and streets that were made years ago by desperate, hopeful people. Eleanor Roosevelt said, "...The United States can be proud of [the New Deal's] efforts. [It] pulled the country out of the depression and made it possible for us to fight the greatest and most expensive war in our history." (Stein p. 112)

Works Cited

Allen, Larry. "Glass-Steagall Banking Act of 1933 (United States)." Encyclopedia of Money. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 1999. 133-34.

Davis, Kenneth S. FDR: The New Deal Years 1933-1937. New York: Random, 1979. 308.

"FDIC Mission, Vision, and Values." The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. 19 Apr. 2007. 27 Mar. 2009 .

Gill, Corrington. "Unemployment Relief." JSTOR: The American Economic Review. 1935. 1 Apr. 2009 .

Greenhaven Press. "The Works Progress Administration Handbook." Living Through the Great Depression. Ed. Tracy Brown Collins. Farm Hills: Greenhaven, 2004. 39-45.

The New Deal - Revolution or Evolution? Ed. D.C. Heath and Company. Boston: Heath, 1959.

Stein, R. Conrad. "The New Deal at Work." The New Deal: Pulling America Out of the Great Depression. By R. Conrad Stein. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 58-112.

University of Washington Libraries, comp. University of Washington Libraries: Digital Collections. Essay: The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). 1 Apr. 2009 .

"Who Is the FDIC." The Federal Deposit Insurance Agency. 27 Oct. 2008 .