The New Deal Essay, Research Paper

Trying to get a job during the 1930 s could prove troublesome, or

impossible. So how did they manage to survive? Anyone can tell you that the

1930 s were no picnic. Unemployment was up to 600% in 1933 from 1928,

leaving 12.8 million people without jobs. 4,004 banks were suspended in

1933 due to financial difficulties. The value if U.S. exports was down $2.5

billion from 1928. And to top it all off, the whole Great Plains was shut down

due to dust bowls. Roosevelt s New Deal attacked this developing situation,

but his work just put a dent in the already booming depression. The whole

world, in fact, was in the same fix we were in. Due to the war and the U.S.

raising the tariffs, other countries had few other countries to trade with. These

countries couldn t support themselves in their current condition, due to the

war reparations and costs of casualties from both man and machine. People

on the West Coast were only a little better off than the rest of the nation, and

even that didn t last long because hundreds of thousands of people who lived

on the Great Plains migrated to the West Coast in hope for a new home, and

a job to support their families. Most people who couldn t find a job had to

lean on support from the government. The government set up temporary

camps for these people to live in. However, some people were forced to live

in cities made of garbage and other scrap materials called Hoovervilles,

where some whole families were forced to live in piano boxes and garbage

cans. They often died from diseases because they had eaten rotten and

decomposing garbage out of dumps. People could be seen chasing garbage

trucks down the road and overtaking them to mug the garbage men of their

trash. At times, men might even go as far as to kill another for a heap of trash.

Only three years after the stock market crash, more than 13 million people

were unemployed, which represented 25% of the labor force of the U.S.

Wages had dropped to as little as a nickel for a hard hours work. More than

200,000 children, and even babies were wandering lost because their parents

had died, only to later face starvation themselves. Then an angel feel from

heaven… said many people describing Roosevelt s step into office. He

passed 15 major bills to flush money back into the economy. He provided

2.5 million young men with jobs with the Civilian Conservation Corps,

(CCC). Then Roosevelt turned around and again provided for the people by

creating the Tennessee Valley Authority, (TVA). This brought hydroelectric

power to the rural southerners. Then again, he implemented the Agricultural

Adjustment Administration, (AAA), which gave aid to farmers by giving them

money for each acre of their land that they didn t use. This also

overproduction of basic crops, to bring them back up to an average price

eventually. And still within Roosevelt s first 100 days of his term, he created

his biggest achievement, the NRA, National Recovery Administration, which

was a product of the National Industrial Recovery Act. The NRA s Blue

Eagle was well known to most companies. The NIRA also created a $3.3

billion agency called the Public Works Administration, (PWA) designed to

create jobs by financing construction of school, courthouses and other town

and city projects. Roosevelt also created the Social Security Act, which was

intended to give pensions to workers that worked a certain amount of years,

which still exists today. Social Security also insured 26 million Americans

against income loss from unemployment, old age, and blindness. In that

period of time, workers were lucky to average $1,200 a year, and didn t

even think of retirement, for that was a luxury for people who had money.

The pensions the workers received gave them the privilege of retirement. The

first person to receive this pension opportunity was a woman by the name of

Ida Fuller, who paid about $24 of payroll taxes before retiring, and later

receiving $20,000 before she turned 90 years old. But the economic conflicts

just kept piling up.The United Auto Workers declared a sit-down strike in

General Motors Fisher Body Plant in Flint, Michigan. Detemined to drive the

strikers out, police broke out windows, and fired teargas grenades and buck

shot into the plant. The police, in return, got a hail of bricks doorhinges, and

broken bottle shards. The police then left the protestors alone. News of the

strike spread like wildfire, and soon, plants in 14 other states joined in,

brining production to a halt. The Supreme Court stopped the strike by

allowing the Wagner Act of 1935 to fortify, allowing the American employees

to bargin collectively and join unions. However, later more strikers organized

with their families, and the cops formed a line in front of the strikers and

opened fire with everything they got killing 10 and wounding over 100. But

America did survive. Many died and some lost everything, but Roosevelt s

New Deal Provided jobs and money enough to stop the down fall and

increase production, employment, and the standard of living.