 WITNESS TO HISTORY: THE NEW DEAL Objectives • Gives a broad overview of the Depression in this country. • Stimulates discussion of an important era of American history. • Gives an eyewitness account of the historical events surrounding the passage of the New Deal program. • Provides primary source material and encourages students to study this subject in greater depth. Introduction When Herbert Hoover accepted the nomination of the Republican Party in 1928 most Americans were better off than they had ever been. Except for farmers, who always had to struggle, prosperity reigned. At his inauguration in March, 1929, Hoover looked forward to four more years of good times. By October the good times were over. The Depression Day by day the Depression deepened. More banks closed; more businesses failed; more people were thrown out of work. But the President did nothing to help. According to Hoover, it wasn’t the job of the federal government to provide relief directly to the unemployed. That should be left to private charity and voluntary self-help programs on the state and local level. Finally in 1932 the federal government took some action. But the Reconstruction Finance Corporation—the RFC—which was created that year could only loan money to business and industry, it couldn’t help people. Humorist Will Rogers said of the RFC “The money was all appropriated for the top in the hopes it would trickle down to the needy.” But it never did. In fact, when Congress proposed expanding the RFC to allow loans to states, cities, and individuals, Hoover vetoed the bill. “Never before,” he said, “has so dangerous a suggestion been seriously made to our country.” But the people didn’t agree, and in 1932 they voted Hoover out and elected New York’s Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt president. During the early years of the Depression, while President Hoover waited for the economy to right itself, Governor Roosevelt had acted. He aimed he said, to help “the forgotten man on the bottom of the economic pyramid.” And as soon as he got to Washington, Roosevelt set about to do just that. In accepting the Democratic nomination Roosevelt told the convention, “I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people.” The day after he moved into the White House, he made good on his promise. The Civilian Conservation Corps Unemployment was probably the most crucial problem facing the nation. By 1933 some 15 million people were out of work. Many were young men who rode the rails or just wandered the streets. “Wild boys of the Road” they were called. Ten days after taking office Roosevelt proposed an unusual relief measure—the creation of an army of these young men who would work in the national forests on a variety of projects. The idea was to devise a program that would not only provide jobs, but benefit the country as well. By the end of March, the Civilian Conservation Corps was in business. It was opened to men 18 to 25 whose families were on relief. They were paid $30 a month, but $25 had to be sent home. The CCC was an interesting example of interdepartmental cooperation—the Labor Department selected the men; Agriculture and Interior organized and supervised the projects; and the War Department ran the camps. And they were run like Army camps. There was nothing cushy about life here. But the boys loved it. For many it was their first experience working in the outdoors or being away from home. By mid-June, 1,300 CCC camps were in operation. By the end of July over 300,000 young men—all unemployed just four months before—were working in the national forests. The “Tree-Army” they were called and they did every sort of conservation job—from digging ditches and canals, to restoring historic battlefields, to clearing beaches and camp grounds, to planting trees. It is estimated that over half the forest plantings in the country’s history—both public and private—was done by the two and a half million boys who spent time in the CCC. Seventeen million acres of new forests were planted; four million acres of trees were thinned before the Tree Army was disbanded in 1942. By then another Army had more need of their services. The Tennessee Valley Authority The Depression hit the farmland long before October 1929. As if man-made economic conditions weren’t trouble enough, farmers had to contend with nature. On the Plains there were massive dust storms that destroyed everything in their path. In the South the plague was floods. By the 1930s, the land in the valley of the Tennessee River had been so badly eroded by spring floods and summer drought that it was almost unfit for farming. The 6 million people living in the valley subsisted on farms that brought in next to nothing. There was no electricity, but disease and poverty thrived. In April 1933 President Roosevelt proposed the creation of an agency to build dams and power plants along the Tennessee River. The aim was not only to control the floods and reclaim the land, but also to promote the social and economic development of the area. Congress created the Tennessee Valley Authority, an independent, public corporation to do the job. Its principle tasks were to control floods; generate cheap electricity for industry, farms and homes; and develop commercial navigation on the river. The TVA had its beginnings in World War I when the War Department built a power plant and two munitions plants on the Tennessee River at Muscle Shoals in Alabama. After the war Senator George Norris of Nebraska pushed two bills through Congress to convert the existing facility into a public power project and to expand and develop it. But Presidents Coolidge and Hoover vetoed the plant bills, because public operation of the power plant Hoover said, would “negate the ideals upon which our civilization is built.” So while the Tennessee Valley flooded and the land eroded and the people sunk deeper and deeper into poverty, the Wilson Dam, built during the war, stood mostly idle. Then came the TVA. In October, 1933 work began on a new dam at Muscle Shoals. It was completed in 1936 and named for Senator Norris. By the beginning of the World War II, five more dams had been built along the main river. Today the TVA is the largest regional development program in the world. It serves over 3 1/2 million people with power and remains one of the most remarkable achievements of the New Deal. The Works Progress Administration In 1935 President Roosevelt decided that the federal government should get out of the business of giving direct relief to the unemployed. He wanted to provide those who could work with a job, not a handout and so Congress passed the Emergency Relief Appropriations Act to set up a nation-wide program of public works. The idea was to create jobs for 3 1/2 million people. The pay would be more than the handout, but less than the prevailing wage, so as not to discourage private employment. The major agency of the program was the WPA—the Works Progress—later the Works Projects Administration. The WPA provided job training for the unemployed—like these people who are learning to be milliners, tailors, and domestic servants. And work was found for artists, sculptors, writers, actors and museum workers as well. But it was in the area of public building that the WPA had its most lasting effect. It would be almost impossible to find a town or city in America today without a WPA building, bridge, highway, railroad station, and playground or airport landing field. By the time it was officially terminated in June 1943, the WPA had provided jobs for over 8 1/2 million people who worked on 1,410,000 projects. When America entered World War II the work of the New Deal was just about over. Now there was a job for everyone. The country and the President turned to meet the new challenge. But the legacy of the New Deal endures—in the forests planted by the CCC; in the thriving land reclaimed by the Tennessee Valley Authority; in the buildings and bridges built by the WPA and in programs such as Social Security and federal unemployment insurance that have become an integral part of American life. Questions for Review and Discussion 1. Compare and contrast the events on Wall Street in October, 1929 and October, 1987. What was similar? What was different? What effect, if any, did the New Deal legislation have on the outcome? 2. How would life in America be different today if there had never been a New Deal? 3. Look around your city and town. Identify any projects that were constructed by the WPA or any other New Deal agency. 4. Do you think a program like the CCC could be instituted today? Do you think it would benefit the participants? The country? Do you think it would be something you would like to do? 5. In his Inaugural Address in March, 1933, President Roosevelt said that the only thing the nation had to fear was “fear itself.” What do you think this means? 6. Pick one item from the following list. Explain its impact on American life. a. The Securities and Exchange Commission b. Social Security c. Fair Labor Standards Act d. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation e. Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act |
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