Roosevelt Policy

When Roosevelt became president, on March 4, 1933, the Great Depression was at its worst. Sixteen million or more people were unemployed, and many had been out of work for a year or even longer. The American banking system had collapsed. Whether Americans would be satisfied with the new leadership depended on Roosevelt’s success in bringing aid to those in distress and in achieving some measure of economic improvement. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration was able to create many laws that benefited the people, however the people complained that they were not created fast enough, even though they were effective and had a lasting impact on the federal government.

When Roosevelt became president, he immediately called a special session of Congress to deal with the depression rather than wait for the regular session in December. The legislation passed by Congress and signed by Roosevelt in the spring of 1933 was remarkable. The time period was called the Hundred Days. The special session had been called to deal with the banking crisis, economy in government, and changes to the liquor law. Congress quickly responded to the crises. The Emergency Banking Act was created, passed, and signed by the president during a single day and it gave the federal government sweeping power to deal with the banking crisis. The Beer Act made it possible to sell beer, which had been illegal under the 18th Amendment. The Economy Act reduced government salaries and pensions to meet Roosevelt’s campaign pledge. The basic New Deal legislation was passed in slightly more than five years, from 1933 to 1938. Solutions were found for the problem of the unemployment. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) gave large amounts of money to the states. The subdivision to the FERA was the Civil Works Administration (CWA), which provided work relief for a large number of men during the winter of 1933 and 1934. In 1935 a new organization, the WPA was set up by executive order and the FERA was abolished. The WPA built roads, streets, schools, libraries, and other public buildings. Congress designed two relief operations specifically for young men, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the National Youth Administration (NYA). The most spectacular agency designed to promote general economic improvement was the National Recovery Administration (NRA), an organization set up NIRA, which was passed by Congress in June 1933. The NRA was designed to help business help itself by eliminating unfair competition through the establishment of codes of fair competition. Unfortunately, the NRA did not work as its supporters had hoped, and the NRA was unanimously declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1935. However one of the New Deal reforms that did work was the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The TVA built a series of dams for power production, flood control, navigation improvement, and cheap fertilizers. It distributed its own water-generated, or hydroelectric, power to many who never before had enjoyed the benefits of electricity. As a result, the standard of living of the people in its area steadily improved. The reform that did the most good was the Social Security Act of 1935. The act gave unemployment insurance, old-age pension, child care and benefits for the blind however; the act did not cover health insurance. It was paid for by employers, employees, and the federal government. It is still in use today. Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act to replace the National Industrial Recovery Act, which now guaranteed to workers the right to organize and bargain collectively. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 set a minimum wage and a limit to the hours worked.

Solutions to the Great Depression had different responses and impacts on the federal government. One of the solutions that Franklin Roosevelt set up was a Public Works Administration (PWA) and he put it under the jurisdiction of Secretary of the Interior (a new position) Harold L. Ickes. The PWA built huge public buildings, great dams, and irrigation and flood-control projects. A special recovery agency for one major segment of the economy was developed called the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA). It was set up in the Department of Agriculture and supervised by Secretary Henry A. Wallace. The AAA sought to eliminate overproduction of basic crops and thus to bring prices back to the average prices of the period from 1909 to 1914, a time of agricultural prosperity. The AAA was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1936. Congress established a voluntary system in 1936 for the same purposes