The Great Depression - the New Deal

The Great Depression was a devastating time in world history especially in United States history. The most powerful nation on the planet was on its knees. Many hardworking middle and lower class people lost their jobs. The depression had dramatic effects on families, businesses and especially the economy of the United States. It didn't only cause an economic depression but it caused citizens of the United States to go into their own physical depression. Luckily we elected a President with the ability to will the country back to dominance, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Roosevelt had great ideas on how to bring this country back to life, in the form of the New Deal; an assembly of projects and programs to improve employment and bring back a sense of optimism to the American people.

In October of 1929 the stock market crashed. Forty percent of the value of stocks was lost. Although this happened politicians and many big wigs in the industry stayed faithful in the fact that economy would move forward. They could not have been more wrong. Many Americans ended up losing their life savings. Stocks in New York were worth one-fifth of what they were worth just four years before. Factories, banks and even farms began to shut down. It got so bad that by 1932, one out of every four Americans was unemployed.

The Great Depression had a bad effect on family structure in the United States. Poor families were faced with the task of a lifetime, trying to survive. They were almost no jobs for the man of the house to find to support his family. Many fathers who were the primary provider of income in the household went into a mental depression. Some even went as far committing suicide. Children at this time were forced to assume more responsibilities. At one time only concerned with going to school and getting their education, now many young people felt compelled to take on the responsibility of financially supporting their family by getting jobs and in effect dropped out of school. Lower class, middle class and upper class families were all in the same boat; and the upper class got a taste of how the poor people lived. In losing everything many families also lost their homes. This caused a lot of migration. With the constant migration and people settling from place to place came the construction of "Hoovervilles"; which were little communities made up of families on the move with little houses and huts made up of boxes, crates and any other scrap material that could be found.

With the country at its knees hope came in the form of a new president. President Roosevelt had simple philosophies; he thought just like the common citizen. As a result of his illness he kept the feeling of being a common man, in a way you can say it kept him grounded. In 1921 Roosevelt was diagnosed with Polio which is a disease of the nerve cells of the brain, this crippled him. At first he had no optimism in ever getting to live a regular life but he had that drive in his heart and he took the fact that he felt nothing could hold him back and applied it to politics. If he could overcome he felt he could will the country to overcome anything. He bridged the gap between the rich and the poor. He was ready to try anything that was needed to improve the economy of the country. He knew Americans were anxious for change and he wanted to be the man to bring that change. President Roosevelt was a very inspiring orator, his speeches uplifted Americans and gave them hope that their lives would improve. This improvement would come in the form of The New Deal.

Immediately after Roosevelt accepted the Democratic nomination for president in 1932, he made his eminent announcement of his promise of a "New Deal". "Let us....highly resolve to resume the country's interrupted march along the path of real progress, of real justice, of real equality for all our citizens, great and small......There are two ways of viewing the government's duty in matters affecting economic and social life. The first sees to it that some of their prosperity will leak through.....to labor, to farmer, to the small businessman. That theory belongs to the party of Toryism.... But it is not, and never will be the theory of the Democratic Party."[1] As soon as FDR took office in March of 1933, the country took notice and labeled this new phase in American chronology the "Roosevelt Revolution". He would speak very strongly of moving forward. "I believe, that our industrial and economic system is made for individual men and women, and not individual men and women for the benefit of the system", "I believe, that the individual should have full liberty of action to make the most of himself; but I do not believe, that in the name of that sacred word, a few powerful interests should be permitted to make industrial cannon fodder of the lives of half of the population of the United States."[2] Roosevelt felt very strongly about the intensity of the sinking economy. The banking system was going downhill and property was being lost. Roosevelt believed that the American way was that every man has the right to own his own property. Throughout his campaign while pushing the New Deal he used his powerful speeches to encourage the unemployed and homeless, the farmers and also America's African American population. He applauded their achievements in industry and agriculture and especially how they excelled in the field of education.

With talk of the New Deal many questions arose. Will these new programs and policies have a positive or negative affect on the country? Will they work out long term or will they fizzle out? The whole idea of the New Deal was too set up the country so that it would be prepared and be able to better combat any kind of economic fiasco. The first hundred days which Roosevelt used to try propose his ideas and attempt to find citizens jobs and restoring nuclear family life back to the nation.

With the country in a bind the New Deal had to get put into action. The biggest problem in the country at the time though was undoubtedly the banking system. Bank activity in the United States came to a halt. He put the idea in the nations head, "there is nothing to fear but fear itself." During his Inauguration in said this," This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself--nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."[3] Roosevelt's first plan was to deal with the