The Great Depression
The United States was still rolling on the momentum of the Roaring 20 s as economic prosperity propelled American society to greater heights and so did speculation. Unfortunately by 1929, most of them guessed wrong and many people suffered from the mistakes made in the stock market. People could not pay debts owed to banks and banks had no money to give out loans, causing them to close. Businesses closed down as people ceased patronizing them as they became frugal. As a result, money, the lifeblood of the economy ceased to flow. Attempts to stimulate the economy under the administration of President Herbert Hoover failed. The Hoover administration passed measures such as the Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act of 1930 which increased tariffs at incredibly high levels that was beyond what most people could meet and it had a disastrous effect on international trade as nations assumed protectionist stances. The problem with this measure was this was sponsored by interest groups which did not sit well with the majority (Cravens 212 Schultz 15).
Another measure was the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) to resuscitate bankrupt infrastructures. This underscored the governments willingness to intervene in the economy and business, a realm which was traditionally off limits to the former in the spirit of free enterprise where the initial belief was there was to be no interference from the government. The Great Depression had changed that attitude as the need for such intervention became apparent as no one else was willing to take up the cudgels for these institutions and infrastructures in distress. Yet despite these efforts, other wrong measures overshadowed Hoovers otherwise well-meaning efforts such as the increase in taxes with the hope it would generate more revenue for the government to act and voluntary cooperation between government and business as most of the latter were reluctant to cooperate (Cravens 228 Schultz 40). This was further underscored by Hoovervilles (hovels made of boxes) and Hoover Blankets (newspapers).
Other sectors in societies were greatly affected by the Depression. There were those, especially living in the Midwest, who went further west to seek greener pastures as it also happened that the Dust Bowl struck this region where severe drought, made worse by dust storms destroyed farms and ruining lives. Without profits from produce, a lot of farmers lost their farms as they were unable to pay rent or mortgage thus prompting an exodus further west where jobs were said to be waiting in California, Oregon and Washington state but even here, the new arrivals faced hardships. John Steinbeck captured these surreal and depressing scenes in his novel The Grapes of Wrath (Cravens 90). Another affected sector were the veterans of the First World War who relied on the government for their pensions and their civilian jobs. The Depression deprived them took these away and were immediately demanding the release of a bonus promised to them by law in 1924. It was supposed to be released by 1945 but the Depression made them demand it immediately. They formed the Bonus Army and camped in Washington, DC until their demands were met. Unfortunately, they were dispersed violently resulting in deaths and the government was soundly criticized for the rough handling of the incident (Schultz 17-19). It was rather unfortunate that in the minds of most Americans, the problems they were facing were credited to Hoover. His failure to address the crisis brought about by the Depression led to the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt to the White House.
Upon assuming office, Roosevelt stated in his inaugural address in 1933, Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is, fear itself needless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance (Roosevelt). He was exhorting the American people not to let fear of the uncertain to dominate them, nor should they allow the current circumstances to control them in the sense of giving them a sense of helplessness, if not hopelessness. American women made their voices heard in letters they wrote to the First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt. The gist of these letters underscore the hardships women were going through as they felt the effects of the Depression when their fathers and husbands lost their jobs or businesses. They lament on not being able to afford even the simplest of needs for they had become too expensive and worried about giving birth and raising children during these times. They exhorted them to help them and to do something (Cravens 45).
These concerns, gave Roosevelt the impetus to launch the New Deal. The New Deal was a series of programs built around three R s relief, recover and reform. Relief stresses efforts by the government to alleviate the suffering brought about by the Depression recovery of the economy and a return to stability and reforms needed in the economic system. Within the month of March, the government passed several laws such as the Emergency Banking Act (March 9), the Economy Act (March 20), the Beer-Wine Revenue Act (March 22), and the Civilian Conservation Corps Act (March 31). In May, there was the passage of the Federal Emergency Relief Act (May 12), the Agricultural Adjustment Act (May 12), the Tennessee Valley Authority Act (May 18), and the Federal Securities Act (May 27). All these were enacted within the first 100 days of Roosevelt in the White House. In 1935, there was a second Hundred Days as the Roosevelt administration launched another series of measures to follow up in initial measures such as the creation of a Works Progress Administration, stemming out of the CCC and Federal Emergency Relief Administration and the Home Owners Loan Corporation to help homeowners in distress as banks were closing down.
Despite Roosevelts efforts, even his administration faced criticisms from sectors who were not satisfied, notably from the extreme right and left. From the left were several members of Congress who were calling for a socialist approach and echoed by others such as Father Charles Coughlin who found the policies of the New Deal capitalistic, and governor Huey Long who also shared the same sentiments of government intervention and control which would lead to the equal distribution of wealth. From the right was the Liberty League which a breakaway party from the Democratic Party who found Roosevelts policies to be fomenting class conflict as the policies appear to threaten big businesses (Cravens 90). The Supreme Court declared the NRA and CCC unconstitutional for it violated the rights of businesses. Roosevelt responded through court packing to replace the older members of the Supreme Court opposed to the New Deal (Schultz 24). It was a shrewd political maneuver by Roosevelt who felt it was necessary as he felt the Depression was no time for political bickering and debate on its constitutionality as economic recovery was the main priority and he felt that as president, he had to do that it took to make this happen and did not need any impediment as the American people wanted action and democracy had to momentarily take the back seat.
All together, these laws serve to alleviate the sufferings of the American people by providing them jobs, though it did not pay as much as their former jobs but if there was something positive about it was that it helped make people productive rather than be idle and to wallow in self-pity of being unemployed. It also regulated certain commodities such as liquor, something not done before in order to provide more revenue for the government which in effect, put an end to Prohibition seeing the futility making Americans teetotalers. Furthermore, these laws also saw the government fully intervening in business matters, something never done before in America s free enterprise society which revealed its apparent flaw of going out of control when businesses would be left on their own and behave recklessly with all the speculations they did. Roosevelts court packing underscored his sentiment that the Constitution is not a suicide pact where the letter of the law had to be followed when people were suffering economically. The spirit of the law should be the one upheld.
The American people demanded immediate action from the government and got it. A considerable number of them had taken part in these programs, especially the CCC and TVA. With the regulation of banks, money was gradually trickling back into the economic bloodstream of the country. Despite the measures enacted during Roosevelt s first 100 days, and again in 1935, it did not bring immediate relief yet it was slow and recession still persisted throughout Roosevelts presidency which was an uphill battle as economic activity was not peaking (Schultz 24). It was only at the outbreak of the Second World War and America s entry in 1941 that ended the Depression as the economy went on war footing and it generated more jobs than ever before as well as sending able-bodied men into military service. Ironically, the war was the thing that significantly solved the unemployment issue in the United States as well as took away their minds from worrying as they had bigger concerns to deal with when the war came along.
Even though it did not bring immediate relief, it can be said that the measures implemented by Roosevelt was received well though not all were satisfied and demanded more or something else from the Roosevelt administration. Roosevelt in a way, had to adapt measures which was akin to the socialist model practiced in Europe where the government had to intervene in businesses to regulate it and at the same time, help provide or see to the needs of the less fortunate when nobody else would help them. Roosevelt did his best to provide hope for the American people far better from the drastic measures done in Europe and Japan where militarism favored aggression as a way to solve their problems from the Depression. If there was one lesson to be learned here, leaders like Roosevelt did what had to be done to address the problem, even if it meant antagonizing some sectors whom he felt were either the cause of the Depression or the impediments to his programs. The American people counted on him to alleviate their suffering and he gave them his best efforts though it was not exactly perfect.
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