How Successful Is The New Deal In Ending The Depression

“The Second World War was more successful that the New Deal in ending the depression” - How far do you agree with this statement?

The New Deal was a series of social, economic, and governmental reforms created by the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt to help combat the Great Depression of the 1930s. At the time, the New Deal was met with huge amounts of criticism from some quarters and massive praise from others. Many argue that the New Deal did not really help America recover at all; rather it was the Second World War that really got the economy boosted. In this essay, I will be exploring how both the New Deal and the Second World War helped America to get out of the Depression, and how they both helped reform America.
In 1933,
when Franklin Delano Roosevelt became president, he had one aim; to get America out of the Depression and to prevent it from happening ever again. He felt he could do this by creating new laws to provide relief, recovery and reform for America, and the the only way he could do this was by demanding extra powers to take action quickly. The Senate and the House of Representatives were prepared to give him this authority for 100 days, from the 8th of March 1933, to the 16th of June. In these 100 days, thirteen laws were passed, which included creating the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Public Works Administration, and the Tennessee Valley Authority. These projects put tens of thousands of Americans back to work building dams, bridges, highways and much needed public utility systems. Roosevelt also promised ‘Action, and action now’, as he understood America needed help instantly, both with the economy, and in increasing the nation’s confidence in the economy.
He realised how serious the situation really was, which contrasted with how the former President Herbert Hoover dealt with the Depression, as he constantly claimed ‘Prosperity was just around the corner’, when in fact many things had to be done to achieve this. Roosevelt also believed in the principal of ‘Priming the pump’, which meant that the Government had to contribute and pump money into the economy to get it going again, as the previous Republican belief of ‘Laissez Fairre’ was just not effective when many were unemployed and living in
poverty.

Roosevelt introduced many alphabet agencies to help with the relief, recovery and reform of America, such as the Tennessee Valley Authority, which was one of the most successful ones.
It was set up to develop the Tennessee Valley, which was one of the most poverty-stricken areas with soil erosion and flooding. The TVA organised the building of 55 dams to control the Tennessee River, and measures were taken to improve the quality of the soil; so it could be farmed again. Moreover, forests were planted and power stations were built at the dams to provide cheap electricity for the farmers and domestic consumers. This was an excellent agency, because it helped one of the poorest states of America overcome poverty, and helped to develop it and provide many new jobs. It also brought long term to relief to America, as it still exists today. Another successful alphabet agency was the Works Progress Administration, which at one time had approximately 2 million employees. The WPA was created to provide people with jobs for a year, and it helped build 1,000 airport lading fields, 8,000 schools and hospitals and 12,000 playgrounds. This offered short term relief for the citizens of America and helped provide them with a job to get them out of unemployment and
poverty.

Not only did the New Deal consist of alphabet agencies, but it also consisted of Roosevelt instilling faith and confidence in American people, by talking to them on a daily basis via radio, and by rescuing America’s banking system from complete collapse. Moreover, millions of people were given work in government projects, and a lot of valuable work was carried out by building schools, roads and hospitals.

However, there was a lot of oppoisition to Roosevelt and the New Deal, as groups such as businessmen, Republicans, wealthy citizens and the Supreme Court all felt Roosevlt was interfering too much in people’s lives, and trying to become a dictator of the country. Many people even compared him to Hitler and Stalin! Moreover, they also felt the New Deal was just wasting money, as many of the alpjabet agencies were unsuccessful but expensice.