New Deal Programs During The Great Depression

During the Great Depression, there were New Deal programs that provided help for the jobless in many different ways. Most of them achieved their goals, which usually included employing many people and helping the country, but none ended the Great Depression. Some are still debated about today, but in the 1930s, most of the people of America were just glad that action was being taken. One New Deal program that provided help for the jobless was the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). Although this was not designed to employ jobless people, it provided them with financial assistance by granting funds to states so that they could reopen shuttered relief agencies. The part of this program that was distinctive was the fact that it provided help for the unemployed, but not by supplying them with jobs, as most other programs did. They assisted them by helping them get back on their feet financially. Another New Deal program for helping the jobless was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). This program’s goals included hiring city dwellers to work in the national parks, forests, wilderness areas, and countryside of America. It achieved its goals, employing millions of young men that planted trees, built reservoirs, constructed parks,
and dug irrigation canals. What was dinstinctive about this program was the fact that it conserved the nation’s natural resources as well as employing many. A third New Deal program for helping the jobless was the Works Progress Administration (WPA).
This program aimed to employ people that would build or repair public buildings, including schools, post offices, and government offices. This program was very successful in achieving its goals. WPA workers eventually built/repaired six hundred and fifty thousand miles of roads, seventy-five thousand bridges, and eight hundred airports. Artists and writers were also hired by the WPA to paint murals in post offices and government buildings and write stories, state guides, and histories. Therefore, the Works Progress Administration not only provided jobs for many people during the Great Depression, but built up the buildings of
America. Some New Deal programs were designed to help the economy, particularly industry and agriculture, recover, but also aimed to employ jobless Americans in the process. One of these programs was the Public Works Administration (PWA). The PWA was granted more than three billion dollars to build large public works projects, such as the Lincoln Tunnel, Key West Highway, and the Grand Coulee Dam. It greatly improved the nation’s infrastructure and employed many people in the process. Another New Deal program, the National Recovery Administration (NRA), aimed to keep prices stable and boost employment and buying power. However, it only succeeded in completing one of these goals, raising prices. Therefore, although it was supposed to boost employment, the NRA did not succeed in helping jobless people.
One last program that helped jobless people was the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Its major goal was to build dams along the Tennessee River that would control flooding, provide cheap electricity, and increase jobs and prosperity in the poor area surrounding it. It succeeding in doing this, and helped the jobless in the process by employing them. Although this program was criticized then and still is today, it symbolized great government planning in the 1930s.
In conclusion, during the Great Depression, there were quite a few New Deal programs that provided help for the jobless, whether it was by employing them or assisting them financially. Most were successful, and although many were criticized, they symbolized government planning at its best and helped restore many Americans’ trust in government.