I forget sometimes, that there is very little US history taught today in America´s public schools. I also forget how many new generations of Americans have been born since the 1950´s.
Most of these younger Americans have no idea as to what President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt´s "
New Deal" was, or how it came to change and grow America for a large portion of the 20th Century.
One of those obviously younger, on-line readers recently responded to my article about a possible "
New, New Deal" from President-Elect Obama for today´s America. The reader asked me "
What was so great about FDR´s ´New Deal´ ? What was the big deal about building some roads and schools and other government buildings?"
I guess, a question like that today, from someone that is under 30 years of age and had only attended local American public schools, that is probably a very fair question.
If we don´t take into consideration the tremendous, positive psychological effect that the first 100 days of FDR´s "
New Deal" presidency had on all of America, there are still substantial physical examples today of what occurred from 1933 on, that demonstrate why the "
New Deal" was such a "
big deal" for most working Americans.
BIG DEAL RESULTS:Roosevelt´s vast government development programs and the results of what became known as the "
alphabet soup of government agencies" were as follows:
The
CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps)The
CCC was disbanded after only 9 years. The agency was disbanded, so that its members could join the military to fight for the US in
World War II. However, during those 9 years, 3 million men had been given meaningful work.
3 billion trees had been planted, 800 state parks had been developed, 20 million acres of land had been saved from soil erosion, 125,000 miles of trails had been cleared,
(including those for the first ever, down-hill skiing resort in the US, in Stowe, Vermont)The
CCC was also responsible for inspiring the service programs that eventually became the:
Job Corps, Peace Corps, VISTA, & AmeriCorps, plus thousands of smaller, community service agencies. FDR eventually became known as "
The Father of American National Service."
The
PWA (Public Works Administration) More than any other
New Deal program, the
PWA epitomized the notion of "
priming the pump" to encourage economic growth. Between July 1933 and March 1939, the
PWA funded the construction of more than 34,000 projects, including airports, electricity-generating dams, aircraft carriers; and seventy percent of the new schools and one third of the hospitals built during that time. It also electrified the
Pennsylvania Railroad between New York and Washington, D.C.
The
PWA spent over $6 billion in all of its projects. The historical legacy of the
PWA is perhaps as important as its practical accomplishments at the time. It provided the federal government with its first systematic network for the distribution of US funds to state localities. It ensured that America´s conservation would remain an element in the national discussion, and it provided the federal administrators with a broad amount of badly needed experience in public policy planning.
When FDR moved industry toward war production and abandoned his opposition on deficit spending, the
PWA then became irrelevant and was abolished in June 1941.
The
NRA (National Recovery Act)The bill that formed the
NRA was the biggest news of its time. It made changes that still exist to this day. It created public works projects, abolished child labor and set the first federal minimum wage at $12 dollars for a 40 hour week.
It also eliminated antitrust regulation and established thousands of price and production codes for many industries.
The American public liked the program, as it symbolized forward motion against the
Great Depression. In 1933, there were pro-
NRA marches with 250,000 Americans marching down New York´s
Fifth Avenue. And there were large marches in other cities all over the country. Shopkeepers everywhere hung the
NRA´s emblem, a blue eagle, in their window, with the legend saying: "
We Do Our Part".
Over time, the
NRA led indirectly to the widespread adoption of humane working conditions and new work place safety standards. It also offered the opportunity to recognize, for the first time, the right of workers "
to organize and bargain collectively". The "
American Labor Movement" finally had the backing of Washington. This caused the phrase in the
NRA charter that allowed this organizational freedom to be called the "
Magna Carta" of labor organizing.
The
TVA Act of 1933 (Tennessee Valley Authority)Even by Depression standards, the Tennessee Valley was in sad shape in 1933. Much of the land had been farmed too hard for too long, eroding and depleting the soil. Crop yields had fallen along with farm incomes. The best timber in the area had already been cut.
The
TVA developed fertilizers, taught farmers how to improve crop yields, and helped replant forests, control forest fires, and improve habitat for wildlife and fish.
The most dramatic change in Valley life came from the electricity generated by the
TVA dams. Electric lights and modern appliances made life easier and farms more productive. Eventually, having electricity also drew industries into the region, providing desperately needed jobs.
The
CWA (Civil Works Administration) The
CWA was established as a temporary organization during the Great Depression, to solely create paying jobs for millions of America´s unemployed. The jobs were merely temporary for the duration of the hard winter of 1933. Harry L. Hopkins was put in charge of the short-term organization by President Roosevelt, who unveiled the CWA on November 8, 1933.
The
CWA was a project created under the
Federal Emergency Relief Administration.
The
CWA created construction jobs, mainly improving or constructing buildings and bridges. It ended in 1934, after costing $200 million a month. So much was spent in such a short time, because it allowed the
CWA to hire 4 million unemployed people. This probably saved these people´s lives while providing a small, but initial jump-start for the US economy.
The
WPA (Works Progress Administration)Renamed in 1939, to the
Work Projects Administration, was the largest of the New Deal agencies, employing millions of people and affecting most every locality in the United States, especially rural and western mountain populations. It was created by a presidential order and was funded by Congress with the passage of the
Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935.
The
WPA continued and extended relief programs similar to the
Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) started by
Herbert Hoover and the U.S. Congress in 1932. However, Hoover never fully funded his much smaller, "
experimental-like" programs.
Also headed up by Harry L. Hopkins, the
WPA provided jobs and income to the unemployed during the Great Depression. Between 1935 and 1943 the
WPA provided almost 8 million jobs. The program built many public buildings, projects and roads and even operated large art, drama, media and literacy projects. It fed children and redistributed food, clothing and housing. At that time, almost every community in America had a park, bridge or school constructed by the
WPA agency. Expenditures from 1936 to 1939 totaled nearly $7 billion.
Few Americans today understand that the many roads and public projects, they now take for granted, began with FDR´s "
New Deal". This includes the
Triborough Bridge in New York to the
Outer Drive in Chicago, to the
University of Texas Library and many college football stadiums across the southern states. Virtually every older city in the US contains several roads and public buildings that were constructed under FDR´s federal programs.
The final totals in the US from the
WPA included 39,000 new public schools, 2,500 new hospitals, 325 new airports and tens of thousands of smaller projects.
Until it was closed down by Congress, when the war preparation and building-boom took over in 1943, the various programs of the
WPA added up to the largest employment base in the country.
Anyone who needed a job could become eligible for most of its jobs. Hourly wages were the prevailing wages in the local areas, and the rules said workers could not work more than 30 hours a week. However, many of the larger projects included months of working in the field, with workers eating and sleeping on the worksites.
There was training involved in teaching new skills and the project's original legislation went forward with a strong emphasis on family, training and building up people´s capabilities and their education.
So, for those that ask "
What´s the big deal about FDR´s "New Deal"? Well, here´s the answer.
WHAT IF THE "NEW DEAL" HADN´T HAPPENED?For those Libertarians and conservatives that say: "
Government should stay out of people´s lives. All that government should do is provide for our defense, protect our borders and ports and build roads and dams."
If the US government had not done what was done during the Depression by FDR and the Democratic Congress, many historians continue to say that the mood at the time would have supported America having a strong dictator take over the country.
Many Americans in the 1930´s, had admired the Italian Dictator Mussolini and Adolf Hitler had just come to power in Germany. Both of these dictators had initially appeared, at the time, to have "
saved" their respective countries from economic failure.
America today, could easily have become a much different country, had FDR not had the strength and the intelligence to do what he did, while retaining the country´s democratic republic foundation.
In reality, FDR and the US Government, jumped in and did what individual Americans were incapable of doing for themselves. Had the Republican,
US President Herbert Hoover continued in power, his lack of action would have prevented America´s economic recovery, and the US would then not have eventually become the greatest nation in the world.
So, in today´s down economy, will a President Obama take an up-dated approach to that of FDR?
All I know is that the new president-elect is a great student and admirer of both
Abraham Lincoln and
FDR. And following the new American president and the country over the coming weeks and months, should turn out to be very interesting.
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/84605
