Pres. Hoover's Inadequate Response to Depression: Limited Support for Few - Essay Sample

Introduction

President Hoover had not prepared for the depression crisis scope. His poor response did not start helping the many Americans who were in need. His steps mostly dealt with keeping the philosophy of a limited government. He came up with programs for getting the people back to their jobs and providing the beleaguered state and local charities with support. However, these programs were very small and highly particular on who could benefit. They only helped a few people among the ones in need.

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What were the goals and accomplishments of the First New Deal?

The New Deal had three main goals: relief, recovery and reform. This platform had the aim of alleviating the Great Depression's economic consequences by addressing common issues like poverty, unemployment and deflation. Efforts included unemployment benefits, the Social Security Act and an increase in government regulation of the big businesses. During this time, the administration of FDR also tried to boost the confidence of the public in government. Changes like Glass-Steagal and stronger government regulations were made to prevent any other economic disaster.

What were the major criticisms of the New Deal?

The criticisms were based on the intervention of the government on the economy. For the Libertarians, it was based on the Constitutional violation. The New Deal was based on weakened liberties of the individuals and strong state involvement in the economy. Most Conservatives shared this view. The Old Right came up and aimed to oppose the New Deal. They claimed that it favoured large businesses by creating regulations based on their interests.

How did the New Deal evolve? How did it transform the role of the federal government in American life?

The New Deal immediately started working after the inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. Because of the assumption that it needed the federal government to take the nation out of depression, Roosevelt's early days of administration saw the coming up of the emergency relief aids, work relief aids, banking reform laws, and agricultural aids. The second New Deal included the Social Security Act, union protection aids, and the programs of aiding migrant workers and tenant farmers. The New Deal programs started a precedent for the federal government to ensure an important role in the nation's social and economic affairs.

Describe the gains by the labour unions during the New Deal.

After the election of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the government, as well as the courts, started looking more seriously on the labour pleas. The Norris-La Guardia Act was passed to make the yellow-dog contracts not enforceable. This law also gave a limit to the power of the federal courts to curb strikes and any other job activities. FDR sought several key laws in labour's cause one of them being the National Labor Relations Act (1935). It allowed workers a right of joining unions and bargaining collectively through the union representatives. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was founded to curb the labour practices which were not fair and to arrange elections when the employees needed to come up with unions. However, Long and other critics saw this as not enough for the people in the working class. Long offered a plan for wealth redistribution.

How did Huey Long and other critics shape the New Deal policies?

Long had a slogan of "every man FDR embraced a king" and his proposals for retirees' pension, national minimum wages and free education. Among the programs of the President's New Deal were the creation of greater security for an average American by providing things such as affordable housing loans, federal insurance and increase in wages.

Why did Roosevelt attempt to "pack" the Supreme Court? Did he achieve his goals?

Because of the frustrations that were brought out by several Court rulings against some aspects of the New Deal, Roosevelt proposed to add the number of Justices in Supreme Court. But this was never successful as FDR faced a high opposition while trying to create a Supreme Court which would uphold the New Deal constitutionality in a better way. His 1937 Reform Bill got a widespread opposition even among the people who previously sympathised with his political agenda.

How did the New Deal attempt to raise farm prices and stabilise industry?

The advisors of President Roosevelt believed that the cause of economic depression was the farming economic slowdown. The New Deal was majorly intended to assist farmers. The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) was passed in 1933. It encouraged farmers to grow fewer crops. This would be of great benefit to farmers in that the product would be less and the prices of crops would rise in the markets. Farmers were paid by the AAA to clear some of their farm animals and crops. The Act made a remarkable improvement in farmers' lives because the prices went up, the evictions dropped, and the income of the farmers increased.

How did the nations' perceptions of the role of the government - its powers and responsibilities - change in the 1930s?

The New Deal which came up at the time of the Great Depression was a mark of a big shift within the role of the federal government on the domestic policy. The Great Depression had led to a huge financial collapse. The high magnitude of problems such as bank failures, high unemployment, hunger, homelessness, and poverty and overwhelmed the resources belonging to the private charity and individual states. Franklin D. Roosevelt's government intervened to save capitalism and came up with several programs which could help the people. Among these was the hiring of people who were unemployed through several programs.

Trace the election of 1932. How did both parties settle on their perspective nominees, and what was the result of the election?

This was the first election which was held during the Great Depression and Herbert Hoover was defeated by Franklin D. Roosevelt. During the nominations, Hoover was easily renominated in the Republic Convention which was in Chicago. Roosevelt also won the Democratic party nominations, and he broke traditions when he appeared in person to accept the nomination in the party. The election was a representation of the dramatic shift within the country's political alignment. FDR won with 472 electoral votes followed by Hoover who had 59 electoral votes. Roosevelt won as he had promised for the recovery with the New Deal for the Americans.