THE
NEW DEAL AND WORLD WAR II
Roosevelt and The New Deal
In
1933 the new president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, brought an air of confidence and
optimism that quickly rallied the people to the banner of his program, known as
the New Deal. The New Deal merely introduced social and economic reforms
familiar to many Europeans for more than a generation. Yet its actions provided
tangible help for millions of Americans, laid the basis for a powerful new
political coalition, and brought to the individual citizen a sharp revival of
interest in government.
The First New Deal
Banking and Finance.
In this era, the banking and credit system of the nation was in a state of
paralysis. With astonishing rapidity the nation’s banks were first closed and
then reopened only if they were solvent. The Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation (FDIC) insured savings-bank deposits up to $5,000. Federal regulations
were imposed upon the sale of securities on the stock exchange.
Unemployment.
Roosevelt faced unprecedented mass unemployement. By the time he took office,
as many as 13 million Americans, more than a quarter of the labor force were
out of work. An early step for the unemployed came in the form of the Civilian
Conservation Corps (CCC), a program that brought relief to young men between 18
and 25 years of age. It enrollees worked in camps administered by the army.
Agriculture.
In the spring of 1933, the agricultural sector of the economy was in a state of
collapse. It there by provided a laboratory for the New Dealers’ belief that
greater regulation would solve many of the country’s problems. In 1933,
Congress passed the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) to provide economic
relief to farmers. The AAA proposed to raise crop prices by paying farmers a
subsidy to compensate for voluntary cutback in production. And this congress
had been mostly successful.
Industry and Labor.
The National Recovery Administration (NRA), established in 1933 with the
National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), attempted to end cutthroat competition
by setting codes of fair competitive practice to generate more jobs and thus
more buying. The NIRA had guaranteed to labor the right of collective
bargaining through labor unions representing individual workers, but the NRA
had failed to overcome strong business opposition to independent unionism.
The Second New Deal
In
its early years, the New Deal sponsored a remarkable series of legislative
initiatives and achieved significant increases in production and prices, but it
didn’t bring an end to the Depression. Vocal attack also mounted from the
political left and right as dreamers, schemers, and politicians alike emerged
with economic panaceas that drew wide audiences. The New Deal’s cornerstone,
according to Roosevelt, was the Social Security Act of 1935. Social Security
created a system of state-administered welfare payments for the poor,
unemployed, and disabled based on matching state and federal contributions.
A New Coalition
In
the 1936 election, Roosevelt won a decisive victory over his Republican
opponent, Alf Landon of Kansas. A broad new coalition aligned with the
Democratic Party emerged, consisting of labor, most farmers, most urban ethnic
groups, African Americans, and the traditionally Democratic South.
War and Uneasy Neutrality
The
United States, disillusioned by the failure of the crusade for democracy in
World War I, announced that in no circumstances could any country involved in
the conflict look to it for aid. Neutrality legislation, enacted piecemeal from
1935 to 1937, prohibited trade in arms with any warring nations, required cash
for all other comodities, and forbade American flag merchant ships from
carrying those goods. America was now neutral in name only.
Japan, Pearl Harbor, and War
Talking
advantage of an opportunity to improve its strategic position, Japan boldly
announced a “new order” in which it would exercise hegemony over all of the
Pacific. On the morning of December 7, Japanese carried-based planes executed a
devasting surprise attack against the U.S Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor,
Hawaii. Soldiers, sailors, and civilians were killed. However, the U.S aircraft
carriers that would play such a critical role in the ensuing naval war in the
Pacific were at sea and not anchored at Pearl Harbor.
War, Victory, and Bomb
In
June 1944, the Battle of the Philippine Sea effectively destroyed Japanese
naval air power, forcing the resignation of Japanese Prime Minister Tojo. General
Douglas MacArthur who had reluctantly left the Philippines two years before to
escape Japanese capture, returned to the islands in October. Next, the U.S set
its sight on the stategic island of Iwo Jima in the Bonin Islands, about
halfway between the Marianas and Japan. In November 1945 at Nurremberg,
Germany, the criminal trials of 22 Nazi leaders, provide for at Potsdam, took
place. The trials lasted more than 10 months. Twenty two defendants were
convicted, 12 of them sentenced to death. Similar proceedings would be held
against Japanese war leaders.
Family Institution
Things seemed to be especially
difficult for unemployed and
underemployed male heads of families. Traditional conceptions of gender
roles prevailed during the 1930s; accordingly, men were expected to be the
breadwinners of their families. Unemployed men often found themselves hanging
around their homes, irritating their wives; quarrels became more frequent
between husbands and wives. At times, men withdrew emotionally and even
physically from their families and friends.
Features that could be considered
symptoms of family disorganization, especially the employment of women and children outside the home, can perhaps best
be regarded as ways in which families actively adapted to and coped with
economic deprivation. In order to help provide economic support for their
families, married women increasingly came
to work outside the home during the 1930s, generally in low-status,
low-paying jobs, often in the service and light manufacturing sectors.
Children
contributed to their families as well. Boys worked, usually on a
part-time basis, in activities such as delivering newspapers, doing janitorial
tasks, and assisting as store clerks. Girls, on the other hand, tended to stay
home and help with domestic tasks, especially when their mothers worked outside
the home.
Education
Institution
Early
public schools in the United States did not focus on academics like math or
reading. Instead they taught the virtues of family, religion, and community.
Girls were usually taught how to read
but not how to write in early America.
By the mid-19th century, academics became the sole
responsibility of public schools.
In the South, public schools were not
common during the 1600s and the early 1700s. Affluent families paid private
tutors to educate their children.
Economic
Institutions
Economic Collapse and a Slow Recovery
These controversies,
largely political in scope, occurred against the backdrop of a collapsing
economy. Beginning in the fall of 1937, industrial production fell by 33
percent, national income dropped by 12 percent, and industrial stock prices
plummeted by 50 percent. Nearly 4 million people lost their jobs, and the total
number of unemployed increased to 11.5 million. The "Roosevelt
recession" occurred largely because the President, along with some of his
advisers (led by Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau) were determined to
balance the federal budget and had, as a result, reduced government spending.
In 1936, the government contributed $4.1 billion to consumer purchasing power,
versus less than $1 billion in 1937.
Religion Institution
Up until the 1960s,
the "Protestant establishment"
(the seven mainline denominations of Baptists, Congregationalists, Disciples,
Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, and Presbyterians) dominated the
religious scene, with the occasional Catholic
or Jewish voice heard dimly in the background. Traditional Christianity
faced some challenges in the first half of the century, especially from the
literary elite of the 1920s, but after the second great war, the populace
seemed eager to replenish its spiritual wells.
Political
Institution
Franklin Roosevelt, brought an air of confidence
and optimism that quickly rallied the people to the banner of his program,
known as the New Deal. The New Deal merely introduced types of social and
economic reform familiar to many Europeans for more than a generation.
Conclusion
Franklin
D. Roosevelt as the president at this era, has a very important role in the New
Deal and World War II. The New Deal and World War II brought much destruction
but also gives a big change in the world.
