AIM: How did the New Deal attempt to bring the U.S. out of the Great Depression? Do Now: Think about some problems of society today: Poor Housing

THE HOMELESS

Little or No Healthcare Little or No Healthcare

UNEMPLOYMENT

If you had the power to make policies for the U.S. government today, would you do anything to help fix these problems? What would you do and how would you do it?

Listen to the following quote from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first inaugural address. Listen to the following quote from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first inaugural address. “President Hoover, Mr. Chief Justice, my friends… This is a day of national consecration, and I am certain that on this day my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our people impel. This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” 1. What does FDR say will happen to our nation? 2. What do you think were some of the fears that Americans had at this time? 3. What is the tone of this speech? Why?

RELIEF PROGRAMS CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS - "Ohio - Camp Euclid" “A new army of American pioneers will go into the woods within a few weeks. Across 150,000,000 acres of forest lands owned by the Nation and the states, an area five times as large as the state of Connecticut, will march an army of workers now unemployed and trudging city streets. It is estimated that under the plans of the Roosevelt Unemployment Conservation Bill (Civilian Conservation Corps) 250,000 men can shortly be put to work on reforestation. That this army will be fully enlisted by the time U.S. Forester Stuart gives the command, was evident from the rain of applications that poured into Washington from all over the country.” Document 1

RECOVERY PROGRAMS Document 2 Agricultural Adjustment Act -AAA C. B. Baldwin, was assistant to Henry Wallace, Secretary of Agriculture, in Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration in “The Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) came into being shortly after I got to Washington. Its purpose was to increase farm prices, which were pitifully low. All the farmers were in trouble, even the big ones. Hog prices had just gone to hell. They were four, five cents a pound? The farmers were starving to death. It was decided to slaughter piggy sows (a pregnant pig). The AAA decided to pay the farmers to kill them and the little pigs. Lot of them went into fertilizer. Then a great cry went up from the press, particularly the Chicago Tribune, about Henry Wallace slaughtering these little pigs. You'd think they were precious babies. You had a similar situation on cotton. Prices were down to four cents a pound and the cost of producing was probably ten. So a program was initiated to plow up cotton. A third of the crop, if I remember. Cotton prices went up to ten cents, maybe eleven.”

Document 3 Tennessee Valley Authority- TVA "This is an entirely different region from what it was 10 years ago. You can see the change almost everywhere you go…you can see the factories that stand today where there were worn-out cotton fields and rows of tenant shacks a few years ago. You can see new houses, by the thousands, on the edges of towns – new houses of the men who take away as much cash from a few trips to the payroll window as they used to earn in a year.” Source: David Lilienthal, in response to the TVA Project This act of May 18, 1933, created the Tennessee Valley Authority to oversee the construction of dams to control flooding, improve navigation, and create cheap electric power in the Tennessee Valley basin. President Roosevelt signed the Tennessee Valley Authority Act on May 18, 1933, creating the TVA as a Federal corporation. The new agency was asked to tackle important problems facing the valley, such as flooding, providing electricity to homes and businesses, and replanting forests. Other TVA responsibilities written in the act included improving travel on the Tennessee River and helping develop the region’s business and farming… The most dramatic change in Valley life came from the electricity generated by TVA dams. Electric lights and modern appliances made life easier and farms more productive. Electricity also drew industries to the region, providing desperately needed jobs.

REFORM Document 4 Document 4 Source: Excerpt from the Social Security Act, August 1935 “An act to provide for the general welfare by establishing a system of Federal old-age benefits, and by enabling the several States to make more adequate provision for aged persons, blind persons, dependent and crippled children, maternal and child welfare, public health, and the administration of their unemployment compensation laws; to establish a Social Security Board; to raise revenue; and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled.”

How did the New Deal attempt to bring the U.S. out of the Great Depression? Why did the role of government change from the 1920’s to the 1930’s?