1930s new deal programs

Learn More. Google Tag Manager. Blog Contact Us Donate Menu. Header goes here. In This Section. From the THC Blog. Hitting the Roads Heavy Metal. Historic Sites Atlas. A Joint Project of:. Updated: That same month, Congress passed a bill that paid commodity farmers farmers who produced things like wheat, dairy products, tobacco and corn to leave their fields fallow in order to end agricultural surpluses and boost prices.

Despite the best efforts of President Roosevelt and his cabinet, however, the Great Depression continued. Unemployment persisted, the economy remained unstable, farmers continued to struggle in the Dust Bowl and people grew angrier and more desperate. So, in the spring of , Roosevelt launched a second, more aggressive series of federal programs, sometimes called the Second New Deal. The WPA also gave work to artists, writers, theater directors and musicians. In July , the National Labor Relations Act , also known as the Wagner Act, created the National Labor Relations Board to supervise union elections and prevent businesses from treating their workers unfairly.

In August, FDR signed the Social Security Act of , which guaranteed pensions to millions of Americans, set up a system of unemployment insurance and stipulated that the federal government would help care for dependent children and the disabled. This FDR had come a long way from his earlier repudiation of class-based politics and was promising a much more aggressive fight against the people who were profiting from the Depression-era troubles of ordinary Americans.

He won the election by a landslide. Still, the Great Depression dragged on. Workers grew more militant: In December , for example, the United Auto Workers strike at a GM plant in Flint, Michigan lasted for 44 days and spread to some , autoworkers in 35 cities. By , to the dismay of most corporate leaders, some 8 million workers had joined unions and were loudly demanding their rights.

Meanwhile, the New Deal itself confronted one political setback after another. Arguing that they represented an unconstitutional extension of federal authority, the conservative majority on the Supreme Court had already invalidated reform initiatives like the National Recovery Administration and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration.

That same year, the economy slipped back into a recession when the government reduced its stimulus spending. Despite this seeming vindication of New Deal policies, increasing anti-Roosevelt sentiment made it difficult for him to enact any new programs. The war effort stimulated American industry and, as a result, effectively ended the Great Depression. They created a brand-new, if tenuous, political coalition that included white working people, African Americans and left-wing intellectuals.

More women entered the workforce as Roosevelt expanded the number of secretarial roles in government. These groups rarely shared the same interests—at least, they rarely thought they did— but they did share a powerful belief that an interventionist government was good for their families, the economy and the nation.

Their coalition has splintered over time, but many of the New Deal programs that bound them together—Social Security, unemployment insurance and federal agricultural subsidies, for instance—are still with us today. The Home Owners' Loan Corporation was created in to assist in the refinancing of homes. The housing crisis created a great many foreclosures, and FDR hoped this new agency would stem the tide. In fact, between and , 1 million people received long-term, low-interest loans through the agency, which saved their homes from foreclosure.

The National Industrial Recovery Act was designed to bring together the interests of working-class Americans and businesses. Through hearings and government intervention, the hope was to balance the needs of all involved in the economy. The court ruled that the NIRA violated the separation of powers.

The Public Works Administration was a program created to provide economic stimulus and jobs during the Great Depression. The PWA was designed to create public works projects and continued until the U. It ended in The Social Security Act of was designed to combat widespread poverty among senior citizens and to aid the disabled. The government program, one of the few parts of the New Deal still in existence, provides income to retired wage earners and the disabled who have paid into the program throughout their working lives via a payroll deduction.

The program has become one of the most popular government programs ever and is funded by current wage earners and their employers. The Social Security Act evolved from the Townsend Plan, an effort to establish government-funded pensions for the elderly led by Dr.

Francis Townsend. The Tennessee Valley Authority was established in to develop the economy in the Tennessee Valley region, which had been hit extremely hard by the Great Depression.

The TVA was and is a federally owned corporation that still works in this region. It is the largest public provider of electricity in the United States.

The Works Progress Administration was created in Because of it, numerous roads, buildings, and other projects were built. It was renamed the Works Projects Administration in , and it officially ended in Updated by Robert Longley.

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