Most Important New Deal Work Relief Agency example essay topic

IV. Major Progressivism Programs A. Education 1. Progressive education -- John Dewey led movement that focused on personal growth, not mastery of body of knowledge and learning through experience. 2.

Charles Eliot of Harvard pioneered elective courses and new teaching techniques (such as seminars) to make university learning more meaningful 3. Women began attending colleges in large numbers (by 1920, 47% of total enrollment was female). 4. Believing that more education would help bring an enlightened population, Progressives pushed enrollments to record levels (86% of children in schools by 1920) without seriously assessing how schools were doing. B. Law -- judges opinions needed to be based on factual information, not just oral arguments and precedents 1.

Muller V. Oregon (1908) -- limited women's working hours 2. Not all Progressive legal principles prevailed. In Lo chner vs. New York (1905), the Supreme Court overturned a New York law limiting bakers' working hours. C. Settlement houses -- Jane Addams and others established group homes in city slums to aid poor urban residents. 1. Promoted public health reform in cities, chlorinating water and tightening sanitary regulations 2.

Developed education and craft programs for residents 3. Created neighborhood health clinics and dispensaries D. Racial anti-discrimination efforts 1. Booker T. Washington (Atlanta Compromise) argued for self-help and accommodation on the part of blacks to white society 2. W.E.B. DuBois (Niagara Movement -- 1905) urged blacks to assert themselves and agitate for political and economic rights. Formed NAACP to use legal means to end racial discrimination E. Women's rights 1. While the number of employed women stayed constant from 1900-1920 (20%), the type of work switched from domestic labor (servants, cooks, laundresses) to clerical work (clerks, typists, bookkeepers), factory work, and professionals.

2. Most women still held the lowest paying and least opportune jobs 3. Significant Progressive feminists called for greater reform a) Charlotte Perkins Gilman attacked the male monopoly on opportunity and declared that domesticity was an obsolete value for American women b) Margaret Sanger led the movement to provide birth control to prevent unwanted pregnancies among poor women c) Suffragists urged that women be given the franchise, which came on the national level with the 19th Amendment (1919). F. Child labor laws -- most states passed minimum working age laws and prohibited children from working more than 10 hours per day, but enforcement was difficult to achieve. G. Temperance -- Anti-Saloon League and Women's Christian Temperance Union fought alcoholism on the state level through blue laws and on the national level with the 18th Amendment which prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transportation of liquor. Analysis of Roosevelt's 'New Deal " During the 1930's, America witnessed a breakdown of the Democratic and free enterprise system as the US fell into the worst depression in history. The economic depression that beset the United States and other countries was unique in its severity and its consequences. At the depth of the depression, in 1933, one American worker in every four was out of a job.

The great industrial slump continued throughout the 1930's, shaking the foundations of Western capitalism. The New Deal describes the program of US president Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933 to 1939 of relief, recovery, and reform. These new policies aimed to solve the economic problems created by the depression of the 1930's. When Roosevelt was nominated, he said, 'I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people.

' The New Deal included federal action of unprecedented scope to stimulate industrial recovery, assist victims of the Depression, guarantee minimum living standards, and prevent future economic crises. Many economic, political, and social factors lead up to the New Deal. Staggering statistics, like a 25% unemployment rate, and the fact that 20% of NYC school children were under weight and malnourished, made it clear immediate action was necessary. In the first two years, the New Deal was concerned mainly with relief, setting up shelters and soup kitchens to feed the millions of unemployed. However as time progressed, the focus shifted towards recovery. In order to accomplish this monumental task, several agencies were created.

The National Recovery Administration (NRA) was the keystone of the early new deal program launched by Roosevelt. It was created in June 1933 under the terms of the National Industrial Recovery Act. The NRA permitted businesses to draft 'codes of fair competition,' with presidential approval, that regulated prices, wages, working conditions, and credit terms. Businesses that complied with the codes were exempted from antitrust laws, and workers were given the right to organize unions and bargain collectively. After that, the government set up long-range goals which included permanent recovery, and a reform of current abuses.

Particularly those that produced the boom-or-bust catastrophe. The NRA gave the President power to regulate interstate commerce. This power was originally given to Congress. While the NRA was effective, it was bringing America closer to socialism by giving the President unconstitutional powers. In May 1935 the US Supreme Court, in Schechter Poultry Corporation V. United States, unanimously declared the NRA unconstitutional on the grounds that the code-drafting process was unconstitutional. Another New Deal measure under Title II of the National Industrial Recovery Act of June 1933, the Public Works Administration (PWA), was designed to stimulate US industrial recovery by pumping federal funds into large-scale construction projects.

The head of the PWA exercised extreme caution in allocating funds, and this did not stimulate the rapid revival of US industry that New Dealers had hoped for. The PWA spent $6 billion enabling building contractors to employ approximately 650,000 workers who might otherwise have been jobless. The PWA built everything from schools and libraries to roads and highways. The agency also financed the construction of cruisers, aircraft carriers, and destroyers for the navy. In addition, the New Deal program founded the Works Projects Administration in 1939. It was the most important New Deal work-relief agency.

The WPA developed relief programs to preserve peoples skills and self-respect by providing useful work during a period of massive unemployment. From 1935 to 1943 the WPA provided approximately 8 million jobs at a cost of more than $11 billion. This funded the construction of thousands of public buildings and facilities. In addition, the WPA sponsored the Federal Theater Project, Federal Art Project, and Federal Writers' Project providing work for people in the arts.

In 1943, after the onset of wartime prosperity, Roosevelt terminated the WPA. One of the most well known, The Social Security Act, created a system of old-age pensions and unemployment insurance, which is still around today. Social security consists of public programs to protect workers and their families from income losses associated with old age, illness, unemployment, or death. The Fair Labor Standards Act (1938) established a federal Minimum Wage and maximum-hours policy.

The minimum wage, 25 cents per hour, applied to many workers engaged in interstate commerce. The law was intended to prevent competitive wage cutting by employers during the Depression. After the law was passed, wages began to rise as the economy turned to war production. Wages and prices continued to rise, and the original minimum wage ceased to be relevant. However, this new law still excluded millions of working people, as did social security. However, a severe recession led many people to turn against New Deal policies.

In addition, World War II erupted in September 1939. Causing an enormous growth in the economy as war goods were once again in great demand. No major New Deal legislation was enacted after 1938. The Depression was a devastating event in America, and by regulating banks and the stock market the New Deal eliminated the dubious financial practices that had helped precipitate the Great Depression.

However, Roosevelt's chief fiscal tool, deficit spending, proved to be ineffective in averting downturns in the economy.