Great Depression DBQ Essay

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Julia Leone The stock market crash of 1929 set in motion a chain of events that would plunge the
United States into a deep depression. The Great Depression of the 1930's spelled the end of an era of economic prosperity during the 1920's. Herbert Hoover was the unlucky president to preside over this economic downturn, and he bore the brunt of the blame for the depression. He attempted many a reforms and public works to turn the situation around, but companies were reluctant and the unemployment rate continued to plummet. The 1932 Democratic nominee was
Franklin D. Roosevelt, who with the “New Deal” campaign was able to win by a landslide against Hoover. This campaign appealed to the American people as something new and different from the things Hoover was doing or had done to alleviate the economic troubles. The Roosevelt administration's response to the Great Depression served to remedy some of the temporary employment problems, while drastically changing the role of the government, though was still unable to fully remedy America’s economic depression.
FDR’s “New Deal” was an economic/ social plan that would alleviate the worst parts of the depression, kick­start the economy, and restore the people’s confidence in banks and the
Federal Government. This plan was devised by FDR’s own “brain trust”, a select group of
Columbia professors: Raymond Moley, Rexford Tugwell, and Adolph Berle Jr.
Within the first 100 days of his term, FDR created the “Alphabet soup Administrations”, federally organized workforce administrations and acts that were supposed to alleviate workers and protect their rights. Document C is a proper depiction of how FDR’s “brain trust” helped to

develop a “natural progression” of Federal expansion as it slowly stopped its Laissez­Faire styles. With these administrations in place the workforce became a more secure and safer place as things like the NLRA (or Wagner act), SSA (social security administration), NIRA (national industrial recovery act), and the Minimum wage act all came into play. At this time, child labor also became illegal and set hour work schedules were mandatory for every worker, making it easier for young able men to take over in the workforce. Also with the SSA, men over 65 were being taken care of with social security checks, as depicted in document E, allowing them to retire and more jobs to open up.
The NLRA was at first very tricky for the Federal government, though proved to be a key component in reassuring the american workforce. As expressed in document B, Wagner was opposed to the idea of the Federal government having any amount of control in the economy as he viewed the “New Deal” as socialistic and communistic. Wagner believed the workforce community was more able to solving the economic crisis than the government, and that it’s growing involvement would be harmful to society.
Document F is the outcome from supreme court case Schechter v. United States, arguing over the validity of the NIRA, and act that would limit the amount of time a person could work and emplace a minimum wage. The supreme court ruled against it due to it giving the Federal
government
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