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Hello, I'm Mr. Marchin, and thank you for joining me for today's history lesson.
I'll be guiding you through all of our resources today, and my top priority is to make sure that by the end of our lesson, you are able to successfully meet our learning objective.
Welcome to today's lesson, which is part of our unit on the New Deal and World War II, where we are asking ourselves, "How far did the American economy recover during the 1930s and 1940s?" By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to evaluate the impacts of President Roosevelt's New Deal.
There are five keywords, which are gonna help us navigate our way through today's lesson.
Those are relief, federal government, Alphabet Agencies, pension, and domestic servant.
Food, money, or services provided to people in need is called relief.
The federal government is the national government of the USA.
The Alphabet Agencies were organisations set up to manage the New Deal.
A pension is money paid to a person once they are elderly and no longer work.
And a domestic servant is a person who works in someone else's home, performing duties such as cooking and cleaning.
Today's lesson will be split into three parts, and we'll begin by focusing on President Roosevelt's First Hundred Days.
The Great Depression began in 1929.
In January 1933, Franklin D.
Roosevelt became President of the United States of America.
Roosevelt promised a "new deal for the American people." President Roosevelt's New Deal had to try and tackle a range of problems, which the American economy was suffering from, including unemployment.
By 1933, 1 in 4 workers was without a job.
It also had to deal with poverty, it'd become widespread, thousands were reliant on charity for relief.
It also had to deal with houselessness.
There were 2 million hobos in the USA during the Great Depression, people who travelled from place to place in search of work.
The banking crisis was also a key issue in the economy.
9,000 banks failed between 1929 and 1931, and as a result of these banking failures, there were also fewer business loans being provided, which meant that businesses were also struggling to grow and to maintain production.
And so Roosevelt also had to contend with business failures.
In fact, 1 in 20 farms was failing, showing that there were key difficulties in agriculture.
And in 1932, 20,000 companies engaged in all sorts of different types of work, went bust in the USA.
Roosevelt's New Deal involved increased government intervention in the economy.
The New Deal included the promise of 3 R's.
These were relief, which meant immediate help for Americans in need, such as the sick or the elderly.
recovery, which meant job generation to restart economic growth, and reform, which meant new measures to prevent another Great Depression from happening in the future.
So let's reflect on what we've heard so far.
What did Roosevelt's promise of 3 R's stand for? Pause the video here, and press play when you're ready to see the right answers.
Okay, well done to everybody who said that the 3 R's standed for relief, recovery, and reform.
These were the 3 R's that Roosevelt said his New Deal would deliver.
Roosevelt's first hundred days as president were important for getting the New Deal started.
77 new laws were passed in this period, including, the Emergency Banking Act, the Economy Act, and the Beer Act.
So we'll think about each of these new laws in turn.
So let's start by focusing on the Emergency Banking Act.
Roosevelt closed all banks for a four-bank holiday.
All banks were inspected during this time, and only reliable, well-run banks with enough cash were allowed to reopen.
Roosevelt hoped that this would restore American's confidence in banks, and if banks were able to start running again because people return their money to them, then they'd be able to start giving out loans to businesses again, which Roosevelt hoped would get the economy growing again.
So, let's think about what we've just heard.
I want you to study the table shown on the screen.
The table shows us the number of bank failures in America per year between 1930 and 1935.
Which inference is most valid based on the information available in the table? Is it that the Emergency Banking Act was not necessary, that the Emergency Banking Act had an almost immediate impact, or that the Emergency Banking Act was very popular with voters? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.
Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct inference was B.
From our table, we could infer that the Emergency Banking Act had an almost immediate impact.
We can see that in 1930, '31, '32, and '33, the number of bank failures in America was consistently 1,000 or more.
However, from 1934 onwards, so this was the first full year after the Emergency Banking Act was passed, all of a sudden the number of bank failures fell to 50, a fraction of what it had been in 1933 and the years before, suggesting that the Emergency Banking Act had an almost immediate impact.
So now we can think about the Economy Act.
The New Deal was set to involve increased government intervention, but increased government intervention would require more spending.
Roosevelt cut the pay of all people working for the federal government and armed forces by 15%.
This included his own salary, and the purpose of this was to help save money.
In fact, the Economy Act saved nearly $1 billion in savings, which could then be used for spending on New Deal programmes.
So thinking about what we've just heard, how did the Economy Act help Roosevelt's New Deal? Was it that it set targets for the amount of jobs to be created, that it saved money, which could be spent on other policies, or that it identified the most cost-effective methods for supporting Americans? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.
Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answer was B.
The Economy Act helped Roosevelt's New Deal because it saved money, which could be spent on other policies.
In fact, nearly $1 billion was saved through the cuts made by the Economy Act.
And so finally, we can think about the Beer Act.
Roosevelt made it legal to make and sell alcohol again.
He brought an end to Prohibition.
This, for one, put gangsters out of business.
But if we think about this Act in economic terms, it created new opportunities for alcohol manufacturing, and it also created the prospect of new tax revenue for the government.
Because if it was legal to manufacture and sell alcohol, again, the government could tax those activities and make more money from it, which you could then spend on the New Deal.
So, let's reflect on what we've just heard and make sure that our understanding is really secure.
I want you to identify the two economic benefits of the Beer Act.
So from our list, we have increased Roosevelt's popularity, increased government tax revenue, new jobs were created in the brewing industry, and reduced organised crime.
So you're looking for two of those, which we could describe as economic benefits.
Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answers.
Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answers were B and C.
The Beer Act created multiple economic benefits, for one, by making alcohol manufacturing and selling legal, again, increased government tax revenue because those activities could be taxed.
And it also created new job opportunities, as the beer manufacturing industry and other alcohol manufacturing industries were able to start up again.
So we're now ready to put all of our knowledge and understanding into practise.
I want you to study the impacts of New Deal laws shown in the table below.
Our impacts are; made it easier for businesses to secure loans, put gangsters out of business, provided more money for spending on the New Deal, and encouraged job growth.
For each of those impacts, I want you to identify at least one law passed as part of Roosevelt's New Deal, which had this effect.
So pause the video here, and press play when you're ready to check your answers.
Okay, well done for all of your effort on that task.
So I asked you to study the impacts of the New Deal laws shown in our table.
And for each impact, I asked you to identify at least one law passed as part of Roosevelt's New Deal, which had this effect.
So for our first impact, made it easier for businesses to secure loans.
You may have identified that the Emergency Banking Act had this impact.
For our impact to put gangsters out of business, you should have said that the Beer Act had this effect.
For a law that provided more money for spending on the New Deal, you may have identified that the Economy Act had this impact, or that the Beer Act had this impact, and for encouraged job growth, you may have identified that the Beer Act had this effect, or that the Emergency Banking Act had this effect, as the Emergency Banking Act was supposed to create a situation where businesses would find it easier to secure loans again, and therefore, to restart their growth and create jobs.
So really well done if you managed to identify at least one Act for each of those impacts correctly.
So now we're ready to move on to the second part of our lesson for today, where we are gonna focus on Alphabet Agencies and social security.
Roosevelt's New Deal amounted to more than just the actions of his first hundred days.
The New Deal remained in operation between 1933 and 1939.
During Roosevelt's first hundred days, the President set up many new organisations to help implement his New Deal.
Because these organisations became known by their initials, they were often referred to as Alphabet Agencies.
The Alphabet Agencies did a lot of the work of the New Deal.
One-third of all American voters still depended upon farming for a living in the 1930s, and Roosevelt worked hard to help this group.
The Farm Credit Administration, FCA, and the Agricultural Adjustment Agency, the AAA, were both set up as Alphabet Agencies to help farmers.
Roughly 20% of all American farmers benefited from FCA loans, helping them to pay their debts.
Meanwhile, the AAA paid farmers to produce less and destroy some of what they already produced.
This was controversial, as millions of impoverished Americans were going hungry.
Nevertheless, the AAA helped farmers to overcome the problems of overproduction, reduced supply meant that food prices rose.
And between 1933 and 1939, farmers' incomes doubled.
So let's make sure we've got a secure understanding of what we've just heard.
We have a statement on the screen that says, "The AAA mainly focused on teaching farmers how to grow more crops.
Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here, and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.
Okay, well done then to everybody who said that that statement was false, but we need to be able to justify our response.
So two justifications have appeared on the screen.
The first says that, "The AAA reduced overproduction by paying farmers to destroy crops." And the second says that, "The AAA reduced overproduction by helping farmers to find buyers abroad." So, which one of those two justifications is correct? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.
Okay, well done then to everybody who said the correct justification was A, the AAA reduced overproduction by paying farmers to destroy crops.
Now this can sound like a confusing action and was controversial at the time.
By reducing the supply of food, it meant that food prices began to rise, so farmers could start making money again.
Assistance was also provided for the unemployed under the New Deal.
Roosevelt believed that if the government provided jobs for the unemployed, workers would begin to spend more, giving a boost to businesses, who in turn, would begin to hire more workers.
This idea was described as "priming the pump," and it was hoped it could restart a cycle of prosperity in America.
2,500,000 men, aged 18 to 25 found jobs working for the Civilian Conservation Corps, the CCC.
The CCC employed men to work on projects such as planting trees, strengthening river banks, and digging canals.
Meanwhile, the Public Works Administration, the PWA, employed 4 million men and spent over $3 billion constructing schools, airports, roads, bridges, and other public works.
So, I wanna make sure that we've really understood what we just heard.
Study the diagram shown on the screen, it represents how Roosevelt hoped "priming the pump" would lead to economic recovery.
How should Stage X in this cycle be labelled? Should it be government "primes the pump," unemployment falls, or consumers spend more? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.
Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answer was C.
Roosevelt hoped that if New Deal Agencies like the CCC and PWA created jobs, that this would allow workers to start earning more again, that those workers would spend more as consumers, and that this would help business profits to rise, leading those businesses to expand and hire more workers, in turn, allowing workers to earn more, and spend more, and helping businesses, creating a new cycle of prosperity.
And let's try another question.
This time, I want you to study the table shown on the screen.
Our table shows the American unemployment rate between 1929 and 1939.
Based on the information in the table, which statement is most accurate? Is it that unemployment continually fell under the New Deal, that the New Deal returned unemployment to its 1920s level, or that the New Deal led to some reduction in unemployment? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.
Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answer was C.
We can see from the information in our table, that the New Deal led to some reduction in unemployment, whereas it had been 24.
9%, so virtually 1/4 of all workers at the time that the New Deal began, that had fallen to 17.
2% within six years when the New Deal ended in 1939.
However, we can't call this a return to 1920s levels of unemployment because, in 1929, unemployment had been just 3.
3%.
And we also can't say that unemployment fell continually under the New Deal, as whilst it did fall overall, between 1937 and 1939, there was actually a slight increase in unemployment during those last two years of the New Deal.
Roosevelt's New Deal also provided relief for those who were in need.
The Federal Emergency Relief Agency, FERA, gave states $500 million, which they could use to help the houseless and those struggling to buy food.
Furthermore, in 1935, Roosevelt began the Second New Deal, which included the 1935 Social Security Act.
This Act targeted groups who were most likely to fall into poverty.
Pensions were provided for the elderly, and small payments were given to widows, orphans, the disabled, and unemployed.
This was the first national welfare system set up in the USA.
However, social security payments were small, and only covered a third of workers.
There was nothing for farmers or people who worked as domestic servants.
So, let's reflect on what we've just heard.
I want you to write the missing word in the following sentence.
As part of the Social Security Act, the federal government began paying, blank, to the elderly for the first time.
So what's the missing word? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.
Okay, well done to everybody who said that the missing word was pensions.
As part of the Social Security Act, the federal government began paying pensions to the elderly for the first time.
And let's try another question.
How many workers were covered by social security? Was it almost all workers, half, so not including those who worked in factories, or a third, not including farmers or domestic servants? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.
Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answer was C, social security covered a third of workers, not including farmers or domestic servants.
Roosevelt also tried to help workers and businesses by setting up the National Recovery Administration, the NRA.
2.
5 million businesses employing 22 million workers join the NRA scheme.
Businesses who joined the NRA scheme were encouraged to pay fair wages, improve working conditions, and allow their employees to join trade unions.
In return, these businesses were allowed to display the NRA logo on their products, and Americans were encouraged to buy from these companies.
The NRA logo can be seen on the screen.
However, as the NRA scheme was voluntary, many businesses simply refused to join, including Ford, which was one of the biggest American car manufacturers.
In 1937, members of the Ford Service Department attacked members of the United Auto Workers, the UAW Union, who were trying to persuade Ford workers to join their unions.
16 UAW organisers were injured during this attack.
So let's check our understanding of what we've just heard.
We have a sentence on the screen that says, "It was mandatory for companies to sign up the NRA scheme for improving treatment of workers." I want you to change one word in that sentence to correct it.
So think about which word is wrong, and what it should be instead to make the sentence correct.
Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.
Okay, well done to everybody who said that the wrong word was "mandatory," and that should actually be "voluntary." It was "voluntary" for companies to sign up to the NRA scheme for improving treatment of workers.
So, we're now ready to put all of our knowledge and understanding into practise.
I want you to describe one way in which President Roosevelt's New Deal benefited Americans by delivering relief, recovery, and reform.
So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your responses.
Okay, well done for all of your effort on that task.
I asked you to describe one way in which President Roosevelt's New Deal benefited Americans by delivering "relief." Your answer may have included, "The 1935 Social Security Act provided "relief" to vulnerable groups of Americans.
The Act led to the federal government providing pensions to the elderly and small payments to other groups such as the sick and unemployed for the first time." For the second question, I asked you to describe one way in which President Roosevelt's New Deal benefited Americans by delivering "recovery." So your answer may have included, "The New Deal benefited Americans by delivering "recovery" through the work of agencies like the Public Works Administration, the PWA.
The PWA helped to provide new jobs and reduce unemployment.
The PWA employed 4 million men to construct public works such as roads, bridges, and schools, allowing them to begin earning money again." And for our third question, I asked you to describe one way in which President Roosevelt's New Deal benefited Americans by delivering "reform." So your answer may have included, "The National Recovery Administration, or NRA, worked to "reform" working conditions and help employees.
2.
5 million businesses employing 22 million Americans were part of the NRA scheme, which encourage businesses to pay fair wages and allow workers to join trade unions." So well done if your own answers look something similar to those models which we've just seen.
We're now ready to move on to the third and final part of our lesson for today, where we're going to focus on the impact of the New Deal.
Roosevelt began implementing his New Deal in 1933.
By 1939, the president admitted that the New Deal had come to an end.
The impact of the New Deal between 1933 and 1939 varied between different groups of Americans.
There were no Alphabet Agencies or New Deal laws, which specifically targeted women.
In fact, in the case of the CCC, only young men were employed.
Some later agencies such as the Works Progress Administration, the WPA, did employ women as well as men, though usually only for unskilled work.
Meanwhile, other agencies encouraged continued gender discrimination.
The NRA codes, for example, set wages for women lower than they did for men, as it was assumed that men would be the main wage earners in every family.
The average yearly wage for a woman in 1937 was $525, compared to just over $1,000 for men.
So let's make sure we've understood what we just heard.
We have a statement on the screen that reads, "The NRA encouraged employers to pay unequal salaries to men and women." Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.
Okay, well done to everybody who said that that statement was true, but we need to be able to justify our response.
So two justifications have appeared on the screen.
The first says that, "The NRA assumed that women did not need to be paid as much, as their husbands would be the main earner.
' And the second says that, "The NRA believed women should be paid more to make up for years of being paid less than men." So which one of those two justifications is correct? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.
Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answer was A.
The NRA assumed that women did not need to be paid as much as men as their husbands would be the main earner in each family.
Because of this, even for companies following NRA codes, gender discrimination in pay continued, Many African Americans voted for President Roosevelt and the Democrats during the 1932 and 1936 Presidential Elections.
Nevertheless, the New Deal did not lead to an end to discrimination against African Americans.
Roosevelt relied upon the support of Southern Democrats who continued to believe in white supremacy.
Pressure from these Democrats meant that whilst the CCC did provide jobs for 200,000 African American men, they were segregated from white Americans when they were in CCC camps.
African Americans received 10 to 20% of all federal relief funding provided by the New Deal.
However, problems with the New Deal affected African Americans disproportionately.
Many sharecroppers were African Americans, but the actions of the AAA, actually led to many sharecroppers being evicted by landlords as farm production was reduced.
Similarly, 65% of African American workers could not claim social security.
This was because jobs in which many, especially female African Americans worked, such as domestic service and farm work were not covered by social security.
So thinking about what we've just heard, which statement is most accurate? To maintain the support of African Americans, Roosevelt banned segregation, to maintain the support of serving Democrats, Roosevelt did not challenge segregation, or to avoid losing too much support, Roosevelt made some changes to segregation, but these were small? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.
Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answer was B.
To maintain the support of southern Democrats, Roosevelt did not challenge segregation.
In fact, African American men who were employed by the Civilian Conservation Corps, the CCC, were actually segregated from white men employed by the scheme and had to live in separate camps.
Let's try another question.
Why were many African American women unable to claim social security? Was it because only white Americans were covered, because women were not covered, because domestic servants were not covered, or because people living in the South were not covered? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.
Okay well done to everybody who said the correct answer was C.
Many African-American women were unable to claim social security because domestic servants were not covered, and that was a job in which many female African-Americans worked.
In fact, in total, 65% of all African American workers were not covered by the Social Security Scheme.
So we're now in a good position to put all of our knowledge into practise.
Two opinions have been shared, Laura's and Alex's.
Laura says that, "The New Deal was imperfect, but overall, it benefited many women and African Americans." Alex says that, "The New Deal simply overlooked key problems faced by many groups of Americans." So whose judgement do you agree with more, Laura's or Alex's? Write one paragraph to explain your answer.
So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your response.
Okay, well done for all of your hard work on that task.
So I asked whose judgement did you agree with more, Laura's or Alex's? And asked you to write one paragraph to explain your answer.
So your answer may have included, "I agree with Laura's judgement about the New Deal.
The New Deal did not offer equal treatment for women or African Americans.
For example, NRA codes recommended that women be paid less than men.
Nevertheless, the New Deal did still help to provide support and generate new opportunities for these groups.
For example, the WPA provided jobs to many women and 10 to 20% of all federal funding on the New Deal went to African Americans.
This meant that the New Deal still relieved many Americans belonging to these groups from poverty and gave them an opportunity to find work." So well done if your response looks something similar to that.
Alternatively, your answer may have included: "I agree with Alex's judgement about the New Deal.
Although the New Deal provided some support for women and African Americans, the benefit of this was reduced by inequalities which Roosevelt failed to address.
For example, the average female salary was only half a man's in 1937.
This was actually encouraged by NRA codes, which recommended lower wages for women.
Meanwhile, some policies actually left African Americans worse off.
For instance, the AAA's efforts to stop overproduction led to more sharecroppers being evicted from farms. Because many sharecroppers were Black, this left a disproportionate number of African Americans homeless and unemployed." So again, if your paragraph looks something like our model there, really well done! And that means we've now reached the end of our lesson for today.
So in a good position to summarise our learning.
We've seen, that President Roosevelt promised that his New Deal would deliver 3 R's, relief, recovery, and reform.
The New Deal involved increased government intervention in the economy.
This included the creation of multiple Alphabet Agencies.
Many Americans were lifted out of poverty by the New Deal, as unemployment and houselessness fell.
The New Deal did not end unequal treatment of women or African Americans in the USA.
So really well done for all of your work in today's lesson.
It's been a pleasure to help guide you through our resources, and I look forward to seeing you again in the future as we continue to think about the New Deal and World War II, and ask ourselves, "How far did the American economy recover in the 1930s and 1940s?".