What was the New Deal

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A.� In a nutshell, it was the economic rescue package to get America out of the recession caused by the Wall Street Crash of October, 1929 (click here for a feature on that).< xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

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Q.� And who was its architect

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Q.� A good start then

A.� Yes, but it went much further. Roosevelt was chosen Democratic presidential candidate in 1932 and easily beat the unpopular Republican, Herbert Hoover. As Roosevelt said in a Boston speech that year:

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'We have two problems: first, to meet the immediate distress; second, to build up on a basis of permanent employment. As to immediate relief, the first principle is that this nation, this national government, if you like, owes a positive duty that no citizen shall be permitted to starve.

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'In addition to providing emergency relief, the federal government should and must provide temporary work wherever that is possible ... In the national forests, on flood prevention, and on the development of waterway projects that have already been authorised and planned but not yet executed, tens of thousands, and even hundreds of thousands of our unemployed citizens can be given at least temporary employment.'

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Q.� So what was his first course of action

A.� He had to deal with the country's banking crisis. About a fifth of American banks had gone bust since the crash, which meant about 15% of people's life-savings had been lost. By 1933 the American people were losing faith in banking and many withdrew their cash and kept it at home. Roosevelt rapidly passed legislation that would guarantee that savers would not lose their money if there were another financial crisis.

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Q.� And unemployment

A.� On 9 March, 1933, Roosevelt called a special session of Congress and said unemployment could be solved only by direct recruiting by the government. For the next three months, Roosevelt proposed, and Congress passed, a series of bills to deal with unemployment. This congressional session became known as the Hundred Days and provided the basis for Roosevelt's New Deal. Critics referred to it as the start of the alphabet soup.

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Q.� Why

A.� The government employed people to carry out a range of different tasks. These projects included the Works Projects Administration (WPA), the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the National Youth Administration (NYA), Farm Security Administration (FSA), the National Recovery Administration (NRA) and the Public Works Administration (PWA). Other schemes administered by the Works Projects Administration included the Federal Writers Project, Federal Theatre Project and the Federal Art Project.

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Q.� These were all work programmes.

A.� Yes - but there was help for those who could not work. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) provided federal money to help those in desperate need.

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Q.� And did it all work

A.� Pretty well. Roosevelt was, however, attacked for not balancing the budget. The National Labour Relations Act was unpopular with businessmen who felt that it favoured the trade unions. Some even accused Roosevelt of being a communist. However, the New Deal was extremely popular with the electorate and in the 1936 election, Roosevelt easily defeated the Republican Party candidate, Alfred Landon, by 27,751,612 votes to 16,681,913.

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Steve Cunningham