An Illustrated History of the USA

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R O O SEVELT'S NEW D EAL

O n a cold,grt'ySaturdayinMuch 193 3.Frank linD.

Roosevelt rook theoarh asPr esidento ftheUnited

States. ForJhun d redd ays.fro mM arch 8toJune 16

hescmCongressafloodofp ro posa ls for newlaws.

TheAm cr rcan people had aske d foraction.In th e

"HundredDays"Rooseveltg;tvcit[0them.

Manvofrhe newlawsset u pgovc tn rncn r

orgJ.llizJrlonscalled"agencies'tohelp th enationto

recoverfromthe:Dep ression .The C ivilian

Conservati o nCor ps(C C e )foundwor k(o r man y

thousandsofyoun gmen.The f ederalEmergency

ReliefAdministrati on (FER A) gaveind ivid u alstates

governmentmoneytohelpthei runemployedand

YEARS OF DUS

[----,--

RESETTLEMENT ADMINISTRATIO

RescuesVictims

R e s t o r e s Land t o P r o er Use

lUll

Rooseveltandthefarmers

In Ap r il 1933.JfewweeksafterROOSCH"lt became

P re sid ent , A me ricannewspapers p rinted a dis-

tu r b ingslOry.Thestoryca rnefrom th e western

farming stateofIo w a.Itto ldofJ.j ud gewhowas

heari nga caseagains ta farmerwhowasIIIdebt.

Other farmers had dragged theJ udgefr o m his

cou rthouseandalmostk illedhim.

By 1933m an yAmericanfarmerswereIIIa \'ery

seriou sposition. Selling a wagon lo ad ofoats

earnedthemlessth an thep riceofa pairofshoes.

T h e priceofmau)'othercropswas(00lo weven

to cover harvesting costs. Farmerswereleaving

th em to rotIIIthefields.

DuringtheH u nd red D ays. Rooseve ltsetup the

Agricu ltu ralAdjustment Agency(A AA) to help

thefarmers. TheA AAaimed(0persuadefarme rs

toprodu celessmeat.corn.cottonand othe r mJIIl

nops. The idea was to make such products

scar cer, so that selling pr ices would rise and

farmers wo uld bebette rotT. Far me rsw hoagreed

togro wles swert'given moneybythegovern me nt

tomake u p for havinglesstosell.

Tomanypeoplerhis seeme dw icked.Withmillions

ofpeoplehung ry, th egovern me nt was paying

farmersllOftogro wfood! But forthe farmersthis

crop limita tio nscheme, asit w ascalled. d id its

j o b.B yI93()rhcvwere earn inghalfasmuchagain

asthey had in 1933. By 1939 rhcyw ereearumg

twice as much.

homeless. 'I'hcAgricu lt u ralAdjustment

Ad m in i str ation (A AA)setouttoraisecrop p ricesby

payin gfarm er s(0produceless.T heT enn essee

ValleyAut horit y (TVA) built anetworko f darn sto

m ake electricityandStopfloods inapoor

southea stern rcgronoftilt'UnitedStates.Andthe

Nation allk co vc r yAdministrati on(N HA)worked

tom akesu rethatbusinessespaidfair wage sand

d lJ rgt-dfairp rices.