The Great Depression and the New Deal

“Workers Make a New Deal” ..1933-1945

A letter written by Mrs. Olga Perk is exemplary of what was happening to unskilled and semi-skilled workers at the grassroots level. To paraphrase Mrs. Park’s letter, which she wrote to FDR, she complained that she was “at the end of her rope,” behind in her mortgage because of the bureaucracy. Her son was working in the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps), but was not receiving his paycheck on time.

This represented a shift from the former dependence on charitable and ethnic institutions to total reliance on the Federal Government, marking a significant change in the working-class attitude, which was just a few years before. She supports her argument by referring to a study done by Sociology Professor Arthur W. Kornhauser, who interviewed several thousand semi-skilled and non-skilled workers in Chicago. The report was significant in two areas: it found that while blaming the capitalist system for the depression, they were still unwilling to abandon the system in favor of radical socialism. Cohn points out that this important study found that 90% of these workers supported Roosevelt’s New Deal by examining the microhistory of Chicago’s ethnic working-class groups and their reactions. In 1932, people voted against Hoover, and by 1936, people voted for FDR, who, together with Eleanor, became Father and Mother for millions of Americans. To understand this phenomenon, it is necessary to go one level deeper into the everyday lives of the people who expressed their faith in FDR in letters, inspired by their familiarization with the fatherly FDR they listened to in his famous fireside chats. Examples of this include a letter written by Ms. Henrietta Malone, who wrote the President about her family’s lack of warm winter clothes. After she wrote the letter, her caseworker delivered the clothes. Coincidence or no, she attributed the warm clothes to direct intervention by the President.

Other letters, written by Afro-Americans, attest that all Americans, both white and black, considered him a sympathetic ear and a father figure in whom they could confide. An anonymous letter, written by a black living in Reidsville Georga in 1935 reads, “Would you please direct the people in charge of the relief work in Georgia to issue provisions + other supplies to our suffering colored people.” and poignantly concludes with, “Please help us mr President became we can’t help our self and we know you is the President and a good Christian man we is praying for you. Yours truly can’t sign my name, Mr President, they will beat me and run me away from here, and this is my home.”

Americans felt that their father and mother (FDR and Elinor) would take care of them and make the proper changes to return the country to prosperity without radical solutions such as had happened in the Soviet Union and Germany. This feeling was not based on intellectualism, but genuine grassroots love for a man who had reached out to them using the radio and the film industry. One of FDR’s most influential supporters in the radio and film industry was Will Rogers. Campaigning for FDR in the 1933 elections, Rogers was often referred to as “The number one New Dealer.” Rogers used his radio programs to advance New Deal Policies. Jim Farley, FDR campaign manager, is quoted as saying that the President responded favorably when the comedian in his “own clever way” conveyed the President’s program to millions. By singing the media as no previous president in history had done, everyday folk would go from the fireside chats to Rogers and back and get the overall feeling that FDR would get the job done. FDR’s radio chats would generate over 450,000 letters, cards and telegrams, not counting letters to Elinor. (Hoover was lucky to get 800 letters a day.) As Melvin J. Chisum writes (Field Secretary of the National Negro Press Association), “Everybody who has any sense and was able to get to a radio heard your speech last night. I desire to add my firm approval to every utterance that came from your list.” And later in the same letter, “You know what your government is doing. You know how to explain it. You know where we are heading and you on on your way.”

In conclusion, the Great Depression brought America to a turning point in history. In this sense, the 1932 election was a mini year zero in history. Many historians point to 1945 as year zero in the twentieth century, marking a complete historical shift from what was before; however, 1932 found the world poised for change. America was on the verge of radical socialism and possibly communism. Germany was about to embrace fascism with Hitler’s rise, and Stalin’s forced famine from 1932-1933, which would cause 7,000,000 deaths. Unlike Germany and the Soviet Union, Roosevelt’s New Deal averted the chaos of revolution in America. By going directly to the grassroots, utilizing the media of the time, FDR convinced the average American that his government would provide for them. He brought them into the system using fireside chats. He opened channels of communication, receiving thousands of letters sent to him by everyday people. His staff certainly made him aware of the impact he was having and advised him on how to leverage this popularity to promote his New Deal programs.

While it is true that the 1932 elections were more a vote against Hoover than a vote for FDR, all that changed during Roosevelt’s first term. Through intelligent use of the media and his force of personality, FDR introduced social reform without destroying the capitalist infrastructure, which would prove so valuable as the US entered World War II. He averted a communist takeover by dealing with the root causes that nourished communism: he gave hope to the everyday people and virtually eliminated starvation by 1936. As one of the critics of the New Deal, Dr. Barton J. Bernstein wrote, “Though recognizing new political interests and extending benefits to them, his New Deal never effectively challenged big business or the organization of the economy. In providing assistance to the needy and by rescuing them from starvation, Roosevelt’s humane efforts also protected the established system: he sapped organized radicalism of its waning strength and of its potential constituency among the unorganized and discontented.”

While the Great Depression destroyed the previous laissez-faire democracy, the New Deal created a combination of populism, hope, and social justice while managing to preserve the necessary infrastructure of capitalism, which, working in forced harmony, would allow America to face the challenges of WWII, and ultimately create year zero 1945.