The New Deal Programs

The 1930s were a period of high unemployment in the United States. This is known as the Great Depression. What is a “depression”? Well, a depression is a period of high, continuous unemployment over an extended period of time. The depression of the 1930s followed the Great Stock Market Crash of 1929. This meant that if you had invested in a company or had some of your savings in the stock market, it’s gone. Starting in 1933 President Roosevelt decided to make new programs that could allow more people to find work. These programs were known as the “New Deal.”

What programs were these? Well, there were many programs. The goal of the New Deal program was to give people jobs for money. Some people asked, “Why couldn’t they just give money out?” Well almost no one today gets money for free and the government was getting things done in return. You could work building roads or serve people food. Some famous programs were the CCC, WPA, and the PWA.

The CCC stood for “Civilian Conservation Corps” and started in 1933. Young men could work in forests for reforestation and conservation tasks. They would provide plenty of money for the boy’s families and also provided healthy conditions for them to work in. They would give the money to the families of the boy and not to the boys themselves because they feared that they would spend it on themselves instead of their families.

The WPA (Works Progress Administration) hired 8.5 million people and would allow them to work. They would go work in construction and other jobs. It was mostly based around works in arts, theater, and literary projects. Almost every community had a new park or something

The PWA (Public Works Administration) would allow you to work for the public with high pay according to “Earthlink”. One example of what they built was the Hoover Dam.

The New Deal program was considered a success. People everywhere who were unemployed got new jobs. Many things were also built in Kansas. The William Lindsay White auditorium and Peter Pan Park were built in Emporia. Overall, some of the New Deal programs were quite a success that helped the U.S out of The Great Depression.