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Unemployment had fallen to around 5.6 million by 1941. However, it was only America’s involvement in World War Two that ended the effects of the Great Depression. The war effort led to increasing demand for both weapons and food, resulting in rapid increases in levels of employment.

While some people have focused on the successes of the New Deal, others have criticised it. Some say it did not go far enough and others say the president went beyond the boundaries of his powers to achieve it.

Successes of the New Deal

There were a number of ways in which the New Deal could be considered a success:

• confidence was restored in the government’s ability to help people
• the banking industry was stabilised so people could save and borrow money with confidence
• millions of jobs were created, with 2.5 million jobs in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) alone
• the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) improved the lives of millions of people
• farmers’ incomes roughly doubled in the 1930s
• pensions were provided for the elderly and better financial aid was available for the unemployed, as well as the sick and the disabled

Opposition to the New Deal

Some people thought that the New Deal did not go far enough. They thought it did not do enough to solve the causes of America’s economic problems, especially the large gap between the income of the wealthiest people in society and the rest of the population. Huey Long, governor of Louisiana, said that more should be done to share America’s wealth equally, while Dr Francis Townsend argued that pension payments should be much more generous. Other people pointed out that some agencies discriminated against African Americans. For example, some agencies, such as the CCC, segregated African Americans from white Americans.

There were also those who said that the New Deal had gone too far. The Republican Party argued that Roosevelt had given the federal government too much power. Business owners did not like how Roosevelt tried to interfere in how they ran their businesses or how much power he gave to the trade unions. Some people thought that welfare payments would make people too dependent on the government. The Supreme Court ruled that both the National Recovery Administration (NRA) and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) were unconstitutional and that Roosevelt had claimed powers he did not have to create them.