The Great Depression was a disqueting time in American history. Millions of average Americans were left homeless with barely enough food to eat when the stock market crash of October 29, 1929 struck. The roaring twenties had ended and hard working men and women found themselves in absolute turmoil: scrambling to find jobs, cheap housing, and enough food for their families. I often find myself questioning how these people made it through such a stressful time. We live in a wealthy society filled with massive, beautiful homes and fancy cars. Most likely, none of us will ever have to scrape money together just to get by. Though times were hard, many relief programs were created during the Great Depression, but only some of them were truly effective in aiding poverty stricken Americans.
Luckily, when the Great Depression struck President Roosevelt immediately proposed a plan called The New Deal with the goal of giving relief, reform, and recovery to the American people. The New Deal relied on federal government to get the country back on track. The Deal provided work projects and relief grants to the unemployed and Bank Holiday was created so that Roosevelt could pass new legislation. Thus, he proposed the Emergency Banking Act, which stabilized the banking system. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was also created to protect savings up to five thousand dollars. The FDIC is still used in our banks today. Not only were banking programs established, but other programs were created for the commonwealth of America. The Emergency Cattle Purchase Program was created to purchase and destroy thousands of starving cattles from poor farmers in the Dust Bowl region. (Hanes 68) The Resettlement administration was established to assist small farmowners who did not own land, but who rented land from large landowners. Dust Bowl victims were also funded with twenty five million dollars from Roosevelt's Emergency Relief Appropriation Act. Though many relief programs were...