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It’s not unexpected to say that the great depression had immense impact, but through my research of first-hand accounts, I am still astounded by the hardships that people faced. People all over the country went to extreme lengths In order to survive. Many turned to waiting in line in hopes of receiving bread or eating at free soup kitchens. Thurman Haskins, who was Just a young boy in Kansas City during the depression, remembers being so hungry he didn’t want to go to school, and his mother coming home with nothing but bread and butter In hopes of filling him up.
He talked about how hard Is was for her to cope with the poverty, and explained how she cleaned the halls and bathrooms of their apartment building In exchange for rent. Times were very different back then. A man, LeRoy Hanker, explained how you could live on Just a dollar a day. Even so, he and his wife never used credit. People Like LeRoy were much more cautious after seeing what happened to the debtors after the crash. Not everyone was that smart though, Walter Schmitt, a Nebraskan man, explained how he knew many people who lost their farms due to debt. Not using credit was all they could do to stay in their homes and keep their farms.
After the economic collapse, nearly 15 million Americans were unemployed and the majority of them were dependent on relief money from the government to survive. Franklin Delano Roosevelt created many New Deal programs in order to help, but one program specific to relief stood out. On May 22, 1933 the Federal Emergency Relief Administration was inaugurated. FEAR had three primary objectives; adequacy of relief measures, providing work for employable people on the relief roll, and diversification of relief programs. FEAR worked with the state government, providing federal grants for these purposes.
The program hoped to help all Americans reach living standards of minimum decency. While most of the Jobs created were engineering and construction based, there were many other options for those who desired another path. The program provided work for over 20 million people including farmers, workers, and for the first time artists and women. The program took quite an effort to get started due to inexperience, but it eventually became successful. FEAR had to build up many local organizations to get the program started, and at first it was difficult because most states had very little experience running work relief programs.
Although it took off at a slow pace, In the following two years the program distributed a total of 3 billion dollars and employed more than 20 million people all over the country. After those two years the program was dissolved, but the efforts were continued by the Works Progress Administration for eight more years until It was finally shut down In 1943 due too lack of funding. Effect of the New Deal on People By channel_glen that people faced. People all over the country went to extreme lengths in order to mother coming home with nothing but bread and butter in hopes of filling him up.
He talked about how hard is was for her to cope with the poverty, and explained how she cleaned the halls and bathrooms of their apartment building in exchange for like LeRoy were much more cautious after seeing what happened to the debtors after After the economic collapse, nearly 1 5 million Americans were unemployed and experience running work relief programs. Although it took off at a slow pace, in the was dissolved, but the efforts were continued by the Works Progress Administration for eight more years until it was finally shut down in 1943 due too lack of funding.