Alphabet Agencies

• Reasons Hoover did fail and did not fail


  • Hoover believed the economy would correct itself
  • He also believed that US society should be self-reliant
  • He viewed the situation as state responsibility
  • Hoover believed the cause lay outside of the USA in reparation payments
  • Smoot-Hawley Tariff (1930)
  • The Reconstruction Finance Corporation
  • Emergency Relief and Construction Act (1932)
• Relief


  Immediate provision for unemployment
• Recovery


  Trying to bring the economy back to its former highs
• Reform


  To change the economy so that the Great Depression wouldn't happen again
• Alphabet Agencies


  • Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
  • Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)
  • Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA)
  • Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
  • Public Works Administration (PWA)
  • National Recovery Administration (NRA)
  • Civil Works Administration (CWA)
  • Works Progress Administration (WPA)
  • Rural Electrification Administration (REA)
  • National Youth Administration (NYA)
• Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

  • FDR's own idea
  • Provided manual labour jobs for men 18-25, for between 6months to 2years
  • Supervised by the army
  • Manual labour was usually either agricultural or infrastructure (roads/buildings)
• Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

  • Initially took 250,000 unemployed men off unemployment lists
  • Lasted until 1942 – by which 3m had taken part
  • It built huge numbers of roads (125,000 miles), bridges (46,854) and planted three billion trees
  • Criticised for having pointless jobs – chasing pigeons and fanning flies!
  • CCC was racially segregated – white and black Americans kept separate
• Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)


  • FERA was the first attempt to tackle the real unemployment problem
  • Harry Hopkins, a former social worker, was in charge
  • Work had to provide self-respect not just welfare payments
• Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)


  • Using a budget of $500 million, it built 5000 public buildings
  • It oversaw state-organised relief for the unemployed
  • It used the threat of withdrawal of federal funding to force any reluctant states (Georgia, Oregon) to take part
• Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA)

  • Lead by Henry Wallace – AAA set to stabilise farm and food prices using a variety of methods
  • Allotment plan – prevent agricultural surpluses – farmers to reduce the acres used for farming (this would limit food supply, and increase prices)
  • Reduce the number of animals on farms – slaughter them and sell for meat
• Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA)

  • Many found the image of farmers reducing their food produce, or slaughtering animals difficult to understand
  • However many farmers complied and made money from meat sales, or burned crops to provide cheap fuel
  • By 1935 – 35m acres removed from cultivation
  • But, not all benefitted - American sharecroppers still lived in poverty
  • In 1935, most rural parts of the USA still had no electricity
  • Climate change and poor agricultural methods resulted in the Dustbowl, centred on Oklahoma and Arkansas
  • By the mid-1930s, thousands of poor farmers fled the area, looking for better work and a better life in California
• Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

  • The Tennessee River Valley was an area notorious for flooding, poor infrastructure and a low standard of living
  • It covered 7 states (Tennessee, Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, and Kentucky) and contained approximately 2 million people – loyal area to the Democrats
  • It established a network of dams to control the flow of the river and create hydro-electric power
• Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

  • In 1933, only 2% of Tennessee Valley farms had electricity
  • By 1945, this was up to 75%
  • Flooding and soil erosion was prevented which increased the agricultural output of the region
  • Demonstrated a federal/state model of co-operation
• Public Works Administration (PWA)


  • The PWA was created as part of the National Industrial Recovery Act
  • Harold Ickes was in charge
  • The PWA aimed to stimulate long-term economic growth by providing long-term jobs
• Public Works Administration (PWA)

  • It build 13,000 schools and 50,000 miles of road
  • It had a budget of $3.3 billion, but only spent $110m in the first 6 months
  • This was too slow and was widely criticised
• National Recovery Administration (NRA)

  • Lead by General Hugh Johnson, the NRA is possibly the most controversial Alphabet Agency
  • It aimed to ensure fair competition, wages and hours of work by issuing codes of practice that would be common across industries
  • It allowed trade unions to bargain for wage rates for their members
  • It had a $3.3 billion budget
  • If a company adopted the code of practice they were awarded with the Blue Eagle
• National Recovery Administration (NRA)

  • It issued 557 codes of practice – although many of these were unworkable
  • Many companies such as Ford Motors refused to participate
  • The NRA's activities were declared unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court in 1935
  • The codes of practice rarely benefited or improved working conditions
• Civil Works Administration (CWA)

  • Run by Harry Hopkins, the CWA was a temporary administration set up to deal with problems caused by the winter of 1933/34
  • It had a budget of $400 million
  • It was done to keep people in employment through the winter
• Civil Works Administration (CWA)

  • It hired 4.2 million workers in four months
  • It built 400 airports and 255,000 miles of road
  • It provided valuable infrastructure for the US economy, which encouraged future growth
• By 1933 – FDR had used FERA, PWA and CWA to offer work to 20% of the US workforce – a huge achievement