A GENERATION OF LEADERSHIP - SECOND TERM

The New Deal: Accomplishments

Near George Segal's "Fireside Chat" stand his sculptures representing average people during the Great Depression.
"The Rural Couple" and "Breadline" depict some of the obstacles which Americans faced during this difficult time.

On the opposite side of the wall, Robert Graham's mural and columns represent the impact of the New Deal. In contrast to the inactivity and dejection of the people on the opposite side of the wall, Graham's mural shows people working for New Deal programs and overcoming obstacles. Repeated scenes from eight New Deal programs are mixed with program initials, braille, and artistic elements, such as hands and faces, in an interactive collage. The five mural panels invert and wrap around the five columns.

FDR and his "new deal for the American people" accomplished much in his first term as president. The First and Second Hundred Days legislation created new government agencies and brought relief for many Americans. In FDR's second term, the New Deal continued, despite new challenges to FDR, the New Deal, and the country.

FDR considered Social Security to be one of the major accomplishments of the New Deal. The Great Depression devastated the older segment of the American population. An increased number of Americans aged sixty years or more, age discrimination in the workforce and social institutions, and few resources, public or private, to take care of an aging population meant that older Americans and their families faced difficult situations.

FDR often told the story of a woman, who he met while visiting an insane asylum. She had not been placed in the asylum because she was insane, but simply because she had no money and no family, and there were no other resources to help her survive.

A triumphant FDR signed Social Security into law on August 14, 1935. Compromises, such as the deletion of a national health insurance provision, and committee interactions had changed the final product. The meat of the bill, however, remained. Older Americans would be taken care of by the working population through a payroll tax, and there were provisions for workman's compensation and unemployment insurance.

In later years, some would blame the payroll tax for the recession of 1937-1938. Today, issues related to social security continue to be hotly debated, as the aged population increases and places more pressure on the program. Despite challenges to Social Security, however, many Americans still support FDR's hope that the older generation would be cared for, through the continued existence of this program.