The New Deal

•The New Deal was President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s plan to use government programs to help the nation recover from the Depression.

•He began by pumping money into the economy and he sent federal money to states to help the needy.

•Roosevelt, along with his advisors, came up with many programs that would help to get the nation back on its feet. 

Agricultural Adjustment Act

Overproduction of farms was the main reason farmers could not get out of debt. The Agricultural Adjustment Act was enacted in 1933 and paid farmers to stop producing certain crops in order to raise farm prices. Also, this encouraged Georgia’s farmers to stop relying solely on cotton, and to plant peanuts, corn, tobacco, and other crops.

Civilian Conservation Corps

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) gave jobs to men between the ages of 18 to 25. This New Deal program created new jobs for young men in order to build parks, sewer systems, bridges, etc. They also built roads, planted forests, and worked on irrigation and national park projects in GA. By 1941, more than 2 million men had worked for the CCC.

Social Security Act

The Social Security Act was passed in 1935 and was designed to assist the unemployed and elderly workers; it originally served as insurance for employees that lost their jobs during the Great Depression. Social Security is the only New Deal program still around today.

Rural Electrification Administration

Roosevelt also set up the Rural Electrification Administration in 1935. 97% of Georgia’s farms were without electricity so the REA offered low-interest loans to companies to build power lines in rural areas. Most of Georgia’s farms had power within the first 15 years of this program.

Crop Diversification Efforts

In addition to calling for more industry in Georgia, agriculture experts and New South businessmen urged farmers to diversify their crops. Georgia’s farmers relied heavily on cotton and refused to take the advice. They kept growing cotton (and only cotton) because it was the most profitable.

Boll Weevil

The boll weevil, a tiny, destructive insect, made its way north from Mexico and reached Georgia’s farms in 1915. The boll weevil devastated the South because it laid its eggs in cotton plants and the larvae destroyed the cotton bolls.

Cotton Devastation

By the 1920s, many Georgia farmers had lost their crops, money, and their land due to the insects’ destruction. The total cotton crop dropped from 1.75 million bales a year to 588,000 in 1923. Cotton farmers were devastated, cotton was no longer “king”, and the destruction of the cotton crop forced farmers to diversify. The South's economy was weakened by the infestation & the drop in cotton prices before the Great Depression.