The Great Depression started in the U.S. in
1929. The President was
Herbert Hoover who
believed that
recovery was ''''round the corner'''' and did not initiate any large scale federal program. In 1932, the
Democratic Party candidate, Franklin D. Roosebelt promised a
New Deal to the people at an election speech. His program was primarily aimed relief and recovery. During the so-called first hundred days, the U.S. went off the
gold standard. Congress passed the
Agricultural Ajustment Act to enhance the purchasing power of the farmers. The Administration also started experimenting regional planning: the
Tennessee Valley Act provided for the construction of dams and supplying electrical power in the region. The ''''backbone'''' of these early
programs was the National Industrial
Recovery Act, which provided minimum
wages, maximum working
hours, and basic safety standards. Its Section VII/a allowed employees bargain
collectively, that is, in effect, it legalized the trade
unions. This act, among others, was declared unconstitutional by the
Supreme Court. Section VII/a was incorporated in a new act called the
Emergency Relief Appropriation Act in 1935. Meanwhile, a number of other programs were put into force, including the
Civilian Conservation Corps and the
Works Progress Administration. However, unemployment started to fall drastically only after the outbreak of the Second
World War. The U.S. at first introduced the cash-and-
carry policy, which required the individual states to ship the goods away on board their own vessels. This policy was replaced with the lend-
lease policy in 1941 and the same year the
Japanese attacked the U. S. at Pearl Harbor.