History: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Great Depression

Could whites and Indians have lived peaceably in the trans-Mississippi West? I do not think that the whites and Indians could have lived peacefully in the trans-Mississippi West. I believe this is because of the ways the Indians were living and hunting. Also with how the whites were not concerned with their customs and only had a one track mind on what they wanted of their land. The government “attempted” to keep peace by pressuring the Indians into treaties that were only broken and then new ones would be made. The government was not looking out for the tribes best interest either because they forced more restrictive agreements on the Indians which led to a war in the west between the whites and Indians. Looking back on the history, I think it was going to be the inevitable outcome of the situation. Even when some of the tribes would hold the American flag up to show friendship and white ones for truce, they were massacred and scalped of all types such as mothers, children and even babies by the whites.

However the liquor and disease killed more Indians than combat did. Indian hunters themselves nearly wiped the plains clean by 1883 which weakened Indian resistance from working for commercial companies. Mines, crops and grazing herds and fences disturbed hunting and farming lands of many traditional tribes. Another treaty of 1868 was made but broken by Custer who was later killed by the Indians and nearly 250 soldiers in the summer of 1876. Congress adopted the Dawes Severalty Act in 1887 to end reservation goals but to have Indians join whites as farmers and small property owners of their land into the marketplace. That didn’t help though because Indians didn’t want to give up their tribal ways and also had no experience farming, managing money and other white ways. By 1890, the Indians had to adapt to life within the boundaries set by white culture despite their efforts at resistance. So the way I see it is there would not have been a peaceful way to live because they both wanted different things and the government didn’t protect the tribes equally to the whites in my opinion.

Who deserves more credit for making the United States an industrial powerhouse – industrialists or workers? I believe the workers deserve more credit for making the United States an industrial powerhouse. The industrialists invented their products and that they deserve credit for and then starting their industry but the workers were the ones keeping it a float, making their product. In 1860, 4.3 million workers were working to run all the factories, mills and shops in the United States. For example, in the 1880s the Pennsylvania Railroad had nearly 50,000 people on its payroll. Their jobs ranged from setting schedules, rates to determine costs and profits, and a level of coordination that ran this business.

Not even to mention what the workers had to go through during the good and bad times of being a worker. Workers would have sixty hours a week and would earn on average five hundred dollars, if you were a poverty level you would earn about six hundred dollars. They would have to keep pace with the machines and had no benefits. Women only made one-half of what men would make and children only earned one-third of what the men did. Supply and demands made wages so low and 35,000 workers a year died on the job in factories. Workers had to go on strike and fight for union and benefits which was no easy task with the low income. They went through the hardships to survive and provide for their families while the industrialists were getting profit from the workers hard work of their product. So that’s why I believe the workers deserve more credit for making America an industrial powerhouse because without the workers, I don’t think we would have evolved to it.

Historians rank Franklin D. Roosevelt as one of our greatest Presidents. Based on his responses to the Great Depression, does he deserve this honor? I think Franklin D. Roosevelt is one of our greatest Presidents based on his responses to the Great Depression. Who is to say that if Franklin Roosevelt did not do the things he did and come up with the New Deal that the Great Depression would have improved on its own. The Great Depression of the 1930s was the longest in the history of the nation and left many Americans with self-doubt, and lost confidence from the harsh times. Unemployment and suffering was especially severe among the African Americans, Latinos and American Indians. Rates of marriage and birth declined and many women found themselves working even more hours in and outside the home to supplement incomes. President Hoover’s attempt of policies and program failed and lost to Franklin in 1932, so there was different attempt beside Roosevelt’s but it didn’t work. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal attacked the Great Depression by recovering the economy, relief of the needy and reforms the ward off future depressions.

It however failed to fully recover but the changes were long lasting. Such as the establishment of a limited welfare state to provide a minimum standards of well-being for all Americans. Also economic stabilizers such as the federal insurance for bank deposits, unemployment assistance, and greater control over money and banking that were designed to compensate for swings in the economy. So in my opinion what Roosevelt did for the Great Depression does deserve the honor even if every decision he made was not always a good one. I feel as if the responses he made had saved the people from the Great Depression and that he should be recognized for that effort that he put in and did to make it a better place in the economy.