The welfare programs of the great depression

Welfare for Everyone How Welfare Began in the United States During the Great Depression of the s, local and state governments as well as private charities were overwhelmed by needy families seeking food, clothing, and shelter.

Welfare for Everyone How Welfare Began in the United States During the Great Depression of the s, local and state governments as well as private charities were overwhelmed by needy families seeking food, clothing, and shelter. Inwelfare for poor children and other dependent persons became a federal government responsibility, which it remained for 60 years.

Construction boomed, business flourished, and the stock market soared. Then on October 29,the stock market crashed. The crash sent shockwaves throughout the economy. Millions found themselves out of work. The Great Depression, which would last through the s, had begun.

When the Great Depression began, about 18 million elderly, disabled, and single mothers with children already lived at a bare subsistence level in the United States. State and local governments together with private charities helped these people. Byanother 13 million Americans had been thrown out of work.

Suddenly, state and local governments and charities could no longer provide even minimum assistance for all those in need. Food riots broke out. Desertions by husbands and fathers increased. Homeless families in cities lived in public parks and shanty towns.

Desperate times began to put into question the old American notion that if a man worked hard enough, he could always take care of himself and his family. The effect of the Depression on poor children was particularly severe.

Grace Abbott, head of the federal Children's Bureau, reported that in the spring of20 percent of the nation's school children showed evidence of poor nutrition, housing, and medical care.

School budgets were cut and in some cases schools were shut down for lack of money to pay teachers. An estimatedboys left home to wander the streets and beg because of the poor economic condition of their families. Most elderly Americans did not have personal savings or retirement pensions to support them in normal times, let alone during a national economic crisis.

Those few able to set aside money for retirement often found that their savings and investments had been wiped out by the financial crash in Senator Paul Douglas of Illinois made this observation in The impact of all these forces increasingly convinced the majority of the American people that individuals could not by themselves provide adequately for their old age, and that some form of greater security should be provided by society.

Even skilled workers, business owners, successful farmers, and professionals of all kinds found themselves in severe economic difficulty as one out of four in the labor force lost their jobs.

Words like "bewildered," "shocked," and "humiliated," were often used at the time to describe increasing numbers of Americans as the Depression deepened. Although President Franklin D. Roosevelt focused mainly on creating jobs for the masses of unemployed workers, he also backed the idea of federal aid for poor children and other dependent persons.

Bya national welfare system had been established for the first time in American history. Welfare Before the Depression A federal welfare system was a radical break from the past. Americans had always prided themselves on having a strong sense of individualism and self-reliance.

Many believed that those who couldn't take care of themselves were to blame for their own misfortunes. During the 19th century, local and state governments as well as charities established institutions such as poorhouses and orphanages for destitute individuals and families.

Conditions in these institutions were often deliberately harsh so that only the truly desperate would apply. Local governments usually counties also provided relief in the form of food, fuel, and sometimes cash to poor residents.

Those capable were required to work for the town or county, often at hard labor such as chopping wood and maintaining roads. But most on general relief were poor dependent persons not capable of working: Local officials decided who went to the poorhouse or orphanage and who would receive relief at home.

Cash relief to the poor depended on local property taxes, which were limited. Also, not only did a general prejudice exist against the poor on relief, but local officials commonly discriminated against individuals applying for aid because of their race, nationality, or religion.

Single mothers often found themselves in an impossible situation. If they applied for relief, they were frequently branded as morally unfit by the community.

If they worked, they were criticized for neglecting their children. InPresident Theodore Roosevelt called a White House conference on how to best deal with the problem of poor single mothers and their children.Great Depression: American Social Policy. in: These included child welfare and maternal health programs in Title V of the act and public health programs in Title VI of the legislation.

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During the Great Depression of the s, local and state governments as well as private charities were overwhelmed by needy families seeking food, clothing, and shelter. In , welfare for poor children and other dependent persons became a federal government responsibility, which it remained for 60 years.

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