Chapter 23 Section 1 Critical Thinking #3

3. Of the New Deal programs discussed in this section, which do you consider most important?
-the type of assistance offered by each program
-the scope of each program
-the impact of each program


I think that the most important New Deal program was the Civilian Conservation Corps. This program gave jobs to millions of men and helped get the country back on its feet. The Corps put men from the ages of 18 to 25 to work planting trees, developing parks, building roads, and helping with soil-erosion and flood-control projects, and paid a small wage of $30 per month, $25 of which went to the men's families. The CCC focused on reforestation to avoid another Dust Bowl, and by the end of it in 1942, 3 million men had been through it and 200 million trees were planted. There could have been measures to make the CCC more effective, such as making the age group of employees larger, but it did something very important, which was creating jobs. Many of the efforts of the administration were directed towards stabilizing the stock market and getting people to trust the banks again, but so many people didn't have enough money for it to be worth starting a bank account or investing, so the CCC helped to fix this.