Early New Deal Relief Efforts in Rockbridge County: An Examination of the FERA in a Local Environment

Abstract

I have limited my work to a consideration of one relief agency of the New Deal: The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). I will attempt to follow the history of the FERA during its activity in Rockbridge County in an effort to determine the functions of the local agency. I will review the conditions which prominently influenced the adequacy with which the FERA met the needs of Rockbridge County's unemployed. Although the New Deal's recovery and reform agencies played a significant part in Roosevelt's strategy to renew economic stability, it is my contention that the New Deal's relief efforts warrant special attention . The continuation of relief efforts throughout the depression reflects, sadly enough, the inability of the recovery and reform activities of the New Deal to cope with the economic hard times. Obviously, the longer recovery took, the more drawn out the relief efforts became. In evaluating the success and adequacy of the FERA in Rockbridge County, I will, as Holmes suggests, investigate the "quality of state and local administrators, the structure of state administrations, and more importantly the political , economic and social considerations with which the state and local officials had to contend." [From Preface]