2024 - O/N - 9489/12 | Q1

Read the sources and then answer both parts of the question.

Source A

Source B

I do not like strong central government. I am seeking a middle way between a government by the very rich and a government by bureaucrats in Washington. I think another four more years of these New Deal policies will wreck our system of government. My record as Governor of Kansas shows that I can be humane without being extravagant. This government has spent far too much of the public's money. I see their Social Security Act to be unjust, unworkable, stupidly drafted and above all, wastefully financed. Mr Roosevelt is trying to change our form of government so that workers, business and agriculture are all directed by government. Unchecked, the policies of the New Deal will lead to revolution.

From an election speech by Alf Landon, Republican candidate for the Presidency, October 1936.

Source C

Long was brilliant, erratic and potentially dangerous. He was often seen as a threat to both the President himself as well as the whole New Deal programme. However, if he had lived to challenge the President in 1936, we would have seen him off easily. He was so obviously motivated entirely by personal ambition. His radical attacks on the New Deal legislation were designed to win votes from those disillusioned with the New Deal and who felt it had not gone far enough. He actually assisted the New Deal programme in two ways. He helped to incentivise Roosevelt to bring in later major New Deal measures such as the Social Security Act, the National Labor Relations Act and the Wealth Tax Act. It was the fear of the extreme radicalism that Long represented that encouraged so many moderate Conservatives, natural opponents of the New Deal, to actually support it. Better to have moderate change than radical change.

From the memoirs of a long-serving member of Roosevelt's government, published in 1938.

Source D

Although a Democratic Senator, the very clever and totally unpredictable Huey Long proved to be one of the greatest threats to the President's New Deal programme. Initially a keen supporter, he turned against both Roosevelt and the New Deal because he himself wished to lead the country. It was not just personal ambition that motivated Long. Like other opponents of the New Deal, he felt that the New Dealers preferred order to justice. They were just not interested in the rural poor. Like so many opponents on the Left, he saw the New Dealers as a privileged class determined to retain their status in society. As Long said in the Senate, describing the Administration in 1934, 'Maybe now you see a little change in the men waiting at tables in the dining room, but back in the kitchen the same cooks are dishing up the same mess that we had under Hoover.' Long wanted a genuine social revolution with him in charge. There was enormous relief in the White House when he was assassinated.

From the memoirs of a member of Roosevelt's original 'Brain Trust', published in 1939.
The author became a strong critic of the New Deal and had joined the Republican Party in 1935.

Answer both parts of the question with reference to the sources.