Assuming the Presidency at the depth of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt helped the American people regain faith in themselves. He brought hope as he promised prompt, vigorous action, and asserted in his Inaugural Address, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Born in 1882 at Hyde Park, New York–now a national historic site–he attended Harvard University and Columbia Law School. On St. Patrick’s Day, 1905, he married Eleanor Roosevelt. Following the example of his fifth cousin, President Theodore Roosevelt, whom he greatly admired, Franklin D. Roosevelt entered public service through politics, but as a Democrat. He won election to the New York Senate in 1910. President Wilson appointed him Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and he was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 1920. In the summer of 1921, when he was 39, disaster hit-he was stricken with poliomyelitis. Demonstrating indomitable courage, he fought to regain the use of his legs, particularly through swimming. At the 1924 Democratic Convention he dramatically appeared on crutches to nominate Alfred E. Smith as “the Happy Warrior.” In 1928 Roosevelt became Governor of New York. He was elected President in November 1932, to the first of four terms. By March there were 13,000,000 unemployed, and almost every bank was closed. In his first “hundred days,” he proposed, and Congress enacted, a sweeping program to bring recovery to business and agriculture, relief to the unemployed and to those in danger of losing farms and homes, and reform, especially through the establishment of the Tennessee Valley Authority. By 1935 the Nation had achieved some measure of recovery, but businessmen and bankers were turning more and more against Roosevelt’s New Deal program. They feared his experiments, were appalled because he had taken the Nation off the gold standard and allowed deficits in the budget, and disliked the concessions to labor. Roosevelt responded with a new program of reform: Social Security, heavier taxes on the wealthy, new controls over banks and public utilities, and an enormous work relief program for the unemployed. In 1936 he was re-elected by a top-heavy margin. Feeling he was armed with a popular mandate, he sought legislation to enlarge the Supreme Court, which had been invalidating key New Deal measures. Roosevelt lost the Supreme Court battle, but a revolution in constitutional law took place. Thereafter the Government could legally regulate the economy. Roosevelt had pledged the United States to the “good neighbor” policy, transforming the Monroe Doctrine from a unilateral American manifesto into arrangements for mutual action against aggressors. He also sought through neutrality legislation to keep the United States out of the war in Europe, yet at the same time to strengthen nations threatened or attacked. When France fell and England came under siege in 1940, he began to send Great Britain all possible aid short of actual military involvement. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Roosevelt directed organization of the Nation’s manpower and resources for global war. Feeling that the future peace of the world would depend upon relations between the United States and Russia, he devoted much thought to the planning of a United Nations, in which, he hoped, international difficulties could be settled. As the war drew to a close, Roosevelt’s health deteriorated, and on April 12, 1945, while at Warm Springs, Georgia, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage. The Presidential biographies on WhiteHouse.gov are from “The Presidents of the United States of America,” by Frank Freidel and Hugh Sidey. Copyright 2006 by the White House Historical Association. For more information about President Roosevelt, please visit Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum Learn more about Franklin D. Roosevelt’s spouse, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.
What was the Great Depression? How high was unemployment during the Great Depression? The displacement of the American work force and farming communities caused families to split up or to migrate from their homes in search of work. "Hoovervilles," or shantytowns built of packing crates, abandoned cars, and other scraps, sprung up across the nation. Residents of the Great Plains area, where the effects of the Depression were intensified by drought and dust storms, simply abandoned their farms and headed for California in hopes of finding the "land of milk and honey." Gangs of unemployed youth, whose families could no longer support them, rode the rails as hobos in search of work. America 's unemployed citizens were on the move, but there was no place to go that offered relief from the Great Depression. What was FDR's program to end the Great Depression? In his speech accepting the Democratic Party nomination in 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt pledged "a New Deal for the American people" if elected. Following his inauguration as President of the United States on March 4, 1933, FDR put his New Deal into action: an active, diverse, and innovative program of economic recovery. In the First Hundred Days of his new administration, FDR pushed through Congress a package of legislation designed to lift the nation out of the Depression. FDR declared a "banking holiday" to end the runs on the banks and created new federal programs administered by so-called "alphabet agencies" For example, the AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Administration) stabilized farm prices and thus saved farms. The CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) provided jobs to unemployed youths while improving the environment. The TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) provided jobs and brought electricity to rural areas for the first time. The FERA (Federal Emergency Relief Administration) and the WPA (Works Progress Administration) provided jobs to thousands of unemployed Americans in construction and arts projects across the country. The NRA (National Recovery Administration) sought to stabilize consumer goods prices through a series of codes. Through employment and price stabilization and by making the government an active partner with the American people, the New Deal jump-started the economy towards recovery. What did the letters in all those "alphabet agencies" stand for? The New deal "alphabet agencies": AAA , Agricultural Adjustment Administration, 1933 BCLB , Bituminous Coal Labor Board, 1935 CAA , Civil Aeronautics Authority, 1938 CCC , Civilian Conservation Corps, 1933 CCC , Commodity Credit Corporation, 1933 CWA , Civil Works Administration, 1933 FCA , Farm Credit Administration, 1933 FCC , Federal Communications Commission, 1934 FCIC , Federal Crop Insurance Corporation, 1938 FDIC , Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, 1933 FERA , Federal Emergency Relief Agency, 1933 FFMC , Federal Farm Mortgage Corporation, 1934 FHA , Federal Housing Administration, 1934 FLA, Federal Loan Agency, 1939 FSA , Farm Security Administration, 1937 FSA , Federal Security Agency, 1939 FWA , Federal Works Agency, 1939 HOLC , Home Owners Loan Corporation, 1933 MLB , Maritime Labor Board, 1938 NBCC , National Bituminous Coal Commission, 1935 NLB , National Labor Board, 1933 NLRB , National Labor Relations Board, 1935 NRAB , National Railroad Adjustment Board, 1934 NRA , National Recovery Administration, 1933 NRB , National Resources Board, 1934 NRC , National Resources Committee, 1935 NRPB , National Resources Planning Board, 1939 NYA , National Youth Administration, 1935 PWA , Public Works Administration, 1933 RA , Resettlement Administration, 1935 REA , Rural Electrification Administration, 1935 RFC , Reconstruction Finance Corporation, 1932 RRB , Railroad Retirement Board, 1935 SCS , Soil Conservation Service, 1935 SEC , Securities and Exchange Commission, 1934 SSB , Social Security Board, 1935 TNEC, Temporary National Economic Committee, 1938 TVA, Tennessee Valley Authority, 1933 USEP, United States Employment Service, 1933 USHA, United States Housing Authority, 1937 USMC, United States Maritime Commission, 1936 WPA, Works Progress Administration, 1935 WPA, Name changed to Works Projects Administration, 1939 Did the New Deal end the Great Depression? Following the 1937 recession, Roosevelt adopted Keynes' notion of expanded deficit spending to stimulate aggregate demand. In 1938 the Treasury Department designed programs for public housing, slum clearance, railroad construction, and other massive public works. But these were pushed off the board by the massive public spending stimulated by World War II. Even after 1938 private investment spending (housing, non-residential construction, plant and equipment) still lagged. It was war-related export demands and expanded government spending that led the economy back to full employment capacity production by 1941. More Information on the Great Depression: At the height of the Depression in 1933, 24.9% of the nation's total work force, 12,830,000 people, were unemployed. Wage income for workers who were lucky enough to have kept their jobs fell 42.5% between 1929 and 1933. It was the worst economic disaster in American history. Farm prices fell so drastically that many farmers lost their homes and land. Many went hungry. Faced with this disaster, families split up or migrated from their homes in search of work. "Hoovervilles"-shanty towns constructed of packing crates, abandoned cars and other cast off scraps-sprung up across the nation. Gangs of youths, whose families could no longer support them, rode the rails in boxcars like so many hoboes, hoping to find jobs. "Okies," victims of the drought and dust storms in the Great Plains, left their farms and headed for California, the new land of "milk and honey." America's unemployed were on the move, but there was really nowhere to go. Industry was badly shaken by the Depression. Factories closed; mills and mines were abandoned; fortunes were lost. Business and labor alike were both in serious trouble. Unable to help themselves the American people looked to the federal government. Dissatisfied with President Herbert Hoover's economic programs, the people elected Franklin D. Roosevelt as their president in 1932 after a campaign that promised activism and "bold persistent experimentation." Early on in his administration he assembled the best minds in the country to advise him. This group of men was known as the "Brains Trust." Within one hundred days the President, his advisors and the U.S. Congress passed into law a package of legislation designed to help lift the troubled nation out of the Depression. Roosevelt's program was called the "New Deal." The words "New Deal" signified a new relationship between the American people and their government. This new relationship included the creation of several new federal agencies, called "alphabet agencies." The AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Administration) was designed to raise farm prices; the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) to give jobs to unemployed youths and to improve the environment; the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) to bring electricity to those who never had it before; the FERA (Federal Emergency Relief Administration), which later became the WPA (Works Progress Administration), gave jobs to thousands of the unemployed in everything from construction to the arts; the NRA (National Recovery Administration) drew up regulations and codes to help revitalize industry and legalized the workers' right to unionize; the FSA (Farm Security Administration), which was created later, provided for the resettlement of the rural poor and better conditions for migrant laborers. Later on came the creation of the Social Security System, unemployment insurance and more agencies and programs designed to help Americans during times of economic hardship. Under President Roosevelt the federal government took on many new responsibilities for the welfare of the people. The New Deal marked a new relationship between the people and the federal government, which had never existed to such a degree before. Although the New Deal was criticized by many both in and out of government, and seriously challenged by the U.S. Supreme Court, it received the overwhelming support of the people. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the only president in U.S. history to be elected for four terms of office. Despite all the President's efforts and the courage of the American people, the Depression hung on until 1941, when America's involvement in the Second World War resulted in the drafting of young men into military service, and the creation of millions of jobs in defense and war industries. The Great Depression tested the fabric of American life as it has seldom been before or since. It caused Americans to doubt their abilities and their values. It caused them to despair. But they weathered the test, and as a nation, emerged stronger than ever, prepared to take on the new challenges of a world at war. |