FDR and The New Deal
Have you ever wondered what America was like long ago? How the economy was or the unemployment rate? America has come a long way since the Thirties. From 1929 to 1939 America suffered from the worst economic depression ever. Jobs were very hard to find and almost everyone was struggling in some sort of way. Things were only getting worse and America needed help and that’s when Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd President, came into the picture. Franklin D. Roosevelt, former Governor of New York, was promising the American people a “New Deal” during his first days as president and and he would go on to succeed and help America. Today, we realize that the New Deal helped and changed America forever in a time when we needed it most.
It’s October 1929, the stock market has just crashed and sent Wall Street into a panic and millions investors have been wiped out (“The Great Depression”). Consumer spending and investment dropped leading to a decrease in industrial output. Because of this, companies began to fall and laid off workers which led to increasing numbers of unemployment (“The Great Depression”). The current President at the time, Herbert Hoover, decided to have a laissez faire approach toward the situation (let the whole thing run its course) and it would eventually get better. Consequently, it only made things worse. Now it is 1930 and four million Americans are looking for jobs and that number reached six million by 1931 (“The Great Depression”). So, by 1932 we have 13-15 million Americans looking for work, industries have failed, thousands of banks have closed, and basically America was economically a disaster (“The Great Depression”). Little did Americans know, help was on the way.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat, had held political offices in New York, was VP with James Cox, and was Assistant Secretary of Navy before running as President and was successful in gaining valuable experience in political tactics and intrigue (“Franklin D. Roosevelt”). In 1928 he was elected governor of New York and he was gaining confidence as a successful politician. After a year into the Great Depression, Republicans were mainly blamed and Franklin Roosevelt sensed the opportunity for the presidency as a democrat (“Franklin D. Roosevelt”). Roosevelt was liked and trusted by many people due to his positive approach towards things. Also, Roosevelt called for the the Government to be more involved in the economy so it would be there in cases like this to help provide, prevent, and recover. In the 1932 presidential election, Franklin Roosevelt defeated former president Herbert Hoover and was elected into the greatest crisis in America since the Civil War. During his inauguration speech, Roosevelt assured the American people that “We have nothing to fear but fear itself”. His goal was to inspire and bring hope to prevent America from being paralyzed by fear (“FDR and the New Deal”). Most importantly, Roosevelt pledged to the people that there will be a “New Deal” for everyone under his administration.
It is now 1933, Roosevelt is now in office. The first step he took as President was appointing the “Brain Trust”. This was a group of extremely knowledgeable social, economic, and political thinkers who made up Roosevelt’s cabinet (“FDR and the New Deal”). His goal was to surround himself with the best people in order to make the New Deal work and help bring America out of the depression. As things went on, during a session of congress Roosevelt asked for executive power wanted as much as he would receive as if we were being invaded and felt this was necessary during the crisis (“FDR and the New Deal”). The Government was now becoming more powerful than ever before with great presidential power and a strong cabinet with him.
In addition, America’s banking system was extremely crippled because the depression caused people to withdraw all their money and do no business with banks because they feared they would lose money. So the next step Roosevelt took was declaring a four day “bank holiday” which shut down the banking system for government inspection and once declared financially sound, they re-opened (“Bank Holiday”). This was later to be know as the Emergency Banking Relief Act which was passed only five days after his inauguration. Continuing, Roosevelt created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). This corporation was to protect deposits and accounts in banks and to prevent bank failure (“New Deal”). Along with FDIC, Roosevelt created the Securities and Exchange Commision (SEC) which regulated the stock market and prevented any acts that caused the crash in 1929 (“The Great Depression”). These two programs were very successful and are still operating today. Roosevelt’s next goal was to bring jobs to the millions of Americans who were unemployed.
The first step in creating jobs was the creation of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. The administration gave large amounts of money to state and local governments to assist Americans through direct payments (“The Great Depression”). As Roosevelt’s presidency went on, more and more programs were created bringing jobs to Americans that ranged from building roads, government buildings, reservoirs, bridges, dams, etc. Other programs were created bringing jobs that consisted of jobs that matched the talents and skills of people which even more job opportunities (“The Great Depression”). Each program created under the Roosevelt administration was employing millions of people while some programs were temporary and others permanent. Thankfully, America was on the road to recovery because of the new ideas and programs that consisted of the Roosevelt administration.
In conclusion, without the help of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs and Brain Trust there is no telling where we would be today economically. Not only did the Roosevelt administration help bring America out of the depression, but it changed the way American Government was structured. Looking back, it is obvious that his programs have worked and been very successful because nothing like the Great Depression has happened since. Plus, we are still using those programs today to prevent another crisis. Franklin D. Roosevelt set the tone for what a president should do. He was there when America needed him and he did his job to fix the problem. After the crisis the government and the American people had a good relationship and that should be the government’s goal to achieve always. On the other side, many people may say that Roosevelt did the wrong thing by centralizing the Government and making it more powerful, but, Roosevelt had no choice and did the right thing in order to bring America out of the depression. If there was a better and more efficient way to help America he would have done it but as you can see, his New Deal got the job done and resolved the problem. Given these points and facts, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal helped and changed America forever when it needed it the most.
Work Cited
“Franklin D. Roosevelt” Bio.com, A&E Networks Television, 2016, http://www.biography.com/people/franklin-d-roosevelt-9463381#polio-diagnosis. Accessed 16 Sept, 2016.
“FDR and the New Deal.” Socialstudieshelp.com, http://www.socialstudieshelp.com/usra_new_deal.htm. Accessed 16 Sept, 2016.
“The Great Depression.” Ushistory.org, Independence Hall Association, http://www.ushistory.org/us/48.asp. Accessed 16 Sept, 2016.
“The Great Depression.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2009, http://www.history.com/topics/great-depression. Accessed 16 Sept, 2016.
“Franklin D. Roosevelt” Time.com, Time, 25 July 2012,
http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/07/25/the-20-most-influential-americans-of-all-time/slide/franklin-d-roosevelt/ Accessed 16 Sept, 2016.
“Bank Holiday.” Investopedia, 24 Aug. 2008,
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bank-holiday.asp. Accessed 16 Sept, 2016.
“New Deal.” Britnnica.com, Encyclopedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/event/new-deal. Accessed 16 Sept, 2016.