Franklin Roosevelt’s efforts to resolve the economic crisis during the Great Depression

 Roosevelt was a wealthy New Yorker and a distant relative of Theodore Roosevelt, a man whom he admired.  He was a Assistant Secretary of the Navy, a job Teddy held as well.  He ran for Vice President in the Election of 1920, but, lost to Warren G. Harding.  In 1928, he was elected Governor of New York.  Suffered from Polio – a disease that left him in a wheelchair towards the end of his life

FDR defeated Hoover (yep, he had the guts to run again!) Received 472 electoral votes (to Hoover’s 59) as well as 57% of the popular vote. He remains president for 13.5 years – until his death in 1945 (if he didn’t die he would have been President for 16 years – that’s longer than the time you have been on earth!)

“This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance”

 What was the New Deal? FDR’s plan to fix the Great Depression

 There were 3 major goals FDR hoped to accomplish with his New Deal programs:  1. To provide relief for the unemployed.  2. To recover banks and businesses  3. To reform (change) programs to prevent future depressions.

What: banks close for four days to create new rules Purpose: Hoped to restore people’s confidence in. The Bank Holiday of 1933

 What: Group of advisors who helped FDR  Purpose: Create laws to help the Depression Nicknamed brain trust because many of the members of this group were professors

What: FDR’s wife - kept in communication with the country by:  Traveling  Radio speeches  Writing a daily newspaper column. Purpose: wanted women in power; fought for equality for African-Americans -encouraged her husband to appoint as many women into office as possible - including the first female cabinet member, Secretary of Labor Francis Perkins -spoke in favor of anti-lynching laws.

What: Evening radio speeches Purpose: restore the public’s faith in banks. Continued for morale! The Fireside Chat FDR envision American families listen to in while gathered together before a toasty fire – FDR explained why he had closed the banks, and declared, “It is safer to keep your money in a reopened bank than under the mattress.”

Applicants did not receive money to buy what they wanted, and instead had to accept items from a list. The Dole was hated as it only provided about half of a person’s total nutritional requirements. They believed it did not provide them with enough food to live on and felt they should have the right to select their own groceries. Between one quarter and one third of the country’s 300,000 residents were on the dole for each year of the 1930s; by 1933, the government was spending more than $1 million on relief annually. What: Food payments for the poor Purpose: to provide food for those in need

What: Soup kitchens served mostly soup and bread. Purpose: Soup was cheap because water could be added to serve more people, if necessary. Started around When soup kitchens first appeared, they were run by churches or private charities. By the mid-1930s, state and federal governments also were operating them. At the outset of the Depression, Al Capone, the notorious gangster from Chicago, established the first soup kitchen. He started it because he wanted to clean up his shady image. Capone`s kitchen served three meals a day to ensure that everyone who had lost a job could get a meal

Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) What: raised farm prices and paid farmers to NOT raise certain crops and animals Purpose: the lower production would INCREASE prices Farmers killed off certain animals and crops as they were told to by the AAA. Many could not believe that the federal government was condoning such an action when many Americans were starving. Declared unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court later on. Duh.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) What: placed rules on banks Purpose: prevented reckless investments. Guaranteed bank deposits up to $2,500 per person, per bank. Became the #1 program to fix the banks! Still around today! Today the FDIC protects up to $250,000

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) What: gave labor unions the right to collective bargaining with companies Purpose: protected wages and benefits of workers Union popularity finally INCREASED since the early 1900’s as membership TRIPLED!

Rural Electrification Act (REA) What: brought electricity to rural areas Purpose: farmers could use electricity to mechanize many of their farm practices reducing their costs While 90% of urban dwellers had electricity by the 1930s, only 10% of rural dwellers did. Private companies hadn't been interested in building costly electricity lines into the countryside and assumed the farmers would be too poor to buy the electricity once it was there. But by 1939, 25% of rural households had electricity. The access to electricity completely changed rural life, bringing appliances into the house and onto the field, improving health and sanitation with running water and refrigerators, and connecting farms to the outside world via the radio.

The Social Security Act What: Provided money for the elderly Purpose: Helped those who were in most need. Still around today! Gave aid to children who lost their fathers (or they were unemployed) as well as those who could not work due to a disability. Social Security STILL exists today.

Works Progress Administration (WPA) What: hired common laborers, teachers, writers, artists, and musicians Purpose: Give the most skilled jobs to complete government sponsored activities or research

PLEASE know that there were DOZENS of “New Deal” programs created by FDR to help combat the Depression. There was the: CCC, CWA, FERA, PWA, NIRA, TVA, Indian Reorganization Act, SEC, HOLC, FSA, Fair Standards Labor Act... the list goes on and on. There was even a SECOND New Deal where even MORE programs were created! Phew! Good thing I’m not making you know ALL of them, right? The point is – regardless of the NAME of the program, or the crazy acronym that goes with it (known to us fancy history teachers as alphabet soup) – FDR wanted three things for America:  Relief – give assistance to those in need  Recovery – fix the banks and businesses  Reform – prevent future Depressions ▪