RFD: A Man of Integrity
One of the most traumatic situations this country has ever experienced was the Great Depression. It was an extraordinary event for the people of this country because it effected everyone, women and children included. Families starved and the living conditions were what we see in third world countries today. These extraordinary times required an extraordinary leader. Franklin D. Roosevelt was such a leader. While his New Deal policies were not the sole solution to the multitude of problems that this country faced, the first hundred days of his administration set in place the foundation that ultimately restored the economy, and more importantly, the faith of the people in the federal government. Roosevelt inherited the situation from President Herbert Hoover. While it is hard to pinpoint the exact date the depression started, the stock market crash of 1929 is the major signpost. In October of 1929, the New York Stock Exchange lost fifty billion dollars and the leading industrial stocks in the United States had lost forty percent of their value (Watkins 40). The ten years following the crash constituted the span of the Great Depression. While it is certain that it hit the poor and working class the hardest, its reach was f
In his inaugural speech, Roosevelt said "This nation asks for action, and action now. However, Hoover's handling of the economic crisis and many other issues virtually assured Roosevelt of the Presidency. (Chalberg 21) Reacting to the ineffectiveness of Hoover's administration to deal with the state of affairs, Roosevelt was elected to office in 1932 on his "New Deal" platform. The emergency measure extended government assistance to private bankers to reopen banks, gave the President complete control over gold movements, penalized hoarding, authorized the issue of new Federal Reserve bank notes, and arranged for the reopening of banks with liquid assets and the reorganization of the rest. This would help prevent the kind of stock market manipulation that contributed to the crash of 1929. While not all of the policies stood up over the test of time, taken as a whole, they helped bring back the nation from disaster and, with the eventual help of World War II, restore the people and economy to prosperity and confidence. Although more than seven thousand financial institutions had gone under between 1920 and 1929 (providing evidence of underlying economic weakness well before the fateful October 1929 crash), more than nine thousand additional bank failures occurred in the three years between the stock market crash and the end of Hoover's term as president in 1933. Two hundred and fifty million was to be assigned on a matching basis and the other half was to go where need was urgent and the matching requirements could not be met (Schlesinger 267). elt throughout society and reached into all economic levels. During his campaign, however, it was hard to tell exactly what Roosevelt's New Deal policy was. The Federal Emergency Relief Act set aside five hundred million dollars for grants-in-aid to states. One of the New Deal administrators reflected subsequently: "Given later developments, the campaign speeches often read like a giant misprint, in which Roosevelt and Hoover speak each other's lines" (qtd. The Civilian Conservation Corps is often considered the most successful of the New Deal initiatives.
Common topics in this essay:
Stock Exchange,
Conservation Crops,
Banking Act,
Roosevelt Presidency,
Roosevelt's Deal,
Act Roosevelt,
Federal Reserve,
Adjustment Act,
Franklin Roosevelt,
Rogers America,
banking act,
hundred days,
act june,
agricultural adjustment act,
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june 16,
emergency banking,
civilian conservation,
stock market,
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act june 16,
valley authority act,
tennessee valley,
home owner's loan,
owner's loan act,
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Acceptance Essays
