The Roosevelt Administration
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt, democratic governor from New York, was elected president of the United States in 1932, easily defeating his republican opponent, Herbert Hoover (SpartacusEducational). Roosevelt would preside over a nation in crisis. The United States, pinned beneath the crushing weight of the Great Depression, was desperate for leadership and reform. Roosevelt would provide both in the form of the New Deal. Instituted during his first 100 days in office, the New Deal was developed and amended continually for the next ten years. On the strength of the New Deal and American success in World War II, Roosevelt would remain in office longer than any other president before or since, serving as president for four terms until his death in 1945 (Coggan 4). His would be among the most triumphant administrations in American history. Standing before the Democratic National Convention in 1932, Roosevelt proclaimed thus: ôI pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American Peopleö (Heale 16). The nation sorely needed it. Following the Great Depression, by 1932 nearly 25% of the labor force was unemployed. Farmers had lost their land, homeowners had surrendered their homes, and suicide rates were on the rise (Heale 17). RooseveltÆs first legislation was therefore nothing if not emergency legislation; the day after taking office, Roosevelt ordered all banks in the United States to close for four days (SpartacusEducational).
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thousands, even hundreds of thousands of our unemployed citizens can be given at least temporary workö (The New Deal).
Bold promises had thus been made, and bold measures surely followed; and yet, the New Deal was meeting its match in the Great Depression.
Roosevelt was finding the budget impossible to balance, and was attacked for this transgression. Unemployment remained stubbornly high throughout his first term, and the Supreme Court struck down acts like the AAA and the NRA as unconstitutional. Forcing an ôeconomics of scarcityö by demanding that output be reduced in order to maintain prices, wages and jobs, Roosevelt was playing a dangerous political and economic game (Heale 19). Add to this the fact that at no time did unemployment fall below 14% (Powell 48), and one might assume that Roosevelt had the makings of a one-term president.
However, though the judiciary (as well as growing political opposition in both parties) endeavored to rein Roosevelt in, the American public wished to spur him on. In 1936 Roosevelt easily defeated his presidential opponent, and began introducing new, better measures to fill the vacuum left by the removal of agencies like the AAA. The Fair Labor Standards Act, instituted in 19
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1315
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)
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