![]() endured the worst depression in its history, Hoover argued that the answers lay in unfettered capitalism and private charity. Its entire budget was fiscal conservatives, read it and weep under $4 billion. The Federal Government that Hoover presided over was stunningly limited in scope. The 1932 election had been, in the words of President Herbert Hoover, not a "contest between two men" but one between "two philosophies of government." Hoover believed in small government and letting the free market operate. took the country in a whole new direction. observed, "unlike anything known to American history."ĭuring the Hundred Days, F.D.R. It was the most intense period of lawmaking ever undertaken by Congress a "presidential barrage of ideas and programs," historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. In the next 100 days O.K., 105, but who's counting? his Administration shepherded 15 major bills through Congress. joked that he was doing it so they could "receive an extra day's pay," but the real reason was that he wanted his team to get to work immediately.Īnd that team came through brilliantly. He gathered his Cabinet in his White House office and had Justice Benjamin Cardozo swear them in as a group, the first time that had ever been done. Hours after the Inauguration, Roosevelt made history in a more behind-the-scenes way. had buoyed the spirits of the American people and nearly 500,000 of them wrote to him at the White House in the following week to tell him so. Even the rock-ribbed Republican Chicago Tribune lauded its "dominant note of courageous confidence." F.D.R. Roosevelt's Inaugural Address was a pitch-perfect combination of optimism ("The only thing we have to fear is fear itself"), consolation (the nation's problems "concern, thank God, only material things") and resolve ("This nation asks for action, and action now"). They were, a reporter observed, "as silent as a group of mourners around a grave." Roosevelt's Inauguration had all but given up on America. The crowd that gathered in front of the Capitol that day to watch Franklin D. In rural areas, farmers whose land was being foreclosed were talking openly of revolution. In the cities, jobless men were lining up for soup and bread. The stock market had plunged 85% from its high in 1929, and nearly one-fourth of the workforce was unemployed. March 4, 1933, was perhaps the Great Depression's darkest hour. The President greets enthusiastic supporters in Warm Springs, Ga., on Dec.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |