When Democratic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office in 1933, he likened the national economic crisis to war and announced that he had several battle plans. But in reality, most historians now agree that at the beginning of his presidency Roosevelt had few, if any, programs that were well thought out. Nevertheless, while he and his advisors began developing their programs, he continued to use the rhetoric of war to further build public confidence in his new administration.
This was not difficult. Roosevelt had soundly defeated Herbert Hoover by a more than healthy majority and claimed, justifiably, that he had a mandate from the American people and so could count on public support for his rescue policies. He also counted on full cooperation from Congress, where Democrats outnumbered Republicans in both the House of Representatives (310 to 117) and the Senate (60 to 35).
The Basics of the New Deal
Roosevelt began waging his war against the Great Depression by appointing a "brain trust," a team of advisors that included university professors and skilled public service administrators. These advisors helped him develop the New Deal, a complex assortment of different programs designed to get the stagnant economy moving again.
These advisors questioned some of the prevailing basic principles of American politics and government, and the programs they developed put new political theories into action. The Depression had shown that the idea of limited government no longer worked and that the federal government needed to intervene if people were to be helped out of poverty. A second principle that had proved unworkable was that local governments and private charities could provide enough public assistance to solve the problem. They could not. The brain trust forged a new approach that held that the federal government’s responsibility to its citizens should be redefined, and that the government had a legitimate role in providing a variety of supports to insure a reasonable quality of life for most Americans. These supports included relief, work programs, unemployment compensation, old-age assistance, farm price supports, and insurance for savings, to name a few.
The New Deal programs shared some underlying principles but differed in how they were set up and carried out. Basically, however, the architects of the New Deal believed that the American economy was now at a mature stage. There was no more free land on the frontier for westward expansion, and the production of goods had reached as high a level as the economy could tolerate. (Some even felt it was too high.) This meant, they reasoned, that government needed to intervene in the economy to a limited extent — for too much intervention could be as damaging as too little.
Therefore, government must now shift from the approach of the preceding three Republican administrations. It must turn away from encouraging productivity to, in Roosevelt’s words, "adjusting production to consumption." During the initial three and a half months of his administration, known later as the Hundred Days, Roosevelt and his advisors worked with Congress to create ten new agencies and scores of programs that involved the federal government in the day-to-day activities of American businesses and individuals.
|
Eleanor Roosevelt. (1884-1962) |
|
|
|
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was described by her friend, Democratic Party activist Helen Gahagan Douglas, as "a woman of tenderness and deep sympathy, a woman with the most exquisite manners of anyone I have known — one who did what she was called upon to do with complete devotion and rare charm." Eleanor’s sense of devotion came early in her life; the charm took a little longer. She was described as a solemn, old-fashioned child, and no wonder. Born into the wealthy and aristocratic Roosevelt family, her parents separated when she was six. Her mother died when she was eight, and her alcoholic father died two years later. Raised by her natural grandmother, Eleanor soon developed a strong sense of responsibility for her two young brothers. Shy and socially awkward as a girl, Eleanor emerged with confidence, a natural leader after attending the Allenswood finishing school in London. Before her marriage to Franklin, her sixth cousin once removed, she volunteered at a New York City settlement house. After the marriage, she was kept busy raising the couple’s five sons and a daughter. Then Franklin entered politics. As he moved from New York state senator (1910) to assistant secretary of the navy (1913) to governor of New York (1928) to president of the United States (1932), Eleanor played an important role as his advisor, pushing him on issues such as trade unionism and the rights of women and minorities. "He might have been happier with a wife who was completely uncritical," she wrote later. "Nevertheless, I think I sometimes acted as a spur, even though the spurring was not always wanted or welcome." After Franklin developed polio in 1921, Eleanor’s help became essential to his political career. She often acted as his surrogate for inspections of state facilities. And although she was terrified of public speaking, she forced herself to accept speaking engagements on behalf of her husband. As first lady, Eleanor followed the conventions — she held teas, attended receptions, and hosted state dinners. But she was also an activist, holding regular press conferences (restricted to women reporters) where she spoke up on issues important to her and to her husband’s administration. Throughout the 1930s, she traveled the country to see first hand the effects of the Great Depression on the lives of Americans. She was skilful at using the radio to espouse her views, and in 1935, she began writing a syndicated column, "My Day," which appeared in over sixty newspapers. After Franklin’s death in 1945, President Truman appointed her as one of the five delegates to the first United Nations (UN) General Assembly, where she served until 1953; President Kennedy reappointed her in 1961. She was also chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights from 1946 to 1951. Other issues that got her support — and sometimes drew criticism — were birth control, opposition to federal aid to parochial schools, and the establishment of a Jewish state. Perhaps the most important aspect of Eleanor’s legacy is her unyielding faith in the human spirit. In her 1937 book, This Is My Story, she wrote, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." And in her 1960 book, You Learn By Living, she wrote, "You must do the thing you think you cannot do."
| |
|
|
|
|
|
