New Deal Dbq

A great president has vision, drive, and the capability to perform under pressure. In 1929, the United States was hit with the worst economic depression we have ever seen following a stock market crash that brought the banking system to its knees. Unemployment was at a record high, people were going hungry, and the government at the time was doing nothing. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, elected in 1932, proved himself the best president throughout his two terms during this difficult time. When faced with the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt turned America around and proved himself the best U.S. President by revolutionizing the relationship the federal government had with the people by giving it the power to truly help the people with his New Deal, a plan he implemented that included recovery for the economy, the shrinking of unemployment rates, and the creation of social welfare programs.

The Great Depression was a crisis unlike any the United States had faced before.

President Herbert Hoover, who was in office when the Depression hit, was wary of using executive power to interfere with the economy. A believer in small government, he believed, "while people must not suffer from hunger and cold, caring for them must be primarily a local and voluntary responsibility." (Freidel and Sidey). This led to the public scapegoating him as the cause for the Depression and Roosevelt beating him out for reelection by a wide margin of 88.9% in the electoral vote and 57.4% in the popular vote. In fact, Roosevelt won every state except six; those being Vermont, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Maine, Delaware, and Connecticut (Woolley and

Peters).

In stark contrast to Hoover's inaction, President Roosevelt took decisive action regarding the financial crisis. The day after his inauguration he declared a four day bank holiday to stop people from withdrawing money from unstable banks while he brought his Emergency Banking Act to Congress, which passed, reorganizing the banks and closing ones that couldn't be saved (New Deal). He also got the Glass-Steagall act to pass, "which provided a federal guarantee of all bank deposits under $5,000, separated commercial and investment banking, and strengthened the Federal Reserve's ability to stabilize the economy" (Digital History). A close adviser of Roosevelt's, Raymond Moley, was not exaggerating when he said that Roosevelt "saved capitalism in eight days". This kind of strong immediate action is exactly what the American people wanted and needed at this time. Roosevelt introduced the idea of the first 100 days, an idea presidential hopefuls use even today to discuss the first actions they would take should they be elected.

In Roosevelt's first 100 days, he passed fifteen major bills to help the American people (Digital History). One prime example of this would be when he created infrastructure and jobs at the same time by passing the Tennessee Valley Authority, which allocated funds for the building of dams. These generated hydroelectric power for rural areas that didn't have electricity before as well as jobs, as people were needed to build said dams. In addition to this, the Federal Emergency Relief Act allocated $500 million into welfare programs at the state level to provide immediate relief to those affected by the Depression.

Before Roosevelt's presidency, the American people had next to no interaction with the the federal government, except during elections. Roosevelt revolutionized what citizens expected from their government as far as aid in times of strife. Only a great president could have changed the relationship between the people and the government to the extent that he did. Roosevelt's vision and drive to do whatever it took to bring the United States out of the Depression and into it's place as a prosperous world power (as it is today) marks him as the best President we have had as of yet in my book.