Franklin Roosevelt During the Great Depression

During the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt and his administration had to face many problems, such as unemployment and debt. The people of United States had many different opinions. FDR had to pull them all together and unite them as one during this hard time. He had to do better than Hoover.

The Great Depression was caused for four reasons, stock market speculation, mistakes made by the Federal Reserve board, ill-advised tariffs and a misdistribution of wealth. The Great Depression caused unemployment because of overproduction, under consumption. The percentage of nonfarm workers unemployed was highest between 1930 and 1935. (Doc. J) On March 7, 1934, a letter was wrote to Senator Robert Wagner, which said, "Everyone is sympathetic to the cause of creating more jobs and better wages for labor; but a program continually promoting labor troubles, higher wages, shorter hours and less profit for business, would seem to me to be leading us fast to a condition where the Government must more and more expand it's relief activities and will lead in the end to disaster to all classes." (Doc. B) They didn't want the government to give more jobs. They thought it would cause more harm than good, but Roosevelt did not agree.

"It is evolution not revolution." (Doc. C) The president said it's a time for change not war. Employees held strikes to show how they felt. They are due to "employee trouble." (Doc. G) They started a new act, called the social security act, part of the 2nd New Deal. It said that everyone who was over the age of 65 would get a check from the government every month. (Doc. E) The federal government went through many changes. They had to figure out what to do with their women, they bought Utopia (Doc. D), and Negros was forbidden to live in Bolder City. (Doc. I) To fix all those problems, FDR came up with another party system, called the 5th party system. In the 5th party system, FDR created the CCC, CWA, FERA and many more.

Franklin D. Roosevelt is remembered as one of the greatest presidents. His response to the Great Depression was very effective. Many new acts were made for the good of the country and he helped pull us out of the Great Depression. He will forever be known for his great leadership during one of the hardest times American has ever seen.