Roosevelt and the First Hundred Days

Hello. My name is Ewan Morgan and professor of U.

S Studies and Commonwealth Fund Professor

of American History at University College,

London.

I'm a political historian who specialises in the US presidency.

I've just written a book about Ronald Reagan,

and I'm currently writing a book about Franklin D.

Roosevelt, the subject of my talk to you.

Okay, Franklin D. Roosevelt a little bit about his background.

He was born in 18 82 to very wealthy family whose money

is old money rather than the new money of industrial America.

Uh, he is very well connected.

He is the cousin of the man who becomes Republican President Theodore Roosevelt.

And from a very early age, Franklin D.

Roosevelt believes that he, too, would become president of the United States.

But his party is the Democratic Party rather

than the Republican Party of Theodore Roosevelt.

Now, uh, Franklin D.

Roosevelt comes from a very patrician background,

but he establishes a very close rapport with the common people,

the ordinary people of America when he becomes president.

Now, how could such a patrician, rich man do this?

Well, the number of reasons, firstly, uh,

he had a sense of no bless of bleachers from the privileged background he comes from.

Secondly,

he comes to political maturity in the early part of the 20th century and is swept up

by the progressive reform movement that wants to

make America a better place to live in.

And thirdly, and very importantly, uh, in 1921 he contracts polio, which leaves him

paralysed without the use of his legs for the rest of his life.

And this personal crisis almost certainly gives FDR, as he is known,

an affinity with people who are hit by

the Great Depression and need help from government.

Well,

FDR's experience it ranges from having served as assistant secretary of

the Navy during the Wilson administration from 1913 to 1920.

Polio puts him out of action in the 19 twenties after he

makes quite a good showing as vice presidential running mate on the unsuccessful

Democratic ticket of 1920.

But in 1928 he comes back to politics, and he is elected governor of New York,

then the largest and most important state in the union.

In 1932 he is clear front runner to win

the Democratic presidential nomination to run against a Republican.

Herbert Hoover, whose tenure in office is one term in office,

is blighted by the worst economic crisis in American history.

FDR defeats the incumbent president by a landslide,

but that landslide is an anti Hoover vote rather than a pro FDR vote.

And then, uh, FDR has a long period between taking office

today. The president takes office in the third week of January.

Then the president took office in the first week of March.

And in the months between FDR's election and inauguration,

America is effectively leaderless and the economic crisis grows worst.

By the time FDR becomes president, the unemployment rate is 25%.

At a minimum, we don't know how much it actually was,

but let's take 25% of the Labour force of the minimum

investment has collapsed by 90% or so in the previous four years.

Uh, and the banking system is on the verge of total meltdown.

This is the worst situation any new president has

inherited since Abraham Lincoln took office during the civil,

uh, the eve of the Civil War in 18 61.

Now, FDR does not have a very coherent plan about what he is going to do.

The crisis is so great

that he has to improvise his early responses.

His first response, which is a dramatic one,

is to save the banking system from total collapse by declaring a bank holiday,

shutting off all the banks that remain opened in the nation,

preventing anyone from taking any money out,

and then promoting an emergency banking Act,

which establishes new standards that banks have to meet in order to be reopened.

And this

reestablishes confidence in the banking system.

It's a truly dramatic opening initiative

now, from that point on,

FDR had kept Congress in special session.

Congress was due to leave Washington immediately on his inauguration

and not come back until December.

Now, instead of using that period to plan,

FDR decided to keep Congress in session and pushed through as much

legislation as he could get while Congress within a pliant mood.

And in the so called 100 days,

which lasts from March to June 1933 he does something

that no president before or since has ever done.

He pushes through 15 major pieces of legislation.

These can broadly be defined under three headings. Relief,

recovery

and reform

now for relief.

FDR begins to establish direct government help to the unemployed

through the establishment of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration,

which gives grants to the states that the states have

to match to help with the with the unemployed.

Uh, he also created new agencies like the Civilian Conservation Corps,

which employees unemployed city youth male youth.

I have to say, uh, in conservation work in state and national forests.

So these are two examples of the kind of relief work he did

for reform. FDR's principal objective is to reform the financial institutions.

He promotes a series of banking measures,

beginning with the Emergency Banking Act, culminating with another banking act,

which establishes something which the United States has never had before,

which is federal deposit insurance guarantees.

Uh,

the FDR's second banking Act lays down the right

of the people who put money in federally insured

banks to have their deposits protected up to a

certain level when if and when the bank fails,

and that becomes a critical insurance to

protect and secure the American banking system.

He also reform establishes legislation to reform Wall Street to prevent the

abuses which led to the stock market crash of October 1929.

Now on the recovery front,

the two most important pieces of legislation that Rushville promoted where,

firstly,

the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933

and the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933.

Now let's start with the agricultural legislation.

The problem. The the U. S.

Farming sector had been depressed long before the 19 thirties.

It had been depressed throughout the 19 twenties because of overproduction.

Farmers were simply producing more goods, Uh,

and farm commodities and the market could handle.

The prices were collapsing.

Farmers couldn't keep up their mortgage payments having their farms repossessed.

So the solution to this was primarily through a system

established by the Tripoli a act as it became known,

to pay farmers to take land out of cultivation.

And this was a way of bringing supply into line with demand.

The only problem was that the subsidies paid to farmers would only go to

landowners.

And in the South this meant that none of the federal

aid went to the sharecroppers and the tenant farm farmers,

many of whom where African Americans or poor

white so that farm aid benefited farm owners.

But not the people at the bottom of the pile in rural America.

Uh,

so it's slowly but surely brought prices up but was

not spectacularly successful in its first six months of operation.

So farmers, uh, continued in trouble.

National Industrial Recovery Administration established

business codes to prevent business overproduction

and allow business to set prices to avoid price cutting.

The trouble was, it really benefited only big business.

It was supposed to allow, uh,

it was supposed to mandate business recognition of trade unions.

But most businesses got round that by establishing

company unions rather than real trade unions.

So the the National Industrial Recovery Act helped boost industrial prices,

but only to the benefit of business, not to other sectors.

So what can we conclude about the 1st 100 days? It was a humanitarian success.

It did prevent any crisis of starvation.

Secondly, it was a political success.

It established Rust Belt as the prime mover in American politics

and government and created a new understanding of the presidency.

It also set an impossible standard for later presidents who are always

judged by what they have done in the 1st 100 days.

And lastly,

this is the big question. Did it boost recovery?

The answer is to a certain extent,

and I'll explain more about that in the next lecture.