Topic 6, Lesson 1: What did Roosevelt achieve in his first hundred days after the 1932 election?

Topic 6, Lesson 1: What did Roosevelt achieve in his first hundred days after the 1932 election?

The 1932 Election

The 1932 Presidential Election

Hoover - Republican - 59 Electoral College Votes - 6 States - 39.9% of votes

Franklin D Roosevelt - Democrat - 472 Electoral College Votes - 42 States - 57.4% of votes

“You have nothing to fear except Fear itself”

- Franklin D Roosevelt, Inaugural address, 1933

Roosevelt’s 1932 Election Campaign Themes:

• Federal government intervention was badly needed

• America had to abandon the Gold Standard

• Business should be reformed and regulated

• The business and American workers had to be given a sense of hope and confidence that a better future was possible

• The song Happy Days Are Here Again was used as his campaign theme tune

Topic 6, Lesson 1: What did Roosevelt achieve in his first hundred days after the 1932 election?

Roosevelt’s Aims The Three ‘R’s’

Relief - for the worst suffering

Recovery - to get farmers and industry back on its feet and find full economic recovery ending all unemployment

Reform - to ensure another catastrophe like this could never happen again, reforms were needed in banking, Trade Unions and State Welfare

Topic 6, Lesson 1: What did Roosevelt achieve in his first hundred days after the 1932 election?

Roosevelt’s Hundred Days (15 Major Laws)

• Roosevelt had won a landslide majority and the Democrats won majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate

• In his first hundred days, Roosevelt had pushed through a total of 15 new laws

• Began with the Emergency Banking Act (March 1933)

Enforced a 4 day bank holiday

The federal reserve was given the power to suprevise the reopening of banks

Roosevelt gave his first ‘fireside chat’, telling the American people their money would be safe

People started depositing their money in banks again

Topic 6, Lesson 1: What did Roosevelt achieve in his first hundred days after the 1932 election?

The Cycle of Recovery (Pump Priming)

Topic 6, Lesson 1: What did Roosevelt achieve in his first hundred days after the 1932 election?

The Alphabet Agencies

Alphabet Agencies were the US Federal government agencies created as part of Franklin D Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’.

The government spent money on alphabet agencies to initiate the cycle of prosperity.

Examples of Alphabet Agencies:

FERA - Federal Emergency Relief Administration

• created in May 1933 by the Federal Emergency Relief Act

• the administration was given $500 million which was to be divided equally among the states to help provide for the unemployed

• Act said that each state should set up a FERA office and organise relief programmes

• often their caseloads were numbered in the thousands

• funds were limited

• In 1935, it was paying $25 per month to an average family. Estimated minimum living costs were $100.