Supplemental Reading: Great Depression

Questions to answer on the final page.

1. What were the longer term causes of the Great Depression and what were the shorter term causes? Write at least one
sentence per cause explaining what happened.
2. Why was Hoover so slow to react to the Great Depression with the full weight of the U.S. government?
3. How was life changed by the Great Depression in families? In rural communities in the midwest?
4. Which of Hoover’s organizations was the most successful? Why? Least? Why?
5. What was the public reaction to Hoover with the Bonus Army? What did they want and why did Hoover’s reaction align with his
overall mentality about the role of government?

Causes of the Great Depression:

Lack of diversification: Cars and construction dominated the economy of the 1920s and they declined at the end of the decade. Car
sales fell 33% in the first 9 months of 1929 and construction spending decreased from $11 billion annually in 1926 to only $9 billion in
1929. The US was also over-producing most farm goods and the prices were falling, helping consumers but hurting the farmers.

Maldistribution of wealth: 25% of Americans were living below the poverty line in the ‘Roaring 20s.’ That means that at the start of the
Depression, there was already widespread poverty. Rates among people of color were even higher. When the Depression hits,
Americans cannot buy enough to keep the economy going. While the rich did fine in the 1920s because their money was invested in a
bull market, most Americans were not seeing the wealth that was being accumulated during the 1920s.

Declining exports: After WW1, American-made goods were in high demand (as European factories were destroyed). By the end of the
1920s, the demand for American goods was in decline (both consumer goods and agricultural goods like food). In order to protect
American industries, the US erected high tariffs to discourage Europeans from sending goods to the US to sell. This will in part lead to
the setting of ‘revenge tariffs’ in Europe to block the US made goods from their markets as well.

Credit structure of the economy: First, during the 1920s, American farmers faced large debts. The prices they were able to charge
for their food were too low for them to ever dig themselves out of the personal debt they acquired during the hard times. In order to
make ends meet, many farmers mortgaged their farms (getting a lump sum payment from the bank and paying it back in installments).
Often farmers defaulted on these loans, meaning that they did not repay them. Consequently, the small banks that offered them the
loans are bankrupted, taking down all accounts with them. Secondly, the culture of Americans changed in the 20s in that they were
willing to take on debt to acquire a certain lifestyle to keep up with their neighbors and friends. Many regular consumers faced large
personal debts they would soon be unable to pay. Lastly, many banks were investing the savings accounts of their account holders in
the stock market. In effect, they were gambling with other people’s money. When the stock market fell, those banks went out of
business, taking those savings accounts with them.

Shaky international debt structure: The Dawes Plan after WW1 set up a shaky international system of debt repayment to help
Germany repay the reparations of WW1. The Europeans (including Britain and France) owed the US a large sum of money after WW1
as well and the US would not reduce or forgive those loans either. Consequently, the Europeans were encouraged to take out loans
from a second American bank to repay their owed money to the first American bank. They were unable to make up the cash to repay
either bank because they were unable to sell their products to American consumers due to high American tariffs. In summation, they
were unable to repay the American banks or the American government.

Despite all these factors and signs, President Herbert Hoover said in 1929 that ‘All evidence indicates that the worst effects of the crash
upon unemployment will have been passed during the next 60 days.’ He was very wrong, the Depression would impact Americans until
WW2.

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Economic Impacts:
Stock Market Crash: The Wall Street Crash of 1929 is often cited as the beginning of the Great Depression. It began on October 24,
1929, and was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States. Much of the stock market crash can be
attributed to exuberance and false expectations. In the years leading up to 1929, the rising stock market prices had created vast sums
of wealth for those invested, in turn encouraging borrowing to further buy more stock. However, on October 24 (Black Thursday),
share prices began to fall and panic selling caused prices to fall sharply. On October 29 (Black Tuesday), share prices fell by $14
billion in a single day, more than $30 billion in the week. The value that evaporated the week was 10x more than the entire federal
budget and more than all of what the U.S. spent on World War I. By 1930 the value of shares had fallen by 90%.

Since many banks had also invested their clients' savings in the stock market, these banks were forced to close when the stock market
crashed. After the stock market crash and the bank closures, people were too afraid to lose more money. Because of the fears of
further economic challenge, individuals from all classes stopped purchasing and consuming. Thousands of individual investors who
believed they could get rich by investing on margin lost everything they had. The stock market crash severely impacted American
economy.

Banking Collapse: One of the first groups impacted by the crashing

of the stock market were private banks. Banks were heavily invested
in the stock market (using the savings accounts of their customers)
when the crash happened..

In November 1930 the first major banking crisis began with over 800
banks closing their doors by January 1931; over 2100 banks were
suspended by October 1931, with the highest suspension rate
recorded in the St. Louis Federal Reserve District with 2 out of every
5 banks suspended. The economy in whole experienced a massive
reduction in banking footholds across the country amounting to more
than nine thousand closed banks by 1933.

The closures resulted in a massive withdrawal of deposits by millions

of Americans estimated near $6.8 billion (equivalent to around $60
billion in today's dollars). During this time the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was not in place resulting in a loss of
roughly $1.36 billion (or 20%) of the total $6.8 billion accounted for within the failed banks. These losses will come directly from
everyday individuals savings, investments, and daily banking accounts

Severe Economic Contraction: As the banks failed, the money supply in the US shrunk rapidly. With money leaving circulation,
deflation of the dollar resulted. Consequently, manufacturers cut prices of their goods, cut back on production, and initiated layoffs
(firing of workers). The Federal Reserve, the new system setup to manage the amount of money in circulation, raised interest rates on
loans (making borrowing more expensive), further decreasing the money in circulation. Gross National Product almost immediately
dropped 25% at the start of the Depression.

The Problem with Relief Organizations

Many Americans were unwilling to ask for help at the start of the Depression. With the exception of Coxey’s Army in the previous
century, it wasn’t really in the American nature to ask for assistance from the government, and the government wasn’t really willing to
help anyway. Instead, many Americans turned to voluntary relief organizations which were dependent on donations from private
citizens. These organizations were woefully unprepared for the influx of the newly needy but started by setting up breadlines and soup
kitchens for those in need. The number of unemployed would reach 25% nationally in 1932 (the darkest year of the Depression), but
was even worse in industrial cities. In 1932, unemployment reached 50% in Cleveland, 60% in Akron, and 80% in Toledo, Ohio.

National, state, and local governments could not have stepped up to help if they wanted to do so. Just as these requests were
increasing, tax dollars were vanishing for the governments. As more and more people lose their jobs, there are less tax dollars to spend
on government relief activities. President Hoover relied on the voluntary organizations to step up during his administration but the Red
Cross or the Salvation Army could barely keep up with the need.

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American Belief in Personal Responsibility
Americans had been taught that they were responsible for their own fate, that unemployment and poverty were signs of personal failure
and that during times of struggle that they should pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and climb the ladder of success. This
belief in rugged individualism led to many adult men feeling intense guilt and shame when they lost their jobs. This newfound inability
to support their families challenged the traditional notion of masculinity and that men were the breadwinners for their families.

This belief was reinforced by President Hoover who lived the example of personal responsibility. Orphaned at age nine, he was the
poster child for the rags to riches story. Herbert Hoover graduated from Stanford with a degree in engineering and built a multinational
mining empire where he became a millionaire by age 40. In 1914, he was named the head of the relief organization during WW1 tasked
with providing food for Belgian war refugees. He successfully managed this operation and saved countless Europeans from starvation.
Consequently, Woodrow Wilson brought him to the Versailles peace conference as his chief economic advisor. During the Harding and
Coolidge administrations, Hoover held the position of commerce secretary in order to foster business and industry without creating a
bloated government bureaucracy. As president, Hoover confronted the economic calamity by working nights and weekends and
initiating tax cuts and public works programs. That said, he was against any sort of welfare programs, believing that they would
undermine the moral fiber of the citizenry.

The reason for this mentality that Hoover and many Americans felt at the start of the Great Depression was due to the persistence of
the ‘success ethic.’ Studies showed at the time that while some blamed bankers for the Depression, most blamed themselves for their
current situation. 1936’s How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, a self-help manual, reinforced the notion that
personal initiative was the key to pulling oneself out of poverty and that the best way to get ahead was to fit in and make others feel
important. Again, this book promoted the idea that people could pull themselves out of poverty if they only tried hard enough.

Struggles of Farmers
Farmers were hurting before the Great Depression began and yet saw
their income drop 60% between 1929 and 1932. 33% of farmers lost
their land. The Dust Bowl, also known as the Dirty Thirties, was a
period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and
agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s;
severe drought and a failure to apply dryland farming methods to
prevent wind erosion caused the phenomenon. The drought came in
three waves, 1934, 1936, and 1939–1940, but some regions of the high
plains experienced drought conditions for as many as eight years. With
insufficient understanding of the ecology of the plains, farmers had
conducted extensive deep plowing of the virgin topsoil of the Great
Plains during the previous decade; this had displaced the native,
deep-rooted grasses that normally trapped soil and moisture even
during periods of drought and high winds. The rapid mechanization of
farm equipment, especially small gasoline tractors, and widespread use
of the combine harvester contributed to farmers' decisions to convert arid grassland (much of which received no more than 10 inches
(250 mm) of precipitation per year) to cultivated cropland.

During the drought of the 1930s, the unanchored soil turned to dust, which the prevailing winds blew away in huge clouds that
sometimes blackened the sky. These choking billows of dust – called "black blizzards" or "black rollers" – traveled cross country,
reaching as far as the East Coast and striking such cities as New York City and Washington, D.C. On the Plains, they often reduced
visibility to 3.3 feet or less. Associated Press reporter Robert E. Geiger happened to be in Boise City, Oklahoma, to witness the "Black
Sunday" black blizzards of April 14, 1935; Edward Stanley, Kansas City news editor of the Associated Press coined the term "Dust
Bowl" while rewriting Geiger's news story. While the term "the Dust Bowl" was originally a reference to the geographical area affected
by the dust, today it is usually used to refer to the event, as in "It was during the Dust Bowl".

The drought and erosion of the Dust Bowl affected 100,000,000 acres that centered on the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma and
touched adjacent sections of New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas.

The Dust Bowl forced tens of thousands of poverty-stricken families to abandon their farms, unable to pay mortgages or grow crops,
and losses reached $25 million per day by 1936 (equivalent to $440,000,000 in 2017). Many of these families, who were often known
as "Okies" because so many of them came from Oklahoma, migrated to California and other states to find that the Great Depression
had rendered economic conditions there little better than those they had left.

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The Dust Bowl has been the subject of many cultural works, notably the novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939) by John Steinbeck, the
folk music of Woody Guthrie, and photographs depicting the conditions of migrants by Dorothea Lange.

Many of these Okies took to Route 66, the transnational highway with their entire families and belongings, staying in ‘Hoovervilles,’
nicknamed hovels that began carpeting the nation.

Women During the Great Depression

Though many men, husbands, and fathers lost their jobs during the Great Depression, it was still seen as unseemly that their wives
would find domestic service jobs to help pay the bills. There was an enduring popular disapproval of women that worked as the belief
was that jobs that were available should be saved for the men (the breadwinners). Consequently, men moved into traditionally female
professions like teaching and social work. That said, some women’s jobs were safe from men, like stenography (typing) or sales-clerks
in department stores.

Despite the mentality, the percentage of working women increased during the Depression. At the time, 24% of white women were
working, and 38% of black women were working.

Depression Families
The Roaring 20s bred consumerism in American families that had to be curbed as disposable income was less available. The 1930s
saw a retreat from the consumerism of the previous decade. Furthermore, the rates for first time marriages and birth rates decreased
during the Depression. This is likely due to people not feeling financially ready to support a spouse or child and were choosing to wait.
Divorces decreased during the Depression (divorces are expensive and people needed the extra help) but abandonments increased.
The Depression also saw extended families moving in together and establishing home businesses. Many women took in sewing clothes
for friends and family or preserving food. Many women also opened boarding houses or sold baked goods to help make ends meet.

Hoover’s Strategy: Volunteerism

President Hoover attempted to continue the volunteer strategies that were successful during WW1: wheatless Wednesday or meatless
Monday for example. By using volunteerism, Hoover believed he could encourage businesses to voluntarily hold off on layoffs or pay
decreases until the American economy made it through the worst parts of the Depression. Hoover urged labor, business, and
agriculture to cooperate with his plan by asking them not to lay off workers or cut production. He asked labor not to go on strike for
wage increases or better hours. By simply asking, success was limited.

Hoover wanted to restore public confidence in the economy and called a meeting where he urged cooperation and volunteerism
amongst the key economic players. By 1931 however, volunteerism would be abandoned due to the economic realities of the time. By
that year, companies cannot help but layoff workers and cut production. Hoover, feeling sorry for himself, will lose 35 pounds, his hair
will turn white, and (obviously) his mood turned sad.

As the economy dipped lower and lower, Hoover responded relatively more aggressively. He began urging state and local governments
to propose public works projects (like building road, dams and bridges), but only those that would pay for themselves (through tolls or
fees). Hoover’s promotion of public works projects added $423 million in spending but due to his fear of deficit spending (spending
money the US didn’t have) he even proposed a tax increase in 1932 to pay for it.

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Hoover’s Organizations
It’s important to know that Hoover is against governmental handouts. This will contrast with Franklin Roosevelt’s public program, the
New Deal, which in some cases, literally hands out cash to people to stave off starvation.
Hoover’s Org About
Agricultural Agricultural Marketing Act of 1929, under the administration
Marketing Act of Herbert Hoover, established the Federal Farm Board from
(AMA) the Federal Farm Loan Board established by the Federal
April 1929 Farm Loan Act of 1916 with a revolving fund of half a billion
dollars. The original act was sponsored by Hoover in an
attempt to stop the downward spiral of crop prices by
allowing the gov’t to buy, sell and store agricultural
surpluses or by generously lending money to farm
organizations. Money was lent out to the farmers in order to
buy seed and food for the livestock, which was especially
important since there had previously been a drought in the
Democratic South. However, Hoover refused to lend to
the farmers themselves, as he thought that it would be
unconstitutional to do so and if they were lent money,
they would become dependent on government money.
Hawley-Smoot The act raised U.S. tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods.
Tariff
June 1930 The tariffs under the act were the second-highest in the
U.S. in 100 years, exceeded by a small margin by the Tariff
of 1828. Included tariffs on 75 farm products to protect
American farmers from foreign competition.
National Credit Attempt try to stop bank failure. The organization attempted
Corporation (NCC) to convince large surviving banks to loan money to failing
1931 banks as a solution to bank runs.
Reconstruction The Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) was a
Finance government corporation in the United States between 1932
Corporation (RFC) and 1957 that provided financial support to state and local
Dec. 1931/January governments and made loans to banks, railroads, mortgage
1932 associations, and other businesses. Its purpose was to boost
the country’s confidence and help banks resume daily
functions after the start of the Great Depression. The RFC
became more prominent under the New Deal and continued
to operate through World War II. It was disbanded in 1957,
when the US government concluded that it no longer needed
to stimulate lending.
The RFC was an independent agency of the United States
government, and fully owned and operated by the
government. The idea was suggested by Eugene Meyer of
the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, recommended by
President Hoover, and established by Congress in 1932. It
was modeled after the War Finance Corporation of World
War I. In total, it gave $2 billion in aid to state and local
governments and made a large number of loans, nearly all of
which were repaid.
Effects
The Federal Farm Board's purchase of surplus could not
keep up with the production; as farmers realized that they
could just sell the government their crops, they
reimplemented the use of fertilizers and other techniques to
increase production. Overall, the deflation could not be
countered because of a massive fault in the bill: there was
no production limit. Had there been a production limit, the
deflation might have been helped somewhat. The funds
appropriated were eventually exhausted and the losses of
the farmers kept rising.
The Act and following retaliatory tariffs by America's
trading partners were major factors of the reduction of
American exports and imports by more than half during
the Depression. Although economists disagree by how
much, the consensus view among economists and economic
historians is that the passage of the Smoot–Hawley Tariff
exacerbated the Great Depression.
Many large banks however did not think that investing in
failing banks would be secure, so most of them did not
support the failing banks.
The agency played a major role in recapitalizing banks in the
1930s and it was effective in reducing bank failures and
stimulating bank lending. It also helped to set up relief
programs that were taken over by the New Deal in 1933.
That said, during the Hoover years, since it allowed for
money to be loaned to banks with sufficient collateral, by
1932 only 20% of the available $1.5 billion got loaned (30
million).
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Public Reaction to Great Depression: Bonus Marchers
Bonus Army was the name for an assemblage of some 43,000 marchers—17,000 U.S. World War I veterans, their families, and
affiliated groups—who gathered in Washington, D.C. in the summer of 1932 to demand cash-payment redemption of their service
certificates. Organizers called the demonstrators the "Bonus Expeditionary Force", to echo the name of World War One’'s American
Expeditionary Forces, while the media referred to them as the "Bonus Army" or "Bonus Marchers". The contingent was led by Walter
W. Waters, a former sergeant.

Many of the war veterans had been out of work since the beginning of the Great Depression. The World War Adjusted Compensation
Act of 1924 had awarded them bonuses in the form of certificates they could not redeem until 1945. Each certificate, issued to a
qualified veteran soldier, bore a face value equal to the soldier's promised payment compound interest. The principal demand of the
Bonus Army was the immediate cash payment of their certificates.

President Hoover, concerned with balancing the budget, denied the early payment of the bonuses.

On July 28, U.S. Attorney General William D. Mitchell ordered the veterans removed from all government property. Washington police
met with resistance, shots were fired and two veterans were wounded and later died. President Herbert Hoover then ordered the Army
to clear the veterans' campsite. Army Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur commanded the infantry and cavalry supported by six
tanks. The Bonus Army marchers with their wives and children were driven out, and their shelters and belongings burned.

A second, smaller Bonus March in 1933 at the start of the Roosevelt administration was defused in May with an offer of jobs with the
Civilian Conservation Corps at Fort Hunt, Virginia, which most of the group accepted. Those who chose not to work for the CCC by the
May 22 deadline were given transportation home. In 1936, Congress overrode President Franklin D. Roosevelt's veto and paid the
veterans their bonus nine years early.

For Hoover, the Bonus army was the last nail in his presidential coffin. His
reserved personality was reinforcing the public image of him as aloof and
unsympathetic to the people. In 1932, the Republican party will renominate the
president as their candidate and the Democrats would nominate Franklin
Roosevelt.

The Election of 1932

Franklin Roosevelt was an aristocrat and distant cousin of Teddy Roosevelt. He
was married to TR’s niece Eleanor as well. FDR rose from the New York state
legislature to become Assistant Secretary of the Navy during World War 1. In
1920, he was the Democratic VP nominee (though they lost he gained national
recognition). FDR rose by avoiding controversial issues and stuck to the
economy. He avoided topics like religion and prohibition in order to gather a
broad coalition of Democrats pledging as their nominee in 1932, “I pledge you, I
pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people” in an acceptance
speech, calling back to his relative TR’s ‘Square Deal.’ To his supporters, FDR
seemed more energetic and imaginative than Hoover. Combined with that and
Hoover’s unpopularity, FDR found victory in the 1932 election with 57.4% of the
popular vote to Hoover’s 39.7%. FDR would win all states except for Delaware,
Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Congress
would turn Democratic in both houses and overall FDR found himself with a
broad mandate for change and reform.

Right: Bonus marchers camped out on the Capitol lawn.

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 Great Depression and New Deal Reading Questions

Please tear off this sheet and answer the following questions. You may bullet your answers but write in complete thoughts
(10 points).

1. What were the longer term causes of the Great Depression and what were the shorter term causes? Write at least
one sentence per cause explaining what happened.

2. Why was Hoover so slow to react to the Great Depression with the full weight of the U.S. government?

3. How was life changed by the Great Depression in families? In rural communities in the midwest?

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4. Which of Hoover’s organizations was the most successful? Why? Least? Why?

5. What was the public reaction to Hoover with the Bonus Army? What did they want and why did Hoover’s reaction
align with his overall mentality about the role of government?

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 FDR and the New Deal Supplemental Reading

The Interregnum (the in-between)

The period after the November election of 1932 and the March 1933 inauguration of FDR was an awkward time because Hoover was a
lame duck (in the final period of office, after the election of a successor) and FDR, though elected, had no power. Roosevelt was
elected in November 1932 but, like his predecessors, would not take office until the following March. After the election, Hoover sought
to convince Roosevelt to renounce much of his campaign platform and to endorse the Hoover administration's policies. Roosevelt
refused Hoover's request to develop a joint program to stop the downward economic spiral, claiming that it would tie his hands, and that
Hoover had all the power to act if necessary. The economy spiraled downward until the banking system began a complete nationwide
shutdown as Hoover's term ended. This four month period was deemed too long by Americans and they would later act by speeding up
the transition and allowing the inauguration to occur in January after the election in November through the passage of the 20th
amendment.

Roosevelt won 57% of the popular vote and carried all but six states. Historians and political scientists consider the 1932–36 elections
to be realigning elections. Roosevelt's victory was enabled by the creation of the New Deal coalition, small farmers, the Southern
whites, Catholics, big city political machines, labor unions, northern African Americans (southern ones were still disfranchised), Jews,
intellectuals, and political liberals. The creation of the New Deal coalition transformed American politics and started what political
scientists call the "New Deal Party System" or the Fifth Party System. Between the Civil War and 1929, Democrats had rarely controlled
both houses of Congress and had won just four of seventeen presidential elections; from 1932 to 1979, Democrats won eight of twelve
presidential elections and generally controlled both houses of Congress.

Roosevelt as President
The presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt began on March 4, 1933, when he was inaugurated as the 32nd President of the United
States, and ended upon his death on April 12, 1945, a span of 12 years, 39 days (4422 days). Roosevelt assumed the presidency in
the midst of the Great Depression. Starting with his landslide victory over Republican President Herbert Hoover in the 1932 election. He
won a record four presidential terms, and became a central figure in world affairs during World War II. His program for relief, recovery
and reform, known as the New Deal, involved a great expansion of the role of the federal government in the economy.

During his first hundred days in office, Roosevelt spearheaded unprecedented major legislation and issued a profusion of executive
orders that instituted the New Deal—a variety of programs designed to produce the three R’s: relief, recovery and reform. Relief
(government jobs for the unemployed), recovery (economic growth), and reform (through regulation of Wall Street, banks and
transportation). He created numerous programs to support the unemployed and farmers, and to encourage labor union growth while
more closely regulating business and high finance. The repeal of Prohibition in 1933 added to his popularity, helping him win re-election
by a landslide in 1936. The economy improved rapidly from 1933 to 1937, but then relapsed into a deep recession in 1937–38. The
bipartisan Conservative Coalition that formed in 1937 prevented his attempted packing of the Supreme Court, and blocked most of his
legislative proposals, aside from the Fair Labor Standards Act. When the war began and unemployment largely became a non-issue,
conservatives in Congress repealed the two major relief programs, the WPA and CCC, but kept most of the regulations on business.
Along with several smaller programs, major surviving programs from the New Deal include the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission, the Wagner Act, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and Social Security.

FDR’s Polio in the 1920s

After the election as a candidate for VP in 1920, Roosevelt returned to New York City, where he practiced law and served as a vice
president of the Fidelity and Deposit Company. He also sought to build support for a political comeback in the 1922 elections, but his
career was derailed by illness. While the Roosevelts were vacationing at Campobello Island in August 1921, Roosevelt fell ill. His main
symptoms were fever; symmetric, ascending paralysis; facial paralysis; bowel and bladder dysfunction; numbness and hyperesthesia;
and a descending pattern of recovery. Roosevelt was left permanently paralyzed from the waist down. He was diagnosed with polio at
the time, but his symptoms are more consistent with Guillain–Barré syndrome – an autoimmune neuropathy which Roosevelt's doctors
failed to consider as a diagnostic possibility.

Though his mother favored his retirement from public life, Roosevelt, his wife, and Roosevelt's close friend and adviser, Louis Howe,
were all determined that Roosevelt continue his political career. Roosevelt convinced many people that he was improving, which he
believed to be essential prior to running for public office again. He laboriously taught himself to walk short distances while wearing iron
braces on his hips and legs by swiveling his torso, supporting himself with a cane. Roosevelt was careful never to be seen using his

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wheelchair in public, and great care was taken to prevent any portrayal in the press that would highlight his disability. However, his
disability was well known before and during his presidency and became a major part of his image. He usually appeared in public
standing upright, supported on one side by an aide or one of his sons.

Fireside Chats
Fireside chats is the term used to describe a series of 28 evening radio addresses given by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt
between 1933 and 1944. Roosevelt spoke with familiarity to millions of Americans about the promulgation of the Emergency Banking
Act in response to the banking crisis, the recession, New Deal initiatives, and the course of World War II. On radio, he was able to quell
rumors and explain his policies. His tone and demeanor communicated self-assurance during times of despair and uncertainty. Often
beginning in a cheery tone by saying with familiarity, ‘Good evening friends,’ his addresses usually ranged between 15-45 minutes and
used common language to appeal to as many listeners as possible. 80% of the language FDR used was amongst the 1000 most
commonly used words in the English language. Roosevelt was a great communicator on radio, and the fireside chats kept him in high
public regard throughout his presidency. Their introduction was later described as a "revolutionary experiment with a nascent media
platform".

The series of fireside chats was among the first 50 recordings made part of the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress,
which noted it as "an influential series of radio broadcasts in which Roosevelt utilized the media to present his programs and ideas
directly to the public and thereby redefined the relationship between President Roosevelt and the American people in 1933." The
fireside chats changed the presidency. FDR used this new media tool as his evolved bully pulpit and it was now more
necessary for candidates to be charming.

Keynesian Economics (pronouce it Cains-ian)

Keynesian economics is an economic theory of total spending in the economy and its effects on output and inflation. Keynesian
economics was developed by the British economist John Maynard Keynes during the 1930s in an attempt to understand the Great
Depression. Keynes advocated increased government expenditures and lower taxes to stimulate demand and pull the global economy
out of the depression. Subsequently, Keynesian economics was used to refer to the concept that optimal economic performance could
be achieved -- and economic slumps prevented -- by influencing aggregate demand through activist stabilization and economic
intervention policies by the government. Keynesian economics is considered a "demand-side" theory that focuses on changes in the
economy over the short run.

In summation, the government should create the right level of demand. When the economy is slumping and consumers are not
purchasing enough goods or services, the government could step in to stimulate demand and keep businesses pumping out products.
Since the economy depends on how much consumers save or spend, when demand for goods is too low (because people aren’t
spending enough), the government should spend more than it collects in taxes. When demand is too high, the government should
increase taxation to cut consumer spending.

Keynesian economics believes that the private sector (businesses) cannot fix the problems of instability and under consumption in the
economy. When times are bad, people hoard money in their mattresses and don’t spend it. In order to get the economy moving again,
the government should ‘prime the pump’ of spending by spending its money on these goods. Keynes advocated a ‘mixed economy’
with a predominantly private sector and a large but involved government.

In order to pull the economy from depression, the Federal Reserve (the organization in control of the amount of money in circulation)
should increase the amount of money in circulation to get the economy moving again. Then, they should lower interest rates to make
borrowing and taking out loans easier (to stimulate the economy), and then, of course, the government needs to spend money on
infrastructure projects.

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