🍺 Early laws
- Economy Act (March): cut government pay and veterans' pensions to save money
- Beer-Wine Revenue Act (March): allowed weak beer, giving jobs and taxes
- Civilian Conservation Corps (March): outdoor work for young unemployed men
Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1933-41 » Roosevelt's Aims and the Hundred Days
What you'll learn this session
Study time: 30 minutes
Edexcel spec: Paper 2 Section A, Investigation A3, Key topic 4
- What Roosevelt wanted to achieve: relief, recovery and reform
- How the bank holiday and the Emergency Banking Act stopped the banking panic
- Why his fireside chats made such a difference
- What the Hundred Days of laws achieved, and what they could not do
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Unlock This CourseRoosevelt takes charge
In November 1932 the Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt, Governor of New York, beat President Hoover by a landslide. He took office on 4 March 1933. About a quarter of American workers, roughly 13 million people, had no job. Banks were closing and savers were queuing to get their money out. During the campaign Roosevelt had promised “a new deal for the American people”, and the name stuck.
Key terms:
- New Deal: Roosevelt's programme of laws and government agencies to fight the Depression, from 1933 onwards.
- Relief: quick help for people who were suffering now, such as food, money and work.
- Recovery: getting the economy growing again, with more jobs, better prices and busier businesses.
- Reform: changing the rules so that a crash like 1929 could not happen again.
Roosevelt's aims: the three Rs
🍲 Relief
Help the hungry, the homeless and the jobless straight away, because people could not wait for the economy to mend itself.
📈 Recovery
Get farms, factories and shops working again, so that prices, wages and jobs began to rise.
📜 Reform
Control banks and the stock market so that reckless lending and speculation could not cause another disaster.
Roosevelt had no single master plan. He and his advisers were ready to try many ideas, and the aims did not always fit together. For example, cutting government spending to save money (reform of the budget) took money out of people's pockets, which slowed recovery.
The bank holiday and the Emergency Banking Act
The banks were the most urgent problem. Frightened savers had rushed to turn deposits into cash or gold, and by the afternoon of 3 March almost no bank in the country was open, because state governors had closed them. Even sound banks could not find enough cash to pay everyone at once.
- 6 March: Roosevelt proclaimed a nationwide bank holiday. Every bank was shut for a few days, so the panic could be stopped and the banks could be checked.
- 9 March: Congress met in a special session and passed the Emergency Banking Act the same day. Republicans and Democrats voted for it. It confirmed the bank holiday and gave the President wider powers over banks and gold. Government inspectors would check each bank, and only sound banks would be allowed to reopen. Weak banks stayed closed or were reorganised.
- 13 March: the first checked banks reopened. This time more people paid money in than took it out.
Why it worked
The Act did not create new money. It worked because people believed the government's promise that every reopened bank had been inspected. Once they trusted the banks again, the runs stopped. Roosevelt's plan was confidence.
Fireside chats
On Sunday 12 March, the night before the banks reopened, Roosevelt gave the first of his fireside chats: relaxed radio talks to the whole nation. He explained in plain words that a bank does not keep your money in a vault but lends most of it out, so no bank can pay everyone at once. He asked people to trust the reopened banks and ended: “Together we cannot fail.”
The chats mattered because Roosevelt could speak to ordinary families directly, in everyday language, without a newspaper in between. Millions listened, and he received far more letters than Hoover ever had. Many people felt that the President cared and knew what he was doing.
Key terms:
- Bank holiday: a short, official closing of all banks.
- Fireside chat: one of Roosevelt's informal radio addresses to the American people.
The Hundred Days
Roosevelt asked Congress for quick action. From 9 March to 16 June 1933, the Hundred Days, Congress passed about 15 major laws. Congress agreed so fast because the emergency was obvious, the public wanted action, and the Democrats had large majorities after the election.
🏢 Later laws
- Agricultural Adjustment Act and Tennessee Valley Authority (May)
- Federal Securities Act (May): honest information about shares
- Home Owners' Loan Corporation (June): helped people keep their homes
- Banking Act of 1933 (June): split ordinary banking from share dealing and set up bank deposit insurance
- National Industrial Recovery Act (June)
These laws fit the three Rs. Jobs and food were relief, farm and industry laws aimed at recovery, and rules for banks and shares were reform. The agencies themselves are explained in the Alphabet Agencies lessons that follow.
The Hundred Days did not end the Depression. Millions were still out of work in 1934. But they changed the mood of the country and showed that the government was fighting back.
Common mistakes
- The Hundred Days were not 100 days exactly. They are the first months of the special session, March to June 1933.
- The bank holiday did not give savers back money lost in failed banks. It stopped the panic by checking banks and rebuilding confidence.
- Relief, recovery and reform are different. Giving a man a job in a camp is relief. Changing the rules for share dealing is reform.
Exam-style question
Study Sources A and B.
Source A
From a radio address by President Roosevelt, 12 March 1933.
Because of undermined confidence on the part of the public, there was a general rush ... to turn bank deposits into currency or gold ... By the afternoon of March 3d scarcely a bank in the country was open to do business. ... It was then that I issued the proclamation providing for the nationwide bank holiday.
Source B
From a radio address by President Roosevelt, 7 May 1933.
First, we are giving opportunity of employment to one-quarter of a million of the unemployed ... to go into the forestry and flood prevention work. ... Industry has picked up, railroads are carrying more freight, farm prices are better, but I am not going to indulge in issuing proclamations of overenthusiastic assurance. We cannot bally-ho ourselves back to prosperity.
How far does Source A support the evidence of Source B about how Roosevelt dealt with the problems facing the USA in 1933? Explain your answer. [8 marks]
Model answer
Source A supports Source B in showing a government that acted directly. In A, Roosevelt says he “issued the proclamation providing for the nationwide bank holiday”, and in B he says “we are giving opportunity of employment to one-quarter of a million of the unemployed”. Both also suggest that he wanted to be honest with the public. A explains the cause of the crisis, “undermined confidence”, and B says he will not issue “proclamations of overenthusiastic assurance”.
However, the sources differ. A describes an emergency in which “scarcely a bank in the country was open to do business”, while B says “Industry has picked up, railroads are carrying more freight”, so things are getting better. A is only about banks, whereas B is about jobs and the wider economy, and B adds a warning, “We cannot bally-ho ourselves back to prosperity”, which A does not contain.
Overall, A supports B quite well on the government taking action and speaking openly, but the two sources deal with different problems at different stages, so A supports B only in part.
What lifts it to the top level: it uses matched quotations from both sources for agreement and for difference, and ends by judging how far A supports B.
Exam tip
Give at least one agreement and one difference, quote briefly from both sources each time, and finish with a clear judgement on how far. You are comparing what the sources say, so you do not need to add outside facts.
Recap
- Roosevelt's aims were relief, recovery and reform.
- He closed all banks on 6 March 1933, and the Emergency Banking Act (9 March) let only inspected, sound banks reopen on 13 March.
- His first fireside chat (12 March) rebuilt confidence by explaining banking in plain words.
- The Hundred Days (March to June 1933) produced about 15 major laws, but the Depression went on.
Exam tip
When you write about the Hundred Days, link each law to an aim (relief, recovery or reform). It shows you understand why it was passed, not just what it was.