During his two terms, Governor Roosevelt battled a Republican legislature for many progressive measures. These included reforestation, state-supported old-age pensions and unemployment insurance, legislation regulating working hours for women and children, and public development of electric power. He named skilled people to important positions, including James Farley, a New York City contractor, as chairman of the state Democratic Committee; Frances Perkins, a social worker, as state industrial commissioner; and Samuel Rosenman, an able young lawyer, as his speech writer and counsel. All became important aides during Roosevelt's presidency.

In 1931, when the Depression was serious, Roosevelt became the first governor to set up an effective state relief administration. Harry Hopkins, a social worker who later served as his closest adviser in Washington, directed it. In a series of "fireside chats" Governor Roosevelt also proved a persuasive speaker over the new medium of radio. He was reelected in 1930 by 750,000 votes, the largest margin in state history.

The Presidency

While Roosevelt was governor of New York, the Great Depression tightened its grip on the country. Roosevelt, seeking new ideas, enlisted a "brains trust" of Columbia University professors to help him devise programs against hard times. These professors included Rexford Tugwell, Raymond Moley, and Adolf Berle, Jr. All became leading figures in the national administration in 1933. Acting on their suggestions, Roosevelt stressed the need to assist the "forgotten man." He added that "the country demands bold, persistent experimentation." Meanwhile, Farley and other supporters were lining up delegates for Roosevelt throughout the country. By the time the Democratic national convention opened in Chicago in June 1932, Roosevelt stood out as the most dynamic and imaginative contender for the presidential nomination.

Despite these assets, FDR faced formidable opposition at the convention, from House Speaker John Nance GARNER of Texas; former Secretary of War Newton D. Baker of Ohio, a potential compromise choice; and former Governor Smith, who still cherished ambitions of his own. For three ballots Roosevelt held a large lead, but lacked the two-thirds margin necessary for victory. Farley then promised Garner the vice-presidential nomination. The move succeeded. Garner reluctantly accepted the vice presidency, and FDR took the presidential nomination on the fourth ballot.

Most party leaders applauded the Roosevelt-Garner ticket, which closed the heretofore fatal gulf between the urban-Eastern and rural-Southern-Western wings of the party. They responded especially to Roosevelt, who broke with precedent to fly to the convention and to tell the delegates, "I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people."

The 1932 Campaign

During the fall campaign against President Hoover, Roosevelt suggested a few parts of this "new deal." He supported spending for relief and public works. He favored some plan, undefined, to curb the agricultural overproduction that was depressing farm prices. He spoke for conservation, public power, old-age pensions and unemployment insurance, repeal of prohibition, and regulation of the stock exchange.

Otherwise, he was vague. He said little about his plans for industrial recovery or about labor legislation, and he was fuzzy about foreign policy and the tariff. On some occasions he promised to support increased expenditures for relief; on others he denounced the Hoover administration for extravagance.

FDR's equivocations on these issues alienated some intellectuals and reformers, who turned to the Communist or Socialist party on election day. But for most Americans, including the majority of progressives, Roosevelt seemed the only viable alternative to Hoover, who many people blamed unfairly for the Depression. On election day Roosevelt captured 22,821,857 votes to Hoover's 15,761,841, and took the ELECTORAL COLLEGE 472 to 59. The voters sent large Democratic majorities to both houses of CONGRESS.

The New Deal

By March 4, 1933, when Roosevelt was inaugurated at the age of 51, the economic situation was desperate. Between 13 and 15 million Americans were unemployed. Of these, between 1 and 2 million persons were wandering about the country looking for jobs. Hundreds of thousands squatted in tents or ramshackle dwellings in "Hoovervilles," makeshift villages on the outskirts of cities. Panic-stricken people hoping to rescue their deposits had forced 38 states to close their banks.

From the beginning, Roosevelt tried to restore popular confidence. "The only thing we have to fear," he said in his inaugural address, "is fear itself--nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror." He added that he would not stand by and watch the Depression deepen. If necessary, he would "ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis--broad executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe." He then closed the rest of the banks--declaring a "bank holiday"--and called Congress into special session.

His first legislative requests were conservative. He began by securing passage of an emergency banking bill. Instead of nationalizing the banks--as a few reformers wished--it offered aid to private bankers. A few days later the president forced through an Economy Act that cut $400 million from government payments to veterans and $100 million from the salaries of federal employees. This deflationary measure hurt purchasing power. FDR concluded his early program by securing legalization of beer of 3.2% alcoholic content by weight. By the end of 1933, ratification of the 21st Amendment to the U. S. CONSTITUTION had ended prohibition altogether.

His relief program was more far-reaching. A series of measures took the nation off the gold standard, thereby offering some assistance to debtors and exporters. He also got Congress to appropriate $500 million in federal relief grants to states and local agencies. Harry Hopkins, who headed the newly created Federal Emergency Relief Administration, quickly spent the money. By early 1935 he had supervised the outlay of $1.5 billion more in direct grants, and in work relief under the Civil Works Administration (CWA) of 1933-1934.

In 1933, Congress also approved funding for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC), and the Public Works Administration (PWA). The CCC eventually employed more than 2.5 million young men on valuable conservation work. The HOLC offered desperately needed assistance to mortgagors and homeowners. The PWA, while slow to act, ultimately pumped billions into construction of large-scale projects. Though left-wing critics demanded higher appropriations, most Americans were grateful for these measures. The relief programs of the NEW DEAL gave hope to the have-nots--blacks and the unemployed--and did much to restore confidence in the government.

Reform Measures

The early New Deal also sponsored reform measures. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) came primarily from congressional initiative. By insuring deposits, it helped to prevent ruinous runs on banks. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), created in 1934, made a cautious beginning toward regulation of the stock exchanges.

The most important reform was the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), instituted in 1933. This public corporation built multipurpose dams to control floods and generate cheap hydroelectric power. It manufactured fertilizer, fostered soil conservation, and cooperated with local agencies in social experiments. The TVA reflected Roosevelt's commitment to resource development and his longstanding mistrust of private utilities.

The NRA and the AAA

FDR placed his hopes for economic recovery in two agencies created in the productive "100 Days" of the 1933 special session of Congress. These were the National Recovery Administration (NRA) and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA). The NRA encouraged management and labor to establish codes of fair competition within each industry. These codes outlined acceptable pricing and production policies and guaranteed labor the rights of collective bargaining, minimum wages, and maximum hours. The AAA focused on raising farm prices, a goal to be achieved through the setting of production quotas approved by farmers in referenda. Once the quotas limiting production were established, farmers whocooperated would receive subsidies.

After a promising start the NRA lost its effectiveness. Union spokesmen grumbled that the courts undercut the labor guarantees. Progressives complained that the NRA exempted monopolies from antitrust prosecution. Small businessmen protested that the codes favored large corporations. Some employers were slow to sign the codes, and others evaded them. If the PWA and other spending agencies had moved more quickly to promote purchasing power, these liabilities might not have been serious. As it was, the PWA was slow to spend its funds, hard times persisted, and evasion spread. Well before the Supreme Court declared the agency unconstitutional in May 1935, the NRA had failed in its aims of sponsoring government-business cooperation and promoting recovery.

The AAA was a little more successful. Agricultural income increased by 50% in Roosevelt's first term. Some of this increase, however, was attributable to terrible droughts. These, ruining thousands of farmers in the Great Plains, caused cuts in supply and contributed to higher prices for crops produced elsewhere. AAA acreage quotas also led some landlords to evict tenants from their lands. Moreover, as the AAA improved farm prices, it forced consumers, millions of whom lacked adequate food and decent clothing, to pay more for the necessities of life. Roosevelt, it seemed, was fighting scarcity with more scarcity.

Assessing the Early New Deal

These early measures displayed Roosevelt's strengths and weaknesses as an economic thinker. On the one hand, he showed that he was flexible, that he would act, and that he would use all his executive powers to secure congressional cooperation. Frequent press conferences, speeches, and fireside chats--and the extraordinary charisma that he displayed on all occasions--instilled a measure of confidence in the people and halted the terrifying slide of 1932 and 1933. These were important achievements that brought him and his party the gratitude of millions of Americans.

At the same time his policies were so flexible as to seem inconsistent, opportunist, and ill-considered. They showed him also to be a very cautious political leader. Neither then nor later in his administrations did he support civil rights legislation, which would have alienated the important Southern Democrats in Congress. Political considerations prompted his generous handling of potent interest groups, such as large corporations and commercial farmers. Far from imposing federal blueprints on the nation, he favored decentralization and voluntarism--these gave well-organized groups wide latitude and power. FDR also refrained from large-scale deficit spending or from tax policies that would have redistributed income. Purchasing power, essential to rapid recovery, therefore failed to increase substantially. Roosevelt, a practical political leader and a moderate in economics, helped preserve capitalism without significantly correcting its abuses or ending the Depression.

The New Deal from 1935

In 1935, Roosevelt turned slightly to the left. He sponsored bills aimed at abolishing public-utility holding companies, at raising taxes on the wealthy, and at shifting control of monetary policy from Wall Street bankers to Washington. When Congress balked, Roosevelt compromised. The bills revealed Roosevelt's loss of faith in government-business cooperation. They helped undercut demagogues like Sen. Huey Long (D-La.), who was agitating for tougher laws against the rich. But they did not signify a commitment to radical, antibusiness policies.

While these struggles were taking place, Roosevelt worked successfully for three significant acts passed in 1935. One, a relief appropriation, led to creation of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The WPA disbursed some $11 billion in work relief to as many as 3.2 million Americans a month between 1935 and 1942.

The second measure, the Wagner Act, set up the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which effectively guaranteed labor the right to bargain collectively on equal terms with management. In part because of the Wagner Act, in part because of overdue militance by spokesmen for industrial unionism, the labor movement swelled in the 1930's and 1940's.

The third reform was social security. The law provided for federal payment of old-age pensions and for federal-state cooperation in support of unemployment compensation and relief of the needy blind, of the disabled, and of dependent children. The act, though faulty in many ways, became the foundation of a partial welfare state with which later administrations dared not tamper.

These accomplishments helped Roosevelt win a smashing victory in 1936 over his Republican opponent, Gov. Alfred M. Landon of Kansas. Roosevelt received 27,751,841 popular votes and carried 46 states with 523 electoral votes. Landon received 16,679,491 votes and carried only two states with eight electoral votes. Although the result of the election reflected overwhelming confidence in FDR's leadership, he still felt obliged to observe, in his 1937 inaugural address, "I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished."

Controversy disrupted the president's second term. His troubles began in February 1937, when he called for a "court reform" plan that would have permitted him to add up to six judges to the probusiness U.S. Supreme Court. The court's conservative majority had angered FDR by declaring some New Deal legislation, including the NRA and AAA, unconstitutional. Congress, reflecting widespread reverence for the court, refused to do his bidding.

At the time, militant workers staged "sit-down" strikes in factories. Though Roosevelt opposed the sit-downs, conservatives were quick to blame him for the growing activism of organized labor. In the fall of 1937 a sharp recession, caused in large part by cuts in federal spending earlier in the year, staggered the country. Taken aback, Roosevelt waited until the spring of 1938 before calling for increased federal spending to recharge purchasing power. His procrastination revealed again his reluctance to resort to deficit spending.

These developments in 1937 and 1938 severely damaged his standing in Congress, which had grown restive under his strong leadership as early as 1935. In FDR's second term, therefore, the lawmakers proved cooperative only long enough to approve measures calling for public housing, fair labor standards, and aid to tenant farmers. None of these acts, however, was generously funded or far-reaching. Meanwhile, Congress cut back presidential requests for relief spending and public works. After Republican gains in the 1938 elections, a predominantly rural conservative coalition in Congress proved still more hostile. Henceforth it rejected most of the urban and welfare measures of Roosevelt's administrations.

Foreign Affairs

Cordell Hull of Tennessee served as secretary of state from 1933 to 1944, but Roosevelt's desire to engage in personal diplomacy left Hull in a reduced role. In 1933 the president's "bombshell message" to the London Economic Conference, saying that the United States would not participate in international currency stabilization, ended any immediate hope of achieving that objective. In the same year he extended diplomatic recognition to the USSR, still a relative outcast in world diplomacy.

Roosevelt and Hull worked smoothly in behalf of reciprocal trade agreements and in making the United States the "good neighbor" of the Latin American.

Prelude to War

By the mid-1930's dictatorial regimes in Germany, Japan, and Italy were casting their shadows across the blank pages of the future. In 1936, in his speech accepting renomination as president, Roosevelt had said, "This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny." By 1938, Roosevelt was spending increasing amounts of time on international affairs. Until then he had acquiesced in congressional "neutrality" acts designed to keep the United States out of another world war. Roosevelt did not share the isolationist sentiments that lay behind such legislation. But he hoped very much to avoid war, and he dared not risk his domestic program by challenging Congress over foreign policy. For these reasons he was slow to warn the people about the dangers of German fascism.

Germany's aggressiveness in 1939 forced Roosevelt to take a tougher stance. Early in the year he tried unsuccessfully to secure revision of a neutrality act calling for an embargo on armaments to all belligerents, whether attacked or attacker. When Hitler overran Poland in September and triggered the formal beginning of World War II, Roosevelt tried again for repeal of the embargo, and succeeded. In 1940 he negotiated an unneutral deal with Britain whereby the British leased their bases in the Western Hemisphere to the United States in return for 50 overaged American destroyers. Roosevelt also secured vastly increased defense expenditures, which brought about domestic economic recovery at last. But he still hoped to keep out of the war and to appease the anti-interventionists in Congress. Thus he remained cautious.

Campaigning for reelection in 1940 against Wendell Willkie, a relatively progressive Republican who agreed with some of his policies, Roosevelt said misleadingly that he would not send American boys to fight in foreign wars. Many persons, including some leaders of the Democratic party, were not in favor of giving the president an unprecedented third term, and his margin fell sharply from his previous reelection. Nevertheless, he still defeated Willkie handily by margins of 27,243,466 to 22,334,413 in the popular vote and 449 to 82 in the electoral vote.

Safely reelected, Roosevelt called for "lend-lease" aid to the anti-German allies. This aid, approved by Congress, greatly increased the flow of supplies to Britain. After Germany attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941, lend-lease went to the Russians as well.

To protect the supplies against German submarines, U.S. destroyers began escorting convoys of Allied ships part way across the Atlantic. In the process the destroyers helped pinpoint the location of submarines, which Allied warships duly attacked. Roosevelt did not tell the people about America's unneutral actions on the high seas. When a German submarine fired a torpedo at the American destroyer Greer in September 1941, he feigned surprise and outrage and ordered U. S. warships to shoot on sight at hostile German ships. By December the United States and Germany were engaged in an undeclared war on the Atlantic.

Most historians agree that Hitler was a menace to Western civilization, that American intervention was necessary to stop him, and that domestic isolationism hampered the president's freedom of response. But they regret that Roosevelt, in seeking his ends, chose to deceive the people and to abuse his powers.

Historians also debate Roosevelt's policies toward Japan, whose leaders were bent on expansion in the 1930's. Hoping to contain this expansion, the president gradually tightened an embargo of vital goods to Japan. He also demanded that Japan halt its aggressive activities in China and Indochina. Instead of backing down, the militarists who controlled Japan decided to fight, by attacking Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941, and by assaulting the East Indies. These moves left no doubt about Japan's aggressive intentions. In asking for a declaration of war, the president called December 7 "a date which will live in infamy." He brought a united America into World War II. By December 11, the United States was at war with Germany and Italy.

Some historians argue, however, that Roosevelt should not have been so unbudging regarding the integrity of China and Indochina, which lay outside America's national interest--or power to protect. If Roosevelt had adopted a more flexible policy toward Japan, he might have postponed a conflict in Asia at a time when war with Hitler was about to erupt.

World War II at Home

In running the war effort Roosevelt encountered almost endless difficulties on the domestic front. Congress dismantled New Deal agencies such as the WPA and blocked such liberal proposals as aid to education and health insurance. Blacks, angry at continuing racial injustice, threatened to march on Washington in 1941. Fearful of racial disorder, Roosevelt responded by signing an executive order setting up a Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) to prevent discrimination in defense-related employment. Though the order was his most important action on behalf of civil rights, the FEPC did not have much power, and racial tension mounted throughout the war.

Industrial controversies proved equally troublesome for the president. In order to encourage cooperation from corporate interests, Roosevelt brought business leaders into policy-making positions, offered corporations generous contracts and tax breaks, and downgraded progressive domestic reforms. Furious liberals protested against this growing power of big business. Other critics complained that Roosevelt refused to delegate authority over mobilization to a "czar" who would have power to establish priorities for production. The lack of centralized authority caused confusion, bureaucratic conflict, and delays in output.

Frustrated, some of Roosevelt's own appointees concluded that he was a sloppy administrator. In one sense their complaint was just, for Roosevelt welcomed rivalries among his subordinates. One bitter public quarrel pitted Vice President Henry WALLACE, who had replaced Garner on the Democratic ticket in 1940, against Secretary of Commerce Jesse Jones. FDR had assigned both Wallace, a liberal, and Jones, a conservative Texas banker, important responsibilities in procuring urgently needed war supplies. Wallace was eager to spend money aggressively in underdeveloped countries and to introduce social reforms in the process. As other members of the administration chose sides, Roosevelt had to relieve both officials of their special assignments.

Despite such incidents, the president thought that competition bred new ideas. And, in fact, Roosevelt's untidy administrative methods did no serious harm. By 1943 he had created a number of boards and agencies to control prices, develop manpower policy, and supervise the allocation of scarce materials. Fired by zeal to win the war, workers and employers ordinarily cooperated with the government to create production miracles.

Military Policies

Roosevelt's military policies also provoked controversy. In 1941 critics blamed him for leaving Pearl Harbor unprepared. Extremists even claimed that he invited the Japanese attack in order to have a pretext for war. In 1942 liberals complained when he cooperated with Jean Darlan, the Vichy French admiral who until then had been collaborating with the Axis, in planning the Allied invasion of North Africa. In 1943, FDR's opponents grumbled that his policy of unconditional surrender for the enemy discouraged the anti-Hitler resistance within Germany. Other critics complained that he relied too heavily on strategic bombing. His own generals were angry because he postponed the "second front" against Hitler until June 1944. Such delay, critics added later, infuriated the Soviet Union, which had to carry the brunt of the fighting against Hitler between 1941 and 1944, and sowed the seeds of the Cold War.

Some of these criticisms were partly justified. Poor communications between Washington and Hawaii helped the Japanese achieve surprise at Pearl Harbor. Dealing with Darlan was probably not necessary to ensure success in North Africa. Strategic bombing killed millions of civilians and was not nearly so effective as its advocates claimed. The delay in the second front greatly intensified Soviet suspicions of the West.

But it is easy to second-guess and to exaggerate Roosevelt's failings as a military leader. The president neither invited nor welcomed the Pearl Harbor attack, which was a brilliantly planned maneuver by Japan. He worked with Darlan in the hope of preventing unnecessary loss of Allied lives. Unconditional surrender, given American anger at the enemy, was a politically logical policy. It also proved reassuring to the Soviet Union, which had feared a separate German-American peace. Establishing the second front required control of the air and large supplies of landing craft, and these were not assured until 1944. In many of these decisions Roosevelt acted in characteristically pragmatic fashion--to win the war as effectively as possible and to keep the wartime alliance together. In these aims he was successful.

Wartime Diplomacy

Similar practical considerations dictated some of Roosevelt's diplomatic policies during the war. Cautious of provoking the British, he refrained from acting effectively against colonialism. Embarrassed by the delayin the second front--and anxious to secure Russian assistance against Japan--he acquiesced at the Teheran (1943) and Yalta (1945) summit conferences in some of Russia's aims in Asia and eastern Europe. In his dealings with Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Britain and Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union, Roosevelt also showed an exaggerated faith in the power of his personal charm. The joviality and exuberance that had soothed ruffled congressmen and bureaucrats during the early New Deal days were not so well suited for international politics.

In the larger sense Roosevelt's diplomacy, like his military policies, was statesmanlike. Despite occasional strains, the awkward wartime coalition among Russia, Britain, and the United States held together. Roosevelt was also wise in recognizing the futility of trying to stop Russian penetration of eastern Europe, which Soviet armies had overrun by early 1944. Accordingly, he sought to avoid unnecessary bickering with Stalin. Had FDR lived into the postwar era, he could not have prevented divisions from developing between Russia and the United States. But he might have worked harder than did his successors in compromising them.

Reelection in 1944

In 1944, with the war still in progress, the tired but willing commander in chief stood for reelection for a fourth term. His doctors knew that he was suffering from hypertension, hypertensive heart disease, and cardiac failure. Some of the president's advisers suspected as much, and they feared that he might not live through another term. So they persuaded him to drop Vice President Wallace, whom they regarded as too liberal and as emotionally unsuited to be president, and to accept Sen. Harry TRUMAN (Mo.) for the vice presidency. In the 1944 general election, Roosevelt defeated his fourth Republican opponent, Gov. Thomas Dewey (N. Y.), by 25,612,474 popular votes to 22,017,570, and by 432-99 in electoral votes.

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IN IRON WE TRUST.

HEAVEN IS THE BACKSEAT OF MY CADILLAC.

HEY ITS THERON!!!!!!! LETS KILL HIM!

His accomplishments on the economic front should have been tempered with some kind of time-sensitive legislation. They have created an albatross so heavy it will bring us all down unless thereis reform.

And your buddy George W Bush is the only major candidate attempting to reform the beast of Social Security.

Many of his programs were good AT THE TIME, but 60-70 years later they have outlived their usefulness and need to be reformed.

Over 90% of our governemtn's budget is fixed into entitlements. it's not all Soc Security but that's the biggest one. There's almost no more money for innovation from the government.

It was after all the government who put man on the moon, who invented the Internet, who disocvered hopw to harness nuclear energy, etc... but those hands of innovation are tied by programs that have outlived their usefulness.

FDR invented Social Security?.... That mother fucker.

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No man can be my equal.

roosevelt is the most overrated president in our history, and led us into our spiral downward into an entitlement state. social security may have been designed as a governmental money maker when life expectancies were ten or more years lower than they are today...but it's time to go. i firmly believe that each (wo)man should be responsible for him/herself. i sure as hell don't want the government to be in charge of my retirement funds. didn't appreciate the way al gore tried to twist bush's plan of allowing us to have some control over our retirement money into some evil plan to "mess with social security" during their debates.

In many things I am actually more of a libertarian than a Republican. But this election is not the time for 3rd party beliefs.

One of the problems with defense spending is misappropriation of funds. For example, $550million for a stealth fighter, and they can't even fly in the rain. Meanwhile the Army has been marching for 225 years and the boots still suck.

In every Army unit, there is a shortage of personnel, and a shortage of available funds for training. Been there and done that.

Meanwhile, billions is being spent on high tech junk that is trying to turn the battlefield into something we bounce of satellites and fight with robots.

These lessons are usually learned the hard way. We'll see.