FDR Promises a New Deal

When he ran for president, Franklin Roosevelt promised a new deal for Americans. He followed through with his promise by introducing a series of government programs called the New Deal.

During the first 100 days of the Roosevelt Administration a flurry of bills and proposals kept the Congress working day and night. To help banks and their depositors, Roosevelt’s first action was to close all banks for a few days to begin to straighten out their problems. For farmers there was the Agriculture Adjustment Act, for businessmen and workers there was the National Recovery Act, for young people there was the Civilian Conservation Corps. Roosevelt’s campaign promise of a New Deal quickly became a reality. Every new deal program had a set of abbreviations. The government seemed to be speaking in three letter words. There was the WPA, the PWA, the CCC, the NRA, the REA and if that weren’t enough, it was all presided over by FDR in Washington, D.C.

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Roosevelt’s critics felt that the government was intruding too much on the lives of the people. But those who had been out of work, without decent food or clothing, the New Deal was a great morale booster.