On October 29, 1929, the great stock market crash which caused the Great Depression to occur. America’s were in need of hope, and that is exactly what Presidential candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt gave the people. On March 4, 1933, Franklin Roosevelt was inaugurated into presidency. In the first inaugural address, Roosevelt said “First of All, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” On March 5, Roosevelt declared a four day bank holiday, beginning a reform program called the New Deal. (New Deal (n.d.) History.com, New Deal Timeline (text version).)
President Roosevelt’s “First Hundred Days” had just began. On March 9, 1933, congress passed the first two orders of the new deal. The two initiatives passed were called the Emergency Banking Act and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The Emergency Banking Act gave the federal government the right to inspect the health of all banks, and the FDIC insured bank deposits up to $5000. The measures of the two first parts of the New Deal put American people’s faith back in banks, and soon, deposits had exceeded withdrawals. (Franklin D. Roosevelt- American Heritage Center, Inc.)
March 12, 1933, President Roosevelt delivered a first of many Fireside Chats. Fireside Chats were where the President got on the radio and discussed matters occurring in the country. In the first one, Roosevelt told the people of America, “I can assure you, my friends, that it is safer to keep your money in a reopened bank than it is to keep it under the mattress. The success of our whole nation program depends, of course, on the cooperation of the public – on its intelligent support and its use of a reliable system.” This made people have confidence back in the banks and created more money being put back in to the economy.
Although faith was put back into banks, President Roosevelt had to do something with unemployment. Congress pass the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) on March 31….