CLIL History

M2 The Big Crash, the Great Depression and the New Deal President Roosevelt s Policy When Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office on 4 March 1933, in his inaugural address he proposed a New Deal for the US and he asked for everyone s help to find a solution to the economic crisis. PRIMARY SOURCE from First Inaugural Address, 4 March 1933: This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. [ ] F.D. Roosevelt delivering his First Inaugural Address. Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone. More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment. [ ] Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation asks for action, and action now. Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our natural resources. [...] There are many ways in which it can be helped, but it can never be helped merely by talking about it. We must act and act quickly. [...] ACTIVITY 4.E After reading the First Inaugural Address choose four keywords in the speech and explain why you think they are meaningful. 1. . 2. . 3. . 4. . The New Deal During the first hundred days of his presidency Roosevelt was incredibly active and passed many laws that were crucial to increasing government intervention in the economy. With regard to the monetary policy Roosevelt s administration decided to abandon the Gold Standard, so as to make the value of the dollar drop in comparison to other currencies. This benefited the export of American goods and investments. To counter unemployment and poverty a massive public works programme was adopted, which involved the creation of several federal agencies. A famous example was the Tennessee Valley Authority, which was appointed to build dams and hydroelectric power stations in a vast area that had been badly affected by the Great Depression. In 1935 Roosevelt launched the Second New Deal , which included a packet of even more progressive reforms. The President was accused of trying to pass socialist reforms which threatened capitalism without solving economic problems. In January 1939, while the international situation was becoming more and more alarming because of Nazism and Fascism in Europe and the Japanese expansion in Asia, Roosevelt announced that the country required stronger armed forces and launched a policy of rearmament. It was only with the rearmament programme that American industries started producing and working at full capacity once again. 21