Position:Home>History> What was the historical context of Roosevelt's inaugural address in 1933?

A lot of the problems faced in the economy in March 1933 had to do with fear!. We've seen this kind of thing recently, with the markets dropping so far in periods of a single day!. Now, there is some regulation, though some of the problems are coming about because of the fact that some of the wild speculation has been with things which are unregulated!. The purpose of the safeguards we have in place now, like the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which came out of the New Deal, are to prevent this fear, in an uncertain economy, from depleting bank deposits to a degree where individual accounts cannot be met!. Panicky depositors come in and ask for all of their money, and this eventually builds until all the ready cash has been dispensed, and the bank closes its doors!. The FDIC guarantees the deposits up to a certain amount, so that the people who didn't panic, don't lose all their money!.

What FDR said was that the only thing we had to fear was fear itself, unreasoning blind panic, and it is exactly this kind of fear that he was trying to deal with in those first 100 days!. He called the situation a national emergency, just as a war was a national emergency!. In this context, it was this fear that threatened our national security, not a foreign army!.

In addition, the periodic droughts that face the Great Plains had watered the farmlands very little in the last 4 years, and excessive plowing and cultivation had disturbed the soil to a degree that the native grasses had disappeared, and could no longer hold the moisture and the soil in place!. Combined with rapid deflation, causing crop prices to drop significantly over those four years, and farmers were faced with a crop that it would cost them more to harvest and ship than they'd be paid for it!.

If you put this in the context of a world economic climate, and you compare two charismatic leaders who came along and managed to get their nations back on the road to recovery, you can see the difference!. FDR moved significantly to the left, though I wouldn't call it socialism, and Herr Hitler moved significantly to the right, and his plan of rebuilding infrastructure and re-militarizing brought jobs to his people!. In itself, that wouldn't have been so bad, but mixed up with the notions of racial superiority and fed by a fear of invasions from other nations, particularly Russia, it was pretty clear that all those arms they were building would find someone to use them, and fairly soon!. Www@QuestionHome@Com

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