Often thought of today as a "tax-and-spend" liberal, Roosevelt was in fact deeply committed to a balanced budget. Newly reorganized banks began opening on March 12 by the following day, deposits at these banks exceeded withdrawals. By evening, the bill had passed the Senate as well, and was delivered to the White House for Roosevelt's signature. The House passed the bill in less than 40 minutes, without any debate. Roosevelt delivered a draft of the act to the House of Representatives on March 9. The speed with which the Emergency Banking Act bill was written, passed by Congress, and put into practice typified the frenetic pace of the Hundred Days. On March 6, FDR declared a "bank holiday." Meanwhile, he and his so-called Brain Trust, a group of academics and economic theorists he had brought to the White House, crafted the Emergency Banking Act, a plan which would close down insolvent banks and reorganize and reopen those banks strong enough to survive. Roosevelt realized that if he kept the banks open, panicked depositors would withdraw their money and more banks would fail. Since the start of the Depression, 11,000 of the nation's 25,000 banks had failed, and millions of Americans had lost their life's savings. The New Deal - and the incredibly productive period of legislative and administrative action that became known as the Hundred Days - had begun.įirst, Roosevelt tackled the most pressing crisis: the insolvency of the banks. "The Nation asks for action, and action now," Roosevelt said. With a voice as sound as bedrock itself, Roosevelt announced an end to the bureaucratic stagnation that had plagued the administration of his predecessor, Herbert Hoover. The Great Depression had battered the nation for more than three long and painful years, and the economic situation was desperate. When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered his first inaugural address on March 4, 1933, he knew that the millions of Americans listening needed an infusion of hope.
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