History That Doesn't Suck
174: The First “First Hundred Days:” FDR Kicks Off the New Deal
Mon, 24 Feb 2025
“[We] had forgotten to be Republicans or Democrats. We were just a bunch of men trying to save the banking system.” This is the story of FDR’s first 100 days in office. In early 1933, banks foreclose on thousands upon thousands of homes and farms every month. The banks have little choice–they too are failing! Meanwhile, unemployment is hovering near 25%. It’s a catastrophe. Capitalism itself and the American way of life appears to be on the precipice. Enter President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who calls an immediate “banking holiday” and an emergency session of Congress to face the hydra of crises sweeping the nation. During this 99-day congressional session that runs almost analogous to FDR’s first 100 days in the White House, they’ll pass 15 major pieces of legislation that create new organizations, regulations, and more with the hopes of getting the American people back on their feet. But how exactly, does Franklin navigate the divergent views, difficult personalities, and competing priorities to get this mountain of legislation through? That is precisely our story. _____ Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations join discussions in our Facebook community get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette come see a live show get HTDS merch or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks. HTDS is part of Audacy media network. Interested in advertising on the History That Doesn't Suck? Contact Audacyinc.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: Who is Greg Jackson and what is his podcast about?
Welcome to History That Doesn't Suck. I'm your professor, Greg Jackson, and as in the classroom, my goal here is to make rigorously researched history come to life as your storyteller. Each episode is the result of laborious research with no agenda other than making the past come to life as you learn.
If you'd like to help support this work, receive ad-free episodes, bonus content, and other exclusive perks, I invite you to join the HTDS membership program. Sign up for a seven-day free trial today at htdspodcast.com slash membership, or click the link in the episode notes. It's 10 a.m., Wednesday, March 8th, 1933.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is seated at his desk as some 125 reporters shuffle into his Oval Office in the West Wing of the White House. Oh no, that's not the famous Resolute Desk. This beautiful Art Deco piece is a recent addition from the Hoover administration. And no, this isn't that Oval Office.
This is the one that President William Howard Taft added to the West Wing in 1909, though FDR will move into the Oval Office that you and I know once major renovations bring it into existence late next year. Anyhow, the reporters filing into this oval room, as it's known, are here for the new president's first press conference. Surely they must be wondering, how will these go?
Will FDR be chatty and personable, like his fifth cousin, the originator of the presidential press conference, Theodore Roosevelt? lecture-esque like professorial Woodrow Wilson? Will he want written questions submitted in advance as Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover all did to various degrees?
More urgently, will the four days on the job president speak freely about his two days ago proclaimed banking holiday that has all banks closed through tomorrow? Well, time to find out. The 51-year-old salt and pepper president speaks cheerfully from his desk.
It is very good to see you all, and my hope is that these conferences are going to be merely enlarged editions of the kind of very delightful family conferences I have been holding in Albany for the last four years. I am told that what I am about to do will become impossible, but I am going to try it. We are not going to have any more written questions.
And of course, while I cannot answer 75 or 100 questions because I simply haven't got the physical time, I see no reason why I should not talk to you, ladies and gentlemen, off the record, just the way I have been doing in Albany and the way I used to do it in the Navy Department down here.
Quite a number of you, I am glad to see, date back to the days of the previous existence which I led in Washington. The door opens. It's two of FDR's sons, likely 22-year-old Elliot and days away from 17, John. They apologize for interrupting but wanted to say goodbye before going across the country. Franklin shakes their hands and announces to the press, these two boys are off for Arizona.
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Chapter 2: What were FDR's first actions during his presidency?
So as the minutes tick away and the appointed hour of 10 p.m. arrives, Franklin has his secretary, Grace Tolley, nab a mimeographed copy of a speech from one of the newsmen present.
With that copy in hand, FDR stubs out his cigarette while Bob Trout of the Columbia Broadcasting System, or CBS, gives him a warm, friendly introduction, telling the audience that, the president wants to come into your home and sit at your fireside for a little fireside chat. And then Franklin begins.
My friend. I want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States about banking. And I know that when you understand what we in Washington have been about, I shall continue to have your cooperation as fully as I have had your sympathy and your help during the past week.
Because of undermined confidence on the part of the public, there was a general rush by a large portion of our population to turn bank deposits into currency or gold. a rush so great that the soundest banks couldn't get enough currency to meet the demand. It was then that I issued the proclamation providing for the national bank holiday.
And this was the first step in the government's reconstruction of our financial and economic fabric. The second step, last Thursday, was the legislation promptly and patriotically passed by the Congress
confirming my proclamation and broadening my powers so that it became possible in view of the requirement of time to extend the holiday and lift the ban of that holiday gradually in the days to come. This bank holiday, while resulting in many cases in great inconvenience, is affording us the opportunity to supply the currency necessary to meet the situation.
Remember that no sound bank is a dollar worse off than it was when it closed its doors last week. Your government does not intend that the history of the past few years shall be repeated. We do not want and will not have another epidemic of bank failures. It has been wonderful to me to catch the note of confidence from all over the country.
I can never be sufficiently grateful to the people for the loyal support that they have given me in their acceptance of the judgment that has dictated our course. even though all our processes may not have seemed clear to them.
After all, there is an element in the readjustment of our financial system more important than currency, more important than gold, and that is the confidence of the people themselves. Confidence and courage are the essentials of success in carrying out our plan. You people must have faith. You must not be stampeded by rumors or guesses. Let us unite in banishing fear.
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Chapter 3: How did FDR handle his first press conference?
His executive order doing so soon follows. It will prove one of the most popular New Deal plans, employing more than 250,000 young men by June and more than 3 million by its end almost a decade later in 1942. They'll build trails, public parks, clean up the countryside, and fight erosion and deforestation by planting more than 3 billion trees.
While the CCC is one of the most memorable aspects of the New Deal, there's still two other significant bills that this cooperative Congress gives Franklin that same month. A week and a half earlier, on March 20th, the Economy Act moved the nation toward a balanced budget by cutting some government agencies, reducing pay, and decreasing veteran benefits to save $500 million.
Now, Franklin will not be known for being a budget hawk in the long run, but right now, he's very mindful of expenditures, saying, Too often in history, liberal governments have been wrecked on the rocks of loose fiscal policy. Cutting veterans benefits is quite the move on the heels of last year's bonus army. But the next day, Congress passes the far more popular Beer Wine Revenue Act.
With the repeal of prohibition well underway, this tweaks the Volstead Act to legalize beers with less than 3.2% alcohol content and light wines. Witty as ever, FDR allegedly quipped just after signing this bill into law on March 22nd, I think this would be a good time for a beer.
Thus, by the end of March, FDR could claim credit for saving banking, massively cutting government spending, returning a legal buzz to the American people, a legal buzz that also brought a new taxation revenue stream, I might add, and creating jobs through the CCC.
But even though Franklin seems to have the Midas touch and a Congress ready to expand his executive powers in ways that would have made Andrew Jackson blush a century earlier, changes in cuts that are good for the nation as a whole still hurt in the departments that shoulder the blows. And not everyone is going to take the budget slashing president's cuts quietly.
It's an unspecified day, likely late April, 1933.
We're at the White House, where President Franklin D. Roosevelt is in a tense meeting with Secretary of War George Dern and some of his brass, Assistant Chief of Staff General Hugh Drumm, Chief of Engineers General Lytle Brown, and most notably, the career Army man whom we encountered in several Great War episodes, Chief of Staff of the Army General Douglas MacArthur.
On the heels of a discussion with Congress a few days ago, they're here to talk to the president because he wants to slash the army's budget. A 51% cut to the regular army, a 25% cut to the National Guard, and still other cuts to the reserves. This, the brass argue, is far too much.
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