Roosevelt – Fireside chats, programs, and changes for a future – M. Payne

Roosevelt was a man who wanted to be the catalyst for a change in a country held in the grip of turmoil. Hoover tried and was unsuccessful, yet Roosevelt who was a newcomer to the Presidency sought to change the face of the country for the better, and Roosevelt accomplished the change sought to achieve.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a man who recognized a need in our country and rose to the occasion, providing the country with hope for a future where the average American could rise out of poverty. Although Roosevelt developed Polio before his political career took off he would not be defeated in his rise to the top. He went from Senate to Governor and then took the Presidency. Roosevelt’s goal was to bring hope and stability to an unstable country, through many programs and new laws. He believed that his New Deal would help the country regain its footing. Roosevelt’s New Deal was a turning point in our nations history that helped the little man with programs that provided jobs and relief. Roosevelt enacted legislation to regulate banks in order to provide a safe and reliable place for money to be kept. These changes include the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition he created jobs in order to allow the unemployed or barely employed a chance to earn the money needed for their family’s to survive. An example of one of the many programs that created jobs that were instituted at this time was the Tennessee Valley Authority, which created jobs by building dams, power plants and other helpful utilities. He not only worked to provide for the regular worker with these programs but he worked to preserve our legacy as well, in the form of music, theatre and the arts. In order to do this he provided funding to artists in order for them to continue creating, instead of previously where they were essentially forced to stop producing art in order to take jobs to survive. Due to his diligence in his actions to support the common man he was elected to a second term. This allowed Roosevelt to expand his goals for the country and towards creating programs to care for the poor and elderly. This created the Social Security Commission and the Welfare system. Lastly he believed that for labor to be profitable the need for the workers to begin to safeguard themselves against punishing big business as important. He supported the rise of the labor unions as another obvious step in the growth of our nation. All these reforms were testaments to the political and social understanding that President Franklin Roosevelt showed throughout his political career. But by far his most socially savvy decision was to institute the Fireside Chat; this allowed the programs, which were created to reach even the most far away citizen of our country. Most of the nation had radios and so Roosevelt became the first President to extensively use the media in order to spread his agenda and to bring information to the regular laborer. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a man who was in the right place when the country needed change and hope, he instituted many programs in order to help the country grow and guided the economy through a time when for most hope was lost. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt will be remembered throughout history as the man who took a hurting, economically collapsed country and helped it rise from the ashes to become a world player and a country who many only dream of living in.
Audio Fireside Chat March 9th, 1937 - http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/mediaplay.php?id=15381&admin=32 Photo FDR, Churchill, and Stalin - http://www.mcmahanphoto.com/prco-presidents-fdr.html