Without that deliberation, without that public participation, significant mistakes can be made. The problem, of course, is that public policy decision making should not only be a thorough and deliberative process, but in order to protect the rights of the public, must allow for significant public input. But, since 1933, incoming new administrations have been measured by that arbitrary standard-what they plan on accomplishing in those first hundred days, and what they actually accomplished. In 1992, United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor enunciated an axiomatic principle of constitutional governance, that the Constitution “protects us from our own best intentions,” dividing power precisely so that we might resist the temptation to concentrate that power as “the expedient solution to the crisis of the day.” It is a sentiment that echoes through American history, as there has been a constant “push-pull” between the demands of the populace and the divisions and restrictions on power as laid out by the Constitution.īefore President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s first term, the concept of a 100-Day agenda simply didn’t exist.

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Other important laws passed during the 100 days included the Agricultural Adjustment Act-the nation's first system of agricultural price and production supports the National Industrial Recovery Act-the first major attempt to plan and regulate the economy and the Tennessee Valley Authority Act-the first direct government involvement in energy production. In addition, Roosevelt took the nation off the gold standard, devalued the dollar, and ordered the Federal Reserve System to ease credit. The Glass-Steagall Act provided a federal guarantee of all bank deposits under $5,000, separated commercial and investment banking, and strengthened the Federal Reserve's ability to stabilize the economy. By the end of Roosevelt's first term, the Homeowners Loan Act provided more than 1 million loans totaling $3 billion. The Homeowners Loan Act provided the first federal mortgage financing and loan guarantees. The Federal Emergency Relief Act pumped $500 million into state-run welfare programs. The president quickly pushed ahead on other fronts. One of Roosevelt's key advisors did not exaggerate when he later boasted, 'Capitalism was saved in eight days.' On March 12, he conducted the first of many radio 'fireside chats.' Using the radio in the way later presidents exploited television, he explained what he had done in plain, simple terms and told the public to have 'confidence and courage.' When the banks reopened the following day, people demonstrated their faith by making more deposits than withdrawals. Roosevelt appealed directly to the people to generate support for his program. The law radically reshaped the nation's banking system Congress passed the law in just eight hours. The law also gave the president broad powers over the Federal Reserve System. In just four days, his aides drafted the Emergency Banking Relief Act, which permitted solvent banks to reopen under government supervision, and allowed the RFC to buy the stock of troubled banks and to keep them open until they could be reorganized. He declared a national bank holiday, which closed all banks. Roosevelt attacked the bank crisis first. He called Congress into special session and demanded 'broad executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.' The bills would reshape every aspect of the economy, from banking and industry to agriculture and social welfare.

In Roosevelt’s first hundred days in office, he pushed 15 major bills through Congress. 'The only thing we have to fear,' he declared, 'is fear itself.' In his inaugural address, Roosevelt expressed confidence that his administration could end the Depression. Chicago's mayor was killed, but Roosevelt miraculously escaped injury. Hamilton Fish, a conservative Republican congressman, promised the president that Congress would 'give you any power that you need.'Ī month before taking office, Giuseppe Zangara, a mentally ill bricklayer, tried to assassinate the president-elect in Miami. Farm foreclosures were averaging 20,000 a month.

Of those bank failings, 1,456 folded in 1932 alone. Since 1929, about 9,000 banks, holding the savings of 27 million families, had failed. Scores of shantytowns (called Hoovervilles) sprouted up. During the winter of 19, some 1.2 million Americans were homeless.

A quarter million families had defaulted on their mortgages the previous year.

A quarter of the nation's workforce was jobless. The nation's plight on March 4, 1933, the day Franklin Roosevelt assumed the presidency, was desperate. Digital History Printable Version The First 100 Days

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