In January 1932 Congress approved the formation of an indepe…
In January 1932 Congress approved the formation of an independent government agency called the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC). The RFC was funded by the U.S. Treasury and was authorized to make loans to banks, railroads, life insurance companies, and other large businesses devastated by the Great Depression. President Herbert Hoover believed that funds disbursed through the RFC would eventually benefit the average citizen through job growth, higher wages, and the protection of bank accounts and insurance policies. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation is similar to later New Deal legislation in that both —
Read Details. . . I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-…
. . . I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished. It is not in despair that I paint you that picture. I paint it for you in hope—because the Nation, seeing and understanding the injustice in it, proposes to paint it out. We are determined to make every American citizen the subject of his country’s interest and concern; and we will never regard any faithful, law-abiding group within our borders as superfluous. The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little. . . . —President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Second Inaugural Address, January 20, 1937 President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed the situation described in this speech by
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