FDR and the Great Depression

By: Arturo Cervantes

The Great Depression has been raging on for many years and the only man who is standing

against it is Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In Franklins early life he was an only child to a very rich couple and he was taught by

tutors so he felt very self-important. This made him selfish and he thought that everything that

happened in the world had to have something to do with him. His mother was the dominant

person in FDRs life. He admired her greatly because of this.

In 1896, Franklin went to Groton School for boys. This school is a very prestigious

preparatory in Massachusetts. This was difficult for him because he did not fit in with the other

students. This taught him many life lessons because he did not fit in with the other students. This

taught him many life lessons because he did not experience this when he was being taught at

home.

In 1900, he graduated and enrolled in Harvard University. He was a C student, a

member of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity, and he was also an editor of the Harvard Crimson

Newspaper. This showed him how he had to work hard to get things done.

His general accord was that he was ordinary. This made him sad. He then went to study at

Columbia University Law School. He passed the bar exam in 1907, but he did not get a degree.

For the next three years he practiced law in New York, living an upper-class life, but he was

uninterested in law practice so he set his goals on greater things.

 In 1910, at age 28, Roosevelt ran for New York senate. He went to run as a Democrat in a

place where the people had voted Republican for 32 years straight. This exhibited that Franklin

was courageous to do something that nobody else had done in some time. Roosevelt won the seat

by a landslide. This displayed that many people admired hoe he worked.

During 1912, Roosevelt supported presidential candidate Woodrow Wilson and as a

reward he was appointed to Assistant Secretary of the Navy. His idol, Theodore Roosevelt had

also used this to get up to being president. In this way he was pursuing his idols footsteps.

In 1914, Roosevelt ran for U.S. senate for New York. This was also the time that he was

in a secret relationship with Lucy Mercer, Eleanor Roosevelts secretary. Eleanor eventually

found out and told Roosevelt to stop or else she would divorce him. He still had secretly seen

Mercer over time. This showed that he was not faithful with his wife.

In 1920 Franklin D. Roosevelt was nominated to be vice president with James M. Cox as

president, unfortunately he and Cox were defeated by Warren G. Harding. This experience gave

Franklin national publicity. Over time when he was on vacation in Campobello Island, New

Brunswick, Franklin was diagnosed with polio. He was sad and could not accept the fact that he

was stricken with polio. He then tried many, many therapies to fight the disease, but

unfortunately he never got back the use of his legs. Then in later years he established a

foundation in Warm Springs resort at Georgia to aid other people with polio and he eventually

invented a vaccine for polio, the program was called March of Dimes. This showed that he was

compassionate to help other people, but he was also sad because he believed that his political

career was over. Eleanor encouraged him to keep on going. This shows that he had support from

his friends and family.

 In 1928 Roosevelt ran for New York governor and he won by a slim election, but this

victory gave him confidence that he was a rising star. In 1932, Roosevelt ran for presidency.

He used his many talents to defeat Herbert Hoover, the Republican nominee. Roosevelt was in

office on March 1933. In Roosevelts first 100 days in office he proposed to a reform for

economic sweeping called the New Deal. This involved ordering all the banks to stop their

deposits, he also formed a group of economic advisers called the Brain Trust. By 1936, the

economy of the U.S. was up. Franklin D. Roosevelt has done so much for our country so far, but

some people do not think he is good. Still, he kept on pushing forward with all his strength.

This is the type of person that every American should look up to.