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Franklin D. Roosevelt

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: USA Presidents

   Franklin Delano Roosevelt
   Franklin D. Roosevelt
     __________________________________________________________________

   32nd President of the United States
   In office
   March 4, 1933 –  April 12, 1945
   Vice President(s)   John N. Garner (1933-1941),
   Henry A. Wallace (1941-1945),
   Harry S. Truman (1945)
   Preceded by Herbert Hoover
   Succeeded by Harry S. Truman
     __________________________________________________________________

   Born January 30, 1882
   Hyde Park, New York
   Died April 12, 1945
   Warm Springs, Georgia
   Political party Democratic
   Spouse Eleanor Roosevelt
   Religion Episcopal
   Signature

   Franklin Delano Roosevelt ( January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945), often
   referred to by his initials FDR, was the 32nd President of the United
   States. Elected to four terms in office, he served from 1933 to 1945,
   and is the only U.S. president to have served more than two terms. A
   central figure of the 20th century, he has consistently been ranked as
   one of the three greatest U.S. presidents in scholarly surveys.

   During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Roosevelt created the New
   Deal to provide relief for the unemployed, recovery of the economy, and
   reform of the economic system. His most famous legacies include the
   Social Security system and the regulation of Wall Street. His
   aggressive use of an active federal government reenergized the
   Democratic Party. Roosevelt built the New Deal coalition that dominated
   politics into the 1960s. He and his wife Eleanor Roosevelt remain
   touchstones for modern American liberalism. The conservatives
   vehemently fought back, but Roosevelt consistently prevailed until he
   tried to pack the Supreme Court in 1937. Thereafter, the new
   Conservative coalition successfully ended New Deal expansion, and
   closed most programs like the WPA and Civilian Conservation Corps,
   arguing that unemployment had disappeared.

   After 1938, Roosevelt championed re-armament and led the nation away
   from isolationism as the world headed into the war. He provided
   extensive support to Winston Churchill and the British war effort
   before the attack on Pearl Harbour pulled the U.S. into the fighting.
   During the war, Roosevelt, working closely with his aide Harry Hopkins,
   provided decisive leadership against Nazi Germany and made the United
   States the principal arms supplier and financier of the Allies who
   defeated Germany, Italy and Japan. Roosevelt led the United States as
   it became the Arsenal of Democracy and put 16 million American men into
   uniform.

   On the homefront his term saw the vast expansion of industry, the
   elimination of unemployment, restoration of prosperity, new taxes that
   affected all income groups, price controls and rationing, 120,000
   Japanese and Japanese Americans sent to relocation camps, and new
   opportunities opened for African Americans and women. As the Allies
   neared victory, Roosevelt played a critical role in shaping the
   post-war world, particularly through the Yalta Conference and the
   creation of the United Nations. Roosevelt's administration redefined
   liberalism for subsequent generations and realigned the Democratic
   Party based on his New Deal coalition of labor unions, farmers, ethnic,
   religious and racial minorities, intellectuals, the South, big city
   machines, and the poor and workers on relief.

Personal life

Early life

   Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born on January 30, 1882 in Hyde Park, in
   the Hudson Valley in upstate New York. His father, James Roosevelt,
   Sr., and his mother, Sara Ann Delano, were each from wealthy old New
   York families, of Dutch and French ancestry respectively. Franklin was
   their only child. His maternal grandfather, Warren Delano, Jr., made a
   fortune in the opium trade in China.
   Young Franklin Roosevelt, with his father and Helen R. Roosevelt,
   sailing in 1899
   Enlarge
   Young Franklin Roosevelt, with his father and Helen R. Roosevelt,
   sailing in 1899

   Roosevelt grew up in an atmosphere of privilege. Sara was a possessive
   mother, while James was an elderly and remote father (he was 54 when
   Franklin was born). Sara was the dominant influence in Franklin's early
   years. Frequent trips to Europe made Roosevelt conversant in German and
   French. He learned to ride, shoot, row, and play polo and lawn tennis.

   Roosevelt went to Groton School, an Episcopal boarding school in
   Massachusetts. He was heavily influenced by the headmaster, Endicott
   Peabody, who preached the duty of Christians to help the less fortunate
   and urged his students to enter public service. Roosevelt completed his
   undergraduate studies at Harvard, where he lived in luxurious Adams
   House. While at Harvard, he saw his distant cousin Theodore Roosevelt
   become president, and Theodore's vigorous leadership style and
   reforming zeal made him Franklin's role model and hero. In 1902, he met
   his future wife Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, Theodore's niece, at a White
   House reception. (They had previously met as children, but this was
   their first serious encounter.) Eleanor and Franklin were fifth
   cousins, once removed. They were both descended from the Dutchman Claes
   Martensz. van Rosenvelt (Roosevelt) who arrived in New Amsterdam (
   Manhattan) from the Netherlands in the 1640s. Roosevelt's two
   grandsons, Johannes and Jacobus, began the Oyster Bay and Hyde Park
   branches of the Roosevelt family. Eleanor was descended from the
   Johannes branch, while FDR was descended from the Jacobus branch.

   Franklin and Eleanor married two years later in 1905.

   Roosevelt entered Columbia Law School in 1905, and, never graduating,
   he dropped out after only two years in 1907, because he had passed the
   New York State Bar exam. In 1908 he took a job with the prestigious
   Wall Street firm of Carter, Ledyard and Milburn, dealing mainly with
   corporate law.

Marriage and family life

   Roosevelt married Eleanor over the fierce resistance of his mother.
   They were married March 17, 1905, with Theodore Roosevelt standing in
   for Eleanor's deceased father Elliott. The young couple moved into a
   house bought for them by Roosevelt's mother, who became a frequent
   house guest, much to Eleanor's chagrin. Roosevelt was a charismatic,
   handsome, and socially active man. In contrast, Eleanor was shy and
   disliked social life, and at first stayed at home to raise their
   children. They had six children in rapid succession:
     * Anna Eleanor (1906–1975),
     * James (1907–1991),
     * Franklin Delano, Jr. (March 3, 1909–November 7, 1909),
     * Elliott (1910–1990),
     * a second Franklin Delano, Jr. (1914–1988), and
     * John Aspinwall (1916–1981).

   Franklin and Eleanor at Campobello Island in 1905
   Enlarge
   Franklin and Eleanor at Campobello Island in 1905

   The five surviving Roosevelt children all led tumultuous lives
   overshadowed by their famous parents. They had among them nineteen
   marriages, fifteen divorces and twenty-nine children. All four sons
   were officers in World War II and were decorated, on merit, for
   bravery. Their postwar careers, whether in business or politics, were
   disappointing. Two of them were elected to the U.S. House of
   Representatives (FDR, Jr. served three terms representing the Upper
   West Side of Manhattan, and James served six terms representing the
   26th district in California) but none were elected to higher office
   despite several attempts.

   Roosevelt found romantic outlets outside his marriage. One of these was
   with Eleanor's social secretary Lucy Mercer, with whom Roosevelt began
   an affair soon after she was hired in early 1914. In September 1918,
   Eleanor found letters in Franklin's luggage that revealed the affair.
   Eleanor confronted him with the letters and demanded a divorce. While
   the marriage survived, Eleanor established a separate house in Hyde
   Park at Valkill.

Early political career

   FDR as Assistant Secretary for the Navy
   Enlarge
   FDR as Assistant Secretary for the Navy

State Senator

   In 1910, Roosevelt ran for the New York State Senate from the district
   around Hyde Park, (Dutchess County) which had not elected a Democrat
   since 1884. He entered The Roosevelt name, with its associated wealth,
   prestige and influence in the Hudson Valley, and the Democratic
   landslide that year carried him to the state capital of Albany, New
   York. Roosevelt entered the state house, January 1, 1911. He became a
   leader of a group of reformers who opposed Manhattan's Tammany Hall
   machine which dominated the state Democratic Party. Roosevelt soon
   became a popular figure among New York Democrats. Reelected for a
   second term November 5, 1912. He resigned from the New York State
   Senate March 17, 1913.

Assistant Secretary of the Navy

   Franklin D. Roosevelt was appointed Assistant Secretary Navy by Woodrow
   Wilson in 1913. He served under Secretary of the Navy, Josephus
   Daniels. In 1914, he was defeated in the Democratic primary for the
   United States Senate by Tammany Hall-backed James W. Gerard. From 1913
   to 1917, Roosevelt worked to expand the Navy and founded the United
   States Navy Reserve. Wilson sent the Navy and Marines to intervene in
   Central American and Caribbean countries. In a series of speeches in
   his 1920 campaign for Vice President, Roosevelt claimed that he, as
   Assistant Secretary of the Navy, had played a significant role in Latin
   American politics and had even written the constitution which the U.S.
   imposed on Haiti in 1915.

   Roosevelt developed a life-long affection for the Navy. He showed great
   administrative talent and quickly learned to negotiate with
   Congressional leaders and other government departments to get budgets
   approved. He became an enthusiastic advocate of the submarine and also
   of means to combat the German submarine menace to Allied shipping: he
   proposed building a mine barrage across the North Sea from Norway to
   Scotland. In 1918, he visited Britain and France to inspect American
   naval facilities; during this visit he met Winston Churchill for the
   first time. With the end of World War I in November 1918, he was in
   charge of demobilization, although he opposed plans to completely
   dismantle the Navy. July 1920, Roosevelt resigned as Assistant
   Secretary of the Navy.

Campaign for Vice-President

   The 1920 Democratic National Convention chose Roosevelt as the
   candidate for Vice President of the United States on the ticket headed
   by Governor James M. Cox of Ohio, helping build a national base, but
   the Cox-Roosevelt ticket was heavily defeated by Republican Warren
   Harding in the presidential election. Roosevelt then retired to a New
   York legal practice, but few doubted that he would soon run for public
   office again.

Paralytic illness

   In August 1921, while the Roosevelts were vacationing at Campobello
   Island, New Brunswick, Roosevelt contracted an illness, at the time
   believed to be polio, which resulted in Roosevelt's total and permanent
   paralysis from the waist down. For the rest of his life, Roosevelt
   refused to accept that he was permanently paralyzed. He tried a wide
   range of therapies, including hydrotherapy, and, in 1926, he purchased
   a resort at Warm Springs, Georgia, where he founded a hydrotherapy
   centre for the treatment of polio patients which still operates as the
   Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation. After he became
   President, he helped to found the National Foundation for Infantile
   Paralysis (now known as the March of Dimes). His leadership in this
   organization is one reason he is commemorated on the dime.

   At the time, when the private lives of public figures were subject to
   less scrutiny than they are today, Roosevelt was able to convince many
   people that he was in fact getting better, which he believed was
   essential if he was to run for public office again. Fitting his hips
   and legs with iron braces, he laboriously taught himself to walk a
   short distance by swiveling his torso while supporting himself with a
   cane. In private, he used a wheelchair, but he was careful never to be
   seen in it in public. He usually appeared in public standing upright,
   supported on one side by an aide or one of his sons.

   In 2003, a peer-reviewed study found that it was more likely that
   Roosevelt's paralytic illness was actually Guillain-Barré syndrome, not
   poliomyelitis.

Governor of New York, 1928-1932

   Governor Roosevelt poses with Al Smith for a publicity shot in Albany,
   New York, 1930
   Enlarge
   Governor Roosevelt poses with Al Smith for a publicity shot in Albany,
   New York, 1930

   By 1928, Roosevelt believed he had recovered sufficiently to resume his
   political career. He had been careful to maintain his contacts in the
   Democratic Party and had allied himself with Alfred E. Smith, the
   current governor and the Democratic Party presidential nominee in the
   1928 election.

   To gain the Democratic nomination for the election, Roosevelt had to
   make his peace with the Tammany Hall machine, which he did with some
   reluctance. Roosevelt was elected Governor by a narrow margin, and came
   to office in 1929 as a reform Democrat. As Governor, he established a
   number of new social programs, and began gathering the team of advisors
   he would bring with him to Washington four years later, including
   Frances Perkins and Harry Hopkins.

   The main weakness of Roosevelt's gubernatorial administration was the
   corruption of the Tammany Hall machine in New York City. Roosevelt had
   made his name as an opponent of Tammany, but needed the machine's
   goodwill to be re-elected in 1930. As the 1930 election approached,
   Roosevelt set up a judicial investigation into the corrupt sale of
   offices. In 1930, Roosevelt was elected to a second term by a margin of
   more than 700,000 votes, defeating Republican Charles H. Tuttle.

1932 presidential election

   Roosevelt's strong base in the most populous state made him an obvious
   candidate for the Democratic nomination, which was hotly contested
   since it seemed clear that incumbent Herbert Hoover would be defeated
   at the 1932 election. Al Smith was supported by some city bosses, but
   had lost control of the New York Democratic party to Roosevelt.
   Roosevelt built his own national coalition with personal allies such as
   newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, Irish leader Joseph P.
   Kennedy, and California leader William G. McAdoo. When Texas leader
   John Nance Garner switched to FDR, he was given the vice presidential
   nomination.

   The election campaign was conducted under the shadow of the Great
   Depression in the United States, and the new alliances which it
   created. Roosevelt and the Democratic Party mobilized the expanded
   ranks of the poor as well as organized labor, ethnic minorities,
   urbanites, and Southern whites, crafting the New Deal coalition. During
   the campaign, Roosevelt said: "I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new
   deal for the American people", coining a slogan that was later adopted
   for his legislative program as well as his new coalition.

   Economist Marriner Eccles observed that "given later developments, the
   campaign speeches often read like a giant misprint, in which Roosevelt
   and Hoover speak each other's lines." Roosevelt denounced Hoover's
   failures to restore prosperity or even halt the downward slide, and he
   ridiculed Hoover's huge deficits. Roosevelt campaigned on the
   Democratic platform advocating "immediate and drastic reductions of all
   public expenditures," "abolishing useless commissions and offices,
   consolidating bureaus and eliminating extravagances reductions in
   bureaucracy," and for a "sound currency to be maintained at all
   hazards." On September 23, Roosevelt made the gloomy evaluation that,
   "Our industrial plant is built; the problem just now is whether under
   existing conditions it is not overbuilt. Our last frontier has long
   since been reached." Hoover damned that pessimism as a denial of "the
   promise of American life . . . the counsel of despair." The prohibition
   issue solidified the wet vote for Roosevelt, who noted that repeal
   would bring in new tax revenues.

   Roosevelt won 57% of the vote and carried all but six states. After the
   election, Roosevelt refused Hoover's requests for a meeting to come up
   with a joint program to stop the downward spiral, claiming it would tie
   his hands. The economy spiralled downward until the banking system
   began a complete nationwide shutdown as Hoover's term ended. In
   February 1933, an assassin, Giuseppe Zangara, fired five shots at
   Roosevelt, missing him but killing Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak;
   historians agree that FDR was the target, not the mayor.

First term, 1933-1937

   President and Mrs. Roosevelt on Inauguration Day, 1933
   Enlarge
   President and Mrs. Roosevelt on Inauguration Day, 1933

   When Roosevelt was inaugurated in March 1933, the U.S. was at the nadir
   of the worst depression in its history. A quarter of the workforce was
   unemployed. Farmers were in deep trouble as prices fell by 60%.
   Industrial production had fallen by more than half since 1929. In a
   country with limited government social services outside the cities, two
   million were homeless. The banking system had collapsed completely.
   Beginning with his inauguration address, he began blaming the economic
   downturn on businessmen, the quest for profit, and the self-interest
   basis of capitalism:

     Primarily this is because rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods
     have failed through their own stubbornness and their own
     incompetence, have admitted their failure, and have abdicated.
     Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the
     court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.
     True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the
     pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they
     have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure
     of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false
     leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully
     for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of
     self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the
     people perish. The money changers have fled from their high seats in
     the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to
     the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the
     extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary
     profit.

   Historians categorized Roosevelt's program as "relief, recovery and
   reform". Relief was urgently needed by tens of millions of unemployed.
   Recovery meant boosting the economy back to normal. Reform meant
   long-term fixes of what was wrong, especially with the financial and
   banking systems. Roosevelt's series of radio talks, known as fireside
   chats, presented his proposals directly to the American public.

First New Deal, 1933-1934

   Roosevelt's " First 100 Days" concentrated on the first part of his
   strategy: immediate relief. From March 9 to June 16, 1933, he sent
   Congress a record number of bills, all of which passed easily. To
   propose programs, Roosevelt relied on leading Senators such as George
   Norris, Robert F. Wagner and Hugo Black, as well as his own Brain Trust
   of academic advisers. Like Hoover, he saw the Depression as partly a
   matter of confidence, caused in part by people no longer spending or
   investing because they were afraid to do so. He therefore set out to
   restore confidence through a series of dramatic gestures.

   FDR's natural air of confidence and optimism did much to reassure the
   nation. His inauguration on March 4, 1933 occurred in the middle of a
   bank panic, hence the backdrop for his famous words: "The only thing we
   have to fear is fear itself." The very next day he announced a plan to
   allow banks to reopen, which they largely did by the end of the month.
   This was his first proposed step to recovery.
   Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother depicts destitute pea pickers during
   the depression in California, centering on Florence Owens Thompson, a
   mother of seven children, age 32, March 1936.
   Enlarge
   Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother depicts destitute pea pickers during
   the depression in California, centering on Florence Owens Thompson, a
   mother of seven children, age 32, March 1936.
     * Relief measures included the continuation of Hoover's major relief
       program for the unemployed under the new name, Federal Emergency
       Relief Administration. The most popular of all New Deal agencies,
       and Roosevelt's favorite, was the Civilian Conservation Corps
       (CCC), which hired 250,000 unemployed young men to work on rural
       local projects. Congress also gave the Federal Trade Commission
       broad new regulatory powers and provided mortgage relief to
       millions of farmers and homeowners. Roosevelt expanded a Hoover
       agency, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, making it a major
       source of financing to railroads and industry. Roosevelt made
       agriculture relief a high priority and set up the first
       Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA). The AAA tried to
       force higher prices for commodities by paying farmers to take land
       out of crops and to cut herds.

     * Reform of the economy was the goal of the National Industrial
       Recovery Act (NIRA) of 1933. It tried to end cutthroat competition
       by forcing industries to come up with codes that established the
       rules of operation for all firms within specific industries, such
       as minimum prices, agreements not to compete, and production
       restrictions. Industry leaders negotiated the codes which were then
       approved by NIRA officials. Industry needed to raise wages as a
       condition for approval. Provisions encouraged unions and suspended
       anti-trust laws. The NIRA was found to be unconstitutional by
       unanimous decision of the U.S. Supreme Court on May 27, 1935.
       Roosevelt opposed the decision, saying "The fundamental purposes
       and principles of the NIRA are sound. To abandon them is
       unthinkable. It would spell the return to industrial and labor
       chaos." In 1933, major new banking regulations were passed. In
       1934, the Securities and Exchange Commission was created to
       regulate Wall Street, with 1932 campaign fundraiser Joseph P.
       Kennedy in charge.

     * Recovery was pursued through "pump-priming" (that is, federal
       spending). The NIRA included $3.3 billion of spending through the
       Public Works Administration to stimulate the economy, which was to
       be handled by Interior Secretary Harold Ickes. Roosevelt worked
       with Republican Senator George Norris to create the largest
       government-owned industrial enterprise in American history, the
       Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which built dams and power
       stations, controlled floods, and modernized agriculture and home
       conditions in the poverty-stricken Tennessee Valley. The repeal of
       prohibition also brought in new tax revenues and helped him keep a
       major campaign promise.

   Roosevelt tried to keep his campaign promise by cutting the regular
   federal budget, including 40% cuts to veterans' benefits and cuts in
   overall military spending. He removed 500,000 veterans and widows from
   the pension rolls and slashed benefits for the remainder. Protests
   erupted, led by the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Roosevelt held his
   ground, but when the angry veterans formed a coalition with Senator
   Huey Long and passed a huge bonus bill over his veto, he was defeated.
   He succeeded in cutting federal salaries and the military and naval
   budgets. He reduced spending on research and education—there was no New
   Deal for science until World War II began.

   Roosevelt also kept his promise to push for repeal of Prohibition. In
   April 1933, he issued an Executive Order redefining 3.2% alcohol as the
   maximum allowed. That order was followed up by Congressional action in
   the drafting and passage of the 21st Amendment later that year.

Second New Deal, 1935-1936

   Dust storms were frequent during the depression; this one occurred in
   Texas in 1935.
   Enlarge
   Dust storms were frequent during the depression; this one occurred in
   Texas in 1935.

   After the 1934 Congressional elections, which gave Roosevelt large
   majorities in both houses, there was a fresh surge of New Deal
   legislation. These measures included the Works Progress Administration
   (WPA) which set up a national relief agency that employed two million
   family heads. However, even at the height of WPA employment in 1938,
   unemployment was still 12.5% according to figures from Michael
   Darby.The Social Security Act, established Social Security and promised
   economic security for the elderly, the poor and the sick. Senator
   Robert Wagner wrote the Wagner Act, which officially became the
   National Labor Relations Act. The act established the federal rights of
   workers to organize unions, to engage in collective bargaining, and to
   take part in strikes.

   While the First New Deal of 1933 had broad support from most sectors,
   the Second New Deal challenged the business community. Conservative
   Democrats, led by Al Smith, fought back with the American Liberty
   League, but it failed to mobilize much grass roots support. By
   contrast, the labor unions, energized by the Wagner Act, signed up
   millions of new members and became a major backer of Roosevelt's
   reelections in 1936, 1940 and 1944.

Economic environment

   Government spending increased from 8.0% of gross national product (GNP)
   under Hoover in 1932 to 10.2% of the GNP in 1936. Because of the
   depression, the national debt as a percentage of the GNP had doubled
   under Hoover from 16% to 33.6% of the GNP in 1932. While Roosevelt
   balanced the "regular" budget, the emergency budget was funded by debt,
   which increased to 40.9% in 1936, and then remained level until World
   War II, at which time it escalated rapidly.

   Deficit spending had been recommended by some economists, most notably
   by John Maynard Keynes of Britain. Some economists in retrospect have
   argued that the National Labor Relations Act and Agricultural
   Adjustment Administration were ineffective policies because they relied
   on price fixing. The GNP was 34% higher in 1936 than in 1932 and 58%
   higher in 1940 on the eve of war. That is, the economy grew 58% from
   1932 to 1940 in 8 years of peacetime, and then grew 56% from 1940 to
   1945 in 5 years of wartime. However, the economic recovery did not
   absorb all the unemployment Roosevelt inherited. In his first term,
   unemployment fell by two-thirds from 25% when he took office to 9.1% in
   1937 but then stayed high until it vanished during the war.

   During the war, the economy operated under such different conditions
   that comparison is impossible with peacetime. However, Roosevelt saw
   the New Deal policies as central to his legacy, and in his 1944 State
   of the Union Address, he advocated that Americans should think of basic
   economic rights as a Second Bill of Rights.

   The U.S. economy grew rapidly during Roosevelt's term. However, coming
   out of the depression, this growth was accompanied by continuing high
   levels of unemployment; as the median joblessness rate during the New
   Deal was 17.2%. Throughout his entire term, including the war years,
   average unemployment was 13%. Total employment during Roosevelt's term
   expanded by 18.31 million jobs, with an average annual increase in jobs
   during his administration of 5.3%.

   Roosevelt's administration also saw significant changes to the income
   tax in the U.S. tax system. Just prior to Roosevelt's election in 1932,
   Congress passed the Revenue Act of 1932, increasing the top marginal
   tax rate on individual income from 25% to 63% and enacting a wide range
   of additional excise taxes. In 1936, the Roosevelt administration added
   a higher top rate of 79% on individual income greater than $5 million,
   and that rate was increased again in 1939. During World War II, the top
   marginal tax rate was moved up to 91%. More significantly for most
   Americans, the overall rate structure was heavily compressed in 1943,
   with the highest rate made applicable to individuals with income of
   $200,000 or more, and withholding taxes were introduced.
   GDP in United States January 1929 to January 1941
   Enlarge
   GDP in United States January 1929 to January 1941
   Unemployment (% Labor Force)
   Year Lebergott Darby
   1933 24.9      20.6
   1934 21.7      16.0
   1935 20.1      14.2
   1936 16.9      9.9
   1937 14.3      9.1
   1938 19.0      12.5
   1939 17.2      11.3
   1940 14.6      9.5
   1941 9.9       8.0
   1942 4.7       4.7
   1943 1.9       1.9
   1944 1.2       1.2
   1945 1.9       1.9

Foreign policy, 1933-36

   The rejection of the League of Nations treaty in 1919 marked the
   dominance of isolationism from world organizations in American foreign
   policy. Despite Roosevelt's Wilsonian background, he and Secretary of
   State Cordell Hull acted with great care not to provoke isolationist
   sentiment. Roosevelt's "bombshell" message to the world monetary
   conference in 1933 effectively ended any major efforts by the world
   powers to collaborate on ending the worldwide depression, and allowed
   Roosevelt a free hand in economic policy.

   The main foreign policy initiative of Roosevelt's first term was the
   Good Neighbour Policy, which was a re-evaluation of U.S. policy towards
   Latin America. Since the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, this area had been
   seen as an American sphere of influence. American forces were withdrawn
   from Haiti, and new treaties with Cuba and Panama ended their status as
   United States protectorates. In December 1933, Roosevelt signed the
   Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States, renouncing
   the right to intervene unilaterally in the affairs of Latin American
   countries.

Landslide re-election, 1936

   In the 1936 presidential election, Roosevelt campaigned on his New Deal
   programs against Kansas Governor Alf Landon, who accepted much of the
   New Deal but objected that it was hostile to business and involved too
   much waste. Roosevelt and Garner won 61% of the vote and carried every
   state except Maine and Vermont. The New Deal Democrats won even larger
   majorities in Congress. Roosevelt was backed by a coalition of voters
   which included traditional Democrats across the country, small farmers,
   the " Solid South", Catholics, big city machines, labor unions,
   northern African Americans, Jews, intellectuals and political liberals.
   This coalition, frequently referred to as the New Deal coalition,
   remained largely intact for the Democratic Party until the 1960s.

Second term, 1937-1941

   In dramatic contrast to the first term, very little major legislation
   was passed in the second term. There was a United States Housing
   Authority (1937), a second Agricultural Adjustment Act and the Fair
   Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938, which created the minimum wage.
   When the economy began to deteriorate again in late 1937, Roosevelt
   responded with an aggressive program of stimulation, asking Congress
   for $5 billion for WPA relief and public works. This managed to
   eventually create a peak of 3.3 million WPA jobs by 1938.

   The Supreme Court was the main obstacle to Roosevelt's programs during
   his first term, overturning many of his programs. In particular in 1935
   the Court unanimously ruled that the National Recovery Act (NRA) was an
   unconstitutional delegation of legislative power to the president.
   Roosevelt stunned Congress in early 1937 by proposing a law allowing
   him to appoint five new justices, a "persistent infusion of new blood".
   This " court packing" plan ran into intense political opposition from
   his own party, led by Vice President Garner, since it seemed to upset
   the separation of powers and give the President control over the Court.
   Roosevelt's proposals were defeated. The Court also drew back from
   confrontation with the administration by finding the Labor Relations
   Act and the Social Security Act to be constitutional. Deaths and
   retirements on the Supreme Court soon allowed Roosevelt to make his own
   appointments to the bench with little controversy. Between 1937 and
   1941, he appointed eight liberal justices to the court.

   Roosevelt had massive support from the rapidly growing labor unions,
   but now they split into bitterly feuding AFL and CIO factions, the
   latter led by John L. Lewis. Roosevelt pronounced a "plague on both
   your houses", but the disunity weakened the party in the elections from
   1938 through 1946.

   Determined to overcome the opposition of conservative Democrats in
   Congress (mostly from the South), Roosevelt involved himself in the
   1938 Democratic primaries, actively campaigning for challengers who
   were more supportive of New Deal reform. His targets denounced
   Roosevelt for trying to take over the Democratic party and used the
   argument that they were independent to win reelection. Roosevelt failed
   badly, managing to defeat only one target, a conservative Democrat from
   New York City.

   In the November 1938 election, Democrats lost six Senate seats and 71
   House seats. Losses were concentrated among pro-New Deal Democrats.
   When Congress reconvened in 1939, Republicans under Senator Robert Taft
   formed a Conservative coalition with Southern Democrats, virtually
   ending Roosevelt's ability to get his domestic proposals enacted into
   law. The minimum wage law of 1938 was the last substantial New Deal
   reform act passed by Congress.

Foreign policy, 1937-1941

   The rise to power of Adolf Hitler in Germany aroused fears of a new
   world war. In 1935, at the time of Italy's invasion of Ethiopia,
   Congress passed the Neutrality Act, applying a mandatory ban on the
   shipment of arms from the U.S. to any combatant nation. Roosevelt
   opposed the act on the grounds that it penalized the victims of
   aggression such as Ethiopia, and that it restricted his right as
   President to assist friendly countries, but public support was
   overwhelming so he signed it. In 1937, Congress passed an even more
   stringent act, but when the Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937, public
   opinion favored China, and Roosevelt found various ways to assist that
   nation.

   In October 1937, he gave the Quarantine Speech aiming to contain
   aggressor nations. He proposed that warmongering states be treated as a
   public health menace and be "quarantined."Meanwhile he secretly stepped
   up a program to build long range submarines that could blockade Japan.
   When World War II broke out in 1939, Roosevelt rejected the Wilsonian
   neutrality stance and sought ways to assist Britain and France
   militarily. He began a regular secret correspondence with Winston
   Churchill discussing ways of supporting Britain.

   Roosevelt turned to Harry Hopkins for foreign policy advice, who became
   his chief wartime advisor. They sought innovative ways to help Britain,
   whose financial resources were exhausted by the end of 1940. Congress,
   where isolationist sentiment was in retreat, passed the Lend-Lease Act
   in March 1941, allowing the U.S. to "lend" huge amounts of military
   equipment in return for "leases" on British naval bases in the Western
   Hemisphere. In sharp contrast to the loans of World War I, there would
   be no repayment after the war. Roosevelt was a lifelong free trader and
   anti-imperialist, and ending European colonialism was one of his
   objectives. Roosevelt forged a close personal relationship with
   Churchill, who became Prime Minister of the UK in May 1940.

   In May 1940, a stunning German blitzkrieg overran Denmark, Norway,
   Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France, leaving Britain vulnerable to
   invasion. Roosevelt, who was determined to defend Britain, took
   advantage of the rapid shifts of public opinion. A consensus was clear
   that military spending had to be dramatically expanded. There was no
   consensus on how much the U.S. should risk war in helping Britain. FDR
   appointed two interventionist Republican leaders, Henry L. Stimson and
   Frank Knox, as Secretaries of War and the Navy respectively. The fall
   of Paris shocked American opinion, and isolationist sentiment declined.
   Both parties gave support to his plans to rapidly build up the American
   military, but the isolationists warned that Roosevelt would get the
   nation into an unnecessary war with Germany. He successfully urged
   Congress to enact the first peacetime draft in United States history in
   1940 (it was renewed in 1941 by one vote in Congress). Roosevelt was
   supported by the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies, and
   opposed by the America First Committee.

   Roosevelt used his personal charisma to build support for intervention.
   America should be the " Arsenal of Democracy," he told his fireside
   audience. In August, Roosevelt openly defied the Neutrality Acts with
   the Destroyers for Bases Agreement, which gave 50 American destroyers
   to Britain in exchange for base rights in the British Caribbean
   islands. This was a precursor of the March 1941 Lend-Lease agreement
   which began to direct massive military and economic aid to Britain, the
   Republic of China and the Soviet Union.

Third term, 1941-1945

   The two-term tradition had been an unwritten rule since George
   Washington declined to run for a third term in 1796, but Roosevelt,
   after blocking the presidential ambitions of cabinet members Jim Farley
   and Cordell Hull, decided to run for a third term. In his campaign
   against Republican Wendell Willkie, Roosevelt stressed both his proven
   leadership experience and his intention to do everything possible to
   keep the United States out of war. Roosevelt won the 1940 election with
   55% of the popular vote and 38 of the 48 states. A shift to the left
   within the Administration was shown by the naming of Henry A. Wallace
   as Vice President in place of the conservative Texan John Nance Garner,
   who had become a bitter enemy of Roosevelt after 1937.
   Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meet at Argentia, Newfoundland aboard
   HMS Prince of Wales during their 1941 secret meeting to develop the
   Atlantic Charter.
   Enlarge
   Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meet at Argentia, Newfoundland aboard
   HMS Prince of Wales during their 1941 secret meeting to develop the
   Atlantic Charter.

   Roosevelt's third term was dominated by World War II, in Europe and in
   the Pacific. Roosevelt slowly began re-armament in 1938 since he was
   facing strong isolationist sentiment from leaders like Senators William
   Borah and Robert Taft who supported re-armament. By 1940, it was in
   high gear, with bipartisan support, partly to expand and re-equip the
   United States Army and Navy and partly to become the "Arsenal of
   Democracy" supporting Britain, France, China and (after June 1941), the
   Soviet Union. As Roosevelt took a firmer stance against the Axis
   Powers, American isolationists—including Charles Lindbergh and America
   First—attacked the President as an irresponsible warmonger. Unfazed by
   these criticisms and confident in the wisdom of his foreign policy
   initiatives, FDR continued his twin policies of preparedness and aid to
   the Allied coalition. On December 29, 1940, he delivered his Arsenal of
   Democracy fireside chat, in which he made the case for involvement
   directly to the American people, and a week later he delivered his
   famous Four Freedoms speech in January 1941, further laying out the
   case for an American defense of basic rights throughout the world.

   The military buildup caused nationwide prosperity. By 1941,
   unemployment had fallen to under 1 million. There was a growing labor
   shortage in all the nation's major manufacturing centers, accelerating
   the Great Migration of African-American workers from the Southern
   states, and of underemployed farmers and workers from all rural areas
   and small towns. The homefront was subject to dynamic social changes
   throughout the war, though domestic issues were no longer Roosevelt's
   most urgent policy concerns.

   When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Roosevelt extended
   Lend-Lease to the Soviets. During 1941, Roosevelt also agreed that the
   U.S. Navy would escort Allied convoys as far east as Britain and would
   fire upon German ships or submarines if they attacked Allied shipping
   within the U.S. Navy zone. Moreover, by 1941, U.S. Navy aircraft
   carriers were secretly ferrying British fighter planes between the UK
   and the Mediterranean war zones, and the British Royal Navy was
   receiving supply and repair assistance at American naval bases in the
   United States.

   Thus, by mid-1941, Roosevelt had committed the U.S. to the Allied side
   with a policy of "all aid short of war." Roosevelt met with Churchill
   on August 14, 1941, to develop the Atlantic Charter in what was to be
   the first of several wartime conferences. In July 1941, Roosevelt
   ordered Secretary of War Henry Stimson to begin planning for total
   American military involvement. The resulting "Victory Program," under
   the direction of Albert Wedemeyer, provided the President with the
   estimates necessary for the total mobilization of manpower, industry,
   and logistics to defeat the "potential enemies" of the United States.
   The program also planned to dramatically increase aid to the Allied
   nations and to have ten million men in arms, half of whom would be
   ready for deployment abroad in 1943. Roosevelt was firmly committed to
   the Allied cause and these plans had been formulated before the
   Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour.

Pearl Harbour

   Roosevelt signing the declaration of war against Japan, December 1941
   Enlarge
   Roosevelt signing the declaration of war against Japan, December 1941

   Roosevelt tried to keep Japan out of the war. After Japan occupied
   northern French Indo-China in late 1940, he authorized increased aid to
   the Republic of China. In July 1941, after Japan occupied the remainder
   of Indo-China, he cut off the sales of oil. Japan thus lost more than
   95% of its oil supply. Roosevelt continued negotiations with the
   Japanese government in the hope of averting war. Meanwhile he started
   shifting the long-range B-17 bomber force to the Philippines, where it
   could threaten fire-bombing Japanese cities.

   On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked the U.S. fleet at Pearl
   Harbour, destroying or damaging most of it and killing more than 2,400
   American military personnel and civilians. The Japanese took advantage
   of their preemptive destruction of most of the Pacific Fleet to rapidly
   occupy the Philippines and the British and Dutch colonies in Southeast
   Asia, taking Singapore in February 1942 and advancing through Burma to
   the borders of British India by May, cutting off the overland supply
   route to the Republic of China. Antiwar sentiment in the United States
   evaporated overnight and the country united behind Roosevelt.

   Despite the wave of anger that swept across the U.S. in the wake of
   Pearl Harbour, Roosevelt decided from the start that the defeat of Nazi
   Germany had to take priority. On December 11, 1941, Germany and Italy
   declared war on the United States. Roosevelt met with Churchill in late
   December and planned a broad informal alliance between the U.S.,
   Britain, China and the Soviet Union, with the objectives of halting the
   German advances in the Soviet Union and in North Africa; launching an
   invasion of western Europe with the aim of crushing Nazi Germany
   between two fronts; and saving China and defeating Japan.

War strategy

   Chiang Kai-shek of China, Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill at the Cairo
   Conference in 1943
   Enlarge
   Chiang Kai-shek of China, Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill at the Cairo
   Conference in 1943

   The " Big Three" (Roosevelt, Churchill, and Joseph Stalin), together
   with Chiang Kai-shek and Charles de Gaulle, oversaw an alliance in
   which British, American and French troops concentrated in the West,
   Russian troops fought on the Eastern front, and Chinese, British and
   American troops fought in the Pacific. The Allies formulated strategy
   in a series of high profile conferences as well as contact through
   diplomatic and military channels. Roosevelt guaranteed that the U.S.
   would be the "Arsenal of Democracy" by shipping $50 billion of Lend
   Lease supplies, primarily to Britain and also to the USSR, China and
   other Allies.

   The Pentagon (that is the Joint Chiefs of Staff) took the view that the
   quickest way to defeat Germany was to open a western front in France
   across the English Channel. Churchill, wary of the casualties he feared
   this would entail, favored a more indirect approach, advancing
   northwards from the Mediterranean Sea. Roosevelt rejected this plan.
   Stalin advocated opening a Western front at the earliest possible time,
   as the bulk of the land fighting in 1942-44 was on Soviet soil.

   The Allies undertook the invasions of French Morocco and Algeria (
   Operation Torch) in November 1942, of Sicily ( Operation Husky) in July
   1943, and of Italy ( Operation Avalanche) in September 1943. The
   strategic bombing campaign was escalated in 1944, pulverizing all major
   German cities and cutting off oil supplies. It was a 50-50
   British-American operation. Roosevelt picked Dwight D. Eisenhower, and
   not George Marshall, to head the Allied cross-channel invasion,
   Operation Overlord that began on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Some of the most
   costly battle of the war insued after the invasion, and the Allies were
   blocked on the German border in the "Battle of the Bulge" in December
   1944; when Roosevelt died Allied forces were closing in on Berlin.

   Meanwhile, in the Pacific, the Japanese advance reached its maximum
   extent by June 1942, when the U.S. Navy scored a decisive victory at
   the Battle of Midway. American (and Australian) forces then began a
   slow and costly progress through the Pacific islands, with the
   objective of gaining bases from which strategic air power could be
   brought to bear on Japan and from which Japan could ultimately be
   invaded. Roosevelt gave way in part to insistent demands from the
   public and Congress that more effort be devoted against Japan; he
   always insisted on Germany first.

Post-war planning

   By late 1943, it was apparent that the Allies would ultimately defeat
   Nazi Germany, and it became increasingly important to make high-level
   political decisions about the course of the war and the postwar future
   of Europe. Roosevelt met with Churchill and the Chinese leader Chiang
   Kai-shek at the Cairo Conference in November 1943, and then went to
   Tehran to confer with Churchill and Stalin. At the Tehran Conference,
   Roosevelt and Churchill told Stalin about the plan to invade France in
   1944, and Roosevelt also discussed his plans for a postwar
   international organization. For his part, Stalin insisted on the
   redrawing of the eastern frontier of Poland along the so-called Curzon
   line and its western frontier the Oder and Niesse rivers, something
   which was not communicated to the Polish government-in-exile until two
   years later at Yalta. Stalin was evidently pleased that the western
   Allies had abandoned any idea of moving into the Balkans or central
   Europe via Italy, and he went along with Roosevelt's plan for the
   United Nations. He also agreed that the Soviet Union would enter the
   war against Japan when Germany was defeated.
   The "Big Three" Allied leaders at Yalta in February, 1945: Churchill,
   Roosevelt and Stalin
   Enlarge
   The "Big Three" Allied leaders at Yalta in February, 1945: Churchill,
   Roosevelt and Stalin

   By the beginning of 1945, however, with the Allied armies advancing
   into Germany and the Soviets in control of Poland, the issues had to
   come out into the open. In February, Roosevelt, despite his steadily
   deteriorating health, traveled to Yalta, in the Soviet Crimea, to meet
   again with Stalin and Churchill. This meeting, the Yalta Conference, is
   often portrayed as a decisive turning point in modern history, though
   most of the decisions made there recognized realities which had already
   been established by force of arms and some had already been made. The
   Soviet Union was soon to occupy all of eastern Europe, and there was
   little Roosevelt and Churchill could do to prevent Stalin from taking
   permanent control.

Fourth term and death, 1945

   Although Roosevelt was only 62 in 1944, his health had been in decline
   since at least 1940. The strain of his paralysis and the physical
   exertion needed to compensate for it for over 20 years had taken their
   toll, as had many years of stress and a lifetime of chain-smoking. He
   had been diagnosed with high blood pressure and long-term heart disease
   and was advised to modify his diet (although not to stop smoking).
   Aware of the risk that Roosevelt would die during his fourth term, the
   party regulars insisted that Henry A. Wallace, who was seen as too
   pro-Soviet, be dropped as Vice President. After considering James F.
   Byrnes of South Carolina and being turned down by Indiana Governor
   Henry F. Schricker, Roosevelt replaced Wallace with the little known
   Senator Harry S. Truman. In the 1944 election, Roosevelt and Truman won
   53% of the vote and carried 36 states, against New York Governor Thomas
   Dewey.

   After the Yalta conference in February 1945, relations between the
   western Allies and Stalin deteriorated rapidly, and so did Roosevelt's
   health. When he addressed Congress on his return from Yalta, many were
   shocked to see how old, thin and sick he looked. He spoke while seated
   in the well of the House, an unprecedented concession to his physical
   incapacity. But mentally he was still in full command. "The Crimean
   Conference," he said firmly, "ought to spell the end of a system of
   unilateral action, the exclusive alliances, the spheres of influence,
   the balances of power, and all the other expedients that have been
   tried for centuries — and have always failed. We propose to substitute
   for all these, a universal organization in which all peace-loving
   nations will finally have a chance to join."
   Roosevelt's funeral procession
   Enlarge
   Roosevelt's funeral procession

   During March and early April 1945, he sent strongly worded messages to
   Stalin accusing him of breaking his Yalta commitments over Poland,
   Germany, prisoners of war and other issues. When Stalin accused the
   western Allies of plotting a separate peace with Hitler behind his
   back, Roosevelt replied: "I cannot avoid a feeling of bitter resentment
   towards your informers, whoever they are, for such vile
   misrepresentations of my actions or those of my trusted subordinates."

   On March 30, 1945, Roosevelt went to Warm Springs to rest before his
   anticipated appearance at the founding conference of the United
   Nations. On the morning of April 12, Roosevelt said, "I have a terrific
   headache." He was to never speak again. The doctor diagnosed that he
   had suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage, and as Allen Drury once
   said “so ended an era, and so began another”. Lucy Mercer, his former
   mistress, was with him at the time of his death. In his latter years at
   the White House, Roosevelt was increasingly overworked and his daughter
   Anna Roosevelt Boettiger had moved in to provide her father
   companionship and support. Anna had also arranged for her father to
   meet with the now widowed Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd. When Eleanor heard
   about her husband's death, she was also faced with the hurtful news
   that Anna had been arranging these meetings with Lucy and that Lucy had
   been with Franklin when he died.

   Roosevelt's death was met with shock and grief across the U.S. and
   around the world. At a time when the press did not pry into the health
   or private lives of presidents, his declining health had not been known
   to the general public. Roosevelt had been President for more than 12
   years, longer than any other person, and had led the country through
   some of its greatest crises to the impending defeat of Nazi Germany and
   to within sight of the defeat of Japan as well.

   Less than a month later, on May 8, came the moment Roosevelt fought
   for: V-E Day. President Harry Truman dedicated V-E Day and its
   celebrations to Roosevelt's memory, paying tribute to his commitment
   towards ending the war in Europe.

Civil rights issues

   Roosevelt's record on civil rights has been the subject of much
   controversy. He was a hero to large minority groups, especially
   African-Americans, Catholics and Jews. African-Americans and Native
   Americans fared well in the New Deal relief programs, although they
   were not allowed to hold significant leadership roles in the WPA and
   CCC. Roosevelt needed the support of Southern Democrats for his New
   Deal programs, and therefore decided not to push for anti- lynching
   legislation that might threaten his ability to pass his highest
   priority programs. Roosevelt was highly successful in attracting large
   majorities of African-Americans, Jews and Catholics into his New Deal
   Coalition. Beginning in 1941 Roosevelt issued a series of executive
   orders designed to guarantee racial, religious and ethnic minorities a
   fair share of the new wartime jobs. He pushed for admission of
   African-Americans into better positions in the military. In 1942
   Roosevelt made the final decision in ordering the internment of
   Japanese Americans and other ethnic groups during World War II.
   Beginning in the 1960s he was charged with not acting decisively enough
   to prevent or stop the Holocaust which killed 6 million Jews. Critics
   cite episodes such as when in 1939, the 950 Jewish refugees on board
   the SS St. Louis were denied asylum and not allowed into the United
   States.

Legacy

   A 1999 survey of academic historians by CSPAN found that historians
   consider Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Roosevelt the three
   greatest presidents by a wide margin, and other surveys are consistent.
   Roosevelt is the sixth most admired person in the 20th century,
   according to Gallup.
   The Four Freedoms engraved on a wall at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt
   Memorial in Washington
   Enlarge
   The Four Freedoms engraved on a wall at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt
   Memorial in Washington

   Both during and after his terms, critics of Roosevelt questioned not
   only his policies and positions, but also the consolidation of power
   that occurred because of his lengthy tenure as president, his service
   during two major crises, and his enormous popularity. The rapid
   expansion of government programs that occurred during Roosevelt's term
   redefined the role of the government in the United States, and
   Roosevelt's advocacy of government social programs was instrumental in
   redefining liberalism for coming generations.

   Roosevelt firmly established the United States' leadership role on the
   world stage, with pronouncements such as his Four Freedoms speech
   forming a basis for the active role of the United States in the war and
   beyond. The decisions made at the Yalta Conference established
   international alliances and boundaries that continue to affect world
   diplomacy today.

   According to Paul Buhle and Dave Wagner, The President's Mystery, a
   1936 film based on a story idea by Roosevelt, "is occasionally
   described as the most 'political' film that the Hollywood Left could
   get past the Hays Office and the studio chiefs during the Depression."
   The film was shelved on the grounds it was "Roosevelt commie crap" to
   the mind of Republic Pictures mogul Herbert Yates, but released after
   Roosevelt's landslide victory.

   After Franklin's death, Eleanor Roosevelt continued to be a forceful
   presence in U.S. and world politics, serving as delegate to the
   conference which established the United Nations and championing civil
   rights. Many members of his administration played leading roles in the
   administrations of Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson, each
   of whom embraced Roosevelt's political legacy.

   Roosevelt's home in Hyde Park is now a National historic site and home
   to his Presidential library. His retreat at Warm Springs, Georgia is a
   museum operated by the state of Georgia. The Roosevelt memorial has
   been established in Washington, D.C. next to the Jefferson Memorial on
   the Tidal Basin, and his image appears on the Roosevelt dime. Many
   parks, schools, roads, an aircraft carrier and a Paris Metro station
   have been named in his honour, as well as smaller places such as a high
   school in Puerto Cortés, Honduras. Twelve days after his death in 1945,
   Thomas Jefferson College in Chicago was renamed after FDR with
   Eleanor's blessing.

Administration, Cabinet, and Supreme Court appointments 1933-1945


   OFFICE         NAME                      TERM
   President      Franklin D. Roosevelt     1933–1945
   Vice President John Nance Garner         1933–1941
                  Henry A. Wallace          1941–1945
                  Harry S. Truman           1945
   State          Cordell Hull              1933–1944
                  Edward R. Stettinius, Jr. 1944–1945
   War            George H. Dern            1933–1936
                  Harry H. Woodring         1936–1940
                  Henry L. Stimson          1940–1945
   Treasury       William H. Woodin         1933–1934
                  Henry Morgenthau, Jr.     1934–1945
   Justice        Homer S. Cummings         1933–1939
                  William F. Murphy         1939–1940
                  Robert H. Jackson         1940–1941
                  Francis B. Biddle         1941–1945
   Post           James A. Farley           1933–1940
                  Frank C. Walker           1940–1945
   Navy           Claude A. Swanson         1933–1939
                  Charles Edison            1940
                  Frank Knox                1940–1944
                  James V. Forrestal        1944–1945
   Interior       Harold L. Ickes           1933–1945
   Agriculture    Henry A. Wallace          1933–1940
                  Claude R. Wickard         1940–1945
   Commerce       Daniel C. Roper           1933–1938
                  Harry L. Hopkins          1939–1940
                  Jesse H. Jones            1940–1945
                  Henry A. Wallace          1945
   Labor          Frances C. Perkins        1933–1945
   Official White House Portrait
   Official White House Portrait

   President Roosevelt appointed nine Justices to the Supreme Court of the
   United States, more than any other President except George Washington,
   who appointed eleven. By 1941, eight of the nine Justices were
   Roosevelt appointees.
     * Hugo Black – 1937
     * Stanley Forman Reed – 1938
     * Felix Frankfurter – 1939
     * William O. Douglas – 1939
     * Frank Murphy – 1940
     * Harlan Fiske Stone ( Chief Justice) – 1941
     * James Francis Byrnes – 1941
     * Robert H. Jackson – 1941
     * Wiley Blount Rutledge – 1943

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