ays to get it ready. On March fifth he proclaimed a national bank holiday to close the banks. On March ninth the Emergency Banking Act was passed by both houses of the Legislature with little debate and was signed by the President that night. The emergency measure extended government assistance to private bankers to reopen banks, gave the President complete control over gold movements, penalized hoarding, authorized the issue of new Federal Reserve bank notes, and arranged for the reopening of banks with liquid assets and the reorganization of the rest. On Monday, March thirteenth, banks reopened to the sound of people depositing money instead of withdrawing it. The crisis was over (Leuchtenburg 42-45).On Thursday night, March ninth, barely an hour after he had signed the Emergency Banking Act, Roosevelt outlined an economy program to congressional leaders. The plan included reduction of veteran’s benefits, reduction of congressional salaries, and reduction of Federal salaries. It was designed to save the government half a billion dollars. This economy bill received much more debate in the House. Many liberal Democrats abandoned Roosevelt. Conservative Democrats were able to maintain control and, with the help of economy minded Republicans, the bill passed through both houses by the fifteenth of March (Schlesinger 10-11).This flurry of activity kindled the hopes of the people. They felt that something was being done to alleviate their situation. Will Rogers said “America hasn’t been so happy in three years as they are today, no banks, no work, no nothing….If he burned down the capital we would cheer and say ‘well, we at least got a fire started anyhow’”(qtd in Schlesinger 13). That first explosive week was only the beginning. The rest of the one hundred days saw the following legislation passed:March 31- establishment of the Civilian Conservation CorpsApril 19 - abandonment of the...
