rm prices fell by 53 percent from 1929 to 1932. President Hoover opposed government intervention to ease the mounting economic distress. His one major action, creation of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to lend money to ailing corporations, was seen as inadequate. Hoover lost the 1932 election to Franklin D. Roosevelt. The depression brought a deflation not only of incomes but of hope. In his first inaugural address, President Roosevelt declared that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." But though his New Deal grappled with economic problems throughout his first two terms, it had no consistent policy. At first Roosevelt tried to stimulate the economy through the National Recovery Administration, charged with establishing minimum wages and codes of fair competition. It was based on the idea of spreading work and reducing unfair competitive practices by means of cooperation in industry, so as to stabilize production and prevent the price slashing that had begun after 1929. This approach was abandoned after the Supreme Court declared the NRA unconstitutional. Roosevelt's second administration gave more emphasis to public works and other government expenditures as a means of stimulating the economy, but it did not pursue this approach vigorously enough to achieve full economic recovery. At the end of the 1930s, unemployment was estimated at 17.2 percent. To aid people who could find no work, the New Deal extended federal relief on a vast scale. The Civilian Conservation Corps took young men off the streets and sent them out to plant forests and drain swamps. The government refinanced about one-fifth of farm mortgages through the Farm Credit Administration and about one-sixth of home mortgages through the Home Owners Loan Corporation. The Works Progress Administration employed an average of over 2 million people in occupations ranging from laborers to musicians and writers. The Public Works Administration spent about $...
