hen nation had ever seen. How could FDR raise the nation’s economy in a short enough time? He proposed a plan to raise it in just over a fortnight (Davis 57).The national economy crisis began at the ignition of the Great Depression. People everywhere were closing their bank accounts causing banks to fail. Even though not all banks were unstable, fear of losing one’s life savings was enough to make people panic. Banks were closing, and the entire American economic structure started to come apart. People could not cash their paychecks and the nation fell into an economic depression. By March 4th, state governments had shut down every bank in the country, creating a “bank holiday”, and turned to the federal government for further action (Davis 57).FDR decided to take action when came into office in 1933. On March 9th he proposed the Emergency Banking Bill to Congress (Davis 55). The bill’s plan was to extend the bank holiday. During the holiday, all banks were checked for fiscal soundness. By the end of the holiday, all banks would reopen, which would boost the nation’s economy. The Emergency Banking Bill was the first bill he proposed to Congress as a president. (Davis 52).Congress passed the bill with a vote of 73/1, after just 40 minutes of debate. FDR signed the bill. FDR put forth several New Deal plans (a.k.a. alphabet soup plans) such as the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Today, bank accounts in America are still insured by the FDIC (Davis 112). By the mid 1940’s the labor unions had come to prominence and provided the ingredients for President Harry Truman’s most famous dilemmas. Even though railroad strike of 1946 was not officially a national crisis, many people panicked over the incident. At that time, railways were the chief transportation system. If they stopped working, America stopped working (McCullough 494). The railwa...
