Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Life During The Great Depression
The Great Depression was a difficult time for everybody during the late 1920s. It was a period of unrest, unease, and called for a total revolution on the way people lived their lives; the impacts of which can still be felt today. The Depression drew to a close as Franklin Delano Roosevelt led the nation on the road to recovery after being sworn into the oval office in 1933, the means of this recovery being through his New Deal for America. Though effective, but not quite to the degree Roosevelt had hoped, the New Deal faced much adversity from both citizens and politicians alike. No greater challengers to the New Deal existed other than Huey Long, U.S. senator and governor of Louisiana, and Charles E. Coughlin, a Canadian Catholic priest. Alan Brinkley’s novel, Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin and the Great Depression depicts these two individuals as protestors against the New Deal, and portrays life as it really was during the era of the Depression. The Great Depression affected so many people on many different ways. The economy crashed completely, businesses had to shut down, unemployment rates
…show more content…
skyrocketed, people flooded to the cities where shanty towns were erected, and people lost so much money. For many people, the austere period afterward was “a time of anxious uncertainty.” It was during this time that two previously obscure members of American society became figureheads for a national movement. The two men hated the New Deal for different reasons; Long wanted an even distribution of wealth throughout the country by heavily taxing the affluent members of society, and felt the New Deal had done nothing towards that goal, while Coughlin wanted extreme social reform to take place in America, and believed the Deal was simply not drastic enough to be effective. They both desperately wanted America to recover from the Depression, and wanted to see their beloved country back on its feet again, but unfortunately neither one produced the best method of doing so. What these men were good at was arguing Roosevelt’s points and rousing the American people to stand against it. Long and Coughlin both wanted to protest Roosevelt and the New Deal, but by different means. One method that they both shared, however, was their affinity for spreading their views and stirring the masses through radio broadcasts. Almost every family in America had a radio, and this was the primary tool those men used to share their revulsion for the New Deal. According to Brinkly, Long was “no stranger to radio” as he “used it effectively in building his popularity in Louisiana.” In time, Huey Long became a popular topic of conversation. Father Coughlin used the radio for his own ends as well, and took to it rather quickly as he had “without a doubt one of the great speaking voices of the twentieth century.” Coughlin was an outspoken man whose broadcasts started off uncontroversial, but gradually became more political than spiritual. Known as “the Radio Priest,” Coughlin made clear his negative views on movements like Marxism, the KKK, Prohibition, and the uneven distribution of wealth in America. Coughlin and Long used other methods than the radio to protest the New Deal. Huey “Kingfish” Long was a flamboyant speaker and politician whose methods of business bordered along despotic.
He mocked other politicians, and used intimidation techniques to provide funds for highways, bridges, and universities in Louisiana. He spoke fervently about redistributing America’s wealth, but made no solid efforts to actually do so. After being elected into the Senate, Long began a movement known as Share Our Wealth, which promised a 100% tax on those with over one million dollars in their personal fortunes, pensions for the poor and elderly, and estates with annual income salaries for the neediest Americans. With such promises being advertised by Long’s charismatic personality, according to Brinkley, “Long was not merely attempting to pressure and cajole the Administration and Democratic Party, but was planning to supplant
it.” Long’s greatest scheme to dissent the New Deal was by succeeding Roosevelt in the election of 1936, which many Democrats feared would actually work, considering Long’s charms for swaying voters into his favor. Huey Long was becoming a serious risk to Roosevelt’s presidency by “creating a potentially threatening national organization,” and both FDR and the Administration knew it. Because Huey was such a gifted public speaker with unconventional and often frowned-upon social tactics, Roosevelt’s campaign was forced to take drastic measures in securing the election, proposing a new tax message that would increase income and inheritance tax rates and “prevent an unjust concentration of wealth and economic power.” Long felt this was not drastic enough and continued with his campaign for presidency, which was cut short when he was assassinated in 1935. Like Huey Long, Father Coughlin wanted social and economic reform nationwide, but was all talk and proposed no concrete methods of doing so. He instead continued making political diatribes on the radio, to which more and more of the desperate American population decided to tune in for. At the peak of his success, Coughlin had over 40 million listeners whom he tried to convince not to vote for Roosevelt, claiming that he, along with the wealthy, were ruining the country. Finding that his broadcasts were not sufficient enough to cause the change that he wanted, Coughlin founded the National Union for Social Justice that represented the views of his listeners, hoping it would “restore him to what he believed was his rightful position as an important policy-making influence in Washington.” Coughlin relentlessly pushed for economic change, so much that Roosevelt himself came to speak with the radio priest, telling him he would consider his advice. Father Charles Coughlin and Huey Long were demagogues that opposed Franklin Roosevelt and his New Deal for securing a future for America in the wake of the Great Depression. Despite their shortcomings, however, the country did grow from a rural isolationist community to a large urbanized center of industry, due in part to the dissidence of people like the Radio Priest and the Kingfisher.
skyrocketed, people flooded to the cities where shanty towns were erected, and people lost so much money. For many people, the austere period afterward was “a time of anxious uncertainty.” It was during this time that two previously obscure members of American society became figureheads for a national movement. The two men hated the New Deal for different reasons; Long wanted an even distribution of wealth throughout the country by heavily taxing the affluent members of society, and felt the New Deal had done nothing towards that goal, while Coughlin wanted extreme social reform to take place in America, and believed the Deal was simply not drastic enough to be effective. They both desperately wanted America to recover from the Depression, and wanted to see their beloved country back on its feet again, but unfortunately neither one produced the best method of doing so. What these men were good at was arguing Roosevelt’s points and rousing the American people to stand against it. Long and Coughlin both wanted to protest Roosevelt and the New Deal, but by different means. One method that they both shared, however, was their affinity for spreading their views and stirring the masses through radio broadcasts. Almost every family in America had a radio, and this was the primary tool those men used to share their revulsion for the New Deal. According to Brinkly, Long was “no stranger to radio” as he “used it effectively in building his popularity in Louisiana.” In time, Huey Long became a popular topic of conversation. Father Coughlin used the radio for his own ends as well, and took to it rather quickly as he had “without a doubt one of the great speaking voices of the twentieth century.” Coughlin was an outspoken man whose broadcasts started off uncontroversial, but gradually became more political than spiritual. Known as “the Radio Priest,” Coughlin made clear his negative views on movements like Marxism, the KKK, Prohibition, and the uneven distribution of wealth in America. Coughlin and Long used other methods than the radio to protest the New Deal. Huey “Kingfish” Long was a flamboyant speaker and politician whose methods of business bordered along despotic.
He mocked other politicians, and used intimidation techniques to provide funds for highways, bridges, and universities in Louisiana. He spoke fervently about redistributing America’s wealth, but made no solid efforts to actually do so. After being elected into the Senate, Long began a movement known as Share Our Wealth, which promised a 100% tax on those with over one million dollars in their personal fortunes, pensions for the poor and elderly, and estates with annual income salaries for the neediest Americans. With such promises being advertised by Long’s charismatic personality, according to Brinkley, “Long was not merely attempting to pressure and cajole the Administration and Democratic Party, but was planning to supplant
it.” Long’s greatest scheme to dissent the New Deal was by succeeding Roosevelt in the election of 1936, which many Democrats feared would actually work, considering Long’s charms for swaying voters into his favor. Huey Long was becoming a serious risk to Roosevelt’s presidency by “creating a potentially threatening national organization,” and both FDR and the Administration knew it. Because Huey was such a gifted public speaker with unconventional and often frowned-upon social tactics, Roosevelt’s campaign was forced to take drastic measures in securing the election, proposing a new tax message that would increase income and inheritance tax rates and “prevent an unjust concentration of wealth and economic power.” Long felt this was not drastic enough and continued with his campaign for presidency, which was cut short when he was assassinated in 1935. Like Huey Long, Father Coughlin wanted social and economic reform nationwide, but was all talk and proposed no concrete methods of doing so. He instead continued making political diatribes on the radio, to which more and more of the desperate American population decided to tune in for. At the peak of his success, Coughlin had over 40 million listeners whom he tried to convince not to vote for Roosevelt, claiming that he, along with the wealthy, were ruining the country. Finding that his broadcasts were not sufficient enough to cause the change that he wanted, Coughlin founded the National Union for Social Justice that represented the views of his listeners, hoping it would “restore him to what he believed was his rightful position as an important policy-making influence in Washington.” Coughlin relentlessly pushed for economic change, so much that Roosevelt himself came to speak with the radio priest, telling him he would consider his advice. Father Charles Coughlin and Huey Long were demagogues that opposed Franklin Roosevelt and his New Deal for securing a future for America in the wake of the Great Depression. Despite their shortcomings, however, the country did grow from a rural isolationist community to a large urbanized center of industry, due in part to the dissidence of people like the Radio Priest and the Kingfisher.