Date of Issue: January 5, 1942

KEY DATES 1882 Born in Hyde Park, New York, on January 30. 1921 Contracts polio. 1828-32 Serves as Governor of New York. 1932-36 Elected President; begins enacting New Deal legislation. 1936-40 Re-elected to office. 1940-44 Elected to an unprecedented third term; U.S. enters World War II. 1945 Attends Yalta Conference; dies two months later on April 12.

He restored hope to America
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was Presidents of the United States for 12 of the most tumultuous years in the life of the nation. He guided the nation through democracy’s two monumental crises — the Great Depression and World War II.

	"Men will thank God on their knees a hundred years from now that Franklin D. Roosevelt was in the White House."

"Men will thank God on their knees a hundred years from now that Franklin D. Roosevelt was in the White House," the New York Times wrote at the time of his death. "It was his leadership which inspired free men in every part of the world to fight with greater hope and courage."

Even through the grainy newsreels, we can see what the people at the time say: the radiant smile, the eyes flashing with good humor, the good-natured toss of the head, the buoyant optimism, and confidence with which he met economic catastrophe and international crisis.

When Roosevelt assumed the presidency, America was in its third year of depression. No other decline in American history has been so deep, so lasting, so far reaching. Factories that had once produced steel automobiles, furniture and textiles stood eerily silent. One out of every four Americans was unemployed, and in the cities the number reached nearly 50%. In the countryside, crops that could not be sold at market rotted in the fields. More than half a million homeowners, unable to pay their mortgages, had lost their homes and their farms; thousands of banks had failed, destroying the life savings of millions. The Federal Government had virtually no mechanisms in place to provide relief.

Roosevelt believed that a democratic government had a responsibility to help Americans in distress — not as a matter of charity but as a matter of social duty. This conviction provided a moral compass to guide both his words and his actions. Roosevelt fashioned a New Deal, which fundamentally altered the relationship of the government to its people.

Massive public works projects put millions to work building schools, roads, and libraries. The Securities and Exchange Commission regulated a stock market that had been run as insiders’ game. Federal funds protected home mortgages; legislation guaranteed labor’s right to organize and established minimum wages and maximum h ours. And a sweeping Social Security system provided a measure of security and dignity to the elderly.