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Realizing how terrible the economic situation was, the United States Congress tried to pass a bonus bill for Americans who were veterans of World War I. They did not act fast enough, however. So many were now starving and homeless, that thousands of people, including war veterans, started to gather in Washington D.C. to protest. By May, 1932, nearly twenty thousand of them had set up Hoovervilles, there. The World War One veterans waved signs that said, “Heroes in 1917-Bums in 1932.” President Hoover soon became angry and afraid of all of the extra people around the White House. He even refused to meet with the leaders of the Bonus Expeditionary Force, and called them Communists. He put the police on twenty-four hour a day guard of the White House, making sure that all entrances were secure. They prepared for an attack, and it occurred on July 28, 1932. The veterans had become restless, and they were ordered to leave. A police officer was hit by a brick, and the police retaliated with open fire. A veteran was shot down, and then the rioting started. Federal troops were called in by the President to control the rioters. They were ordered to use force, if necessary, to disperse the veterans. They fired tear gas into the crowd and marched with swords. Two babies died from the effects of the gas. President Hoover and a General in the army considered the defense a success. They declared that the conspiracy to take over the government of the United States of America was stopped just in time. A similar situation occurred later in the year. In December of 1932, about three thousand hungry, jobless people marched into the nation’s capitol demanding some relief to their suffering. In response to this, Hoover had nine thousand police officers, as well as U.S. troops, standing by just in case things got out of hand. President Hoover, in his mind, could not find any legitimate reason to give in to their requests. He declared that it was not the government’s responsibility to give relief to its citizens, believing that once having started this practice, it would never end. The year 1932 was drawing to a close, and that meant that it was time for the presidential election. The Republicans nominated Herbert Hoover to run for reelection. They called themselves the party of prosperity, even though the nation’s economy had devastatingly plummeted while Hoover was President. The Democratic nominee was Franklin D. Roosevelt, the crippled governor of New York. Roosevelt had a friendly face and attitude, and when he promised a “New Deal” for the forgotten man, the voters listened. He understood the terrible times that the people were going through, and Hoover did not. Hoover would not change his views on the government giving out aid and relief to the public. He and his team were confident that they would have no trouble at all being reelected, but they were wrong. On election day when the votes had all been counted, Franklin D. Roosevelt carried forty-two states while Hebert Hoover had won only six.. It was a landslide for Roosevelt. During the presidential inauguration of 1933, everyone stopped working to hear what their new leader had to say to them. He proclaimed: “Let me first assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself–nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”He then explained that Americans needed to treat this crisis as if the United States had been invaded by some foreign enemy. On the same day as that amazing speech was the inaugural ball, but Franklin D. Roosevelt did not attend it. Instead, he stayed up all night with his many advisors planning out the details of the New Deal. On the Monday of his first week in office, he announced that he was closing all of the banks in the country until they could safely reopen and pay their customers the billions of dollars that were owed to them. His objective was to save America from a total collapse of the economy, which was something that he saw happening in the very near future. He wanted to improve businesses and profits, without it

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