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looking like he was moving toward Socialism. In the first week after he became the President, Roosevelt had his first “fireside chat” with America. He sat down with the nation and simply explained all of the different steps and ideas that he had planned to use in order to pull the country out of the depression. Americans really responded to these chats, and he soon gained wide-spread popularity. The new President said this about his “New Deal” in one of his famous fireside chats, “Take a method and try it, if it fails, try another. But above all, try something.” In a three month period, Roosevelt passed laws to protect stock market investors, helped finance troubled banks, and gave jobs to the young. He also assisted farmers in selling their crops at higher prices, gave aid to homeowners so that they could pay their mortgages, provided affordable electricity to the poor who needed it the most, and stimulated the dying unions and businesses. Roosevelt did in months what Hoover couldn’t do in years. The new President way of doing things was definitely appealing to the American people. The true test on how well Roosevelt was doing came in 1934 when it was time for the congressional elections. The Democratic party gained twenty seats in the House and the Senate, and now held a majority in forty-one out of the forty-eight states. During the next three months, Roosevelt passed laws to create new jobs, shifted the relief effort from the federal government back to the states, and provided homes or loans to those who had lost their housing. He also helped the development of the unions, raised the taxes of the wealthy, and made Social Security become a reality. The President was convinced that the only way to provide a sufficient number of new jobs was if the government hired huge numbers of people to work for it. Roosevelt started the Work Progress Administration (WPA), an organization that made plans to build airports, hospitals, schools, parks, and highways, among other things. Approximately 8.5 million people were hired to work on more than 1.4 million projects. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had truly done what the American people so desperately needed. He helped save the United States from the worst and most devastating depression in the history of the nation. He had become a national hero, and grew to be so popular that he won the election of 1936 by an even greater majority than the previous one. When the United States entered World War II, unemployment nearly disappeared. Industries became busy again trying to keep up with the war material orders and many young people entered the armed forces to fight for freedom.. The damage from the Great Depression that Roosevelt and his “New Deal” could not fix, the war certainly did. Several insights can be learned from the Great Depression. Perhaps the biggest one is that the United States government can positively influence the economy by creating massive programs. Also, that many Americans have the spirit of compassion which is necessary in order to provide for the less fortunate. Perhaps the greatest lesson taught was that no matter how big the problem, there is always hope for a solution, as long as there is determination, devotion, and a commitment to solving that problem.