National Emergencies Declared a Necessity
In the “Foreword” to Senate Report 93-549, Senators Mathias and Church wrote, “[T]here is no present need for the United States Government to continue to function under emergency conditions.” Later, in the body of the report, they added, “In the view of the Special Committee, an emergency does not now exist. Congress, therefore, should act in the near future to terminate officially the states of national emergency now in effect.”(12) The U.S. Attorney General, however, was of a different opinion:
In the “Foreword” to Senate Report 93-549, Senators Mathias and Church wrote, “[T]here is no present need for the United States Government to continue to function under emergency conditions.” Later, in the body of the report, they added, “In the view of the Special Committee, an emergency does not now exist. Congress, therefore, should act in the near future to terminate officially the states of national emergency now in effect.”(12) The U.S. Attorney General, however, was of a different opinion:
The Trading With the Enemy Act of 1917 has been amended frequently, and in the process its original purpose and effect have been altered significantly. The Act was originally intended to “define, regulate, and punish trading with the enemy.” 40 Stat. 415. Directed primarily to meeting the exigencies of World War I, its drafters intended the Act to remain on the books for future war situations. 55 Cong. Rec. 4908. Accordingly, when other war powers were terminated in 1921 an exception was made for the Act and it remained valid law. 41 Stat. 1359.
On March 5, 1933, President Roosevelt relied on Sec. 5(b) of the Trading With the Enemy Act as authority for his Proclamation 2039 which closed all banks for five days. This was clearly a time of financial crisis, not of war, and hence was not within the literal terms and purposes of the Act. Congress rectified the situation five days later when it ratified the President’s proclamation and amended Sec. 5(b) to give the President the broad wartime powers of that section in times of declared national emergency as well. 48 Stat. 1. The desperate economic circumstances of the time dictated the passage of this sweeping change….
In early 1933 nation needed immediate relief, recovery from economic collapse, and reform to avoid future depressions, so relief, recovery and reform became Franklin D. Roosevelt`s goals when he took the helm as president. At his side stood a Democratic Congress, prepared to enact the measures carved out by a group of his closest advisors dubbed the Brain Trust by reporters. One recurring theme in the recovery plan was Roosevelt’s pledge to help the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.
Birth of the New Deal The concepts that became the New Deal had been discussed in earlier years but without effect. The statement by National Catholic War Council in 1919, drafted by Father John A. Ryan, contained recommendations that would later be regarded as precursors of the New Deal.
The term "New Deal" was coined during Franklin Roosevelt’s 1932 Democratic presidential nomination acceptance speech, when he said, "I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people." Roosevelt summarized the New Deal as a "use of the authority of government as an organized form of self-help for all classes and groups and sections of our country.
The exact nature of Roosevelt`s intentions was not clear during the campaign, although his philosophy was set out in an address that he gave at the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco on September 23:
"The government should assume the function of economic regulation only as a last resort, to be tried only when private initiative, inspired by high responsibility, with such assistance and balance as government can give, has finally failed. As yet there has been no final failure, because there has been no attempt, and I decline to assume that this nation is unable to meet the situation."
At his inauguration in March 1933, Roosevelt declared in his lilting style, "Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is, fear itself needless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." In his first 99 days, he proposed, and Congress swiftly enacted, an ambitious "New Deal" to deliver relief to the unemployed and those in danger of losing farms and homes, recovery to agriculture and business, and reform, notably through the inception of the vast Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The New Deal effects would take time; some 13,000,000 people were out of work by March 1933, and virtually every bank was shuttered.
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