Franklin D. Roosevelt: An Influential Leader Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) was a man of unusual charm and great optimism, which he was able to communicate to others. He had a broad smile and was a charismatic optimist whose confidence helped sustain the nation through its darkest moments during crisis like the Great Depression and World War II. He became one of the most beloved of U.S. presidents for four terms in office. But beneath his outward friendliness was an inner reserve and an iron will. His admirers emphasized the way in which he met the nation's problems. They praised him for insisting that the federal government must help the underprivileged and that the United States must share in the responsibility for …show more content…

3. So that more people could have jobs during the Depression, the WPA made jobs for people to work in buildings, hospitals, and parks. It also hired artists and photographers.
4. The FDIC, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, insured savings accounts in banks approved by the government, which would be repay the depositors their money in the event that the bank failed (The Great Depression). By 1935 the Nation had achieved some measure of recovery, but some businessmen and bankers disapproved of his experiments, his concessions to labor and the creation of a budget deficit. Roosevelt responded with a new program of reform: Social Security, heavier taxes on the wealthy, new controls over banks and public utilities, and an huge work relief program for the unemployed (The White House). During the Hundred Days, Congress passed more than a dozen significant pieces of reform and relief legislation. But the Hundred Days would become an American political legend, and would be used even decades later as the yardstick by which to measure a new president. None who took the office would achieve the early and impressive legislative success of Franklin Roosevelt's Hundred Days (American Experience). Roosevelt had pledged the United States to the "good neighbor" policy by declaring, "no state has the right to intervene in the internal or external affairs of another" (Boorstin 659). He also sought through neutrality legislation to keep the