7 The 100 Most Influential World Leaders of All Time 7prosper,” he asserted, adding, “the only thing we have to
fear is fear itself.”
The First Term
The Hundred Days
Roosevelt followed up on his promise of prompt action
with the Hundred Days—the first phase of the New Deal,
in which his administration presented Congress with a
broad array of measures intended to achieve economic
recovery, to provide relief to the millions of poor and
unemployed, and to reform aspects of the economy that
Roosevelt believed had caused the collapse.
Two key recovery measures of the Hundred Days
were the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) and the
National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), which
included the Public Works Administration (PWA) and
the National Recovery Administration (NRA). Another
important recovery measure was the Tennessee Valley
Authority (TVA), a public corporation created in 1933
to build dams and hydroelectric power plants and to
improve navigation and flood control in the vast
Tennessee River basin.
The Hundred Days also included relief and reform
measures. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration
(FERA) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) were
created. The Home Owners’ Refinancing Act provided
mortgage relief for millions of unemployed Americans in
danger of losing their homes. Reform measures included
the Federal Securities Act and the Glass-Steagall Banking
Reform Act, the latter prohibiting commercial banks from
making risky investments and established the Federal
Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to protect depos-
itors’ accounts.