History of the United States II / Unit 11 USH2 1512 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Six Days in March
The idea
The bank rescue ran in sequence: the holiday, the Act on March ninth, a radio address on March twelfth, and the reopening of sound banks the next day. On the evening of the twelfth Roosevelt gave the first of his fireside chats, explaining in plain terms what the examinations of the banks had found and what the government had done.
In practice
A president speaking into a radio microphone the night before the banks opened, telling listeners that confidence and courage were the essentials of success in carrying out the plan.
Where people slip
When the banks reopened, Digital History records, deposits outran withdrawals, and one adviser later boasted that capitalism was saved in eight days. By March fifteenth, the anchor says, seventy percent of banks had been declared solvent and allowed to reopen. The order matters: the explanation came the night before the doors opened.
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