DEPRESSION,
1930-1941 Lor much of America, the wdd optimism of the 1920s ended with the stock market crash in October 1929. The 1930s was a time of depression, unemployment, and agricultural disasters. Republican President Herbert Hoover and Democrat Utah Governor George H. Dern offered the same philosophy: the depression would be shortlived and private organizations would provide relief. When the Great Depression continued, Americans elected Democrats in 1932. Shortly after taking office, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared a bank holiday to stop runs on banks and launched an assault on Capitol Hill. His "Hundred Day Congress" passed federal relief programs. The Federal Emergency Relief Act assigned $500 million as direct relief to states, cities, counties, and towns. That figure was later increased to $5 billion. Harry Hopkins, the director of the Civil Works Administration (CWA) that distributed the funds, believed the unemployed wanted to work and not simply receive a handout. CWA money helped build and improve roads, schoolhouses, airports, parks, sewers, and water systems. Governments receiving the funds provided a partial match. The National Industrial Recovery Act 166
