On the other hand, Roosevelt’s education had really opened up his eyes on the real world. Roosevelt’s school headmaster was a preacher for doing the duty of Christians and helping the less fortunate. This gave Roosevelt the privilege of actually seeing what the Americans were experiencing. Also while Roosevelt was growing up, his father worked a lot with charities and helped the less fortunate, these opportunities make it easier for Roosevelt to understand the fears and concerns that Americans might have gone through. Therefore, Roosevelt’s schooling made it easy for him to empathise with ordinary Americans that were not as fortunate as he was.
Roosevelt’s years at Harvard is a factor that contributes to his understanding of fears and concerns of ordinary Americans. At Harvard, Roosevelt studied at the college newspaper called ‘The Harvard Crimson’. He was a reporter and editor, and this included him having to visit and observe the life of ordinary Americans and interviewing them. Also during his Harvard years, Roosevelt experienced tragic events of loss such as his father, James Roosevelt’s death. This might have helped Roosevelt relate to what Americans might have been going through when loosing a family member to starvation or a disease that they couldn’t afford to cure. Hence, Roosevelt’s experiences of loss and his courses at Harvard looking into the lives of the less fortunate, would have made Roosevelt a better president in understanding the fears and concerns of ordinary Americans.
In the 1921, when he was only 39 years old, Roosevelt was diagnosed with a terrible disease, which paralysed him from the waist down. However, this sickness did not stop him from reaching his ultimate goal. Roosevelt was still elected president of the United States and he insisted on fighting this disease, not just for himself, but for everyone else in a similar position to him that was suffering. He founded a hydrotherapy centre for the treatment of polio patients and he also helped to found National Foundation of Infantile Paralysis. Because of this disease, and Roosevelt’s lack of health, his understanding of the ordinary American’s fears and concerns would be very high. He was suffering just like most Americans were, which made him relate to the situations they were in.
Roosevelt won his position as governor of New York by reinforcing his views as a democrat. The people of new york wanted to have a say in what was going on in the country as it was in a great state of depression and the government didn’t seem to be trying to solve it. Winning the elections for governor of New York motivated Roosevelt to doing more for the country and helping out the ordinary Americans that were suffering from the depression at the time. As a result of his democratic views, it made it easier for Roosevelt to understand people’s fears and concerns.
In 1932, Roosevelt’s convincing election speech made him an extremely popular candidate for the American presidency. He had won the trust of the people, which gave him 7 million, more votes than Hoover. At this point, the depression in America was at the maximum. There were over 2 million homeless people. Prices had fallen by 60% and farmers were in trouble. A quarter of the workforce was unemployed and the economical state of the country was terrible. In order to fix this Roosevelt knew he needed to interact with the people dealing with this themselves. Therefore you can tell that because of his character, Roosevelt insisted on changing the economical state of the country. Roosevelt tried to balance out people’s wages, by cutting down on salaries of federal employees and increasing pension payments for example. This shows that Roosevelt empathises enough with the Americans and understand their positions that he is willing to reduce the wages of the higher-class people in order to help the ordinary Americans that are suffering from the depression.
To sum up my conclusions on the extent of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s understanding of the fears and concerns of the ordinary Americans at the time of the depression, I think that Roosevelt had an extremely clear idea about what the Americans where going through and even though he might not have been able to relate to everything, he did empathise and his actions did prove his determination to help the suffering American citizens. Even though Roosevelt was from a well off family, and not deprived of any luxuries, he still went out and experienced what life was like for those who were less fortunate than he was while growing up, which gave him an open mind and encouraged him to do more for people. Also by losing his father to a horrible disease at such a young age, Roosevelt could relate to how the Americans felt when losing one of their family members to something they could not prevent. This helped him understand the loss that ordinary, suffering people felt at the time of the depression. Other relatable events Roosevelt went through, was his sickness of Polio. Roosevelt suffered for years trying to cure the disease, so he knew what it felt like to be weak and hopeless which is how most Americans felt at the time. Also, Roosevelt’s open mind, contributed to his democratic views which meant that everyone had a say in what went on in the government, this would help him understand the views of the public and try to work on improving the conditions that ordinary Americans had to live in during the depression. Roosevelt’s character was definitely the main factor, which had helped him empathise and understand the fears and concerns that ordinary Americans had at the time of the depression. Roosevelt was determined to offer the Americans a more civilised living standard.
