Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression

“Gardiner C. Means”

Beginning in 1933, Means served as Economic Adviser on Finance under Henry Wallace, President Roosevelt’s Secretary of Agriculture. Means believes that the New Deal brought the US government in line with 20th-century economic realities. He credits Roosevelt for being willing to experiment and argues that the controversial National Recovery Administration achieved its purpose. Means found the entire New Deal Era “exhilarating” (248) and “an adventure” (250).

“Raymond Moley”

Moley advised Franklin Roosevelt in the late 1920s and followed the new president to Washington, DC in 1933. Moley believes that the key to reversing the Depression was restoring confidence, which is why he credits Roosevelt for his bank rescues and fireside chats.

As years passed, however, Moley grew disenchanted because he believed that the New Deal gave the federal government too much power. Moley argues that Roosevelt in general receives too much credit on policies, for even President Hoover probably would have agreed to everything that was good about the New Deal, and it was the Second World War, not Roosevelt, that brought the United States out of the Depression. Moley explains that he started to doubt Roosevelt in 1935, when Washington, DC “began to fill up with these young radicals” and the president himself turned more and more to Huey Long-style demagoguery (255).