Unemployment was the overriding fact of life when Franklin D. Roosevelt became
president of the United States on March 4, 1933. An anomaly of the time was that
the government did not systematically collect statistics of joblessness; actually it did
not start doing so until 1940. The Bureau of Labor Statistics later estimated that
12,830,000 persons were out of work in 1933, about one-fourth of a civilian labor
force of more than 51 million. Roosevelt signed the Federal Emergency Relief Act
on May 12, 1933. The president selected Harry L. Hopkins, who headed the New
York relief program, to run FERA. A gifted administrator, Hopkins quickly put the
program into high gear. He gathered a small staff in Washington and brought the
state relief organizations into the FERA system. While the agency tried to provide all
the necessities, food came first. City dwellers usually got an allowance for fuel, and
rent for one month was provided in case of eviction.
This passage is primarily about
A. unemployment in the 1930s.
B. the effect of unemployment on United States families.
C. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency.
D. President Roosevelt’s FERA program.
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