TRACTORS OF THE NEW DEAL
Few today remember the Great Depression or had first-hand experience with the trauma it caused. Fewer still remember the Dust Bowl of the American and Canadian prairies. Just over 90 years ago, in 1929, prosperity disappeared in a single October afternoon when the stock market crashed. The crash ushered in the Great Depression, and business in this country ground to a stop.
Some of us, however, remember President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who took office in 1933, because he remained in office until he died in 1945 – just 75 years ago. What younger generations may not remember, however, is that FDR (as Roosevelt was known) was elected president of the U.S. by promising America, “a new deal.” Not everyone was convinced that FDR’s New Deal was the solution to the grave situation America (and, indeed the world) found itself in as a result of the Great Depression, but because enough did, he was swept into office.
