One Hundred Days of 1st FDR US Presidential administration (in 1933) brought in astonishing changes: New Bank Law

FDR (Franklin D. Roosevelt) by Jean Edward Smith has a chapter titled, "ONE HUNDRED DAYS" starting from page 305. While I had a general idea that FDR had achieved a lot with his New Deal, I was astonished to see how many changes FDR brought in, in his first hundred days as President of USA, starting from 4th March 1933.

I looked up Wikipedia page of FDR for this period, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt#First_New_Deal_(1933%E2%80%931934).

Given below is some info. about the new bank law ushered in during this period, as per above FDR book and above Wikipedia page. [I plan to cover few more of the changes in this period in later posts.]

* Wiki page says, "When Roosevelt was inaugurated on March 4, 1933, the U.S. was at the nadir of the worst depression in its history. A quarter of the workforce was unemployed. Farmers were in deep trouble as prices had fallen by 60%. Industrial production had fallen by more than half since 1929. Two million people were homeless."

* The banking system was in crisis and had faced many bank runs. FDR first declared a bank holiday for 4 days. The FDR book states (pg. 306), "The purpose of the bank holiday, he [FDR] informed the cabinet, was to prevent further runs on the banks and allow Woodin [Treasury secretary] time to draft the necessary legislation [new bank laws]".

* The Emergency Banking Act was pushed through Congress within 5 days of FDR becoming president! Some extracts from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Banking_Act :

The Emergency Banking Act (EBA) (the official title of which was the Emergency Banking Relief Act), Public Law 73-1, 48 Stat. 1 (March 9, 1933), was an act passed by the United States Congress in March 1933 in an attempt to stabilize the banking system.

...

A draft law, prepared by the Treasury staff during Herbert Hoover's administration, was passed on March 9, 1933. The new law allowed the twelve Federal Reserve Banks to issue additional currency on good assets so that banks that reopened would be able to meet every legitimate call.

The Emergency Banking Act, an amendment to the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917, was introduced on March 9, 1933, to a joint session of Congress, and was passed the same evening amid an atmosphere of chaos and uncertainty as over 100 new Democratic members of Congress swept into power determined to take radical steps to address banking failures and other economic malaise.

The EBA was one of President Roosevelt's first projects in the first 100 days of his presidency. The sense of urgency was such that the act was passed with only a single copy available on the floor of the House of Representatives and legislators voted on it after the bill was read aloud to them by Chairman of the House Banking Committee Henry Steagall. Copies were made available to senators as the bill was being proposed in the Senate, after it had passed in the House.

According to William L. Silber: "The Emergency Banking Act of 1933, passed by Congress on March 9, 1933, three days after FDR declared a nationwide bank holiday, combined with the Federal Reserve's commitment to supply unlimited amounts of currency to reopened banks, created 100 percent deposit insurance.[2]

Public reaction

Much to everyone's relief, when the institutions reopened for business on March 13, 1933, depositors stood in line to return their stashed cash to neighborhood banks. Within two weeks, Americans had redeposited more than half of the currency that they had squirreled away before the bank suspension.

The stock market registered its approval as well. On March 15, 1933, the first day of stock trading after the extended closure of Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining 8.26 points to close at 62.10; a gain of 15.34%. As of October 2020, the gain still stands as the largest one-day percentage price increase ever. With the benefit of hindsight, the nationwide Bank Holiday and the Emergency Banking Act of March, 1933, ended the bank runs that had plagued the Great Depression."[2]

[Ref 2: Silber, William L. (July 2009). "Why Did FDR's Bank Holiday Succeed?". Federal Reserve Bank of New York Economic Policy Review. 15 (1): 19–30. Retrieved 22 February 2020.]

--- end Emergency Banking Act wiki page extracts ---

The FDR book on page 309 states, "Relying largely on intuition and common sense, Woodin had cut through a fog of financial advice and adopted the simplest of all possible solutions: the government would simply print new money. It would be backed not by gold or silver but by the assets of the banks in the Federal Reserve system. Woodin laid the plan before Roosevelt at ten o'clock Tuesday morning and in twenty minutes had FDR's approval." [Tuesday seems to have been March 7th 1933.]

The book goes on to say that FDR and Woodin met legislative leaders of both parties on the next day evening from 8.30 PM till 1 AM.

The next day after that (Thursday, March 9th), the House of Representatives convened, and after the members were sworn in and leaders elected, FDR's banking message was read, "I cannot too strongly urge upon the Congress the clear necessity for immediate action."

The House members placed faith in FDR and without a printed bill but only a reading aloud of the bill, unanimously passed the bill. 

The Senate was able to read printed copies of the bill and progressives in the Senate wanted more federal control (with some wanting FDR to nationalize all the banks!). But without any amendments, the bill passed 73-7 in the Senate.

Around an hour later, the bill was signed into law by FDR. The book states, "The entire legislative process, from the bill's introduction in the House to the president's signature, took less than six hours."

* Wiki page of FDR says, "Energized by his personal victory over his paralytic illness, Roosevelt relied on his persistent optimism and activism to renew the national spirit.[152]" [Ref 152: Tobin, James (2013). The Man He Became: How FDR Defied Polio to Win the Presidency. Simon and Schuster. pp. 4–7. ISBN 978-1-4516-9867-1.]

[I thank Wikipedia and publishers & author of FDR book mentioned above, and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extract(s) from their website and book (very small extracts from FDR book) on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]