Concise Edition: American Voices: Ordinary People Respond to the New Deal

Franklin Roosevelt’s fireside chats and relief programs prompted thousands of Americans to write directly to him and his wife, Eleanor. Mrs. M. H. A. worked in the County Court House in Eureka, California; R. A., a sixty-nine-year-old man, was an architect and builder in Lincoln, Nebraska; and M. A., a woman, held a low-level salaried position in a corporation.

June 14, 1934
Dear Mrs. Roosevelt:

My husband and I are a young couple of very simple, almost poor families. We married eight years ago on the proverbial shoe-string but with a wealth of love. … But with the exception of two and one-half months work with the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey under the C.W.A. [Civil Works Administration], my husband has not had work since August, 1932.

My salary could continue to keep us going, but I am to have a baby. …

We have always stood on our own feet and been proud and happy. But you are a mother and you’ll understand this crisis.

Very sincerely yours,

Mrs. M. H. A.

May 19/34
Dear Mrs Roosevelt:

In the Presidents inaugral address delivered from the capitol steps the afternoon of his inaugration he made mention of The Forgotten Man, and I with thousands of others am wondering if the folk who was borned here in America some 60 or 70 years a go are this Forgotten Man, the President had in mind, if we are this Forgotten Man then we are still Forgotten. …

First we have grown to what is termed Old Age, this befalls every man.

Second, … we are confronted on every hand with the young generation, taking our places, this of corse is what we have looked forward to in training our children. But with the extra ordinary crisese which left us helpless and placed us in the position that our fathers did not have to contend with. …

Yours very truly.

R. A.

Jan. 18, 1937

[Dear Mrs. Roosevelt:]

I … was simply astounded to think that anyone could be nitwit enough to wish to be included in the so called social security act if they could possibly avoid it. Call it by any name you wish it, in my opinion, (and that of many people I know) [it] is nothing but downright stealing. …

I am not an “economic royalist,” just an ordinary white collar worker at $1600 per [year — about $23,600 in 2011]. Please show this to the president and ask him to remember the wishes of the forgotten man, that is, the one who dared to vote against him. We expect to be tramped on but we do wish the stepping would be a little less hard.

M. A.

SOURCES : Robert S. McElvaine, Down and Out in the Great Depression (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1983), 54–55; Michael P. Johnson, ed., Reading the American Past, 4th ed., 2 vols. (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009), 2: 171; Robert D. Marcus and David Burner, eds., America Firsthand, 7th ed. (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007), 184.