gave authority to develop a program of rehabilitation of our banking facilities. In his first Fireside Chat on March 12, 1933, Roosevelt explained the Emergency Banking Act as legislation that was “promptly and patriotically passed by the Congress. New York’s deserted financial district during the bank holiday of March 1933 (left), and President Franklin Roosevelt giving a fireside chat to the American people (right) (Photo: Associated Press) In fact, many in Congress did not even have an opportunity to read the legislation before a vote was called for. It passed later that evening amid a chaotic scene on the floor of Congress. The legislation, which provided for the reopening of the banks as soon as examiners found them to be financially secure, was prepared by Treasury staff during Herbert Hoover’s administration and was introduced on March 9, 1933. This action was followed a few days later by the passage of the Emergency Banking Act, which was intended to restore Americans’ confidence in banks when they reopened. In response, the new president called a special session of Congress the day after the inauguration and declared a four-day banking holiday that shut down the banking system, including the Federal Reserve. Many people were withdrawing their money from banks and keeping it at home. At the time, the Great Depression was crippling the US economy. Immediately after his inauguration in March 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt set out to rebuild confidence in the nation’s banking system. President Franklin Roosevelt in his first Fireside Chat, March 12, 1933

“I can assure you that it is safer to keep your money in a reopened bank than under the mattress.” Secretary of the Treasury William Woodin, March 9, 1933 The extraordinary rapidity with which this legislation was enacted by the Congress heartens and encourages the country.” “The emergency banking legislation passed by the Congress today is a most constructive step toward the solution of the financial and banking difficulties which have confronted the country.

The phrase hundred days refers to