VOA慢速英语20060928b

THE MAKING OF A NATION - 1930s: 'New Deal' Starts to Fail, Just as Threats Grow Across the SeaBy David Jarmul

Broadcast: Thursday, September 28, 2006

VOICE ONE:


Franklin Roosevelt signing the Social Security Act of 1935

By the middle nineteen thirties, America seemed to be moving out of the worst economic depression in its history. Most people supported the New Deal policies of President Franklin Roosevelt.

The dark view that many Americans held during the final days of President Herbert Hoover's administration seemed to be changing. People began to believe that the United States was facing its problems with energy and hope.

VOICE TWO:

The change could be seen in the way that Americans were moving away from extreme political movements of both the right and the left. Many decided¹ that the best solution was to work through the existing political system.

Most importantly, Roosevelt's continued experiments with different programs showed Americans that they did not have to blindly follow political or economic traditions.

For years, most Americans had accepted the basic ideas of traditional free market capitalism². But as the depression began, a small number of Americans became interested in the economic ideas of Karl Marx.

Roosevelt believed it was best to travel a path between these two opposite ideas. He basically supported the free market system. But he believed government also had a right and responsibility to act when needed. And he supported new government controls in such important areas as banking³, transportation, agriculture, and oil production.

VOICE ONE:

Some Americans did not think it was wise, or even possible, to mix traditional free market capitalism with government intervention⁴ or socialism. Former Republican Treasury⁵ Secretary Ogden Mills put it this way:

We can have a free country or a socialist⁶ one. We cannot have both. Our economic system cannot be half free and half socialistic. There is no middle ground between governing and being governed, between absolute rule and freedom.

Many leftists and socialists⁷ agreed with conservatives that it was impossible to mix capitalism and socialism. One leftist publication wrote:

Either the nation must live with the sadness of capitalism or it must prepare to replace capitalism with socialism. There is no longer a practical middle path.

However, Roosevelt and his New Dealers⁸ happily rejected these arguments. They aimed the country between rightist and leftist extremes and created a whole new set of rules for government, the economy, and democracy.

VOICE TWO:

Most Americans supported Roosevelt and the Democrats⁹ as they experimented with new solutions to the problems of the depression. They elected Democrats to a large majority in Congress in nineteen thirty-four. Two years later, they re-elected Franklin Roosevelt to a second term in the White House by one of the largest victories in American history.

Roosevelt's big victory made him stronger than ever. So he decided to fight the part of the government that had been blocking many of his programs -- the Supreme¹⁰ Court.

VOICE ONE:

Most of the nine judges on the Supreme Court in nineteen thirty-six were conservative. They had ruled that many of Roosevelt's most important New Deal programs were illegal. Now the judges were preparing to decide the future of programs to help old people, labor¹¹ unions, and others. And there was nothing the president could do under the American system of government.

So Roosevelt called for changes in the system. He asked Congress to reorganize the federal judicial¹² system. And he asked for the power to add several new members to the Supreme Court. In this way, Roosevelt hoped to gain a new majority on the court that would support his views.

VOICE TWO:

Most Americans liked Roosevelt. But people of all opinions feared that the president was trying to destroy the careful system of checks and balances in the federal government. They agreed with him in opposing the court's decisions. But they accepted the right of Supreme Court judges to rule as they thought correct. For this reason, the nation rejected Roosevelt's plan to add new members to the court.

VOICE ONE:

Roosevelt's unsuccessful effort to change the Supreme Court came at the same time as the economy began to get worse.

Many Americans thought they had defeated the depression in nineteen thirty-five and thirty-six. There was steady economic improvement. Some bankers had even begun to fear that the economy was growing too fast.

These bankers called on the nation's central bank -- the Federal Reserve Board -- to control the expanding money supply. And the Federal Reserve acted to limit the amount of money in use.

At the same time, the federal government began reducing the amount of money that it was spending. And it launched the new Social Security tax on workers' incomes.

The effect of all these government actions was to limit the amount of money being spent by the government, companies, and private citizens. As a result, the economy began to fall once again into depression.

VOICE TWO:

In August nineteen thirty-seven, stock market prices began to fall sharply.

In seven months, the price of stock for the General Motors Corporation fell from sixty dollars to twenty-five. The United States Steel Company stock fell all the way from one hundred twenty-one dollars to thirty-eight. In fact, the stock markets lost in nine months about two-thirds of all the gains that they had made so slowly and painfully since Roosevelt took office.

Americans had supported Roosevelt's New Deal program because it offered a solution to the depression. Now that program seemed to be failing.

VOICE ONE:

Historian Frederick Lewis Allen remembered those dark days of nineteen thirty-seven.

Goods sold slowly, Allen wrote. Businessmen became frightened and reduced production. Two million men were thrown out of work in the space of a few months. They became less able to buy what was for sale. The terrible circle of the falling value of the dollar moved all the more rapidly.

VOICE TWO:

The new economic crisis hurt Roosevelt's popularity. And it came at a time when he faced growing opposition¹³ within his own Democratic Party.

For several years, conservative Democrats from the southeastern part of the country had supported Roosevelt. They liked his leadership and the power that he brought to all Democrats. But they opposed many of his more liberal or experimental social policies.

VOICE ONE:

As the economy and Roosevelt's popularity fell, many of these southern Democrats began to openly oppose his leadership. They voted with Republicans on important bills before Congress.

Roosevelt became very angry about the new opposition from within his own party. He began to intervene personally in Democratic Party primary elections in nineteen thirty-eight. He told party members in several states that they should only vote for candidates who would support his New Deal policies.

Roosevelt's opponents accused him of interfering¹⁴ in local politics. And democratic voters agreed with these criticisms. In almost all cases, they rejected the candidates supported by the president. A few months later, voters in the general election gave the Republicans major gains in both the House of Representatives and Senate.

VOICE TWO:

In most situations, such a change in support would have signaled the end of a president's power. If people will not follow, a president cannot lead or be elected.


Adolf Hitler in Nuremberg, Germany

But such was not the case for Roosevelt and the United States in the late nineteen thirties. It was true that economic and political troubles were not solved. But another crisis was growing larger every day, making these other problems seem less and less important.

The crisis was in foreign policy. Adolf Hitler and his Nazi¹⁵ party in Germany seemed ready to make war on Europe. And Japanese forces appeared to be planning new aggression¹⁶ in the Pacific. Americans could no longer just worry about their problems at home. A dark cloud was forming outside their door.

That will be the subject of our next several programs.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry¹⁷ Monroe and Jack¹⁸ Weitzel. Our program was written by David Jarmul.

1 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

2 capitalism   

n.资本主义

参考例句：

• The essence of his argument is that capitalism cannot succeed.他的论点的核心是资本主义不能成功。
• Capitalism began to develop in Russia in the 19th century.十九世纪资本主义在俄国开始发展。

3 banking   

n.银行业，银行学，金融业

参考例句：

• John is launching his son on a career in banking.约翰打算让儿子在银行界谋一个新职位。
• He possesses an extensive knowledge of banking.他具有广博的银行业务知识。

4 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。

5 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

6 socialist   

n.社会主义者；adj.社会主义的

参考例句：

• China is a socialist country,and a developing country as well.中国是一个社会主义国家，也是一个发展中国家。
• His father was an ardent socialist.他父亲是一个热情的社会主义者。

7 socialists   

社会主义者( socialist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The socialists saw themselves as true heirs of the Enlightenment. 社会主义者认为自己是启蒙运动的真正继承者。
• The Socialists junked dogma when they came to office in 1982. 社会党人1982年上台执政后，就把其政治信条弃之不顾。

8 dealers   

n.商人( dealer的名词复数 )；贩毒者；毒品贩子；发牌者

参考例句：

• There was fast bidding between private collectors and dealers. 私人收藏家和交易商急速竞相喊价。
• The police were corrupt and were operating in collusion with the drug dealers. 警察腐败，与那伙毒品贩子内外勾结。

9 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

11 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

12 judicial   

adj.司法的，法庭的，审判的，明断的，公正的

参考例句：

• He is a man with a judicial mind.他是个公正的人。
• Tom takes judicial proceedings against his father.汤姆对他的父亲正式提出诉讼。

13 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

14 interfering   

adj. 妨碍的 动词interfere的现在分词

参考例句：

• He's an interfering old busybody! 他老爱管闲事！
• I wish my mother would stop interfering and let me make my own decisions. 我希望我母亲不再干预，让我自己拿主意。

15 Nazi   

n.纳粹分子，adj.纳粹党的，纳粹的

参考例句：

• They declare the Nazi regime overthrown and sue for peace.他们宣布纳粹政权已被推翻，并出面求和。
• Nazi closes those war criminals inside their concentration camp.纳粹把那些战犯关在他们的集中营里。

16 aggression   

n.进攻，侵略，侵犯，侵害

参考例句：

• So long as we are firmly united, we need fear no aggression.只要我们紧密地团结，就不必惧怕外来侵略。
• Her view is that aggression is part of human nature.她认为攻击性是人类本性的一部份。

17 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

18 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。