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Originally Posted by daswig
FDR unquestionably did a huge amount of damage to the US Constitution. For example, read up on the expansion of the ICC, which only began to be trimmed back in 1992. He virtually broke the Judiciary to his will, because they didn't have the balls to face down the Constitutional Crisis he was precipitating. The only President that I can think of who routinely pissed on the Constitution more frequently and completely than FDR is Lincoln.
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Those were extraordinary times. Workers in one of America's greatest industries experienced the following, at a time when there was no unemployment insurance, welfare or food stamps as a last resort, or SSI payments for the elederly relatives that these workers formerly supported. What would you have done if you were Roosevelt, to feed and shelter people, while preserving some of their dignity, and discourage violent revolution?
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http://www.dol.gov/asp/programs/history/chapter5.htm
But there was another side to the problem. Following the stock market crash of 1929, the Hoover Administration urged and many industries and unions adopted work-sharing. For example, the United States Steel Corporation in 1929 had 224,980 full-time employees. The number shrank to 211,055 in 1930, to 53,619 in 1931, to 18,938 in 1932, and to zero on April 1, 1933. All who remained on the payroll on this last date were part time, and they were only half as numerous as those on full time in 1929.
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