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At the beginning of the 1930’s, 15 million Americans---one-quarter of all wage earning workers---were unemployed. The Great Depression which would last a whole decade, began on October 29, 1929. The stock market crashed and resulted in banks failing, the nation's money supply diminishing, and companies going bankrupt. The president at the time, Herbert Hoover, did not do much to help, but instead he argued “Patience and self-reliance” was the way to go. He thought the crisis was just a “passing incident in the nation's lives.” Then in 1932, Hoover lost his re-election bid to a Democrat, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a well respected and liked man. Roosevelt pledged to make Americans’ lives better. From then on Roosevelt was very active in trying to get America back on its feet.