IV.

Governor of New York

During two terms as Governor of New York (1929-1933), Roosevelt established a reputation as a reforming progressive in the Theodore Roosevelt tradition and as a champion of relief for impoverished upstate farmers. His greatest struggle—for control of the St Lawrence River water-power resource by the state rather than private utilities—aimed at providing cheaper electricity for the rural consumer. With the outbreak of the Great Depression, he identified himself with the urban relief cause by appointing Harry Hopkins to head the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration. As the depression deepened, he assembled the “Brain Trust”, a group of faculty members from Columbia University, to formulate with him a comprehensive programme for resolving the economic collapse that had begun in 1929. With the aid of a progressive-southern Democratic coalition in 1932, Roosevelt won the party's presidential nomination, then easily defeated Hoover in the national election.