STEVE EMBER: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English.
By the middle of the nineteen thirties, America seemed to be moving out of the worst depression in its history. Most people supported the "New Deal" policies of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
到了上世纪三十年代中期，美国似乎已经从历史上最严重的经济大萧条中走了出来。绝大多数美国人都支持罗斯福新政。
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.
胡佛卸任前许多美国人的悲观看法发生了改变。美国人开始认为，政府正带着热情和希望去面对挑战。
This week in our series, Harry Monroe and Jack Wietzel tell more about the New Deal programs of President Roosevelt.
HARRY MONROE: 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 decided that the best solution was to work through the existing political system.
美国人的思想转变表现在人们不再热情参与极左或者极右派的政治活动。很多人认为，最好的方法是通过现有政治体制解决问题。
Most importantly, Roosevelt's continued experiments with different programs showed Americans that they did not have to blindly follow political or economic traditions.
更为重要的是，罗斯福的很多新项目向美国人证明，他们不需要盲目沿袭政治和经济的传统理念。
For years, most Americans had accepted the basic ideas of traditional free market capitalism. But as the depression began, a small number of Americans became interested in the economic ideas of Karl Marx.
长期以来，大多数美国人接受的是传统自由市场资本主义体制经济观念。但自从大萧条开始以来，有些人开始对马克思的经济理论产生兴趣。
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 banking, transportation, agriculture, and oil production.
罗斯福主张走中间路线。他基本上支持自由市场经济思想，但他认为政府也有权利和责任在需要的时候采取行动，而且他支持政府对一些重要领域，如银行、交通、农业和石油等行业进行控制。
JACK WIETZEL: Some Americans did not think it was wise, or even possible, to mix traditional free market capitalism with government intervention or socialism. Former Republican Treasury Secretary Ogden Mills put it this way:
然而，有些美国人认为将传统的自由市场经济与政府干预或社会主义的经济体系相结合是不明智的，甚至是不可能的。前财政部长，共和党人奥格登.米尔斯指出：
"We can have a free country or a socialist 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."
“我们要么是一个自由的国家，要么是一个社会主义国家，不可能二者都是。我们的经济体制不可能一半是自由市场经济，一半是社会主义经济；在控制与被控制之间，在绝对控制与自由之间没有中间路线可走。”
Many leftists and socialists agreed with conservatives that it was impossible to mix capitalism and socialism. One leftist publication wrote:
许多左翼分子和社会主义者赞同保守派的观点，认为资本主义与社会主义不可能结合起来。一份左翼刊物这样写道：
"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."
“任何一个国家，要么生活在悲惨的资本主义体制下，要么用社会主义所替代资本主义，二者间没有中间路线。”
However, Roosevelt and his New Dealers 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.
然而，罗斯福和他的新政支持者们并不赞成这一思想。他们的目标是在右派与左派的极端思想中间，为政府、经济和民主创造一套全新规范。
HARRY MONROE: Most Americans supported Roosevelt and the Democrats 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.
大多数美国人支持罗斯福和民主党人为解决大萧条而尝试的新措施。在1934年的国会中期选举中，大量民主党人被选进国会；两年后，选民再次选举富兰克林.罗斯福为总统，这次选举结果是美国选举史上最大的压倒性胜利之一。
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 Supreme Court.
选举的巨大胜利使罗斯福变得更加强势。他决定向美国政府体制中给新政带来最大阻力的----美国联邦最高法院提出挑战。
JACK WIETZEL: 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, labor unions, and others. And there was nothing the president could do under the American system of government.
1936年，美国联邦法院九名大法官中大多数是保守派，他们曾经将罗斯福绝大多数的新政计划裁决为非法。如今，这些大法官正准备决定那些帮助老人、工会等新政计划的未来。而根据美国当时的政治体制，总统对联邦最高法院的作为无能为力。
So Roosevelt called for changes in the system. He asked Congress to reorganize the federal judicial 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.
所以，罗斯福呼吁改革这种体制，要求国会改组联邦司法体制，还要求国会授予他权力，为联邦最高法院增加几名新的大法官，如此一来，罗斯福就有希望在联邦法院中有多数法官支持他的观点了。
HARRY MONROE: 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.
大多数美国人喜欢罗斯福，但很多人担心，罗斯福增加联邦最高法院大法官的做法会破坏美国政治体制中相互制衡。他们跟罗斯福一样，不同意联邦最高法院的裁决，但他们认为，联邦最高法院大法官有权按自己的想法做出裁决，因此，选民否决了罗斯福增加联邦法院大法官的计划。
JACK WIETZEL: Roosevelt's unsuccessful effort to change the Supreme Court came at the same time as the economy began to get worse.
罗斯福试图改革美国联邦最高法院的努力失败了，与此同时，美国经济开始恶化。
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.
许多美国人以为，他们已经在1935年和1936年战胜了大萧条，美国经济已开始稳步发展。有些银行家甚至开始担心经济发展过快。
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.
在他们的呼吁下，美国中央银行----美联储控制了货币发行量。
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.
与此同时，联邦政府开始减少支出，同时开始向有工资收入的人征收社会保险税。
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.
联邦政府的所有这些措施都旨在控制政府、企业和私人的支出。结果，美国经济再次衰退，又一次进入萧条状态。
HARRY MONROE: In August nineteen thirty-seven, stock market prices began to fall sharply.
1937年8月，美国股票市场大跌。
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.
短短七个月里，美国通用汽车公司的股票就从60美元跌到25美元，美国钢铁公司的股票从121美元跌到38美元。结果，罗斯福执政以来刚刚缓慢复苏起来的美国股票市值，在九个月里就又赔进去了三分之二。