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。
Americans had supported Roosevelt's New Deal program because it offered a solution to the depression. Now that program seemed to be failing.
那些解决大萧条的罗斯福新政曾经得到了美国人的支持，而现在这些新政措施似乎都开始走向失败。
JACK WIETZEL: Historian Frederick Lewis Allen remembered those dark days of nineteen thirty-seven.
一位历史学家为我们记录下了1937年那些黑暗的日子。
"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.
他这样写道:“商品卖不出去，”“商人们惊恐不已，减少产量。几个月内，两百万人失去了工作，失去购买力。而美元贬值进一步加速了这一可怕的循环。”
HARRY MONROE: The new economic crisis hurt Roosevelt's popularity. And it came at a time when he faced growing opposition within his own Democratic Party.
这次新的经济危机伤害了罗斯福的民众支持率，与此同时，他又面临着民主党内越来越多的反对浪潮。
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.
多年来，东南部的保守派民主党人一直支持罗斯福，他们喜欢他的领导风格和他给民主党带来的力量。但他们反对罗斯福的一些太过自由或太倾向于社会主义的政策。
JACK WIETZEL: 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.
美国经济和罗斯福的声誉双双下降的时候，许多南方民主党人开始公开批评罗斯福的领导。他们在国会表决一些重要的法案时，与共和党人站在一起。
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.
对此，罗斯福非常生气。他开始亲自干预民主党1938年的初选，劝说许多州的民主党人选择那些支持新政的候选人。
Roosevelt's opponents accused him of interfering 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.
罗斯福的对手指责他干预地方政治，民主党选民也认同这一指责。结果，在几乎所有民主党初选中，得到总统支持的候选人纷纷落选。几个月后，在国会参众两院选举中，共和党人在两院均获得了多数席位。
HARRY MONROE: 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.
在绝大多数情况下，总统失去支持，也就意味着总统权力的结束。如果人们不愿意跟着总统走，那么总统就无法领导国家，也无法再次当选。
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.
但在上世纪三十年代后期，对于罗斯福和美国，这种情况却并没有发生。的确，美国的经济和政治问题尚未解决，但另外一场危机却愈演愈烈，从而使其他一些问题变得微不足道。
The crisis was in foreign policy. Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party in Germany seemed ready to make war on Europe. And Japanese forces appeared to be planning new aggression in the Pacific.?Americans could no longer just worry about their problems at home. A dark cloud was forming outside their door.
此时，希特勒和他的纳粹党似乎已经准备好要在欧洲发动战争，而日本的武装力量正准备在太平洋发动侵略战争。美国人不能再仅仅考虑国内的问题了，黑夜已经降临到他们门前。
That will be the subject of our next several programs.
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STEVE EMBER: Our program was written by David Jarmul. The narrators were Harry Monroe and Jack Weitzel.
You can find our series online with transcripts, MP3s, podcasts and pictures at 51voa.com. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English. Join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION -- an American history series in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember.
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This is program #185
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