Rexford G. Tugwell

When Roosevelt became president he brought with him an elite group of advisors which the press nicknamed the Brain Trust. The main members were Raymond Moley, Adolph A. Berle Jr., and Rexford G. Tugwell. They were all professors from Columbia University. Roosevelt and his Brain Trust formulated experimental political and economic solutions to the nation's problems. These policies and programs became the New Deal. Tugwell had been brought on as secretary of agriculture and was key in forging new farm policies as well as contributing to the other New Deal programs. The following excerpt is from Tugwell's book about the administration's first year in office.

The depression had been going on since 1929, but its most frightening happenings were now reaching something of a climax. The strange, lost feeling nearly everyone had was becoming chronic; actually, distress was just reaching the...