It was the 1930s, the Great Depression was underway, and a newly sworn-in President Franklin

Delano Roosevelt was hard at work on the New Deal.

The goal of the New Deal was essentially to try and alleviate the economic suffering

of as many Americans as possible.

And for many, it made a real difference, programs like Social Security and unemployment insurance

were born during this time.

But there was another extremely ambitious project that was set in motion, an idea that

isn't quite as well known.

We undertook, as you remember, in dozens of places, scattered almost over every part of

the country.

To set up with the cooperation of the local people themselves, projects to provide better

homes.

They better trust.

This is FDR himself speaking in 1938 in Arthur Dale West, Virginia.

It was the first of around 100 homestead communities that the government set up.

These experimental communities, built from the ground up on the government's dime, were

scattered all across the country.

And the government wasn't just handing out land and walking away.

It also worked to bring an industry so that people could make consistent money on their

own.

These projects represent something new, the principal part of the credit.

Properly should go to the individual families, who themselves have come to live in these

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