FDR: First Inaugural Address Saturday, March 4, 1933

Transcription

1 FDR: First Inaugural Address 1/22/10 8:13 AM FDR: First Inaugural Address Saturday, March 4, 1933 I am certain that my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our Nation impels. This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days. In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone. More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment. Yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply. Primarily this is because rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods have failed through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and have abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men. True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish. The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit. Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men. Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing. Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, on unselfish performance; without Page 1 of 3

2 FDR: First Inaugural Address 1/22/10 8:13 AM them it cannot live. Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation asks for action, and action now. Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our natural resources. Hand in hand with this we must frankly recognize the overbalance of population in our industrial centers and, by engaging on a national scale in a redistribution, endeavor to provide a better use of the land for those best fitted for the land. The task can be helped by definite efforts to raise the values of agricultural products and with this the power to purchase the output of our cities. It can be helped by preventing realistically the tragedy of the growing loss through foreclosure of our small homes and our farms. It can be helped by insistence that the Federal, State, and local governments act forthwith on the demand that their cost be drastically reduced. It can be helped by the unifying of relief activities which today are often scattered, uneconomical, and unequal. It can be helped by national planning for and supervision of all forms of transportation and of communications and other utilities which have a definitely public character. There are many ways in which it can be helped, but it can never be helped merely by talking about it. We must act and act quickly. Finally, in our progress toward a resumption of work we require two safeguards against a return of the evils of the old order: there must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits: and investments, so that there will be an end to speculation with other people's money; and there must be provision for an adequate but sound currency. These are the lines of attack. I shall presently urge upon a new Congress, in special session, detailed measures for their fulfillment, and I shall seek the immediate assistance of the several States. Through this program of action we address ourselves to putting our own national house in order and making income balance outgo. Our international trade relations, though vastly important, are in point of time and necessity secondary to the establishment of a sound national economy. I favor as a practical policy the putting of first things first. I shall spare no effort to restore world trade by international economic readjustment, but the emergency at home cannot wait on that accomplishment. The basic thought that guides these specific means of national recovery is not narrowly nationalistic. It is the insistence, as a first consideration, upon the interdependence of the various elements in and parts of the United States - a recognition of the old and permanently important manifestation of the American spirit of the pioneer. It is the way to recovery. It is the immediate way. It is the strongest assurance that the recovery will endure. In the field of world policy I would dedicate this Nation to the policy of the good neighbor - the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others - the neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a world of neighbors. If I read the temper of our people correctly, we now realize as we have never realized before our interdependence on each other; that we cannot merely take but we must give as well; that if we are to go forward, we must move as a trained and loyal army willing to sacrifice for the good of a common discipline, because without such discipline no progress is made, no leadership becomes effective. We are, I know, ready and willing to submit our lives and property to such discipline, because it makes possible a leadership which aims at a larger good. This I propose to offer, pledging that the larger purposes will bind upon us all as a sacred obligation with a unity of duty Page 2 of 3

3 FDR: First Inaugural Address 1/22/10 8:13 AM hitherto evoked only in time of armed strife. With this pledge taken, I assume unhesitatingly the leadership of this great army of our people dedicated to a disciplined attack upon our common problems. Action in this image and to this end is feasible under the form of government which we have inherited from our ancestors. Our Constitution is so simple and practical that it is possible always to meet extraordinary needs by changes in emphasis and arrangement without loss of essential form. That is why our constitutional system has proved itself the most superbly enduring political mechanism the modern world has produced. It has met every stress of vast expansion of territory, of foreign wars, of bitter internal strife, of world relations. It is to be hoped that the normal balance of Executive and legislative authority may be wholly adequate to meet the unprecedented task before us. But it may be that an unprecedented demand and need for undelayed action may call for temporary departure from that normal balance of public procedure. I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken Nation in the midst of a stricken world may require. These measures, or such other measures as the Congress may build out of its experience and wisdom, I shall seek, within my constitutional authority, to bring to speedy adoption. But in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these two courses, and in the event that the national emergency is still critical, I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me. I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis - broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe. For the trust reposed in me I will return the courage and the devotion that befit the time. I can do no less. We face the arduous days that lie before us in the warm courage of national unity; with the clear consciousness of seeking old and precious moral values; with the clean satisfaction that comes from the stern performance of duty by old and young alike. We aim at the assurance of a rounded and permanent national life. We do not distrust the future of essential democracy. The people of the United States have not failed. In their need they have registered a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action. They have asked for discipline and direction under leadership. They have made me the present instrument of their wishes. In the spirit of the gift I take it. In this dedication of a Nation we humbly ask the blessing of God. May He protect each and every one of us. May He guide me in the days to come. Page 3 of 3

4 The Boston Globe The legend of FDR's first 100 days in office By Patrick Maney February 18, 2009 HISTORICAL myth always has an advantage over truth by virtue of its head start. But the legend of Franklin Roosevelt's famous first 100 days has become so overblown that it may be crippling the ability of leaders to be effective, let alone achieve the instantaneous greatness for which millions are now pining. This may be a case when bad history makes for bad politics, to paraphrase the English historian Christopher Hill. The problem with the 100 days paradigm is that it obscures the vital role played by Congress - Republicans as well as Democrats - in crafting the First New Deal. It's too FDR-centric, what with Roosevelt and his brain trust bending a pliant Congress to their will within months of taking power. No less an authority than Brookings Institution scholar Stephen Hess proclaimed that FDR had "everything ready to go and Congress was perfectly happy to pass it before they had even read it." The real 100 days - March 9 to June 16, bear little resemblance to the legend. True, Roosevelt inspired a nation as perhaps no president ever has, and yes, the early months of his administration produced an outpouring of constructive legislation unequaled in the nation's history. But the early New Deal was hardly a one-man operation. As often as not, Congress, not Roosevelt, forced the action. Of the 15 major bills that constitute the First New Deal, most originated in Congress and many had legislative histories predating Roosevelt's assumption of power. There were even some key measures FDR initially opposed. Few New Deal agencies are more closely identified with Roosevelt than the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. But when the idea of insuring bank deposits first came up, Roosevelt was opposed. To guarantee the savings of all depositors, no matter how good or bad their banks might be, he insisted, would encourage sloppy and dishonest banking practices. When it became clear Congress would act with or without his support, Roosevelt endorsed the measure, and for three-quarters of a century the FDIC has served as the backbone of the banking system. But what about lawmakers acting so fast they never bothered reading the measures they were enacting into law? It is true that most measures passed in record time and with a minimum of debate. But that's because most legislators, having debated the issues for so long, had already made up their minds. No early New Deal measure touched the lives of more hungry and jobless Americans than the Federal Emergency Relief Act. But an almost identical measure had been under almost continuous consideration since 193l, when a bipartisan group, led by Wisconsin Senator Robert La Follette Jr., first introduced it. By the time FDR assumed office, federal relief to the unemployed was a forgone conclusion. The famous Tennessee Valley Authority had an even longer pedigree, dating back to the years just following World War I. That's when congressional progressives, led by

5 Nebraska Senator George Norris, launched a campaign to convert a federally owned dam at Muscle Shoals, Alabama, into a facility to provide cheap electricity and flood control to hundreds of thousands of residents along the Tennessee River. Six times Norris and his supporters proposed measures to create a TVA and six times they met defeat, twice by presidential veto. Finally, in 1933, supporters of public power found an ally in the White House, and their dream became a reality. Roosevelt's first Congress was not only eager to act but also was infused with a remarkable spirit of bipartisanship. Some of the most ardent New Dealers were Republicans like La Follette and Norris. They have no counterparts in today's GOP, which helps explain why President Obama's bipartisan outreach is meeting such a chilly reception. Of course, Roosevelt was a presidential giant. But his real genius lay in inspiration, not legislation. He was a kind of Wizard of Oz, infusing Congress and the public with the confidence to do what they had been capable of doing all along. This is no small achievement. But it's a different achievement than history usually gives him credit for. Obama needs to be free of a legend that practically guarantees eventual disillusionment when new presidents fall short of Rooseveltian goals that not even their namesake was capable of achieving. Patrick Maney, a professor of history at Boston College, is the author of "The Roosevelt Presence: The Life and Legacy of FDR." 00_days_in_office/

6 The First 100 Days: Franklin Roosevelt Pioneered the 100-Day Concept By Kenneth T. Walsh Posted February 12, 2009 It's not a perfect measure, but it's a useful one the 100-day standard for gauging presidential effectiveness. The underlying truth is that presidents tend to be most effective when they first take office, when their leadership style seems fresh and new, when the aura of victory is still powerful, and when their impact on Congress is usually at its height. There is nothing magic about the number, and many presidential aides over the years have complained that it is an artificial yardstick. But it has been used by the public, the media, and scholars as a gauge of presidential success and activism since Franklin D. Roosevelt pioneered the 100-day concept when he took office in He was faced with the calamity of the Depression and he moved with unprecedented dispatch to address the problem. "The first hundred days of the New Deal have served as a model for future presidents of bold leadership and executive-legislative harmony," writes Cambridge University historian Anthony Badger in FDR: The First Hundred Days. In this series, U.S. News looks at the most far-reaching 100-day periods in presidential history, starting with FDR. The series will run each week on Thursdays. Faced with the spreading catastrophe of the Depression in 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt knew from the start that what Americans wanted most of all was reassurance that under his leadership, they could weather the storm. Amid shattering rates of unemployment, bank failures, and a widespread loss of confidence, FDR said in his inaugural speech March 4: "This nation asks for action, and action now. Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require." This began an unprecedented period of experimentation during which Roosevelt tried different methods to ease the Depression; if they failed, he tried something else. His success in winning congressional approval became the stuff of legend and established FDR as the most effective president in dealing with Congress during the first 100 days. The circumstances that Roosevelt faced were unique. Banks were shutting down. Depositors were losing their life's savings. Businesses were running out of enough cash to keep going. At least 25 percent of American workers were unemployed. Many Americans felt it was a national emergency. "When Roosevelt took power on March 4, 1933, many influential Americans doubted the capacity of a democratic government to act decisively enough to save the country," writes historian Anthony Badger in FDR: The First Hundred Days. "Machine guns guarded government buildings. The newspapers and his audience responded most enthusiastically to Roosevelt's promises in his inaugural to assume wartime powers if necessary. That sense of emergency certainly made Congress willing to give FDR unprecedented power." Adds political scientist William Leuchtenburg in The FDR Years: "Roosevelt came to office at a desperate time, in the fourth year of a worldwide depression that raised the gravest doubts about the future of Western civilization."

7 The new president immediately established a new, infectious atmosphere of optimism. Even Sen. Hiram Johnson, a Republican from California, conceded, "The admirable trait in Roosevelt is that he has the guts to try... He does it all with the rarest good nature... We have exchanged for a frown in the White House a smile. Where there were hesitation and vacillation, weighing always the personal political consequences, feebleness, timidity, and duplicity, there are now courage and boldness and real action." Roosevelt immediately called Congress into special session and kept it there for three months. He found that the Democrats who were in control were eager to do his bidding, and even some Republicans were cooperative. Raymond Moley, a member of FDR's inner circle, said many legislators "had forgotten to be Republicans or Democrats" as they worked together to relieve the crisis. FDR quickly won congressional passage for a series of social, economic, and job-creating bills that greatly increased the authority of the federal government the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, which supplied states and localities with federal money to help the jobless; the Civil Works Administration to create jobs during the first winter of his administration; and the Works Progress Administration, which replaced FERA, pumped money into circulation, and concentrated on longer-term projects. The Public Works Administration focused on creating jobs through heavy construction in such areas as water systems, power plants, and hospitals. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. protected bank accounts. The Civilian Conservation Corps provided jobs for unemployed young men. The Tennessee Valley Authority boosted regional development. Also approved were the Emergency Banking Act, the Farm Credit Act, and the National Industrial Recovery Act. In all, Roosevelt got 15 major bills through Congress in his first 100 days. "Congress doesn't pass legislation anymore they just wave at the bills as they go by," said humorist Will Rogers. "Never before had a president converted so many promises into so much legislation so quickly," wrote historian James McGregor Burns in The Lion and the Fox. This was only part of a vast array of government programs that Roosevelt called the New Deal, and collectively they represented a revolution as the nation shifted from a limited central government to an extremely powerful one. Through it all, FDR bonded with everyday Americans by means of his speeches and "fireside chats" homespun radio talks that reached millions of listeners as the president explained his objectives and convinced his fellow citizens that he was their champion. "Mr. Roosevelt thinks and talks a great deal about government," wrote Anne O'Hare McCormick in the New York Times March 26, "He has very pronounced ideas on the functions of the Presidency. He believes that the President is literally the leader of the people, particularly in the development of ideas. He believes that at every turning point of history some one rises up who can enunciate and in a sense personify the new direction of the public mind and will. In his view America has reached such a crossroads. He does not

8 go so far as to speak of himself as the leader of the economic revolution now in progress, but there is no doubt that he considers the President of the United States at this juncture the instrument by which profound and necessary changes in the American system are to be effected." FDR also understood that his effectiveness would be at its height on Capitol Hill at the start of his term. "From long experience," wrote political scientist Richard Neustadt, "the judgment on the Hill appears to be that in the first weeks after the inauguration, most Americans wish their new president well and want him to succeed, with partisanship relatively low, interest in him relatively high, and interest fueled by curiosity about him in his new, never-before-seen capacity, not as one party's candidate but as the country's magistrate. The congressional instinct, therefore, crossing party lines, is to repress most overt signs of rampant competition until that public mood is seen to fade, as judged by media reactions, constituent expressions, and polls. Then, as an institution, Congress bounces back to its accustomed stance of vocal, procedural, and substantive competitiveness with the president." Much of that dynamic has changed, especially the notion of partisanship being suspended in the early weeks of a new presidency. As President Barack Obama is learning today, the political opposition rarely gives any chief executive a break anymore. All the more reason to consider Roosevelt's first 100 days unique. Historians still debate whether FDR's programs actually helped to end the Depression or whether it was World War II that did the trick. He created the New Deal, a huge social and economic experiment, and it's clear in retrospect that some of his ideas worked better than others. But it's also clear that FDR fundamentally expanded the reach and power of the federal government, which most Americans now accept, especially in times of crisis. And that marked a monumental change in American life.

9 A NEW PRESIDENT TAKES COMMAND: FDR S FIRST HUNDRED DAYS What can America expect of a new President's first months in office? How might the new administration gain support from the public? What social, economic and political forces might be in play as the President frames an agenda and puts it into action? With questions such as these occupying people's minds as America looks ahead to January 2009, the New-York Historical Society offers a fascinating and compelling parallel to the past. Beginning December 13, the Historical Society will present the exhibition A New President Takes Command, exploring President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's history-making First Hundred Days in office. "No President in the past century took office in such difficult circumstances as did Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and no President moved ahead more quickly and forcefully," said Dr. Louise Mirrer, President and CEO of the New-York Historical Society. "This new exhibition provides much-needed perspective on what we ourselves might see during the first months of President Obama's administration, and can help the public understand how we have succeeded as a nation, in spite of dispiriting times." Presented by the Historical Society in collaboration with the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, New York, the exhibition is based on "Action and Action Now": FDR's First Hundred Days, currently on display there through the Fall of This is the first in a series of collaborative installations drawing upon the rich collections of the FDR Presidential Library and Museum at Hyde Park and the New-York Historical Society. "We are delighted to be able to work with the N-Y Historical Society to use the President's own archive to help Americans today draw the judgments that shape contemporary civic life. That is exactly why FDR founded his presidential library in 1941," said Dr. Cynthia M. Koch, director of the FDR Presidential Library and Museum. "I hope this exhibit will encourage people to travel up the Hudson to see our exhibit in Hyde Park and learn more about the First Hundred Days and how Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt's work affects our lives today." A New President Takes Command marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of Franklin Roosevelt's first inauguration and the beginning of the New Deal. Designed to evoke the desperation of the Great Depression, followed by the hope and energy of a nation rebuilding, the exhibition displays rarely seen documents, photographs, artifacts, and newsreels drawn from the archives of the Roosevelt Library and Museum and from the New-York Historical Society collection. When Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated in March 1933, nearly 13 million Americans one in four workers were jobless. In some cities, unemployment reached more than 80% of the work force. Nineteen million people depended upon meager relief payments to survive. Workers lucky enough to have jobs earned, on average, only twothirds of what they had been making in 1929, at the start of the Depression. Many had

10 lost their homes and their savings: four thousand banks collapsed in the first two months of In his first speech to the nation as Chief Executive, FDR addressed this crisis by telling Americans "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." He then launched into an opening one hundred days in office that marked a turning point for a troubled country. The speed and scope of Roosevelt's actions were unprecedented. Many later Presidents have used the "First Hundred Days" as a measure for their own administrations. But none has matched FDR's agenda or its achievements. In less than four months, the Roosevelt administration stabilized the banks and the economy, saved homes and farms from foreclosure, and instituted a vast range of programs to address the dire needs of the people. Most important, the first Hundred Days restored hope and, in the process, preserved democratic government in the United States. 0

11 Cartoons 1/22/10 8:07 AM The Great Relief-Congress Adjourns Chicago Tribune 6/16/33 Editorial alleges socialism and criticizes the laws passed by congress. The president is not the only American citizen who had been holding his breath until congress adjouned. The usual rule that a good congress is no congress never had so many verifying illustrations as it has had since March 4. No one can possibly calculate the profit the country could have taken if congress ha adjourned soon after passing the bill for the reduction of government costs. If, having authorized the billion dolaar reduction in federal expenditures requested by Mr. Roosevelt and, having passed the beer bill, the two assemblies on Capitol hill had been scattered to the four winds the United States might be now much further along to recovery and moving with a freer and quicker stride. The session, viewed in the close foreground, cannot be interpreted accurately or confidently. Observent citizens know that never before in the history of the republic were so many revolutionary changes made in the American scheme. What the effect of these changes will be upon American law, customs, habits of thought, and social relations cannot now be fully estimated. The people have seen a rush toward state socialism which might have Fascism or communism at the end of the road. There can be no doubt that the country now has commissars. Although the days of the farm board were ended the government took on Mr. Wallace not as secretary but as commissar of agriculture with a program of price fixing and process taxing that has no precedent or perceivable end. Mr. Wallace is now an impossible figure in American government. Other commissars are in the picture of the American soviet, commissars of industry, of transportation, and of power, the latter emerging out of the misty wastes of the Tennessee valley. The industrial control act confronts the nation with an uncharted industrial future. It is a strong dosage of the Mussolini precept, and no alarm is quieted because some industrialists find it agreeable. The railroad bill is som more of the same, although many railroad operators are inclined to take it as a release from the evils they know too well, accepting the alternative of possibilities they hope will not be so bad. The railroads represent private enterprise in its last gasp in the government clutch, a desperate illness in which almost any change would be for the better. Even six months ago no citizens interested in public affairs could have been made to believe that by now their federal government would be commited to the guaranty of bank deposits, the licensing of all industry, the acceptance of farm, home, and building mortgages, the rentin of uncultivated farm lands, the taxing of food processing to pay farm subsidies, and have become the general creditor to public and private borrowers, with virtually everything in its control and nearly everybody in its debt. The legisalation has been bewildering and revolutionary. Whatever offset there may be must be found in the administration of the acts which have overturned American principles and political practices. The people are asked to believe that these departures from every tried and proved method are emergency acts; that when the industrial, social, and political exigencies have been met and dispersed, the country can retrace its steps to its old ideas of government and the place of the individual in it. Such may be the case. Just at present the American citizen sees that within four months he has been lifted out of one scheme of government and put in another, and he knows that this has been done without a Page 1 of 2

12 Cartoons 1/22/10 8:07 AM submission of any of the revolutionary changes to his determination and consent. It has just been done. There has not been any red shirt, black shirt, or brown shirt march, but within the processes to which the citizens have been accustomed these strange things have happened. Whatever has been done and whatever is yet to happen, the country's greatest blessing is that coingress has adjourned and for the present can do no more. Page 2 of 2

13 Cartoons 1/22/10 8:11 AM The Paramount Issue Chicago Tribune 3/11/33 The President and Congress are exhibiting a spirit and a capacity for united and virtuous action, which cannot but raise the morale of the whole country. Courageous leadership and the prompt demonstration by congress of its willingness to support it wake a new hope throughout the nation. They inspire a new confidence not only in our government but in ourselves to deal decisively and successfully with our difficulties. This constitutes the first step in the restoration of prosperity. The next step is to vest in the President full power to without check or delay the drastic retrenchments in federal expenditures essential to a balance of the budget, to the revival of the public credit, to the relief of the people and private enterprise from the drain of federal taxation, and therefore to the release and mobilization of the vast resources of the nation for the work of restoration. The abstract reality of living within one's means has been conceded by all spendthrift governments, including our own of recent years. The abstractions need not detain us. The reasons for granting the President the power he demanded to [curb] government expenditures are so concrete and so pressing that he had to set as he did in demanding immediate authority to carry out a program of economy. A wasteful government has brought us low. We cannot recover until the waste has ended. Moreover, there had to be a prompt demonstration to the world of the determination of our government not to finance itself through this crisis by turning on printing presses loose. There is only one way to put that message over convincingly and that is by actual economy. A thousand pledges by congressmen to balance the budget we've seen have meant nothing. The federal budget has gone unbalanced for three years, as Mr. Roosevelt said in his powerful message and as The Tribune has repeatedly pointed out. The accumulated deficits of the three years ending next June amount to 4 billion dollars. As matters now stand the government faces another billion dollar deficit in the year ending June 10, More congressional promises and pledges of economy would be merely more promises and pledges. The way to economize is to economize. Half a billion can be saved by squeezing the veterans' appropriation. Perhaps as much more can come from reorganization of the executive departments, for which the President has already received authority, and from salary reductions. Altogether these measures seem to ensure a balanced budget in 1934; and if they are not sufficiently drastic the President has the authority and the will to squeeze the appropriations still further. That is the first, and to readers of the Tribune a familiar, reason for demanding retrenchment at once. The other reason, no less pressing, in the midst of this banking crisis, is to assure the government sufficient funds with which to reconstitute the banking system on a sound and workable basis. Much attention has been paid to the issuance of new money with which to render the banks in the big cities impregnable. This measure will cost the treasury next to nothing at all. The banks which will be reopened are sound by any standard, and with the provisions made for converting every deposit into cash to the last penny. No one is justified in drawing more money than is required for normal business and personal payments. The class A banks are impregnable. The banks for which the government will have to provide new capital are the smaller banks scattered throughout the country. Individually they are unimportant. In the aggregate they are Page 1 of 2

14 Cartoons 1/22/10 8:11 AM immensely important. The great banks in the cities are the heart of our credit structure. Through them the city pays for the food the city man eats, and the raw material such as coal and lumber, cotton and wool which are consumed in the factories. The food comes in and the money goes out. Normally the return flow is provided for through the machinery of the small banks. The funds sent out from the cities for raw materials flow back in payment for manufacturing and services performed in the cities. The analogy of the blood stream in the human body is as nearly perfect as an analogy can be. The reopening of the class A banks provides a means of sending blood out to the toes from the heart but it is almost as important to provide a means of bringing the blood back from the toes to the heart. Without that return flow the economic life of the nation cannot long continue. This relationship has been clearly understood in Washington. The emergency banking act passed on Thursday naught contains many provisions regarding the big banks, and toward the end another provision which permits the Reconstruction Finance corporation to restore a sufficient number of state as well as national banks to complete solvency. The government can invest in preferred stock in these banks and it will invest enough in each case to leave no more doubts of their soundness. With enough of those lesser banks reconstituted, the business life of the country can go on. The movement of goods in and out of the cities can be balanced by the flow of money in the reverse direction. To do that job of reconstituting a sound country banking organization will take new money. If the Treasury has to dissipate its resources in paying half a billion dollars this year non-service connected disabilities, in addition to the half billion of deserved pensions, it may find itself without enough money to reorganize the banking structure at a vital point. Even to the recipients of the dole to veterans the sacrifice of their monthly stipend is a small matter in comparison to the stake at issue. A veteran who can think that his pension of $10 a month is worth months and perhaps years of business stagnation and its attendant misery and unemployment ought to be locked up as a lunatic. The government has been spending billions wastefully. Now it has to retrench, not only because it can't raise the amounts it has been spending but also because it has far more important uses for such money as is available. Let us be utterly candid. The veterans who suffered no injury in the last war but are receiving pensions were enlisted in a struggle against a foe 3,000 miles and more away. They could have quailed in the face of the enemy-such of them as saw fighting-and still their country would have been 3,000 mile away from immediate danger. Today they and their country are in peril as never before in our lifetime. The superb leadership of the new President will go for naught if his plans are wrecked by the lack of means to carry them out. That is why the pensions and the useless government jobs and bureaus must go. Our government, in this hour of crisis, cannot spend a fourth and more of its income, close to a billion dollars a year, for veterans' care. The best it can do, and this Mr. Roosevelt has pledged himself to adopt as his guiding principle, is to care for those who were incapacitated in service and for the widows and orphans of the men who gave their lives for their country. The issue is clear cut. Patriotism and self-interest both dictate unhesitating support of the position which the President has taken. Page 2 of 2

15 The Hundred Days 1/22/10 8:06 AM SUBSEQUENT TO HIS inauguration ceremony and parade, President Roosevelt chose to forego the traditional celebratory balls and begin work directly, an indication of the severity of the national economic crisis. That afternoon, in unprecedented fashion, his cabinet was sworn in, unceremoniously, at the White House and the Roosevelt Administration was underway. Almost immediately there was a change in atmosphere and attitude at the White House and in Washington--there seemed to be a sense of motion, energy and determination. The next day, the president issued two proclamations, both of which he had brought with him to Washington. The first called Congress to meet in a special session on March 9; the second declared a four-day bank holiday to stabilize the economy while the administration developed legislation to address the banking crisis. Originally, Roosevelt had planned to pass the banking legislation and allow Congress to adjourn. But after observing the speed and ease with which the legislature acquiesced, the president decided to seize on the momentum provided by the banking victory and use it to drive through the next parts of his New Deal. After being approached by several cabinet members regarding agriculture and the government economy, Roosevelt decided to address farming and government spending and attack prohibition. And so the Hundred Days began. 5/7/33 Text Roosevelt outlines the New Deal and reassures the nation FDR Inaugural Listen Text "This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper." For Roosevelt, the obvious place to start was agriculture. He insisted that a farm bill was an immediate necessity in order to "restore vitality to the demoralized farmers, without whose purchasing power industrial surpluses could never be reduced." (Biles, 36) Roosevelt sent Congress the farm relief bill on March 16, beginning his second week in office. Next, delivering on a promise made in his nomination acceptance speech, FDR sought to pay the unemployed to work on conservation projects, establishing the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which provided work for 250,000 young men, ages Almost immediately, CCC work camps began to appear and by its end in 1941, over two million had worked on its projects. The administration then proceeded to establish the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), which would, doling out the $500 million appropriated it through grants and matching grants, help states establish their own relief projects. Contrary to Hoover's "help oneself" policies that focused on the private sector, Roosevelt wanted to "provide federal relief to as many people as soon as possible." (Watkins, 124) Chicago Tribune NY Times The Nation Not only was the White House firing on all pistons, the traditionally separate cabinet agencies were working together with a new Page 1 of 2

16 The Hundred Days 1/22/10 8:06 AM (click image to view) More Hundred Days cartoons Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). separate cabinet agencies were working together with a new synergy, often co-implementing programs and working outside their fields of expertise. In the torrent of legislative activity that was the first one hundred days, the government, fighting charges of socialism, established the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to bring hydro-electric power, soil conservation and flood control to seven southern states; addressed the home mortgage foreclosures which had caused Americans to lose homes at the rate of 1000 per day, helping the real estate and construction markets; abandoned the gold standard to avoid the gold runs from foreign nations and reign in inflation; and passed the National Industrial Recovery Act in order to stimulate industry and establish labor standards. (Among other laws not mentioned are the Farm Credit Act, the Railroad Coordination Act and the Glass-Steagall Act, which established the In the "Hundred Days," Roosevelt enjoyed an often-pliant Congress and a honeymoon with the press. By its end, he had passed 15 major laws, given 15 messages to Congress and 10 speeches, held press conferences and cabinet meetings twice a week and sponsored an international conference, made all major policy decisions, foreign and domestic, and, as Arthur Schlesinger notes, "never displayed fright or panic and rarely even bad temper." (21) When the smoke had cleared and the panic eased, critics and supporters alike had an opportunity to evaluate the first stage of the New Deal. There was something to please--and annoy-- everyone. Some progressives felt that Roosevelt had not gone far enough and some conservatives feared government interference with industry and increased executive authority, but the urgency of the national crisis seemed to take precedence. While there was criticism of specific legislation, most were pleased that something was being done and Washington was in motion. Page 2 of 2

17 Banking Crisis 1/22/10 8:06 AM WHEN President-elect Franklin Roosevelt arrived in Washington for his inauguration he brought with him two rough-draft proclamations. The first requested that Congress meet for a special session later that week; the second declared a four-day bank holiday so that the administration could secure the financial system until it developed a recovery plan to submit to Congress when it convened. By the time Roosevelt was to take the oath of office, the state of the banking industry had steadily declined to a point of crisis. Two of the most important elements required for a sound economy are low unemployment rates and stable financial institutions. The stock market crash of 1929 increased the pressure on a banking system that was not prepared to handle it. Small independent banks were two-thirds of all banks in the country and accounted for 40 percent of its capital. It was these banks that were, for the most part, responsible for sustaining small and medium size businesses. But the mass production economy of the 1920s was not accompanied by a mass consumption culture and could not maintain a level of profitability. As companies collapsed, the number Bank Holiday Draft Proclamation Text of unemployed hovered around 10 million, with 25 million without a stable source of income. As the employment numbers dropped and businesses closed, individuals recognized that the money they had deposited would not be available for withdrawal if the need arose. These events generated large-scale bank runs and led to an alarming flow of gold out of the banking system, along with a wave of fear among the American people. Bank closings were sanctioned by the state and it was clear that if action was not imminent, the banking system would collapse. A letter from President Hoover to President-elect Roosevelt communicated the dire nature of the situation. It was clear that fixing the financial system must be the first priority of the Roosevelt Administration. Addressing the banking crisis must, not only put the financial institutions on sound footing, a necessary step to begin recovery, but "banish fear" and restore confidence in the national economy. By closing the banks, the administration was able to signal to the American people that it had secured their money-the bottom had been hit and there was no need to fear further losses. The next step, however, would be far more difficult. A solution needed to, first, help banks demonstrate that they were capable of covering their transactions, and second, inject more currency into the economy without devaluing the currency. While many praised the banking legislations, some critics thought it was too conservative and called for Secretary of the Treasury William Woodin and members of Roosevelt's Brain Trust teamed up with holdovers from the Hoover administration (including Treasury Secretary Ogden Mills) to develop a plan. There was a movement for the nationalization of the banks, but the administration decided to save the Page 1 of 2

18 Banking Crisis conservative and called for more radical steps like the devaluing the dollar and nationalizing banks. Nation Chicago Tribune NY Times system rather than change it, in part for the impact a restored structure would have on the national psyche. While arguing for that it was the role of the government to provide financial security, Roosevelt wanted to stress that government intervention did not "indicate a change in values." (Degler,Out of Our Past, 421) 1/22/10 8:06 AM The legislation that emerged called for the review and reopening of banks once they could prove that they were on solid ground. Rather than simply issuing scrip as the banks had hoped (the assumption was that banks did not have enough currency on hand to meet national needs) the government would issue Federal Reserve notes based on the assets of each bank. The fact that the notes were based on actual assets made it "money that looked like money." Additionally, the bill gave the Secretary of the Treasury the power to "prevent gold hoarding and to take over gold bullion and currency in exchange for paper."(schlesinger, 7) When Congress convened its special session on March 9, it was handed the emergency banking legislation for immediate action, and act immediately it did. Just after four p.m., after reading aloud the only available copy of the bill and allowing for brief debate, the House of Representatives "passed unanimously and without roll call the bill which few of its members had ever seen."(ibid) At around 7:30 p.m., the Senate passed the bill 73-7 and President Roosevelt signed it within the hour. The process, from introduction to signature, took less than eight hours. The results were realized at once. While it was too late for the banks to open on Friday, Monday's reopening would meet with success. On Sunday, March 12, in his first fireside chat, Roosevelt took the opportunity to speak directly to the American people, assuring them that all was well and their savings secure. The nation reacted with exuberance to the sense of motion and action that they saw from the new president, and all, including conservatives and bankers were pleased. William Randolph Hearst said in a letter to the president, "I guess at your next election, we will make it unanimous." (Schlesinger, 13) In the week that followed, government bonds were oversubscribed, the markets reacted in a bullish manner and there were more bank deposits than withdrawals. There was a transformation in the Capital and the White House. "The combination of power and delight was irresistible to people used to neither in the White House; it gave Americans a new confidence in themselves." (Sclesinger, 21-22) Recognizing a pliant Congress and perceiving a legislative momentum, Roosevelt saw an opportunity to harness the national energy and with urgency and zeal, the "Hundred Days" had begun. March 9,1933 Listen Text "Let us unite in banishing fear. We have provided the machinery to restore our financial system; it is up to you to support and make it work." Page 2 of 2

19 Fireside Chat 2: On Progress During the First Two Months (May 7, 1933) Franklin Delano Roosevelt Sixty days into the "First Hundred Days" Roosevelt updates the nation on the progress of the special session of Congress that he called on March 5th. He also uses the fireside chat as a platform to push forward proposed bills that Congress had yet to act upon Transcript On a Sunday night a week after my Inauguration I used the radio to tell you about the banking crisis and the measures we were taking to meet it. I think that in that way I made clear to the country various facts that might otherwise have been misunderstood and in general provided a means of understanding which did much to restore confidence. Tonight, eight weeks later, I come for the second time to give you my report -- in the same spirit and by the same means to tell you about what we have been doing and what we are planning to do. Two months ago we were facing serious problems. The country was dying by inches. It was dying because trade and commerce had declined to dangerously low levels; prices for basic commodities were such as to destroy the value of the assets of national institutions such as banks, savings banks, insurance companies, and others. These institutions, because of their great needs, were foreclosing mortgages, calling loans, refusing credit. Thus there was actually in process of destruction the property of millions of people who had borrowed money on that property in terms of dollars which had had an entirely different value from the level of March, That situation in that crisis did not call for any complicated consideration of economic panaceas or fancy plans. We were faced by a condition and not a theory. There were just two alternatives: The first was to allow the foreclosures to continue, credit to be withheld and money to go into hiding, and thus forcing liquidation and bankruptcy of banks, railroads and insurance companies and a recapitalizing of all business and all property on a lower level. This alternative meant a continuation of what is loosely called "deflation", the net result of which would have been extraordinary hardship on all property owners and, incidentally, extraordinary hardships on all persons working for wages through an increase in unemployment and a further reduction of the wage scale. It is easy to see that the result of this course would have not only economic effects of a very serious nature but social results that might bring incalculable harm. Even before I was inaugurated I came to the conclusion that such a policy was too much to ask the American people to bear. It involved not only a further loss of homes, farms, savings and wages but also a loss of spiritual values -- the loss of that sense of security for the present and the future so necessary to the peace and contentment of the individual and of his family. When you destroy these things you will find it difficult to establish confidence of any sort in the future. It was clear that mere appeals from Washington for confidence and the mere

20 lending of more money to shaky institutions could not stop this downward course. A prompt program applied as quickly as possible seemed to me not only justified but imperative to our national security. The Congress, and when I say Congress I mean the members of both political parties, fully understood this and gave me generous and intelligent support. The members of Congress realized that the methods of normal times had to be replaced in the emergency by measures which were suited to the serious and pressing requirements of the moment. There was no actual surrender of power, Congress still retained its constitutional authority and no one has the slightest desire to change the balance of these powers. The function of Congress is to decide what has to be done and to select the appropriate agency to carry out its will. This policy it has strictly adhered to. The only thing that has been happening has been to designate the President as the agency to carry out certain of the purposes of the Congress. This was constitutional and in keeping with the past American tradition. The legislation which has been passed or in the process of enactment can properly be considered as part of a well-grounded plan. First, we are giving opportunity of employment to one-quarter of a million of the unemployed, especially the young men who have dependents, to go into the forestry and flood prevention work. This is a big task because it means feeding, clothing and caring for nearly twice as many men as we have in the regular army itself. In creating this civilian conservation corps we are killing two birds with one stone. We are clearly enhancing the value of our natural resources and second, we are relieving an appreciable amount of actual distress. This great group of men have entered upon their work on a purely voluntary basis, no military training is involved and we are conserving not only our natural resources but our human resources. One of the great values to this work is the fact that it is direct and requires the intervention of very little machinery. Second, I have requested the Congress and have secured action upon a proposal to put the great properties owned by our Government at Muscle Shoals to work after long years of wasteful inaction, and with this a broad plan for the improvement of a vast area in the Tennessee Valley. It will add to the comfort and happiness of hundreds of thousands of people and the incident benefits will reach the entire nation. Next, the Congress is about to pass legislation that will greatly ease the mortgage distress among the farmers and the home owners of the nation, by providing for the easing of the burden of debt now bearing so heavily upon millions of our people. Our next step in seeking immediate relief is a grant of half a billion dollars to help the states, counties and municipalities in their duty to care for those who need direct and Immediate relief. The Congress also passed legislation authorizing the sale of beer in such states as desired. This has already resulted in considerable reemployment and, incidentally, has provided much needed tax revenue. We are planning to ask the Congress for legislation to enable the Government to undertake public works, thus stimulating directly and indirectly the employment of many others in well-considered projects. Further legislation has been taken up which goes much more fundamentally into our economic problems. The Farm Relief Bill seeks by the use of several methods, alone or together, to bring about an increased return to farmers for their major farm products, seeking at the same time to prevent in the days to come disastrous overproduction which so often in the past has kept farm commodity prices far below a

21 reasonable return. This measure provides wide powers for emergencies. The extent of its use will depend entirely upon what the future has in store. Well-considered and conservative measures will likewise be proposed which will attempt to give to the industrial workers of the country a more fair wage return, prevent cut-throat competition and unduly long hours for labor, and at the same time to encourage each industry to prevent over-production. Our Railroad Bill falls into the same class because it seeks to provide and make certain definite planning by the railroads themselves, with the assistance of the Government, to eliminate the duplication and waste that is now resulting in railroad receiverships and continuing operating deficits. I am certain that the people of this country understand and approve the broad purposes behind these new governmental policies relating to agriculture and industry and transportation. We found ourselves faced with more agricultural products than we could possibly consume ourselves and surpluses which other nations did not have the cash to buy from us except at prices ruinously low. We have found our factories able to turn out more goods than we could possibly consume, and at the same time we were faced with a falling export demand. We found ourselves with more facilities to transport goods and crops than there were goods and crops to be transported. All of this has been caused in large part by a complete lack of planning and a complete failure to understand the danger signals that have been flying ever since the close of the World War. The people of this country have been erroneously encouraged to believe that they could keep on increasing the output of farm and factory indefinitely and that some magician would find ways and means for that increased output to be consumed with reasonable profit to the producer. Today we have reason to believe that things are a little better than they were two months ago. Industry has picked up, railroads are carrying more freight, farm prices are better, but I am not going to indulge in issuing proclamations of over enthusiastic assurance. We cannot bally-ho ourselves back to prosperity. I am going to be honest at all times with the people of the country. I do not want the people of this country to take the foolish course of letting this improvement come back on another speculative wave. I do not want the people to believe that because of unjustified optimism we can resume the ruinous practice of increasing our crop output and our factory output in the hope that a kind providence will find buyers at high prices. Such a course may bring us immediate and false prosperity but it will be the kind of prosperity that will lead us into another tailspin. It is wholly wrong to call the measure that we have taken Government control of farming, control of industry, and control of transportation. It is rather a partnership between Government and farming and industry and transportation, not partnership in profits, for the profits would still go to the citizens, but rather a partnership in planning and partnership to see that the plans are carried out. Let me illustrate with an example. Take the cotton goods industry. It is probably true that ninety per cent of the cotton manufacturers would agree to eliminate starvation wages, would agree to stop long hours of employment, would agree to stop child labor, would agree to prevent an overproduction that would result in unsalable surpluses. But, what good is such an agreement if the other ten per cent of cotton manufacturers pay starvation wages, require long hours, employ children in their mills and turn out burdensome surpluses? The unfair ten per cent could produce goods so cheaply

22 that the fair ninety per cent would be compelled to meet the unfair conditions. Here is where government comes in. Government ought to have the right and will have the right, after surveying and planning for an industry to prevent, with the assistance of the overwhelming majority of that industry, unfair practice and to enforce this agreement by the authority of government. The so-called anti-trust laws were intended to prevent the creation of monopolies and to forbid unreasonable profits to those monopolies. That purpose of the anti-trust laws must be continued, but these laws were never intended to encourage the kind of unfair competition that results in long hours, starvation wages and overproduction. The same principle applies to farm products and to transportation and every other field of organized private industry. We are working toward a definite goal, which is to prevent the return of conditions which came very close to destroying what we call modern civilization. The actual accomplishment of our purpose cannot be attained in a day. Our policies are wholly within purposes for which our American Constitutional Government was established 150 years ago. I know that the people of this country will understand this and will also understand the spirit in which we are undertaking this policy. I do not deny that we may make mistakes of procedure as we carry out the policy. I have no expectation of making a hit every time I come to bat. What I seek is the highest possible batting average, not only for myself but for the team. Theodore Roosevelt once said to me: "If I can be right 75 percent of the time I shall come up to the fullest measure of my hopes." Much has been said of late about Federal finances and inflation, the gold standard, etc. Let me make the facts very simple and my policy very clear. In the first place, government credit and government currency are really one and the same thing. Behind government bonds there is only a promise to pay. Behind government currency we have, in addition to the promise to pay, a reserve of gold and a small reserve of silver. In this connection it is worth while remembering that in the past the government has agreed to redeem nearly thirty billions of its debts and its currency in gold, and private corporations in this country have agreed to redeem another sixty or seventy billions of securities and mortgages in gold. The government and private corporations were making these agreements when they knew full well that all of the gold in the United States amounted to only between three and four billions and that all of the gold in all of the world amounted to only about eleven billions. If the holders of these promises to pay started in to demand gold the first comers would get gold for a few days and they would amount to about one twenty-fifth of the holders of the securities and the currency. The other twenty-four people out of twenty-five, who did not happen to be at the top of the line, would be told politely that there was no more gold left. We have decided to treat all twenty-five in the same way in the interest of justice and the exercise of the constitutional powers of this government. We have placed every one on the same basis in order that the general good may be preserved. Nevertheless, gold, and to a partial extent silver, are perfectly good bases for currency and that is why I decided not to let any of the gold now in the country go out of it. A series of conditions arose three weeks ago which very readily might have meant, first,a drain on our gold by foreign countries, and secondly, as a result of that, a flight of American capital, in the form of gold, out of our country. It is not exaggerating the possibility to tell you that such an occurrence might

23 well have taken from us the major part of our gold reserve and resulted in such a further weakening of our government and private credit as to bring on actual panic conditions and the complete stoppage of the wheels of industry. The Administration has the definite objective of raising commodity prices to such an extent that those who have borrowed money will, on the average, be able to repay that money in the same kind of dollar which they borrowed. We do not seek to let them get such a cheap dollar that they will be able to pay bock a great deal less than they borrowed. In other words, we seek to correct a wrong and not to create another wrong in the opposite direction. That is why powers are being given to the Administration to provide, if necessary, for an enlargement of credit, in order to correct the existing wrong. These powers will be used when, as, and if it may be necessary to accomplish the purpose. Hand in hand with the domestic situation which, of course, is our first concern, is the world situation, and I want to emphasize to you that the domestic situation is inevitably and deeply tied in with the conditions in all of the other nations of the world. In other words, we can get, in all probability, a fair measure of prosperity return in the United States, but it will not be permanent unless we get a return to prosperity all over the world. In the conferences which we have held and are holding with the leaders of other nations, we are seeking four great objectives. First, a general reduction of armaments and through this the removal of the fear of invasion and armed attack, and, at the same time, a reduction in armament costs, in order to help in the balancing of government budgets and the reduction of taxation. Secondly, a cutting down of the trade barriers, in order to re-start the flow of exchange of crops and goods between nations. Third, the setting up of a stabilization of currencies, in order that trade can make contracts ahead. Fourth, the reestablishment of friendly relations and greater confidence between all nations. Our foreign visitors these past three weeks have responded to these purposes in a very helpful way. All of the Nations have suffered alike in this great depression. They have all reached the conclusion that each can best be helped by the common action of all. It is in this spirit that our visitors have met with us and discussed our common problems. The international conference that lies before us must succeed. The future of the world demands it and we have each of us pledged ourselves to the best Joint efforts to this end. To you, the people of this country, all of us, the Members of the Congress and the members of this Administration owe a profound debt of gratitude. Throughout the depression you have been patient. You have granted us wide powers, you have encouraged us with a wide-spread approval of our purposes. Every ounce of strength and every resource at our command we have devoted to the end of justifying your confidence. We are encouraged to believe that a wise and sensible beginning has been made. In the present spirit of mutual confidence and mutual encouragement we go forward.

24 Fireside Chat 3: On the National Recovery Administration (July 24, 1933) Franklin Delano Roosevelt Roosevelt defends the New Deal at the end of the First Hundred Days as a system of orderly, successful programs. He focuses specifically on building support for the National Recovery Administration. Through the NRA, the President hoped to stabilize the economy through better employment codes. No audio recording exists for this address. Transcript After the adjournment of the historical special session of the Congress five weeks ago I purposely refrained from addressing you for two very good reasons. First, I think that we all wanted the opportunity of a little quiet thought to examine and assimilate in a mental picture the crowding events of the hundred days which had been devoted to the starting of the wheels of the New Deal. Secondly, I wanted a few weeks in which to set up the new administrative organization and to see the first fruits of our careful planning. I think it will interest you if I set forth the fundamentals of this planning for national recovery; and this I am very certain will make it abundantly clear to you that all of the proposals and all of the legislation since the fourth day of March have not been just a collection of haphazard schemes but rather the orderly component parts of a connected and logical whole. Long before Inauguration Day I became convinced that individual effort and local effort and even disjointed Federal effort had failed and of necessity would fail and, therefore, that a rounded leadership by the Federal Government had become a necessity both of theory and of fact. Such leadership, however, had its beginning in preserving and strengthening the credit of the United States Government, because without that no leadership was a possibility. For years the Government had not lived within its income. The immediate task was to bring our regular expenses within our revenues. That has been done. It may seem inconsistent for a government to cut down its regular expenses and at the same time to borrow and to spend billions for an emergency. But it is not inconsistent because a large portion of the emergency money has been paid out in the form of sound loans which will be repaid to the Treasury over a period of years; and to cover the rest of the emergency money we have imposed taxes to pay the interest and the installments on that part of the debt. So you will see that we have kept our credit good. We have built a granite foundation in a period of confusion. That foundation of the Federal credit stands there broad and sure. It is the base of the whole recovery plan. Then came the part of the problem that concerned the credit of the individual citizens themselves. You and I know of the banking crisis and of the great danger to the savings of our people. On March sixth every national bank was closed. One month later 90 per cent of the deposits in the national banks had been made available to the depositors. Today only about 5 per cent of the deposits in national banks are still tied up. The condition relating to state banks, while not quite so good on a percentage basis, is shoving a steady reduction in the total of frozen deposits -- a result much better than we had expected three months ago. The problem of the credit of the individual was made more difficult

25 because of another fact. The dollar was a different dollar from the one with which the average debt had been incurred. For this reason large numbers of people were actually losing possession of and title to their farms and homes. All of you know the financial steps which have been taken to correct this inequality. In addition the Home Loan Act, the Farm Loan Act and the Bankruptcy Act were passed. It was a vital necessity to restore purchasing power by reducing the debt and interest charges upon our people, but while we were helping people to save their credit it was at the same time absolutely essential to do something about the physical needs of hundreds of thousands who were in dire straits at that very moment. Municipal and State aid were being stretched to the limit. We appropriated half a billion dollars to supplement their efforts and in addition, as you know, we have put 300,000 young men into practical and useful work in our forests and to prevent flood and soil erosion. The wages they earn are going in greater part to the support of the nearly one million people who constitute their families. In this same classification we can properly place the great public works program running to a total of over Three Billion Dollars -- to be used for highways and ships and flood prevention and inland navigation and thousands of self-sustaining state and municipal improvements. Two points should be made clear in the allotting and administration of these projects -- first, we are using the utmost care to choose labor creating quick-acting, useful projects, avoiding the smell of the pork barrel; and secondly, we are hoping that at least half of the money will come back to the government from projects which will pay for themselves over a period of years. Thus far I have spoken primarily of the foundation stones -- the measures that were necessary to re-establish credit and to head people in the opposite direction by preventing distress and providing as much work as possible through governmental agencies. Now I come to the links which will build us a more lasting prosperity. I have said that we cannot attain that in a nation half boom and half broke. If all of our people have work and fair wages and fair profits, they can buy the products of their neighbors and business is good. But if you take away the wages and the profits of half of them, business is only half as good. It doesn't help much if the fortunate half is very prosperous -- the best way is for everybody to be reasonably prosperous. For many years the two great barriers to a normal prosperity have been low farm prices and the creeping paralysis of unemployment. These factors have cut the purchasing power of the country in half. I promised action. Congress did its part when it passed the farm and the industrial recovery acts. Today we are putting these two acts to work and they will work if people understand their plain objectives. First, the Farm Act: It is based on the fact that the purchasing power of nearly half our population depends on adequate prices for farm products. We have been producing more of some crops than we consume or can sell in a depressed world market. The cure is not to produce so much. Without our help the farmers cannot get together and cut production, and the Farm Bill gives them a method of bringing their production down to a reasonable level and of obtaining reasonable prices for their crops. I have clearly stated that this method is in a sense experimental, but so far as we have gone we have reason to believe that it will produce good results. It is obvious that if we can greatly increase the purchasing power of the tens of millions of our people who make a living from farming and the distribution of farm crops, we will greatly

26 increase the consumption of those goods which are turned out by industry. That brings me to the final step -- bringing back industry along sound lines. Last Autumn, on several occasions, I expressed my faith that we can make possible by democratic self-discipline in industry general increases in wages and shortening of hours sufficient to enable industry to pay its own workers enough to let those workers buy and use the things that their labor produces. This can be done only if we permit and encourage cooperative action in industry because it is obvious that without united action a few selfish men in each competitive group will pay starvation wages and insist on long hours of work. Others in that group must either follow suit or close up shop. We have seen the result of action of that kind in the continuing descent into the economic Hell of the past four years. There is a clear way to reverse that process: If all employers in each competitive group agree to pay their workers the same wages -- reasonable wages -- and require the same hours -- reasonable hours -- then higher wages and shorter hours will hurt no employer. Moreover, such action is better for the employer than unemployment and low wages, because it makes more buyers for his product. That is the simple idea which is the very heart of the Industrial Recovery Act. On the basis of this simple principle of everybody doing things together, we are starting out on this nationwide attack on unemployment. It will succeed if our people understand it -- in the big industries, in the little shops, in the great cities and in the small villages. There is nothing complicated about it and there is nothing particularly new in the principle. It goes back to the basic idea of society and of the nation itself that people acting in a group can accomplish things which no individual acting alone could even hope to bring about. Here is an example. In the Cotton Textile Code and in other agreements already signed, child labor has been abolished. That makes me personally happier than any other one thing with which I have been connected since I came to Washington. In the textile industry -- an industry which came to me spontaneously and with a splendid cooperation as soon as the recovery act was signed, -- child labor was an old evil. But no employer acting alone was able to wipe it out. If one employer tried it, or if one state tried it, the costs of operation rose so high that it was impossible to compete with the employers or states which had failed to act. The moment the Recovery Act was passed, this monstrous thing which neither opinion nor law could reach through years of effort went out in a flash. As a British editorial put it, we did more under a Code in one day than they in England had been able to do under the common law in eighty-five years of effort. I use this incident, my friends, not to boast of what has already been done but to point the way to you for even greater cooperative efforts this Summer and Autumn. We are not going through another Winter like the last. I doubt if ever any people so bravely and cheerfully endured a season half so bitter. We cannot ask America to continue to face such needless hardships. It is time for courageous action, and the Recovery Bill gives us the means to conquer unemployment with exactly the same weapon that we have used to strike down Child Labor. The proposition is simply this: If all employers will act together to shorten hours and raise wages we can put people back to work. No employer will suffer, because the relative level of competitive cost will advance by the same amount for all. But if any considerable group should lag or shirk, this great opportunity will pass us by and we will go into another desperate Winter. This

27 must not happen. We have sent out to all employers an agreement which is the result of weeks of consultation. This agreement checks against the voluntary codes of nearly all the large industries which have already been submitted. This blanket agreement carries the unanimous approval of the three boards which I have appointed to advise in this, boards representing the great leaders in labor, in industry and in social service. The agreement has already brought a flood of approval from every State, and from so wide a cross-section of the common calling of industry that I know it is fair for all. It is a plan --deliberate, reasonable and just -- intended to put into effect at once the most important of the broad principles which are being established, industry by industry, through codes. Naturally, it takes a good deal of organizing and a great many hearings and many months, to get these codes perfected and signed, and we cannot wait for all of them to go through. The blanket agreements, however, which I am sending to every employer will start the wheels turning now, and not six months from now. There are, of course, men, a few of them who might thwart this great common purpose by seeking selfish advantage. There are adequate penalties in the law, but I am now asking the cooperation that comes from opinion and from conscience. These are the only instruments we shall use in this great summer offensive against unemployment. But we shall use them to the limit to protect the willing from the laggard and to make the plan succeed. In war, in the gloom of night attack, soldiers wear a bright badge on their shoulders to be sure that comrades do not fire on comrades. On that principle, those who cooperate in this program must know each other at a glance. That is why we have provided a badge of honor for this purpose, a simple design with a legend. "We do our part," and I ask that all those who join with me shall display that badge prominently. It is essential to our purpose. Already all the great, basic industries have come forward willingly with proposed codes, and in these codes they accept the principles leading to mass reemployment. But, important as is this heartening demonstration, the richest field for results is among the small employers, those whose contribution will give new work for from one to ten people. These smaller employers are indeed a vital part of the backbone of the country, and the success of our plans lies largely in their hands. Already the telegrams and letters are pouring into the White House --messages from employers who ask that their names be placed on this special Roll of Honor. They represent great corporations and companies, and partnerships and individuals. I ask that even before the dates set in the agreements which we have sent out, the employers of the country who have not already done so -- the big fellows and the little fellows -- shall at once write or telegraph to me personally at the White House, expressing their intention of going through with the plan. And it is my purpose to keep posted in the post office of every town, a Roll of Honor of all those who join with me. I want to take this occasion to say to the twenty-four governors who are now in conference in San Francisco, that nothing thus far has helped in strengthening this great movement more than their resolutions adopted at the very outset of their meeting, giving this plan their instant and unanimous approval, and pledging to support it in their states. To the men and women whose lives have been darkened by the fact or the fear of unemployment, I am justified in saying a word of encouragement because the codes and the agreements already approved, or about to be passed upon, prove that the plan does

28 raise wages, and that it does put people back to work. You can look on every employer who adopts the plan as one who is doing his part, and those employers deserve well of everyone who works for a living. It will be clear to you, as it is to me, that while the shirking employer may undersell his competitor, the saving he thus makes is made at the expense of his country's welfare. While we are making this great common effort there should be no discord and dispute. This is no time to cavil or to question the standard set by this universal agreement. It is time for patience and understanding and cooperation. The workers of this country have rights under this law which cannot be taken from them, and nobody will be permitted to whittle them away, but, on the other hand, no aggression is now necessary to attain those rights. The whole country will be united to get them for you. The principle that applies to the employers applies to the workers as well, and I ask you workers to cooperate in the same spirit. When Andrew Jackson, "Old Hickory," died, someone asked, "Will he go to Heaven?" and the answer was, "He will if he wants to." If I am asked whether the American people will pull themselves out of this depression, I answer, " They will if they want to." The essence of the plan is a universal limitation of hours of work per week for any individual by common consent, and a universal payment of wages above a minimum, also by common consent. I cannot guarantee the success of this nationwide plan, but the people of this country can guarantee its success. I have no faith in " cure-alls" but I believe that we can greatly influence economic forces. I have no sympathy with the professional economists who insist that things must run their course and that human agencies can have no influence on economic ills. One reason is that I happen to know that professional economists have changed their definition of economic laws every five or ten years for a very long time, but I do have faith, and retain faith, in the strength of common purpose, and in the strength of unified action taken by the American people. That is why I am describing to you the simple purposes and the solid foundations upon which our program of recovery is built. That is why I am asking the employers of the Nation to sign this common covenant with me -- to sign it in the name of patriotism and humanity. That is why I am asking the workers to go along with us in a spirit of understanding and of helpfulness.

29 Some Photos of Roosevelt and the First 100 Days They really do not like each other and the inauguration was tense Soup Kitchen Line Headline of Roosevelt announcing the closing of banks Rare shot of FDR standing where you can see his leg braces

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