FDR: "...That The Only Thing We Have To Fear Is Fear Itself..."

Peter Dreier wrote:

Friends and Colleagues:

I urge you to read, watch and listen to President Franklin Roosevelt's first Inaugural Address, delivered March 4, 1933. . (See some excerpts, pasted below). The speech is 75 years old, but it is incredibly relevant to today's situation, including the Wall Street meltdown and the resulting economic crisis. The most famous part of the speech is FDR's statement of reassurance and hope -- "that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." That statement laid the foundation for outlining his agenda for change.

At the time, more than 13 million Americans were unemployed. Wages had fallen by 60 percent. Industry was operating at half its pre-Depression level. With businesses and banks failing, rising unemployment, growing foreclosures of farms and homes, and deepening fears and misery, many Americans were losing faith in democracy and in the capacity of government to respond to the crisis.

In his speech, Roosevelt dared to speak boldly about the role of government in fixing the broken economy. He explained clearly and concisely who and what was at fault -- those who put profit and greed before the national interest. He criticized the business community -- especially the banking industry -- for breeding a culture of greed that led to the Depression. FDR not only blamed the "unscrupulous money changers" for their irresponsible business practices, but he also said that they "stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men." He was urging Americans to organize and to put pressure on moderates and conservatives in Congress to adopt his plan, despite the resistance of many business leaders and right-wingers, some of whom labeled FDR's plan "socialism."

In fact, FDR's plan -- to restore the banking system, put people to work, and extend people a lifeline -- was designed to save capitalism and to reform and humanize it.

During his 1932 campaign for the White House against the incumbent, Republican Herbert Hoover, FDR offered few specifics about what he intended to do to fix the economic chaos engulfing America. He won because he wasn't Hoover. But once he took office -- indeed, in his *first hour* in office -- he became bolder, helped along by the escalating protests in the streets demanding action. The parallels to today are too obvious to warrant details.

The speech is inspiring. It shows was a *transformational leader* can do to -- to bring Americans together around a positive vision, even in the worst of times. And to use his bully pulpit to mobilize people for action. Here are some excerpts from FDR's speech (the *bold highlights* are mine), but it is worth reading (and watching) in its entirety.

Excerpts from FDR's First Inaugural Address:

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….

In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values have shrunk 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; and 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...

Primarily, this is because *the 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 only know the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish....

Yes, 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 that restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary 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 them it cannot live.

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 great -- greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our great natural resources…

And finally, in our progress towards 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. There must be an end to speculation with other people's money. And there must be provision for an adequate but sound currency.

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 can not 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 can be made, no leadership becomes effective.

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Peter Dreier

E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics

Director, Urban & Environmental Policy Program

Occidental College

1600 Campus Road

Los Angeles, CA 90041

Phone: (323) 259-2913

Email: dreier@oxy.edu

Webpage: http://employees.oxy.edu/dreier

"The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crises maintain their neutrality" -- Dante