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Presidents 1,885 words
The former Governor of New York rode to the Capitol
with President Hoover. Pressures of the economy faced the
President-elect as he took his oath of office from Chief Justice
Charles Evans Hughes on the East Portico of the Capitol. He addressed
the nation by radio and announced his plans for a New Deal.
Throughout that day the President met with his Cabinet designees at
the White House.
"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 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 considerations, 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 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."
March 4, 1933