The Project Gutenberg eBook of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s First Inaugural Address

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Inaugural Address

of

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

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March 4th, 1933

President Hoover, Mr. Chief Justice, my friends:

This is a day of national consecration, and I am certain that on this day myfellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will addressthem with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our peopleimpels. This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth,frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in ourcountry today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive andwill prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the onlything we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terrorwhich paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every darkhour of our national life a leadership of frankness and of vigor has met withthat understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential tovictory. And I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadershipin these critical days.

In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. Theyconcern, thank God, only material things. Values have shrunk to fantasticlevels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of allkinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange arefrozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterpriselie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; and the savingsof many years in thousands of families are gone.

More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem ofexistence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolishoptimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.

And yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by noplague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conqueredbecause they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankfulfor. 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 verysight of the supply. Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange ofmankind’s goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their ownincompetence, have admitted their failure and have abdicated. Practices of theunscrupulous 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 anoutworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only thelending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce ourpeople to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations,pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They only know the rules of ageneration of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no visionthe people perish.

Yes, the money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of ourcivilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measureof that restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values morenoble than mere monetary profit.

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy ofachievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy, the moral stimulationof work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits.These dark days, my friends, will be worth all they cost us if they teach usthat our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister toourselves—to our fellow men.

Recognition of that falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goeshand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office andhigh political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride ofplace and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking andin business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callousand selfish wrongdoing. Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrivesonly on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithfulprotection, and on unselfish performance; without them it cannot live.

Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation isasking for action, and action now.

Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvableproblem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in partby direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we wouldtreat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this employment,accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use ofour great natural resources.

Hand in hand with that we must frankly recognize the overbalance of populationin our industrial centers and, by engaging on a national scale in aredistribution, endeavor to provide a better use of the land for those bestfitted for the land. Yes, the task can be helped by definite efforts to raisethe values of agricultural products and with this the power to purchase theoutput of our cities. It can be helped by preventing realistically the tragedyof the growing loss through foreclosure of our small homes and our farms. Itcan be helped by insistence that the Federal, the State, and the localgovernments act forthwith on the demand that their cost be drastically reduced.It can be helped by the unifying of relief activities which today are oftenscattered, uneconomical, unequal. It can be helped by national planning for andsupervision of all forms of transportation and of communications and otherutilities that have a definitely public character. There are many ways in whichit can be helped, but it can never be helped by merely talking about it. Wemust act; we must act quickly.

And finally, in our progress towards a resumption of work we require twosafeguards against a return of the evils of the old order; there must be astrict supervision of all banking and credits and investments; there must be anend to speculation with other people’s money, and there must be provision foran adequate but sound currency.

These, my friends, are the lines of attack. I shall presently urge upon a newCongress, in special session, detailed measures for their fulfillment, and Ishall seek the immediate assistance of the forty-eight States.

Through this program of action we address ourselves to putting our own nationalhouse in order and making income balance outgo. Our international traderelations, though vastly important, are in point of time and necessitysecondary to the establishment of a sound national economy. I favor as apractical policy the putting of first things first. I shall spare no effort torestore world trade by international economic readjustment, but the emergencyat home cannot wait on that accomplishment.

The basic thought that guides these specific means of national recovery is notnarrowly nationalistic. It is the insistence, as a first consideration, uponthe interdependence of the various elements in and parts of the United Statesof America—a recognition of the old and permanently important manifestation ofthe American spirit of the pioneer. It is the way to recovery. It is theimmediate way. It is the strongest assurance that recovery will endure.

In the field of world policy I would dedicate this Nation to the policy of thegood neighbor—the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he doesso, respects the rights of others—the neighbor who respects his obligations andrespects 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 neverrealized before our interdependence on each other; that we cannot merely takebut we must give as well; that if we are to go forward, we must move as atrained and loyal army willing to sacrifice for the good of a commondiscipline, because without such discipline no progress can be made, noleadership becomes effective. We are, I know, ready and willing to submit ourlives and our property to such discipline, because it makes possible aleadership which aims at the larger good. This I propose to offer, pledgingthat the larger purposes will bind upon us—bind upon us all—as a sacredobligation with a unity of duty hitherto evoked only in times of armed strife.

With this pledge taken, I assume unhesitatingly the leadership of this greatarmy of our people dedicated to a disciplined attack upon our common problems.

Action in this image—action to this end—is feasible under the form ofgovernment which we have inherited from our ancestors. Our Constitution is sosimple, so practical that it is possible always to meet extraordinary needs bychanges in emphasis and arrangement without loss of essential form. That is whyour constitutional system has proved itself the most superbly enduringpolitical mechanism the modern world has ever seen. It has met every stress ofvast expansion of territory, of foreign wars, of bitter internal strife, ofworld relations.

And it is to be hoped that the normal balance of executive and legislativeauthority may be wholly equal—wholly adequate—to meet the unprecedented taskbefore us. But it may be that an unprecedented demand and need for undelayedaction may call for temporary departure from that normal balance of publicprocedure.

I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that astricken 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 andwisdom, I shall seek, within my constitutional authority, to bring to speedyadoption.

But in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these two courses,in the event that the national emergency is still critical, I shall not evadethe clear course of duty that will then confront me. I shall ask the Congressfor the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis—broad Executive power towage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given tome if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.

For the trust reposed in me I will return the courage and the devotion thatbefit the time. I can do no less.

We face the arduous days that lie before us in the warm courage of nationalunity; with the clear consciousness of seeking old and precious moral values;with the clean satisfaction that comes from the stern performance of duty byold and young alike. We aim at the assurance of a rounded—a permanent—nationallife.

We do not distrust the future of essential democracy. The people of the UnitedStates have not failed. In their need they have registered a mandate that theywant direct, vigorous action. They have asked for discipline and directionunder leadership. They have made me the present instrument of their wishes. Inthe spirit of the gift I take it.

In this dedication of a Nation we humbly ask the blessing of God. May Heprotect each and every one of us. May He guide me in the days to come.

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