All of you, I am sure, have heard many cries about Government interference with business and about
“creeping socialism.” I should like to remind the gentlemen who make these complaints that if events
had been allowed to continue as they were going prior to March 4, 1933, most of them would have no
businesses left for the Government or for anyone else to interfere with- and almost surely we would
have socialism in this country, real socialism. -Harry S. Truman (in 1950)
(FDR assumed the Presidency for the first time 80 years ago today.)
Published Wednesday, January 30, 2013 @ 6:18 AM EST
Jan302013
Quotes of the day: FDR Franklin
Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 - April 12, 1945), also known by
his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States
(1933–1945) and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th
century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic
depression and total war. A dominant leader of the Democratic Party and
the only American president elected to more than two terms, he built a
New Deal Coalition that realigned American politics after 1932, as his
domestic policies defined American liberalism for the middle third of
the 20th century.
A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has
never learned how to walk forward.
A radical is a man with both feet planted firmly in the air.
Be sincere, be brief, be seated.
Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of
charity than the consistent omissions of a Government frozen in the ice
of its own indifference.
Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy
of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.
Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a
free people. A nation does not have to be cruel in order to be tough.
I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.
I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird and not
enough the bad luck of the early worm.
If you treat people right they will treat you right- ninety percent of
the time.
In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans
more loudly than an empty stomach.
It is common sense to take a method and try it; if it fails, admit it
frankly and try another. But above all, try something.
Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.
No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages
to its workers has any right to continue in this country.
People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which
dictatorships are made.
Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.
The fate of America cannot depend on any one man. The greatness of
America is grounded in principles and not on any single personality.
The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong
enough to protect the interests of the people and a people strong enough
and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the
government.
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial
element in the larger centers has owned the Government ever since the
days of Andrew Jackson...
The saving grace of America lies in the fact that the overwhelming
majority of Americans are possessed of two great qualities: a sense of
humor and a sense of proportion.
The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of
those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have
too little.
The truth is found when men are free to pursue it.
The ultimate failures of dictatorship cost humanity far more than any
temporary failures of democracy.
There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is
given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of
Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.
They (who) seek to establish systems of government based on the
regimentation of all human beings by a handful of individual rulers...
call this a new order. It is not new and it is not order.
We have, however, a clear mandate from the people, that Americans must
forswear that conception of the acquisition of wealth which, through
excessive profits, creates undue private power over private affairs and,
to our misfortune, over public affairs as well.
We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as
Government by organized mob.
We must especially beware of that small group of selfish men who would
clip the wings of the American Eagle in order to feather their own nests.
We must scrupulously guard the civil rights and civil liberties of all
our citizens, whatever their background. We must remember that any
oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our
civilization.
When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you do not wait until he
has struck to crush him.
Published Saturday, October 13, 2012 @ 8:44 AM EDT
Oct132012
Ladies and gentlemen:
From force of long habit I almost said, "My fellow delegates."
Tonight you and I join forces for the 1936 campaign.
We enter it with confidence. Never was there greater need for fidelity
to the underlying conception of Americanism than there is today. And
once again it is given to our party to carry the message of that
Americanism to the people.
The task on our part is twofold: First, as simple patriotism requires,
to separate the false from the real issues; and, secondly, with facts
and without rancor, to clarify the real problems for the American public.
There will be- there are- many false issues. In that respect, this will
be no different from other campaigns. Partisans, not willing to face
realities, will drag out red herrings as they have always done- to
divert attention from the trail of their own weaknesses.
This practice is as old as our democracy. Avoiding the facts- fearful of
the truth- a malicious opposition charged that George Washington planned
to make himself king under a British form of government; that Thomas
Jefferson planned to set up a guillotine under a French Revolutionary
form of government; that Andrew Jackson soaked the rich of the Eastern
seaboard and planned to surrender American democracy to the dictatorship
of a frontier mob. They called Abraham Lincoln a Roman Emperor; Theodore
Roosevelt a Destroyer; Woodrow Wilson a self- constituted Messiah.
In this campaign another herring turns up. In former years it has been
British and French- and a variety of other things. This year it is
Russian. Desperate in mood, angry at failure, cunning in purpose,
individuals and groups are seeking to make Communism an issue in an
election where Communism is not a controversy between the two major
parties.
Here and now, once and for all, let us bury that red herring, and
destroy that false issue. You are familiar with my background; you know
my heritage; and you are familiar, especially in the State of New York,
with my public service extending back over a quarter of a century. For
nearly four years I have been President of the United States. A long
record has been written. In that record, both in this State and in the
national capital, you will find a simple, clear and consistent adherence
not only to the letter, but to the spirit of the American form of
government.
To that record, my future and the future of my Administration will
conform. I have not sought, I do not seek, I repudiate the support of
any advocate of Communism or of any other alien "ism" which would by
fair means or foul change our American democracy.
That is my position. It always has been my position. It always will be
my position.
There is no difference between the major parties as to what they think
about Communism. But there is a very great difference between the two
parties in what they do about Communism.
I must tell you why. Communism is a manifestation of the social unrest
which always comes with widespread economic maladjustment. We in the
Democratic party have not been content merely to denounce this menace.
We have been realistic enough to face it. We have been intelligent
enough to do something about it. And the world has seen the results of
what we have done.
In the spring of 1933 we faced a crisis which was the ugly fruit of
twelve years of neglect of the causes of economic and social unrest. It
was a crisis made to order for all those who would overthrow our form of
government. Do I need to recall to you the fear of those days- the
reports of those who piled supplies in their basements, who laid plans
to get their fortunes across the border, who got themselves hideaways in
the country against the impending upheaval? Do I need to recall the
law-abiding heads of peaceful families, who began to wonder, as they saw
their children starve, how they would get the bread they saw in the
bakery window? Do I need to recall the homeless boys who were traveling
in bands through the countryside seeking work, seeking food - desperate
because they could find neither? Do I need to recall the farmers who
banded together with pitchforks to keep the sheriff from selling the
farm home under foreclosure? Do I need to recall the powerful leaders of
industry and banking who came to me in Washington in those early days of
1933 pleading to be saved?
Most people in the United States remember today the fact that starvation
was averted, that homes and farms were saved, that banks were reopened,
that crop prices rose, that industry revived, and that the dangerous
forces subversive of our form of government were turned aside.
A few people- a few only- unwilling to remember, seem to have forgotten
those days.
In the summer of 1933, a nice old gentleman wearing a silk hat fell off
the end of a pier. He was unable to swim. A friend ran down the pier,
dived overboard and pulled him out; but the silk hat floated off with
the tide. After the old gentleman had been revived, he was effusive in
his thanks. He praised his friend for saving his life. Today, three
years later, the old gentleman is berating his friend because the silk
hat was lost.
Why did that crisis of 1929 to 1933 pass without disaster?
The answer is found in the record of what we did. Early in the campaign
of 1932 I said: "To meet by reaction that danger of radicalism is to
invite disaster. Reaction is no barrier to the radical, it is a
challenge, a provocation. The way to meet that danger is to offer a
workable program of reconstruction, and the party to offer it is the
party with clean hands." We met the emergency with emergency action. But
far more important than that, we went to the roots of the problem, and
attacked the cause of the crisis. We were against revolution. Therefore,
we waged war against those conditions which make revolutions- against
the inequalities and resentments which breed them. In America in 1933
the people did not attempt to remedy wrongs by overthrowing their
institutions. Americans were made to realize that wrongs could and would
be set right within their institutions. We proved that democracy can
work.
I have said to you that there is a very great difference between the two
parties in what they do about Communism. Conditions congenial to
Communism were being bred and fostered throughout this Nation up to the
very day of March 4, 1933. Hunger was breeding it, loss of homes and
farms was breeding it, closing banks were breeding it, a ruinous price
level was breeding it. Discontent and fear were spreading through the
land. The previous national Administration, bewildered, did nothing.
In their speeches they deplored it, but by their actions they encouraged
it. The injustices, the inequalities, the downright suffering out of
which revolutions come- what did they do about these things? Lacking
courage, they evaded. Being selfish, they neglected. Being
short-sighted, they ignored. When the crisis came- as these wrongs made
it sure to come- America was unprepared.
Our lack of preparation for it was best proved by the cringing and the
fear of the very people whose indifference helped to make the crisis.
They came to us pleading that we should do, overnight, what they should
have been doing through the years.
And the simple causes of our unpreparedness were two: First, a weak
leadership, and, secondly, an inability to see causes, to understand the
reasons for social unrest- the tragic plight of 90 percent of the men,
women and children who made up the population of the United States.
It has been well said that "The most dreadful failure of which any form
of government can be guilty is simply to lose touch with reality,
because out of this failure all imaginable forms of evil grow. Every
empire that has crashed has come down primarily because its rulers did
not know what was going on in the world and were incapable of learning."
It is for that reason that our American form of government will continue
to be safest in. Democratic hands. The real, actual, undercover
Republican leadership is the same as it was four years ago. That
leadership will never comprehend the need for a program of social
justice and of regard for the well- being of the masses of our people.
I have been comparing leadership in Washington. This contrast between
Democratic and Republican leadership holds true throughout the length
and breadth of the State of New York. As far back as the year 1910, the
old Black Horse Cavalry in Albany, which we old people will remember,
was failing to meet changing social conditions by appropriate social
legislation. Here was a State noted for its industry and noted for its
agriculture- a State with the greatest mixture of population- where the
poorest and the richest lived, literally, within a stone's throw of each
other- in short a situation made to order for potential unrest. And yet
in this situation the best that the Republican leaders of those days
could say was: "Let them eat cake." What would have happened if that
reactionary domination had continued through all these hard years?
Starting in 1911, a Democratic leadership came into power, and with it a
new philosophy of government. I had the good fortune to come into public
office at that time. I found other young men in the Legislature- men who
held the same philosophy; one of them was Bob Wagner; another was Al
Smith. We were all joined in a common cause. We did not look on
government as something apart from the people. We thought of it as
something to be used by the people for their own good.
New factory legislation setting up decent standards of safety and
sanitation; limitation of the working hours of women in industry; a
workmen's compensation law; a one-day-rest-in-seven law; a full
train-crew law; a direct-primary law- these laws and many more were
passed which were then called radical and alien to our form of
government. Would you or any other Americans call them radical or alien
today?
In later years, first under Governor Smith, then during my Governorship,
this program of practical intelligence was carried forward over the
typical and unswerving opposition of Republican leaders throughout our
State.
And today the great tradition of a liberal, progressive Democratic Party
has been carried still further by your present Governor, Herbert H.
Lehman. He has begun a program of insurance to remove 'the spectre of
unemployment from the working people of the State. He has broadened our
labor legislation. He has extended the supervision of public utility
companies. He has proved himself an untiring seeker for the public good;
a doer of social justice; a wise, conscientious, clear-headed and
businesslike administrator of the executive branch of our Government.
And be it noted that his opponents are led and backed by the same forces
and, in many cases, by the same individuals who, for a quarter of a
century, have tried to hamstring progress within our State. The
overwhelming majority of our citizens, up-state and down-state,
regardless of party, propose to return him and his Administration to
Albany for another two years.
His task in Albany, like my task in Washington, has been to maintain
contact between statecraft and reality. In New York and in Washington,
Government which has rendered more than lip service to our
Constitutional Democracy has done a work for the protection and
preservation of our institutions that could not have been accomplished
by repression and force.
Let me warn you and let me warn the Nation against the smooth evasion
which says, "Of course we believe all these things; we believe in social
security; we believe in work for the unemployed; we believe in saving
homes. Cross our hearts and hope to die, we believe in all these things;
but we do not like the way the present Administration is doing them.
Just turn them over to us. We will do all of them- we will do more of
them we will do them better; and, most important of all, the doing of
them will not cost anybody anything."
But, my friends, these evaders are banking too heavily on the shortness
of our memories. No one will forget that they had their golden
opportunity- twelve long years of it.
Remember, too, that the first essential of doing a job well is to want
to see the job done. Make no mistake about this: the Republican
leadership today is not against the way we have done the job. The
Republican leadership is against the job's being done.
Look to the source of the promises of the past. Governor Lehman knows
and I know how little legislation in the interests of the average
citizen would be on the statute books of the State of New York, and of
the Federal Government, if we had waited for Republican leaders to pass
it.
The same lack of purpose of fulfillment lies behind the promises of
today. You cannot be an Old Guard Republican in the East, and a New Deal
Republican in the West. You cannot promise to repeal taxes before one
audience and promise to spend more of the taxpayers' money before
another audience. You cannot promise tax relief for those who can afford
to pay, and, at the same time, promise more of the taxpayers' money for
those who are in need. You simply cannot make good on both promises at
the same time.
Who is there in America who believes that we can run the risk of turning
back our Government to the old leadership which brought it to the brink
of 1933? Out of the strains and stresses of these years we have come to
see that the true conservative is the man who has a real concern for
injustices and takes thought against the day of reckoning. The true
conservative seeks to protect the system of private property and free
enterprise by correcting such injustices and inequalities as arise from
it. The most serious threat to our institutions comes from those who
refuse to face the need for change. Liberalism becomes the protection
for the far-sighted conservative.
Never has a Nation made greater strides in the safeguarding of democracy
than we have made during the past three years. Wise and prudent men-
intelligent conservatives- have long known that in a changing world
worthy institutions can be conserved only by adjusting them to the
changing time. In the words of the great essayist, "The voice of great
events is proclaiming to us. Reform if you would preserve." I am that
kind of conservative because I am that kind of liberal.
Citation: Franklin D. Roosevelt: "Address at the Democratic State
Convention, Syracuse, N.Y.," September 29, 1936. Online by Gerhard
Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=15142.
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