Brief introduction to the speaker:
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) Roosevelt became president in 1933.
The United States was then in the grip of a world-wide business depression.
Roosevelt used his powers to create jobs and to help those who needed helps.
Many of Roosevelt's ideas of government are still part of the law of the
land.
******************
President Hoover Mister Chief Justice, my friends:
This is a day of national consecration, and I am certain that on this day
my fellow Americans expect that on my induction in the Presidency I will
address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of
our people impeIs. This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the
whole truth, frankly and boldly Nor need we shrink from honestly facing
the conditions facing our country today This great nation will endure as
it has endured, will revive and will prosper So first of all, let me express
my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless,
unreasoning, un justified 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 And 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 curtaiIment 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 and thousands of families are gone.
More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of
existence, and an equal and great number toil with little return. Only
a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.
And 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 so much to be thankful for Nature surrounds us
with 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 the rulers of the exchange of mankind's
goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence,
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First inaugural Address
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