Comentario de texto Franklin Delano Roosevelt. First Inaugural Address.

1933

MARIA DEL CARMEN CASCON RODRIGUEZ Centro Asociado de Bruselas 15 de Marzo del 2013

Comentario de texto Franklin Delano Roosevelt. First Inaugural Address.1933 The document First Inaugural Address was the investiture speech that Franklin Delano Roosevelt (also known by his initials FDR) delivered after being elected President of the United States of America (USA) for the first time in November 1932. This is a political and historical narrative document, since it is a speech which deals with the political, social and economic situation in those days. The first inaugural address by FDR was delivered on Saturday, March 4, 1933 in the Capitol at Washington, D. C., capital of the USA, right after taking the oath of office as the 32nd president of the country. The speech was written by FDR himself, with the help of Raymond Moley, a political science professor from Columbia University, although some think that he drafted most of the text. However, he is not credited for the famous sentence [the only thing we have to fear is fear itself] and for the last paragraph, which is known to have been written by FDR in the morning of February 28, at his home in Hyde Park, New York. Raymond Moley was the head of a group of Columbia professors called the Brain Trust that advised FDR during his first presidential campaign as democrat candidate, and after his election, moved to Washington to help him to develop the main lines of his policy. Maybe this group also gave ideas to this inaugural address. The economic situation of the USA population in 1933 when this speech was read was appalling. 25 per cent of all workers and 37 per cent of all nonfarm workers were unemployed. Hunger was common in many homes of the country and lots of people lost their houses. The luckiest might have the chance of putting all their belongings in an old car and try to migrate to California, as John Steinbecks The Grapes of Wrath would explain later in 1939. This situation had begun in 1929 and lasted all the decade of the 1930s and was known as the Great Depression. The economy decay affected all the industrialized Western World, but it was especially acute in the USA. However, 1933 is to remember as the year when a banking panic took place. The day before FDR made his speech nearly all of the nations banks were closed on a so called bank holiday. Many of them never opened again. The banking crisis had arrived after a great lost of confidence of the USA citizens on the banking system and the consequent deposit withdrawal in order to obtain cash and gold. These were the people who where the target audience of FDRs speech. People with no hope in the future, homeless, hungry... FDR knew well these people since he had travelled through all the country during his presidential campaign. His words were written in a way the people listening could find some relief and support from someone

who knew what they were going through [In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties]. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) was born in the town of Park, New York in a privileged environment. His education was very complete since he could speak German and French, he was able to travel around Europe, he practiced several sportsThis education was also a religious one. He attended an Episcopal school whose headmaster, Endicott Peabody, would become a great influence on FDR. E. Peabody considered that the main duty of Christians was to help the less fortunate, for instance, by joining public service. Later, he would attend Harvard University. FDR career in politics began in 1940, when he won a seat in the New York State Senate for the Democratic Party. But after being reelected and, later, being appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy, his career had an unexpected stop in 1921. He contracted polio and as a consequence he got a permanent paralysis from the waist down. Nevertheless, in 1928, he was elected governor of New York and was reelected in 1930. His popularity helped him to win the Democrat nomination for the presidential election. Finally, in 1932 he won these elections. With his election a new way of leading the USA began, the New Deal era was about to start, and he developed this new policy mainly at the beginning of his four presidential terms (1933-1937; 1937-1941; 1941-1945; 1945 until his death). He is famous for having made recover the USA economy after the 1929 Great Depression, but he also became very popular for being the USA president during World War II, joining the Allies against the Axis powers at the end of 1941. On April 12, 1945, FDR died less that a month before the war in Europe ended. New Deal is a term that FDR used for the first time in his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1932. It was coined to name a series of experimental programs and projects that had the main goal of recovering the economy of the country, but also of recovering populations confidence on the government. The New Deal policy began when FDR was elected president of the USA in 1933 and ended in 1939-1940, due to World War II, although the declaration of unconstitutionality of some of its programs also helped to its fading. The main way the New Deal would achieve its goals was by a stronger intervention by the federal government over the economic and financial regulation. Some of the Acts and Agencies that were basic in the New Deal were: Emergency Banking Act (1933), to help restores peoples confidence in banks. National Industrial Recovery Act (1933), which dealt with wages, child labor and gave the trade unions the right to bargain with employees, but was declared unconstitutional in 1935.

Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) (1933), that intended to raise farmers incomes, but was declared unconstitutional in 1935. Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) (1933), which gave young men a job in forests and mountains and helped to create parks and wildlife reserves that still, can be enjoyed now. Work Progress Administration (WPA) (1935), which coordinated all public works schemes, for instance, the building of roads, schools, public buildings, all with Federal money.

The money to finance all these projects came from a huge increase in federal taxes, especially those which affected the richest ones, such as the so called excess profits taxes. But taxes on every-day-use goods as cigarettes, candy and alcoholic drinks (FDR ended the Prohibition), also affected poor people. The basic sketch of the New Deal was stated in FDRs First Inaugural Address. In the first paragraph of FDRs speech, FDR addresses to the population as fellows or friends, and since he considers them so close to him, he says he must speak sincerely. He recognizes that the situation is bad but asks for calm to face the problems and confidence on him. After that he makes a detailed list of the problems (high taxes, no industry or agriculture, bank failure) in order to show to his audience that he knew what was going on in the country. He thanks God (first religious reference) that these are only material things that can be solved. Words and expressions with religious implications will be often used all along the speech: temple, values, plague of locusts In the third paragraph he repeats that it is a low point in the countrys history, but he changes the tone of the speech to a more firm one, and begins to speak as the country leader. The two following paragraphs have a lot of strength and it was sure that touched common peoples heart. He puts the blame of the situation not on these common people, but on the powerful ones, always worried about earning money without having in mind the consequences of their acts. He names Nature as a possible source of prosperity (and eventually he created the Civilian Conservation Corps agency in order to profit this potential). There is still place for hope. The founders of the USA had even worse times, however they succeed. The sixth, seventh and eighth paragraphs give a theoretical solution to the problems: a change in the social values; happiness must rely on the joy of working and not on only earning money. Then, FDR gives the main lines of what would be know as the New Deal policy, which would be implemented immediately since he has declared emergency of war. He even calls these lines [lines of attack], using war vocabulary, and will employ

this vocabulary later when he accepts being the President of the USA on page 7 [I assume unhesitatingly the leadership of this great army of our people] Federal government will become the main employer of the country, with nature as the most important source of work. Farmers will be helped by reforming the agricultural sector in the USA and by improving communications. Actually, FDR would put in practice the Agricultural Adjustment Act and the Work Progress Administration, acts which have been explained before. He promised to make the financial system more clear and clean, and for instance, some days later the delivery of this speech, the Emergency Banking Act was approved. The New Deal policy did not include measures related with international relations, since FDR considered that the situation indoors was serious enough as to give a lot of attention to the situation in other countries. However, in Europe things were not better nor in terms of economy, neither politically (Hitler had been declared Chancellor of Germany a month before this speech was read). Finally, the international policy of playing the good neighbor that he stated in this speech, came to an end when the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor and the participation in World War II was inevitable. After explaining the main lines of his future policy, FDR comes back to a more close approach to his audience, and again, in page 7, uses we to demand from his friends, the common people, to make sacrifices in order to achieve [a larger good]. The final paragraphs on page 7 and page 8 are a demand to politicians and judges to help him in no time to reform the economic and political system that has been working until that moment and that has proved to be inefficient. He thinks that his policies are what the country needs, and considers that there is room enough to implement these policies due to a Constitution able to change and adapt to new times and situations. But his optimism soon revealed not to be very realistic, since many of his Acts were declared unconstitutional in court. In the final page of FDRs speech he retakes the ideas of unity against problems, lack of culpability, recovery of the pioneers spirit and values, and the need of action under adequate leadership. And in the final paragraph, he assumes all final responsibility for the future consequences of his decisions, with a final reference to God. This Inaugural Address is one of the most well-known in USA history. It was a speech written to encourage people to overcome the crisis after the Great Depression, and, at the same time, it explained and justified all the measures that would be taken in order to do so. Most of these measures actually came true.

It is interesting to outline the continuous religious references through all the text, although there is an actual separation of church and state since 1791 (Amendment I, Bill of Rights, Constitution of the USA). The speech had a great impact on population at that moment and this, besides the fact that FDR began to implement his policies only days after this inaugural address, helped in a very effective way to the recovery of confidence on the political and economic system by the USA inhabitants. However, FDR found dislikes and opposition either in his party for not going further with his reforms, or in the Republican Party for going too far away with the aforementioned reforms. Still now in America society, FDR is a controversial figure. Some considered him a hero who was able to restart the country and to improve the situation of the people in need. But for others, his ideas can be considered as communist ones. A question that we could make to ourselves is if all his programs and projects could be applied now. How would common people react? How would corporations, politicians and, in general, the powerful ones answer?

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