Am looking for an FDR video

[Onlooker]

Awhile ago someone posted a link to a really progressive speech by FDR criticizing big business nd the banks. It was probably on youtube. I couldn't find the video there or a link in the DU videos forum. Does anyone recall this video and know where to find it? Thanks.

[MissWaverly]

1. you can try here, the fireside chats

http://millercenter.virginia.edu/scripps/digitalarchive/speechDetail/24

they had radio back then, it was brand spanking new and America loved it, they had newsreels and some footage of speeches
but's it's very primitive compared to today. The quoted text is from the link, FDR fireside chat talking about the
bank holiday.

We had a bad banking situation. Some of our bankers had shown themselves either incompetent or dishonest in their handling of the people's funds. They had used the money entrusted to them in speculations and unwise loans. This was of course not true in the vast majority of our banks but it was true in enough of them to shock the people for a time into a sense of insecurity and to put them into a frame of mind where they did not differentiate, but seemed to assume that the acts of a comparative few had tainted them all. It was the Government's job to straighten out this situation and do it as quickly as possible -- and the job is being performed.

I do not promise you that every bank will be reopened or that individual losses will not be suffered, but there will be no losses that possibly could be avoided; and there would have been more and greater losses had we continued to drift. I can even promise you salvation for some at least of the sorely pressed banks. We shall be engaged not merely in reopening sound banks but in the creation of sound banks through reorganization. It has been wonderful to me to catch the note of confidence from all over the country. I can never be sufficiently grateful to the people for the loyal support they have given me in their acceptance of the judgment that has dictated our course, even though all of our processes may not have seemed clear to them.

After all there is an element in the readjustment of our financial system more important than currency, more important than gold, and that is the confidence of the people. Confidence and courage are the essentials of success in carrying out our plan. You people must have faith; you must not be stampeded by rumors or guesses. Let us unite in banishing fear. We have provided the machinery to restore our financial system; it is up to you to support and make it work.

It is your problem no less than it is mine. Together we cannot fail.

[H2O Man]

2. Though I am not

sure if there is a you-tube version, it sounds like you are describing his Second Inaugural Address (January 20, 1937). It was an outstanding speech.

[MissWaverly]

3. 2nd inaugural speech from the same link

here's a snip from it, I have tears in my eye that we once had so great a president:

I see a great nation, upon a great continent, blessed with a great wealth of natural resources. Its hundred and thirty million people are at peace among themselves; they are making their country a good neighbor among the nations. I see a United States which can demonstrate that, under democratic methods of government, national wealth can be translated into a spreading volume of human comforts hitherto unknown, and the lowest standard of living can be raised far above the level of mere subsistence.

But here is the challenge to our democracy: In this nation I see tens of millions of its citizens-a substantial part of its whole population-who at this very moment are denied the greater part of what the very lowest standards of today call the necessities of life.

I see millions of families trying to live on incomes so meager that the pall of family disaster hangs over them day by day.

I see millions whose daily lives in city and on farm continue under conditions labeled indecent by a so-called polite society half a century ago.

I see millions denied education, recreation, and the opportunity to better their lot and the lot of their children.

I see millions lacking the means to buy the products of farm and factory and by their poverty denying work and productiveness to many other millions.

I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.

It is not in despair that I paint you that picture. I paint it for you in hope-because the Nation, seeing and understanding the injustice in it, proposes to paint it out. We are determined to make every American citizen the subject of his country's interest and concern; and we will never regard any faithful, law-abiding group within our borders as superfluous. 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.

[H2O Man]

4. That is powerful.

Thank you for posting it. It remains one of the most revolutionary speeches in our nation's history.

[MissWaverly]

5. yes, We the people mattered to him

he could have used fear and want to establish himself as an absolute ruler, he was elected to 4 terms, he could have done
it, but no, he and Eleanor always remembered the farmer, the factory worker, the people that he served not ruled.

[w8liftinglady]

6. your post inspired my next LTTE.

I am a BIG Norman Rockwell fan.I ran across his "Four Freedoms" series,and it made me think of where Our country has gone.Franklin D. Roosevelt gave an inspiring speech in 1941 in which he elaborated on "The Four Freedoms"I will quote him:
"In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression - everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way - everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want - which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peace time life for its inhabitants -everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear - which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor - anywhere in the world. "
With the current trampling of our first and fourth amendment rights,the fall of the real estate market,the devaluation of the dollar,the rise of poverty and hunger in the America and the world,and the fear-mongering that perpetuates the War in Iraq and Afghanistan,I wonder where our Four Freedoms have gone.Let's make sure our next elected officials have their constituents' interests as their primary focus,and not the multi-national corporations that have taken over as the policy dictators.Let's take back our "Four Freedoms".


I'll let you know if it's published.

[Onlooker]

7. I hope your LTTE gets printed

It's a very good idea, and Roosevelt's words are so moving. I'm not a big fan of Rockwell, but when I saw an exhibit of his work (at the Guggenheim in NYC a few years ago), I was very impressed by his political illustrations, which I had not been familiar with.

Reading FDR's words, though, is almost depressing. The Democrats have sold out. If any of the leading Democrats ran in Roosevelt's time, they would have been Republicans.

[MissWaverly]

8. Listen to his comment on the New World Order, it is chilling

"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." Address to the Annual Dinner for White House Correspondents' Association, Washington, D.C., March 15, 1941.

[H2O Man]

9. Very interesting.

I think this thread has a lot of potential for DUers who write LTTE and call in to radio shows.

[MissWaverly]

10. Yes, I think the other Roosevelt is worth quoting too

The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."
"Roosevelt in the Kansas City Star", 149

May 7, 1918


http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/life/Quotes.htm