22-2 | President Inspires Depressed Nation with Promise of Action
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, Inaugural Address (1933)
Franklin D. Roosevelt, Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933. Online by Gerhard Peters and
John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project, www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=1447.
During the 1932 election, Roosevelt’s campaign had exuded a desperately needed optimism in
the face of the worst economic collapse in American history. His inaugural address, where he
allayed the fear Americans felt, called for immediate action, a counterpoint to the more
conservative approach of his predecessor, who had presided over the first years of the Great
Depression. Roosevelt’s call for “action, and action now” anticipated the frenzy of his first
hundred days, when he launched the programs collectively described as the New Deal.
I am certain that my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will
address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our Nation impels.
This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we
shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it
has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only
thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified 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. I am convinced that you will again give that support to
leadership in these critical days. . . .
Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it
wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government
itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through
this employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of
our natural resources.
Hand in hand with this we must frankly recognize the overbalance of population in our industrial
centers and, by engaging on a national scale in a redistribution, endeavor to provide a better
use of the land for those best fitted for the land. The task can be helped by definite efforts to
raise the values of agricultural products and with this the power to purchase the output of our
cities. It can be helped by preventing realistically the tragedy of the growing loss through
foreclosure of our small homes and our farms. It can be helped by insistence that the Federal,
State, and local governments act forthwith on the demand that their cost be drastically reduced.
It can be helped by the unifying of relief activities which today are often scattered,
uneconomical, and unequal. It can be helped by national planning for and supervision of all
forms of transportation and of communications and other utilities which have a definitely public
character. There are many ways in which it can be helped, but it can never be helped merely by
talking about it. We must act and act quickly.
Finally, in our progress toward a resumption of work we require two safeguards against a return
of the evils of the old order: there must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and
investments, so that there will be an end to speculation with other people’s money; and there
must be provision for an adequate but sound currency.
These are the lines of attack. I shall presently urge upon a new Congress, in special session,
detailed measures for their fulfillment, and I shall seek the immediate assistance of the several
States.
Through this program of action we address ourselves to putting our own national house in order
and making income balance outgo. Our international trade relations, though vastly important,
are in point of time and necessity secondary to the establishment of a sound national economy.
I favor as a practical policy the putting of first things first. I shall spare no effort to restore world
trade by international economic readjustment, but the emergency at home cannot wait on that
accomplishment.
The basic thought that guides these specific means of national recovery is not narrowly
nationalistic. It is the insistence, as a first consideration, upon the interdependence of the
various elements in and parts of the United States — a recognition of the old and permanently
important manifestation of the American spirit of the pioneer. It is the way to recovery. It is the
immediate way. It is the strongest assurance that the recovery will endure. . . .
It is to be hoped that the normal balance of Executive and legislative authority may be wholly
adequate to meet the unprecedented task before us. But it may be that an unprecedented
demand and need for undelayed action may call for temporary departure from that normal
balance of public procedure.
I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken 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 and wisdom, I shall seek, within my constitutional
authority, to bring to speedy adoption.
But in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these two courses, and in the event
that the national emergency is still critical, I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then
confront me. I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis —
broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would
be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.
For the trust reposed in me I will return the courage and the devotion that befit the time. I can do
no less. . . .
We do not distrust the future of essential democracy. The people of the United States have not
failed. In their need they have registered a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action. They
have asked for discipline and direction under leadership. They have made me the present
instrument of their wishes. In the spirit of the gift I take it.
In this dedication of a Nation we humbly ask the blessing of God. May He protect each and
every one of us. May He guide me in the days to come.