May 20, 2024 • 28 mins
Please enjoy June 27, 1936: Democratic National Convention a great episode of the legendary Franklin D. Roosevelt - A Classic Old Time radio Show.
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This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
I never say, Senator Robinson,members of the Democratic Convention, my friends,
here and in every community throughout theland, we are met at a
(00:27):
time of great moment to the futureof the nation, an occasion to be
dedicated to the simple and sincere expressionof an attitude towards problems, the determination
of which will profoundly affect America.I come not only as a leader of
(00:58):
a party, not only as acandidate for high office, but as one
upon whom many critical hours have imposedand still imposed a grave responsibility for the
(01:23):
sympathy, for the health and confidencewith which Americans have sustained me in my
task. I am grateful for theirloyalty. I salute the members of our
great party, in and out ofpolitical life in every part of the Union.
(01:53):
And I salute too those of otherparties, especially those in the Congress
of the United States, who onso many occasions, have put partisanship aside.
I thank the governors of the severalStates, their legislatures, their state
(02:16):
and local officials who participated unselfishly andregardless of party, in our efforts to
achieve recovery and destroy abuse. Aboveall, I thank the millions of Americans
who have borne disaster bravely and havedared to smile through the storm. And
(02:53):
America will not forget these recent years, not forget that the rescue was not
a mere party task. It wasthe concern of all of us. In
our strength, we rose together,rallied our energies, together applied the old
(03:17):
rules of common sense, and togethersurvived. It was in those days,
my friends, that we feared fear. That was why we fought fear.
(03:45):
And today, my friends, wehave won against the most dangerous of our
foes. We have conquered fear.But I cannot, I cannot, with
(04:06):
Canada tell you that all is wellwith the world. Clouds of suspicion,
tides of ill will and intolerance gatherdarkly in many places. In our own
land, we enjoy, indeed,a fullness of life that is greater than
(04:30):
that of most nations. But therush of modern civilization itself has raised for
us new difficulties, new problems,which must be solved if we are to
preserve to the United States the politicaland the economic freedom for which Washington and
(04:55):
Jeverson plans and poughtful Philadelphia. Philadelphiais a good city in which to write
American history. This is pitting groundon which to reaffirm the faith of the
(05:30):
fathers, to pledge ourselves to restoreto the people a wider freedom. To
give to nineteen thirty six, asthe founders gave to seventeen seventy six an
American way a knife. That veryword freedom in itself and of the necessity,
(06:00):
suggests freedom from some restraining power.In seventeen seventy six, we sought
freedom from the tyranny of a politicalorthocrasy from the eighteenth century royalists, who
held special privileges from the crown.It was to perpetuate their privilege that they
(06:27):
governed without the consent of the governed, That they denied the right of free
assembly and free speech, that theyrestricted the worship of God, that they
put the average man's property and theaverage man's life in pawn to the mercenaries
of dynastic power, that they regimentedthe people. And so so it was
(06:54):
to win freedom from the tyranny ofpolitical orthocrasy the the American Revolution was fought.
That victory gave the business of governinginto the hands of the average man,
who won the right, with hisneighbors to make and order his own
(07:15):
destiny. Through his own government.Political tyranny was wiped out at Philadelphia on
July fourth, seventeen seventy six.But since that struggle, Man's inventive genius
(07:42):
released new forces in our lands.Horses which reordered the lives of our people.
The age of machinery, of railroads, of steam and electricity, the
telegraph, and the radio, massproduction, mass distribution. All of these
(08:03):
combined to bring forward a new civilization, and with it a problem for those
who sought to remain free. Forout of this modern civilization, economic royalists
carved and new dynasties, new kingdomswere built upon concentration of control over material
(08:30):
things through new uses of corporations andbanks and securities, new machinery of industry
and agriculture, of labor and capital, all undreamed of by the fathers.
The whole structure of modern life wasimpress'd into this royal service. There was
(08:54):
no place among this royalty from manythousands of small business men and merchants who
sought to make a worthy use ofthe American system of initiative and profit.
They were no more free than theworker or the farmer. Even honest and
(09:18):
progressive minded men of wealth aware oftheir obligation to their generations, could never
know just where they fitted in tothis dynastic scheme of things. And so
it was natural and perfectly human thatthe privileged princes of these new economic dynasties,
(09:43):
bursting for power, reached out forcontrol over government itself. They created
a new despotism and rapped it,rapped it in the roads of legal sanction.
(10:11):
In its service, new mercenaries soughtto regiment the people, their labor,
their property, and as a result, the average man once more confronts
the problem that faced the minute manof seventy six. The hours, the
(10:41):
hours that men and women work,the wages they received, the condition of
their labor. These had passed beyondthe control of the people and were imposed
by this new industrial dictatorship. Thesavings of the average families, the capital
(11:03):
of the small business man, theinvestments set aside for old age, other
people's money. These were the toolswhich the new economic arroyalty used to dig
itself in. Those who tilled thesoil no longer reaped the rewards which were
(11:35):
their right. The small measure oftheir gains were decreed by men in distant
cities throughout the nation, opportunity waslimited by monopoly. Individual initiative was crushed
in the cogs of a great machine. The field open for free business was
(12:01):
more and more restrictive. Private enterpriseindeed became too private. It became privileged
enterprise, not free enterprise. Anold English judge said, once upon a
(12:30):
time, necessitous men are not freemen. Liberty requires opportunity to make a
living, a living decent according tothe standard of the time, a living
which gives man not only enough tolive by, but something to live.
(13:00):
For far too many of us,the political equality we once had won was
meaningless in the face of economic inequality. A small group had concentrated into their
(13:28):
own hands and almost complete control overother people's property, other people's money,
other people's labor, other people's lives. For too many of us, far
too many of us throughout the lands, life was no longer free. Liberty
(13:56):
no longer real men could no longerfollow the pursuit of happiness against economic tyranny
such as this. The American citizencould only appeal to the organized power of
(14:20):
government. We well remember. Letthe collapse of nineteen twenty nine showed up
the despotism for what it was,and the election of nineteen thirty two was
(14:43):
the people's mandate to end it,and under that mandate it is being ended.
(15:09):
The royalists I have spoken on,the royalists of the economic order,
have conceded that political freedom was thebusiness of the government, but they have
maintained that economic slavery was nobody's business. They granted that the government could protect
(15:43):
the citizen in his right to vote, but they denied that the government could
do anything to protect the citizen inhis right to work and his right to
live. Today, today we standcommitted to the proposition that freedom is no
(16:18):
half and half half air. Ifthe average citizen is guaranteed equal opportunity in
the pulling place, he must haveequal opportunity in the marketplace. These economic
(16:47):
royalists complain that we seek to overthrowthe institutions of America. What they really
complain of is that we seek totake away their power. Our rellegiance and
(17:11):
our allegiance to American institutions requires theoverthrow of this kind of power. In
vain. They seek to hide behindthe flag and the constitution, But in
(17:44):
their blindness they forget what the flagand the constitutions stand for. No know
now as always for over a centuryand a half, the flag the Constitution
(18:11):
stand against a dictatorship by mob ruleand the over privileged. A light and
the flag and the Constitution stand fordemocracy, not tyranny, for freedom not
subjection. The brave platform, theclear platform adopted by this Convention, that
(18:47):
platform to which I heartily subscribe,set's far that government in a modern civilization
has certain inescapable obligations to its citizens, among which our protection of the family
and the home, the establishment ofa democracy of opportunity, and aid to
(19:15):
those overtaken by disaster. But theresolute enemy within our gates is ever ready
to beat down our words unless ingreater courage we will fight for them more
(19:44):
than three years. For more thanthree years we have fought for them.
This Convention, this Convention, inevery word and in every deed, has
pledged that that fight will go on. The defeats and the victories of these
(20:19):
years have given to us as apeople a new understanding of our government,
yes, and a new understanding ofourselves. Never since the early days of
the New England Town Meeting have theaffairs of government been so widely discussed and
(20:44):
so clearly appreciated. It has beenbrought home to us that the only effective
guide for the safety of this mostworldly of worlds, the greatest guide of
all, is moral principle. Wedo not see, we do not see
(21:18):
faith and hope and charity as unattainableideals. We use them as scout supports
of a nation fighting the fight forfreedom in a modern civilization. Faith,
(21:40):
faith in the soundness of democracy inthe midst of dictatorships. Hope, hope
renewed because we know so well theprogress we have made. And charity charity
(22:00):
in the true spirit of that grandold word for charity, literally translated from
the original means love, the lovethat understands, that does not merely share
the wealth of the giver, butin true sympathy and wisdom, helps men
(22:23):
to help themselves. We seek notmerely to make government a mechanical implement,
but to give it the vibrant personalcharacter that is the very embodiment of human
(22:51):
charity. We are poor. Indeed, if this nation cannot afford to live
from every recess of American life,that dread, fear of the unemployed that
they are not needed in the world, we cannot afford. We cannot afford
(23:12):
to accumulate a deposit in the booksof human fortitude, and so in the
place of the palace of privilege,we seek to build a temple out of
(23:40):
faith and hope and charity. Itis a sobering thing, my friends,
to be a servant of this greatcause. We try in our daily work
to remember that the cause belongs notto us, but to the people.
(24:06):
The standard is not in the handsof you and me alone. It is
carried by America. We seek allof us I hope. We seek daily
(24:32):
to profit from experience, to learnto do better as our task proceeds.
Governments can err presidents do make mistakes. But the immortal Dante tells us that
divine justice weighs the sins of thecold blooded and the sins of the warm
(25:02):
hearted in different scales. But arethe occasional faults of a government that lives
(25:25):
in a spirit of charity than theconsistent omissions of a government frozen in the
ice of its own indifferent There isa mysterious cycle in human events. To
(25:52):
some generations much is given. Ofother generations, much is expected. This
generation of Americans has a rendezvous withdestiny in this world of ours. In
(26:19):
other lands, there are some peoplewho in times past have lived and fought
for freedom, and seemed to havegrown too weary to carry on the fight.
(26:40):
They have sold their heritage of freedomfor the illusion of a living.
They have yielded their democracy. Ibelieve in my heart that only our success
(27:03):
can stir their ancient host. Theybegin to know that here here in America,
we are waging a great and successfulwar. It is not alone a
(27:23):
war against want and destitution and economicdemorlization. It is more than that.
It is a war for the survivalof democracy. We are fighting, fighting
(27:45):
to save a great and precious formof government for ourselves and for the world.
And so I accept the commission youattended. May I joined with you.
(28:07):
I have enlisted a more ago waiton the wall.
I never say, Senator Robinson,members of the Democratic Convention, my friends,
here and in every community throughout theland, we are met at a
(00:27):
time of great moment to the futureof the nation, an occasion to be
dedicated to the simple and sincere expressionof an attitude towards problems, the determination
of which will profoundly affect America.I come not only as a leader of
(00:58):
a party, not only as acandidate for high office, but as one
upon whom many critical hours have imposedand still imposed a grave responsibility for the
(01:23):
sympathy, for the health and confidencewith which Americans have sustained me in my
task. I am grateful for theirloyalty. I salute the members of our
great party, in and out ofpolitical life in every part of the Union.
(01:53):
And I salute too those of otherparties, especially those in the Congress
of the United States, who onso many occasions, have put partisanship aside.
I thank the governors of the severalStates, their legislatures, their state
(02:16):
and local officials who participated unselfishly andregardless of party, in our efforts to
achieve recovery and destroy abuse. Aboveall, I thank the millions of Americans
who have borne disaster bravely and havedared to smile through the storm. And
(02:53):
America will not forget these recent years, not forget that the rescue was not
a mere party task. It wasthe concern of all of us. In
our strength, we rose together,rallied our energies, together applied the old
(03:17):
rules of common sense, and togethersurvived. It was in those days,
my friends, that we feared fear. That was why we fought fear.
(03:45):
And today, my friends, wehave won against the most dangerous of our
foes. We have conquered fear.But I cannot, I cannot, with
(04:06):
Canada tell you that all is wellwith the world. Clouds of suspicion,
tides of ill will and intolerance gatherdarkly in many places. In our own
land, we enjoy, indeed,a fullness of life that is greater than
(04:30):
that of most nations. But therush of modern civilization itself has raised for
us new difficulties, new problems,which must be solved if we are to
preserve to the United States the politicaland the economic freedom for which Washington and
(04:55):
Jeverson plans and poughtful Philadelphia. Philadelphiais a good city in which to write
American history. This is pitting groundon which to reaffirm the faith of the
(05:30):
fathers, to pledge ourselves to restoreto the people a wider freedom. To
give to nineteen thirty six, asthe founders gave to seventeen seventy six an
American way a knife. That veryword freedom in itself and of the necessity,
(06:00):
suggests freedom from some restraining power.In seventeen seventy six, we sought
freedom from the tyranny of a politicalorthocrasy from the eighteenth century royalists, who
held special privileges from the crown.It was to perpetuate their privilege that they
(06:27):
governed without the consent of the governed, That they denied the right of free
assembly and free speech, that theyrestricted the worship of God, that they
put the average man's property and theaverage man's life in pawn to the mercenaries
of dynastic power, that they regimentedthe people. And so so it was
(06:54):
to win freedom from the tyranny ofpolitical orthocrasy the the American Revolution was fought.
That victory gave the business of governinginto the hands of the average man,
who won the right, with hisneighbors to make and order his own
(07:15):
destiny. Through his own government.Political tyranny was wiped out at Philadelphia on
July fourth, seventeen seventy six.But since that struggle, Man's inventive genius
(07:42):
released new forces in our lands.Horses which reordered the lives of our people.
The age of machinery, of railroads, of steam and electricity, the
telegraph, and the radio, massproduction, mass distribution. All of these
(08:03):
combined to bring forward a new civilization, and with it a problem for those
who sought to remain free. Forout of this modern civilization, economic royalists
carved and new dynasties, new kingdomswere built upon concentration of control over material
(08:30):
things through new uses of corporations andbanks and securities, new machinery of industry
and agriculture, of labor and capital, all undreamed of by the fathers.
The whole structure of modern life wasimpress'd into this royal service. There was
(08:54):
no place among this royalty from manythousands of small business men and merchants who
sought to make a worthy use ofthe American system of initiative and profit.
They were no more free than theworker or the farmer. Even honest and
(09:18):
progressive minded men of wealth aware oftheir obligation to their generations, could never
know just where they fitted in tothis dynastic scheme of things. And so
it was natural and perfectly human thatthe privileged princes of these new economic dynasties,
(09:43):
bursting for power, reached out forcontrol over government itself. They created
a new despotism and rapped it,rapped it in the roads of legal sanction.
(10:11):
In its service, new mercenaries soughtto regiment the people, their labor,
their property, and as a result, the average man once more confronts
the problem that faced the minute manof seventy six. The hours, the
(10:41):
hours that men and women work,the wages they received, the condition of
their labor. These had passed beyondthe control of the people and were imposed
by this new industrial dictatorship. Thesavings of the average families, the capital
(11:03):
of the small business man, theinvestments set aside for old age, other
people's money. These were the toolswhich the new economic arroyalty used to dig
itself in. Those who tilled thesoil no longer reaped the rewards which were
(11:35):
their right. The small measure oftheir gains were decreed by men in distant
cities throughout the nation, opportunity waslimited by monopoly. Individual initiative was crushed
in the cogs of a great machine. The field open for free business was
(12:01):
more and more restrictive. Private enterpriseindeed became too private. It became privileged
enterprise, not free enterprise. Anold English judge said, once upon a
(12:30):
time, necessitous men are not freemen. Liberty requires opportunity to make a
living, a living decent according tothe standard of the time, a living
which gives man not only enough tolive by, but something to live.
(13:00):
For far too many of us,the political equality we once had won was
meaningless in the face of economic inequality. A small group had concentrated into their
(13:28):
own hands and almost complete control overother people's property, other people's money,
other people's labor, other people's lives. For too many of us, far
too many of us throughout the lands, life was no longer free. Liberty
(13:56):
no longer real men could no longerfollow the pursuit of happiness against economic tyranny
such as this. The American citizencould only appeal to the organized power of
(14:20):
government. We well remember. Letthe collapse of nineteen twenty nine showed up
the despotism for what it was,and the election of nineteen thirty two was
(14:43):
the people's mandate to end it,and under that mandate it is being ended.
(15:09):
The royalists I have spoken on,the royalists of the economic order,
have conceded that political freedom was thebusiness of the government, but they have
maintained that economic slavery was nobody's business. They granted that the government could protect
(15:43):
the citizen in his right to vote, but they denied that the government could
do anything to protect the citizen inhis right to work and his right to
live. Today, today we standcommitted to the proposition that freedom is no
(16:18):
half and half half air. Ifthe average citizen is guaranteed equal opportunity in
the pulling place, he must haveequal opportunity in the marketplace. These economic
(16:47):
royalists complain that we seek to overthrowthe institutions of America. What they really
complain of is that we seek totake away their power. Our rellegiance and
(17:11):
our allegiance to American institutions requires theoverthrow of this kind of power. In
vain. They seek to hide behindthe flag and the constitution, But in
(17:44):
their blindness they forget what the flagand the constitutions stand for. No know
now as always for over a centuryand a half, the flag the Constitution
(18:11):
stand against a dictatorship by mob ruleand the over privileged. A light and
the flag and the Constitution stand fordemocracy, not tyranny, for freedom not
subjection. The brave platform, theclear platform adopted by this Convention, that
(18:47):
platform to which I heartily subscribe,set's far that government in a modern civilization
has certain inescapable obligations to its citizens, among which our protection of the family
and the home, the establishment ofa democracy of opportunity, and aid to
(19:15):
those overtaken by disaster. But theresolute enemy within our gates is ever ready
to beat down our words unless ingreater courage we will fight for them more
(19:44):
than three years. For more thanthree years we have fought for them.
This Convention, this Convention, inevery word and in every deed, has
pledged that that fight will go on. The defeats and the victories of these
(20:19):
years have given to us as apeople a new understanding of our government,
yes, and a new understanding ofourselves. Never since the early days of
the New England Town Meeting have theaffairs of government been so widely discussed and
(20:44):
so clearly appreciated. It has beenbrought home to us that the only effective
guide for the safety of this mostworldly of worlds, the greatest guide of
all, is moral principle. Wedo not see, we do not see
(21:18):
faith and hope and charity as unattainableideals. We use them as scout supports
of a nation fighting the fight forfreedom in a modern civilization. Faith,
(21:40):
faith in the soundness of democracy inthe midst of dictatorships. Hope, hope
renewed because we know so well theprogress we have made. And charity charity
(22:00):
in the true spirit of that grandold word for charity, literally translated from
the original means love, the lovethat understands, that does not merely share
the wealth of the giver, butin true sympathy and wisdom, helps men
(22:23):
to help themselves. We seek notmerely to make government a mechanical implement,
but to give it the vibrant personalcharacter that is the very embodiment of human
(22:51):
charity. We are poor. Indeed, if this nation cannot afford to live
from every recess of American life,that dread, fear of the unemployed that
they are not needed in the world, we cannot afford. We cannot afford
(23:12):
to accumulate a deposit in the booksof human fortitude, and so in the
place of the palace of privilege,we seek to build a temple out of
(23:40):
faith and hope and charity. Itis a sobering thing, my friends,
to be a servant of this greatcause. We try in our daily work
to remember that the cause belongs notto us, but to the people.
(24:06):
The standard is not in the handsof you and me alone. It is
carried by America. We seek allof us I hope. We seek daily
(24:32):
to profit from experience, to learnto do better as our task proceeds.
Governments can err presidents do make mistakes. But the immortal Dante tells us that
divine justice weighs the sins of thecold blooded and the sins of the warm
(25:02):
hearted in different scales. But arethe occasional faults of a government that lives
(25:25):
in a spirit of charity than theconsistent omissions of a government frozen in the
ice of its own indifferent There isa mysterious cycle in human events. To
(25:52):
some generations much is given. Ofother generations, much is expected. This
generation of Americans has a rendezvous withdestiny in this world of ours. In
(26:19):
other lands, there are some peoplewho in times past have lived and fought
for freedom, and seemed to havegrown too weary to carry on the fight.
(26:40):
They have sold their heritage of freedomfor the illusion of a living.
They have yielded their democracy. Ibelieve in my heart that only our success
(27:03):
can stir their ancient host. Theybegin to know that here here in America,
we are waging a great and successfulwar. It is not alone a
(27:23):
war against want and destitution and economicdemorlization. It is more than that.
It is a war for the survivalof democracy. We are fighting, fighting
(27:45):
to save a great and precious formof government for ourselves and for the world.
And so I accept the commission youattended. May I joined with you.
(28:07):
I have enlisted a more ago waiton the wall.
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