October 31, 1936: Speech at Madison Square Garden a speech from President Franklin D. Roosevelt

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Episode Transcript

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Nada Wagnan Governor Lehmann my trend.On the eve of a national election,
it is well for us to stopfor a moment and analyze calmly and without

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prejudice, the effects on our nationof a victory by either of the major
political parties. The problem of theelectorate is far deeper, far more vital
than the continuance in the presidency ofany individual. The greater issue, the

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greater issue, goes beyond units ofhumanity. It goes to humanity itself.
In nineteen thirty two, the issuewas the restoration of American democracy, and

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the American people were in a moodto win. They did win. And
in nineteen thirty six the issue isthe preservation of their victory. Again they

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are in a mood to win,and again they will win. More than
four years ago, in accepting theDemocratic nomination in Chicago, I said,
give me your help, not towin both alone, but to win in

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this cruise sase to restore America toits own people. And we know tonight
that the banners of that crusade stillfly in the far front of a nation
that is still on the marsh.What what was our hope in nineteen thirty

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two. Above all other things,the American people wanted peace. They wanted
peace of mind in that annoying fear. First, first, they fall escape
from the personal terror that had stoppedthem for briars. They wanted the peace

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to come from security in the homes, safety for their savings, permanence in
their jobs, and a fair profitfrom their enterprise. Next, they wanted
peace in the community, the peacethat spring from the ability to meet the
needs of community life, schools,playgrounds, park sanitation, highways, those

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things which are expected of solvent localgovernment. They thought escaped from the disintegration
of the bankruptcy of local and stateaffairs. And they thought also peace within
the nations, protection of their currency, fair are wages, the ending of

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long hours of toil, the abolitionof child's labor, the elimination of wildcat
speculations, and the safety of theirchildren from kidnappers. And finally, they

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thought peace with other nations, peacein a world of unrest. The nation
knows that I hate war, andand I know that the nation hates war.

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And so I submit to you arecord of peace, and on that
record a well founded expectation for futurepeace for the individual. He's for the
community, he's for the nations,and he's with the world. Tonight I

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call the roll the roll of honorof those who stood with us in nineteen
thirty two and still stand with ustoday. Written on that role of honor
are the names of millions who neverhad a chance, men at starvation wages,

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women in sweatshops, children at looms. Written on it are the names
of those who despair, young men, young women for whom opportunity had become
me will of the wist. Writtenon it are the names whose the farmers

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whose acres yielded only bitterness, businessmenwhose books were portents of disaster, homeowners
who are faced with evictions, prval, citizens whose savings were insecure. Written
there in large letters are the namesof countless other Americans, of our parties

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and our faith, Americans who hadeyes to see, in part to understand,
whose consciences were burdens because too manyof our fellow beings who were burdens
Will looked on these things four yearsago and said, this can be changed.

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We will change it. We stilllead that army in nineteen thirty six.
They stood with us then in nineteenthirty two, because they believe they

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stand with us today in nineteen thirtysix because they know, and with them,
with them ten millions, yes,with them, send millions of new
recruits who have come to now theirhopes have become our record. We have

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not come thus far without a struggle, and I assure you that we cannot
go further without a struggle. Fortwelve years our nation was afflicted with fear

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nothing, see nothing, do nothinggovernment the nation. The nation looked to

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that government, but that government lookedaway. Nine mocking years with the golden
Cap, and three long years ofthe third, nine crazy years that the

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ticker, and three long years inthe breadlines, nine mad years of mirage,
and three long years of despair.And my friend's powerful influence is five

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today to restore that kind of government, with its doctrine that that government is
best, which is most indifferent tomankind. For nearly four years now you

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have had an administration which, insteadof pulling it from has rolled up its
sleeve. And I can assure youthat we will kee far fleeve rolled up.

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We had to struggle with the oldenemies of peace, business and financial
monopoly, speculations, reckless banking class, antagonism, texonalism, war profiteering.
They had begun to consider the governmentof the United States as a mere appendage

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to their own affairs. And weknow now that government by organized money is
such as dangerous as governments by organizedmop. Never before in all our history

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have these fotheries been so united againstone candidate as they than today. They
are unanimous in my hate for me, and I welcome they are haprin.

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I fld like to have it saidof my first administration that in it the
courses of selfishness and of love Papamet thy Matt. I should like to
have it said, Wait a minute, I should like to have it said

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of my second administration that in itthese couties met their master, and my

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friends and my friends the American peopleknow from a four year record that today
there is only one entrance to theWhite House, and that's by the front
door. Since Mark Fox nineteen thirtythree, there has been only one cat

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key to the White House, andI have carried that key in my own
pocket. It's there tonight, andso long as I'm president, it's going

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to remain in my part. Butthose who used to have taskeys are not
happy. Some of them, indeedare desperate. Only desperate men with their

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backs to the wall would descend sofar below the level of decent citizenship as
to foster the current pay envelope campaignagainst America's working pig. Only reckless men,

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deedless of consequences, would risk thedisruption of the hope for a new
piece between worker and employer by returningto the tactics of the labor spy.
And here is an amazing Here isan amazing paradox. The very employers and

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politicians and newspapers who talk most loudlyof class antagonism and the destruction of the
American system now on the mind thatsystem. By this attempt to coerce the
vote of the wageournners of the country. It is the nineteen thirty sixth version

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of the old threat to close downthe factory or the office if a particular
candidate does not win. It isthe old strategy of tyrants to delude their
victims into fighting their battle's father.Every message and a pay and blow,

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even if it is the truth,is a command to vote according to the
will of the employer. But thispropaganda is world. It is defeat.
They tell the worker that his wagewill be reduced by a contribution to some
vague form of old age insurance.But they carefully conceal from him the fact

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that for every dollar of premium hepays for that insurance, the employer pays
another dollar, and that that omissionin itself is defeat. They carefully conceal
from him the fact that under thefederal law, he receives another insurance policy

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to help him if he loses hisjob, and that the premium of that
policy is paid to one hundred percentby the employer and not one cent by
the worker. But they do nottell him that the insurance policy that is

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fought for him is parm more favorableto him than any policy that any private
insurance company could possibly afford to issue, and that ole mission is de seat.
They imply to him that he paysall the costs of both forms of

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insurance. They carefully concealed from himthe fact that for every dollar put up
by him, his employer puts upthree dollars three for one, and that
ole mission is deceeat. But theyare guilty of more than deceit when they

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imply that the reserves thus created againstboth these policies will be stolen by some
whoture Congress diverted to some holy foreignpurpose. They attack the integrity and the
honor of American government itself. Thosewho suggest that are already alian to the

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spirit of American democracy, Let them, Let them emigrate and try their luck
under some foreign flag in which theyhave more confidence. And the fraudulent nature

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of this attempt is well shown bythe record of votes on the passage of
the Social Security Act. In additionto an overwhelming majority of Democrats in both
houses, seventy seven Republican representatives votedfor it and only eighteen against it,

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and fifteen Republican Senators voted for itand only five against it. Where where
does this last minute drive of theRepublican leadership leave these Republican representatives and senators
who helped to enact the law.I am sure that the vast majority of

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law abiding businessmen who are not partiesto live this propaganda fully appreciate the extent
of the threat to honest business containedin this coercion. I have expressed indignation
at this time of campaigning, andI am confident that the overwhelming majority of

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employers and workers and the general publicshare that indignation. And we'll try to
propose our persnic But aside from thisphase of it, I prefer to remember

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this campaign not as better but onlyas hard courts. There should be no
bitterness or hate. Where the soulthought is the welfare of the United States
of America. No man can occupythe officer president without realizing that he is

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president of all the people. Andit is because I have thought to think
in terms of the whole nation thatI am confident that today, just as
four years ago, the people wantmore than promises, and uh vision for

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the future containing more than promises.This is our answer to those who's silent
about their own plans, ask whostate our objective h a farce. We

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will continue to seek to improve workingconditions for the workers of America, to
reduce ours that are overlong, toincrease wages that spells privation, to end

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the labor of children, and towipe out sweatshops. We will continue every
effort to end monopoly in business,to support collective bargaining, to stop unfair

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competition, and to abolish dishonorable tradepractices. And for all these we have
only just begun to fight. Ofcourse, we will continue to work for

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cheaper electricity in the homes and onthe farms of America, far better and
cheaper transportation, for low interest rates, for sounder home financing, far better
banking, for the regulation of securityissues, for reciprocal trade among nations,

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and for the wiping out of plumband my friends, for all of these,
we have only just begun to fighta fourth We will continue our of

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it in behalf of the farmers ofAmerica. We've there continued cooperations. We
will do all in our power toend up the pile. When the piling
up our cue surplices which will ruinUS prices for their crop. We will
persist in successful for better land use, for refores stations, for the conservation

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of water all away from its coastto the seas, for drought control and
flood control, for better marketing facilities, for palm commodities, for a reduction
of farm tenancy, for encouragement offarm cooperative for prop insurance, and for

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a stable food supply for the nations. And for all these fools, we
have only just begun to bite acost. We will provide useful work for

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the needy unemployed, because we preferuseful work to the pauperism of the dolls.
And here and now I want tomake myself clear about those who disparried

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their fellow citizens on the relief roles. They say that those on relief are
not merely jobless, They say thatthey are worthless. Their solution for the
relief problem is to end relief,to purge the roles by parby, to

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use the language of the stockbroker,Our needy unemployed would be cared for when,
as and if some fairy godmother shouldhappen to come on the scene.
But you and I will continue torefuse to accept that estimate of our unemployed

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fellow America. Your government is stillon the same side of the street with
the good Samaritans, and not withthose who passed bigh on the other side.

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To go on, what of ourobjectives. A course, we will
continue our efforts for young men andwomen so that they may obtain an education
and an opportunity to put it toyou. A course, we will continue

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our help for the cripples, forthe blind, for the mothers, our
insurance for the unemployed, our securityfor the agents. Of course, we
will continue to protect the consumer againstunnecessary price breadth, against the costs that

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are added by monopoly in speculation.We will continue our successful efforts to increase
his purchasing power and keep it constant. And for these things too, and
for a multitude of things like them, we have only begun to fight.

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All this. All these objectives spellpeace at home. All our actions,
all our ideals, spell also peacewith other nations. Today there is war

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and rumor of war. We wantnone of it. But while we guard
our shaws against breaths of war,we will continue to remove the causes of

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unrest and antagonism at home, whichmight make our people more easy victims to
those for home. Foreign war isprofitable, and and note well that those

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who stand to profit by war arenot on our side in this campaign.

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Peace, honor, goodwillquart Man.Democracy must cling to that message, for
it is my very deep conviction thatdemocracy cannot live without that true religion which
gives a nation a sense of justiceand a moral purpose. Above our political

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forums, above our market places,stand the authors of our faiths, authors
on which burn the fires of devotionsthat maintain all of its best in us
and all of its best in ournations. We have need of that devotion

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to day. It is that whichmakes it possible for government to persuade those
who are mentally prepared to fight eachother us, to go on instead to
work for and to sacrifice for eachother. And that is why we need

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to say, with the old prophet, what doth the Lord require of thee?
But to do justly, to lovemercy, and to walk humbly.
It is like God. That iswhy the recovery we seek, the recovery

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we are winning, is more aneconomic in it all included justice and love
and humility, not to tell asindividuals alans, but poor me, And
that that is the road to pea