Tonight, in the presence of a world crisis, my mind goes back eight years to a night in the midst of a domestic crisis. It is a talk on national security because the nub of the whole purpose of your President is to keep you now, and your children later, and your grandchildren much later, out of a last-ditch war for the preservation of American independence, and all of the things that American independence means to you and to me and to ours. Roosevelt, 1940 (New York: Macmillan, 1941), pp. Rosenman, ed., The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Fireside Chat on the "Great Arsenal of Democracy," December 29, 1940. The fireside chats enabled Roosevelt to connect with Americans in an unprecedented way-an ability that likely contributed to his historic four presidential victories.FDR, Fireside Chat on the "Great Arsenal of Democracy," 1940įranklin D. Roosevelt went on to deliver around 30 fireside chats over the course of his long presidency, as the nation took on economic recovery, only to be thrust headlong into World War II. Through it all, FDR continued to speak to the American people directly through his radio addresses. Then a second severe contraction in 1938 reversed many gains in production and employment and prolonged the effects of the Great Depression through the end of the decade. After a period of gradual recovery, a sharp recession hit in 1937. It was a long, hard slog, however, before the country began to regain its economic foothold. A single fireside chat could generate more than 450,000 cards, letters and telegrams. March 15, the first day stocks were traded after the banking holiday, saw the market’s largest ever one-day percentage price increase, reflecting a new surge of confidence among American investors.īefore Roosevelt’s second radio address, broadcast on May 7, 1933, the CBS station manager Harold Butcher dubbed the speeches “fireside chats.” Thousands of letters had begun pouring into the Roosevelt White House every day, many of them expressing gratitude for the president’s words. More than half of the funds Americans had withdrawn during the crisis were back in the bank within two weeks. The effect was powerful: On March 13, when healthy banks reopened, people lined up in droves to return their cash. In reality, his words had been carefully written, revised and fact-checked by a team of advisers, but Roosevelt had a way of making them feel informal and fresh. Using a slow, calm and steady voice that rose and fell naturally, he seemed to be engaging in a conversation with his listeners. Roosevelt wasn’t the first president to use the medium of radio, but he was the first to use it so effectively to speak directly to the American people, without the filter of the press. “Together we cannot fail.” Calming Effect of FDR's Words “Let us unite in banishing fear,” he concluded. (Yes, he was actually sitting next to a fireplace.)įinally, Roosevelt called on the American people to renew their “confidence and courage,” and to have “faith,” rather than be “stampeded by rumors or guesses.” That evening, at 10 pm Eastern time, Roosevelt addressed the nation via radio broadcast, directly from the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House. First Fireside Chat Addresses Banking Crisisīut on March 12, 1933, the day before banks were set to reopen, it wasn’t clear that these emergency measures had done enough to calm the public’s fears. Those that were judged to be healthy and stable enough would reopen on March 13.
The bill gave the federal government the power to investigate each bank’s finances.
Called into a special session, Congress passed the Emergency Banking Act on March 9. Two days later, he declared a nationwide “bank holiday,” temporarily shutting down the nation’s entire banking system. But stirring words would not be enough, and Roosevelt knew it: “This nation asks for action, and action now.”
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” Roosevelt famously declared on that cold and cloudy Inauguration Day.
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