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Franklin D. Roosevelt January 20, 1937 WHEN four years ago we met to inaugurate
a President, the Republic, single-minded in anxiety, stood in spirit here. We
dedicated ourselves to the fulfillment of a vision—to speed the time when
there would be for all the people that security and peace essential to the
pursuit of happiness. We of the Republic pledged ourselves to drive from the
temple of our ancient faith those who had profaned it; to end by action,
tireless and unafraid, the stagnation and despair of that day. We did those
first things first. Our covenant with ourselves did
not stop there. Instinctively we recognized a deeper need—the need to find
through government the instrument of our united purpose to solve for the
individual the ever-rising problems of a complex civilization. Repeated
attempts at their solution without the aid of government had left us baffled
and bewildered. For, without that aid, we had been unable to create those
moral controls over the services of science which are necessary to make
science a useful servant instead of a ruthless master of mankind. To do this
we knew that we must find practical controls over blind economic forces and
blindly selfish men. We of the Republic sensed the
truth that democratic government has innate capacity to protect its people
against disasters once considered inevitable, to solve problems once
considered unsolvable. We would not admit that we could not find a way to
master economic epidemics just as, after centuries of fatalistic suffering,
we had found a way to master epidemics of disease. We refused to leave the problems
of our common welfare to be solved by the winds of chance and the hurricanes
of disaster. In this we Americans were
discovering no wholly new truth; we were writing a new chapter in our book of
self-government. This year marks the one hundred and
fiftieth anniversary of the Constitutional Convention which made us a nation.
At that Convention our forefathers found the way out of the chaos which
followed the Revolutionary War; they created a strong government with powers
of united action sufficient then and now to solve problems utterly beyond
individual or local solution. A century and a half ago they established the
Federal Government in order to promote the general welfare and secure the
blessings of liberty to the American people. Today we invoke those same powers
of government to achieve the same objectives. Four years of new experience have
not belied our historic instinct. They hold out the clear hope that
government within communities, government within the separate States, and
government of the Nearly all of us recognize that as
intricacies of human relationships increase, so power to govern them also
must increase—power to stop evil; power to do good. The essential democracy
of our Nation and the safety of our people depend not upon the absence of
power, but upon lodging it with those whom the people can change or continue
at stated intervals through an honest and free system of elections. The
Constitution of 1787 did not make our democracy impotent. In fact, in these last four years,
we have made the exercise of all power more democratic; for we have begun to
bring private autocratic powers into their proper subordination to the
public's government. The legend that they were invincible—above and beyond
the processes of a democracy—has been shattered. They have been challenged
and beaten. Our progress out of the depression
is obvious. But that is not all that you and I mean by the new order of
things. Our pledge was not merely to do a patchwork job with secondhand
materials. By using the new materials of social justice we have undertaken to
erect on the old foundations a more enduring structure for the better use of
future generations. In that purpose we have been
helped by achievements of mind and spirit. Old truths have been relearned;
untruths have been unlearned. We have always known that heedless
self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics. Out of
the collapse of a prosperity whose builders boasted their practicality has
come the conviction that in the long run economic morality pays. We are
beginning to wipe out the line that divides the practical from the ideal; and
in so doing we are fashioning an instrument of unimagined power for the
establishment of a morally better world. This new understanding undermines
the old admiration of worldly success as such. We are beginning to abandon
our tolerance of the abuse of power by those who betray for profit the
elementary decencies of life. In this process evil things
formerly accepted will not be so easily condoned. Hard-headedness will not so
easily excuse hardheartedness. We are moving toward an era of good feeling. But
we realize that there can be no era of good feeling save among men of good
will. For these reasons I am justified
in believing that the greatest change we have witnessed has been the change
in the moral climate of Among men of good will, science
and democracy together offer an ever-richer life and ever-larger satisfaction
to the individual. With this change in our moral climate and our rediscovered
ability to improve our economic order, we have set our feet upon the road of
enduring progress. Shall we pause now and turn our
back upon the road that lies ahead? Shall we call this the promised land? Or,
shall we continue on our way? For "each age is a dream that is dying, or
one that is coming to birth." Many voices are heard as we face a
great decision. Comfort says, "Tarry a while." Opportunism says,
"This is a good spot." Timidity asks, "How difficult is the
road ahead?" True, we have come far from the
days of stagnation and despair. Vitality has been preserved. Courage and
confidence have been restored. Mental and moral horizons have been extended. But our present gains were won
under the pressure of more than ordinary circumstances. Advance became
imperative under the goad of fear and suffering. The times were on the side
of progress. To hold to progress today,
however, is more difficult. Dulled conscience, irresponsibility, and ruthless
self-interest already reappear. Such symptoms of prosperity may become
portents of disaster! Prosperity already tests the persistence of our
progressive purpose. Let us ask again: Have we reached
the goal of our vision of that fourth day of March 1933? Have we found our
happy valley? 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 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. If I know aught of the spirit and
purpose of our Nation, we will not listen to Comfort, Opportunism, and
Timidity. We will carry on. Overwhelmingly, we of the Republic
are men and women of good will; men and women who have more than warm hearts
of dedication; men and women who have cool heads and willing hands of
practical purpose as well. They will insist that every agency of popular
government use effective instruments to carry out their will. Government is competent when all
who compose it work as trustees for the whole people. It can make constant
progress when it keeps abreast of all the facts. It can obtain justified
support and legitimate criticism when the people receive true information of
all that government does. If I know aught of the will of our
people, they will demand that these conditions of effective government shall
be created and maintained. They will demand a nation uncorrupted by cancers
of injustice and, therefore, strong among the nations in its example of the
will to peace. Today we reconsecrate our country
to long-cherished ideals in a suddenly changed civilization. In every land
there are always at work forces that drive men apart and forces that draw men
together. In our personal ambitions we are individualists. But in our seeking
for economic and political progress as a nation, we all go up, or else we all
go down, as one people. To maintain a democracy of effort
requires a vast amount of patience in dealing with differing methods, a vast
amount of humility. But out of the confusion of many voices rises an
understanding of dominant public need. Then political leadership can voice
common ideals, and aid in their realization. In taking again the oath of office
as President of the While this duty rests upon me I
shall do my utmost to speak their purpose and to do their will, seeking
Divine guidance to help us each and every one to give light to them that sit
in darkness and to guide our feet into the way of peace. |
