Franklin D. Roosevelt Quotes
I shall continue to regard it as my duty to use whatever means may be necessary to supplement State, local, and private agencies for the relief of suffering caused by unemployment. With respect to this question, I have recognized the dangers inherent in the direct giving of relief and have sought the means to provide not mere relief by the opportunity for useful and remunerative work. We shall, in the process of recovery, seek to move as rapidly as possible from direct relief to publicly supported work, and from that to the rapid restoration of private employment.
The country was in the midst of the Great Depression with a huge part of the nation unemployed. President Hoover and the Republicans had refused to provide any direct assistance to the unemployed—there was no unemployment insurance then. They actually believed that there was a danger of corrupting workers by providing assistance and ruining the American workforce. FDR probably saved the nation from massive violence by providing direct help to the unemployed but notice the way that he had to phrase such a notion which was then regarded as radical and socialistic by many conservatives.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1882-1945, 32nd President of the United States (Democrat, NY), State of the Union Address, 1934
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
FDR assumed office with the Great Depression raging, and rapidly provided relief to destitute Americans—see related quotes.
This statement was a total reverse of his predecessor’s policy. Hoover stubbornly refused to consider any direct relief for workers on the philosophical ground that it would weaken their character, make them dependent, and provide benefits for the people who were not working so the motivation to work would be lessened. When FDR pronounced this on the radio, it dramatically reversed U. S. policy and gave many people hope that the government might do something about the depression rather than just wait out the business cycle.
When he wrote this article, America was in the middle of the Great Depression. In its first 3 years, President Herbert Hoover, a great believer in private charity, was so rigid in his ideology, that he refused to allow the Federal Government to provide some relief to the vast number of people in need who had overwhelmed the capacity of private charities. At the same time, the more affluent whose generosity funded the charities, had seen their own fortunes slashed by the depression and the themselves were often failing. When Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected, he was much more flexible and when Flexner was writing this article, the Federal Government was performing many functions that before were only provided by private organizations.
This is a statement that in the early 21st century would be made only by ultra liberals. But in the in the late 1940’s this was not only standard democratic party thinking, but a large number of Republicans thought of the Government as the employer of last resort including their Presidential standard bearer.
New York’s highest court
In the midst of the depression:
There are some conservative economists and businessmen who believe that it is desirable to have some unemployment as a bulwark against inflation. If there are people without jobs, they will hold the general wage rates down.
Bush was the first President to explicitly and publicly explain to Americans the relationship between successful high school and college graduation and unemployment where it did not exist. We were moving ourselves into the information age.
- Born: January 30, 1882
- Died: April 12, 1945
- Nationality: American
- Profession: President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. A member of the Democratic Party, he won a record four presidential elections and became a central figure in world events during the first half of the 20th century. Roosevelt directed the federal government during most of the Great Depression, implementing his New Deal domestic agenda in response to the worst economic crisis in U.S. history. As a dominant leader of his party, he built the New Deal Coalition, which defined modern liberalism in the United States throughout the middle third of the 20th century. His third and fourth terms were dominated by World War II, which ended shortly after he died in office.
