s we begin 2009, the United States elect; Hoover was largely “incommunicative” and vigor has met with that understanding is in a dire financial crisis. That and “gloomy.” To the contrary, Roosevelt “felt and support of the people themselves which calamity may be vividly felt by hopeful about the country’s future and was is essential to victory. I am convinced that some more than others, but to eager to begin work on solving its problems.” 6 you will again give that support to leadership Americans of all stripes and He had promised a “” to the in these critical days. A political affiliations, Congress American people, and his inaugural address In such a spirit on my part and on yours and the President have appeared unable to was eagerly awaited in the hope that promise we face our common difficulties. They con - manage the economy, education and health would be clearly spelled out. cern, thank God, only material things. systems—let alone two wars. Americans were not to be disappointed. Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; There is a massive breakdown of a regu - The most famous line of the speech can be taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; latory system that was unable to adapt, in recited by millions of Americans to this day: government of all kinds is faced by serious this era of deregulation, to new and very “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” curtailment of income; the means of risky financial instruments. There is a credit Whether or not the era beginning in 1929 exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; freeze. Big banks, businesses and institutions and lasting until World War II will be a parallel the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie are closing, being bought out by others or to our times, it may help to endure the present on every side; farmers find no markets for accepting money from the federal govern - with the optimism we Americans are known their produce; the savings of many years in ment in return for a government equity for, as exemplified in Roosevelt’s inaugural thousands of families are gone. position. In the background, a looming speech. Are fireside chats not far behind? 7 More important, a host of unemployed decisive situation awaits with Social Security Inauguration day in 1933 was gray and citizens face the grim problem of existence, and Medicare. National debt appears to be cold. Roosevelt broke with the custom of sim - and an equally great number toil with little climbing out of control. Many economists ply saying “I do” after the Chief Justice’s read - return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the believe we are in a national recession and ing of the oath of office; instead, he repeated dark realities of the moment. that it will be a “hard” rather than a “soft” the entire oath. Then he turned to the crowds Yet our distress comes from no failure of recovery, with high unemployment rates. 1 standing along Pennsylvania Avenue who substance. We are stricken by no plague of The phenomenon is also worldwide. were gathered in front of the Capitol. locusts. Compared with the perils which our To some, the present times may be rem - “The new President appeared grave, he did forefathers conquered because they believed iniscent of 1929, when the stock market not smile once during the address. He spoke in and were not afraid, we have still much to be crashed in October and November of that a forceful and confident tone. It was time for thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty year. 2 At that time, there was a similar failure the President to speak the truth, he said, and and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty of the free market, causing the government for the nation to face its problems honestly. He is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it to sweep in and transform the economic and did not allow any doubt about the country’s languishes in the very sight of the supply. political landscape. The Great Depression ability to solve its problems and to endure and Primarily this is because the rulers of the fundamentally changed the nature of gov - prosper. … He took about 18 minutes.” 8 exchange of mankind’s goods have failed, ernment—the free market’s “edifice of wis - This January, a new president will face the through their own stubbornness and their dom and invincibility” was changed for all same challenge to inspire hope and confidence. own incompetence, have admitted their fail - time. 3 As in 1929, Americans today are As such, he and we may do well to take a few ure, and abdicated. Practices of the blaming rampant speculation and greed on moments to read the approach taken by anoth - unscrupulous money changers stand indict - Wall Street with a non-functioning Congress er president in similar times. ed in the court of public opinion, rejected by as the cause of their ills. the hearts and minds of men. Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected pres - First Inaugural Address True they have tried, but their efforts ident in November 1932. When he deliv - of Franklin D. Roosevelt, have been cast in the pattern of an outworn ered his first inaugural address to the nation Saturday, Mar. 4, 1933 tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have on Mar. 4, 1933, “Nearly 15 million peo - I am certain that my fellow Americans proposed only the lending of more money. ple were unemployed, about one-fourth of expect that on my induction into the Stripped of the lure of profit by which to the labor force, business bankruptcies and Presidency I will address them with a candor induce our people to follow their false lead - farm mortgage foreclosures were wide - and a decision which the present situation of ership, they have resorted to exhortations, spread, the banking system was on the our Nation impels. This is preeminently the pleading tearfully for restored confidence. verge of collapse.” 4 time to speak the truth, the whole truth, They know only the rules of a generation of People who were homeless were living in frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from self-seekers. They have no vision, and when shacks made from rubbish. There were out - honestly facing conditions in our country there is no vision, the people perish. breaks of violence by some fighting “against the today. This great Nation will endure as it has The money changers have fled from their economic system which was taking everything endured, will revive and will prosper. So, high seats in the temple of our civilization. away from them.” 5 The 1932 election was the first of all, let me assert my firm belief that We may now restore that temple to the first time the Communist Party ran a candidate the only thing we have to fear is fear itself— ancient truths. The measure of the restora - for president. There were long lines of unem - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror tion lies in the extent to which we apply ployed workers eating at soup kitchens. which paralyzes needed efforts to convert social values more noble than mere mone - Herbert Hoover was leaving the White retreat into advance. In every dark hour of tary profit. House while openly disdaining the President- our national life a leadership of frankness Happiness lies not in the mere possession

40 ARIZONA ATTORNEY JANUARY 2009 www.myazbar.org HON. ROBERT L. GOTTSFIELD Parallel Times, Parallel Messages Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Inaugural Address of 1933

HON. ROBERT L. GOTTSFIELD is a retired but called-back full-time judge of the Superior Court, Maricopa County. He is a frequent contributor to the magazine. Parallel Times, Parallel Messages

of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men. Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the stan - dards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous Unemployed men queued outside a Depression soup kitchen that was opened in Chicago by gangster Al Capone, February and selfish wrongdoing. Small wonder that 1931. (306-NT-165/319c, National Archives) confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obli - performance; without them it cannot live. the values of agricultural products and with gations, on faithful protection, on unselfish Restoration calls, however, not for this the power to purchase the output of our changes in ethics alone. cities. It can be helped by preventing realis - This Nation asks for tically the tragedy of the growing loss On Fear Itself action, and action now. through foreclosure of our small homes and Our greatest primary our farms. It can be helped by insistence President Roosevelt was known to rely for his speeches on drafts pre - task is to put people to that the Federal, State, and local govern - pared by others that he then would alter. 1 Despite that, the view that work. This is no unsolv - ments act forthwith on the demand that Roosevelt wrote his first inaugural unaided has been advanced, first by able problem if we face their cost be drastically reduced. It can be Samuel I. Rosenman, a member of the President’s “,” in his it wisely and coura - helped by the unifying of relief activities book Working With Roosevelt (1952). This notion was then included in geously. It can be which today are often scattered, uneconom - James MacGregor Burns’ Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox (1956). accomplished in part by ical, and unequal. It can be helped by The inspiration for the “fear” phrase was assumed to be Henry direct recruiting by the national planning for and supervision of all David Thoreau’s line, “Nothing is so much to be feared as fear,” as Government itself, forms of transportation and of communica - Roosevelt was known to have a copy of some of Thoreau’s writings. treating the task as we tions and other utilities which have a defi - But Raymond Moley, a close adviser to Roosevelt, claimed to have writ - would treat the emer - nitely public character. There are many ways ten the first draft of the address that Roosevelt then altered; according gency of a war, but at in which it can be helped, but it can never to Moley, the phrase was added by Louis Howe, Roosevelt’s longtime the same time, through be helped merely by talking about it. We aide. And he probably got it “not from Thoreau’s writings, but from a this employment, must act and act quickly. considerably more humble source—a department store’s newspaper accomplishing greatly Finally, in our progress toward a resump - advertisement” 2 To compound the mystery, there is a handwritten draft of the needed projects to stim - tion of work we require two safeguards speech preserved in the President’s speech file at the Franklin D. ulate and reorganize the against a return of the evils of the old order; Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park, , with an attached typed note, use of our natural there must be a strict supervision of all bank - dated Mar. 25, 1933. In it, Roosevelt appears to claim sole authorship: resources. ing and credits and investments; there must “I started it about 9:00 p.m. and ended at 1:30 a.m. … A number of Hand in hand with be an end to speculation with other people’s minor changes were made in subsequent drafts but the final draft is this we must frankly rec - money, and there must be provision for an substantially the same as this original.” 3 ognize the overbalance adequate but sound currency. Significantly, the “fear” phrase is not present in the handwritten of population in our These are the lines of attack. I shall draft. Historians to this day have not been able to settle the question of industrial centers and, presently urge upon a new Congress in spe - who wrote the famous phrase. To Americans, however, the speech was by engaging on a cial session detailed measures for their fulfill - and is Roosevelt’s—“no matter who wrote the words.” 4 national scale in a redis - ment, and I shall seek the immediate assis - tribution, endeavor to tance of the several States. endnotes provide a better use of Through this program of action we the land for those best address ourselves to putting our own nation - 1. Introduction by RAYMOND H. 2. Id. at 4. See RAYMOND MOLEY , T HE FIRST GESELBRACT , M ILESTONE DOCUMENTS NEW DEAL (1966). fitted for the land. The al house in order and making income bal - IN THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES , N ATIONAL 3. GESELBRACT , supra note 1 , at 2. task can be helped by ance outgo. Our international trade rela - ARCHIVES AND RECORDS 4. Id. at 6. ADMINISTRATION (1988), at 2. definite efforts to raise tions, though vastly important, are in point

42 ARIZONA ATTORNEY JANUARY 2009 www.myazbar.org Parallel Times, Parallel Messages of time and necessity secondary to the estab - produced. It has met every stress of vast ed and permanent national life. lishment of a sound national economy. I expansion of territory, of foreign wars, of We do not distrust the future of essen - favor as a practical policy the putting of first bitter internal strife, of world relations. tial democracy. The people of the United things first. I shall spare no effort to restore It is to be hoped that the normal balance States have not failed. In their need they world trade by international economic read - of executive and legislative authority may be have registered a mandate that they want justment, but the emergency at home can - wholly adequate to meet the unprecedented direct, vigorous action. They have asked not wait on that accomplishment. task before us. But it may be that an for discipline and direction under leader - The basic thought that guides these spe - unprecedented demand and need for unde - ship. They have made me the present cific means of national recovery is not nar - layed action may call for temporary depar - instrument of their wishes. In the spirit of rowly nationalistic. It is the insistence, as a ture from that normal balance of public pro - the gift I take it. first consideration, upon the interdepend - cedure. In this dedication of a Nation we ence of the various elements in all parts of I am prepared under my constitutional humbly ask the blessing of God. May He the United States—a recognition of the old duty to recommend the measures that a protect each and every one of us. May He and permanently important manifestation of stricken nation in the midst of a stricken guide me in the days to come. the American spirit of the pioneer. It is the world may require. These measures, or such way to recovery. It is the immediate way. It other measures as the Congress may build is the strongest assurance that the recovery out of its experience and wisdom, I shall Within two days of taking the oath of will endure. seek, within my constitutional authority, to office, President Roosevelt called Congress In the field of world policy I would ded - bring to speedy adoption. into extraordinary session and began, dur - icate this Nation to the policy of the good But in the event that the Congress shall ing the famous “Hundred Days” over the neighbor—the neighbor who resolutely fail to take one of these two courses, and in next three and a half months, the passage respects himself and, because he does so, the event that the national emergency is of a body of legislation to prevent financial respects the rights of others—the neighbor still critical, I shall not evade the clear collapse and begin the nation’s economic who respects his obligations and respects the course of duty that will then confront me. I recovery. 9 sanctity of his agreements in and with a shall ask the Congress for the one remain - world of neighbors. ing instrument to meet the crisis—broad Epilogue If I read the temper of our people cor - Executive power to wage a war against the Thomas L. Friedman, in a recent opinion rectly, we now realize as we have never real - emergency, as great as the power that piece, 10 aptly wrote: ized before our interdependence on each would be given to me if we were in fact “Taking office at a time of crisis doesn’t other; that we can not merely take but we invaded by a foreign foe. guarantee greatness, but it can be an must give as well; that if we are to go for - For the trust reposed in me I will return occasion for it,” argued the Harvard ward, we must move as a trained and loyal the courage and the devotion that befit the University political philosopher Michael army willing to sacrifice for the good of a time. I can do no less. Sandel. ...“Like Obama, [F.D.R.] did common discipline, because without such We face the arduous days that lie before not take office with a clearly articulated discipline no progress is made, no leadership us in the warm courage of the national governing philosophy. He arrived with a becomes effective. We are, I know, ready and unity; with the clear consciousness of seek - confident, activist spirit and experiment - willing to submit our lives and property to ing old and precious moral values; with the ed. ...[Today’s] challenges are so great such discipline, because it makes possible a clean satisfaction that comes from the stern that [Obama] will only succeed if he is leadership which aims at a larger good. This performance of duty by old and young able to articulate a new politics of the

AZ I propose to offer, pledging that the larger alike. We aim at the assurance of a round - common good.” AT purposes will bind upon us all as a sacred obligation with a unity of duty hitherto evoked only in time of armed strife. endnotes With this pledge taken, I assume unhesi - 1. For the worsening economic prices or economic conditions. subject_menus/inaug.asp. tatingly the leadership of this great army of situation in Arizona, see The economy also has reces - 5. GESELBRACT , supra note 4. Marshall J. Vest, Arizona’s sions periodically (1982, 1991, 6. Id. at 1. our people dedicated to a disciplined attack Economic Review and Outlook, 2001), none of which resulted 7. President-elect Barack upon our common problems. (Eller College of Management, in a 1929-caused New Deal. Obama is already doing Action in this image and to this end is University of Arizona), July 21, Jonathan Chait, End of an a 21-century chat weekly, 2008, available at: www.eller. Error, NEW REPUBLIC , Oct. 22, online at http:// feasible under the form of government arizona.edu/docs/press/ 2008, at 5. change.gov (click on his which we have inherited from our ancestors. 2007/12/EllerCollege_Econo 3. Id. Thanksgiving address). Our Constitution is so simple and practical micOutlookLuncheon_ 4. Introduction by RAYMOND 8. GESELBRACT , supra note 4 Dec07_2007.pdf H. G ESELBRACT , M ILESTONE at 6 and 7. that it is possible always to meet extraordi - 2. A similar crash occurred world - DOCUMENTS IN THE NATIONAL 9. Id. at 8. nary needs by changes in emphasis and wide on Oct. 19, 1988, known ARCHIVES , N ATIONAL ARCHIVES 10. Finishing Our Work, arrangement without loss of essential form. as “Black Monday,” but it did AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION N.Y. T IMES , Nov. 5, 2008, not create the turmoil the tur - (1988), at 2. Roosevelt’s available at: That is why our constitutional system has moil the present crash is caus - Inaugural and other speeches www.nytimes.com/2008/ proved itself the most superbly enduring ing. A stock market crash is a are available at: 11/05/opinion/ political mechanism the modern world has precipitous drop in market http://avalon.law.yale.edu/ 05friedman.html?_r=1

44 ARIZONA ATTORNEY JANUARY 2009 www.myazbar.org