"IT IS OUR PROBLEM. TOGETHER WE CANNOT FAIL"

FDR DELIVERS FIRST 'FIRESIDE CHAT' FROM WHITE HOUSE

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On March 12, 1933, ninety years ago today, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his first "Fireside Chat*" from the White House here in the Nation's Capital.

The President spoke into a radio microphone beginning at 10 p.m. local time.  The topic of the first "chat" is "On the Bank Crisis."  This address lasts 13 minutes 42 seconds.  

The President says...

"When you deposit money into a bank...the bank invests your money...put(ting) your money to work to keep the wheels of industry and agriculture turning around."  

The President continues...

"Your government does not intend that the history of the past few years shall be repeated.  We do not want and will not have another epidemic of bank failures.**  

Start(ing) tomorrow with the opening of banks in the 12 Federal Reserve Bank cities (and) followed on Tuesday (by) about 250 cities in the United States." 

FDR concludes the first Fireside Chat with these words...

"The success of our whole...program depends upon the cooperation of the public.  It is your problem no less than mine.  Together we cannot fail." 

*FDR gave 31 fireside chats between 1933 & 1944.  The President did not have a fireplace in the room where he spoke but CBS reporter Harry Butcher coined "fireside chat" to evoke FDR's comforting style of delivery to the American people.  

90% of American families had access to a radio receiver in their homes in 1933.  According to history.com, FDR took an active role in writing his speeches & was fond of 'ad-libbing.' Audio recordings of these chats may be accessed at the Museum of Broadcast Communications website, www.museum.tv/ 

 **By 1933, 9000 banks in the United States had closed down permanently.  America was in the grips of the Great Depression with 13 million unemployed.

SOURCES

"Fireside Chat on Banking,"  March 12, 1933, The American Presidency Project, www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ 

"Fireside Chats," History, April 23, 2010, www.history.com/

FDR Giving a Fireside Chat

NBC Radio Microphone

Used in Fireside Chats

National Museum of American History

Washington, D.C.

'WE ARE GOING TO WIN THE WAR"

FDR GIVES FIRST FIRESIDE CHAT AFTER WAR DECLARATION

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On December 9, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave a Fireside Chat* to the nation.  It was just two days following the attack by Japanese naval and air forces on the United States naval base in Honolulu, Hawaii and the day following the U.S. declaration of war on the Japanese Empire.

 The President said...

"We are now in the midst of a war, not for conquest, not for vengeance, but for a world in which this Nation...will be safe for our children.

We are going to win the war and we are going to win the peace that follows.

And in the difficult hours of this day--through dark days...yet to come--we know that...the human race (is) on our side."

 

*Fireside Chat(s) were a series of evening radio speeches given by FDR between 1933 & 1944.  The 30 addresses ranged from 11 to 44 minutes. The name was coined by CBS reporter Harry Butcher to illustrate the informality of FDR's speeches although the President was not sitting beside a fireplace when he spoke.  They helped calm the nation during the crises of the Great Depression & World War II.

 

SOURCES

"December 1941," Franklin D. Roosevelt Day by Day, Pare Lorentz Center, FDR Presidential Library, www.fdrlibrary.marxist.edu/

"The Fireside Chats," History.com, Editors, April 23, 2010, www.history.com/

 

 

 

 NBC Microphone

National Museum of History

Photo by Sagie (2009)

Flickr: NBC mic used by

FDR DSC_0719