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INAUGURAL ADDRESSES OF FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

First Inaugural Address

Washington, D.C., March 4, 1933

Franklin Roosevelt came to the White House in the midst of the greatest economic failure the nation’s history. Thirteen million—roughly 25 percent of the work force—were unemployed; perhaps as many as two million were wandering the country looking for work or adventure. Steel plants were operating at 12 percent capacity; in three years, industrial construction had fallen from $949 million to $74 million. In the big cities, the homeless lived on empty lots in communities of makeshift shacks, and scrounged for food. Children went hungry and were kept out of school because they had nothing to wear. “I come home from the hill every night filled with gloom,” one Washington correspondent noted. “I see on street filthy, ragged, desperate-looking men, such as I have never seen before.”

By March 4, 1933, the day of Roosevelt’s inauguration, thirty-eight states had closed their banks. That morning the New York Stock Exchange closed, the Kansas City Board of Trade suspended operation, and the Chicago Board of Trade shut its doors for the first time since 1848. The nation paused, waiting to hear what the new President would say.

I AM CERTAIN that my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our Nation impels. This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.