ROOSEVELT’S OCT. 31, 1936 SPEECH – RESTORE AMERICA!

 

 

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(Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave this speech at New York City’s Madison Square Garden basketball arena – On Oct. 31, 1936.)

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Senator Wagner, Governor Lehman-(NY), ladies and gentlemen:

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On the eve of a national election, it is well for us to stop for a moment and analyze calmly and without prejudice the effect on our Nation of a victory by either of the major political parties.

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The problem of the electorate is far deeper, far more vital than the continuance in the Presidency of any individual. For the greater issue goes beyond units of humanity—it goes to humanity itself.

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In 1932 the issue was the restoration of American democracy; and the American people were in a mood to win.  They did win.  In 1936 the issue is the preservation of their victory.  Again they are in a mood to win.  Again they will win.

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More than four years ago in accepting the Democratic nomination in Chicago, I said:  “Give me your help not to win votes alone, but to win in this crusade to restore America to its own people.”

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The banners of that crusade still fly in the van of a Nation that is on the march.

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It is needless to repeat the details of the program which this Administration has been hammering out on the anvils of experience.  No amount of misrepresentation or statistical contortion can conceal or blur or smear that record.  Neither the attacks of unscrupulous enemies nor the exaggerations of over-zealous friends will serve to mislead the American people.

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What was our hope in 1932? Above all other things the American people wanted peace.  They wanted peace of mind instead of gnawing fear.

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First, they sought escape from the personal terror which had stalked them for three years.  They wanted the peace that comes from security in their homes: safety for their savings, permanence in their jobs, a fair profit from their enterprise.

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Tonight I call the roll—the roll of honor of those who stood with us in 1932 and still stand with us today.

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Written on it are the names of millions who never had a chance—men at starvation wages, women in sweatshops, children at looms.

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Written on it are the names of those who despaired, young men and young women for whom opportunity had become a will-o’-the-wisp.

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Written on it are the names of farmers whose acres yielded only bitterness, business men whose books were portents of disaster, home owners who were faced with eviction, frugal citizens whose savings were insecure.

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For twelve years this Nation was afflicted with hear-nothing, see-nothing, do-nothing Government.  The Nation looked to Government but the Government looked away.  Nine mocking years with the golden calf and three long years of the scourge! Nine crazy years at the ticker and three long years in the breadlines!  Nine mad years of mirage and three long years of despair! Powerful influences strive today to restore that kind of government with its doctrine that that Government is best which is most indifferent.

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We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace—business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.

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They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs.  We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.

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Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today.  They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred.

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We have only just begun to fight.

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All this—all these objectives—spell peace at home.  All our actions, all our ideals, spell also peace with other nations.

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Today there is war and rumor of war.  We want none of it. But while we guard our shores against threats of war, we will continue to remove the causes of unrest and antagonism at home which might make our people easier victims to those for whom foreign war is profitable.  You know well that those who stand to profit by war are not on our side in this campaign.

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“Peace on earth, good will toward men”—democracy must cling to that message.  For it is my deep conviction that democracy cannot live without that true religion which gives a nation a sense of justice and of moral purpose.  Above our political forums, above our market places stand the altars of our faith—altars on which burn the fires of devotion that maintain all that is best in us and all that is best in our Nation.

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We have need of that devotion today. It is that which makes it possible for government to persuade those who are mentally prepared to fight each other to go on instead, to work for and to sacrifice for each other.  That is why we need to say with the Prophet: “What doth the Lord require of thee—but to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God.”  That is why the recovery we seek, the recovery we are winning, is more than economic.  In it are included justice and love and humility, not for ourselves as individuals alone, but for our Nation.

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That is the road to peace.

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