State of the Union Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt
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Franklin D. Roosevelt >> State of the Union Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt
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12 This eBook was produced by James Linden.
The addresses are separated by three asterisks: ***
Dates of addresses by Franklin D. Roosevelt in this eBook:
January 3, 1934
January 7, 1943
January 11, 1944
January 6, 1945
January 4, 1935
January 3, 1936
January 6, 1937
January 3, 1938
January 4, 1939
January 3, 1940
January 6, 1941
January 6, 1942
***
State of the Union Address
Franklin D. Roosevelt
January 3, 1934
Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, Senators and Representatives in Congress:
I COME before you at the opening of the Regular Session of the 73d
Congress, not to make requests for special or detailed items of
legislation; I come, rather, to counsel with you, who, like myself, have
been selected to carry out a mandate of the whole people, in order that
without partisanship you and I may cooperate to continue the restoration of
our national wellbeing and, equally important, to build on the ruins of the
past a new structure designed better to meet the present problems of modern
civilization.
Such a structure includes not only the relations of industry and
agriculture and finance to each other but also the effect which all of
these three have on our individual citizens and on the whole people as a
Nation.
Now that we are definitely in the process of recovery, lines have been
rightly drawn between those to whom this recovery means a return to old
methods—and the number of these people is small—and those for whom recovery
means a reform of many old methods, a permanent readjustment of many of our
ways of thinking and therefore of many of our social and economic
arrangements. . . . .
Civilization cannot go back; civilization must not stand still. We have
undertaken new methods. It is our task to perfect, to improve, to alter
when necessary, but in all cases to go forward. To consolidate what we are
doing, to make our economic and social structure capable of dealing with
modern life is the joint task of the legislative, the judicial, and the
executive branches of the national Government.
Without regard to party, the overwhelming majority of our people seek a
greater opportunity for humanity to prosper and find happiness. They
recognize that human welfare has not increased and does not increase
through mere materialism and luxury, but that it does progress through
integrity, unselfishness, responsibility and justice.
In the past few months, as a result of our action, we have demanded of many
citizens that they surrender certain licenses to do as they please ,in
their business relationships; but we have asked this in exchange for the
protection which the State can give against exploitation by their fellow
men or by combinations of their fellow men.
I congratulate this Congress upon the courage, the earnestness and the
efficiency with which you met the crisis at the Special Session. It was
your fine understanding of the national problem that furnished the example
which the country has so splendidly followed. I venture to say that the
task confronting the First Congress of 1789 was no greater than your own.
I shall not attempt to set forth either the many phases of the crisis which
we experienced last March, or the many measures which you and I undertook
during the Special Session that we might initiate recovery and reform.
It is sufficient that I should speak in broad terms of the results of our
common counsel. The credit of the Government has been fortified by drastic
reduction in the cost of its permanent agencies through the Economy Act.
With the twofold purpose of strengthening the whole financial structure and
of arriving eventually at a medium of exchange which over the years will
have less variable purchasing and debt paying power for our people than
that of the past, I have used the authority granted me to purchase all
American-produced gold and silver and to buy additional gold in the world
markets. Careful investigation and constant study prove that in the matter
of foreign exchange rates certain of our sister Nations find themselves so
handicapped by internal and other conditions that they feel unable at this
time to enter into stabilization discussion based on permanent and
world-wide objectives.
The overwhelming majority of the banks, both national and State, which
reopened last spring, are in sound condition and have been brought within
the protection of Federal insurance. In the case of those banks which were
not permitted to reopen, nearly six hundred million dollars of frozen
deposits are being restored to the depositors through the assistance of the
national Government.
We have made great strides toward the objectives of the National Industrial
Recovery Act, for not only have several millions of our unemployed been
restored to work, but industry is organizing itself with a greater
understanding that reasonable profits can be earned while at the same time
protection can be assured to guarantee to labor adequate pay and proper
conditions of work. Child labor is abolished. Uniform standards of hours
and wages apply today to 95 percent of industrial employment within the
field of the National Industrial Recovery Act. We seek the definite end of
preventing combinations in furtherance of monopoly and in restraint of
trade, while at the same time we seek to prevent ruinous rivalries within
industrial groups which in many cases resemble the gang wars of the
underworld and in which the real victim in every case is the public
itself.
Under the authority of this Congress, we have brought the component parts
of each industry together around a common table, just as we have brought
problems affecting labor to a common meeting ground. Though the machinery,
hurriedly devised, may need readjustment from time to time, nevertheless I
think you will agree with me that we have created a permanent feature of
our modernized industrial structure and that it will continue under the
supervision but not the arbitrary dictation of Government itself.
You recognized last spring that the most serious part of the debt burden
affected those who stood in danger of losing their farms and their homes. I
am glad to tell you that refinancing in both of these cases is proceeding
with good success and in all probability within the financial limits set by
the Congress.
But agriculture had suffered from more than its debts. Actual experience
with the operation of the Agricultural Adjustment Act leads to my belief
that thus far the experiment of seeking a balance between production and
consumption is succeeding and has made progress entirely in line with
reasonable expectations toward the restoration of farm prices to parity. I
continue in my conviction that industrial progress and prosperity can only
be attained by bringing the purchasing power of that portion of our
population which in one form or another is dependent upon agriculture up to
a level which will restore a proper balance between every section of the
country and between every form of work.
In this field, through carefully planned flood control, power development
and land-use policies in the Tennessee Valley and in other, great
watersheds, we are seeking the elimination of waste, the removal of poor
lands from agriculture and the encouragement of small local industries,
thus furthering this principle of a better balanced national life. We
recognize the great ultimate cost of the application of this rounded policy
to every part off the Union. Today we are creating heavy obligations to
start the work because of the great unemployment needs of the moment. I
look forward, however, to the time in the not distant future, when annual
appropriations, wholly covered by current revenue, will enable the work to
proceed under a national plan. Such a national plan will, in a generation
or two, return many times the money spent on it; more important, it will
eliminate the use of inefficient tools, conserve and increase natural
resources, prevent waste, and enable millions of our people to take better
advantage of the opportunities which God has given our country.
I cannot, unfortunately, present to you a picture of complete optimism
regarding world affairs.
The delegation representing the United States has worked in close
cooperation with the other American Republics assembled at Montevideo to
make that conference an outstanding success. We have, I hope, made it clear
to our neighbors that we seek with them future avoidance of territorial
expansion and of interference by one Nation in the internal affairs of
another. Furthermore, all of us are seeking the restoration of commerce in
ways which will preclude the building up of large favorable trade balances
by any one Nation at the expense of trade debits on the part of other
Nations.
In other parts of the world, however, fear of immediate or future
aggression and with it the spending of vast sums on armament and the
continued building up of defensive trade barriers prevent any great
progress in peace or trade agreements. I have made it clear that the United
States cannot take part in political arrangements in Europe but that we
stand ready to cooperate at any time in practicable measures on a world
basis looking to immediate reduction of armaments and the lowering of the
barriers against commerce.
I expect to report to you later in regard to debts owed the Government and
people of this country by the Governments and peoples of other countries.
Several Nations, acknowledging the debt, have paid in small part; other
Nations have failed to pay. One Nation—Finland—has paid the installments
due this country in full.
Returning to home problems, we have been shocked by many notorious examples
of injuries done our citizens by persons or groups who have been living of[
their neighbors by the use of methods either unethical or criminal.
In the first category—a field which does not involve violations :of the
letter of our laws—practices have been brought to light which have shocked
those who believed that we were in the past generation raising the ethical
standards of business. They call for stringent preventive or regulatory
measures. I am speaking of those individuals who have evaded the spirit and
purpose of our tax laws, of those high officials of banks or corporations
who have grown rich at the expense of their stockholders or the public, of
those reckless speculators with their own or other people's money whose
operations. have injured the values of the farmers' crops and the savings
of the poor.
In the other category, crimes of organized banditry, coldblooded shooting,
lynching and kidnapping have threatened our security.
These violations of ethics and these violations of law call on the strong
arm of Government for their immediate suppression; they call also on the
country for an aroused public opinion.
The adoption of the Twenty-first Amendment should give material aid to the
elimination of those new forms of crime which came from the illegal traffic
in liquor.
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, but 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.
It is to the eternal credit of the American people that this tremendous
readjustment of our national life is being accomplished peacefully, without
serious dislocation, with only a minimum of injustice and with a great,
willing spirit of cooperation throughout the country.
Disorder is not an American habit. Self-help and self-control are the
essence of the American tradition—not of necessity the form of that
tradition, but its spirit. The program itself comes from the American
people.
It is an integrated program, national in scope. Viewed in the large, it is
designed to save from destruction and to keep for the future the genuinely
important values created by modern society. The vicious and wasteful parts
of that society we could not save if we wished; they have chosen the way of
self-destruction. We would save useful mechanical invention, machine
production, industrial efficiency, modern means of communication, broad
education. We would save and encourage the slowly growing impulse among
consumers to enter the industrial market place equipped with sufficient
organization to insist upon fair prices and honest sales.
But the unnecessary expansion of industrial plants, the waste' of natural
resources, the exploitation of the consumers of natural monopolies, the
accumulation of stagnant surpluses, child labor, and the ruthless
exploitation of all labor, the encouragement of speculation with other
people's money, these were consumed in the fires that they themselves
kindled; we must make sure that as we reconstruct our life there be no soil
in which such weeds can grow again.
We have plowed the furrow and planted the good seed; the hard beginning is
over. If we would reap the full harvest, we must cultivate the soil where
this good seed is sprouting and the plant is reaching up to mature growth.
A final personal word. I know that each of you will appreciate that. I am
speaking no mere politeness when I assure you how much I value the fine
relationship that we have shared during these months of hard and incessant
work. Out of these friendly contacts we are, fortunately, building a strong
and permanent tie between the legislative and executive branches of the
Government. The letter of the Constitution wisely declared a separation,
but the impulse of common purpose declares a union. In this spirit we join
once more in serving the American people.
***
State of the Union Address
Franklin D. Roosevelt
January 7, 1943
Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, Members of the Seventy-eighth Congress:
This Seventy-eighth Congress assembles in one of the great moments in the
history of the Nation. The past year was perhaps the most crucial for
modern civilization; the coming year will be filled with violent conflicts-
yet with high promise of better things.
We must appraise the events of 1942 according to their relative importance;
we must exercise a sense of proportion.
First in importance in the American scene has been the inspiring proof of
the great qualities of our fighting men. They have demonstrated these
qualities in adversity as well as in victory. As long as our flag flies
over this Capitol, Americans will honor the soldiers, sailors, and marines
who fought our first battles of this war against overwhelming odds the
heroes, living and dead, of Wake and Bataan and Guadalcanal, of the Java
Sea and Midway and the North Atlantic convoys. Their unconquerable spirit
will live forever.
By far the largest and most important developments in the whole world-wide
strategic picture of 1942 were the events of the long fronts in Russia:
first, the implacable defense of Stalingrad; and, second, the offensives by
the Russian armies at various points that started in the latter part of
November and which still roll on with great force and effectiveness.
The other major events of the year were: the series of Japanese advances in
the Philippines, the East Indies, Malaya, and Burma; the stopping of that
Japanese advance in the mid-Pacific, the South Pacific, and the Indian
Oceans; the successful defense of the Near East by the British
counterattack through Egypt and Libya; the American-British occupation of
North Africa. Of continuing importance in the year 1942 were the unending
and bitterly contested battles of the convoy routes, and the gradual
passing of air superiority from the Axis to the United Nations.
The Axis powers knew that they must win the war in 1942 -or eventually lose
everything. I do not need to tell you that our enemies did not win the war
in 1942.
In the Pacific area, our most important victory in 1942 was the air and
naval battle off Midway Island. That action is historically important
because it secured for our use communication lines stretching thousands of
miles in every direction. In placing this emphasis on the Battle of Midway,
I am not unmindful of other successful actions in the Pacific, in the air
and on land and afloat —especially those on the Coral Sea and New Guinea
and in the Solomon Islands. But these actions were essentially defensive.
They were part of the delaying strategy that characterized this phase of
the war.
During this period we inflicted steady losses upon the enemy -great losses
of Japanese planes and naval vessels, transports and cargo ships. As early
as one year ago, we set as a primary task in the war of the Pacific a
day-by-day and week-by-week and month-by-month destruction of more Japanese
war materials than Japanese industry could replace. Most certainly, that
task has been and is being performed by our fighting ships and planes. And
a large part of this task has been accomplished by the gallant crews of our
American submarines who strike on the other side of the Pacific at Japanese
ships—right up at the very mouth of the harbor of Yokohama.
We know that as each day goes by, Japanese strength in ships and planes is
going down and down, and American strength in ships and planes is going up
and up. And so I sometimes feel that the eventual outcome can now be put on
a mathematical basis. That will become evident to the Japanese people
themselves when we strike at their own home islands, and bomb them
constantly from the air.
And in the attacks against Japan, we shall be joined with the heroic people
of China—that great people whose ideals of peace are so closely akin to our
own. Even today we are flying as much lend-lease material into China as
ever traversed the Burma Road, flying it over mountains 17,000 feet high,
flying blind through sleet and snow. We shall overcome all the formidable
obstacles, and get the battle equipment into China to shatter the power of
our common enemy. From this war, China will realize the security, the
prosperity and the dignity, which Japan has sought so ruthlessly to
destroy.
The period of our defensive attrition in the Pacific is drawing to a close.
Now our aim is to force the Japanese to fight. Last year, we stopped them.
This year, we intend to advance.
Turning now to the European theater of war, during this past year it was
clear that our first task was to lessen the concentrated pressure on the
Russian front by compelling Germany to divert part of her manpower and
equipment to another theater of war. After months of secret planning and
preparation in the utmost detail, an enormous amphibious expedition was
embarked for French North Africa from the United States and the United
Kingdom in literally hundreds of ships. It reached its objectives with very
small losses, and has already produced an important effect upon the whole
situation of the war. It has opened to attack what Mr. Churchill well
described as "the under-belly of the Axis," and it has removed the always
dangerous threat of an Axis attack through West Africa against the South
Atlantic Ocean and the continent of South America itself.
The well-timed and splendidly executed offensive from Egypt by the British
Eighth Army was a part of the same major strategy of the United Nations.
Great rains and appalling mud and very limited communications have delayed
the final battles of Tunisia. The Axis is reinforcing its strong positions.
But I am confident that though the fighting will be tough, when the final
Allied assault is made, the last vestige of Axis power will be driven from
the whole of the south shores of the Mediterranean.
Any review of the year 1942 must emphasize the magnitude and the diversity
of the military activities in which this Nation has become engaged. As I
speak to you, approximately one and a half million of our soldiers,
sailors, marines, and fliers are in service outside of our continental
limits, all through the world. Our merchant seamen, in addition, are
carrying supplies to them and to our allies over every sea lane.
Few Americans realize the amazing growth of our air strength, though I am
sure our enemy does. Day in and day out our forces are bombing the enemy
and meeting him in combat on many different fronts in every part of the
world. And for those who question the quality of our aircraft and the
ability of our fliers, I point to the fact that, in Africa, we are shooting
down two enemy planes to every one we lose, and in the Pacific and the
Southwest Pacific we are shooting them down four to one.
We pay great tribute—the tribute of the United States of America— to the
fighting men of Russia and China and Britain and the various members of the
British Commonwealth- the millions of men who through the years of this war
have fought our common enemies, and have denied to them the world conquest
which they sought.
We pay tribute to the soldiers and fliers and seamen of others of the
United Nations whose countries have been overrun by Axis hordes.
As a result of the Allied occupation of North Africa, powerful units of the
French Army and Navy are going into action. They are in action with the
United Nations forces. We welcome them as allies and as friends. They join
with those Frenchmen who, since the dark days of June, 1940, have been
fighting valiantly for the liberation of their stricken country.
We pay tribute to the fighting leaders of our allies, to Winston Churchill,
to Joseph Stalin, and to the Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. Yes, there is a
very great unanimity between the leaders of the United Nations. This unity
is effective in planning and carrying out the major strategy of this war
and in building up and in maintaining the lines of supplies.
I cannot prophesy. I cannot tell you when or where the United Nations are
going to strike next in Europe. But we are going to strike- and strike
hard. I cannot tell you whether we are going to hit them in Norway, or
through the Low Countries, or in France, or through Sardinia or Sicily, or
through the Balkans, or through Poland- or at several points
simultaneously. But I can tell you that no matter where and when we strike
by land, we and the British and the Russians will hit them from the air
heavily and relentlessly. Day in and day out we shall heap tons upon tons
of high explosives on their war factories and utilities and seaports.
Hitler and Mussolini will understand now the enormity of their
miscalculations—that the Nazis would always have the advantage of superior
air power as they did when they bombed Warsaw, and Rotterdam, and London
and Coventry. That superiority has gone—forever.
Yes, the Nazis and the Fascists have asked for it—and they are going to get
it.
Our forward progress in this war has depended upon our progress on the
production front.
There has been criticism of the management and conduct of our war
production. Much of this self-criticism has had a healthy effect. It has
spurred us on. It has reflected a normal American impatience to get on with
the job. We are the kind of people who are never quite satisfied with
anything short of miracles.
But there has been some criticism based on guesswork and even on malicious
falsification of fact. Such criticism creates doubts and creates fears, and
weakens our total effort.
I do not wish to suggest that we should be completely satisfied with our
production progress today, or next month, or ever. But I can report to you
with genuine pride on what has been accomplished in 1942.
A year ago we set certain production goals for 1942 and for 1943. Some
people, including some experts, thought that we had pulled some big figures
out of a hat just to frighten the Axis. But we had confidence in the
ability of our people to establish new records. And that confidence has
been justified.
Of course, we realized that some production objectives would have to be
changed- some of them adjusted upward, and others downward; some items
would be taken out of the program altogether, and others added. This was
inevitable as we gained battle experience, and as technological
improvements were made.
Our 1942 airplane production and tank production fell short,
numerically—stress the word numerically of the goals set a year ago.
Nevertheless, we have plenty of reason to be proud of our record for 1942.
We produced 48,000 military planes—more than the airplane production of
Germany, Italy, and Japan put together. Last month, in December, we
produced 5,500 military planes and the rate is rapidly rising. Furthermore,
we must remember that as each month passes by, the averages of our types
weigh more, take more man-hours to make, and have more striking power.
In tank production, we revised our schedule- and for good and sufficient
reasons. As a result of hard experience in battle, we have diverted a
portion of our tank-producing capacity to a stepped-up production of new,
deadly field weapons, especially self-propelled artillery.
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