FDR: The Commonwealth Club Address
and A New Approach to Rights 23
September 1932, San Francisco
Henry B. Stobbs, MFA
Associate of Instruction, Kenyon College KAP
Unit: Civil Rights
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Background Context
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Depression
Stalin
Mussolini
Hitler
Tojo
The issue of Government, as FDR Sees It
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Do individuals exist to serve systems of
government and economics?
Do governments and systems of economics
exist to serve individuals?
The Road to Progress
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Alludes to Meredith Nicholson’s definition of
democracy as “…a quest, a never-ending
seeking for better things…” then adds “and
in the seeking for these things and the
thriving for better things, and in the seeking
of these things and the striving for them,
there are many roads… but only two general
directions.”
The Privilege of Government
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Echoes Hobbes and Locke, as well as A.d.T
Central tenet: Rulers bear a responsibility for
the welfare of their subjects
Criticizes Hamilton: “He was too impatient…
fundamentally … believed that the safety of
the republic lay in autocratic strength of
government…the destiny of the individual
was to serve the government
Jeffersonian Ideals
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FDR’s Interpretation of TJ:
 “Government was a means to an end, not an end in
itself.”
 The people had two sets of rights: “personal
competency” rights
 Rights related to acquiring and possessing property
 The exercise of property rights might interfere
with personal competency rights that the
government must intervene to protect
individualism
Outcome of Hamilton vs.Jefferson
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Jefferson (Democratic Republicans /
Democrats): 1
Hamilton (Federalists / Whig / Republican): 0
Individualism triumphs over elitist
republicanism, democracy trumps autocracy
19th Century: The Age of Industrialism
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While there was a frontier, poverty could be solved by
heading West
What happens when there’s no more West to flee toward?
The rise of the machine age, the potential for rising
standards of living for all
Government assumes a new role; enabler of “ruthless”
industrial expansion
“It has been traditional particularly in Republican
administrations for business urgently to ask the government
to put at private disposal all kinds of government
assistance”
Dangerous Last Frontier
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No more free land
Industrial combinations uncontrolled and
irresponsible units of power within the State
Opportunity no longer equal – a new
feudalism had emerged
Trust-busting
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Theodore Roosevelt: “[T]he first great Republican
progressive”
TR’s impossible mission: “…To destroy the large
combinations and return to the time when every man
owned his individual small business.”
Forced to play favorites between “good trusts” and “bad
trusts”
SCOTUS: “Rule of Reason”: a concentration of power is
permissible if the method by which it got its power, and
how it used that power, was reasonable.
1912: Enter Woodrow Wilson, Stage Left
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Jefferson: feared the encroachment of political
power upon individuals’ lives
Wilson: Power is financial: The greed and
irresponsibility of a highly centralized
economic system, upon whom great masses
of individuals depend for their safety and
livelihood, would if not controlled reduce its
“subjects” to “starvation and penury”
World War I Stifles Wilson’s Plans
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The situation was bad during Wilson’s time, but
worse now, because Wilson was forced to abandon
his domestic dreams to the realities of international
war
Equality of opportunity no longer exists
Industrial plant built – perhaps overbuilt
No more free land
More than half the populous own no land, do not
labor as farmers
The Effect of Tariffs
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Canadian borders closed to trade
European borders closed to trade
Latin American borders closed to trade
Much of Asian markets closed to trade
Industrialists going offshore – outsourcing
(familiar?)
Rising unemployment
Limited Opportunities
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The great corporations have eliminated the possibility of
small enterprise
Highly organized, efficient competitors have “squeezed
out” the small-holder (the corner grocer, anyone?)
Business concentration: two-thirds of business
controlled by 600 corporations; 10,000,000 people
control the remaining third
By the end of the century: all American industry
controlled by a dozen corporations run by a hundred
men – economic oligarchy
Re-appraisal of values Needed
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Task of “enlightened administration”:
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Administer resources and plants on hand
Seek to reestablish foreign markets for surplus
production
Meet the problem of underconsumption
Adjust production to consumption
Distribute wealth and products more equitably
Adapting existing economic organizations to the
service of the people
FDR’s View of Government’s Role
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“To assist the development of an economic
declaration of rights, an economic
constitutional order” by “modifying and
controlling our economic units”
(corporations)
Goal: “A more permanently safe order of
things”
Rights
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Right to life: right to make a comfortable
living
“Our government… owes to everyone an
avenue to possess himself of a portion of that
plenty sufficient for his needs, through his
own work” – compare: “To each, according to
his needs; from each, according to his ability”
More Rights
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Right to property: “…a right to be assured, to
the fullest extent attainable, in the safety of
his savings”
This right is paramount; all other property
rights must yield to it
Standing in the Way
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“Princes of property” versus “enlightened
businessmen”
“Responsible heads of business and finance
must work together to achieve a common
end.”
Government’s job: if they can’t do it on their
own, we’ll make them do it.
Another Right
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Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness
 Individual liberty and happiness are meaningless
unless ordered so that “one man’s meat is not
another man’s poison”
 Rights of personal competency “must be respected
at all hazards”
 “Liberty to do anything which deprives others of
elemental rights is outside the protection of any
compact”
 Government’s role: to maintain balance between
liberty and responsibility
Enter Faith, Stage Left
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New terms for the old social contract
Goal: realize Jefferson’s “apparent Utopia” –
neither he, nor Teddy Roosevelt nor Wilson
were able to pull it off, but…
“We must do so, lest a a rising tide of misery
engendered by our common failure, engulf us
all… we must all shoulder our common
load.”
Just one Opinion
Bibliography
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Roosevelt, Franklin Delano. “Commonwealth
Address.” [Speech]. Del. 23 Sept. 1932, San
Francisco, CA.