Unit 7 Essential Documents for Students APUSH Revised Coursse
Eugene V. Debs
Political Appeal to
American Workers
(1912)
From
Eugene
V.
Debs,
Labor
&
Freedom,
St.Louis
1916,
pp.132-51.
Opening Speech of National Campaign, Riverview Park, Chicago, June 16, 1912.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.
Friends, Comrades and Fellow-Workers: We are today entering upon a national campaign of the
profoundest interest to the working class and the country. In this campaign there are but two parties
and but one issue. There is no longer even the pretense of difference between the so-called
Eepublican and Democratic parties. They are substantially one in what they stand for. They are
opposed to each other on no question of principle but purely in a contest for the spoils of office.
To the workers of the country these two parties in name are one in fact. They, or rather., it, stands
for capitalism, for the private ownership of the means of subsistence, for the exploitation ol the
workers, and for wage-slavery.
Both of these old capitalist class machines are going to pieces. Having outlived their time they
have become corrupt and worse than useless and now present a spectacle of political degeneracy
never before witnessed in this or any other country. Both are torn by dissension and rife with
disintegration. The evolution of the forces underlying them is tearing them from their foundations
and sweeping them to inevitable destruction.
We have before us in this city at this hour an exhibition of capitalist machine politics which lays
bare the true inwardness of the situation in the capitalist camp. Nothing that any Socialist has ever
charged in the way of corruption is to be compared with what Taft and Eoosevelt have charged and
proven upon one another. They are both good Republicans, just as Harmon and Bryan are both good
Democrats - and they are all agreed that Socialism would be the ruination of the country.
Puppets of the Ruling Class
Taft and Roosevelt in the exploitation of their boasted individualism, and their mad fight for
official spoils have been forced to expose the whole game of capitalist class politics and reveal
themselves and the whole brood of capitalist politicians in their true role before the American
people. They are all the mere puppets of the ruling class. They are literally bought, paid for and
owned, body and soul, by the powers that are exploiting this nation and enslaving and robbing its
toilers.
What difference is there, judged by what they stand for, between Taft, Roosevelt, La Follette,
Harmon, Wilson, Clark and Bryan?
Do they not all alike stand for the private ownership of industry and the wage-slavery of the
working class?
What earthly difference can it make to the millions of workers whether the Republican or
Democratic political machine of capitalism is in commission?
That these two parties differ in name only and are one in fact is demonstrated beyond cavil
whenever and wherever the Socialist party constitutes a menace to their misrule. Milwaukee is a
case in point and there are many others. Confronted by the Socialists these long pretended foes are
forced to drop their masks and fly into each other's arms.
Twin Agencies of Wall Street
The baseness, hypocrisy and corruption of these twin political agencies of Wall Street and the
ruling class cannot be expressed in words. The imagination is taxed in contemplating their crimes.
There is no depth of dishonor to which they have not descended - no depth of depravity they have
not sounded.
To the extent that they control elections the franchise is corrupted and the electorate debauched,
and when they succeed in power it is but to execute the will of the Wall Street interests which
finance and control them. The police, the militia, the regular army, the courts and all the powers
lodged in class government are all freely at the service of the ruling class, especially in suppressing
discontent among the slaves of the factories, mills and mines, and keeping them safely in
subjugation to their masters.
How can any intelligent, pelf-respecting wageworker give his support to either of these corrupt
capitalist parties? The emblem of a capitalist party on a working man is the badge of his ignorance,
his servility and shame.
Marshalled in battle array, against these corrupt capitalist parties is the young, virile,
revolutionary Socialist party, the party of the awakening working class, whose red banners,
inscribed with the inspiring shibboleth of class-conscious solidarity, proclaim the coming triumph
of international Socialism and the emancipation of the workers of the world.
The Two Political Forces
Contrast these two political forces and the parties through which these forces find concrete
expression! On the one side are the trusts, the corporations, the banks, the railroads, the plutocrats,
the politicians, the bribe-givers, the ballot-box stuffers, the repeaters, the parasites, retainers and
jobhunters of all descriptions; the corruption funds, the filth, slime and debauchery of ruling class
politics; the press and pulpit and college, all wearing capitalism's collar, and all in concert
applauding its "patriotism" and glorifying in its plundering and profligate regime.
On the other side are the workers and producers of the nation coming into consciousness of their
interests and their power as a class, filled with the spirit of solidarity and thrilled with the new-born
power that throbs within them; scorning further affiliation with the parties that so long used them
to their own degradation and looking trustfully to themselves and to each other for relief from
oppression and for emancipation from the power which has so long enslaved them.
Honest toil, useful labor, against industrial robbery and political rottenness!
These are the two forces which are arrayed against each other in deadly and uncompromising
hostility in the present campaign.
Corrupt Capitalist Politics
We are not here to play the filthy game of capi talist politic?. There is the same relative differ
ence between capitalist class politics and working class politics that there is between capitalism and
Socialism.
Capitalism, having its foundation in the slavery and exploitation of the masses, can only rule by
corrupt means and its politics are essentially the reflex of its low and debasing economic character.
The Socialist party as the party of the work ing class stands squarely upon its principles in making
its appeal to the workers of the nation. It is not begging for votes, nor seeking for votes, nor
bargaining for votes. It is not in the vote market. It wants votes, but only of those who want it those who recognize it as their party and come to it of their own free will.
If, as the Socialist candidate for president, I were seeking office and the spoils of office I would
be a traitor to the Socialist party and a disgrace to the working class.
To be surp we want all the votes we can get and all that are coming to us but only as a means of
developing the political power of the working class in the struggle for industrial freedom, and not
that we may revel in the spoils of office.
Political Power
The workers have never yet developed or made use of their political power. They have played
the game of their masters for the benefit of the master class - and now many of them, disgusted with
their own blind and stupid performance, are renouncing politics and refusing to see any difference
between the capitalist parties financed by the ruling class to perpetuate class rule and the Socialist
party organized and financed by the workers themselves as a means of wresting the control of
government and of industry from the capitalists and making the working class the ruling class of
the nation and the world.
The Socialist party enters this campaign under conditions that could scarcely be more favorable
to the cause it represents. For the first time every state in the union is now organized and represented
in the national party, and every state will have a full ticket in the field: and for the first time the
Socialists of the United States have a party which takes its rightful place in the great revolutionary
working class movement of the world.
Four years ago with a membership of scarcely forty thousand we succeeded in polling nearly
half a million votes; this year when the campaign is fairly opened we shall have a hundred and fifty
thousand dues-paying members and an organization in all regards incalculably superior to that we
had in the last campaign.
We are united, militant, aggressive, enthusiastic as never before. From the Eastern coast to the
Pacific shore and from the Canadian line to the Mexican gulf the red banner of the proletarian
revolution floats unchallenged and the exultant shouts of the advancing hosts of labor are borne on
all the breezes.
There Is But One Issue
There is but one issue that appeals to this army the unconditional surrender of the capitalist class.
To be sure this cannot be achieved in a day and in the meantime the party enforces to the extent of
its power its immediate demands and presses steadily onward toward the goal. It has its constructive
program by means of which it develops its power and its capacity, step by step, seizing upon every
bit of vantage to advance and strengthen its position, but never for a moment mistaking reform for
revolution and never losing eight of the ultimate goal.
Socialist reform must not be confounded with so-called capitalist reform. The latter is shrewdly
designed to buttress capitalism; the former to overthrow it. Socialist reform vitalizes and promotes
the social revolution.
The National Convention
The national convention of the Socialist party recently held at Indianapolis was in all respects
the greatest gathering of representative Socialists ever held in the United States. The delegates there
assembled demonstrated their ability to deal efficiently with all the vita] problems which confront
the party. The convention was permeated in every fiber with the class-conscious, revolutionary
spirit and was thoroughly representative of the working class. Every question that came before that
body was considered and disposed of in accordance with the principles and program of the
international movement and on the basis of its relation to and effect upon the working class.
The platform adopted by the convention is a clear and cogent enunciation of the party's principles
and a frank and forceful statement of the party's mission. This platform embodies labor's indictment
of the capitalist system and demands the abolition of that system. It proclaims the identity of
interests of all workers and appeals to them in clarion tones to unite for their emancipation. It points
out the class struggle and emphasizes the need of the economic and political unity of the workers
to wage that struggle to a successful issue. It declares relentless war upon the entire capitalist regime
in the name of the rising working class and demands in uncompromising terms the overthrow of
wage-slavery and the inauguration of industrial democracy.
In this platform of the Socialist party the historic development of society is clearly stated and the
fact made manifest that the time has come for the workers of the world to shake off their oppressors
and exploiters, put an end to their age-long servitude, and make themselves the masters of the world.
To this end the Socialist party has been organized; to this end it is bending all its energies and
taxing all its resources; to this end it makes its appeal to the workers and their sympathizers
throughout the nation.
The Capitalist System Condemned
In the name of the workers the Socialist party condemns the capitalist system. In the name of
freedom it condemns wage-slavery. In the name of modern industry it condemns poverty, idleness
and famine. In the name of peace it condemns war. In the name of civilization it condemns the
murder of little children. In the name of enlightenment it condemns ignorance and superstition. In
the name of the future it arraigns the past at the bar of the present, and in the name of humanity it
demands social justice for every man, woman and child.
The Socialist party knows neither color, creed, sex, nor race. It knows no aliens among the op
pressed and down-trodden. It is first and last the party of the workers, regardless of their national
ity, proclaiming their interests, voicing their as pirations, and fighting their battles.
It matters not where the slaves of the earth lift their bowed bodies from the dust and seek to shake
off their fetters, or lighten the burden that oppresses them, the Socialist party is pledged to encourage
and support them to the full extent of its power. It matters not to what union they belong, or if they
belong to any union, the Socialist party which sprang from their struggle, their oppression, and their
aspiration, is with them through good and evil report, in trial and defeat, until at last victory is
inscribed upon their banner.
Fighting Labor's Battles
Whether it be in the textile mills of Lawrence and other mills of New England where men,
women and children are ground into dividends to gorge a heartless, mill-owning plutocracy; or
whether it be in the lumber and railroad camps of the far Northwest where men are herded like cattle
and insulted, beaten and deported for peaceably asserting the legal right to organize; or in the
conflict with the civilized savages of San Diego where men who dare be known as members of the
Industrial Workers of the World are kidnaped, tortured and murdered in cold blood in the name of
law and order; or in the city of Chicago where that gorgon of capitalism, the newspaper trust, is
beni upon crushing and exterminating the pressmen's union; or along the Harriman lines of railroad
where the slaves of the shops have been driven to the alternative of striking or sacrificing the last
vestige of their manhood and self-respect, in all these battles of the workers against their capitalist
oppressors the Socialist party has the most vital concern and is freely pledged to render them all the
assistance in its power.
These are the battles of the workers in the war of the classes and the battles of the workers,
wherever and however fought, are always and everywhere the battles of the Socialist party.
When Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone were seized by the brutal mine owners of the western
states and by their prostitute press consigned to the gallows, the Socialist party lost not an hour in
going to the rescue, and but for its prompt and vigorous action and the resolute work of its press
another monstrous crime against the working class would have blackened the pages of American
history.
Persecution of Loyal Leaders
In the unceasing struggle of the workers with their exploiters the truly loyal leaders are always
marked for persecution. Joseph Ettor and Arturo G'iovannitti would not now he in jail awaiting trial
for murder had they betrayed the slaves of the Lawrence mills. They were staunch and true; their
leadership made for industrial unity and victory, and for this reason alone the enraged and defeated
mill-owners are now hent upon sending them to the electric chair.
These fellow-workers of ours who are now on trial for murder are not one whit more guilty of
the crime with which they are charged than I am. The man who committed the murder was a
policeman, an officer of the law; the victim of the crime was as usual a striker, a wage-slave, a poor
working girl. Ettor and Giovannitti were two miles from the scene at the time and when the news
came to them they broke into tears - and these two workingmen who would have protected that poor
girl's life with their own are now to he tried for her murder.
Was ever anything in all the annals of heartless persecution more monstrous than this? Have the
mill-owners gone stark mad? Have they in their brutal rage become stone-blind? Whatever the
answer may be, it is certain that the Socialist party and organized labor in general will never see
these two innocent workers murdered in cold blood, nor will their agitation and protest cease until
they have been given their freedom.
The Campaign Now Opening
In the great campaign now pending the people, especially the toilers and producers, will be far
more receptive to the truths of Socialism than ever before.
Since the last national campaign they have had four years more of capitalism, of political
corruption, industrial stagnation, low wages and high prices, and many, very many of them have
come to realize that these conditions are inherent in the capitalist system and that it is vain and
foolish to hope for relief through the political parties of that system. These people have had their
eyes opened in spite of themselves. They have been made to see what the present system means to
them and to their children, and they have been forced to turn against it by the sheer instinct of
selfpreservation.
They look abroad and they see this fair land being rapidly converted into the private preserves
of a plutocracy as brutal and defiant as any privileged class that ever ruled in a foreign despotism;
they see machinery and misery go hand in hand: they see thousands idle and poverty-stricken all
about them while a few are glutted to degeneracy; they see troops of child-slaves ground into
luxuries for the rich while their fathers have become a drug on the labor market; they see parasites
in palaces and automobiles and honest workers in hovels or tramping the ties: they see the politics
of the ruling corporations dripping with corruption and putridity; they see vice and crime rampant,
prostitution eating like a cancer, and insanity and disease sapping the mental and physical powers
of the body social,, and involuntarily they cry out in horror and protest, THIS IS ENOUGH! THERE
MUST BE A CHANGE! And they turn with loathing and disgust from the Republican and
Democratic parties under whose joint and several maladministration these appalling conditions have
been brought upon the country.
The message of Socialism, which a few years ago was spurned by these people, falls today upon
eager ears and receptive minds. Their prejudice has melted away. They are now prepared to cast
their fortunes with the only political party that proposes a change of system and the only party that
has a right to appeal to the intelligence of the people.
First Socialist Congressman
The political beginning of the Socialist party in this country is now distinctly recognized by its
most implacable enemies. A single Socialist congressman has been sufficient to arouse the whole
nation to the vital issue of Socialism which confronts it. Victor L. Berger as the first and until now
the only representative of labor, has had the power, single-handed and alone, to compel the
respectful consideration of the American congress, for the first time in its history, of the rights and
interests of the working class. To be sure the capitalists do not relish this and so they have
consolidated the Republican and Democratic forces in Berger's district to defeat him, but the rising
tide of Socialism will overwhelm them both and not only triumphantly re-elect Berger but a score
of others to make the next congress resound with the demands of the working class.
Now is the time for the workers of this nation to develop and assert their political as well as their
economic power, to demonstrate their unity and solidarity.
Back up the economic victory at Lawrence with an overwhelming victory at the ballot box!
Sweep the minions of the mill-owners from power and fill every office from the ranks of the
workers; Deliver a crushing rebuke to the hireling-officials of San Diego by a united vote of the
workers that will rescue the city from the rule of the degenerates and place it forever under a
working class administration.
The Only Democratic Party
The Socialist party is the only party of the people, the only party opposed to the rule of the
plutocracy, the only truly democratic party in the world.
It is the only party in which women have equal rights with men, the only party which denies
membership to a man who refuses to recognize woman as his political equal, the only party that is
pledged to strike the fetters of economic and political slavery from womanhood and pave the way
for a race of free women.
The Socialist party is the only party that stands a living protest against the monstrous crime of
child labor. It is the only party whose triumph will sound onee and forever the knell of child slavery.
There is no hope under the present decaying system. The worker who votes the Republican or
Democratic ticket does worse than throw his vote away. He is a deserter of his class and his own
worst enemy,, though he may be in blissful ignorance of the fact that he is false to himself and his
fellow-workers and that sooner or later he must reap what he has sown.
Wages and Cost of Living
The latest census reports, covering the year 1909, show that the 6,615,046 workers in
manufactories in the United States were paid an average wage of $519 for the year, an increase of
not quite 9 per cent in five years, and an increase of 21 per cent in ten years, but the average cost of
living increased more than 40 per cent during the same time, to that in point of fact the wages of
these workers have been and are being steadily reduced in the progressive development of
production under the capitalist system, and this in spite of all the resistance that has been or can be
brought to bear by the federated craft unions. Here we are brought face to face with the imperative
need of the revolutionary industrial union, embracing all the workers and fighting every battle for
increased wages, shorter hours and better conditions with a solid and united front, while at the same
time pressing steadily forward in harmonious co-operation and under the restraints of selfdiscipline, developing the latent abilities of the workers, increasing their knowledge, and fitting
them for the mastery and control of industry when the victorious hosts of labor conquer the public
powers and transfer the title-deeds of the mines and mills and factories from the idle plutocrats to
the industrial workers to be operated for the common good.
Industrial Unity
If the printing trades were organized on the basis of industrial unionism the spectacle of local
unions in the same crafts pitted against each other to their mutual destruction would not be presented
to us in the City of Chicago, and the capitalist newspaper trust would not now have its heel upon
the neck of the union pressmen. For this lamentable state of affairs the craft union and William
Randolph Heart, its chief patron and promoter, are entirely responsible.
The Socialist party presents the farm workers as well as the industrial workers with a platform
and program which must appeal to their intelligence and command their support. It points out to
them clearly why their situation is hopeless under capitalism, how they are robbed and exploited,
and why they are bound to make common cause with the industrial workers in the mills and factories
of the cities, along the railways and in the mines in the struggle for emancipation.
The education, organization and co-operation of the workers, the entire body of them, is the
conscious aim and the self-imposed task of the Sociajist party. Persistently, unceasingly and
enthusiastically this great work is being accomplished. It is the working class coming into
consciousness of itself, and no power on earth can prevail against it in the hour of its complete
awakening.
Socialism Is Inevitable
The laws of evolution have decreed the downfall of the capitalist system. The handwriting is
upon the wall in letters of fire. The trusts are transforming industry and next will come the
transformation of the trusts by the people. Socialism is inevitable. Capitalism is breaking down and
the new order evolving from it is clearly the Socialist commonwealth.
The present evolution can only culminate in industrial and social democracy., and in alliance
therewith and preparing the way for the peaceable reception of the new order, is the Socialist
movement, arousing the workers and educating and fitting them to take possession of their own
when at last the struggle of the centuries has been crowned with triumph.
In the coming social order, based upon the social ownership of the means of life and the
production of wealth for the use of all instead of the private profit of the few, for which the Socialist
party stands in this and every other campaign, peace will prevail and plenty for all will abound in
the land. The brute struggle for existence will have ended, and the millions of exploited poor will
be rescued from the skeleton clutches of poverty and famine. Prostitution and the white slave traffic,
fostered and protected under the old order, will be a horror of the past.
The social conscience and the social spirit will prevail. Society will have a new birth, and the
race a new destiny. There will be work for all, leisure for all, and the joys of life for all.
Competition there will be, not in the struggle for existence, but to excel in good work and in
social service. Every child will then have an equal chance to grow up in health and vigor of body
and mind and an equal chance to rise to its full stature and achieve success in life.
Socialist Ideals
These are the ideals of the Socialist party and to these ideals it has consecrated all its energies
and all its powers. The members of the Socialist party are the party and their collective will is the
supreme law. The Socialist party is organized and ruled from the bottom up. There is no boss and
there never can be unless the party deserts its principles and ceases to be a Socialist party.
The party is supported by a dues-paying membership. It is the only political party that is so
supported. Each member has not only an equal voice but is urged to take an active part in all the
party councils. Each local meeting place is an educational center. The party relies wholly upon the
power of education, knowledge, and mutual understanding. It buys no votes and it makes no canvass
in the red-light districts.
The press of the patty is the most vital factor in its educational propaganda and the workers are
everywhere being aroused to the necessity of building up a working class press to champion their
cause and to discuss current issues from their point of view for the enlightenment of the masses.
This Is Our Year
Comrades and friends, the campaign before us gives us our supreme opportunity to reach the
American people. They have but to know the true meaning of Socialism to accept its philosophy
and the true mission of the Socialist party to give it their support. Let us all unite as we never have
before to place the issue of Socialism squarely before the masses. For years they have been
deceived, misled and betrayed, and they are now hungering for the true gospel of relief and the true
message of emancipation.
This is our year in the United States! Socialism is in the very air we breathe. It is the grandest
shibboleth that ever inspired men and women to action in this world. In the horizon of labor it shines
as a new-risen sun and it is the hope of all humanity.
Onward, comrades, onward in the struggle, until Triumphant Socialism proclaims an
Emancipated Race and a New World!
The I.W.W. in the Pacific Northwest
Silent agitator issued by Industrial Workers of the World.
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union that was founded in Chicago in
1905, and reached its height of influence in the United States in the 1910s and 1920s. Above all,
the I.W.W. was devoted to the principle of "One Big Union"; the idea that all workers should be
united in a single organization in order to place maximum pressure on their employers. While the
I.W.W. was successful in recruiting in many places throughout the country, its influence was
most widespread in the Pacific Northwest, as can be seen in the Digital Collections material
spotlighted below:
Tensions surrounding the Shingle Weavers' Union strike in Everett, Washington became
heightened in the summer of 1916 when organizers from the I.W.W. arrived in the town to
support the strikers and demand free speech. The opposition to the I.W.W. became increasingly
violent, ultimately boiling over in a deadly episode on November 5, 1916, known as the Everett
Massacre, in which five I.W.W. members and two sheriff's deputies were killed. The U.W.'s
collection, The Everett Massacre of 1916, displays news clippings, printed ephemera,
handwritten documents, and photographs connected with the Everett Massacre and the resulting
arrests and murder trial for the 74 I.W.W. members charged in connection with the event.
Some citizens of Centralia, Washington assaulted I.W.W. members (often called "Wobblies")
and destroyed their meeting hall in 1918, setting the stage for a new confrontation in 1919 when
the new I.W.W. hall was completed. During a parade on Armistice Day, November 11, 1919,
members of the American Legion attacked the new hall, which the I.W.W. members defended.
At the end of what became known as the Centralia Massacre, four Legionnaires were dead, one
man had been lynched, and ten Wobblies were on trial for murder. The U.W.'s collection, The
Centralia Massacre Collection, displays news clippings, printed reports and ephemera, and
photographs connected with the Centralia Massacre, particularly the attempts by the I.W.W. to
defend itself against the charge of violence by explaining the history of anti-I.W.W. violence in
Centralia and by clarifying facts about the event that had been distorted by media nationwide.
Another collection, the Pacific Northwest Historical Documents Database, also contains
documents relating to the Centralia Massacre, primarily the reports of labor spies about the
impact of the events in Centralia on the labor movement in Seattle. Finally, the Industrial
Workers of the World Photograph Collection contains a few photographs related to the event.
The Industrial Workers of the World played a prominent role in other, less violent labor disputes
throughout the region, and therefore many documents referencing the I.W.W. appear in the
U.W.'s collection, the Pacific Northwest Historical Documents Database. Some of these
documents are I.W.W. local charters, as well as letters and manuscripts written from a viewpoint
sympathetic to the I.W.W., by individuals involved in organized labor in Washington. In
addition, our digital collection contains dozens of photographs, from the entire IWW Photograh
Collection. More frequently, however, these are documents from the papers of individuals and
organizations opposed to the I.W.W.: the reports of labor spies employed by the Bon Marche's
store manager, Broussais Beck, and the materials they gathered as evidence, along with the
private and public statements of other men allied against the Wobblies.
More information can be found in the U.W. Libraries' subject guide "Industrial Workers of the
World Photograph Collection" which is an interpretive exhibit that examines the collections'
historical and cultural context.
*Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906*
Before 1907, all drugs could be sold and bought like any other consumer good. The manufacturer did
not even have to disclose the contents of his concoction. Hence the name patent medicine, the
adjective alluding to the fact that the composition was a trade secret, protected by a patented name.
Although there is no evidence that the American consumer ever complained about the free market in
drugs, there is plenty of evidence that his self appointed protectors complained bitterly and loudly. The
first landmark event in the federal regulation of drugs (and foods) was the Food and Drugs Act of 1906.
What did Congress intend to achieve with this seemingly laudable legislation? To protect people from
the sale of "adulterated" or "misbranded" foods or drugs, that is, "assur[ing] the customer of the
identity of the article purchased, not of its usefulness."
I say Congress's aim in enacting this legislation was seemingly laudable because, while it is desirable that
people know what drugs they buy, forcing manufacturers by law to list the ingredients of their products
is an unnecessary infringement on the free market -- the foot in the door of paternalistic-statist
protectionism. If Great American Drugs, Inc., wants to market a mystery product, there is no reason why
the government should prevent it from doing so. And if I want to buy such a pig in a poke, why should
the government prevent me from making that choice? People who want to be informed about the drugs
they buy and use would abstain from purchasing mystery products, and market forces would then
create a supply of truthfully labeled drugs. In short, there would be no need to prohibit the nondisclosure of the contents of medicinal (or other) products. It is enough to prohibit false disclosure and
to punish it, as fraud, by both criminal and civil penalities. As for nondisclosure, it would be "punished"
by the invisible hand of the market. The truth is that behind Congress's ostensible aim of combating
drug misbranding lay its growing antagonism to the habit of pharmacological self-pleasuring, manifested
by the act's specifically mandating the listing on the label of what were then the main ingredients of
Americans' favorite nostrums: alcohol, hypnotics, and sedatives. The relevant lines of the Food and
Drugs Act read as follows:
That for purposes of this Act an article shall also be deemed misbranded: ... if the package fails to bear a
statement on the label of the quantity or proportion of any alcohol, morphine, opium, cocaine, heroin,
alpha or beta eucaine, chloroform, cannabis, chloral hydrate, or acetanilide.
It is implicit in this sentence that, back then, Congress took for granted the legality of a free market in
drugs, including cannabis, cocaine, heroin, and morphine.
[...]
*The Harrison Act (1914) and It's Aftermath*
In 1914, Congress enacted another landmark piece of anti-drug legislation: the Harrison Narcotic Act.
Originally passed as a record-keeping law, it quickly became a prohibition statute. In the course of the
next seven years, by a curious coincidence of history -- if, indeed, it is a coincidence -- in Russia the
Soviet Union replaced the czarist empire, while in the United States the free market in drugs was
replaced by federal drug prohibition possessing unchallengeable authority. Excerpts from two key
Supreme Court decisions quickly tell the story.
In 1915, in a test of the Harrision Act, the Court upheld it but expressed doubts about its
constitutionality: "While the Opium Registration Act of December 17, 1914, may have a moral end, as
well as revenue, in view, this court, in view of the grave doubt as to its constitutionality except as a
revenue measure, construes it as such."
Yet, only six years later the Court considered objection to federal drug prohibition a taboo. In Whipple v.
Martinson the justices declared,
"There can be no question of the authority of the State in the exercise of its police power to regulate the
administration, sale, prescription, and use of dangerous and habit-forming drugs....
The right to exercise this power is so manifest in the interest of public health and welfare, that it is
unnecessary to enter upon a discussion of it beyond saying that it is too firmly established to be
successfully called in question.
In 1914, trading in and using drugs was a right. In 1915, limited federal drug controls were a
constitutionally questionable tax revenue measure. By 1921, the federal government had gained not
only complete control over so-called dangerous drugs, but also a quasi-papal immunity to legal
challenge of its authority. Thus has the rejection of one of our most basic constitutional rights become
transformed into reverence for one of our most baneful therapeutic-religious dogmas. Once ignited, the
fire of "progressive" drug protectionism spread and soon enveloped the whole contry, transforming the
Harrison Act into the legislative embodiment of the "moral principle that taking narcotics for other than
medicinal purposes was harmful and should be prevented." That threw the monkey wrench medicinal
purpose into the machinery of the trade in drugs; this undefined and undefinable concept has haunted
us ever since. In 1920, drug prohibitionists won another major victory: America was, at last, alcohol-free
-- if not de facto, then at least de jure. Since 1924, when Congress made it illegal to manufacture,
possess, or sell heroin, America has been free from heroin as well -- if not in practice, then at least in
theory.
[...]
In retelling this tale, it is impossible to overemphasize that, although initially the drug laws were
intended to protect people from being "abused" by drugs others wanted to sell them, this aim was soon
replaced by that of protecting them from "abusing" drugs they wanted to buy. The government thus
succeeded in depriving us not only of our basic right to ingest whatever we choose, but also of our right
to grow, manufacture, sell, and buy agricultural products used by man since antiquity.
CLAYTON ANTITRUST ACT
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Overview
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Resources
The Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914, codified at 15 U.S.C. 12-27, outlaws the following
conduct:
1. price discrimination;
2. conditioning sales on exclusive dealing;
3. mergers and acquisitions when they may substantially reduce competition;
4. serving on the board of directors for two competing companies.
DEFINITION FROM NOLO’S PLAIN-ENGLISH LAW DICTIONARY
A federal antitrust law, enacted in 1914, that amended and expanded upon the Sherman
Act (enacted in 1890), which prohibits direct or indirect interference with interstate trade.
Definition provided by Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary.
1921 Emergency Quota Law (An act to limit the immigration of aliens
into the United States)
H.R. 4075; Pub.L. 67-5; 42 Stat. 5.
67th Congress; May 19, 1921.
You can find the full text of this law as a PDF here.
SUMMARY
The objective of this act was to temporarily limit the numbers of immigrants to the
United States by imposing quotas based on country of birth. Annual allowable quotas
for each country of origin were calculated at 3 percent of the total number of foreignborn persons from that country recorded in the 1910 United States Census.
Exceptions to the quotas were made for government official and their families, aliens who were passing
through the US or visiting as tourists or temporary workers, immigrants from countries in the Western
hemisphere, and minor children of US citizens. The Quota Act also did not apply to countries with
bilateral agreements with the US on immigration, or to countries in the Asiatic Barred Zone (as defined
in the 1917 Immigration Act).
WWI
From 1914 to 1918 the major powers of Europe and many other Nations throughout the world
engaged in one of the greatest military conflicts of all time. In terms of scale, or the number of
countries and people involved, and devastation, both human and otherwise, WWI is second only to
WWII in magnitude. It was called the “war to end all wars” as many people believed that human
kind had finally learned the futility and destructive nature of war.
The United States wasn’t involved in causes and chain of events leading to WWI. Historical
European rivalries, militarism, territorial disputes and extreme national pride were all contributing
factors. On one side were the Central Powers of German, Austria-Hungary and Turkey. On the
other side were the Triple Entente of France, Britain, and Russia. The war began in 1914 with the
assassination of an Austrian Arch Duke Ferdinand. The United States did not enter the war until
1917 on the side of the allies, France and Britain. The U.S. troops were a decisive factor helping
break the stalemate in France and turn the tide in favor of the Allies. The Germans surrendered in
1918.
When the war began in 1914, most Americans wanted to remain neutral. In fact, Woodrow Wilson,
the U.S. president who would ask Congress for a declaration of war in 1917, ran on a campaign of
keeping the U.S. out of war. A number of factors eventually drew the United States into war. The
two primary factors were the close ties between the U.S. and Britain and the fact that Britain and
France were Democracies and Germany was a militaristic and totalitarian monarchy under Kaiser
Wilhelm II.
The outcome of WWI would set the stage for a second world war. President Woodrow Wilson in his
famous Fourteen Points speech called for peace without victory and the creation of the United
Nations to handle any future disputes between nations and to prevent future wars. The 1919 Treaty
of Versailles establishing the final terms of Germany’s surrender was anything but peace without
victory. Germany was forced to pay the war costs of France and Britain. Territory was taken and
Germany was also forced to accept fault for the conflict. It was a humiliating arrangement for the
proud Germans. In his rise to power, Adolph Hitler used the Versailles Treaty as fuel to enrage a
militaristic Germany seeking revenge. Wilson did not achieve his peace without victory. The League
of Nations was a failure at handling disputes as well.
WWI was the first modern war and the killing technology was incredible. Machine guns, the first
tanks, submarines, poison gas, and aircraft were just a few of the devastating weapons developed
for this conflict. The military tactics involved construction of trenches for protection against the
massive firepower. Millions of young men were slaughtered in the indiscriminate nature of modern
war. An entire generation went off to war seeking glory and adventure. The harsh reality of any
war rings true in the words of U.S. Civil War Union Army General, William Tecumseh Sherman:
"Some of you young men think that war is all glamour and glory, but let me tell you, boys, it is all
hell!" Unfortunately, lessons were not learned after WWI. It wasn’t the war to end all wars as the
harshness of the Treaty of Versailles, failure of diplomacy, and lack of leadership after the war in
Europe would set the stage for an even more devastating WWII.
World War I
1914-1918
The Road to War: 1890-1914
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1898: Germany begins its naval buildup.
1902: Britain and Japan conclude a naval alliance
1905: The First Moroccan Crisis.
1907: Anglo-Russian treaty over Persia.
o Triple Entente is completed.
 1911: Italy annexes Tripoli
 1912: The First Balkan War
 1913: The Second Balkan War
 1914: The Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated in Sarajevo
o World War I begins
The Course of the War: 1914-1918
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1914: The Battle of the Marne
o The Ottoman Empire enters the war
1915: The Armenian Massacre
1916: The Battle of Verdun.
1917: The February Revolution in Russia
o The United States enters the war on the Allied side
o The Balfour Declaration on Palestine
 1918: Germany and the Soviet Union conclude the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
o President Wilson's Fourteen Points
o Armistice ends the war.
The Aftermath
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1918: Revolutions in Germany, Austria and Turkey.
1919: Allied governments intervene in Russia
The Treaty of Versailles is ratified.
The League of Nations is founded.
19 January, 1917: The Zimmerman Note
Berlin, January 19, 1917
On the first of February we intend to begin submarine warfare unrestricted. In spite of this, it is
our intention to endeavor to keep neutral the United States of America.
If this attempt is not successful, we propose an alliance on the following basis with Mexico: That
we shall make war together and together make peace. We shall give general financial support,
and it is understood that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in New Mexico, Texas, and
Arizona. The details are left to you for settlement....
You are instructed to inform the President of Mexico of the above in the greatest confidence as
soon as it is certain that there will be an outbreak of war with the United States and suggest that
the President of Mexico, on his own initiative, should communicate with Japan suggesting
adherence at once to this plan; at the same time, offer to mediate between Germany and Japan.
Please call to the attention of the President of Mexico that the employment of ruthless
submarine warfare now promises to compel England to make peace in a few months.
Zimmerman
(Secretary of State)
Source:
“The Zimmerman Note.” 1917. World War One Document Archive. March 21, 2003.
http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1917/zimmerman.html
The Immigration Act of 1924 (The Johnson-Reed Act)
Introduction
The Immigration Act of 1924 limited the number of immigrants allowed entry into the United States
through a national origins quota. The quota provided immigration visas to two percent of the total
number of people of each nationality in the United States as of the 1890 national census. It completely
excluded immigrants from Asia.
President Coolidge signing the Johnson-Reed Act
Literacy Tests and "Asiatic Barred Zone"
In 1917, the U.S. Congress enacted the first widely restrictive immigration law. The uncertainty
generated over national security during World War I made it possible for Congress to pass this Act, and
it included several important provisions that paved the way for the 1924 Act. The 1917 Act implemented
a literacy test that required immigrants over 16 years old to demonstrate basic reading comprehension
in any language. It also increased the tax paid by new immigrants upon arrival and allowed immigration
officials to exercise more discretion in making decisions over whom to exclude. Finally, the Act excluded
from entry anyone born in a geographically defined “Asiatic Barred Zone” except for Japanese and
Filipinos. In 1907, the Japanese Government had voluntarily limited Japanese immigration to the U.S. in
the Gentlemen's Agreement. The Philippines was an American colony, so its citizens were American
nationals and could travel freely to the United States. China was not included in the Barred Zone, but
the Chinese were already denied immigration visas under the Chinese Exclusion Act.
Immigration Quotas
The literacy test alone was not enough to prevent most potential immigrants from entering, so
members of Congress sought a new way to restrict immigration in the 1920s. Immigration expert and
Republican Senator from Vermont William P. Dillingham introduced a measure to create immigration
quotas, which he set at three percent of the total population of the foreign-born of each nationality in
the United States as recorded in the 1910 census. This put the total number of visas available each year
to new immigrants at 350,000. It did not, however, establish quotas of any kind for residents of the
Western Hemisphere. President Wilson opposed the restrictive act, preferring a more liberal
immigration policy, so he used the pocket veto to prevent its passage. In early 1921, the newly
inaugurated President Warren Harding called Congress back to a special session to pass the law. In 1922,
the act was renewed for another two years.
Senator William P. Dillingham
When the Congressional debate over immigration began in 1924, the quota system was so wellestablished that no one questioned whether to maintain it, but rather discussed how to adjust it.
Though there were advocates for raising quotas and allowing more people to enter, the champions of
restriction triumphed. They created a plan that lowered the existing quota from three to two percent of
the foreign born population. They also pushed back the year on which quota calculations were based
from 1910 to 1890.
Another change to the quota altered the basis of the quota calculations. The quota had been based on
the number of people born outside of the United States, or the number of immigrants in the United
States. The new law traced the origins of the whole of the American population, including natural-born
citizens. The new quota calculations included large numbers of people of British descent whose families
were long resident in the United States. As a result, the percentage of visas available to individuals from
the British Isles and Western Europe increased, but newer immigration from other areas like Southern
and Eastern Europe was limited.
The 1924 Immigration Act also included a provision excluding from entry any alien who by virtue of race
or nationality was ineligible for citizenship. Existing nationality laws dating from 1790 and 1870 excluded
people of Asian lineage from naturalizing. As a result, the 1924 Act meant that even Asians not
previously prevented from immigrating – the Japanese in particular – would no longer be admitted to
the United States. Many in Japan were very offended by the new law, which was a violation of the
Gentlemen's Agreement. The Japanese government protested, but the law remained, resulting in an
increase in existing tensions between the two nations. But it appeared that the U.S. Congress had
decided that preserving the racial composition of the country was more important than promoting good
ties with the Japanese empire.
The restrictionist principles of the Act could have resulted in strained relations with some European
countries as well, but these potential problems did not appear for several reasons. A variety of factors,
including the global depression of the 1930s, World War II, and stricter enforcement of U.S. immigration
policy served to curtail European emigration. When these crises had passed, emergency provisions for
the resettlement of displaced persons in 1948 and 1950 helped the United States avoid conflict over its
new immigration laws.
In all of its parts, the most basic purpose of the 1924 Immigration Act was to preserve the ideal of
American homogeneity. Congress revised the Act in 1952.
17TH AMENDMENT
The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state, elected
by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in
each state shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch
of the state legislatures.
When vacancies happen in the representation of any state in the Senate, the executive
authority of such state shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, that the
legislature of any state may empower the executive thereof to make temporary
appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.
This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator
chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.
18TH AMENDMENT
SECTION 1.
After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation
of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from
the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes
is hereby prohibited.
SECTION 2.
The Congress and the several states shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation.
SECTION 3.
This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the
Constitution by the legislatures of the several states, as provided in the Constitution,
within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the states by the Congress.
19TH AMENDMENT
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the
United States or by any state on account of sex.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points
Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points were first outlined in a speech Wilson gave to the American
Congress in January 1918. Wilson's Fourteen Points became the basis for a peace programme and
it was on the back of the Fourteen Points that Germany and her allies agreed to an armistice in
November 1918.
1. No more secret agreements ("Open covenants openly arrived at").
2. Free navigation of all seas.
3. An end to all economic barriers between countries.
4. Countries to reduce weapon numbers.
5. All decisions regarding the colonies should be impartial
6. The German Army is to be removed from Russia. Russia should be left to develop
her own political set-up.
7. Belgium should be independent like before the war.
8. France should be fully liberated and allowed to recover Alsace-Lorraine
9. All Italians are to be allowed to live in Italy. Italy's borders are to "along
clearly recognisable lines of nationality."
10. Self-determination should be allowed for all those living in Austria-Hungary.
11. Self-determination and guarantees of independence should be allowed for
the Balkan states.
12. The Turkish people should be governed by the Turkish government. Non-Turks in
the old Turkish Empire should govern themselves.
13. An independent Poland should be created which should have access to the sea.
14. A League of Nations should be set up to guarantee the political and territorial
independence of all states.
Roaring Twenties
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1921. Warren G. Harding is inaugurated as President.
1921. Knee length skirts become fashionable
1921. The Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist group, is resurgent in the southern United States.
October 5, 1921. First radio coverage of the Major League Baseball's World Series. August 28, 1922.
First radio commercial is broadcast over WEAF in New York City.
October 3, 1922. The first female United States Senator, Mrs. W. H. Felton of Georgia, is appointed
by the Governor after the seat is vacated mid-term.
1922. The Women's Amateur Athletic Association is founded.
1922. T.S. Eliot's classic long poem, The Wasteland, is published
August 3, 1923. At 2:30 in the morning, while visiting in Vermont, Vice President Calvin Coolidge
receives word that he has become President, following the death of Harding.
1923. There are 15 million cars registered in the United States. One out of four families either
bought or sold a car during the year.
November, 4, 1924. Coolidge is reelected.
1924. The first woman Governor of a U.S. state, Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming, is elected.
1924. Over 2.4 million radios are in American homes.
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July 10-21 1925. The "Scopes Monkey Trial" takes place in Dayton, Tennessee. John T. Scopes is
arrested on May 5th for teaching the theory of evolution in violation of state law. He is convicted
and fined $100.
January 7, 1927. Commercial transatlantic telephone service is opened between New York City and
London by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T).
April 7, 1927. First successful demonstration of television takes place in New York City. Televisions
were not for sale to the general public until after WWII. 1926. Don Juan, perhaps the first talking
picture shown to a public audience, premiers in New York City.
May 20, 1927. Charles Lindbergh, a 25 year old pilot, flies 3,600 miles from Roosevelt Field, New
York to Le Bourget, France. The solo trip lasted 33.5 hours and made him an international hero.
1928. U.S. signs Briand-Kellogg Pact, outlawing war.
1928. Women compete for the first time in Olympic field events. 1929. National incomes statistics
show that 60% of U.S. citizens have annual incomes less than $2,000, an amount which is estimated
as the bare minimum on which a family can survive.
1929. Gangs control the illegal liquor trade especially in Chicago, where Al "Scarface" Capone
emerges as the top gangster. On February 14, 1929 seven members of "Bugs" Moran's gang are
killed in a mass murder which became known as the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.
September 22, 1929. Construction of the Empire States Building begins in New York City. It was
completed in 1931.
1929. U.S. warships arrive in Shanghai, China to protect U.S. lives and property from war.
1929. Collapse of stock market in the U.S. causes a world wide depression
October 24, 1929. Known as Black Thursday, on this date the New York Stock Exchange crashes,
with $4 billion lost in trading. This marks the beginning of the Great Depression in the United States.
Depressed Thirties Timeline
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September, 1931. A bank panic spreads across the nation. Over 800 banks shut down in
September and October.
1932. Unemployment reaches 13,000,000 in 1932. Two and a half years after the 1929 stock
market crash the U.S. economy operates at less than half its pre-crash volume.
1932. Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly across the Atlantic alone.
November 8, 1932. Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected President in a landslide.
1933. Frances Perkins becomes Secretary of Labor, the first woman cabinet member in U.S.
history.
1933. During this year in Germany: President Hindenburg appoints Adolph Hitler Chancellor of
Germany; the Nazis burn the Reichstag and accuse the Communists of doing it; the democratic
Weimar Republic falls; the government outlaws all parties other than the National Socialists
(Nazis); Adolph Hitler rises to power, ousting the President and establishing himself as Führer
and supreme ruler.
1933. Stalin begins the great purge of the Communist party in the USSR. He arrests, imprisons
and executes many old Bolsheviks. The purges continue until 1939.
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1933. The new FDR administration demands, and receives, unprecedented power in an attempt
to control an economy that has spiraled out of control. The new program, known as the New
Deal, restructures the monetary system and creates an array of federal agencies to regulate
private industry and find jobs for millions on government-sponsored projects.
1933. The New Deal agencies that are created this year include the Civilian Conservation Corps
(CCC) and the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA). The CCC is established to create more jobs by
employing people to take part in a national reforestation campaign. The AAA restricts the
production of crops and pays farmers a bounty for their unused land.
March 12, 1933. President Roosevelt's first Fireside Chat is broadcast on radio. These chats are
an attempt to calm people during the tumultuous years of the Depression.
December 5, 1933. The 21st Amendment to the Constitution repeals prohibition, allowing the
manufacture and sale of liquor in the United States once more.
1935. The Social Security Act is passed.
1936. Germany invades the Rhineland, which it had lost to France in WWI.
1938. President Roosevelt sends private memoranda to Britain, France, Germany and
Czechoslovakia recommending arbitration of the Sudetenland crisis. This set the stage for the
Munich Pact (Sept. 29). Neville Chamberlain, British Prime Minister, declares "peace in our time"
after Hitler agrees to sign the non-aggression pact.
1936. Part of Roosevelt's New Deal policies, the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA), is deemed
unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. 1936. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell is
published.
1937. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is published.
December 21, 1937. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first animated feature film, is
released by Disney.
1939. Gone with the Wind is released as a movie.
September 1, 1939. Germany invades Poland.
September 3, 1939. Great Britain and France declare war on Germany. The U.S. and Belgium
declare neutrality, as World War II begins in Europe.
Harlem
By Langston Hughes 1902–1967 Langston Hughes
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
“Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself”: FDR’s First
Inaugural Address
Franklin D. Roosevelt had campaigned against Herbert Hoover in the 1932 presidential election by
saying as little as possible about what he might do if elected. Through even the closest working
relationships, none of the president-elect’s most intimate associates felt they knew him well, with the
exception perhaps of his wife, Eleanor. The affable, witty Roosevelt used his great personal charm to
keep most people at a distance. In campaign speeches, he favored a buoyant, optimistic, gently paternal
tone spiced with humor. But his first inaugural address took on an unusually solemn, religious quality.
And for good reason—by 1933 the depression had reached its depth. Roosevelt’s first inaugural address
outlined in broad terms how he hoped to govern and reminded Americans that the nation’s “common
difficulties” concerned “only material things.”
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 people impel. 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.
In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only
material things. Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen;
government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in
the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no
markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone.
More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great
number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.
Yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared
with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have
still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is
at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply. Primarily this is
because the rulers of the exchange of mankind’s goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and
their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous
money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.
True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by
failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by
which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading
tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no
vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.
The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now
restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we
apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.
Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of
creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of
evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is
not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.
Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the
abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the
standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in
business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing. Small
wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of
obligations, on faithful protection, on unselfish performance; without them it cannot live.
Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation asks for action, and action now.
Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and
courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the
task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this employment,
accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our natural resources.
Hand in hand with this we must frankly recognize the overbalance of population in our industrial centers
and, by engaging on a national scale in a redistribution, endeavor to provide a better use of the land for
those best fitted for the land. The task can be helped by definite efforts to raise the values of
agricultural products and with this the power to purchase the output of our cities. It can be helped by
preventing realistically the tragedy of the growing loss through foreclosure of our small homes and our
farms. It can be helped by insistence that the Federal, State, and local governments act forthwith on the
demand that their cost be drastically reduced. It can be helped by the unifying of relief activities which
today are often scattered, uneconomical, and unequal. It can be helped by national planning for and
supervision of all forms of transportation and of communications and other utilities which have a
definitely public character. There are many ways in which it can be helped, but it can never be helped
merely by talking about it. We must act and act quickly.
Finally, in our progress toward a resumption of work we require two safeguards against a return of the
evils of the old order; there must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and investments;
there must be an end to speculation with other people’s money, and there must be provision for an
adequate but sound currency.
There are the lines of attack. I shall presently urge upon a new Congress in special session detailed
measures for their fulfillment, and I shall seek the immediate assistance of the several States.
Through this program of action we address ourselves to putting our own national house in order and
making income balance outgo. Our international trade relations, though vastly important, are in point of
time and necessity secondary to the establishment of a sound national economy. I favor as a practical
policy the putting of first things first. I shall spare no effort to restore world trade by international
economic readjustment, but the emergency at home cannot wait on that accomplishment.
The basic thought that guides these specific means of national recovery is not narrowly nationalistic. It is
the insistence, as a first consideration, upon the interdependence of the various elements in all parts of
the United States—a recognition of the old and permanently important manifestation of the American
spirit of the pioneer. It is the way to recovery. It is the immediate way. It is the strongest assurance that
the recovery will endure.
In the field of world policy I would dedicate this Nation to the policy of the good neighbor—the neighbor
who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others—the neighbor
who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a world of
neighbors.
If I read the temper of our people correctly, we now realize as we have never realized before our
interdependence on each other; that we can not merely take but we must give as well; that if we are to
go forward, we must move as a trained and loyal army willing to sacrifice for the good of a common
discipline, because without such discipline no progress is made, no leadership becomes effective. We
are, I know, ready and willing to submit our lives and property to such discipline, because it makes
possible a leadership which aims at a larger good. This I propose to offer, pledging that the larger
purposes will bind upon us all as a sacred obligation with a unity of duty hitherto evoked only in time of
armed strife.
With this pledge taken, I assume unhesitatingly the leadership of this great army of our people
dedicated to a disciplined attack upon our common problems.
Action in this image and to this end is feasible under the form of government which we have inherited
from our ancestors. Our Constitution is so simple and practical that it is possible always to meet
extraordinary needs by changes in emphasis and arrangement without loss of essential form. That is
why our constitutional system has proved itself the most superbly enduring political mechanism the
modern world has produced. It has met every stress of vast expansion of territory, of foreign wars, of
bitter internal strife, of world relations.
It is to be hoped that the normal balance of executive and legislative authority may be wholly adequate
to meet the unprecedented task before us. But it may be that an unprecedented demand and need for
undelayed action may call for temporary departure from that normal balance of public procedure.
I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the
midst of a stricken world may require. These measures, or such other measures as the Congress may
build out of its experience and wisdom, I shall seek, within my constitutional authority, to bring to
speedy adoption.
But in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these two courses, and in the event that the
national emergency is still critical, I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me. I
shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis—broad Executive power to
wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact
invaded by a foreign foe.
For the trust reposed in me I will return the courage and the devotion that befit the time. I can do no
less.
We face the arduous days that lie before us in the warm courage of the national unity; with the clear
consciousness of seeking old and precious moral values; with the clean satisfaction that comes from the
stern performance of duty by old and young alike. We aim at the assurance of a rounded and permanent
national life.
We do not distrust the future of essential democracy. The people of the United States have not failed. In
their need they have registered a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action. They have asked for
discipline and direction under leadership. They have made me the present instrument of their wishes. In
the spirit of the gift I take it.
In this dedication of a Nation we humbly ask the blessing of God. May He protect each and every one of
us. May He guide me in the days to come.
Source: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933, as published in Samuel Rosenman, ed.,
The Public Papers of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Volume Two: The Year of Crisis, 1933 (New York: Random
House, 1938), 11–16
Dorothea Lange Photographs
Fireside Chat Radio Address: “The Banking
Crisis.” May 17, 1933.
By FDR
Transcript:
On a Sunday night a week after my Inauguration I used the radio to tell you about the banking crisis and
the measures we were taking to meet it. I think that in that way I made clear to the country various facts
that might otherwise have been misunderstood and in general provided a means of understanding
which did much to restore confidence.
Tonight, eight weeks later, I come for the second time to give you my report -- in the same spirit and by
the same means to tell you about what we have been doing and what we are planning to do.
Two months ago we were facing serious problems. The country was dying by inches. It was dying
because trade and commerce had declined to dangerously low levels; prices for basic commodities were
such as to destroy the value of the assets of national institutions such as banks, savings banks, insurance
companies, and others. These institutions, because of their great needs, were foreclosing mortgages,
calling loans, refusing credit. Thus there was actually in process of destruction the property of millions of
people who had borrowed money on that property in terms of dollars which had had an entirely
different value from the level of March, 1933. That situation in that crisis did not call for any
complicated consideration of economic panaceas or fancy plans. We were faced by a condition and not
a theory.
There were just two alternatives: The first was to allow the foreclosures to continue, credit to be
withheld and money to go into hiding, and thus forcing liquidation and bankruptcy of banks, railroads
and insurance companies and a recapitalizing of all business and all property on a lower level. This
alternative meant a continuation of what is loosely called "deflation", the net result of which would
have been extraordinary hardship on all property owners and, incidentally, extraordinary hardships on
all persons working for wages through an increase in unemployment and a further reduction of the
wage scale.
It is easy to see that the result of this course would have not only economic effects of a very serious
nature but social results that might bring incalculable harm. Even before I was inaugurated I came to the
conclusion that such a policy was too much to ask the American people to bear. It involved not only a
further loss of homes, farms, savings and wages but also a loss of spiritual values -- the loss of that sense
of security for the present and the future so necessary to the peace and contentment of the individual
and of his family. When you destroy these things you will find it difficult to establish confidence of any
sort in the future. It was clear that mere appeals from Washington for confidence and the mere lending
of more money to shaky institutions could not stop this downward course. A prompt program applied as
quickly as possible seemed to me not only justified but imperative to our national security. The
Congress, and when I say Congress I mean the members of both political parties, fully understood this
and gave me generous and intelligent support. The members of Congress realized that the methods of
normal times had to be replaced in the emergency by measures which were suited to the serious and
pressing requirements of the moment. There was no actual surrender of power, Congress still retained
its constitutional authority and no one has the slightest desire to change the balance of these powers.
The function of Congress is to decide what has to be done and to select the appropriate agency to carry
out its will. This policy it has strictly adhered to. The only thing that has been happening has been to
designate the President as the agency to carry out certain of the purposes of the Congress. This was
constitutional and in keeping with the past American tradition.
The legislation which has been passed or in the process of enactment can properly be considered as part
of a well-grounded plan.
First, we are giving opportunity of employment to one-quarter of a million of the unemployed,
especially the young men who have dependents, to go into the forestry and flood prevention work. This
is a big task because it means feeding, clothing and caring for nearly twice as many men as we have in
the regular army itself. In creating this civilian conservation corps we are killing two birds with one
stone. We are clearly enhancing the value of our natural resources and second, we are relieving an
appreciable amount of actual distress. This great group of men have entered upon their work on a
purely voluntary basis, no military training is involved and we are conserving not only our natural
resources but our human resources. One of the great values to this work is the fact that it is direct and
requires the intervention of very little machinery. Second, I have requested the Congress and have
secured action upon a proposal to put the great properties owned by our Government at Muscle Shoals
to work after long years of wasteful inaction, and with this a broad plan for the improvement of a vast
area in the Tennessee Valley. It will add to the comfort and happiness of hundreds of thousands of
people and the incident benefits will reach the entire nation.
Next, the Congress is about to pass legislation that will greatly ease the mortgage distress among the
farmers and the home owners of the nation, by providing for the easing of the burden of debt now
bearing so heavily upon millions of our people.
Our next step in seeking immediate relief is a grant of half a billion dollars to help the states, counties
and municipalities in their duty to care for those who need direct and Immediate relief.
The Congress also passed legislation authorizing the sale of beer in such states as desired. This has
already resulted in considerable reemployment and, incidentally, has provided much needed tax
revenue.
We are planning to ask the Congress for legislation to enable the Government to undertake public
works, thus stimulating directly and indirectly the employment of many others in well-considered
projects.
Further legislation has been taken up which goes much more fundamentally into our economic
problems. The Farm Relief Bill seeks by the use of several methods, alone or together, to bring about an
increased return to farmers for their major farm products, seeking at the same time to prevent in the
days to come disastrous over-production which so often in the past has kept farm commodity prices far
below a reasonable return. This measure provides wide powers for emergencies. The extent of its use
will depend entirely upon what the future has in store.
Well-considered and conservative measures will likewise be proposed which will attempt to give to the
industrial workers of the country a more fair wage return, prevent cut-throat competition and unduly
long hours for labor, and at the same time to encourage each industry to prevent over-production.
Our Railroad Bill falls into the same class because it seeks to provide and make certain definite planning
by the railroads themselves, with the assistance of the Government, to eliminate the duplication and
waste that is now resulting in railroad receiverships and continuing operating deficits. I am certain that
the people of this country understand and approve the broad purposes behind these new governmental
policies relating to agriculture and industry and transportation. We found ourselves faced with more
agricultural products than we could possibly consume ourselves and surpluses which other nations did
not have the cash to buy from us except at prices ruinously low. We have found our factories able to
turn out more goods than we could possibly consume, and at the same time we were faced with a falling
export demand. We found ourselves with more facilities to transport goods and crops than there were
goods and crops to be transported. All of this has been caused in large part by a complete lack of
planning and a complete failure to understand the danger signals that have been flying ever since the
close of the World War. The people of this country have been erroneously encouraged to believe that
they could keep on increasing the output of farm and factory indefinitely and that some magician would
find ways and means for that increased output to be consumed with reasonable profit to the producer.
Today we have reason to believe that things are a little better than they were two months ago. Industry
has picked up, railroads are carrying more freight, farm prices are better, but I am not going to indulge
in issuing proclamations of overenthusiastic assurance. We cannot bally-ho ourselves back to prosperity.
I am going to be honest at all times with the people of the country. I do not want the people of this
country to take the foolish course of letting this improvement come back on another speculative wave. I
do not want the people to believe that because of unjustified optimism we can resume the ruinous
practice of increasing our crop output and our factory output in the hope that a kind providence will find
buyers at high prices. Such a course may bring us immediate and false prosperity but it will be the kind
of prosperity that will lead us into another tailspin. It is wholly wrong to call the measure that we have
taken Government control of farming, control of industry, and control of transportation. It is rather a
partnership between Government and farming and industry and transportation, not partnership in
profits, for the profits would still go to the citizens, but rather a partnership in planning and partnership
to see that the plans are carried out.
Let me illustrate with an example. Take the cotton goods industry. It is probably true that ninety per
cent of the cotton manufacturers would agree to eliminate starvation wages, would agree to stop long
hours of employment, would agree to stop child labor, would agree to prevent an overproduction that
would result in unsalable surpluses. But, what good is such an agreement if the other ten per cent of
cotton manufacturers pay starvation wages, require long hours, employ children in their mills and turn
out burdensome surpluses? The unfair ten per cent could produce goods so cheaply that the fair ninety
per cent would be compelled to meet the unfair conditions. Here is where government comes in.
Government ought to have the right and will have the right, after surveying and planning for an industry
to prevent, with the assistance of the overwhelming majority of that industry, unfair practice and to
enforce this agreement by the authority of government. The so-called anti-trust laws were intended to
prevent the creation of monopolies and to forbid unreasonable profits to those monopolies. That
purpose of the anti-trust laws must be continued, but these laws were never intended to encourage the
kind of unfair competition that results in long hours, starvation wages and overproduction.The same
principle applies to farm products and to transportation and every other field of organized private
industry.
We are working toward a definite goal, which is to prevent the return of conditions which came very
close to destroying what we call modern civilization. The actual accomplishment of our purpose cannot
be attained in a day. Our policies are wholly within purposes for which our American Constitutional
Government was established 150 years ago.
I know that the people of this country will understand this and will also understand the spirit in which
we are undertaking this policy. I do not deny that we may make mistakes of procedure as we carry out
the policy. I have no expectation of making a hit every time I come to bat. What I seek is the highest
possible batting average, not only for myself but for the team. Theodore Roosevelt once said to me: "If I
can be right 75 per cent of the time I shall come up to the fullest measure of my hopes."
Much has been said of late about Federal finances and inflation, the gold standard, etc. Let me make the
facts very simple and my policy very clear. In the first place, government credit and government
currency are really one and the same thing. Behind government bonds there is only a promise to pay.
Behind government currency we have, in addition to the promise to pay, a reserve of gold and a small
reserve of silver. In this connection it is worth while remembering that in the past the government has
agreed to redeem nearly thirty billions of its debts and its currency in gold, and private corporations in
this country have agreed to redeem another sixty or seventy billions of securities and mortgages in gold.
The government and private corporations were making these agreements when they knew full well that
all of the gold in the United States amounted to only between three and four billions and that all of the
gold in all of the world amounted to only about eleven billions.
If the holders of these promises to pay started in to demand gold the first comers would get gold for a
few days and they would amount to about one twenty-fifth of the holders of the securities and the
currency. The other twenty-four people out of twenty-five, who did not happen to be at the top of the
line, would be told politely that there was no more gold left. We have decided to treat all twenty-five in
the same way in the interest of justice and the exercise of the constitutional powers of this government.
We have placed every one on the same basis in order that the general good may be preserved.
Nevertheless, gold, and to a partial extent silver, are perfectly good bases for currency and that is why I
decided not to let any of the gold now in the country go out of it.
A series of conditions arose three weeks ago which very readily might have meant, first,a drain on our
gold by foreign countries, and secondly, as a result of that, a flight of American capital, in the form of
gold, out of our country.
It is not exaggerating the possibility to tell you that such an occurrence might well have taken from us
the major part of our gold reserve and resulted in such a further weakening of our government and
private credit as to bring on actual panic conditions and the complete stoppage of the wheels of
industry.
The Administration has the definite objective of raising commodity prices to such an extent that those
who have borrowed money will, on the average, be able to repay that money in the same kind of dollar
which they borrowed. We do not seek to let them get such a cheap dollar that they will be able to pay
bock a great deal less than they borrowed. In other words, we seek to correct a wrong and not to create
another wrong in the opposite direction. That is why powers are being given to the Administration to
provide, if necessary, for an enlargement of credit, in order to correct the existing wrong. These powers
will be used when, as, and if it may be necessary to accomplish the purpose.
Hand in hand with the domestic situation which, of course, is our first concern, is the world situation,
and I want to emphasize to you that the domestic situation is inevitably and deeply tied in with the
conditions in all of the other nations of the world. In other words, we can get, in all probability, a fair
measure of prosperity return in the United States, but it will not be permanent unless we get a return to
prosperity all over the world.
In the conferences which we have held and are holding with the leaders of other nations, we are seeking
four great objectives. First, a general reduction of armaments and through this the removal of the fear
of invasion and armed attack, and, at the same time, a reduction in armament costs, in order to help in
the balancing ofgovernment budgets and the reduction of taxation. Secondly, a cutting down of the
trade barriers, in order to re-start the flow of exchange of crops and goods between nations. Third, the
setting up of a stabilization of currencies, in order that trade can make contracts ahead. Fourth, the
reestablishment of friendly relations and greater confidence between all nations.
Our foreign visitors these past three weeks have responded to these purposes in a very helpful way. All
of the Nations have suffered alike in this great depression. They have all reached the conclusion that
each can best be helped by the common action of all. It is in this spirit that our visitors have met with us
and discussed our common problems. The international conference that lies before us must succeed.
The future of the world demands it and we have each of us pledged ourselves to the best Joint efforts to
this end.
To you, the people of this country, all of us, the Members of the Congress and the members of this
Administration owe a profound debt of gratitude. Throughout the depression you have been patient.
You have granted us wide powers, you have encouraged us with a wide-spread approval of our
purposes. Every ounce of strength and every resource at our command we have devoted to the end of
justifying your confidence. We are encouraged to believe that a wise and sensible beginning has been
made. In the present spirit of mutual confidence and mutual encouragement we go forward.
Source:
Roosevelt, Franklin D. “Fireside Chat: Banking Crisis.” May 17, 1933. Authentic History Center. August
12, 2006. <http://www.authentichistory.com>.
Fireside Chat Radio Address: Roosevelt at
Bonnevile Dam. September 28, 1937.
Transcipt:
Today I have a feeling of real satisfaction in witnessing the completion of another great national project,
and of pleasure in the fact that in its inception, four years ago, I had some part. My interest in the whole
of the valley of the great Columbia River goes back to 1920 when I first studied its mighty possibilities.
Again, in 1932, I visited Oregon and Washington and Idaho and took occasion in Portland to express
views which have since, through the action of the Congress, become a recorded part of American
national policy.
Almost exactly three years ago, I inspected the early construction stages of this dam at Bonneville.
The more we study the water resources of the Nation, the more we accept the fact that their use is a
matter of national concern, and that in our plans for their use our line of thinking must include great
regions as well as narrower localities.
If, for example, we Americans had known as much and acted as effectively twenty and thirty and forty
years ago as we do today in the development of the use of land in that great semi-arid strip in the center
of the country which runs from the Canadian border to Texas, we could have prevented in great part the
abandonment of thousands and thousands of farms in portions of ten states and thus prevented the
migration of thousands of destitute families from those areas into the States of Washington and Oregon
and California. We would have done this by avoiding the plowing up of great areas which should have
been kept in grazing range and by stricter regulations to prevent over-grazing. At the same time we
would have checked soil erosion, stopped the denudation of our forests and controlled disastrous fires.
Some of my friends who talk glibly about the right of any individual to do anything he wants with any of
his property take the point of view that it is not the concern of Federal or state or local government to
interfere with what they miscall "the liberty of the individual." With them I do not agree and never have
agreed because, unlike them, I am thinking of the future of the United States. Yes my conception of
liberty does not permit an individual citizen or group of citizens to commit acts of depredation against
nature in such a way as to harm their neighbors, and especially to harm the future generations of
Americans.
If many years ago we had had the necessary knowledge and especially the necessary willingness on the
part of the Federal Government to act on it, we would have saved a sum which, in the last few years, has
cost the taxpayers of the Nation at least two billion dollars.
Coming back to the watershed of the Columbia River, which covers the greater part of the States of
Oregon, Washington, Idaho and a part of Montana, it is increasingly important that we think of that
region as a unit, and especially in terms of the whole population of that area as it is today and as we
expect it will be fifty and even a hundred years from now.
I appreciate and I understand fully the desire of some who live close to some of the great sources of
power in this watershed to seek the advantages which come from geographical proximity.
More than eight years ago, when I became Governor of the State of New York, we developed plans for
the harnessing of the St. Lawrence River and the production of a vast amount of cheap power. The good
people who lived within a few miles of the proposed dam were enthused by the prospect of building up
a huge manufacturing center close to the source of the power, another Pittsburgh, a vast city of whirling
machinery. It was a natural dream, but wiser counsels prevailed and the government of the State laid
down a policy based on the distribution of the proposed power to as wide an area as the science of the
transmission would permit.
We felt that the Governor and the Legislature of the State owed it to the people in the smaller
communities for hundreds of miles around to give them the benefit of cheap electricity in their homes
and their farms and their shops. And while the St. Lawrence project is, I am sorry to say, still on paper, I
have no doubt of its ultimate development, and of the application of the policy of the widest possible
use when the electric current starts to flow.
That is why in developing electricity from this Bonneville Dam, from the Grand Coulee Dam and from
other dams to be built on the Columbia and its tributaries, the policy of the widest use ought to prevail.
The transmission of electricity is making such scientific strides today that we can well visualize a date,
not far distant, when every community in this great area will be wholly electrified.
It is because I am thinking of the Nation and the region fifty years from now that I venture the further
prophecy that as time passes we will do everything in our power to encourage the building up of the
smaller communities of the United States. Today many people are beginning to realize that there is
inherent weakness in cities which become too large for the times and inherent strength in a wider
geographical distribution of population.
An over-large city inevitably meets problems caused by oversize. Real estate values and rents become
too high; the time consumed in going from one's home to one's work and back again becomes
excessive; congestion of streets and other transportation problems arise; truck gardens become
impossible because the backyard is too small; the cost of living of the average family rises far too high.
There is doubtless a reasonable balance in all of this and it is a balance which ought to be given more
and more study. No one would suggest, for example, that the great cities of Portland, and Tacoma and
Seattle and Spokane should stop their growth, but it is a fact that they could grow unhealthily at the
expense of all the smaller communities of which they form logical centers. Their healthiest growth
actually depends on a simultaneous healthy growth of every smaller community within a radius of
hundreds of miles.
Your situation in the Northwest is in this respect no different from the situation in the other great
regions of the Nation. That is why it has been proposed in the Congress that regional planning boards be
set up for the purpose of coordinating the planning for the future in seven or eight natural geographical
regions.
You will have read here as elsewhere many misleading and utterly untrue statements in some papers
and by some politicians that this proposed legislation would set up all powerful authorities which would
destroy State lines, take away local government and make what people call a totalitarian or
authoritarian or some other kind of a dangerous national centralized control. Most people realize that
the exact opposite is the truth - that regional commissions will be far more closely in touch with the
needs of all the localities and all the people in their respective regions than a system of plans which
originates in the Capital of the Nation. By decentralizing as I have proposed, the Chief Executive, the
various government departments, and the Congress itself will be able to get from each region a carefully
worked out plan each year, a plan based on future needs, a plan which will seek primarily to help all the
people of the region without unduly favoring any one locality or discriminating against any other.
In other words, the responsibility of the Federal Government for the welfare of its citizens will not come
from the top in the form of unplanned, hit or miss appropriations of money, but will progress to the
National Capital from the ground up - from the communities and counties and states which lie within
each of the logical geographical areas.
Another great advantage will be served by this process of planning from the bottom up. Under our laws
the President submits to the Congress an Annual Budget - a budget which, by the way, we expect to
have definitely balanced by the next fiscal year. In this budget we know how much can properly be
expended for the development of our natural resources, the protection of our soil, the construction of
our highways and buildings, the maintenance of our harbors and channels and all the other elements
which fall under the general heading of public works. By regional planning it will be vastly easier for the
Executive branch and the Congress to determine how the appropriations for the following year shall be
fitted most fairly and equitably into the total amount which our national pocketbook allows us safely to
spend.
To you who live thousands of miles away in other parts of the United States, I want to give two or three
simple facts. This Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River, forty-two miles east of Portland, with Oregon
on the south side of the river and Washington on the north, is one of the major power and navigation
projects undertaken since 1933. It is 170 feet high and 1,250 feet long. It has been built by the Corps of
Engineers of the War Department, and when fully completed, with part of its power installations, will
cost $51,000,000. Its locks will enable shipping to use this great waterway much further inland than at
present, and give an outlet to the enormously valuable agricultural and mineral products of Oregon and
Washington and Idaho. Its generators ultimately will produce 580,000 horse power of electricity.
Truly, in the construction of this dam we have had our eyes on the future of the Nation. Its cost will be
returned to the people of the United States many times over in the improvement of navigation and
transportation, the cheapening of electric power, and the distribution of this power to hundreds of small
communities within a great radius.
As I look upon Bonneville Dam today, I cannot help the thought that instead of spending, as some
nations do, half their national income in piling up armaments and more armaments for purposes of war,
we in America are wiser in using our wealth on projects like this which will give us more wealth, better
living and greater happiness for our children. [2]
Source:
Roosevelt, Franklin D. “Fireside Chat: Completion of Bonneville Dam” September 27, 1937. Authentic
History Center. August 12, 2006. <http://www.authentichistory.com>.
Roosevelt’s Statement on Signing the Social
Security Act. August 14, 1935.
Transcript:
Today a hope of many years' standing is in large part fulfilled. The civilization of the past hundred years,
with its startling industrial changes, has tended more and more to make life insecure. Young people
have come to wonder what would be their lot when they came to old age. The man with a job has
wondered how long the job would last.
This social security measure gives at least some protection to thirty millions of our citizens who will reap
direct benefits through unemployment compensation, through old-age pensions and through increased
services for the protection of children and the prevention of ill health.
We can never insure one hundred percent of the population against one hundred percent of the hazards
and vicissitudes of life, but we have tried to frame a law which will give some measure of protection to
the average citizen and to his family against the loss of a job and against poverty-ridden old age.
This law, too, represents a cornerstone in a structure which is being built but is by no means complete. It
is a structure intended to lessen the force of possible future depressions. It will act as a protection to
future Administrations against the necessity of going deeply into debt to furnish relief to the needy. The
law will flatten out the peaks and valleys of deflation and of inflation. It is, in short, a law that will take
care of human needs and at the same time provide for the United States an economic structure of vastly
greater soundness.
I congratulate all of you ladies and gentlemen, all of you in the Congress, in the executive departments
and all of you who come from private life, and I thank you for your splendid efforts in behalf of this
sound, needed and patriotic legislation.
If the Senate and the House of Representatives in this long and arduous session had done nothing more
than pass this Bill, the session would be regarded as historic for all time.
Source:
Roosevelt, Franklin D. “Statement on Signing the Social Security Act.” August 14, 1935. Authentic
History Center. August 12, 2006. <http://www.authentichistory.com>.
Father Charles E. Coughlin: Radio Address:
“Critical of the New Deal.”
Background:
During the 1930s, Father Charles Coughlin's "Golden Hour of the Little Flower"
was the country's most popular religious radio program, attracting as many as
forty million listeners every Sunday. Coughlin, a Canadian-born Catholic of
obvious Irish descent, broadcast his quasi-religious sermons from near his small
parish in Royal Oak, Michigan. Railing against the political and economic sins of
the nation, his fiery rhetoric was greeted heartily by Depression-era America. In
the 1932 election year, he became a vocal supporter of Governor Franklin D.
Roosevelt, whom he hailed as the salvation of the nation. However, the
politically ambitious Coughlin later grew critical of the president and his
policies, and in 1936 he supported Union party presidential candidate William
Lemke. Promising to go off the air if Lemke received less than nine million votes,
he briefly ceased broadcasting when Lemke won less than a million. In 1937, he
returned to the airwaves with a vengeance, attacking the New Deal as a
Communist conspiracy and Roosevelt as a dictator. In the next year, he added
anti-Semitic remarks to his diatribes and expressed sympathy for Germany and
Italy's Fascist regimes. Most of his traditional supporters were alienated by this
new extremism, and in 1940 his radio program was canceled. After the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor, Coughlin was ordered by his bishop to cease all political
activity.
Transcript:
And therefore, choosing right instead of might, choosing to be on the side of justice instead of on the
side of modern capitalism, with its intermingling with socialism and communism. I stand before you
tonight to warn you. Careless of what the future holds [?]. That this relief that has failed to relieve, by
pounding up its taxation, by doubling its assessment upon the payrolls of the nation, by finding its way
into the grocer shops where you purchase your food. This relief, that lives upon us suckers, taking from
the people every penny they own, is due to crumble and fall before one year from this April. You think
you know what Depression is? You people living on the WPA envelopes, WPA envelopes filled partly
from the money confiscated from industry and commerce, and from the envelopes of those who are
working, how long can that last? It can't last forever. There's no bottomless pit to that spending. You
WPA workers and those of you who are living upon the dole system. How long can it last for this federal
reserve bank to invent and issue and coin its own bogus money against the debts of a nation. And then
when the bond market drops as it's dropping now, print more fresh five dollar bills to buy in its own
bonds. Oh there's a law of compensation, and there's an accounting to be held, an accounting that shall
make the depression of 1929 seem as a prosperity when it breaks upon you.
What sins we have committed. When the Bill of Rights was established in England, it insisted that the
spending power be held in the hands of the people. It insisted that the spending power of a nation be
held in its parliament or its congress. View the New Deal in 1943 and 44. Did it reveal the Bill of Rights
for which men had bled and died? Oh no, it took the Bill of Rights as it's taking our Constitution today
and tore it into shreds, and handed over the spending power from the purse of the people, from the
purse of Congress, to the President of The United States. One step backwards, one step towards
dictatorship. That may seem peculiar to you, but in doing that Congress relinquished its own liberty, and
relinquished its own freedom of speech. Since that day, since the Chief Executive of the nation has the
full spending power of billions of dollars, congress must bend its pregnant knee before him. Congress
must become a rubber stamp congress, or else be rubbed out of existence in the line of patronage. All
patronage, all partyism, save us from those things. We who once loved patriotism, we who once loved
democracy, we who once proudly raised our heads, favoring justice, with a heel upon us, ready to spurn
and crush every injustice.
Source:
Coughlin, Father Charles R. “Radio Address: Critical of Roosevelt’s New Deal.” April 11, 1937. Authentic
History Center. August 12, 2006. <http://www.authentichistory.com>.
WWII
1939-1945
The photograph was taken December 7, 1941 as Japanese airplanes attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl
Harbor Hawaii.
Source:
“Rescuing Survivor Near U.S.S. West Virginia During Pearl Harbor Raid” December 7,
Image. Naval Historical Center Home Page. May 11, 2005.
<http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/g10000/g19930.jpg>
1941. Online
WWII
“Yesterday, December 7, 1941, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately
attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.” This famous quote is the introduction to a
speech delivered by Franklin D. Roosevelt before Congress on December 8, requesting an official
declaration of war against Japan. No other event in the twentieth century had such a profound effect on
the course of human events in modern world history. WWII began in 1939 with the German invasion of
Poland and French and British declarations of war against the aggressive Nazi regime. The U.S did not
enter the war until the Japanese attack on the U.S. Naval base at Pearl Harbor until 1941.
With the rise of Adolph Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany, Benito Mussolini’s Fascists of Italy,
and the militarists of Japan in the 1920’s and 30’s the path was set towards world conflict. Hitler would
use the fear caused by economic depression and the anger of the harsh Treaty of Versailles ending WWI
to push Germany toward war. Hitler also turned his hatred and anger toward minority groups. Six
million Jews would die in the Nazi concentration and death camps. Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini
envisioned a resurgence of the old power of Rome with territorial conquest in Africa. The Japanese
warlords saw their destiny as dominating East Asia with an invasion of Manchuria and later China. The
world stood by as these Nations developed massive armies and engaged in aggressive actions of
expansion. France and Britain would eventually declare war on Germany, realizing Hitler’s intent of
dominating Europe. The United States entered the war two years later when the Japanese attacked the
United States at Pearl Harbor.
Japan needed oil and other resources of the South Pacific to conduct the military operations in
Asia. The U.S. cut all oil supplies to Japan and stood in the way of Japanese efforts to expand because of
the U.S. military and Naval presences in the Pacific. The attack on Pearl Harbor was designed to destroy
the U.S. naval power in the Pacific. The Japanese did damage or destroy many of the major war ships of
the U.S. Pacific fleet, however, they missed the most important ships in naval warfare. In 1942, one year
after the Japanese surprise attack, the U.S. Carriers that the Japanese missed at Pearl Harbor would
destroy four of Japan’s carriers, disabling Japanese offensive capabilities.
The United States, Britain and Russia formed an alliance after 1941 to defeat the Axis Powers of
Germany, Japan, and Italy. President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill decided from the
very onset of the U.S. involvement of the war that the strategy would be to defeat the Germans and
Italians in Europe first and take out the Japanese later after conducting an island hopping strategy,
gradually reducing the Japanese areas of control in the Pacific.
A decisive factor of victory for the allies was the rate at which the awesome U.S. industrial might
produced weapons and supplies. The tiny U.S. peacetime army was transformed into a military colossus
overwhelming the Japanese and Germans in firepower. The American Citizen soldiers proved to be
more than a match for soldiers produced by the militaristic German and Japanese societies.
The impact of WWII on the United States was far reaching on the home front. Thousands of
factories opened as the economy kicked into full strength, pulling the United States out of the great
economic depression of that began in the thirties. Socially, America went through a transformation as
job opportunities opened for women and minorities. The war affected almost every aspect of U.S.
society as the nation came together in this incredible national endeavor to defeat the forces of fascism
and militarism.
The Germans would surrender in May of 1945. Today, this is remembered as VE-Day. The
Japanese would surrender on August 15, 1945 after the dropping of the second atomic bomb on
Nagasaki—VJ-Day. In the aftermath of WWII, the United States would become a world super power and
leader, assisting in rebuilding many of the western European Nations and Japan. A world collaborative
body called the United Nations was created to promote peace, stability and avoid another devastating
conflict. The world entered the atomic age with U.S. development of nuclear weapons. Finally, in
studying WWII it is important to note the human cost. Although it is impossible to get an exact number,
most historians maintain that between 60 and 70 million people were killed.
The Second World War,1931-1945
Attempts to Maintain the Peace: 1922-1933
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1922: The Washington Conference presents a treaty on naval disarmament.
1924: The Dawes Plan ends the crisis in the Ruhr.
1925: The Lacarno Pact
1928: The Kellogg-Briand Pact
1929: The Young Plan
The Road to War: 1933-1939
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1933: Germany withdraws from the League of Nations.
1935: Hitler denounces the disarmament clauses of the Treaty of Versailles.
o The Nuremburg Laws
o Italy invades Ethiopia.
1936: Germany remilitarizes the Rhineland.
o The Spanish Civil War begins.
o The Rome-Berlin Axis is formed.
1938: The Anschluss: Germany annexes Austria.
o The Munich Conference: The Sudetenland is awarded to Germany; Chamberlain
announces "Peace in Our Time."
The Second World War: European Theater: 1939-1945
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1939: Germany invades Czechoslovakia.
o Germany and Italy create the Pact of Steel.
o Germany and the Soviet Union form a Nonaggression Pact.
o Germany invades Poland.
1940: Germany conquers Denmark and Norway.
o Germany conquers the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.
o Italy enters the war as Germany's ally.
o France signs an armistice with Germany.
o The Battle of Britain begins.
o Italy invades Egypt and Greece.
1941: Germany conquers Yugoslavia and Greece.
o Hitler begins Operation Barbarosa and invades the Soviet Union.
1942: British and American forces begin attacking in North Africa
1943: Roosevelt and Churchill meet at Casablanca.
o The Battle of Stalingrad ends with a German defeat.
o German and Italian forces in Tunisia surrender.
o American and British troops invade Sicily and Italy.
1944: D-Day invasion of Normandy opens up a second front.
o The Battle of the Bulge
1945: The Yalta Conference.
o Germany surrenders.
o Potsdam Conference.
The Second World War: Pacific Theater: 1931-1945
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1931: Mukden Incident: Japan invades Manchuria.
1937: Japan attacks China.
1941: Japan attacks Pearl Harbor
1942: Japan conquers the Philippines.
o American forces take Guadalcanal, beginning American island hopping across the
Pacific.
1944: American troops under MacArthur land in the Philippines.
1945: Atomic bombs are dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
o Japan surrenders.
“Peace in Our Time”
by Neville Chamberlain to the British House of
Commons, 1938.
The Prime Minister:
Before I come to describe the Agreement which was signed at Munich in the small hours of Friday
morning last, I would like to remind the House of two things which I think it very essential not to forget
when those terms are being considered. The first is this: We did not go there to decide whether the
predominantly German areas in the Sudetenland should be passed over to the German Reich. That had
been decided already. Czechoslovakia had accepted the Anglo-French proposals. What we had to
consider was the method, the conditions and the time of the transfer of the territory. The second point
to remember is that time was one of the essential factors. All the elements were present on the spot for
the outbreak of a conflict which might have precipitated the catastrophe. We had populations inflamed
to a high degree; we had extremists on both sides ready to work up and provoke incidents; we had
considerable quantities of arms which were by no means confined to regularly organized forces.
Therefore, it was essential that we should quickly reach a conclusion, so that this painful and difficult
operation of transfer might be carried out at the earliest possible moment and concluded as soon as was
consistent, with orderly procedure, in order that we might avoid the possibility of something that might
have rendered all our attempts at peaceful solution useless. . . .
. . . To those who dislike an ultimatum, but who were anxious for a reasonable and orderly procedure,
every one of [the] modifications [of the Godesberg Memorandum by the Munich Agreement] is a step in
the right direction. It is no longer an ultimatum, but is a method which is carried out largely under the
supervision of an international body.
Before giving a verdict upon this arrangement, we should do well to avoid describing it as a personal or a
national triumph for anyone. The real triumph is that it has shown that representatives of four great
Powers can find it possible to agree on a way of carrying out a difficult and delicate operation by
discussion instead of by force of arms, and thereby they have averted a catastrophe which would have
ended civilisation as we have known it. The relief that our escape from this great peril of war has, I think,
everywhere been mingled in this country with a profound feeling of sympathy.
[Hon. Members: Shame.] I have nothing to be ashamed of. Let those who have, hang their heads. We
must feel profound sympathy for a small and gallant nation in the hour of their national grief and loss.
Mr. Bellenger: It is an insult to say it.
The Prime Minister: I say in the name of this House and of the people of this country that Czechoslovakia
has earned our admiration and respect for her restraint, for her dignity, for her magnificent discipline in
face of such a trial as few nations have ever been called upon to meet.
The army, whose courage no man has ever questioned, has obeyed the order of their president, as they
would equally have obeyed him if he had told them to march into the trenches. It is my hope and my
belief, that under the new system of guarantees, the new Czechoslovakia will find a greater security
than she has ever enjoyed in the past. . . .
I pass from that subject, and I would like to say a few words in respect of the various other participants,
besides ourselves, in the Munich Agreement. After everything that has been said about the German
Chancellor today and in the past, I do feel that the House ought to recognise the difficulty for a man in
that position to take back such emphatic declarations as he had already made amidst the enthusiastic
cheers of his supporters, and to recognise that in consenting, even though it were only at the last
moment, to discuss with the representatives of other Powers those things which he had declared he had
already decided once for all, was a real and a substantial contribution on his part. With regard to Signor
Mussolini, . . . I think that Europe and the world have reason to be grateful to the head of the Italian
government for his work in contributing to a peaceful solution.
In my view the strongest force of all, one which grew and took fresh shapes and forms every day war,
the force not of any one individual, but was that unmistakable sense of unanimity among the peoples of
the world that war must somehow be averted. The peoples of the British Empire were at one with those
of Germany, of France and of Italy, and their anxiety, their intense desire for peace, pervaded the whole
atmosphere of the conference, and I believe that that, and not threats, made possible the concessions
that were made. I know the House will want to hear what I am sure it does not doubt, that throughout
these discussions the Dominions, the Governments of the Dominions, have been kept in the closest
touch with the march of events by telegraph and by personal contact, and I would like to say how
greatly I was encouraged on each of the journeys I made to Germany by the knowledge that I went with
the good wishes of the Governments of the Dominions. They shared all our anxieties and all our hopes.
They rejoiced with us that peace was preserved, and with us they look forward to further efforts to
consolidate what has been done.
Ever since I assumed my present office my main purpose has been to work for the pacification of
Europe, for the removal of those suspicions and those animosities which have so long poisoned the air.
The path which leads to appeasement is long and bristles with obstacles. The question of Czechoslovakia
is the latest and perhaps the most dangerous. Now that we have got past it, I feel that it may be possible
to make further progress along the road to sanity.
Source:
From Great Britain, Parliamentary Debates, Commons, Vol. 339 (October 3, 1938)
Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Pearl Harbor
Speech
December 8, 1941
December 8, 1941
To the Congress of the United States:
Yesterday, December 7, 1941 – a date which will live in infamy – the United States of America
was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.
The United States was at peace with that nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in
conversation with its Government and its Emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in
the Pacific.
Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing Oahu, the Japanese
Ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to the Secretary of State a formal
reply to a recent American message. While this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue
the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or armed attack.
It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was
deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time, the Japanese
Government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and
expressions of hope for continued peace. The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian Islands has
caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. Very many American lives have
been lost. In addition, American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between
San Francisco and Honolulu.
Yesterday the Japanese Government also launched an attack against Malaya.
Last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong.
Last night Japanese forces attacked Guam.
Last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands.
Last night the Japanese attacked Wake Island.
This morning the Japanese attacked Midway Island.
Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The
facts of yesterday speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed
their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation.
As Commander in Chief of the army and navy I have directed that all measures be taken for our
defense.
Always will we remember the character of the onslaught against us.
No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American
people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. I believe I interpret the will
of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the
uttermost but Will make very certain that this form of treachery shall never endanger us again.
Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory and our interests
are in grave danger.
With confidence in our armed forces-with the unbounding determination of our people-we will
gain the inevitable triumph-so help us God.
I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on
Sunday, December 7, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese
Empire.
Source:
“Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Pearl Harbor Speech
December 8, 1941” Immigrants for America Homepage. March 21, 2003.
<http://www.immigrantsforamerica.com/pearl_harbor_speech.html>
The "Four Freedoms"
Franklin D. Roosevelt's Address to Congress
January 6, 1941
In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon
four essential human freedoms.
The first is freedom of speech and expression -- everywhere in the world.
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way -- everywhere in the
world.
The third is freedom from want -- which, translated into world terms, means economic
understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants -everywhere in the world.
The fourth is freedom from fear -- which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide
reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in
a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor-- anywhere in the world.
That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our
own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of
tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.
To that new order we oppose the greater conception -- the moral order. A good society is able
to face schemes of world domination and foreign revolutions alike without fear.
Since the beginning of our American history, we have been engaged in change -- in a perpetual
peaceful revolution -- a revolution which goes on steadily, quietly adjusting itself to changing
conditions -- without the concentration camp or the quick-lime in the ditch. The world order
which we seek is the cooperation of free countries, working together in a friendly, civilized
society.
This nation has placed its destiny in the hands and heads and hearts of its millions of free men
and women; and its faith in freedom under the guidance of God. Freedom means the supremacy
of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights or
keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose.
To that high concept there can be no end save victory.
Source:
From Congressional Record, 1941, Vol. 87, Pt. I. March 21, 2003.
http://www.wwnorton.com/college/history/ralph/workbook/ralprs36b.htm
The Menace of Lend-Lease
Address by Senator Burton K. Wheeler
The lend-lease policy, translated into legislative form, stunned a Congress and a nation wholly
sympathetic to the cause of Great Britain. The Kaiser's blank check to Austria-Hungary in the first World
War was a piker compared to the Roosevelt blank check of World War II. It warranted my worst fears for
the future of America, and it definitely stamps the President as war-minded.
The lend-lease-give program is the New Deal's triple A foreign policy; it will plow under every
fourth American boy.
Never before have the American people been asked or compelled to give so bounteously and so
completely of their tax dollars to any foreign nation. Never before has the Congress of the United States
been asked by any President to violate international law. Never before has this Nation resorted to
duplicity in the conduct of its foreign affairs. Never before has the United States given to one man the
power to strip this Nation of its defenses. Never before has Congress coldly and flatly been asked to
abdicate.
If the American people want a dictatorship--if they want a totalitarian form of government and
if they want war--this bill should be steam-rollered through Congress, as is the wont of President
Roosevelt.
Approval of this legislation means war open and complete warfare. I, therefore, ask the
American people before the supinely accept it, Was the last World War worth while?
If it were, then we should lend and lease war materials. If it were, then we should lend and lease
American boys. President Roosevelt has said we would be repaid by England. We will be. We will be
repaid, just as England repaid her war debts of the first World War--repaid those dollars wrung from the
sweat of labor and the toll of farmers with cries of "Uncle Shylock." Our boys will be returned--returned
in caskets, maybe; returned with bodies maimed; returned with minds warped and twisted by sights of
horrors and the scream and shriek of high-powered shells.
Considered on its merits and stripped of its emotional appeal to our sympathies, the lend-leasegive bill is both ruinous and ridiculous. Why should we Americans pay for war materials for Great Britain
who still has $7,000,000,000 in credit or collateral in the United States? Thus far England has fully
maintained rather than depleted her credits in the United States. The cost of the lend-lease-give
program is high in terms of American tax dollars, but it is even higher in term of our national defense.
Now it gives to the President the unlimited power to completely strip our air forces of its every bomber,
of its every fighting plane.
It gives to one man--responsible to no one--the power to denude our shores of every warship. It
gives to one individual the dictatorial power to strip the American Army of our every tank, cannon, rifle,
or antiaircraft gun. No one would deny that the lend-lease-give bill contains provisions that would
enable one man to render the United States defenseless, but they will tell you, "The President would
never do it." To this I say, "Why does he ask the power if he does not intend to use it?" Why not, I say,
place some check on American donations to a foreign nation?
Is it possible that the farmers of America are willing to sell their birthright for a mess of pottage?
Is it possible that American labor is to be sold down the driver in return for a place upon the
Defense Commission, or because your labor leaders are entertained at pink teas?
Is it possible that the American people are so gullible that they will permit their representatives
in Congress to sit supinely ny while an American President demands totalitarian powers--in the name of
saving democracy?
I say in the kind of language used by the President--shame on those who ask the powers--and
shame on those who would grant them.
You people who oppose war and dictatorship, do not be dismayed because the warmongers and
interventionists control most of the avenues of propaganda, including the motion-picture industry.
Do not be dismayed because Mr. Willkie, of the Commonwealth & Southern, agrees with Mr.
Roosevelt. This merely puts all the economic and foreign "royalists" on the side of war.
Remember, the interventionists control the money bags, but you control the votes.
Source:
Wheeler, Senator Burton K. “The Menace of Lend-lease Speech to Congress.” The Essential Documents
of American History. Compiled by Norman P. Desmarais and James H. McGovern of Providence College.
Atlantic Charter
AUGUST 14, 1941
The President of the United States of America and the Prime Minister, Mr. Churchill,
representing His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, being met together, deem it right to
make known certain common principles in the national policies of their respective countries on which
they base their hopes for a better future for the world.
First, their countries seek no aggrandizement, territorial or other;
Second, they desire to see no territorial changes that do not accord with the freely expressed
wishes of the peoples concerned;
Third, they respect the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they
will live; and they wish to see sovereign rights and self government restored to those who have been
forcibly deprived of them;
Fourth, they will endeavor, with due respect for their existing obligations, to further the
enjoyment by all States, great or small, victor or vanquished, of access, on equal terms, to the trade and
to the raw materials of the world which are needed for their economic prosperity;
Fifth, they desire to bring about the fullest collaboration between all nations in the economic
field with the object of securing, for all, improved labor standards, economic advancement and social
security;
Sixth, after the final destruction of the Nazi tyranny, they hope to see established a peace which
will afford to all nations the means of dwelling in safety within their own boundaries, and which will
afford assurance that all the men in all lands may live out their lives in freedom from fear and want;
Seventh, such a peace should enable all men to traverse the high seas and oceans without
hindrance;
Eighth, they believe that all of the nations of the world, for realistic as well as spiritual reasons
must come to the abandonment of the use of force. Since no future peace can be maintained if land, sea
or air armaments continue to be employed by nations which threaten, or may threaten, aggression
outside of their frontiers, they believe, pending the establishment of a wider and permanent system of
general security, that the disarmament of such nations is essential. They will likewise aid and encourage
all other practicable measure which will lighten for peace-loving peoples the crushing burden of
armaments.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Winston S. Churchill
Source:
“Atlantic Charter.” Avalon Project. March 21, 2003.
<http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/.htm>
Atomic Bomb-Truman Press Release-August 6, 1945
 Introduction
 Vocabulary
 Primary Source
 Document Analysis
 Follow-Up Questions
 Issues for Discussion
 Further Reading
 Internet Resources
 World War II videos
 Truman Library Educational Programs
Introduction
In the early morning hours of July 16, 1945, great anticipation and fear ran rampant at White Sands Missile
Range near Alamogordo, New Mexico. Robert Oppenheimer, director of the Manhattan Project, could hardly
breathe. Years of secrecy, research, and tests were riding on this moment. "For the last few seconds, he
stared directly ahead and when the announcer shouted Now!' and there came this tremendous burst of light
followed abruptly there after by the deep growling of the explosion, his face relaxed into an expression of
tremendous relief," recalled General L. R. Groves of Oppenheimer, in a memorandum for Secretary of War
George Marshall. The explosion carrying more power than 20,000 tons of TNT and visible for more than 200
miles succeeded. The world's first atomic bomb had been detonated.
With the advent of the nuclear age, new dilemmas in the art of warfare arose. The war in Europe had
concluded in May. The Pacific war would receive full attention from the United States War Department. As
late as May 1945, the U.S. was engaged in heavy fighting with the Japanese at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. In
these most bloody conflicts, the United States had sustained more than 75,000 casualties. These victories
insured the United States was within air striking distance of the Japanese mainland. The bombing of Pearl
Harbor by the Japanese to initiate United States entrance into the war, just four years before, was still fresh
on the minds of many Americans. A feeling of vindication and a desire to end the war strengthened the
resolve of the United States to quickly and decisively conclude it. President Harry Truman had many
alternatives at his disposal for ending the war: invade the Japanese mainland, hold a demonstration of the
destructive power of the atomic bomb for Japanese dignitaries, drop an atomic bomb on selected industrial
Japanese cities, bomb and blockade the islands, wait for Soviet entry into the war on August 15, or mediate
a compromised peace. Operation Olympia, a full scale landing of United States armed forces, was already
planned for Kyushu on November 1, 1945 and a bomb and blockade plan had already been instituted over
the Japanese mainland for several months.
The Japanese resolve to fight had been seriously hampered in the preceding months. Their losses at Iwo
Jima and Okinawa had been staggering. Their navy had ceased to exist as an effective fighting force and
the air corps had been decimated. American B-29's made bombing runs over military targets on the
Japanese mainland an integral part of their air campaign. Japan's lack of air power hindered their ability to
fight. The imprecision of bombing and the use of devastating city bombing in Europe eventually swayed
United States Pacific theater military leaders to authorize bombing of Japanese mainland cities. Tokyo,
Nagoya, Osaka, and Kobe all were decimated by incendiary and other bombs. In all, hundreds of thousands
of civilians were killed in these air strikes meant to deter the resolve of the Japanese people. Yet, Japanese
resolve stayed strong and the idea of a bloody "house to house" invasion of the Japanese mainland would
produce thousands more American and Allied casualties. The Allies in late July 1945 declared at Potsdam
that the Japanese must unconditionally surrender.
After Japanese leaders flatly rejected the Potsdam
Declaration, President Truman authorized use of
the atomic bomb anytime after August 3, 1945. On
the clear morning of August 6, the first atomic
bomb, nicknamed Little Boy, was dropped on the
city of Hiroshima. Leveling over 60 percent of the
city, 70,000 residents died instantaneously in a
searing flash of heat. Three days later, on August
9, a second bomb, Fat Man, was dropped on
Nagasaki. Over 20,000 people died instantly. In the
successive weeks, thousands more Japanese died
from the after effects of the radiation exposure of
the blast.
Vocabulary
incendiary bomb
The incendiary bomb was a mixture of thermite and oxidizing agents employed by the Allies and
Axis powers after 1943. Sometimes incorporating napalm, these bombs were responsible for
burning over 41.5 square miles of Tokyo by the United States in March 1945.
unconditional surrender
Unconditional surrender is a term used by victors in war to describe the type of settlement they wish
to extoll from the vanquished. The settlement demands that the loser make no demands during
surrender proceedings. Unconditional surrender was first enunciated by the Allies during World War
II at a summit meeting at Casablanca in January 1943.
providence
divine guidance or care
ultimatum
the final propositions, conditions, or terms offered by either of the parties during a diplomatic
negotiation
Source
Read the press release from President Truman on August 6, 1945 following the dropping of the atomic
bomb noting important details about its production and the rhetoric used.
Document Analysis
Distribute copies of the document to each student to read. Ask students to answer the following questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Who wrote this document?
What is the purpose of this document?
What date was this document issued?
Why is the name of the city left out?
Why does the atomic bomb's power have to be explained?
Look at the last paragraph of the second page of the press release. What were Truman's plans for
ending the war? Did he accomplish those goals in dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki? Why or why not?
7. On page three, Truman advocates the use of atomic power for world peace. How does he propose
to fulfill this goal?
8. What reasons does President Truman use to justify dropping the bomb?
Follow-Up Questions
1. Armed with all of the knowledge that President Truman and his advisors had accumulated, how
would you have ended the war in the Pacific?
2. Make a table listing the advantages and disadvantages that the atomic bomb presented to modern
warfare? Why did the fire bombing of Tokyo just weeks earlier that killed over 120,000 civilians not
receive the same moral criticism that the atomic bomb received? One newspaper critic stated after
dropping the bomb, "Yesterday we clinched victory in the Pacific, but we sowed the whirlwind." What
did he mean by this? Argue for or against this statement.
3. Five Reasons for Dropping the Atomic Bomb...According to J. Samuel Walker in his book, Prompt
and Utter Destruction: Truman and the Use of the Atomic Bomb Against Japan, states that Truman
justified dropping the bomb with five reasons:
o it would end the war successfully at the earliest possible moment
o it justified the effort and expense of building the atomic bombs
o it offered hope of achieving diplomatic gains in the growing rivalry with the Soviet Union
o there were a lack of incentives not to use the weapons
o because of America's hatred of the Japanese and a desire for vengeance
Divide the class into five groups, giving each group one of the reasons. Ask them to explain them in
their own words. Do they agree or disagree with President Truman's thinking? Why or why not? Can
they come up with more reasons to justify dropping the bomb? What reasons are there to not drop
the bomb? Be sure they use facts and figures to support their answers.
4. Harry Truman in 1945 "regarded the [atomic] bomb as a military weapon and never had any doubt it
should be used." In a 1958 handwritten document on the rise of the atomic age, he later stated,
"Now we are faced with total destruction. The old heckler prophets presented the idea of the
destruction of the world by fire after their presentation of a destruction by water. Well that
destruction is at hand unless the great leaders of the world prevent it." Do you think Truman's views
on the use of atomic technology changed? Would Truman have dropped the atomic bomb in 1958,
granted the situation warranted decisive action? Why or why not?
5. President Eisenhower, in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly, on December 8, 1953,
stated, "Even a vast superiority in numbers of weapons, and a consequent capability of devastating
material retaliation, is no preventive, of itself, against the fearful material damage and toll of human
lives that would be inflicted by surprise aggression." Analyze this statement. What does it mean?
Chart the line of events and personalities of atomic military buildup from President Truman to the
present. What trends do you see? What do you think the future of atomic weaponry is?
6. Write a press release as President of the United States for a current event. Be sure to give
important details of the event keeping in mind your audience is the entire United States. Share your
press release with your class.
7. In Karl Compton's "If the Atomic Bomb Had Not Been Used," he states, "The atomic bomb
introduced a dramatic new element into the situation, which strengthened the hands of those
[Japanese government officials] who sought peace and provided face-saving argument for those
who had hitherto advocated continued war." Analyze this statement. Explain Dr. Compton's
statement in your own words. Use other sources to support your answers to the following questions.
Why had some Japanese officials continued to support the war even after the atomic bomb had
been dropped? What was Emperor Hirohito's role in the surrender process? Why was Hirohito not
forced to abdicate as promised by the Potsdam Declaration?
Issues for Discussion
Consider some of these questions with your class.
1. What are the moral implications of the atomic bomb?
2. Why would President Truman be against sharing the secret of the atomic bomb with the world? Why
would he support sharing atomic technology with Great Britain and only divulge minor details to the
Soviets?
3. To what extent did the decision to drop the atomic bomb and subsequent postwar foreign policy
decisions of the Truman administration lead to the Cold War?
4. General Douglas MacArthur, one time commander of United Nations armed forces during the
Korean War, in a 1954 interview stated that he had wanted to drop "between thirty and fifty atomic
bombs" on enemy bases before laying radioactive waste material across the northern edge of North
Korea during the war. Why did Truman decide not to use the atomic bomb in the Korean War of
1950. How did this precedent dictate warfare in subsequent presidencies?
5. What other Truman policies became precedents for the modern presidency? One example is United
States sponsorship of NATO.
Korematsu v. United States
Citation. 323 U.S. 214, 65 S. Ct. 193, 89 L. Ed. 194, 1944 U.S. 1341
Brief Fact Summary. During World War II, a military commander ordered all persons of
Japanese descent to evacuate the West Coast. The Petitioner, Korematsu (Petitioner), a United
States citizen of Japanese descent, was convicted for failing to comply with the order.
Synopsis of Rule of Law. Legal restrictions that curtail the civil rights of a single racial group
are subject to the most rigid scrutiny. But, pressing public necessity may sometimes justify such
restrictions.
Facts. President of the United States Franklin Roosevelt (President Roosevelt) issued an
executive order authorizing military commanders to prescribe military areas from which any or
all persons may be excluded. Thereupon, a military commander ordered all persons of
Japanese descent, whether or not they were United States citizens, to leave their homes on the
West Coast and to report to “Assembly Centers.” The Petitioner, a United States citizen of
unchallenged loyalty, but of Japanese descent, was convicted under a federal law making it an
offense to fail to comply with such military orders.
Issue. Was it within the power of Congress and the Executive to exclude persons of Japanese
ancestry from the West Coast at the time that they were excluded?
Held. Yes. At the time the exclusion was ordered, it was justified.
Justice Hugo Black stated that although the exclusion order imposed hardships upon a large
number of American citizens, hardships are part of war. When, under conditions of warfare, our
shores are threatened by hostile forces, the power to protect them must be commensurate with
the threatened danger.
Dissent.
Justice Frank Murphy (J. Murphy) argued that the exclusion at issue here goes over the brink of
constitutional power and falls into the abyss of racism. Although we must extend great
deference to the judgments of the military, it is essential that there be definite limits to military
discretion. Moreover, the military order is not reasonably related to the dangers it seeks to
prevent.
Justice Robert Jackson (J. Jackson) stated he would not distort the United States Constitution
(Constitution) to approve everything the military may deem expedient.
Discussion. Ironically, this case establishes the “strict scrutiny” standard of review, thereby
leading to the invalidation of much race-based discrimination in the future.
Executive Order 9066: The President Authorizes Japanese
Relocation
In an atmosphere of World War II hysteria, President Roosevelt, encouraged by officials at all levels of
the federal government, authorized the internment of tens of thousands of American citizens of
Japanese ancestry and resident aliens from Japan. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, dated February 19,
1942, gave the military broad powers to ban any citizen from a fifty- to sixty-mile-wide coastal area
stretching from Washington state to California and extending inland into southern Arizona. The order
also authorized transporting these citizens to assembly centers hastily set up and governed by the
military in California, Arizona, Washington state, and Oregon. Although it is not well known, the same
executive order (and other war-time orders and restrictions) were also applied to smaller numbers of
residents of the United States who were of Italian or German descent. For example, 3,200 resident
aliens of Italian background were arrested and more than 300 of them were interned. About 11,000
German residents—including some naturalized citizens—were arrested and more than 5000 were
interned. Yet while these individuals (and others from those groups) suffered grievous violations of their
civil liberties, the war-time measures applied to Japanese Americans were worse and more sweeping,
uprooting entire communities and targeting citizens as well as resident aliens.
Executive Order No. 9066
The President
Executive Order
Authorizing the Secretary of War to Prescribe Military Areas
Whereas the successful prosecution of the war requires every possible protection against espionage and
against sabotage to national-defense material, national-defense premises, and national-defense utilities
as defined in Section 4, Act of April 20, 1918, 40 Stat. 533, as amended by the Act of November 30,
1940, 54 Stat. 1220, and the Act of August 21, 1941, 55 Stat. 655 (U.S.C., Title 50, Sec. 104);
Now, therefore, by virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United States, and
Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, I hereby authorize and direct the Secretary of War, and the
Military Commanders whom he may from time to time designate, whenever he or any designated
Commander deems such action necessary or desirable, to prescribe military areas in such places and of
such extent as he or the appropriate Military Commander may determine, from which any or all persons
may be excluded, and with respect to which, the right of any person to enter, remain in, or leave shall be
subject to whatever restrictions the Secretary of War or the appropriate Military Commander may
impose in his discretion. The Secretary of War is hereby authorized to provide for residents of any such
area who are excluded therefrom, such transportation, food, shelter, and other accommodations as may
be necessary, in the judgment of the Secretary of War or the said Military Commander, and until other
arrangements are made, to accomplish the purpose of this order. The designation of military areas in
any region or locality shall supersede designations of prohibited and restricted areas by the Attorney
General under the Proclamations of December 7 and 8, 1941, and shall supersede the responsibility and
authority of the Attorney General under the said Proclamations in respect of such prohibited and
restricted areas.
I hereby further authorize and direct the Secretary of War and the said Military Commanders to take
such other steps as he or the appropriate Military Commander may deem advisable to enforce
compliance with the restrictions applicable to each Military area hereinabove authorized to be
designated, including the use of Federal troops and other Federal Agencies, with authority to accept
assistance of state and local agencies.
I hereby further authorize and direct all Executive Departments, independent establishments and other
Federal Agencies, to assist the Secretary of War or the said Military Commanders in carrying out this
Executive Order, including the furnishing of medical aid, hospitalization, food, clothing, transportation,
use of land, shelter, and other supplies, equipment, utilities, facilities, and services.
This order shall not be construed as modifying or limiting in any way the authority heretofore granted
under Executive Order No. 8972, dated December 12, 1941, nor shall it be construed as limiting or
modifying the duty and responsibility of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with respect to the
investigation of alleged acts of sabotage or the duty and responsibility of the Attorney General and the
Department of Justice under the Proclamations of December 7 and 8, 1941, prescribing regulations for
the conduct and control of alien enemies, except as such duty and responsibility is superseded by the
designation of military areas hereunder.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
The White House,
February 19, 1942.
[F.R. Doc. 42–1563; Filed, February 21, 1942; 12:51 p.m.]
Source: Executive Order No. 9066, February 19, 1942.