That is why our social security program is an important part of the complete picture.
FDR
The Public Record
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the 32nd President of the United States, serving from March 4, 1933, until his death on April 12, 1945. A member of the Democratic Party, he was born in New York and is best known for his leadership during two of the most significant crises in American history: the Great Depression and World War II. Roosevelt implemented the New Deal, a series of programs and reforms aimed at economic recovery and social welfare, which fundamentally reshaped the role of the federal government in American life.
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It proposes, by means of old age pensions, to help those who have reached the age of retirement to give up their jobs and thus give to the younger generation greater opportunities for work and to give to all a feeling of security as they…
The unemployment insurance part of the legislation will not only help to guard the individual in future periods of lay-off against dependence upon relief, but it will, by sustaining purchasing power, cushion the shock of economic distress.
Another helpful feature of unemployment insurance is the incentive it will give to employers to plan more carefully in order that unemployment may be prevented by the stabilizing of employment itself.
Our responsibility for the immediate necessities of the unemployed has been met by the Congress through the most comprehensive work plan in the history of the nation.
Our problem is to put to work three and one-half million employable persons now on the relief rolls.
This will make certain that the largest possible portion of the funds allotted will be spent for actually creating new work and not for building up expensive overhead organizations here in Washington.
The most effective means of preventing such evils in this Works Relief program will be the eternal vigilance of the American people themselves.
I call upon my fellow citizens everywhere to cooperate with me in making this the most efficient and the cleanest example of public enterprise the world has ever seen.
Neither you nor I want criticism conceived in a purely fault-finding or partisan spirit, but I am jealous of the right of every citizen to call to the attention of his or her government examples of how the public money can be more…
But under holding company domination the utility industry has long been hopelessly at war within itself and with public sentiment.
A business that loses the confidence of its customers and the good- will of the public cannot long continue to be a good risk for the investor.
Finally, the reestablishment of public confidence in the banks of the nation is one of the most hopeful results of our efforts as a Nation to reestablish public confidence in private banking.
We all know that private banking actually exists by virtue of the permission of and regulation by the people as a whole, speaking through their government.
Wise public policy, however, requires not only that banking be safe but that its resources be most fully utilized in the economic life of the country.
They contemplate the enrichment of our national life by a sound and rational ordering of its various elements and wise provisions for the protection of the weak against the strong.
Never since my inauguration in March, 1933, have I felt so unmistakably the atmosphere of recovery.
But it is more than the recovery of the material basis of our individual lives.
It is the recovery of confidence in our democratic processes and institutions.
We have in the darkest moments of our national trials retained our faith in our own ability to master our destiny.
No cracked earth, no blistering sun, no burning wind, no grasshoppers, are a permanent match for the indomitable American farmers and stockmen and their wives and children who have carried on through desperate days, and inspire us with…
It was their fathers' task to make homes; it is their task to keep those homes; it is our task to help them win their fight.
They do not want to go on the dole and they are one thousand percent right.
We agree, therefore, that we must put them to work for a decent wage; and when we reach that decision we kill two birds with one stone, because these families will earn enough by working, not only to subsist themselves, but to buy food for…
These emergency work projects provide money to buy food and clothing for the winter; they keep the livestock on the farm; they provide seed for a new crop, and, best of all, they will conserve soil and water in the future in those areas…
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