Tuesday, December 06, 2011
State of the Union Address by Franklin D. Roosevelt
If you didn't know the date, you would likely think this was a current situation.
History certainly has a way of repeating itself...
History certainly has a way of repeating itself...
TeachingAmericanHistory.org has a posting of Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1935 State of the Union Speech. It included this:
"A large proportion of these unemployed and their dependents have been forced on the relief rolls. The burden on the Federal Government has grown with great rapidity. We have here a human as well as an economic problem. When humane considerations are concerned, Americans give them precedence. The lessons of history, confirmed by the evidence immediately before me, show conclusively that continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fibre. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit. It is inimical to the dictates of sound policy. It is in violation of the traditions of America. Work must be found for able—bodied but destitute workers.
The Federal Government must and shall quit this business of relief."
