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| Franklin Delano Roosevelt |
Truly, this scintillating speech featured sharp metaphors and forceful language, not to mention a conspiracy theory, but it worked because Roosevelt organized his ideas to pick up the audience where they were—in this case, paralyzed by fear—and lead them step by step to a solution.
How does a speaker lead an audience to accept seemingly radical ideas? Roosevelt told his audience—the nation— to overcome their fears. He then from problem to solution. From emotion to logic, and then from logic to action. He first inspired the country’s despairing people, and then discussed the economic collapse, stated its cause, and, finally, gave his solution. People think and feel in patterns. Inspiration, problem, solution. Anything else is chaos.
Lesser politicians might forget that people in despair don’t need games; they need answers. In 1933, the Great Depression had crushed the world’s economy. Despair ruled the land. The stock market collapsed. Bank failures filled the financial papers. Millions of Americans feared the constant foreclosures. Unemployment exceeded 20%. Unable to find employment, city workers waited in soup lines. For all practical purposes, the free enterprise economy had disintegrated. What could be done?
Step One: Do Not Give in to Fear
Roosevelt launched his speech with one of the most inspiring statements in public speaking history:
“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.”By the speech’s end, Roosevelt would present dramatic national policies. People obviously feared the economic collapse. However, did they fear change more than they feared the Great Depression? Roosevelt faced that dilemma head-on. Thus, before he gave the details, the new president told people to put aside fear and to advance, not retreat. That started the path to hope.
Step Two: State the Problem
Before the speech was over, Roosevelt would call for unprecedented new policies. Would
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| Soup and Bread line, about 1932 |
“In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values have shrunk to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen.”Continuing, Roosevelt noted that the financial exchanges were “frozen.” He acknowledged that farmers lacked markets, while families had lost their savings. A brilliant metaphor emphasized the problem:
“The withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side.”Saving the worst for last, Roosevelt acknowledged the Depression’s vast extent:
“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.”No rosy pictures there! No talking points carefully tested in sterile focus groups. Just harsh reality. A problem needed to be solved. How to solve it? That was Roosevelt’s next step.
Step Three: Who Caused the Problems?
One solves a problem by eradicating its cause. Common sense tells us that. The Great Depression was a disaster, and, at the time, economists did not agree on its cause. (To some extent, they still don’t!) So, next, Roosevelt turned to the world’s oldest conspiracy theory. He blamed everything on bankers. Not the banking industry – not the economic system – but the corrupt, morally vacant bankers themselves. Not on what caused the Depression, but who:
“We are stricken by no plague of locusts.… Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply.”That comment echoed a conspiracy theory that sometimes echoed through my parents’ generation: that the bankers had plenty of money but were too greedy to circulate it. Accordingly, Roosevelt railed against “the rulers of the exchange of mankind’s goods,” accusing them of “their own stubbornness and their own incompetence.” Noticing Roosevelt’s persuasive technique, Professor Halford Ryan calls this “scapegoating” (see note below). Roosevelt instinctively noticed that the public is more likely to blame malicious actors for their problems than they are to reflect on impersonal economic forces. Roosevelt was not looking for what caused the Depression, but who caused it. Roosevelt used a biblical allusion to accuse the bankers:
“Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.”Indeed, Roosevelt insisted that the banking industry only knows “the rules of a generation of self-seekers.” Roosevelt would later want to contrast his vision of progress and reform against the bankers. To set the audience up for that next step, Roosevelt attacked the bankers for their lack of vision:
“They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish. Yes, the money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization.”Since, as we shall see in a moment, Roosevelt would offer a dramatic vision, he set himself up to focus his hire against the bankers for their conservative, unyielding unwillingness to change: their lack of vision.
I don’t think many present-day economists would agree that the bankers themselves were personally at fault, but bankers always present a tempting target. People don't like bankers. So, having pled for moral reform, Roosevelt turned to practical action.
Fourth Step: A Solution?
Only now was it time for Roosevelt to give his own vision. Roosevelt called for action:
“This Nation is asking for action, and action now.” [italics added]First among Roosevelt’s proposed actions was to address unemployment. He advocated government intervention that would, in coming years, turn into the Public Works Administration and the Tennessee Valley Project:
“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 great—greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our great natural resources.”Roosevelt’s call for direct government hiring was as radical in his day as it would be today. Still, Roosevelt’s argument was that a nation in crisis needed to act forcefully. Public employment was a logical culmination of his plea to put aside hesitation and act.
Roosevelt further promised to stop “the growing loss through foreclosure of our small homes and our farms.” He promised to reform and improve relief activities and to develop public utilities. Pressing the issue, Roosevelt urged speed:
“We must act. We must act quickly.” [italics added]Roosevelt’s sequence of ideas had reached fruition: the nation had been suffering for years. Patience was running out. Anyone could see Germany, Japan, and Italy responding to the economic crisis by turning to right-wing dictatorships. Russia, in contrast, turned to an equally pernicious communist tyranny. Roosevelt instead offered a constructive solution that mashed broadly with the United States’ traditions of constitutional government. Finally, Roosevelt summarized that the people had voted for “a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action.”
Overall
Roosevelt’s brilliant speech started by warning people against fear. It is, however, never enough to tell people not to be afraid. That is why Roosevelt offered hope. He recognized the economy’s collapse. He identified the cause as the bankers’ ethical failures. Finally, he laid out a program of action. From the bankers' alleged lack of vision, Roosevelt progressed to a vision that required dramatic government intervention to help the failing economy work again. His speech gave a step, by step, by step explanation to motivate the nation and initiate dramatic new policies.
Problematically, the modern science of macroeconomics (which investigates national policy, not personal and business economics) didn’t really exist in 1934. Conservative economists had noticed the economic cycles, although they expected the economy to self-correct. In contrast, a century earlier, Karl Marx had sourly predicted that the business cycle would eventually tear the free enterprise system to pieces. Both views turned out to be problematic. Despite its wonders, the free enterprise system is always unstable and a certain amount of government supervision (neither too much, nor too little) seems unavoidable.
So, from one viewpoint, Roosevelt was floundering just as badly as his inept predecessor. Unlike Hoover, however, Roosevelt was willing to explore murky financial waters to give Americans courage. From another viewpoint, Roosevelt understood, as Hoover evidently did not, that the status quo had stopped working, the public needed hope, and Americans needed positive action, not reassuring but vacuous words. Problem – solution. That was the ticket.
Overall, Roosevelt led the nation through a logical chain of reasoning. He warned them against fear, knowing that fear blocks our thinking, and that unthinking people will never progress. He did not cry, “all is well.” Everything was not well. Instead, he laid out the problem starkly and vividly. He then explained solutions. Maybe some of the solutions were good, and some maybe were not. In March 1933, however, the important thing was that he was acting. And only from action could people begin to look forward to the future.
Overall, Roosevelt led the nation through a logical chain of reasoning. He warned them against fear, knowing that fear blocks our thinking, and that unthinking people will never progress. He did not cry, “all is well.” Everything was not well. Instead, he laid out the problem starkly and vividly. He then explained solutions. Maybe some of the solutions were good, and some maybe were not. In March 1933, however, the important thing was that he was acting. And only from action could people begin to look forward to the future.
by William D. Harpine
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Research Note: There have been several excellent academic studies of this speech. I particularly admire Halford Ryan’s meticulously researched essay, “Roosevelt's First Inaugural: A Study of Technique,” published in the Quarterly Journal of Speech in 1979. Although it is behind a paywall, many libraries can probably find it for you in their databases. Ryan noted Roosevelt’s use of scapegoating, which I mentioned above, as well as his use of military metaphors and carrot-and-stick language. Looking at the speech’s composition, Ryan shows how Roosevelt worked with outstanding speech writers, including Raymond Moley and Louis Howe.
Roosevelt’s comment about moneychangers elliptically refers to the New Testament account of Jesus’ entrance into the Jerusalem Temple, Mark 11:15.
Copyright © 2025 by William D. Harpine
Image of Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Leon A. Perskie, Creative Commons license,
Image of Bread and Soup Line, public domain, National Archives and Records Administration,
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