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N0KFQ > TODAY 12.03.12 23:12l 56 Lines 2569 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 19014_KB0WSA
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Subj: Today in History - Mar 12
Path: IZ3LSV<IW0QNL<JH4XSY<JE7YGF<VE3UIL<N0KFQ<KB0WSA
Sent: 120312/2036Z 19014@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.49
Mar 12, 1933:
FDR gives first fireside chat
On this day in 1933, eight days after his inauguration, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt gives his first national radio address or
"fireside chat," broadcast directly from the White House.
Roosevelt began that first address simply: "I want to talk for a
few minutes with the people of the United States about banking."
He went on to explain his recent decision to close the nation's
banks in order to stop a surge in mass withdrawals by panicked
investors worried about possible bank failures. The banks would
be reopening the next day, Roosevelt said, and he thanked the
public for their "fortitude and good temper" during the "banking
holiday."
At the time, the U.S. was at the lowest point of the Great
Depression, with between 25 and 33 percent of the work force
unemployed. The nation was worried, and Roosevelt's address was
designed to ease fears and to inspire confidence in his
leadership. Roosevelt went on to deliver 30 more of these
broadcasts between March 1933 and June 1944. They reached an
astonishing number of American households, 90 percent of which
owned a radio at the time.
Journalist Robert Trout coined the phrase "fireside chat" to
describe Roosevelt's radio addresses, invoking an image of the
president sitting by a fire in a living room, speaking earnestly
to the American people about his hopes and dreams for the nation.
In fact, Roosevelt took great care to make sure each address was
accessible and understandable to ordinary Americans, regardless
of their level of education. He used simple vocabulary and relied
on folksy anecdotes or analogies to explain the often complex
issues facing the country.
Over the course of his historic 12-year presidency, Roosevelt
used the chats to build popular support for his groundbreaking
New Deal policies, in the face of stiff opposition from big
business and other groups. After World War II began, he used them
to explain his administration's wartime policies to the American
people. The success of Roosevelt's chats was evident not only in
his three re-elections, but also in the millions of letters that
flooded the White House. Farmers, business owners, men, women,
rich, poor--most of them expressed the feeling that the president
had entered their home and spoken directly to them. In an era
when presidents had previously communicated with their citizens
almost exclusively through spokespeople and journalists, it was
an unprecedented step.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: n0kfq@winlink.org
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