Franklin d roosevelt biography speech 1938

THIRTY YEARS AGO, on June 25, , President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law a great landmark in this Nation's history of consumer protection: the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.

That legislation was an initial effort to meet a whole new set of problems as the American marketplace moved from the corner grocery into the age of the supermarket.

It set forth this Government's basic principles for maintaining the quality and integrity of the market in the 20th century, and it directed the agencies of this Government to ensure that these principles would prevail.

These principles have been buttressed over the past 30 years by a series of amendments that have benefited both buyer and merchant-both the American consumer and American business. They have provided:

--for the certification of insulin, penicillin, and other lifesaving antibiotics;

--for setting limits on the usage of pesticides;

--for establishing the safe use of food additives and color additives;

--for assuring that all drugs are safe as well as effective, and for the control of stimulant, depressant, and hallucinogenic drugs.

Meanwhile, there have been long strides in other areas of consumer protection. In the last 3 years, the Congress has enacted major legislation to provide for highway safety, fair packaging, wholesome meat, protection against flammable fabrics, home appliance safety, safe toys, adequate clinical laboratory standards, fire research and safety, truth-in-lending, and the establishment of a National Commission on Product Safety.

We have new Federal guardians of the marketplace: the first Special Assistant to the President for Consumer Affairs, the first Consumer Counsel in the Department of Justice, the first Presidential Committee on Consumer Interests, and, within the last 2 weeks, the new Consumer Protection and Environmental Health Service in the Department of Health, Educati

On September 27, , President Franklin Roosevelt writes to German Chancellor Adolf Hitler regarding the threat of war in Europe. The German chancellor had been threatening to invade the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia and, in the letter, his second to Hitler in as many days, Roosevelt reiterated the need to find a peaceful resolution to the issue.

The previous day, FDR had written to Hitler with an appeal to negotiate with Czechoslovakia regarding Germany’s desire for the natural and industrial resources of the Sudetenland rather than resort to force. Hitler responded that Germany was entitled to the area because of the “shameful” way in which the Treaty of Versailles, which had ended World War I, had made Germany a “pariah” in the community of nations. The treaty had given the Sudetenland, a territory that was believed by Hitler and many of his supporters to be inherently German, to the state of Czechoslovakia. Therefore, Hitler reasoned, German invasion of the Sudetenland was justified, as annexation by Germany would simply mean returning the area to its cultural and historical roots. Hitler assured Roosevelt that he also desired to avoid another large-scale war in Europe.

In his letter of September 27, Roosevelt expressed relief at Hitler’s assurances but re-emphasized his desire that “negotiations [between Germany and Czechoslovakia] be continued until a peaceful settlement is found.” FDR also suggested that a conference of all nations concerned with the current conflict be convened as soon as possible. He appealed to Hitler’s ego, saying “should you agree to a solution in this peaceful manner I am convinced that hundreds of millions throughout the world would recognize your action as an outstanding historic service to all humanity.” FDR then assured Hitler that the U.S. would remain neutral regarding European politics, but that America recognized a responsibility to be involved “as part of a world of neighbors

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Five months have gone by since I last spoke to the people of the Nation about the state of the Nation.
I had hoped to be able to defer this talk until next week because, as we all know, this is Holy Week. But what I want to say to you, the people of the country, is of such immediate need and relates so closely to the lives of human beings and the prevention of human suffering that I have felt that there should be no delay. In this decision I have been strengthened by the thought that by speaking tonight there may be greater peace of mind and that the hope of Easter may be more real at firesides everywhere, and therefore that it is not inappropriate to encourage peace when so many of us are thinking of the Prince of Peace.
Five years ago we faced a very serious problem of economic and social recovery. For four and a half years that recovery proceeded apace. It is only in the past seven months that it has received a visible setback.
And it is only within the past two months, as we have waited patiently to see whether the forces of business itself would counteract it, that it has become apparent that government itself can no longer safely fail to take aggressive government steps to meet it.
This recession has not returned to us (to) the disasters and suffering of the beginning of Your money in the bank is safe; farmers are no longer in deep distress and have greater purchasing power; dangers of security speculation have been minimized; national income is almost 50% higher than it was in ; and government has an established and accepted responsibility for relief.
But I know that many of you have lost your jobs or have seen your friends or members of your families lose their jobs, and I do not propose that the Government shall pretend not to see these things. I know that the effect of our present difficulties has been uneven; that they have affected some groups and some localities seriously but that they hav

Franklin D. Roosevelt Speeches

Message to Congress on the Concentration of Economic Power

Franklin D. Roosevelt

April 29,

To the Congress of the United States:

Unhappy events abroad have retaught us two simple truths about the liberty of a democratic people.

The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself.  That, in its essence, is fascism -- ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.

The second truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe, if its business system does not provide employment and produce and distribute goods in such a way as to sustain an acceptable standard of living.

Both lessons hit home.

Among us today a concentration of private power without equal in history is growing.  This concentration is seriously impairing the economic effectiveness of private enterprise as a way of providing employment for labor and capital and as a way of assuring a more equitable distribution of income and earnings among the people of the nation as a whole.

[I] The Growing Concentration of Economic Power

Statistics of the Bureau of Internal Revenue reveal the following amazing figures for

Ownership of corporate assets:  Of all corporations reporting from every part of the nation, one-tenth of 1 percent of them owned 52 percent of the assets of all of them.

And to clinch the point:  Of all corporations reporting, less than 5 percent of them owned 87 percent of all assets of all of them.

Income and profits of corporations:  Of all the corporations reporting from every part of the country, one-tenth of 1 percent of them earned 50 percent of the net income of all of them.

And to clinch the point:  Of all the manufacturing corporations reporting, less than 4 percent of them earned 84 percent of all the net profits