“You people must have faith you must not be stampeded by rumors or guesses,” he told an estimated 60 million listeners. The address was notable for its stylistic clarity and the way it combined an authoritative discussion of banking with a neighborly, even friendly, tone. “I want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States about banking,” he began on that Sunday evening. Thus, the informal and informative radio address style that Roosevelt pioneered in Albany was rolled out on the national stage. Aside from legislation, something less formal but perhaps more important was required: reassuring the American people about the safety of their economic system. It soon became obvious that the 1932-1933 crisis was potentially more catastrophic than any earlier panic. At first it appeared to be yet another economic panic of the sort that had occasionally bedeviled the U.S. The banking crisis proved most threatening. (Library of Congress)įollowing his March 4, 1933, inauguration during the Great Depression, the Roosevelt administration had to address the cascading series of dire crises facing the nation. "Like modern town criers, policemen boom the news to depositors that bank is closed," a 1933 photograph by the World-Telegram. Roosevelt and his advisers brought this awareness to Washington after he won the presidential election. The governor could bypass not only his opposition in the legislature, but also the Republican newspapers editorializing against his policies.īy speaking directly to citizens, Roosevelt measurably influenced public opinion and successfully promoted his policies. His advisers noted both Roosevelt’s natural talent and radio’s remarkable effectiveness in reaching voters directly. He delivered a series of radio addresses in 19 to counter the intransigence of the state legislature’s Republican majority. Roosevelt – had begun using the state’s small radio network to promote his agenda directly to citizens. In New York state, however, the Democratic governor – Franklin D. None of the three Republicans used this new medium of mass communication effectively. But for Harding, and successors Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover, radio broadcasting – and the national communication it offered – was never considered an essential tool of governance.
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