The Garden Speech

Bringing comfort to myself that a choice in studying the Roosevelts meant something, but among other brilliant speeches such as the Fala, I share this one;

‘For nearly four years now, you have had an Administration which instead of twirling its thumbs has rolled up its sleeves. And I can assure you, we will keep our sleeves rolled up. We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace—business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. And we know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob. Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred. I should like to have it said of my first Administration that in it the forces of selfishness and of lust for power met their match. I should like to have it said (wait a minute)…I should like to have it said of my second Administration that in it, these forces met their master*’

He continued to say;

’The very employers and politicians and publishers who talk most loudly of class antagonism and the destruction of the American system now undermine that system by this attempt to coerce the votes of the wage earners of this country. It is the 1936 version of the old threat to close down the factory or the office if a particular candidate does not win. It is an old strategy of tyrants to delude their victims into fighting their battles for them*’

#heckofjob
*Franklin D. Roosevelt, Address at Madison Square Garden

Whys Woman,
Reality & Historic Speeches