FDR's 1938 Fireside: It Takes Job Programs to Turn Around a Recession

One of the most important speeches by President Frankllin D. Roosevelt, one that speaks to us today, was delivered in 1938. Ah, yes -- It was a year of swing -- music that grew out of, and expressed, the new surge of public energy, the spirit of public service and the renewed economy that was well underway as a result of Roosevelt's job stimulus and relief initiatives. Were FDR’s daring programs all about green jobs? Well, not really but there is a parallel: In 1937, four years after President Roosevelt's original relief and stimulus package started bringing us out of the Great Depression, a steady curve of progress started to nosedive. Roosevelt, under pressure from deficit hawks, had cut back on job creating stimulus programs. Results were swift. Unemployment and layoffs -- the ugly face of double-dip depression-- returned to haunt everyday Americans. In a clip from 1938, Roosevelt declares a return to the New Deal job creation that drove away the Depression in the first place. And while we hear this Fireside Chat, just think: Green jobs. Green jobs... The manufacturing sector had overproduced in anticipation of growing employment – growth that was curtailed in 1937 when Roosevelt pulled back on job stimulus funding in favor of what today is called “fiscal conservatism”. Roosevelt is accused by the right today of having been a socialist, of moving United States politics and economics to the far left. Actually, given the national mood and world politics at the time, FDR’s approach was very centrist. In Germany & Italy, people had fallen into line with fascist dictators who had promised to bring economic stimulus through military control of their nations. Some years earlier, Russia had a complete Communist revolution and the worldwide Communist Party movement was held at bay in the U.S. because of aggressive jobs programs and poverty relief.