The Little White House newsletter, 2014 Fall

The Little White House NEWSLETTER

Roosevelt's Little White House - 706-655-5870 - 401 Little White House Rd. - Warm Springs, Ga. 31830
Fall Quarter 2014
History of the Fireside Chats The fireside chats were a series of thirty evening radio speeches given by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt between 1933 and 1944.

According to Roosevelt's principal speechwriter Judge Clinton Sorrel, he first used "fireside chats" in 1929 during his first term as Governor of New York. Roosevelt faced a conservative Republican legislature so during each legislative session he would occasionally address the citizens of New York directly in the camel back room. He appealed to them for help getting his agenda passed. Letters would pour in following each of these "chats," which helped pressure legislators to pass measures Roosevelt had proposed. He began making the informal addresses as President on March 12, 1933, during the Great Depression.

On the day after he was inaugurated, President Roosevelt, invoking the 1917 Trading with the Enemy Act, closed all American banks for a "bank holiday." While the banks were closed, Congress developed a program of rehabilitation for the banks and the Federal Reserve released extra currency.
On March 12, 1933, the day before the banks were to reopen, President Roosevelt delivered his first "fireside chat" radio address to the American public. In his reassuring address, Roosevelt outlined the steps the government was taking to secure currency and bring equilibrium back to the banks. The chat, which reached an estimated sixty million people, restored public confidence and led to a short-term restabilization of the American economy.
source: wikipedia

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FDR's Voice
"I never saw him but I knew him. Can you have forgotten how, with his voice, he came into our house, the President of these United States, calling us friends..."
Carl Carmer, April 14, 1945

Chronology of the Fireside Chats

1. On the Bank Crisis - Sunday, March 12, 1933

2. Outlining the New Deal Program - Sunday, May 7, 1933

3. On the Purposes and Foundations of the Recovery Program - Monday, July 24, 1933

4. On the Currency Situation - Sunday, October 22, 1933

5. Review of the Achievements of the Seventy-third Congress - Thursday, June 28, 1934

6. On Moving Forward to Greater Freedom and Greater Security - Sunday, September 30, 1934

7. On the Works Relief Program - Sunday, April 28, 1935

8. On Drought Conditions - Sunday, September 6, 1936

9. On the Reorganization of the Judiciary - Tuesday, March 9, 1937

10. On Legislation to be Recommended to the Extraordinary Session of the Congress - Tuesday, October 12, 1937

11. On the Unemployment Census - Sunday, November 14, 1937

12. On Economic Conditions - Thursday, April 14, 1938

13. On Party - Friday, June 24, 1938

14. On the European War - Sunday, September 3, 1939

15. On National Defense - Sunday, May 26, 1940

16. On National Security - Sunday, December 29, 1940

17. Announcing Unlimited National Emergency - Tuesday, May 27, 1941 (the longest fireside chat)

18. On Maintaining Freedom of the Seas - Thursday, September 11, 1941 19. On the Declaration of War with Japan - Tuesday, December 9, 1941

The success of the Fireside Chats is

20. On Progress of the War - Monday, February 23, 1942

evidenced by the millions of letters that

21. On Our National Economic Policy - Tuesday, April 28, 1942

flooded the White House. Americans from

22. On Inflation and Progress of the War - Monday, September 7, 1942 23. Report on the Home Front - Monday, October 12, 1942 24. On the Coal Crisis - Sunday, May 2, 1943 25. On Progress of War and Plans for Peace - Wednesday, July 28, 1943 26. Opening Third War Loan Drive - Wednesday, September 8, 1943

all walks of life wrote FDR, and many of these letters were written within days, even hours, of hearing their beloved president over the radio. In these letters,

27. On Tehran and Cairo Conferences - Friday, December 24, 1943

people often wrote about how they felt

28. State of the Union Message to Congress - Tuesday, January 11, 1944

during these radio addresses, as if FDR

29. On the Fall of Rome - Monday, June 5, 1944 30. Opening Fifth War Loan Drive - Monday, June 12, 1944

entered their homes and spoke to each of them in a conversation.

2 Roosevelt's Little White House - 706-655-5870 - 401 Little White House Rd. - Warm Springs, Ga. 31830