Then a second severe contraction in 1938 reversed many gains in production and employment and prolonged the effects of the Great Depression through the end of the decade. After a period of gradual recovery, a sharp recession hit in 1937. It was a long, hard slog, however, before the country began to regain its economic foothold. A single fireside chat could generate more than 450,000 cards, letters and telegrams. “I can assure you,” he said, “that it is safer to keep your money in a reopened bank than under the mattress.”īefore Roosevelt’s second radio address, broadcast on May 7, 1933, the CBS station manager Harold Butcher dubbed the speeches “fireside chats.” Thousands of letters had begun pouring into the Roosevelt White House every day, many of them expressing gratitude for the president’s words. After that, he said, people could feel completely safe returning their money to the banks rather than hoarding it at home out of fear. He argued that the government’s emergency measures would enable a survey of the nation’s banks and allow stable ones to reopen.
For roughly 13 minutes, more than 60 million Americans listened as Roosevelt explained-in straightforward language designed “for the benefit of the average citizen”-what the federal government had done in the past few days to address the banking crisis, why they had done it and what the next steps were going to be.Īfter explaining how banking worked, Roosevelt laid out what had happened to cause the current crisis. “My friends, I want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States about banking,” he began. (Yes, he was actually sitting next to a fireplace.) That evening, at 10 pm Eastern time, Roosevelt addressed the nation via radio broadcast, directly from the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House. But on March 12, 1933, the day before banks were set to reopen, it wasn’t clear that these emergency measures had done enough to calm the public’s fears.
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