PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT. IN HIS LONGEST AND MOST OUTSPOKEN ATTACK ON DICTATORIAL GOVERNMENT SINCE HE ASSUMED THE PRESIDENCY, WARNED FRIDAY NIGHT THAT DICTATORSHIP” THREATENS CIVILIZATION AND DECLARED “THE PEOPLE OF AMERICA ARE RIGHTLY DETERMINED TO KEEP THAT GROWING MENACE FROM OUR SHORES.”
IN AN ADDRESS ON THE CONSTITUTION TO MORE THAN 65,000 PEOPLE GATHERED IN THE SYLVAN THEATRE NEAR THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT — AND TO THE PEOPLE OF AMERICA THROUGH ALL RADIO NETWORKS — THE PRESIDENT URGED “THAT MAJORITIES AND MINORITIES SUBORDINATE INTOLERANCE AND POWER ALIKE TO THE COMMON GOOD OF ALL.”
ONLY THROUGH PROVIDING ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL SECURITY AND RAISING THE STANDARD OF LIVING OF THE MASSES “CAN WE INSURE AGAINST INTERNAL DOUBTS AS TO THE WORTHWHILENESS OF OUR DEMOCRACY AND DISSIPATE THE ILLUSION THAT THE NECESSARY PRICE OF EFFICIENCY IS DICTATORSHIP WITH ITS ATTENDANT SPIRIT OF AGGRESSION,” HE ASSERTED.
CALLING DICTATORSHIP “A CLEAR CHALLENGE TO THE DEMOCRATIC IDEA OF REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT, ” THE PRESIDENT CITED MATERIAL GAINS ACHIEVED BY DICTATORSHIPS” AT THE EXPENSE OF LIBERTY AND INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS” BUT DENIED DICTATORS’ PREDICTIONS OF THE EARLY END OF DEMOCRACY.
THE DENIAL IS BASED, HE SAID, ON THE DOUBLE GROUND THAT “MODERN MEN AND WOMEN WILL NOT TAMELY COMMIT TO ONE MAN OR ONE GROUP THE PERMANENT CONDUCT OF THEIR GOVERNMENT” AND THAT THE DICTATORIAL FORM OF GOVERNMENT THREATENS CIVILIZATION BY PILING UP ARMAMENTS AND DEFICITS, MULTIPLYING TRADE BARRIERS AND SPREADING FEAR OF AGGRESSION.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
