英语演讲3. FDR - First Inaugural Address

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3. FDR - First Inaugural Address
President
Hoover, Mr. Chief Justice, my friends:
This is a day of national consecration. And I am certain that on this day my fellow Americans
expect
that on my induction
into the Presidency, I will address them with a candor and a decision which
the present situation of our people impels.
This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need
we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure,
as it has endured, will revive and will prosper.
So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that
the only thing we have to fear is fear itself nameless,
unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to
convert retreat
into advance. In every dark hour of our national life, a leadership of frankness and of vigor
has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which
is essential to victory. And I am convinced that you will again
give that support to leadership in these critical days.
In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank
God, only material things.
Values have shrunk to fantastic levels. taxes have risen. our ability
to pay has fallen. government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income. the
means of exchange are frozen
in the currents of trade. the withered leaves of industrial
enterprise lie on every side. farmers find no markets for their produce. and the savings of
many years in thousands of families are gone. More important, a host of unemployed citizens
face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great
number toil with little return. Only a
foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.
And yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of
locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered, because they believed and
were not afraid, we have still
much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and
human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it
languishes in the very sight of the supply.