The program for social security now pending before

The program for social security now pending before the Congress is a necessary
part of the future unemployment relief... We must begin now to make provision for
the future. That is why our social security program is an important part of the
complete picture. It proposes, by means of old-age pensions, to help those who
have reached the age of retirement to give up their jobs, and thus give to the
younger generation greater opportunities for work, and to give to all a feeling of
security as they look toward old age.
Excerpt from
FDR Fireside
Chat -
April 14, 1935
... I try not to forget that what really counts at the bottom of it all is that the men and
women willing to work can have a decent job—a decent job to take care of
themselves and their homes and their children adequately; that the farmer, the
factory worker, the storekeeper, the gas station man, the manufacturer, the
merchant—big and small... that all of these can be sure of a reasonable profit and
safety for the earnings that they make .... I can hear your unspoken wonder as to
where we are headed in this troubled world. I cannot expect all of the people to
understand all of the people’s problems, but it is my job to try to understand all of
the problems.
Bank Suspensions - Document Analysis

Contextualization: Bank Suspensions: Includes all banks closed to the public, either temporarily or
permanently, because the bank is having financial difficulties; sometimes these difficulties happened
when many citizens pulled their money out of banks because they were afraid that the banks would fail,
or because the bank simply failed and loaned out too much money without taking enough in (partially
caused by high unemployment).
Year Number of Bank Suspensions
1929 659
1930 1352
1931 2294
1932 1456
1933 4004
Source: Bank suspensions are from U.S. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, U.S. Government Printing Office,
Washington, D.C., 1960
Excerpt from FDR Fireside Chat about Banking Crisis - March 12, 1933
I want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States about banking... I want to tell
you what has been done in the last few days, why it was done and what the next steps are going to
be ....
First of all, let me state the simple fact that when you deposit money in a bank, the bank does not
put the money into a safe deposit vault. It invests your money in many different forms of credit
bonds, commercial paper, mortgages and many other kinds of loans. In other words, the bank puts
your money to work to keep the wheels of industry turning around. A comparatively small part of the
money you put into the bank is kept in currency—an amount which in normal times is wholly
sufficient to cover the cash needs of the average citizen. In other words, the total amount of all the
currency in the country is only a small fraction of the total deposits in all of the banks.