Past Daily

President Roosevelt – the decision to seek a third term didn’t come easy.

Click on the link here for audio player: FDR Democratic Convention – 1940

After much consideration and speculation, President Roosevelt decided to run for a third term in 1940. Addressing the convention via radio from the White House, Roosevelt outlined his goals for a third term and spoke of a renewed effort to keep America moving.

President Roosevelt: “ We have sometimes called it Social Legislation. We have sometimes called it legislation to end abuses of the past. We have sometimes called it legislation for human security. And we have sometimes called it legislation to better our fellow citizens who would not have the essentials of life, or hope for an American standard of living. Some of us have labeled it a wider and more equitable distribution of wealth in our land. It has included among its aims to liberalize and broaden the control of vast industries, lodged today in the hands of a relatively small group of individuals of very great financial power. But all of these definitions and labels are essentially the expression of one consistent thought; they represent a constantly growing sense of human decency. Human decency throughout our nation.”

And seventy-two years later, the words still ring true.

Here is that address, from July 17, 1940.

~ by gordonskene on August 12, 2012.

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