– President Franklin Roosevelt – Message for the 1934 Mobilization For Human Needs – Oct. 22, 1934 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
In 1934 we were still in the grip of a Depression. Federal, State and Local governments were strapped. The onus was on the Charitable community to help out. So the concept of a Mobilization For Human Needs was developed, where contributions were given to charities and the charities in turn would bolster the aid provided by Government.
Since the President couldn’t go right out and pitch for a particular charity, like The Red Cross or The Salvation Army, he could urge people to give to the charities of their choice, and October was chosen as the month for the Mobilization.
President Roosevelt: “With the enormous growth of population we have had, with the complexities of the past generation, community efforts have now been supplemented by the formation of great national organizations. These organizations are designed to coordinate and stimulate local groups which are striving not only to take care of those in need but also to stimulate better conditions of health, of child welfare, of mental hygiene, of recreation, and to attain all those many other splendid objectives which are part and parcel of our national life today.
The mere reading of the names of the organizations that are working solidly behind this great task is enough to make this country realize the unity of purpose, the solidarity, behind what we are doing. It is right, I think, for us to emphasize that the American family must be the unit which engages our greatest interest and concern. With this we must stress once more the task of each community to assist in maintaining and building up that family unit.
No thinking or experienced person insists today that the responsibility of the community shall be eliminated by passing this great and humane task on to any central body at the seat of Federal Government. You and I know that it has been with reluctance and only because we have realized the imperative need for additional help that the Federal Government has been compelled to undertake the task of supplementing the more normal methods which have been in use during all the preceding generations”.
Here is a short address given by President Roosevelt on October 22, 1934, the second year of the Mobilization For Human Needs Drive.
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