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佛蘭克林‧德拉諾‧羅斯福
(FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT)
第二次就職演說
Second Inaugural Address
我看到三分之一的國民住不好，穿不好，吃不好。
1936年羅斯福在競選中以壓倒優勢戰勝堪薩斯州州長阿爾弗雷德．蘭頓(共和黨改良主義者)。在1937年1月20日的第二次就職演說中，羅斯福彈奏出自信和實用主義的調子，描繪了一個正忙於探尋解決辦法並正在積極解決問題的政府形象。但是他承認，大蕭條繼續造成慘重損失。當羅斯福政府努力使議會同意設立新的行政機構為老人提供社會保險，為失業者提供工作，維持農產品價格時，大蕭條仍在摧殘人們的生命。
四年前當我們聚會為一位總統舉行就職典禮時，整個共和國憂心如焚地與我們站在一起。我們那時決心實現一個理想──讓全體人民早日獲得追求幸福所必需的安全與和平。我們這些屬於共和國的人發誓要把褻瀆了傳統信仰的人從傳統信仰的廟堂裏驅逐出去；發誓要不知疲倦。無所畏懼地採取行動去結束當時的停滯不前和絕望情緒。我們首先做了這些最緊迫的事。
我們與自己訂的盟約還不止這些。我們憑本能認識到更深一層的需求──需要通過政府去找到實現我們共同目的的手段，以便為每個個人解決紛繁複雜的文明社會中層出不窮的問題。我們曾不斷試圖在沒有政府幫助的條件下解決這些問題，但始終徒勞無功，一籌莫展。因為，沒有政府的幫助我們未能創造出控制科學設施的精神力量，而沒有它便不能把科學從人類的冷酷無情的主人轉變為得心應手的奴僕。為了做到這一點，我們知道必須找到切實可行的辦法去駕馭盲目運動的經濟力量和財迷心竅的人們。
我們這些屬於共和國的人領悟到一條真理：民主政府就其本質而言能夠保護人民免遭過去認為是不可避免的災害，解決過去認為是無法解決的問題。既然在經歷了千百年苦難後我們終於找到了控制瘟疫的方法，我們不承認我們不能找到控制經濟疫病的方法，我們決不讓關係到我們共同福利的問題聽憑命運和災難的狂風惡浪擺佈。……
四年來新的經驗證明，我們的歷史直覺並沒有錯。四年的經驗帶來這一明確的希望：地方政府、各州政府和合眾國政府都能按時代的要求行事，而無須犧牲民主。我們過去四年的工作並沒有迫使民主休假。……
我們達到了1933年3月4日我們理想的目標麼?我們找到了我們的幸福天地了麼？
我看到一個偉大的國家，地處廣闊的大陸，天賜豐富的資源。它的一億三千萬人民和平相處，正把自己的國家建成世界大家庭中一個良好成員。我看到一個合眾國，它能證實，由政府採取民主方式，國家財富可轉化為越來越多空前美好的人民生活條件，把最低的生活水準提到遠遠超出僅能維持生計的水平。
但是我們的民主正面臨挑戰：在這個國家，我看到幾千萬公民──全人口的相當大一部分──此時此刻還未得到按今天最低標準也應稱作生活必需品的大部分物品。
我看到數百萬家庭收入微薄，勉強度日，每天都在家庭悲劇的陰影籠罩之下。
我看到數百萬城鄉居民日常生活狀況早在半個世紀前就被所謂體面社會看作很不體面，如今依然如此。
我看到數百萬人得不到教育，娛樂以及改善自己和子女的境遇的機會。
我看到數百萬人缺乏購買工農業產品的手段，而他們的貧困又使更多的人失業，無從發揮生產力。
我看到三分之一的國民住不好，穿不好，吃不好。
我並不是在悲觀絕望中向你們描繪這一圖景的。我抱著希望描繪它──因為整個國家看到並認識到這一圖景中所包含的不公正，打算把它抹去。我們下決心要使每個美國公民成為國家關注的物件；我們將決不會把我國邊界內任何忠誠守法的團體看成是多餘的廢物。對我們進步的檢驗標準，不是看我們是否錦上添花，而是看我們是否雪中送炭。
如果我對我們國家精神和意志還有所瞭解的話，我們是不會去聽信貪圖安逸的人、機會主義者和膽小怕事的人。我們一定要堅持下去。……
今天，我們在突然變化了的文明中再一次把我們的國家奉獻給珍視已久的理想。在任何地方總是活躍著使人們離心離德和使人們團結一致的力量。就個人抱負而言，我們是個人主義者。但是當我們作為一個國家追求經濟和政治進步時，我們則屬於一個民族，要麼一起上升，要麼一起下沈。
When
four years ago we met to inaugurate a President, the Republic, single-minded in
anxiety, stood in spirit here. We dedicated ourselves to the fulfillment of a
vision－to speed the
time when there would be for all the people that security and peace essential to
the pursuit of happiness. We of the Republic pledged ourselves to drive from the
temple of our ancient faith those who have profaned it; to end by action,
tireless and unafraid, the stagnation and despair of that day. We did those
first things first.
Our covenant with ourselves did not stop there. Instinctively we recognized a
deeper need－ the need to find through government the instrument of our united
purpose to solve for the individual the ever-rising problems of a complex
civilization. Repeated attempts at their solution without the aid of government
had left us baffled and bewildered. For, without that aid, we had been unable to
create those moral controls over the services of science which are necessary to
make science a useful servant instead of a ruthless master of mankind. To do
this we knew that we must find practical controls over blind economic forces and
blindly selfish men.
We of the Republic sensed the truth that democratic government has innate
capacity to protect its people against disasters once considered inevitable, to
solve problems once considered unsolvable. We would not admit that we could not
find a way to master economic epidemics just as, after centuries of fatalistic
suffering, we had found a way to master epidemics of disease. We refused to
leave the problems of our common welfare to be solved by the winds of chance and
the hurricanes of disaster. . . .
Four years of new experience have not be-lied our historic instinct. They hold
out the clear hope that government within communities, government within the
separate States, and government of the United States can do the things the times
require, without yielding its democracy. Our tasks in the last four years did
not force democracy to take a holiday. . . .
Have we reached the goal of our vision of that fourth day of March, 1933? Have
we found our happy valley?
I see a great nation, upon a great continent, blessed with a great wealth of
natural resources. Its hundred and thirty million people are at peace among
themselves; they are making their country a good neighbor among the nations. I
see a United States which can demonstrate that, under democratic methods of
government, national wealth can be translated into a spreading volume of human
comforts hitherto unknown, and the lowest standard of living can be raised far
above the level of mere subsistence.
But here is the challenge to our democracy: In this nation I see tens of
millions of its citizens－ a substantial part of its whole population－ who at
this very moment are denied the greater part of what the very lowest standards
of today call the necessities of life.
I see millions of families trying to live on incomes so meager that the pall of
family disaster hangs over them day by day.
I see millions whose daily lives in city and on farm continue under conditions
labeled in-decent by a so-called polite society half a cen-tury ago.
I see millions denied education, recreation, and the opportunity to better their
lot and the lot of their children.
I see millions lacking the means to buy the products of farm and factory and by
their poverty denying work and productiveness to many other millions.
I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished. It is not in
despair that I paint you that picture. I paint it for you in hope－ because the
Nation, seeing and understanding the injustice in it, proposes to paint it out.
We are determined to make every American citizen the subject of his country's
interest and concern; and we will never regard any faithful law-abiding group
within our borders as superfluous. The test of our progress is not whether we
add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide
enough for those who have too little.
If I know aught of the spirit and purpose of our Nation, "we will not listen to
Comfort, Opportunism, and Timidity. We will carry on. . . .
Today we reconsecrate our country to long-cherished ideals in a suddenly changed
civilization. In every land there are always at workforces that drive men apart
and forces that draw men together. In our personal ambitions we are
individualists. But in our seeking for economic and political progress as a
nation, we all go up,or else we all go down, as one people. . . .
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