Franklin D. Roosevelt

Letter Urging Support of the President.

March 06, 1933

We the undersigned have cast aside politics and group and sectional interest in a spirit of cooperation with the President, and we believe that this same spirit animates our whole people. Beyond that we are convinced that there is throughout the Nation a spontaneous spiritual uprising of confidence and hope in our chosen leader. The nature of our national crisis calls for an expression of this confidence in the combined voice of the people to show that they are behind him, alert and vocal and united in heart.

Prompt and decisive action of a national scope, and in several directions, is necessary to prevent economic collapse throughout the land. The ordinary operations of government that prevail and are suitable in time of prosperity with normal conditions, may be too slow to meet adequately this emergency and avoid the danger of this economic avalanche carrying all before it.

We, a Coalition Committee of different groups and political and religious faiths, respectfully request that you join the other Governors of our country in the issuance of a Proclamation, on Wednesday, March 8, 1933, in support of the President of the United States and our institutions, thus enabling the whole people to declare in unison their confidence and faith in our President. This would constitute the people's appeal to the patriotism of Congress which we know they possess, in common with all, to cooperate with the President in taking such action as will guarantee economic stability, restore confidence and thereby relieve unemployment and widespread distress.

Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd William Green, President, American Federation of Labor Louis J. Taber, Master of The National Grange Edward A. O'Neal, President, American Farm Bureau Federation His Eminence George Cardinal Mundelein Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick Rabbi Stephen Wise

Alfred E. Smith Newton D. Baker Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, President, Columbia University H. G. Harriman, President, United States Chamber of Commerce Daniel Willard, President, Baltimore & Ohio R. R. Walter Lippmann, Publicist

Franklin D. Roosevelt, Letter Urging Support of the President. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/208131

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