At a tense moment in his career Franklin D. Roosevelt opened one of his speeches with these sentences:

Our government, happily, is a democracy. As part of the democratic process, your President is again taking an opportunity to report on the progress of national affairs to the real rulers of this country—the voting public.

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Herein Roosevelt expressed succinctly a major tenet of his political creed. Throughout his career when he needed support, he frequently took his case to the people, hoping to create sufficient pressure to assure the success of his program. Grace Tully, his private secretary for many years, noted that he "had a profound respect for the judgment of the American people and the power of public opinion."² Out of this philosophy grew a remarkable set of speeches that have become known as the Fireside Chats.

These speeches found their beginning in Franklin Roosevelt's experiences with radio during his governorship of New York. The increase in the number of home radio sets and the extension of far flung radio networks coming simultaneously with Roosevelt's return to politics in the late twenties, after he had been stricken with poliomyelitis in 1921, provided him with a most effective and far reaching means of influencing public opinion. Personal visits to his constituents were no longer necessary. When a recalcitrant legislature opposed revision of existing utility legislation, Roosevelt spoke to the people over a state radio chain with gratifying results; mail came "flooding into Albany, most of it in support of Roosevelt's position and most of it addressed to the working level of the legislature."³

Roosevelt continued to speak directly with the people of the state, via the new medium of radio, about once every ten days during his governorship. This, he later explained, was "to enlist their support on various occasions when a hostile legislature declined to enact legislation for the benefit of the people."⁴

Prior to Roosevelt's "intimate talk" of March 12, 1933, the first Fireside Chat, a President traditionally spoke to the people only in "formal addresses."⁵ The success of this first talk, his previous successes with radio while governor of New York, and the advantages of the new medium to a man with his physical handicap and with his excellent radio voice, made obvious to him and his advisers the desirability of continuing these presentations. As a result, Roosevelt delivered twenty-eight addresses commonly identified as Fireside Chats, in addition to his numerous other appearances on the air as President. Following is a chronological list of the Fireside Chats with their titles as given in Roosevelt's Public Papers and Addresses:

1. Sunday, March 12, 1933, "An Intimate Talk with the People of the United States on Banking."

2. Sunday, May 7, 1933, "What We Have Been Doing and What We are Planning to Do."

3. Monday, July 24, 1933, "The Simple Purposes and the Solid Foundations of Our Recovery Program."

4. Sunday, October 22, 1933, "We Are on Our Way, and We Are Headed in the Right Direction."

5. Thursday, June 28, 1934, "Are You Better Off Than You Were Last Year?"

6. Sunday, September 30, 1934, "We Are Moving Forward to Greater Freedom, to Greater Security for the Average Man."

7. Sunday, April 28, 1935, "Fear Is Vanishing, Confidence Is Growing, Faith Is Being Renewed in the Democratic Form of Government."

8. Sunday, September 6, 1936, "We Are Going to Conserve Soil, Conserve Water, Conserve Life."

9. Tuesday, March 9, 1937, "Discussing the Plan for Reorganization of the Judiciary."

10. Tuesday, October 12, 1937, "Discussing Legislation to be Recommended to the Extraordinary Session of the Congress."

11. Sunday, November 14, 1937, "Requesting Cooperation in the Taking of the Unemployment Census."⁶

12. Thursday, April 14, 1938, "Dictatorships Do Not Grow Out of Strong and Successful Governments, but Out of Weak and Helpless Ones." Fireside Chat on Present Economic Conditions and Measures Being Taken to Improve Them.

13. Friday, June 24, 1938, "I Have Every Right to Speak [in connection with political primaries] Where There May Be a Clear Issue Between Candidates for a Democratic Nomination Involving Principles, or a Clear Misuse of My Own Name."

14. Sunday, September 3, 1939, "As Long as it Remains Within My Power to Prevent, There Will Be No Blackout of Peace in the United States." Fireside Chat on the War in Europe.

15. Sunday, May 26, 1940, "At This Time When the World Is Threatened by Forces of Destruction, It Is My Resolve and Yours to Build Up Our Armed Defenses."

16. Sunday, December 29, 1940, "There Can Be No Appeasement with Ruthlessness. We Must Be the Great Arsenal of Democracy."

17. Thursday, September 11, 1941, "When You See a Rattlesnake Posed to Strike You Do Not Wait Until He has Struck Before You Crush Him." [Maintaining freedom of the Seas]

18. Tuesday, December 9, 1941, "We Are Going to Win the War and We Are Going to Win the Peace That Follows," Fireside Chat to the Nation Following the Declaration of War with Japan.

19. Monday, February 23, 1942, "We Must Keep on Striking our Enemies Wherever and Whenever We Can Meet Them," Fireside Chat on Progress of the War.

20. Tuesday, April 28, 1942, "The Price for Civilization Must Be Paid in Hard Work and Sorrow and Blood."

21. Monday, September 7, 1942, "If the Vicious Spiral of Inflation Ever Gets Under Way, the Whole Economic System Will Stagger," Fireside Chat on the Cost of Living and the Progress of the War.

22. Monday, October 12, 1942, "The President Reports on the Home Front."

23. Sunday, May 2, 1943, "There Can Be No One Among Us—No One Faction—Powerful Enough to Interrupt the Forward March of Our People to Victory," Fireside Chat on the Federal Seizure of the Coal Mines.

24. Wednesday, July 28, 1943, "The Massed, Angered Forces of Common Humanity Are on the March. The First Crack in the Axis Has Come," Fireside Chat on the Progress of the War and Plans for Peace.

25. Wednesday, September 8, 1943, "Fireside Chat Opening Third War Loan Drive."

26. Friday, December 24, 1943, "Keep Us Strong in Our Faith That We Fight for a Better Day for Humankind," Christmas Eve Fireside Chat on Teheran and Cairo Conferences.

27. Monday, June 5, 1944, "Fireside Chat on the Fall of Rome."

28. Monday, June 12, 1944, "Review of the Progress of the War—Fireside Chat Opening Fifth War Loan Drive."

The term Fireside Chat was introduced during the preparations for Roosevelt's second direct talk to the American people. While working out the mechanical details for broadcasting from the White House, Harry C. Butcher, manager of the Washington office of the Columbia Broadcasting System, gained considerable understanding of the President's purposes in these speeches. When he read a proposed press release announcing the broadcast of May 7, 1933, Mr. Butcher sensed that his program director "had not quite grasped the idea"; consequently he inserted the words "Fireside Chat" and some "additional corrections" in order to convey what he believed to be a more accurate interpretation of the President's forthcoming message.⁷ The term was immediately accepted by the press and the public. Roosevelt obviously approved. His Public Papers identify addresses in those terms; a note accompanying the original "chat" refers to the expression: "The following is the first so-called fireside chat, which has been applied by the Press to the various radio reports I have made to the people of the Nation."⁸ On two occasions the president used the term in his later addresses. On June 24, 1938, he began, "The American public and the American newspapers are certainly creatures of habit. It is the warmest night I have ever seen in Washington and yet this talk will be referred to as a fireside talk." On December 29, 1940, his first words were, "This is not a fireside chat on war."

The Fireside Chats typically were delivered from the Diplomatic Reception Room on the ground floor of the White House.⁹ This room was large enough to accommodate a small audience, which usually consisted of a few members of Roosevelt's family, some of his close advisers, and a few other friends or associates who happened to be in Washington at the time. Its atmosphere "bore little relationship to the quiet and secluded atmosphere generally associated with a real fireside. There happened to be a real fireplace in the room, but it was empty. At it the President sat before a desk on which were bunched three or four microphones, a reading light, a pitcher of water, and glasses."¹⁰ Sufficient space was available to permit each of the radio networks to have its own announcer in a separate cubicle.

There were some thirty uncomfortable folding chairs for those who had been invited to listen. . . . The audience was seated about ten minutes past ten for a ten-thirty broadcast (the usual hour), and the President was wheeled in at about ten-twenty, carrying his reading-copy and the inevitable cigarette.

Radio announcers for the major broadcasting chains would huddle about, testing their microphones. The radio engineers would test their equipment, which was spread all over the room from wall to wall, making it difficult to move about. . . .

The President, once seated at his desk, exchanged greetings and pleasantries for a few moments with the guests and the announcers. As the minute of ten-thirty approached, the atmosphere got more tense. The President would put out his cigarette, arrange his reading copy, and take a drink of water, as nervously as when he was about to address a visible audience. Then, on signal, complete silence, a nod from the chief radio engineer, the usual announcement from each announcer stating tersely that the broadcast was coming from the White House and introducing "The President of the United States"—and finally the clear, resonant voice: "My friends."¹¹

The President's "intimate talk" with the people only eight days after he assumed office set the pattern for his subsequent Fireside Chats. Each of these talks was intended to concern only one fundamental issue, which at the moment was of much immediate interest to the American people. Addresses for such Democratic party affairs as Jackson or Jefferson Day dinners, routine observances of the March of Dimes or Red Cross campaigns, or situations with large immediate audiences were not occasions for Fireside Chats and were not called by that name. The "chats" were informal, simple presentations to be listened to and comprehended by the great mass of American voters.

The Fireside Chats varied in length from about 1200 to 4500 words and required from fifteen to forty-five minutes for delivery. The typical one took thirty minutes on the air.¹² For these talks with the people Roosevelt ordinarily chose to speak between nine and eleven p.m. (E.S.T.). A notable exception was his Christmas Eve Fireside Chat, delivered December 24, 1943, from 3:00 to 3:30 p.m. (E.S.T.). Seemingly he preferred broadcasts on the first three days of the week, for twenty-one of the twentyeight were presented on Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday.¹³ Prior to the war he usually spoke over the facilities of at least two of the networks; but of course upon our entrance into World War II his audience increased, and he always had at his disposal the three major networks as well as overseas broadcasts by short wave. Each one of these talks was presented at a moment when it would seem most timely and dramatic. Roosevelt and his advisers attempted to select the "logical occasion for each talk."¹⁴ Hence they coincided with the bank holiday, the opening of the congressional elections, a return from a trip through the drouth stricken areas, the outbreak of war in Europe, the declaration of war on Japan, and the launching of a war bond drive. The talks, referred to by Roosevelt as "heart to heart talks"¹⁵ were presented under the guise of informational reports to the people, but in truth most of them were highly stimulating and on occasion truly persuasive.

It would be difficult to rank these twenty-eight talks in terms of their significance. Each in its own way, highly important at the time of delivery, was accorded a dramatic significance in the melee of political events. The setting, ideas, and effectiveness of a select few will be considered.

FIRESIDE CHAT OF MARCH 12 , 1933