FDR's Fireside Chat: Reassuring a Nation in Depression

Franklin Roosevelt sat before a microphone in the White House on March 12, 1933, eight days after his inauguration, and spoke directly to the American people for the first time in what became known as a 'fireside chat.' The banking system had collapsed: 4,000 banks had failed, depositors had lost over million, and panic withdrawals were accelerating the crisis. Roosevelt explained in plain language what the government had done during the bank holiday, why the banks that reopened could be trusted, and what citizens should do. 'It is safer to keep your money in a reopened bank than under the mattress,' he said. The effect was immediate and extraordinary. When the banks reopened on Monday morning, deposits exceeded withdrawals for the first time in weeks. Roosevelt had talked the nation out of a bank run. He would deliver thirty fireside chats over the next twelve years, using radio to build a personal relationship with millions of Americans that no previous president had achieved.