In March, 1933, I appealed to the Congress of the United States and to the people of the United States in a new effort to restore power to those to whom it rightfully belonged.  The response to that appeal resulted in the writing of a new chapter in the history of popular government.  You, the members of the Legislative branch, and I, the Executive, contended for and established a new relationship between Government and people.

What were the terms of that new relationship?  They were an appeal from the clamor of many private and selfish interests, yes, an appeal from the clamor of partisan interest, to the ideal of the public interest.  Government became the representative and the trustee of the public interest.  Our aim was to build upon essentially democratic institutions, seeking all the while the adjustment of burdens, the help of the needy, the protection of the weak, the liberation of the exploited and the genuine protection of the people’s property.

It goes without saying that to create such an economic constitutional order, more than a single legislative enactment was called for.  We, you in the Congress and I as the Executive, had to build upon a broad base.  Now, after thirty-four months of work, we contemplate a fairly rounded whole.  We have returned the control of the Federal Government to the City of Washington.

To be sure, in so doing, we have invited battle.  We have earned the hatred of entrenched greed.  The very nature of the problem that we faced made it necessary to drive some people from power and strictly to regulate others.  I made that plain when I took the oath of office in March, 1933.  I spoke of the practices of the unscrupulous money-changers who stood indicted in the court of public opinion.  I spoke of the rulers of the exchanges of mankind’s goods, who failed through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence.  I said that they had admitted their failure and had abdicated.

Abdicated?  Yes, in 1933, but now with the passing of danger they forget their damaging admissions and withdraw their abdication.

They seek the restoration of their selfish power.  They offer to lead us back round the same old corner into the same old dreary street.

Yes, there are still determined groups that are intent upon that very thing.  Rigorously held up to popular examination, their true character presents itself.  They steal the livery of great national constitutional ideals to serve discredited special interests.  As guardians and trustees for great groups of individual stockholders they wrongfully seek to carry the property and the interests entrusted to them into the arena of partisan politics.  They seek—­this minority in business and industry—­to control and often do control and use for their own purposes legitimate and highly honored business associations; they engage in vast propaganda to spread fear and discord among the people—­they would “gang up” against the people’s liberties.