Remarks at the Franklin
D. Roosevelt Library 50th Anniversary Luncheon
Well,
thank you, Senator Mitchell and Ambassador vanden Heuvel. It's a
particular pleasure for me to be here today, as I near the end of my career in
public life. The historian William Leuchtenburg has
written about how Franklin Roosevelt aroused the interest of young men and
women in politics and government and drew them into the national service. From
the brain trusters to the many idealists who staffed
the agencies and bureaus of the New Deal, his magic brought thousands to
I
was one of those millions. Franklin Roosevelt was the first President I ever
voted for, the first to serve in my lifetime that I regarded as a hero, and the
first I ever actually saw; that was in 1936, a campaign parade in
And
it was that ebullience, that infectious optimism that made one young
sportscaster think that maybe he should be more active
as a citizen. I assure you, though, he never tied that
to one day holding public office and certainly never dreamed that destiny would
take him to the same office F.D.R. held.
If
I may just tell a little story here that isn't about F.D.R. but may give you an
idea about how far away the Presidency seemed to me at that time -- not too
long after the day I saw the President riding in the parade, I took a train out
to California and ended up with a movie contract at Warner Brothers. I was
known as ``Dutch'' Reagan then, my childhood nickname. The studio didn't like
it, so they called a meeting to discuss what my name should be. And I began to
realize how expendable what you might call my identity was in this new business
I was in. So, as they were throwing names back and forth, I was just sitting
there listening. They acted as if I couldn't hear. [Laughter]
And
finally, as they kept going on and trying out various names, looking up as if
they were looking at a marquis, I timidly suggested one they hadn't thought of,
my real name -- [laughter] -- Ronald Reagan. They started tossing it around the
table. And I'll never forget the scene. The top man said it over and over to
himself: ``Ronald Reagan, Ronald Reagan.'' He paused for a long moment and then
declared, ``I like it.'' [Laughter] So, I became Ronald Reagan. [Laughter]
Debates
continue about F.D.R.'s impact on his age and ours.
But to my mind, James MacGregor Burns caught the core
of President Roosevelt's contribution when he included in his list, ``Faith in
the people.'' The months before F.D.R. took office are far behind us now. We
forget what they were like -- the pink slips handed out at factories across the
land with no jobs anywhere if you lost yours, the soup kitchens in every major
city, the look of desperation in people's eyes. And we forget that, in the
unprecedented economic crisis, many had begun to question our most basic
institutions, including our democracy itself. And then along came F.D.R., who
put his faith, as he said, ``in the forgotten man,'' the ordinary American.
I
remember that voice of his, as we've heard it here today, coming over the radio
-- its strength, its optimism. I wonder how many of us in this room know that
to this day, no program in the history of radio has ever equalled
the audience he had in his fireside chats. I remember how a light would snap on
in the eyes of everyone in the room just hearing him, and how, because of his
faith, our faith in our own capacity to overcome any crisis and any challenge
was reborn.
In
this sense, F.D.R. renewed the charter of the founders of our nation. The
founders had created a government of ``We the
people.'' Through a depression and a great war, crises that could well have led
us in another direction, F.D.R. strengthened that charter. When others doubt,
he said that we would find our salvation in our own hands -- not in some elite
but in ourselves. We'd find it where we'd always found it: in the towns, on the
farms, in the stores and factories across
One
other thing about F.D.R. -- he understood history and how history lives in a
nation's life. He was, as you've been told, the first President to establish a
Presidential library to house all his papers and collections. The first meeting
of supporters of the library was held 50 years ago next month. F.D.R. addressed
it, and in explaining his feeling for history, he told a story that I thought
I'd tell you.
It
was about when he was acting as Secretary of the Navy on the eve of World War
I. The Germans had declared unlimited submarine warfare, and, as he said, it
was perfectly obvious that as soon as they sank an American-flag ship, we would
be in the war. He went to see President Wilson for permission to move the fleet
to the yards, to have them cleaned and fitted and made ready for war in case it
came. And
Yes,
F.D.R. knew that the history of the Nation's past is part of its charter for
the future. To my mind, as one who has served in the office F.D.R. once graced
so magnificently, no higher tribute can be given a President than that he
strengthened our faith in ourselves, which is the foundation of that charter.
Policies come and go. Leaders will pass from the stage. The enduring sail and
compass of our nation is ``We the people.'' When the
American people are strong and confident, when their leaders hear their voices,
Thank
you, and God bless you all.
[At
this point, Ambassador William vanden Heuvel gave the President a copy of Eric Larrabee's book ``Commander in Chief, Franklin Delano
Roosevelt, His Lieutenants, and Their War,'' and Mrs. John Roosevelt presented
a letter written by Franklin Roosevelt.]
I
shall be very proud to have both of these in another Presidential library,
following in the footsteps of the man who started those institutions. And I'm
grateful to all of you. I thought he was a Democrat when he was supporting me.
[Laughter] But no, I had voted four times for the man we honor today. And I
won't go on with that. [Laughter]
Thank
you.
Note: The President
spoke at