First Fireside Chat Precis Summary

1551 Words4 Pages

FDR’s First Fireside Chat Precis The Great Depression hit the United States on October 21th of 1929, now commonly referred to as “Black Tuesday”, when the Stock Market crashed. This abruptly ended the roaring and glamorous 1920’s as companies lost everything and were forced to lay off their workers. About 15 million workers were out of jobs by 1933. Companies weren't the only things failing, banks were closing left and right. Up until that point, banks were not required to ensure the depositors' money and so some banks decide to invest their depositor's money into the stock market. When the stock market crashed banks lost all of their depositor's money. This put anxiety in people as they lost faith and trust in their banks. This panic …show more content…

He takes his time explaining the overview of what he is going to say and why it is important for the listener to understand. He says that he is going to first by explaining the banking system itself and what he plans to do to help fix the situation. He first explains what happens by when someone puts there money in the bank by saying, “when you deposit money in a bank that bank does not put money into a safe deposit vault” He then follows that by explaining why banks do this and why it's important not to take your money out of the bank, “... Invests your money in different forms of credit bonds, commercial paper, mortgages and many other kinds of loans.” FDR finishes that explanation by saying that “a bank puts your money to work. . .” FDR does this to ensure people learn that trustworthy banks do this to in order to stay in business and that its normal procedure to do. He then sums up the bank runs in February and March, “A rush so great the soundest of banks could not get enough currency to meet the demand.”. FDR then goes on to declare his national “Bank Holiday”, This was the start of the “ Government's Reconstruction.”. He says that this “also gave authority to develop a program of rehabilitation of our banking facilities” FDR wants the U.S citizens to be aware that the Government is devoted to “public welfare”. The third step in his plan was to ensure that banks were …show more content…

FDR used Ethos because he was one of the first presidents that were very hands-on with business and wanted to be involved with so he was being very honest towards the public to gain their support. He genuinely wanted to reform the banking system so it was imperative that he make statements that demanded the public not to keep their money in their house and do not cause any bank runs. FDR also uses pathos because he is very passionate about what he is talking about. He wants to convince people on a personal level to listen to what he has to say. He does this by using the radio as a very personal connect to his listeners. Radios for the first time allowed the President to speak directly almost like he was face to face in the listeners home. Last, FDR uses Logos because he intellectually and logically explains and teaches to the reader not only his banking plan, but how the banking system works in general to inform the nation on things that they previously were not aware

Open Document