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富兰克林ˇ德拉诺ˇ罗斯福
(FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT)
第二次就职演说
Second Inaugural Address
我看到三分之一的国民住不好ˇ穿不好ˇ吃不好。
1936年罗斯福在竞选中以压倒优势战胜堪萨斯州州长阿尔弗雷德ˇ兰顿(共和党改良主义者)。在1937年1月20日的第二次就职演说中ˇ罗斯福弹奏出自信和实用主义的调子ˇ描绘了一个正忙于探寻解决办法并正在积极解决问题的政府形ˇ。但是他承认ˇ大ˇ条继续造成惨重损失。当罗斯福政府努力使议会同意设立新的行政机构爲老人提供社会保ˇˇ爲失业者提供工作ˇ维持农产品价格时ˇ大ˇ条仍在摧残人们的生命。
四年前当我们聚会爲一位总统举行就职典礼时ˇ整个共和国忧心如焚地与我们站在一起。我们那时决心实ˇ一个理ˇˇˇ让全体人民早日获得追求幸福所必需的安全与和平。我们这些属于共和国的人发誓要把亵渎了传统信仰的人从传统信仰的庙堂里驱逐出去ˇ发誓要不知疲倦。无所畏惧地采取行动去结束当时的停滞不前和绝望情绪。我们首先做了这些最紧迫的事。
我们与自己订的盟约还不止这些。我们凭本能认识到更深一层的需求ˇˇ需要通过政府去找到实ˇ我们共同目的的手段ˇ以便爲每个个人解决纷繁复杂的文明社会中层出不穷的问题。我们曾不断试图在没有政府帮助的条件下解决这些问题ˇ但始终徒劳无功ˇ一筹莫展。因爲ˇ没有政府的帮助我们未能创造出控制科学设施的精神力量ˇ而没有它便不能把科学从人类的冷酷无情的主人转变爲得心应手的奴仆。爲了做到这一点ˇ我们知道必须找到切实可行的办法去驾驭盲目运动的经济力量和财迷心窍的人们。
我们这些属于共和国的人领悟到一条真理ˇ民主政府就其本质而言能够保护人民免遭过去认爲是不可避免的灾害ˇ解决过去认爲是无法解决的问题。既然在经历了千百年苦难后我们终于找到了控制瘟疫的方法ˇ我们不承认我们不能找到控制经济疫病的方法ˇ我们决不让关系到我们共同福利的问题听凭命运和灾难的狂风恶浪摆布。……
四年来新的经验证明ˇ我们的历史直觉并没有错。四年的经验带来这一明确的希望ˇ地方政府、各州政府和合衆国政府都能按时代的要求行事ˇ而无须牺牲民主。我们过去四年的工作并没有迫使民主休假。……
我们达到了1933年3月4日我们理ˇ的目标麽?我们找到了我们的幸福天地了麽ˇ
我看到一个伟大的国家ˇ地处广阔的大陆ˇ天赐丰富的资源。它的一亿三千万人民和平ˇ处ˇ正把自己的国家建成世界大家庭中一个良好成员。我看到一个合衆国ˇ它能证实ˇ由政府采取民主方式ˇ国家财富可转化爲越来越多空前美好的人民生活条件ˇ把最低的生活水准提到远远超出仅能维持生计的水平。
但是我们的民主正面临挑战ˇ在这个国家ˇ我看到几千万公民ˇˇ全人口的ˇ当大一部分ˇˇ此时此刻还未得到按今天最低标准也应称作生活必需品的大部分物品。
我看到数百万家庭收入微薄ˇ勉强度日ˇ每天都在家庭悲剧的阴影笼罩之下。
我看到数百万城ˇ居民日常生活状况早在半个世纪前就被所谓体面社会看作很不体面ˇ如今依然如此。
我看到数百万人得不到教育ˇ娱乐以及改善自己和子女的境遇的机会。
我看到数百万人缺乏购买工农业産品的手段ˇ而他们的贫困又使更多的人失业ˇ无从发挥生産力。
我看到三分之一的国民住不好ˇ穿不好ˇ吃不好。
我并不是在悲观绝望中ˇ你们描绘这一图景的。我抱着希望描绘它ˇˇ因爲整个国家看到并认识到这一图景中所包含的不公正ˇ打算把它抹去。我们下决心要使每个美国公民成爲国家关注的物件ˇ我们将决不会把我国边界内任何忠诚守法的团体看成是多余的废物。对我们进步的检验标准ˇ不是看我们是否锦上添花ˇ而是看我们是否雪中送炭。
如果我对我们国家精神和意志还有所了解的话ˇ我们是不会去听信贪图安逸的人、机会主义者和胆小怕事的人。我们一定要坚持下去。……
今天ˇ我们在突然变化了的文明中再一次把我们的国家奉ˇ给珍视已久的理ˇ。在任何地方总是活跃着使人们离心离德和使人们团结一致的力量。就个人抱负而言ˇ我们是个人主义者。但是当我们作爲一个国家追求经济和政治进步时ˇ我们则属于一个民族ˇ要麽一起上升ˇ要麽一起下沈。
When
four years ago we met to inaugurate a President, the Republic, single-minded in
anxiety, stood in spirit here. We dedicated ourselves to the fulfillment of a
vision―to speed the
time when there would be for all the people that security and peace essential to
the pursuit of happiness. We of the Republic pledged ourselves to drive from the
temple of our ancient faith those who have profaned it; to end by action,
tireless and unafraid, the stagnation and despair of that day. We did those
first things first.
Our covenant with ourselves did not stop there. Instinctively we recognized a
deeper need― the need to find through government the instrument of our united
purpose to solve for the individual the ever-rising problems of a complex
civilization. Repeated attempts at their solution without the aid of government
had left us baffled and bewildered. For, without that aid, we had been unable to
create those moral controls over the services of science which are necessary to
make science a useful servant instead of a ruthless master of mankind. To do
this we knew that we must find practical controls over blind economic forces and
blindly selfish men.
We of the Republic sensed the truth that democratic government has innate
capacity to protect its people against disasters once considered inevitable, to
solve problems once considered unsolvable. We would not admit that we could not
find a way to master economic epidemics just as, after centuries of fatalistic
suffering, we had found a way to master epidemics of disease. We refused to
leave the problems of our common welfare to be solved by the winds of chance and
the hurricanes of disaster. . . .
Four years of new experience have not be-lied our historic instinct. They hold
out the clear hope that government within communities, government within the
separate States, and government of the United States can do the things the times
require, without yielding its democracy. Our tasks in the last four years did
not force democracy to take a holiday. . . .
Have we reached the goal of our vision of that fourth day of March, 1933? Have
we found our happy valley?
I see a great nation, upon a great continent, blessed with a great wealth of
natural resources. Its hundred and thirty million people are at peace among
themselves; they are making their country a good neighbor among the nations. I
see a United States which can demonstrate that, under democratic methods of
government, national wealth can be translated into a spreading volume of human
comforts hitherto unknown, and the lowest standard of living can be raised far
above the level of mere subsistence.
But here is the challenge to our democracy: In this nation I see tens of
millions of its citizens― a substantial part of its whole population― who at
this very moment are denied the greater part of what the very lowest standards
of today call the necessities of life.
I see millions of families trying to live on incomes so meager that the pall of
family disaster hangs over them day by day.
I see millions whose daily lives in city and on farm continue under conditions
labeled in-decent by a so-called polite society half a cen-tury ago.
I see millions denied education, recreation, and the opportunity to better their
lot and the lot of their children.
I see millions lacking the means to buy the products of farm and factory and by
their poverty denying work and productiveness to many other millions.
I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished. It is not in
despair that I paint you that picture. I paint it for you in hope― because the
Nation, seeing and understanding the injustice in it, proposes to paint it out.
We are determined to make every American citizen the subject of his country's
interest and concern; and we will never regard any faithful law-abiding group
within our borders as superfluous. The test of our progress is not whether we
add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide
enough for those who have too little.
If I know aught of the spirit and purpose of our Nation, "we will not listen to
Comfort, Opportunism, and Timidity. We will carry on. . . .
Today we reconsecrate our country to long-cherished ideals in a suddenly changed
civilization. In every land there are always at workforces that drive men apart
and forces that draw men together. In our personal ambitions we are
individualists. But in our seeking for economic and political progress as a
nation, we all go up,or else we all go down, as one people. . . .
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