July 24, 1933

Born into wealth and a lifelong member of the 1%, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was tasked with bringing the U.S. out of the Depression, putting America back to work, and acting as the Reassurer-in-Chief to a worried and despairing country. Roosevelt's New Deal promised to attack the Depression on three fronts: relief, recovery, and reform. In Long's "Every Man a King" speech, he ridiculed the alphabet soup of programs that Roosevelt put in place to fix the economy.

Roosevelt was no slouch in oration himself—remember his first inaugural address in 1933 where he told the nation that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself"? But he knew he needed a way to communicate with Americans that would create support for his New Deal programs and reassure them that their president was on the case. Almost every American home owned a radio in 1933, and Roosevelt gave a regular series of radio broadcasts that he called "Fireside Chats," informal, informative, person-to-person talks about his plans and programs.

In 1933, he gave a radio talk about the National Recovery Administration, an agency formed to bring business and labor together to set up fair business and labor policies, like abolishing child labor, setting minimum wages and maximum work week hours, and establishing fair competitive practices for businesses. He explained the purpose of the agency—to alleviate unemployment and spur economic growth—and gave examples of unfair labor practices that he hoped to change. He said he knew there would be challenges:

I do not deny that we may make mistakes of procedure as we carry out the policy. I have no expectation of making a hit every time I come to bat. What I seek is the highest possible batting average, not only for myself but for the team. (Source)

Even though the aristocratic FDR couldn't come off like the folksy, jokey Long, you can see him trying to come down off his presidential pedestal and use baseball metaphors that anyone can relate to. Unlike Long's fiery, bombastic "Every Man a King" speech that was aimed at whipping the people into righteous indignation, FDR's intimate chat was aimed at making people feel calm and reassured that their president was doing more than making promises: he was implementing plans and policies that would make their lives better.

In a way that's the difference between campaigning (which lots of people believed was the real purpose of Long's "King" speech) and governing, where you actually have to get stuff done. FDR's Fireside Chats were totally different in tone than Long's speeches, even if the purpose was the same: to show the people that he understood their financial struggles and was going to make things more fair for the little guy.