羅斯福于1933年的第一次爐邊談話

羅斯福于1933年的第一次爐邊談話 英文版

First Fireside Chat

12 March, 1933, Washington D.C.

My friends，

I want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States about banking—to talk with the comparatively few who understand the mechanics of banking, but more particularly with the overwhelming majority of you who use banks for the making of deposits and the drawing of checks.

I want to tell you what has been done in the last few days, and why it was done, and what the next steps are going to be. I recognize that the many proclamations from State capitols and from Washington, the legislation, the Treasury regulations, and so forth, couched for the most part in banking and legal terms, ought to be explained for the benefit of the average citizen. I owe this, in particular, because of the fortitude and the good temper with which everybody has accepted the inconvenience and hardships of the banking holiday. And I know that when you understand what we in Washington have been about, I shall continue to have your cooperation as fully as I have had your sympathy and your help during the past week.

First of all, let me state the simple fact that when you deposit money in a bank, the bank does not put the money into a safe deposit vault. It invests your money in many different forms of credit— in bonds, in commercial paper, in mortgages and in many other kinds of loans. In other words, the bank puts your money to work to keep the wheels of industry and of agriculture turning around. A comparatively small part of the money that you put into the bank is kept in currency—an amount which in normal times is wholly sufficient to cover the cash needs of the average citizen. In other words, the total amount of all the currency in the country is only a comparatively small proportion of the total deposits in all the banks of the country.

What, then, happened during the last few days of February and the first few days of March? Because of undermined confidence on the part of the public, there was a general rush by a large portion of our population to turn bank deposits into currency or gold—a rush so great that the soundest banks couldn’t get enough currency to meet the demand. The reason for this was that on the spur of the moment it was, of course, impossible to sell perfectly sound assets of a bank and convert them into cash, except at panic prices far below their real value. By the afternoon of March third, a week ago last Friday scarcely a bank in the country was open to do business. Proclamations closing them, in whole or in part, had been issued by the Governors in almost all the states. It was then that I issued the proclamation providing for the national bank holiday, and this was the first step in the Government’s reconstruction of our financial and economic fabric.

The second step, last Thursday, was the legislation promptly and patriotically passed by the Congress confirming my proclamation and broadening my powers so that it became possible in view of the requirement of time to extend the holiday and lift the ban of that holiday gradually in the days to come. This law also gave authority to develop a program of rehabilitation of our banking facilities. And I want to tell our citizens in every part of the Nation that the national Congress—Republicans and Democrats alike—showed by this action a devotion to public welfare and a realization of the emergency and the necessity for speed that it is difficult to match in all our history.

The third stage has been the series of regulations permitting the banks to continue their functions to take care of the distribution of food and household necessities and the payment of payrolls.

This bank holiday, while resulting in many cases in great inconvenience, is affording us the opportunity to supply the currency necessary to meet the situation. Remember that no sound bank is a dollar worse off than it was when it closed its doors last week. Neither is any bank which may turn out not to be in a position for immediate opening. The new law allows the twelve Federal Reserve Banks to issue additional currency on good assets and thus the banks that reopen will be able to meet every legitimate call. The new currency is being sent out by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in large volume to every part of the country. It is sound currency because it is backed by actual, good assets.

Another question you will ask is this: Why are all the banks not to be reopened at the same time? The answer is simple and I know you will understand it: Your Government does not intend that the history of the past few years shall be repeated. We do not want and will not have another epidemic of bank failures.

As a result, we start tomorrow, Monday, with the opening of banks in the twelve Federal Reserve Bank cities—those banks, which on first examination by the Treasury, have already been found to be all right. That will be followed on Tuesday by the resumption of all other functions by banks already found to be sound in cities where there are recognized clearing houses. That means about two hundred and fifty cities of the United States. In other words, we are moving as fast as the mechanics of the situation will allow us. On Wednesday and succeeding days, banks in smaller places all through the country will resume business, subject, of course, to the Government’s physical ability to complete its survey.

It is necessary that the reopening of banks be extended over a period in order to permit the banks to make applications for the necessary loans, to obtain currency needed to meet their requirements, and to enable the Government to make common sense checkups. Please let me make it clear to you that if your bank does not open the first day you are by no means justified in believing that it will not open. A bank that opens on one of the subsequent days is in exactly the same status as the bank that opens tomorrow.

I know that many people are worrying about State banks that are not members of the Federal Reserve System. There is no occasion for that worry. These banks can and will receive assistance from member banks and from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. And, of course, they are under the immediate control of the State banking authorities. These State banks are following the same course as the National banks except that they get their licenses to resume business from the State authorities, and these authorities have been asked by the Secretary of the Treasury to permit their good banks to open up on the same schedule as the national banks. And so I am confident that the State Banking Departments will be as careful as the national Government in the policy relating to the opening of banks and will follow the same broad theory.

It is possible that when the banks resume a very few people who have not recovered from their fear may again begin withdrawals. Let me make it clear to you that the banks will take care of all needs, except, of course, the hysterical demands of hoarders, and it is my belief that hoarding during the past week has become an exceedingly unfashionable pastime in every part of our nation. It needs no prophet to tell you that when the people find that they can get their money—that they can get it when they want it for all legitimate purposes—the phantom of fear will soon be laid. People will again be glad to have their money where it will be safely taken care of and where they can use it conveniently at any time. I can assure you, my friends, that it is safer to keep your money in a reopened bank than it is to keep it under the mattress.

The success of our whole national program depends, of course, on the cooperation of the public—on its intelligent support and its use of a reliable system.

Remember that the essential accomplishment of the new legislation is that it makes it possible for banks more readily to convert their assets into cash than was the case before. More liberal provision has been made for banks to borrow on these assets at the Reserve Banks and more liberal provision has also been made for issuing currency on the security of these good assets. This currency is not fiat currency. It is issued only on adequate security, and every good bank has an abundance of such security.

One more point before I close. There will be, of course, some banks unable to reopen without being reorganized. The new law allows the Government to assist in making these reorganizations quickly and effectively and even allows the Government to subscribe to at least a part of any new capital that may be required.

I hope you can see, my friends, from this essential recital of what your Government is doing that there is nothing complex, nothing radical in the process.

We have had a bad banking situation. Some of our bankers had shown themselves either incompetent or dishonest in their handling of the people’s funds. They had used the money entrusted to them in speculations and unwise loans. This was, of course, not true in the vast majority of our banks, but it was true in enough of them to shock the people of the United States, for a time, into a sense of insecurity and to put them into a frame of mind where they did not differentiate, but seemed to assume that the acts of a comparative few had tainted them all. And so it became the Government’s job to straighten out this situation and do it as quickly as possible. And that job is being performed.

I do not promise you that every bank will be reopened or that individual losses will not be suffered, but there will be no losses that possibly could be avoided; and there would have been more and greater losses had we continued to drift. I can even promise you salvation for some, at least, of the sorely presses banks. We shall be engaged not merely in reopening sound banks but in the creation of more sound banks through reorganization.

It has been wonderful to me to catch the note of confidence from all over the country. I can never be sufficiently grateful to the people for the loyal support that they have given me in their acceptance of the judgment that has dictated our course, even though all our processes may not have seemed clear to them.

After all, there is an element in the readjustment of our financial system more important than currency, more important than gold, and that is the confidence of the people themselves. Confidence and courage are the essentials of success in carrying out our plan. You people must have faith; you must not be stampeded by rumors or guesses. Let us unite in banishing fear. We have provided the machinery to restore our financial system, and it is up to you to support and make it work.

It is your problem, my friends, your problem no less than it is mine.

Together we cannot fail.

羅斯福于1933年的第一次爐邊談話 中文版

第一次爐邊談話

1933年3月12日，華盛頓特區(qū)

朋友們：

我想花幾分鐘時(shí)間同合眾國(guó)的人民談?wù)勩y行的情況。只有很少一部分人了解銀行的運(yùn)行機(jī)制，而絕大多數(shù)人則把銀行用作存款和取款的地方。

我要告訴大家，過去這些天我們都做了什么，為什么要做這些事情，以及我們的下一步計(jì)劃是什么。我認(rèn)識(shí)到，國(guó)會(huì)和華盛頓發(fā)出的許多公告、立法、財(cái)政部法規(guī)等，大部分內(nèi)容都是用銀行業(yè)和法律術(shù)語表述的，為了普通公民的利益應(yīng)當(dāng)加以解釋。我對(duì)此要特別表示感謝，因?yàn)槊總€(gè)人都堅(jiān)定而心平氣和地接受了銀行休假造成的不便和困難。我知道，當(dāng)大家理解了我們?cè)谌A盛頓所做的一切后，我將會(huì)得到大家的全力合作，如同你們?cè)谶^去的這個(gè)星期里給予我們的同情和幫助一樣。

首先，我要指出一個(gè)簡(jiǎn)單的事實(shí)：你們把錢存進(jìn)銀行，銀行并不是把它鎖在保險(xiǎn)庫(kù)里了事，而是用來通過各種不同的信貸方式進(jìn)行投資，比如買債券、商業(yè)票據(jù)、抵押貸款等。換句話說，銀行讓你們的錢發(fā)揮作用，好使整個(gè)機(jī)構(gòu)運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)起來。你們存入銀行的錢只有很小一部分是以貨幣形式保存的，其數(shù)量在平時(shí)完全能夠滿足普通公民的現(xiàn)金需要。換句話說，國(guó)家所有貨幣的總量?jī)H僅是所有銀行全部存款中很小的一部分。

那么，二月末三月初這些日子里發(fā)生了什么事情呢?由于公眾的信心下降，很多人沖進(jìn)銀行，將銀行的存款兌換成黃金。取款的人非常之多，以至于最可靠的銀行也不能獲得足夠的現(xiàn)金以滿足需要。當(dāng)然，其中的原因是，在人們一時(shí)沖動(dòng)的時(shí)刻，不可能出售銀行的完全可靠的資產(chǎn)，除非將這些資產(chǎn)以遠(yuǎn)低于其真實(shí)價(jià)值的恐慌價(jià)格變成現(xiàn)金。到3月3日下午時(shí)，也就是一周前的星期五下午，美國(guó)幾乎所有銀行都關(guān)門歇業(yè)了。差不多所有州的州長(zhǎng)都發(fā)布了暫時(shí)全部或部分關(guān)閉這些銀行的公告。正是那時(shí)候，我發(fā)布了公告，規(guī)定全國(guó)的銀行休假。這也是聯(lián)邦政府為重建我們的金融與經(jīng)濟(jì)大廈所采取的第一步。

第二步是在上周四國(guó)會(huì)迅速而充滿愛國(guó)心地通過立法，確認(rèn)了我的公告，并擴(kuò)大了我的權(quán)力，以便聯(lián)邦政府根據(jù)時(shí)間需要延長(zhǎng)假期和逐漸解除假期。該項(xiàng)法律還授權(quán)制定一項(xiàng)復(fù)原我們的銀行業(yè)務(wù)的計(jì)劃。我要對(duì)全國(guó)各地的公民們說的是，國(guó)會(huì)包括共和黨人和民主黨人，通過此次行動(dòng)表明：他們熱衷公共事業(yè)，認(rèn)識(shí)到我國(guó)正處于非常時(shí)刻，必須快速采取行動(dòng)。這在我國(guó)的歷史上是罕見的。

第三步是通過了一系列法規(guī)，準(zhǔn)許各家銀行繼續(xù)履行其職能，解決食品和生活必需品的銷售以及工資的支付。

這次銀行休假盡管在許多方面造成諸多不便，但是給我們提供了供應(yīng)足夠多的現(xiàn)金以應(yīng)對(duì)當(dāng)前形勢(shì)的機(jī)會(huì)，各家銀行上個(gè)星期一關(guān)門放假時(shí)，幾乎都是一貧如洗。哪家銀行都沒做好立即開業(yè)的準(zhǔn)備。新法律允許十二家聯(lián)邦儲(chǔ)備銀行以優(yōu)質(zhì)資產(chǎn)為基礎(chǔ)發(fā)行更多的貨幣。這樣，重新開業(yè)的銀行就能夠滿足所有合理要求。雕版印刷局正在全國(guó)各地大量發(fā)行新貨幣。這是健康的貨幣，因?yàn)樗姓鎸?shí)而優(yōu)質(zhì)的資產(chǎn)做后盾。

大家會(huì)問的另一個(gè)問題是：為什么不是所有銀行同時(shí)重新恢復(fù)營(yíng)業(yè)呢?答案很簡(jiǎn)單。你們的聯(lián)邦政府不想讓過去幾年的歷史重演。我們不想要也將不會(huì)看到另外一次銀行倒閉大流行了。

因此，我們明天也就是從星期一開始，十二家聯(lián)邦儲(chǔ)備銀行所在城市的各家銀行將開門營(yíng)業(yè)。這些銀行在財(cái)政部首輪審查中表明狀態(tài)良好。緊接著在星期二，已經(jīng)表明可靠的銀行將在擁有票據(jù)交易所的各城市恢復(fù)其全部功能。這意味著合眾國(guó)的約250個(gè)城市位列其中。星期三及隨后幾天，全國(guó)較小地方的銀行將會(huì)重新開始營(yíng)業(yè)，當(dāng)然，具體時(shí)間將依聯(lián)邦政府完成其調(diào)查的情形而定。

銀行重新開業(yè)的時(shí)間有必要延長(zhǎng)一個(gè)時(shí)期，以便準(zhǔn)許這些銀行申請(qǐng)必需的貸款，獲得滿足其要求的貨幣，并使聯(lián)邦政府能夠進(jìn)行常規(guī)審查。大家要清楚，如果你們的銀行在第一天沒有恢復(fù)營(yíng)業(yè)，那么，大家絕不能認(rèn)為這家銀行將不會(huì)開業(yè)了。在后續(xù)時(shí)間內(nèi)任何一天復(fù)業(yè)的銀行，其地位與明天恢復(fù)營(yíng)業(yè)的銀行完全一樣。

我知道許多人擔(dān)心的是各州的銀行，而不是聯(lián)邦儲(chǔ)備體系成員銀行的狀況。這些銀行能夠并將獲得成員銀行和復(fù)興金融公司的幫助。這些銀行的運(yùn)作方式同全國(guó)性銀行一樣，只是它們從州的權(quán)力部門獲得重新營(yíng)業(yè)的許可證。財(cái)政部長(zhǎng)已要求這些權(quán)力部門批準(zhǔn)信用良好的銀行依照與全國(guó)性銀行同樣的時(shí)間表開始營(yíng)業(yè)。我相信州銀行營(yíng)業(yè)管理處在制定有關(guān)銀行復(fù)業(yè)的政策時(shí)將和聯(lián)邦政府一樣謹(jǐn)慎小心，并將遵循同樣的基本政策。

這些銀行重新開始營(yíng)業(yè)時(shí)，一小部分還沒有從恐懼中恢復(fù)過來的人有可能再次開始提款。我希望大家清楚地知道，各銀行將滿足所有需要。我相信過去一個(gè)星期發(fā)生的囤積現(xiàn)金的行為已經(jīng)變得非常不合時(shí)宜了。不需要預(yù)言大師來告訴大家，當(dāng)人們發(fā)現(xiàn)可以提取他們的錢時(shí)任何時(shí)間只要目的合法都可以得到，恐懼的陰影將很快蹤跡全無。人們又將樂呵呵地將他們的錢存放在得到妥善保管并能隨時(shí)方便提用的地方。我可以向大家保證，把錢放在經(jīng)過整頓、重新開業(yè)的銀行里，要比放在褥子下面更安全。

當(dāng)然，我們這個(gè)偉大的國(guó)家計(jì)劃的成功依賴于公眾的合作，依賴公眾的明智支持和妥善利用。

大家記住，新法律的實(shí)質(zhì)性完成的標(biāo)志是使銀行能夠比以前更便于將其資產(chǎn)兌換成現(xiàn)金。已經(jīng)制定了更加寬松的規(guī)定，允許銀行將這些優(yōu)質(zhì)資產(chǎn)放在各儲(chǔ)備銀行以拆借資金;同時(shí)還制定了更為寬松的規(guī)定，來以這些優(yōu)質(zhì)資產(chǎn)的有價(jià)證券為基礎(chǔ)發(fā)行更多貨幣。這種貨幣不是法定貨幣。只有有價(jià)證券充足時(shí)方可發(fā)行此種貨幣，而每家健康的銀行都擁有大量此種有價(jià)證券。

在結(jié)束談話前還要說明一點(diǎn)。當(dāng)然會(huì)有一些銀行因沒有進(jìn)行改組而不能重新開業(yè)。新法律準(zhǔn)許聯(lián)邦政府幫助進(jìn)行迅速有效的改組工作，甚至準(zhǔn)許其提前注入至少一部分新的必要資金。

通過對(duì)聯(lián)邦政府正在做的事情進(jìn)行基本回顧，我希望大家看到，在此過程中沒有什么復(fù)雜或極端的事情發(fā)生。

我們的銀行形勢(shì)很糟糕。我們的有些銀行在管理大家的存款時(shí)表現(xiàn)得不稱職或者不誠(chéng)實(shí)。他們把這些委托給其經(jīng)營(yíng)的錢用于投機(jī)活動(dòng)和輕率的貸款。當(dāng)然，絕大多數(shù)銀行并不是這么干的，但確實(shí)有不少銀行在從事此類活動(dòng)，其數(shù)目之多，足以將人們震驚得一時(shí)間產(chǎn)生出不安全感，并形成一種思維定勢(shì)，認(rèn)為天下烏鴉一般黑。聯(lián)邦政府的工作是糾正此類誤解，并且盡快去做。這項(xiàng)工作正在完成之中。

我沒有向大家承諾說，所有銀行都會(huì)重新開業(yè)，或者每個(gè)人都不會(huì)遭受損失。然而，凡是可能避免的損失都將得以避免。如果我們繼續(xù)采取觀望放任的話，損失有可能更多更大。我甚至答應(yīng)大家至少對(duì)一些壓力非常大的銀行實(shí)施救助。我們不僅要讓可靠的銀行重新開業(yè)，而且還將通過重組創(chuàng)辦一些可靠的銀行。

全國(guó)各地發(fā)給我的滿懷信心的信件令我振奮不已。我對(duì)大家給予我的衷心支持表示最誠(chéng)摯的謝意，感謝大家服從命令聽從指揮，盡管你們似乎對(duì)我們的整個(gè)程序還不是很清楚。

畢竟，在我們對(duì)金融體系進(jìn)行重新調(diào)整過程中，有一個(gè)因素比貨幣和黃金還重要，也就人們的信心。信心和勇氣是成功地完成我們的計(jì)劃的必備條件。你們大家一定要堅(jiān)定信念，大家一定不要被各種流言蜚語和胡亂猜測(cè)嚇破了膽。讓我們大家團(tuán)結(jié)起來消除恐懼!我們已經(jīng)建立了恢復(fù)我們的金融系統(tǒng)的機(jī)制，支持這種機(jī)制，并讓它運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)起來就是大家的責(zé)任了。

這是我們大家共同的問題。

我們大家不能認(rèn)輸!