These are the words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his Annual Message to Congress in 1941, his famous "Four Freedoms" speech. There is general disagreement about when the New Deal ended, though a Conservative Congress in the war years marked a definite end to the consensus of the Hundred Days' Congress. On 28 December 1943, Roosevelt was asked in a Press Conference about his abandoning of the term New Deal. The president responded. His response could be summarized as follows: the New Deal was perhaps adept at dealing with issues inherent to the Great Depression but a new policy was needed for the war. He compared the New Deal to an internist, whereas World War II was an external issue.
"But since then, two years ago, the patient had a very bad accident- not an internal trouble." said Roosevelt. "Two years ago, on the seventh of December, he was in a pretty bad smashup -broke his hip, broke his leg in two or three places, broke a wrist and an arm, and some ribs; and they didn't think he would live, for a while. And then he began to "come to"; and he has been in charge of a partner of the old doctor. Old Dr. New Deal didn't know "nothing" about legs and arms. He knew a great deal about internal medicine, but nothing about surgery. So he got his partner, [...] Dr. Win-the-War, to take care of this fellow who had been in this bad accident. And the result is that the patient is back on his feet. He has given up his crutches. He isn't wholly well yet, and he won't be until he wins the war. The remedies that the old Dr. New Deal used were for internal troubles. He saved the banks of the United States and set up a sound banking system. ...another remedy was saving homes from foreclosure. " (Roosevelt Four Freedoms)
This exchange is often cited in contemporary secondary sources as Roosevelt abandoning the New Deal for a new set of war policy, but this analysis fails to recognize that Roosevelt spends the rest of the speech denouncing those who would undo the New Deal's Progress. He lists the New Deal's achievements in detail before commenting,
"And when victory comes, the program of the past, of course, has got to be carried on, in my judgment, with what is .going on in other countries—postwar program—because it will pay. We can't go into an economic isolationism, any more than it would pay to go into a military isolationism. This is not just a question of dollars and cents, although some people think it is. It is a question of the long range, which ties in human beings with dollars, to the benefit of the dollars and the benefit of the human beings as a part of this postwar program, which of course hasn't been settled on at all, except in generalities." (Roosevelt Four Freedoms)
"But since then, two years ago, the patient had a very bad accident- not an internal trouble." said Roosevelt. "Two years ago, on the seventh of December, he was in a pretty bad smashup -broke his hip, broke his leg in two or three places, broke a wrist and an arm, and some ribs; and they didn't think he would live, for a while. And then he began to "come to"; and he has been in charge of a partner of the old doctor. Old Dr. New Deal didn't know "nothing" about legs and arms. He knew a great deal about internal medicine, but nothing about surgery. So he got his partner, [...] Dr. Win-the-War, to take care of this fellow who had been in this bad accident. And the result is that the patient is back on his feet. He has given up his crutches. He isn't wholly well yet, and he won't be until he wins the war. The remedies that the old Dr. New Deal used were for internal troubles. He saved the banks of the United States and set up a sound banking system. ...another remedy was saving homes from foreclosure. " (Roosevelt Four Freedoms)
This exchange is often cited in contemporary secondary sources as Roosevelt abandoning the New Deal for a new set of war policy, but this analysis fails to recognize that Roosevelt spends the rest of the speech denouncing those who would undo the New Deal's Progress. He lists the New Deal's achievements in detail before commenting,
"And when victory comes, the program of the past, of course, has got to be carried on, in my judgment, with what is .going on in other countries—postwar program—because it will pay. We can't go into an economic isolationism, any more than it would pay to go into a military isolationism. This is not just a question of dollars and cents, although some people think it is. It is a question of the long range, which ties in human beings with dollars, to the benefit of the dollars and the benefit of the human beings as a part of this postwar program, which of course hasn't been settled on at all, except in generalities." (Roosevelt Four Freedoms)