Roosevelt on Radio

President Franklin D. Roosevelt addresses the nation by radio from the White House and calls for an armistice in disputes between management and labor on September 30, 1934. The truce was sought while the newly reorganized National Recovery Administration worked on legislation to benefit both sides.

On the day of the speech, The Times wrote that Roosevelt’s address to Americans was designed to stop business and political critics of the NRA and “to send that reshaken agency off to a flying start.”

“In what is intended as a man-to-man chat with the people by radio at 10 o’clock … he will speak in this fashion for the first time since last June, when he left for a Hawaiian vacation,” The Times wrote. “The three-month interval has brought new and outspoken demands from business leaders for at least a new definition if not a shift in the present trend of administration policies, especially those vital ones dealing with government spending, budget balancing, currency stabilization and NRA control of business.”

This photograph was published with a follow-up story about the president’s address on October 2, 1934.