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1932 › Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democratic) › Gold standard and currency basis

A sound currency preserved at all hazards

pledge_forwardspecific_pledgecandidate_directevidence A Economy & Fiscal PolicyMoney, Currency & Credit similar solutions · similar reasoning

Solution

Preserve a sound currency "at all hazards" and call an international monetary conference to consider the rehabilitation of silver and related questions. Reverse the Republican "inflation" used to fund deficits.

Rationale

Muddled government finance creates uncertainty about currency values that spreads internationally; "sound money is an international necessity."

Read against 1932-fdr-restore-commodity-price-level. The campaign never defined "sound currency" as the gold standard in so many words; Hoover's charge that Roosevelt intended to leave gold was not answered directly.

Position chain: A permanently sound currency stabilized against wide fluctuations

Statements (3)

1932-06-27 · Democratic National Convention, Chicago (platform) · conventionparty_platform ✓ verified

We advocate a sound currency to be preserved at all hazards and an international monetary conference called on the invitation of our government to consider the rehabilitation of silver and related questions.

Source: 1932 Democratic Party Platform (1932-06-27)

1932-07-02 · Acceptance address, Democratic National Convention, Chicago · conventioncandidate_direct ✓ verified

That admirable document, the platform which you have adopted, is clear. I accept it 100 percent.

Blanket endorsement of every plank.

Source: Address Accepting the Presidential Nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago (1932-07-02)

1932-07-30 · Radio address from Albany on the Democratic platform · generalcandidate_direct ✓ verified

Let us have equal courage to reverse the policy of the Republican leaders and insist on a sound currency.

Source: Radio Address on the National Democratic Platform From Albany, New York (1932-07-30)

Follow-through

reversedcontested among sources

The United States left the gold standard in April 1933, abrogated gold clauses in June, and devalued the dollar to 59 percent of its former gold content in January 1934. Roosevelt maintained that a managed currency of stable purchasing power was 'sound' money, and the silver plank was honored by the Silver Purchase Act (June 1934). Hoover's campaign charge that the Democrats would tamper with the currency proved accurate in outcome.

Mechanisms

Date	Type	Name	Effect	Consistent?	Source
1933-04-19	executive_order	Gold export embargo charted on: Consumer price index (all urban consumers, 1982–84=100) · Monetary gold stock · Producer (wholesale) price index, all commodities (1982=100)	Ended the gold standard in practice.	no	Excerpts from the Press Conference
1933-05-07	message	Second fireside chat: 'gold ... perfectly good bases for currency' charted on: Consumer price index (all urban consumers, 1982–84=100) · Gross domestic product (nominal, annual) · Monetary gold stock · Producer (wholesale) price index, all commodities (1982=100) · Unemployment rate (BLS, 1948–) · Unemployment rate (NBER series, 1929–1942)	Reframed the policy as protecting the currency. Nevertheless, gold, and to a partial extent silver, are perfectly good bases for currency, and that is why I decided not to let any of the gold now in the country go out of it.	partly	Second Fireside Chat
1934-01-30	statute	Gold Reserve Act (devaluation to $35) charted on: Consumer price index (all urban consumers, 1982–84=100) · Gross domestic product (nominal, annual) · Monetary gold stock · Producer (wholesale) price index, all commodities (1982=100) · Unemployment rate (BLS, 1948–) · Unemployment rate (NBER series, 1929–1942)	Dollar devalued about 41 percent.	no	Franklin D. Roosevelt: Foreign Affairs \| Miller Center
1934-05-22	message	Message on silver policy / Silver Purchase Act charted on: Consumer price index (all urban consumers, 1982–84=100) · Gross domestic product (nominal, annual) · Monetary gold stock · Producer (wholesale) price index, all commodities (1982=100) · Unemployment rate (BLS, 1948–) · Unemployment rate (NBER series, 1929–1942)	Silver monetized up to a quarter of the reserve — the platform's silver rehabilitation.	yes	Message to Congress on Silver Policy.

Assessments

reversed William E. Leuchtenburg — Franklin D. Roosevelt: Foreign Affairs | Miller Center

Devaluation and departure from gold contradict 'sound currency preserved at all hazards' as contemporaries understood it.

He scuttled the London Economic Conference in the summer of 1933 and devalued the dollar by removing the United States from the international gold standard.

kept Franklin D. Roosevelt — Second Fireside Chat

Roosevelt's own definition: a currency whose purchasing power is restored to the level at which debts were contracted is the sound one.

We do not seek to let them get such a cheap dollar that they will be able to pay back a great deal less than they borrowed. In other words, we seek to correct a wrong and not to create another wrong in the opposite direction.

Reception (1)

oppositiondistortedsalience high Herbert Hoover, Indianapolis 1932-10-28

Roosevelt has not disavowed the House's $2.3 billion greenback bill; the 'new deal' means currency tampering.

One of the most important issues of the campaign arises from the fact that the Democratic candidate has not yet disavowed the bill passed by the Democratic House of Representatives under the leadership of the Democratic candidate for Vice President to issue $2,300 million of greenback currency--that is, unconvertible paper money.

Source: Address in Indianapolis, Indiana

Other positions on this issue

Hold the gold standard and the 'honest dollar'; no fiat money, no 'rubber dollar' price-fixing — Herbert Hoover, 1932 specific_pledge
Sound currency 'at all hazards'; no further devaluation; repeal the laws delegating the money power to the Executive — Alf Landon, 1936 specific_pledge
A permanently sound currency stabilized against wide fluctuations — Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1936 directional_stance

1932-fdr-sound-currency · created by claude-fable-5-1 · review: unreviewed