Unit Two: History and Personality Text A Voice of CourageBy Jonathan Alter 勇气之声〔美国〕乔纳森·奥尔特A few days after Franklin Delano Roosevelt was sworn into office, he sat in the White House working on a radio speech about the country's banking crisis, scheduled for delivery on Sunday, March 12, 1933. It was the depths of the Depression, with a quarter of Americans out of work, homeless and destitute. Glancing out the window, FDR saw a workman taking down the inaugural scaffolding on the White House grounds. 在富兰克林· 德拉诺· 罗斯福宣誓就职的几天后，他坐在白宫里起草一份关于美国银行业危机的广播演说，它将于 1933 年 3 月 12 日这个星期天播出。
此时此刻， 美国正处于经济大萧条的水深火热之中，四分之一的美国人不是失业，就是无家可归，穷困潦倒 罗斯福向窗外望去，只见一个工人正在拆掉白宫临时搭建的总统就职演说的平台I decided I'd try to make a speech that this workman could understand,“ he told Louis Howe, his chief aide. “我一定要让这样的普通工人也能听得懂我的演讲他对首席助理路易斯·霍夫说The American economic system was in a state of shock. On Saturday, March 4, a few hours before FDR's swearing-in, the governors of New York, Illinois and Pennsylvania signed orders closing banks in those states. The New York Stock Exchange had suspended trading, and the Chicago Board of Trade bolted its doors for the first time since its founding in 1848. The terrifying “runs“ that began the year before on more than 5,000 failing banks had stripped rural areas of capital and now threatened to overwhelm American cities. 美国的经济体系正处于危难之中。
3 月 4 日星期六，就在罗斯福宣誓就职前几个小时，纽约州、 伊利诺斯州和宾夕法尼亚州的州长们刚刚签署了指令，关闭这些州的银行纽约证券交易所已经暂停了交易而自从1848 年成立以来，芝加哥期货交易所也头一次关上了大门始于前一年的“挤兑”现象令人惊慌， 5000 多家银行倒闭，农村资金极度匮乏，而现在美国的城市也面临着全面的危机This was the bottom. If you had your money in a bank that went bust, you were wiped out. With no idea whether banks would reopen, millions of people hid their few remaining assets under their mattresses, where no one could steal them without a fight. 这就是底线了 如果你存钱的银行倒闭了，那么你也就完蛋了数以百万计的美国人无法确定银行是否能够重新开门，于是把自己仅剩的那点财产都藏在褥垫下面除非经过一场激战，藏在这里的钱谁也偷不走。
Roosevelt's inaugural address at the Capitol had begun to restore hope, with his standout line, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.“ Yet the greatest applause came when he said that if his reform program was not adopted, “I shall ask Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis: broad executive power to wage a war against the emergency.“ 罗斯福在国会的就职演讲给人们重新带来了希望，他那句最著名的话给人们留下了深刻的印象： “唯一值得恐惧的就是恐惧本身当提到若改革措施不被接受时，他的决心得到了人们的大声喝彩： “我将向国会要求对付危机的最后手段——向紧急状况开战的广泛行政权力Then FDR used a new medium in a new way to change millions. 罗斯福以新的方式利用了一种新媒体，改变了百万人的生活。
The first Presidential radio broadcast was introduced by Robert Trout of CBS, who read from a folksy script approved by FDR: “The President wants to come into your home and sit at your fireside for a little fireside chat.“ FDR brought natural talent to the role. His speaking voice was a beautiful, relaxed tenor, not the contrived basso profundo of pompous politicians. 第一次总统广播演讲是由CBS的罗伯特· 特劳特向公众介绍的，这份亲切的介绍词受到了罗斯福的肯定：“总统希望来到你的家里，坐在壁炉旁，与大家做个炉边小谈对于完成这个任务，罗斯福有着天分他的音质优美，语调放松，与那些华而不实的政客的虚情假意完全不同Roosevelt owed much to technological good fortune. In 1921, the number of radios in the United States was in the thousands. By 1928, there were 9 million, and by 1932, 18 million, with about half the households owning at least one radio. Herbert Hoover had appeared on one of the first “telecasts“ produced by an infant technology called television, but neither he nor anyone else knew how to use the broadcasting medium effectively. 罗斯福的炉边谈话大大受益于技术的发展。
1921 年，全美收音机的数量只有几千台而到了 1928 年，这个数字就达到了900 万台到1932 年的时候，全美已经有1800 万台收音机了， 大约有一半的家庭每家至少有一台收音机赫伯特· 胡佛利用过一种叫做电视的新生技术，他曾经首次出现在“电视广播”上但无论是胡佛还是其他人，都不知道如何有效地利用广播媒体Roosevelt, though, was different. 然而，罗斯福则与众不同All afternoon, workers busily removed the gold pieces and Presidential china patterns in the Diplomatic Reception Room on the White House ground floor. In came bulky electrical equipment and telephone cables, connected to a desk and built-in microphone. Meanwhile, Roosevelt pictured people “gathered in the parlor, listening with their neighbors,“ wrote Frances Perkins, who witnessed many broadcasts. “As he talked, his head would nod and his hands would move in natural, relaxed gestures. His face would light up as though he were actually sitting with people.“ 整个下午， 工人们都在忙着搬走白宫外交接待大厅里的各种金饰品和总统瓷器，而搬进来的则是笨重的电气设备和电缆，这些设备都与一台桌子和内置的麦克风相连接。
与此同时，罗斯福想象人们“聚在客厅里，与他们的邻居共同倾听”曾经亲历了无数广播现场的弗朗西斯·珀金斯如是写道，“当罗斯福说话的时候，他点着头，并且做出各种自然而放松的手势他的面孔熠熠生辉，就好像真的与人们坐在一起谈话一样The ritual went this way: Upstairs, FDR would put the finishing touches on every word and phrase. He was obsessed with punctuation. Grace Tully, his secretary, sometimes inserted extra commas when she typed, leading her boss to gently upbraid her for “wasting the taxpayers' commas.“ His real concern was timing. He read aloud at about 100 words a minute, but he adjusted his pace for effect. At 6 p.m., Roosevelt had his throat sprayed for a sinus problem. Then he enjoyed cocktails and dinner. 整个过程是这样进行的：在楼上， 罗斯福对每个单词和短语进行最后的润色。
他对标点符号非常在意， 而秘书格雷斯· 塔利打字时有时会多打一些逗号，她的老板会因此语气和善地批评她“浪费纳税人的逗号”罗斯福最关心的是时间把握问题他大声朗读的速度大约是每分钟100 个单词， 但是他会调整自己的速。