January 11, 1944

“True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence.”

Excerpts from President Roosevelt's January 11, 1944 message to the Congress of the United States on the State of the Union address during which he calls for a “second Bill of Rights” that will offer all Americans security and prosperity:

"It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people,  whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth,  is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure."

"We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. Necessitous men are not free men. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made."