"Simple
Truths" from Message
to Congress
April 29, 1938 Unhappy events abroad have retaught us two simple truths about the liberty of a democratic people. The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic State itself. That, in its essence, is fascism—ownership of government by an individual, by a group or by any other controlling private power. The second truth is that the
liberty
of a democracy is not safe if its business system does not provide
employment and produce and distribute goods in such a way as to sustain
an acceptable standard of living. Both lessons hit home. Among us today
a concentration of private power without equal in history is growing.
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