Most Americans aren't stock owners—they have their money in banks. But the banks have been lending out their money to speculators in the stock market. And so when large numbers of depositors suddenly want their cash, the banks don't have it to give. Thousands of banks simply close their doors . Factories close. People stop buying cars, they stop building houses. They have no money. What's happening? We're having a depression. And like a depression of the mind, it seems like there is no way out. And it is growing—not only in our country, but in the rest of the world as well. This financial calamity will be called the Great Depression.

By 1932 at least twelve million people are out of work—counting entire families, that makes nearly fifty million victims . They are losing their homes, their farms, everything they own. Their freedom itself is being jeopardized.