Franklin D. Roosevelt, First Press Conference (March 8, 1933). From The Press Conferences of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.

[Roosevelt's first press conference marked the beginning of a new kind of relationship between the president and the press.]

The President: It is very good to see you all and my hope is that these conferences are going to be merely enlarged editions of the kind of very delightful family conferences I have been holding in Albany for the last four years.

I am told that what I am about to do will become impossible, but I am going to try it. We are not going to have any more written questions and of course while I cannot answer seventy-five or a hundred questions because I simply haven't got the physical time, I see no reason why I should not talk to you ladies and gentlemen off the record just the way I have been doing in Albany and the way I used to do it in the Navy Department down here. Quite a number of you, I am glad to see, date back to the days of the previous existence which I led in Washington.

...And so I think we will discontinue the practice of compelling the submitting of questions in writing before the conference in order to get an answer. There will be a great many questions, of course, that I won't answer, either because they are "if" questions — and I never answer them — and Brother Stephenson will tell you what an "if" question is —

Mr. Stephenson: I ask forty of them a day.

The President: And the others of course are the questions which for various reasons I don't want to discuss or I am not ready to discuss or I don't know anything about. There will be a great many questions you will ask about that I don't know enough about to answer.

Then, in regard to news announcements, Steve [press secretary Stephen T. Early] and I thought that it was best that street news for use out of here should be always without direct quotations. In other words, I don't want to be directly quoted, with the exception that direct quotations will be given out by Steve in writing. Of course that makes that perfectly clear.

Then there are two other matters we will talk about: The first is "background information," which means materials which can be used by all of you on your own authority and responsibility and must not be attributed to the White House, because I don't want to have to revive the Ananias Club. (Laughter)

Then the second thing is the "off the record" information which means, of course, confidential information which is given only to those who attend the conference. Now there is one thing I want to say right now on which I think you will go along with me. I want to ask you not to repeat this "off the record" confidential information either to your own editors or associates who are not here because there is always the danger that while you people may not violate the rule, somebody may forget to say, "This is off the record and confidential," and the other party may use it in a story. That is to say, it is not to be used and not to be told to those fellows who happen not to come around to the conference. In other words, this is only for those present.

Now, as to news, I don't think there is any. (Laughter)

Steve reminds me that I have just signed the application for Associate Membership in the Press Club, which I am very happy to do....

Q: In your inaugural address, in which you only touched upon things, you said you are for sound and adequate —

The President: I put it the other way around. I said "adequate but sound."

Q: Now that you have more time, can you define what that is?

The President: No. (Laughter) In other words — and I should call this "off the record" information — you cannot define the thing too closely one way or the other. On Friday afternoon last we undoubtedly didn't have adequate currency. No question about that. There wasn't enough circulating money to go around.

Q: I believe that. (Laughter)

The President: We hope that when the banks reopen a great deal of the currency that was withdrawn for one purpose or another will find its way back. We have go to provide an adequate currency. Last Friday we would have had to provide it in the form of scrip and probably some additional issues of Federal Bank notes. If things go along as we hope they will, the use of scrip can be very greatly curtailed and the amount of new Federal Bank issues we hope can be also limited to a very great extent. In other words, what you are coming to now really is a managed currency, the adequateness of which will depend on the conditions of the moment. It may expand one week and it may contract another week. That part is all off the record.

Q: Can we use that part — managed?

The President: No, I think not.

Q: That is a pretty good substitute for "controlled."

The President: Go and ask [Secretary of the Treasury] Will Woodin about it.

Q: He's too busy. (Laughter)

Q: Now you came down to adequacy, but you haven't defined what you think is sound, or don't you want to define that now?

The President: I don't want to define "sound" now. In other words, in its essence — this is entirely off the record — in its essence we must not put the Government any further in debt. Now, the real mark of delineation between sound and unsound is when the government starts to pay its bills by starting printing presses. This is about the size of it.

Q: Couldn't you take that out and give it to us. That's a very good thing at this time.

The President: I don't think so. There may be some talk about it tomorrow....