1932 Fifty Years Ago

C HICAGO : The flight from Albany to this city takes most of the day and requires two refueling stops, but it enables Franklin Delano Roosevelt to appear before the Democratic National Convention on July 2 to accept its nomination for the Presidency.

A candidate has never before accepted his nomination in person in the United States, but FDR says that in these “unprecedented” times it is “the task of our party to break foolish traditions.” He tells the uproariously enthusiastic delegates: “I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people.”

The phrase “new deal,” here used for the first time, attracts no particular attention, not even capital initial letters in the press the next day.