My Fellow Americans: Presidents Speak to the People in Troubled Times

By Firefly Books

The most interesting and inspiring presidential speeches, from Franklin Roosevelt to Barack Obama.

From Franklin Roosevelt to Barack Obama, American presidents have faced unprecedented challenges at home and abroad. From the onset of the Great Depression, through World War II, the Korean War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Cold War, Desert Storm and the War on Terror, American presidents have warned and rallied the nation during each crisis. Presidents have also addressed the people in times of triumph -- the creation of the United Nations, advances in civil rights, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War.

My Fellow Americans includes the speeches that capture times of challenge, conflict and change, with such memorable phrases as "We have nothing to fear but fear itself," "Ask not what your country can do for you" and "Begin again the work of remaking America," which have entered the vernacular and have become a part of our heritage.

This book is a record of how our presidents established their leadership through thick and thin. The language of the speeches reflects the country's mood over decades of fear and hope and the ongoing faith and values that sustain our nation.

My Fellow Americans is divided into six parts:

• 1933-1945: Roosevelt
• 1945-1961: T ruman and Eisenhower
• 1961-1969: Kennedy and Johnson
• 1969-1981: Nixon, Ford and Carter
• 1981-1993: Reagan and Bush
• 1993-2009: Clinton, Bush and Obama.

Each part is introduced with a short essay that provides a timeline and context for the events of the period.

There is also an introduction to the book that focuses on the president's use of language to inspire listeners. Illustrated with 30 black-and-white historical photographs, My Fellow Americans is a stunning testament to America's recent history.

The American Constitution, Article II, Section 3, mandates that the president "shall from time to time give to Congress information on the state of the union." Since George Washington delivered the first State of the Union address in 1790, each president has addressed Congress and the people of the United States every year. Presidents have also given inaugural and farewell addresses as well as many formal and informal speeches. From these speeches there is a vivid and immediate record of the major triumphs and tragedies the nation has faced and clear portraits of the men who have led.

Famous speeches in the book include:

Roosevelt's first Inaugural Address, 1933:

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

Eisenhower's Farewell Address, 1961:

"We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence ... by the military-industrial complex."

Kennedy's Inaugural Address, 1961:

"Ask not what your country can do for you..."

Johnson's State of the Union Address, 1967:

"We have chosen to fight a limited war in Vietnam in an attempt to prevent a larger war."

Reagan's Evil Empire speech, 1983:

"[Do not] ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire."

George W. Bush's State of the Union Address, 2004:

"We are engaged in the defining ideological struggle of the 21st century."

Barack Obama's Inaugural Address, 2009:

"Begin again the work of remaking America."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Firefly Books
• Release date: Dec 23, 2011
• ISBN: 9781770880580

Book preview

In his Farewell Address to the Nation, Gerald Ford sought to repair some of the damage done to the highest office in the land by the impeachment proceedings and subsequent resignation of Richard Nixon. He warned Congress that, despite Nixon’s abuse of privilege, a strong presidency was absolutely necessary because To the ears of the world, the President speaks for the Nation. These few words capture the essence of why presidential speeches are so important in understanding modern American history.

By selecting the topics to address, the president arranges the priorities of his administration. By speaking to the people he effectively goes over the head of Congress and, as the only elected official who represents all the citizens everywhere, informs, mobilizes and inspires his vast constituency. Even when the president is addressing Congress or a small select audience, he is aware that the people are always listening and chooses his words accordingly.

In the American system of checks and balances between the executive and legislative branches of government, the president, for all the power of his high office, is severely limited in his ability to implement his programs. To be successful, he must motivate the people to demand action from the Congress. Without a strong leader to provide vision and leadership, Congressional debate degrades into partisan and sectarian squabbling; even in the best of times, Congress usually only follows the president’s direction reluctantly and part of the way.

This balance between the president and Congress is always delicate, but the combination of a strong president willing to act and the demand of the people for action is often the only thing that can persuade Congress to act. In Roosevelt’s First Inaugural Address he reassures the people that if Congress is unwilling or unable to act in a way that alleviates the situation, he will ask for broad Executive power to wage war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe. In speaking on the need for civil rights legislation, Johnson warns Congress that although as a young man he never expected that he would have a chance to make a difference, now I do have that chance – and I’ll let you in on a secret – I mean to use it.

The president’s job demands the ability to lead as well as the ability to govern. Particularly in today’s digital age, in which every move, word and gesture is captured and replayed on television for the world to see, no president can be effective without the ability to hold center stage in front of millions of eyes.

The intent of this book is to showcase the leadership and vision shown by recent presidents as they have addressed the nation. Beginning with Franklin D. Roosevelt at the height of the Great Depression in 1933 and ending with Barack Obama’s address on the collapsing economy of 2009, here are some of the most significant and readable speeches given by American presidents in troubled times. Many of them read as vividly as the day they were written and are masterpieces of the use of language and concise summaries of important ideas, a tribute both to their authors and to the importance of the history they record. All of them, however, are important in that they portray, in the language of the time, history as it was being made from the most powerful office in the world. While historians can carefully analyze the language, seeking hidden meanings and patterns, the success of any speech is measured not in what future generations think of it, but in how well it achieves its most important task – to inspire and motivate the listener to immediately take or support some course of action.

Consistent with the power of the presidency itself, these speeches do not plead or request or suggest – they are the voice of authority and they state clearly and unequivocally the way in which the president intends to proceed. They constitute a clear warning, to friend and foe alike, of just what course the president will take in confronting the challenges before him. Some presidents were naturally gifted orators and have left speeches that will survive as examples of the best of their kind, Roosevelt, Kennedy and Reagan being among them. Their language is so memorable that the words chosen to convey the message can receive more attention than the message itself. To say we have nothing to fear but fear itself, or ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country, or government is not the solution to the problem, government is the problem captures the essence of the time and the challenges that confronted the nation.

But eloquence, however welcome, must also be matched with specific promises and proposals. Empty words are the most dangerous of all – for no one regards a presidential address as a casual chat about inconsequential things. In troubled times the people expect and deserve leadership. If that leadership is lacking, the result is likely to be an increased sense of fear that not only are things bad, but that no one in charge knows what to do about it. Throughout these speeches, then, the language of leadership defines the expectations of the audience.

Some themes occur so frequently in these speeches that they are worth noting as indicative of the way our leaders thought and spoke over the last three-quarters of a century. References to God’s blessing, the lessons to be learned from the Founding Fathers, the necessity to preserve our freedom at all costs, the warning against preferring material success over the good of the nation, and the danger of big government and a loss of power by the people, to name only a few themes, flow through the language from Roosevelt’s speeches to Obama’s assertion that America has endured because we the people have remained faithful to the ideals of our forebears, and true to our founding documents.

In any book of this kind, the question arises of just how much of the speech was actually written by the president and how much was written by others. Presidents all the way back to Washington have recognized the importance of their speeches and have consulted friends, officials and professional writers for help. Although the president may not have written all the words in a speech, only he is in a position to make the final decision about which words to use and to deliver them with the passion and conviction necessary for them to have the greatest effect.

Bruce Reed, writing in the online magazine Slate, captured the essence of any speechwriter’s contribution: "A speechwriter’s job is to write words that others can stand to claim as their own. Most speechwriters soon learn the basic pleasure-pain principle of the craft: Satisfaction comes from finding words the boss can use, but taking credit for those words can only embarrass the very person you’re supposed to be helping. At times, it can feel slightly disingenuous to write words for someone else to deliver. But more often, the person you’re writing for gives a far better speech than you wrote ... the whole point of the job is that in the end, the words are all that

matter."

In short, the speeches are important only because the president gives them and the words are important only because they outline his policy. Robert Schlesinger, in his book White House Ghosts, points out that speechwriters select words and images that flow naturally from the energy and rhetoric of the campaign, the candidate and the administration itself. No speechwriter, however gifted, can put words in the president’s mouth. Speechwriters can use words only to give shape and structure to ideas that already characterize the president and are believable in the context of his policies. The working relationship among the president, the speechwriters and the English language is captured in Sorenson’s comments on the origin of the words ask not in Kennedy’s Inaugural Address. It isn’t all that important who wrote which word or which phrase in Kennedy’s inaugural, Sorensen said in 2006. What’s important are the themes and the principles that he laid out ... Several people contributed, including Galbraith, Stevenson, and Walter Lippmann. And some parts came from John F. Kennedy and some parts came from me. In other words, it was a mixture.

Looking over these speeches is a grim reminder of just how many challenges the nation has faced in the last 75 years. With a few exceptions, each administration since Roosevelt’s has confronted an economic or military challenge that constituted a very real struggle for survival. Nor have these speeches exaggerated these dangers. President after president has counseled the American people to realize that everything they hold dear – liberty, family, faith and our way of life – was under attack. The Great Depression and the Second World War dominate Roosevelt’s four administrations. From Truman to Reagan, the threat to the nation is international communism. During the long Cold War period from 1945 to 1990, the fear that conflict anywhere in the world could easily escalate into the mutually assured destruction of nuclear war dominated the nation’s agenda.

Beginning with Johnson, however, division within the nation itself as to how we should proceed becomes the greatest threat we face. Gone are the days of the Second World War when we knew who the enemy was and when America was clearly in the right. The war in Vietnam, the social upheavals of the 1960s and the loss of faith in the presidency in the wake of the Pentagon Papers and Watergate caused more than one president to join Nixon in reminding the nation of the danger of division within a country: foreign enemies could never defeat America, only Americans can do that.

The delicate balance of preserving the nation’s faith and values while moving slowly into an unknown and radically different future in the face of massive demonstrations of opposition to government policy at home required more skill and courage than facing down armies of enemies. The erosion of national purpose and faith in the country and what it stands for breeds the most dangerous times. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s words in the worst days of the Depression, that our problems, thank God, concern only material things, reassured a generation of self-reliant Americans that they had not failed. Although they may have had to suffer through the Depression, they did not have to blame themselves or assume personal responsibility for their problems. In those days, when personal responsibility sat heavily on everyone’s shoulders, these were important words. Eisenhower warns America that we cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage.

As the decades continue, the situation changes dramatically until Nixon, referring to Roosevelt, says, our crisis today is in reverse. We find ourselves rich in goods, but ragged in spirit. Presidents have to remind the people of the concept of duty and personal responsibility for themselves in a world given over to a belief in an all-powerful and infinitely wealthy government and a sense of personal entitlement unrelated to personal effort. Quoting Winston Churchill, Reagan reminds Americans, there’s something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty. Obama lays part of the blame for the financial crisis at the feet of the people themselves when he says, our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. This theme, the need for a renewal of faith in the very idea of an America built on personal freedom and hard work, has been on the lips of presidents throughout most of the last half-century.

The crisis of the spirit that has haunted the nation since the end of the Second World War has at least part of its roots in the Cold War. Having won the war in 1945, Americans wanted nothing more than to assist the world in rebuilding itself in our own image of freedom and democracy. Being as large and powerful as it was practical to be, we could say with certainty that we wanted no empire, no colonies and no role as the world’s policeman. Preventing us from reaching our goal, as Eisenhower succinctly put it, was only one thing – the divisive force is international communism and the power that controls it.

Instead of reaping the benefits of victory over the Axis powers and entering a new golden age of peace and prosperity, America found itself challenged not so much over territory, power, trade or riches – all of the things that had characterized past wars and conflicts – but over the rightness and superiority of its political and economic system. This challenge went to the heart of not only what we were, but also to who we were. Our history and mythology had idolized the heroes of the American Revolution, the Civil War and the conquest of the American West, and the nation itself was still proudly referred to as the last best hope of mankind. To be attacked on this front, to be told that there was a better system of economics and government, that faith in God was no better than superstition and that the future belonged to the communists, not to us, was harder to deal with and potentially more lethal than a dozen Pearl Harbors.

It is already becoming difficult to remember how all pervasive was the threat of nuclear war with the Soviet Union, but Truman’s words that the threat of war is still very real determined policy and expenditure for every administration during the Cold War. Significantly, it was Eisenhower, the most senior military officer to win the presidency in modern times, who warned the nation of the danger to liberty that came not only from the Soviet Union but from the great standing army and armament industry we had created to resist it. We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.

It is impossible to tell what might have been the fate of the world if the United States had reverted at the end of the Second World War to the isolationism that characterized the period after the First World War. Certainly, without American help, South Korea and South Vietnam would have fallen to the communist north, but whether Japan, Cambodia and the rest of Asia would have also fallen like dominoes is not at all certain. In both places where the Cold War turned hot, the conflict was essentially a civil war – Korean against Korean and Vietnamese against Vietnamese – to settle boundaries hastily established by others in the aftermath of the Second World War.

But while the outcome of the Cold War was, especially during the 1950s and 1960s, by no means certain, the necessity and wisdom of the United States’ determined resistance to Soviet expansion is now accepted without question. As John Gaddis puts it in his book The Cold War, The world, I am quite sure, is a better place for that conflict [the Cold War] having been fought in the way that it was and won by the side that won it. No one today worries about a new global war, or a total triumph of dictators, or the prospect that civilization itself might end. That was not the case when the Cold War began. For all its dangers, atrocities, costs, distractions, and moral compromises, the Cold War – like the American Civil War – was a necessary contest that settled fundamental issues once and for all. We have no reason to miss it. But given the alternatives, we have little reason either to regret its having occurred.

As with any book of this kind, the greatest difficulty was deciding what to leave out. These 49 speeches represent only a tiny portion of the total given by 13 presidents over a period of 76 years. With two exceptions, Kennedy’s speech to the Association of Evangelicals and Reagan’s speech to the Republican National Convention on behalf of Barry Goldwater, all of these speeches were given while the president held office. In making the selection, preference was given to State of the Union messages, Inaugural Addresses and Farewell Addresses, not only because these are formal occasions that provide a forum to focus on the administration’s priorities, but also because the consistency of the occasions makes it easier to appreciate the styles, strengths and weaknesses of the different presidents.

To include as many speeches as possible, except in a few occasions, only the portions of the speeches that contain the essence of the president’s ideas and are the most eloquent have been reproduced here. The most frequently omitted parts are long lists of specific programs that the president included in an attempt to help move legislation through Congress. Years after the event, the specifics of the bills before Congress are much less important than the general direction the president took. In no case was anything omitted that would influence the meaning of the text or change the context. Omissions are marked in this text with brackets and three dots [...] for easy reference. The complete text of all these speeches is readily available in print and online.

Since this book contains only speeches by American presidents, it presents world events as seen from the White House. Speeches on the same topics given in Moscow would, of course, sound very different. Perhaps Kennedy best captured American opinion of the Soviet view of world affairs when he said, it is discouraging to think that their leaders may actually believe what their propagandists write.

No attempt has been made here to provide historic context for the events that occasioned these speeches or to comment on the logic or success of the arguments or ideas advanced. The history of the last century is complex and we are still too close to the events to make definitive judgments about the success or failure of the many actions, programs and initiatives taken by the presidents. Which presidents will withstand the test of time and which will be relegated to the ranks of minor actors on the world stage only time itself will tell.

The difficult days ahead and the very different post–Cold War world of the 21st century will provide new challenges and may well require a very different kind of wisdom from what we are used to. But so long as Obama’s statement that we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals remains our watchword when dealing with terrorists or any other threat, we should see out the century with our faith and values intact.

This book, then, captures the best moments of presidential leadership during troubled times: the Great Depression, the Second World War, the Cold War and the War on Terror. Some years were worse than others and there were some short periods of respite but, overall, the period since 1933 has been one of crisis. In spite of this, America has not only endured, it has prospered. Never before in history have so many had so much and so willingly shared that abundance with others less fortunate than themselves. But as many of the presidents pointed out in a variety of ways, a world built solely on the pursuit of material abundance is not built on solid ground. There has never been an answer to the biblical question of What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Here then are presidents concerned with preserving, articulating and saving the soul of America in troubled times.

Frankin D. Roosevelt

Perhaps no president since Abraham Lincoln has taken office at such a critical time as Franklin D. Roosevelt. The post-war boom of the 1920s, fed by an excess of speculation in a largely unregulated financial system, had come to an end with the stock market crash of 1929. Unsure how to proceed in dealing with what quickly became a worldwide depression, governments around the world erected protectionist trade barriers that only made matters worse. By 1933, when Roosevelt gave his Inaugural Address, the nation’s economy had almost ceased to function. With millions unemployed, faith in the capitalist system, and in many quarters democratic government itself, was called into question. Roosevelt’s first priority was to calm America’s fears.

In his Inaugural Address, one of the most famous American speeches, Roosevelt promises to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly and reassures his listeners not only that the nation will endure but that it will revive and prosper. To achieve this revival of prosperity, it is necessary to stop the panic; So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

Having urged an end to fear, he admits the magnitude of the problems that confront the nation but rejoices that these difficulties concern, thank God, only material things. Yet these material things include industries that have closed, farmers who can find no markets for their products, and citizens who have lost their life savings built up over many years. These things, coupled with massive unemployment, justify the declaration that only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.

In words that might have come from the mouth of a socialist candidate for president, Roosevelt proposes an end to unbridled capitalism and that the way out of this mess lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit. Without hesitation, he exonerates the everyday person of blame for their condition and places the blame for the nation’s ills on the wealthy: the rulers of the exchange of mankind’s goods have failed through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence. Fortunately, these unscrupulous money changers that know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization because they lack a vision for coping with the problems and, as Proverbs 11:14 warns, when there is no vision the people perish.

Having laid the blame for the nation’s ills squarely on Wall Street, Roosevelt offers a world in which happiness can be found in things other than the mere possession of money and assures his listeners that putting people to work is not an unsolvable problem. It can be accomplished by the government itself providing jobs and treating the recovery program as we would treat the emergency of a war. Keeping with the military theme, he cautions the people that we must move as a trained and loyal army willing to sacrifice for the good of a common discipline, because without such discipline no progress is made.

If he is unable to get his recovery program through Congress or if legislative measures prove ineffective, Roosevelt promises to ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis – broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe. This would amount to requesting absolute power to do what needed to be done.

These extraordinary statements of the need for sacrifice and discipline by an army of the people, and the pledge to take personal command of the situation if need be, could have left no doubt in anyone’s mind that Roosevelt was firmly in charge of the nation and that, from this day forward, there would be rapid and substantial change in the way the government would deal with the Great Depression. He closes this speech, which so clearly throws down the gauntlet to the entrenched bastions of money and power, with a reiteration that the people have been betrayed and that they want change: The people of the United States have not failed. In their need they have registered a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action. They have asked for discipline and direction under leadership. They have made me the present instrument of their wishes. In the spirit of the gift I take it. There would be many dark and difficult days ahead, but there would no longer be the vacillation and lack of leadership that had brought the nation to the brink of despair.

Roosevelt himself, as the son of an old and wealthy New York family, was insulated from the hardships of the Great Depression. Many of the bitterest critics of his programs called him a traitor to his class. In America, at one of its darkest hours, the people turned to a man of wealth and position to lead them rather than to a radical or extremist. Whatever qualities Roosevelt projected to win four consecutive elections, one of the most important had to be his unreserved belief in himself and in his ability to lead.

By 1935, in his State of the Union Address, Roosevelt was able to claim that the majority of people had been rescued from a fear of destitution by government jobs and government aid. But these temporary measures had to be superseded by more long-term employment opportunities: To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit ... The Federal Government must and shall quit this business of relief. Roosevelt, as well as the vast majority of Americans, still believed that hard work and self-reliance remained the only sound foundation on which to build for the future. Work, not charity, had to be found for the people if their spirit and the future of the country were to be preserved: I am not willing that the vitality of our people be further sapped by the giving of cash, of market baskets, of a few hours of weekly work cutting grass, raking leaves or picking up papers in the public parks. We must preserve not only the bodies of the unemployed from destitution but also their self-respect, their self-reliance and courage and determination. To quit this business of relief he proposes a comprehensive system of public works projects including clearance of slums, rural housing and rural electrification projects, reforestation, improving existing road systems and the extension and enlargement of the successful work of the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Although his programs put millions to work and revived the spirit of the nation, unemployment remained stubbornly high throughout both his first two terms, and the nation and the world seemed permanently stuck in a period of low economic growth. By 1940, however, the problems of the Great Depression had receded in the face of the dangers posed by the war in Europe. Roosevelt had come out strongly on the side of the democracies in the war with Germany but the United States had remained strictly neutral. Most Americans still regarded foreign wars and alliances as something to be avoided at all costs. The disillusionment with America’s brief participation in the First World War and its preoccupation with troubles at home provided no incentive for involvement in another European war.

By May 1941, however, Roosevelt felt compelled to make a declaration that an unlimited national emergency existed and that Hitler’s ambition was the destruction of the United States as well as England: what started as a European war has developed, as the Nazis always intended it should develop, into a world war for world domination. After reviewing the history of the war and America’s Lend-Lease assistance to Great Britain, he asserts, as every American president in the future would, that aid to other nations was based on hard-headed concern for our own security and that every dollar of material that we send helps to keep the dictators away from our own hemisphere, and every day that they are held off gives us time to build more guns and tanks and planes and ships.

To bring the reality of war home to his American listeners, Roosevelt paints a grim picture of what life would be like if Hitler conquered the rest of the world and could dictate terms of trade to the United States: The American laborer would have to compete with slave labor in the rest of the world ... Wages and hours would be fixed by Hitler ... The American farmer would get for his products exactly what Hitler wanted to give. And not only our material life, but also our spiritual life would be destroyed: Yes, even our right of worship would be threatened. The Nazi world does not recognize any God except Hitler; for the Nazis are as ruthless as the communists in the denial of God ... Will our children, too, wander off, goose-stepping in search of new gods?

After stressing the importance of controlling the oceans, Roosevelt pledges to assist the British in resisting the Nazis: I say that the delivery of needed supplies to Britain is imperative. I say that this can be done; it must be done; and it will be done. Summing up, he paints a picture of a world divided into two camps, one good and one evil: Today the whole world is divided between human slavery and human freedom – between pagan brutality and the Christian ideal. He closes with a proclamation that an unlimited national emergency exists and requires the strengthening of our defense to the extreme limit of our national power and authority; this put the nation on the road of preparation for the war that would arrive before the end of the year.

Franklin D. Roosevelt 1933–1945

The Great Depression: Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933

The New Deal: State of the Union Address, January 4, 1935

Preparing For War: Radio Address Announcing an Unlimited National Emergency, May 27, 1941

Pearl Harbor: Address to Congress Requesting a Declaration of War with Japan, December 8, 1941

All-Out War: State of the Union Address, January 6, 1942

Franklin D. Roosevelt — Inaugural Address

I am certain that my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our Nation impels. This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.

In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone.

More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.

Yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply. Primarily this is because rulers of the exchange of mankind’s goods have failed through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and have abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.

True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.

The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.

Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing. Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, on unselfish performance; without them it cannot live. Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation asks for action, and action now.

Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our natural resources.

Hand in hand with this we must frankly recognize the overbalance of population in our industrial centers and, by engaging on a national scale in a redistribution, endeavor to provide a better use of the land for those best fitted for the land. The task can be helped by definite efforts to raise the values of agricultural products and with this the power to purchase the output of our cities. It can be helped by preventing realistically the tragedy of the growing loss through foreclosure of our small homes and our farms. It can be helped by insistence that the Federal, State, and local governments act forthwith on the demand that their cost be drastically reduced. It can be helped by the unifying of relief activities which today are often scattered, uneconomical, and unequal. It can be helped by national planning for and supervision of all forms of transportation and of communications and other utilities which have a definitely public character. There are many ways in which it can be helped, but it can never be helped merely by talking about it. We must act and act quickly.

Finally, in our progress toward a resumption of work