No. 1 for 1936

In Atlanta last week Franklin Roosevelt delivered what the 50,000 Georgians who turned out to hear him generally regarded as the first speech of his campaign for reelection. In finest fettle the President clearly demonstrated that after nearly three years in the White House he was still the master stumpster of 1932 who could sway a crowd or a country with his vibrant voice, his buoyant words. He denounced Republican prosperity; he mocked Herbert Hoover (without naming him); he had at his old enemies, the bankers, rich clubmen, budget balancers and the Cassandras of national insolvency; he skipped his failures, harped on his successes; he made hopeful headlines about declining expenditures hereafter. And above all he seemed to have a thoroughly good time. Excerpts from his speech: "I am happy to be in Georgia. I am proud of Georgia. . . . Eleven years ago I came to live at Warm Springs for the first time. That was a period of great so-called prosperity. ... In that orgy of 'prosperity' a wild speculation was building speculative profits for the speculators and preparing the way for the public to be left 'holding the bag.' ... In that orgy of 'prosperity' the poorest vied with the richest in throwing their earnings and their savings into a cauldron of land and stock speculation. In that orgy of 'prosperity' slum conditions went unheeded, better education was forgotten, usurious interest charges mounted, child labor continued, starvation wages were too often the rule. . . . Mammon ruled America. Those are the years to remember--those fool's paradise years before the crash came. Downward Spiral. "This nation slipped spirally downward, ever downward, to the inevitable point when the mechanics of civilization came to a dead stop on March 3, 1933. You and I need not rehearse the four years of disaster and gloom. . . . You and I can well remember the overwhelming demand that the national Government come to the rescue of the home-owners and the farm-owners. . . . You and I still recollect the need for and the successful attainment of a banking policy which not only opened the closed banks but guaranteed deposits. . . . You and I have not forgotten the enthusiastic support that succeeded, and still in part succeeds, in ending the labor of children in mills and factories. . . . You and I will not forget the long struggle to put an end to the indiscriminate distribution of 'fly-by-night' securities. . . . Third-Class Diet. "The average of our citizenship lives today on what would be called by the medical fraternity a third-class diet. If the country lived on a second-class diet, we would need to put many more acres than we use today back into the production of foodstuffs for domestic consumption. If the nation lived on a first-class diet, we would have to put more acres than we have ever cultivated into the production of an additional supply of things for Americans to eat. Why . . . are we living on a third-class diet? For the simple reason that the masses of the American people have not got the purchasing power to eat more and better food. Cotton. "Farm income in the United States has risen since 1932 a total of nearly three billions. That is because wheat is selling at better than 90 cents instead of 32 cents; corn at 50 cents instead of 12 cents; cotton at 12 cents instead of 4 1/2 cents, and other crops in proportion. I wonder what cotton would be selling at today if during these past three years we had continued to produce 15 or 16 or 17 million bales each year, adding to our own surplus, adding to the world surplus, and driving the cotton farmers of the South into bankruptcy and starvation. Suffering Clubmen. "I can realize that gentlemen in well-warmed and well-stocked clubs will discourse on the expenses of government and the suffering that they are going through because the Government is spending money for work relief. I wish I could take some of these men out on the battle line of human necessity and show them the facts that we in the Government are facing. . . . "Last April I stated what I have held to consistently ever since--that it was the hope of the Administration that by some time in November of this year we would substantially end the dole. ... It gives me a certain satisfaction to be able to inform you, and through you the nation, that on Wednesday, two days ago, there were 3,125,000 persons at work on various useful projects throughout the nation. . . . This result constitutes a substantial and successful national achievement. Slums Demolished. "Within sight of us today--just around the corner--" President Roosevelt paused significantly. The crowd roared, catching his imitation of his predecessor about to speak of prosperity. "Now we know how to get around the corner," added Stumpster Roosevelt owlishly. "--There stands a tribute to useful work under Government supervision, the first slum clearance and low-rent housing project. Here, at the request of the citizens of Atlanta, we have cleaned out nine square blocks of antiquated, squalid dwellings, for years a detriment to this community. Today those hopeless old houses are gone and in their place we see the bright, cheerful buildings of the Techwood housing project. Maximum Debt. "In the spring of 1933 many of the great bankers of the United States flocked to Washington. They were there to get help of their Government in the saving of their banks from insolvency. . . . Every one of these gentlemen expressed to me the firm conviction that it was all well worth the price and that they heartily approved. In order to get their further judgment, however, I asked them what they thought the maximum national debt of the United States Government could rise to without serious danger to the national credit. Their answers--remember this was in the spring of 1933--were that the country could safely stand a national debt of between 55 and 70 billion dollars. ... If the bankers thought the country could stand a debt of 55 to 70 billion dollars in 1933, with values as they were then, I wonder what they would say the country could stand today? . . . "The gross national debt under the last Administration rose from a little over 17 billions to 21 billions. The day I came into office I found that the national Treasury contained only $158,000,000. . . . Since March 4, 1933, the national debt has risen from 21 billions to 29 1/2 billions, but it must also be remembered that today included in this figure is nearly 1 1/2 billions of working balance in the Treasury and nearly 4 1/2 billion dollars of recoverable assets. Dwindling Deficit. "As things stand today, and in the light of a definite and continuing economic improvement, we have passed the peak of appropriations. Revenues without the imposition of new taxes are increasing and we can look forward with assurance to a decreasing deficit. The credit of the Government is today higher than that of any other great nation in the world, in spite of attacks on that credit made by those few individuals and organizations which seek to dictate to the Administration and to the Congress how to run the national Treasury and how to let the needy starve. . . . We were insolvent. Today we are solvent. And we're going to stay solvent! Net Balance. "American life has improved in these two years and a half, and if I have anything to do with it, it is going to improve more in the days to come. The word 'progress' is a better word than 'recovery,' for it means not only a sound business and a sound agriculture from the material point of view, but it means, with equal importance, a sound improvement in American life."

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