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questions for the solution of which the old reliance upon the free action of individual
wills appears quite inadequate. And in many directions, the intervention of that
organized control which we call government seems necessary to produce the same result
of justice and right conduct which obtained through the attrition of individuals before
the new conditions arose."
It was in this spirit thus described by Secretary Root that we approached our task of
reviving private enterprise in March, 1933. Our first problem was, of course, the
banking situation because, as you know, the banks had collapsed. Some banks could not
be saved but the great majority of them, either through their own resources or with
government aid, have been restored to complete public confidence. This has given safety
to millions of depositors in these banks. Closely following this great constructive effort
we have, through various federal agencies, saved debtors and creditors alike in many
other fields of enterprise, such as loans on farm mortgages and home mortgages; loans
to the railroads and insurance companies and, finally, help for home owners and industry
itself.
In all of these efforts the government has come to the assistance of business and with the
full expectation that the money used to assist these enterprises will eventually be repaid.
I believe it will be.
The second step we have taken in the restoration of normal business enterprise has been
to clean up thoroughly unwholesome conditions in the field of investment. In this we
have had assistance from many bankers and businessmen, most of whom recognize the
past evils in the banking system, in the sale of securities, in the deliberate
encouragement of stock gambling, in the sale of unsound mortgages and in many other
ways in which the public lost billions of dollars. They saw that without changes in the
policies and methods of investment there could be no recovery of public confidence in
the security of savings. The country now enjoys the safety of bank savings under the
new banking laws, the careful checking of new securities under the Securities Act and
the curtailment of rank stock speculation through the Securities Exchange Act. I
sincerely hope that as a result people will be discouraged in unhappy efforts to get rich
quick by speculating in securities. The average person almost always loses. Only a very
small minority of the people of this country believe in gambling as a substitute for the
old philosophy of Benjamin Franklin that the way to wealth is through work.
In meeting the problems of industrial recovery the chief agency of the government has
been the National Recovery Administration. Under its guidance, trades and industries
covering over 90 percent of all industrial employees have adopted codes of fair
competition, which have been approved by the President. Under these codes, in the
industries covered, child labor has been eliminated. The work day and the work week
have been shortened. Minimum wages have been established and other wages adjusted
toward a rising standard of living. The emergency purpose of the N.R.A. was to put men
to work and since its creation more than four million persons have been reemployed, in
great part through the cooperation of American business brought about under the codes.
Benefits of the Industrial Recovery Program have come, not only to labor in the form of
new jobs, in relief from overwork and in relief from underpay, but also to the owners
and managers of industry because, together with a great increase in the payrolls, there
has come a substantial rise in the total of industrial profits a rise from a deficit figure
in the first quarter of 1933 to a level of sustained profits within one year from the
inauguration of N.R.A.
Now it should not be expected that even employed labor and capital would be
completely satisfied with present conditions. Employed workers have not by any means
all enjoyed a return to the earnings of prosperous times, although millions of hitherto
underprivileged workers are today far better paid than ever before. Also, billions of
dollars of invested capital have today a greater security of present and future earning
power than before. This is because of the establishment of fair, competitive standards
and because of relief from unfair competition in wage cutting which depresses markets
and destroys purchasing power. But it is an undeniable fact that the restoration of other
billions of sound investments to a reasonable earning power could not be brought about
in one year. There is no magic formula, no economic panacea, which could simply
revive over-night the heavy industries and the trades dependent upon them.
Nevertheless the gains of trade and industry, as a whole, have been substantial. In these
gains and in the policies of the administration there are assurances that hearten all
forward- looking men and women with the confidence that we are definitely rebuilding
our political and economic system on the lines laid down by the New Deal lines which
as I have so often made clear, are in complete accord with the underlying principles of
orderly popular government which Americans have demanded since the white man first
came to these shores. We count, in the future as in the past, on the driving power of
individual initiative and the incentive of fair private profit, strengthened with the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] - zanotowane.pl
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