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Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, 1882-1945

"The Fireside Chats of Franklin Delano Roosevelt"


Viewed from every angle, today's purchasing power--the citizens'
income of today--is not at this time sufficient to drive the
economic system of America at higher speed. Responsibility of
government requires us at this time to supplement the normal
processes and in so supplementing them to make sure that the
addition is adequate. We must start again on a long steady upward
incline in national income.
". . . And in that process, which I believe is ready to start, let
us avoid the pitfalls of the past--the overproduction, the
overspeculation, and indeed all the extremes which we did not
succeed in avoiding in 1929. In all of this, government cannot and
should not act alone. Business must help. And I am sure business
will help.
"We need more than the materials of recovery. We need a united
national will.
"We need to recognize nationally that the demands of no group,
however just, can be satisfied unless that group is prepared to
share in finding a way to produce the income from which they and
all other groups can be paid. . . . You, as the Congress, I, as the
President, must by virtue of our offices, seek the national good by
preserving the balance between all groups and all sections.
"We have at our disposal the national resources, the money, the
skill of hand and head to raise our economic level--our citizens'
income.


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