I always try to remember that reconciling differences cannot
satisfy everyone completely. Because I do not expect too much, I am
not disappointed. But I know that I must never give up--that I must
never let the greater interest of all the people down, merely
because that might be for the moment the easiest personal way out.
I believe that we have been right in the course we have charted. To
abandon our purpose of building a greater, a more stable and a more
tolerant America would be to miss the tide and perhaps to miss the
port. I propose to sail ahead. I feel sure that your hopes and your
help are with me. For to reach a port, we must sail--sail, not lie
at anchor, sail, not drift.
June 24, 1938.
Our government, happily, is a democracy. As part of the democratic
process, your President is again taking an opportunity to report on
the progress of national affairs, to report to the real rulers of
this country--the voting public.
The Seventy-Fifth Congress, elected in November, 1936, on a
platform uncompromisingly liberal, has adjourned. Barring
unforeseen events, there will be no session until the new Congress,
to be elected in November, assembles next January.
On the one hand, the Seventy-Fifth Congress has left many things
undone.
For example, it refused to provide more businesslike machinery for
running the Executive Branch of the government.
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