The American people can also be sure that I shall not hesitate to
use every power vested in me to accomplish the defeat of our
enemies in any part of the world where our own safety demands such
defeat.
And when the war is over, the powers under which I act will
automatically revert to the people of the United States--to the
people to whom those powers belong.
I think I know the American farmers. I know they are as
wholehearted in their patriotism as any other group. They have
suffered from the constant fluctuations of farm prices--
occasionally too high, more often too low. Nobody knows better than
farmers the disastrous effects of wartime inflationary booms, and
postwar deflationary panics.
So I have also suggested today that the Congress make our
agricultural economy more stable. I have recommended that in
addition to putting ceilings on all farm products now, we also
place a definite floor under those prices for a period beginning
now, continuing through the war, and for as long as necessary after
the war. In this way we will be able to avoid the collapse of farm
prices that happened after the last war. The farmers must be
assured of a fair minimum price during the readjustment period
which will follow the great, excessive world food demands which now
prevail.
We must have some floor under farm prices, as we must have under
wages, if we are to avoid the dangers of a postwar inflation on the
one hand, or the catastrophe of a crash in farm prices and wages on
the other.
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