Please enjoy September 6, 1936: Fireside Chat 8: On Farmers and Laborers a great episode of the legendary Franklin D. Roosevelt - A Classic Old Time radio Show.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
My friends, I have been on a journey of husbandry.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I went primarily to see it firsthand, conditions in the
drought states, to see how effectively federal and local authorities
are taking care of pressing problems of relief, and also
how they are to work together to defend the people
of this.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Country against the effects of future droughts.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I saw drought devastation in nine states. I talked with
families who had lost their wheat crop, lost their corn crop,
lost their livestock, lost the water in their well, lost
their gardens, and come through to the end of the
summer without one dollar of cash resources, facing the winter
(00:47):
without feed or food, facing a planting season without seed
to put in the ground. That was the extreme case,
But there are thousands and thousands of families on Western
farms who share the same difficulties. I saw cattleman who,
because of lack of grass or lack of winter feed,
(01:09):
have been compelled to sell all but their breeding stock,
and will need help to carry even these through the
coming winter.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
I saw a.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Livestock kept alive only because water had been brought to
them long distances in tank cars. I saw other farm
families who have not lost everything but who, because they
have made only partial crops, must have some form of
help if they are to continue farming next spring. I
(01:40):
shall never forget the fields of wheat so blasted by
heat that they cannot be harvested. I shall never forget
field after field.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Of corn, stunted hearts.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Stripped of leaves, for what the sun left the grasshoppers took.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
I saw a brown pas that would not keep a
cow on fifty acres.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yet I would not have you think for a single
minute that there is permanent disaster in these drought regions,
or that the picture I saw meant depopulating these areas.
No cracked earth, no blistering sun, no burning wind, no
grasshoppers are a permanent match for the indomitable American farmers
(02:28):
and stockmen, and their wives and children, who have carried
on through desperate days and inspire us with their self reliance,
their tenacity, and their courage. It was their father's task
to make homes, it is their task to keep these homes,
and it is our task to help them win their fight. First,
(02:53):
let me talk for a minute about this autumn and
the coming winter. We have the option, in the case
of families who need actual subs assistance of putting them
on the doll or putting them to work. They do
not want to go on the dole, and they are
one thousand percent right. We agree, therefore that we must
(03:14):
put them to work, work for a decent wage. And
when we reach that decision, we kill two birds with
one stone, because these families will earn enough by working
not only to subsist themselves, but to buy food for
their stock and seed for next year's planning. And into
this scheme of things that did, of course the government
(03:37):
lending agencies, which next year, as in the past, will
help with production loans. Every governor with whom I have
talked is in full accord with this program of providing
work for these farm families, just as every governor agrees
that the individual states will take care of their unemployers,
(04:00):
but that the cost of employing those who are entirely
able and willing to work must be borne by the
federal government. If then we know, as we do today
the approximate number of farm families who will require some
form of work relief from now on through the winter,
we face the question of what kind of work they
(04:22):
ought to do.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Let me make it clear.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
That This is not a new question, because it has
already been answered to a greater or less extent in
every one of the drought communities. Beginning in nineteen hundred
and thirty four, when we also had a serious drought condition,
the state and federal governments co operated in planning a
large number of projects, many of them directly aimed at
(04:48):
the alleviation.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Of future drought conditions.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
In accordance with that program, for example, literally thousands of
ponds or small reservoirs have been built in order to
supply water for stock and to lift the level of
the underground water.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
To protect wells from going dry.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Thousands of wells have been drilled or deepened, community lakes
have been created, and irrigation projects are being pushed. Water
conservation by means such as these is being expanded as
a result of this new route, all through the Great
Plains area, the western corn Belt, and in the states
(05:29):
that lie further south in the Middle West, water conservation
is not so pressing a problem, and here the work
projects run more to soil erosion control and the building
of farm to market roads.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Spending like this is not waste.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
It would spell future waste if we did not spend
for such things. Now, these emergency work projects provide money
to buy food and clothing for the winter.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
They keep the.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Live stock on the farms, they provide seed for a
new crop, and best of all, they will conserve soil
and water in the future in those areas that are
most frequently hit by drought. If, for example, in some
local place, the water table continues to drop from the
top soil to blow away, the land values will disappear
(06:20):
with the water.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
And the soil.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
People on the farms will drift into nearby cities. The
cities will have no farm trade, and the workers in
the city factories and stores will have no jobs. Property
values in those cities will decline. If, on the other hand,
the farms within that area remain as farms with better
(06:44):
water supply and no erosion, the farm population will stay
on the land and prosper, and the nearby cities will
prosper tools property values will increase.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Instead of disappearing.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
That is why worth our while as a nation to
spend money in order to save money. I have, however,
used this argument in relation only to a small area,
but it holds good in its effect on the nation
as an old Every state in the drought area is
(07:20):
now doing and always will do business with every state
outside it. The very existence of the men and women
working in the clothing factories of New York making.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Clothes worn by farmers and their families.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Of the workers in the steel mills in Pittsburgh and Gary,
in the automobile factories of Detroit, and in the harvest
of factories of Illinois, depend upon the farmer's ability to
purchase the commodities that they produce.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
In the same way, it is.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
The purchasing power of the workers in these factories in
the cities that enables them and their wives and children
to eat more beef, more pork, more wheat, more corn, more.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Fruit, and more.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Dairy products, and to buy more clothing made from cotton
and wool and leather.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
In a physical and in a property sense.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
As well as in a spiritual sense, we are members
one of another. I want to make it clear that
no simple panacea can be applied to the drought problem
in the whole of the drought area.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Plans have to.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Depend on local conditions, for these vary with all kinds
of things like annual rainfall, soil characteristics, altitudes and topography,
water and soil conservation methods may differ in one county
from those in an adjoining county. Work to be done
(08:54):
in the cattle and sheep country dippers of course in type,
from work in the wheat country or work in the
corn belt. The Great Plains Drought Area Committee has given
me its preliminary recommendations for a long time program for
the Great Plains region. Using that report as a basis,
(09:17):
we are cooperating successfully and in entire accord with the
governors and state planning boards. As we get this program
into operations, the people more and more will be able
to maintain themselves securely on the land. That will mean
a steady decline in the relief burdens that the federal
(09:38):
government and the states have had to assume in time
of drought. But more important, it will mean a greater
contribution to general national prosperity by these regions that have
been hit by drought. It will conserve and improve not
only property values, but human values. The people in the
(09:58):
drought area do not want to be dependent on federal
or state or any other kind of charity. They want
for themselves and their families an opportunity to fare sherely
to share fairly by their own efforts in the progress
of America. The farmers of America want a sound national
(10:21):
agricultural policy in which a permanent land use program will
have an important place. They want assurance against another year
like nineteen.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Thirty two, a year when they.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Made good crops but had to sell them for prices
that meant ruin just as surely as did the drought.
Sound policy must maintain farm prices in good crop years
as well as in bad crop years. It must function
when we have drought, but it must also function when
(10:57):
we have bumper crops. The maintenance of a fair equilibrium
between farm prices and the prices of industrial products is
an aim that we must keep ever before us. Just
as we must give constant thought to the sufficiency of
the food supply of the nation even in bad years,
our modern civilization can and should devise a more successful
(11:23):
means by which the excess supplies of bumper years can
be conserved for use in lean years. On this trip
of mine, I have been deeply impressed with the general
efficiency of those agencies of the federal and state and
local governments which have moved in on the immediate task
(11:45):
created by this drought in nineteen thirty four.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
None of us had preparation.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
We worked without blueprints, and we made the mistakes of inexperience.
Hind Sight shows us this, but as as time has
gone on, we have been making fewer and fewer mistakes.
Remember that the federal and state governments have done only
broad planning. Actual work on a given project originates in
(12:15):
the local community. Local needs are listed from local information.
Local projects are decided on only after obtaining the recommendations
and the health of those in the local community who
are best able to give it. And it is worthy
of note that on my entire trip, though I asked
(12:36):
the question dozens.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Of times, I heard no complaint.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Against the character of a single works relief project.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
The elected heads.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Of the states concerned, together with their state officials and
their experts from agricultural colleges and state planning boards.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Have shown cooperation with and approval of.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
The work which the federal government has headed up. I
am grateful to them, and I am grateful also to
the men and women in all those states who have
accepted leadership in the work in their locality. In the
drought area, people are not afraid to use new methods
to meet changes in nature and to correct mistakes of
(13:20):
the past. If over grazing has injured range lands, they're
willing to reduce the grazing. If certain wheat lands should
be returned to pasture, they're willing to cooperate.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
If trees should be planted as wind breaks or to
stop erosion, they will work with us.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
If terracing or some are following, or prop rotation is
called for, they will carry them out. They stand ready
to fit, not to fight the ways of nature.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
We are helping and shall continue to.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Help the farmer to do those things for local soil
conservation committees and other cooperative local, state, and federal agencies
of government. I wish I had the time tonight to
deal with other and more comprehensive agricultural policies, but that
must wait till a later time.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
With this fine help, we are tiding over the present emergency.
We are going to.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Conserve soil, conserve water, and conserve light. We are going
to have long time defenses against both low prices and drought.
We are going to have a farm policy that will
serve the national welfare.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
That is our hope for the future.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
There are two reasons why I want to end tonight
by talking about re employment.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Tomorrow is Labor Day.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
The brave spirit with which so many millions of working
people while winning their way out of depression, deserves respects
and admirations. It is like the courage of the farmers
in the drought areas. That is my first reason. The
second is that healthy employment conditions stand equally with healthy
(15:17):
agricultural conditions as a buttress of national prosperity. Dependable employment
at fair wages is just as important to the people
in the towns and cities as good farm income is
to agriculture. Our people must have the ability to buy
the goods they manufacture and the crops they produce.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Thus, city wages.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
And farm buying power are the two strong.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Legs that carry the nation forward.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
I am glad to say that reemployment in industry is
proceeding fairly rapidly. Government spending was in large part responsible
for keeping industry going and putting it in a position
to make this reemployment possible. Government orders with a backlog
of heavy industry government wages turned over and over again
(16:14):
to make consumer purchasing power and to sustain every merchant
in the community. Businessmen with their businesses small and large
had to be saved. Private enterprise is necessary to any.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Nation which seeks.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
To maintain the democratic form of government. In their case,
just as certainly as in the case of drought stricken farmers,
government spending has saved government having spent wisely to save it,
private industry begins to take work us off the rolls
(16:53):
of the government relief program. Until this administration, we had
no free employments service except in a few states and cities.
And because there was no unified employment service, the worker
forced to move as industry moved, often traveled over the country,
(17:14):
wandering after jobs that seemed always to travel just a
little faster than he did. He was often victimized by
fraudulent practices of employment clearing houses, and the facts of
employment opportunities were at the disposal neither of himself nor
(17:35):
of the employer. In nineteen thirty three, the United States
Employment Service was created.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
A cooperated state and federal.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Enterprise through which the federal government matches dalla fadalla the
funds provided by the states for registering the occupations and
the skills of workers, and for actually finding jobs for
these registereds workers in private industry. The federal state cooperation
(18:05):
has been splendid. Already, employment services are operating in thirty
two states, and the areas not covered by them are
served by the federal government.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
We have developed a.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Nationwide service with seven hundred district offices and one thousand
branch offices, thus providing facilities through which labor can learn
of jobs available and employers can find workers.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Last spring, in March, I.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Expressed the hope that employers would realize their deep responsibility
to take men off the relief rolls and give them
jobs in private enterprise. Subsequently, I was told by many
employers that they were not satisfied with the information available
concerning the skill and the experience of the workers on
(18:56):
the relief rolls. On August twenty fifth, I allocated a
small sum to the Employment Service for the purpose of
getting better and more recent information in regard to those
now actively at work on w PA projects, information as
to their skills and.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Their previous occupations.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
And to keep the records of such men and women
up to date for maximum service in making them.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Available to industry.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
To night, I am announcing the allocation of two and
a half million dollars more to enable the Employment Service
to make an even more intensive search than it has
yet been equipped to make to find opportunities in private
employment for workers registered with it, and so tonight I
(19:49):
urged the workers to co operate with and take full
advantage of this intensification of the work of the Employment Service.
This does not mean that there will be any lessening
of our efforts under our WPA and PWA and other
work relief programs. Until all workers have decent jobs in
(20:09):
private employment at decent wages. We do not surrender our
responsibility to the unemployed. We have had ample proof that
it is the will of the American people that those
who represent them in national, state, and local government should
continue us longness necessary to discharge that responsibility. But it
(20:32):
does mean that the government wants to use every resource
to get private work for those now employed on government work,
and thus occurtailed to a minimum the government expenditures for
direct employment. And tonight I ask employers large and small
(20:54):
throughout the nation to use the help of the State
and Federal Employment Service whenever, in the general pickup of
business they require more workers. Tomorrow is Labor Day. Labor
Day in this country has never been a class holiday.
(21:15):
It has always been a national holiday. It has never
had more significance as a national holiday than it has now.
In other countries, the relationship of employer and employee has
been more or less accepted as a class relationship, not
(21:35):
readily to be broken through. In this country, we insist,
as an essential of the American way of life that
the employer employee relationship should be one between free men
and equals. We refuse to regard those who work with
hand or brain as different from or inferior tool those
(22:00):
who live from their own property. We insist that labor
is entitled to as much respect as property. But our
workers with hand and brain deserve more than respect for
their labor. They deserve practical protection in the opportunity to
(22:21):
use their labor at a return adequate, to support them
at a decent and constantly rising standard of living, and
to accumulate a margin of security against the inevitable vicissitudes
of life. The average man must have that twofold opportunity
(22:42):
if we are to avoid the growth of a crass
conscious society in this country.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
There are those who fail to read both.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
The signs of the times and American history. They would
try to refuse the worker any effective power to bargain
collectively to earn a decent livelihood and to acquire security.
It is those shortsighted ones, not labor, who threaten this
(23:12):
country with that class dissension which in other countries has
led to dictatorship and the establishment of fear and hatred.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
As the dominant emotions in human life.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
All American workers, brain workers, and manual workers alike, and
all the rest of us whose well being depends on theirs,
know that our needs are one in building an orderly
economic democracy in which all can profit and in which
all can be secure from the kind of faulty economic
(23:46):
direction which brought us to the brink of.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Common ruin seven years ago.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
There is no cleavage between white collar workers and manual workers,
between artists and artisans, physicians and mechanics, lawyers and accountants,
architects and minors.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Tomorrow Labor Day belongs to all of us.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Tomorrow Labor Day symbolizes the hope of all Americans. Anyone
who calls it a class holiday challenges the whole concept
of American democracy. The fourth of July commemorates our political freedom,
a freedom which without economic freedom is meaningless.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Indeed, Labor Day.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Symbolizes our determination to achieve an economic freedom for the
average man which will give his political freedom. Reality, Ladies
and gentlemen, you've heard the President of the United States
speaking to you from the White House.
My friends, I have been on a journey of husbandry.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I went primarily to see it firsthand, conditions in the
drought states, to see how effectively federal and local authorities
are taking care of pressing problems of relief, and also
how they are to work together to defend the people
of this.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Country against the effects of future droughts.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I saw drought devastation in nine states. I talked with
families who had lost their wheat crop, lost their corn crop,
lost their livestock, lost the water in their well, lost
their gardens, and come through to the end of the
summer without one dollar of cash resources, facing the winter
(00:47):
without feed or food, facing a planting season without seed
to put in the ground. That was the extreme case,
But there are thousands and thousands of families on Western
farms who share the same difficulties. I saw cattleman who,
because of lack of grass or lack of winter feed,
(01:09):
have been compelled to sell all but their breeding stock,
and will need help to carry even these through the
coming winter.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
I saw a.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Livestock kept alive only because water had been brought to
them long distances in tank cars. I saw other farm
families who have not lost everything but who, because they
have made only partial crops, must have some form of
help if they are to continue farming next spring. I
(01:40):
shall never forget the fields of wheat so blasted by
heat that they cannot be harvested. I shall never forget
field after field.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Of corn, stunted hearts.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Stripped of leaves, for what the sun left the grasshoppers took.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
I saw a brown pas that would not keep a
cow on fifty acres.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yet I would not have you think for a single
minute that there is permanent disaster in these drought regions,
or that the picture I saw meant depopulating these areas.
No cracked earth, no blistering sun, no burning wind, no
grasshoppers are a permanent match for the indomitable American farmers
(02:28):
and stockmen, and their wives and children, who have carried
on through desperate days and inspire us with their self reliance,
their tenacity, and their courage. It was their father's task
to make homes, it is their task to keep these homes,
and it is our task to help them win their fight. First,
(02:53):
let me talk for a minute about this autumn and
the coming winter. We have the option, in the case
of families who need actual subs assistance of putting them
on the doll or putting them to work. They do
not want to go on the dole, and they are
one thousand percent right. We agree, therefore that we must
(03:14):
put them to work, work for a decent wage. And
when we reach that decision, we kill two birds with
one stone, because these families will earn enough by working
not only to subsist themselves, but to buy food for
their stock and seed for next year's planning. And into
this scheme of things that did, of course the government
(03:37):
lending agencies, which next year, as in the past, will
help with production loans. Every governor with whom I have
talked is in full accord with this program of providing
work for these farm families, just as every governor agrees
that the individual states will take care of their unemployers,
(04:00):
but that the cost of employing those who are entirely
able and willing to work must be borne by the
federal government. If then we know, as we do today
the approximate number of farm families who will require some
form of work relief from now on through the winter,
we face the question of what kind of work they
(04:22):
ought to do.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Let me make it clear.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
That This is not a new question, because it has
already been answered to a greater or less extent in
every one of the drought communities. Beginning in nineteen hundred
and thirty four, when we also had a serious drought condition,
the state and federal governments co operated in planning a
large number of projects, many of them directly aimed at
(04:48):
the alleviation.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Of future drought conditions.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
In accordance with that program, for example, literally thousands of
ponds or small reservoirs have been built in order to
supply water for stock and to lift the level of
the underground water.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
To protect wells from going dry.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Thousands of wells have been drilled or deepened, community lakes
have been created, and irrigation projects are being pushed. Water
conservation by means such as these is being expanded as
a result of this new route, all through the Great
Plains area, the western corn Belt, and in the states
(05:29):
that lie further south in the Middle West, water conservation
is not so pressing a problem, and here the work
projects run more to soil erosion control and the building
of farm to market roads.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Spending like this is not waste.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
It would spell future waste if we did not spend
for such things. Now, these emergency work projects provide money
to buy food and clothing for the winter.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
They keep the.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Live stock on the farms, they provide seed for a
new crop, and best of all, they will conserve soil
and water in the future in those areas that are
most frequently hit by drought. If, for example, in some
local place, the water table continues to drop from the
top soil to blow away, the land values will disappear
(06:20):
with the water.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
And the soil.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
People on the farms will drift into nearby cities. The
cities will have no farm trade, and the workers in
the city factories and stores will have no jobs. Property
values in those cities will decline. If, on the other hand,
the farms within that area remain as farms with better
(06:44):
water supply and no erosion, the farm population will stay
on the land and prosper, and the nearby cities will
prosper tools property values will increase.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Instead of disappearing.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
That is why worth our while as a nation to
spend money in order to save money. I have, however,
used this argument in relation only to a small area,
but it holds good in its effect on the nation
as an old Every state in the drought area is
(07:20):
now doing and always will do business with every state
outside it. The very existence of the men and women
working in the clothing factories of New York making.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Clothes worn by farmers and their families.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Of the workers in the steel mills in Pittsburgh and Gary,
in the automobile factories of Detroit, and in the harvest
of factories of Illinois, depend upon the farmer's ability to
purchase the commodities that they produce.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
In the same way, it is.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
The purchasing power of the workers in these factories in
the cities that enables them and their wives and children
to eat more beef, more pork, more wheat, more corn, more.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Fruit, and more.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Dairy products, and to buy more clothing made from cotton
and wool and leather.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
In a physical and in a property sense.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
As well as in a spiritual sense, we are members
one of another. I want to make it clear that
no simple panacea can be applied to the drought problem
in the whole of the drought area.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Plans have to.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Depend on local conditions, for these vary with all kinds
of things like annual rainfall, soil characteristics, altitudes and topography,
water and soil conservation methods may differ in one county
from those in an adjoining county. Work to be done
(08:54):
in the cattle and sheep country dippers of course in type,
from work in the wheat country or work in the
corn belt. The Great Plains Drought Area Committee has given
me its preliminary recommendations for a long time program for
the Great Plains region. Using that report as a basis,
(09:17):
we are cooperating successfully and in entire accord with the
governors and state planning boards. As we get this program
into operations, the people more and more will be able
to maintain themselves securely on the land. That will mean
a steady decline in the relief burdens that the federal
(09:38):
government and the states have had to assume in time
of drought. But more important, it will mean a greater
contribution to general national prosperity by these regions that have
been hit by drought. It will conserve and improve not
only property values, but human values. The people in the
(09:58):
drought area do not want to be dependent on federal
or state or any other kind of charity. They want
for themselves and their families an opportunity to fare sherely
to share fairly by their own efforts in the progress
of America. The farmers of America want a sound national
(10:21):
agricultural policy in which a permanent land use program will
have an important place. They want assurance against another year
like nineteen.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Thirty two, a year when they.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Made good crops but had to sell them for prices
that meant ruin just as surely as did the drought.
Sound policy must maintain farm prices in good crop years
as well as in bad crop years. It must function
when we have drought, but it must also function when
(10:57):
we have bumper crops. The maintenance of a fair equilibrium
between farm prices and the prices of industrial products is
an aim that we must keep ever before us. Just
as we must give constant thought to the sufficiency of
the food supply of the nation even in bad years,
our modern civilization can and should devise a more successful
(11:23):
means by which the excess supplies of bumper years can
be conserved for use in lean years. On this trip
of mine, I have been deeply impressed with the general
efficiency of those agencies of the federal and state and
local governments which have moved in on the immediate task
(11:45):
created by this drought in nineteen thirty four.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
None of us had preparation.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
We worked without blueprints, and we made the mistakes of inexperience.
Hind Sight shows us this, but as as time has
gone on, we have been making fewer and fewer mistakes.
Remember that the federal and state governments have done only
broad planning. Actual work on a given project originates in
(12:15):
the local community. Local needs are listed from local information.
Local projects are decided on only after obtaining the recommendations
and the health of those in the local community who
are best able to give it. And it is worthy
of note that on my entire trip, though I asked
(12:36):
the question dozens.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Of times, I heard no complaint.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Against the character of a single works relief project.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
The elected heads.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Of the states concerned, together with their state officials and
their experts from agricultural colleges and state planning boards.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Have shown cooperation with and approval of.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
The work which the federal government has headed up. I
am grateful to them, and I am grateful also to
the men and women in all those states who have
accepted leadership in the work in their locality. In the
drought area, people are not afraid to use new methods
to meet changes in nature and to correct mistakes of
(13:20):
the past. If over grazing has injured range lands, they're
willing to reduce the grazing. If certain wheat lands should
be returned to pasture, they're willing to cooperate.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
If trees should be planted as wind breaks or to
stop erosion, they will work with us.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
If terracing or some are following, or prop rotation is
called for, they will carry them out. They stand ready
to fit, not to fight the ways of nature.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
We are helping and shall continue to.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Help the farmer to do those things for local soil
conservation committees and other cooperative local, state, and federal agencies
of government. I wish I had the time tonight to
deal with other and more comprehensive agricultural policies, but that
must wait till a later time.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
With this fine help, we are tiding over the present emergency.
We are going to.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Conserve soil, conserve water, and conserve light. We are going
to have long time defenses against both low prices and drought.
We are going to have a farm policy that will
serve the national welfare.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
That is our hope for the future.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
There are two reasons why I want to end tonight
by talking about re employment.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Tomorrow is Labor Day.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
The brave spirit with which so many millions of working
people while winning their way out of depression, deserves respects
and admirations. It is like the courage of the farmers
in the drought areas. That is my first reason. The
second is that healthy employment conditions stand equally with healthy
(15:17):
agricultural conditions as a buttress of national prosperity. Dependable employment
at fair wages is just as important to the people
in the towns and cities as good farm income is
to agriculture. Our people must have the ability to buy
the goods they manufacture and the crops they produce.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Thus, city wages.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
And farm buying power are the two strong.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Legs that carry the nation forward.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
I am glad to say that reemployment in industry is
proceeding fairly rapidly. Government spending was in large part responsible
for keeping industry going and putting it in a position
to make this reemployment possible. Government orders with a backlog
of heavy industry government wages turned over and over again
(16:14):
to make consumer purchasing power and to sustain every merchant
in the community. Businessmen with their businesses small and large
had to be saved. Private enterprise is necessary to any.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Nation which seeks.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
To maintain the democratic form of government. In their case,
just as certainly as in the case of drought stricken farmers,
government spending has saved government having spent wisely to save it,
private industry begins to take work us off the rolls
(16:53):
of the government relief program. Until this administration, we had
no free employments service except in a few states and cities.
And because there was no unified employment service, the worker
forced to move as industry moved, often traveled over the country,
(17:14):
wandering after jobs that seemed always to travel just a
little faster than he did. He was often victimized by
fraudulent practices of employment clearing houses, and the facts of
employment opportunities were at the disposal neither of himself nor
(17:35):
of the employer. In nineteen thirty three, the United States
Employment Service was created.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
A cooperated state and federal.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Enterprise through which the federal government matches dalla fadalla the
funds provided by the states for registering the occupations and
the skills of workers, and for actually finding jobs for
these registereds workers in private industry. The federal state cooperation
(18:05):
has been splendid. Already, employment services are operating in thirty
two states, and the areas not covered by them are
served by the federal government.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
We have developed a.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Nationwide service with seven hundred district offices and one thousand
branch offices, thus providing facilities through which labor can learn
of jobs available and employers can find workers.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Last spring, in March, I.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Expressed the hope that employers would realize their deep responsibility
to take men off the relief rolls and give them
jobs in private enterprise. Subsequently, I was told by many
employers that they were not satisfied with the information available
concerning the skill and the experience of the workers on
(18:56):
the relief rolls. On August twenty fifth, I allocated a
small sum to the Employment Service for the purpose of
getting better and more recent information in regard to those
now actively at work on w PA projects, information as
to their skills and.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Their previous occupations.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
And to keep the records of such men and women
up to date for maximum service in making them.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Available to industry.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
To night, I am announcing the allocation of two and
a half million dollars more to enable the Employment Service
to make an even more intensive search than it has
yet been equipped to make to find opportunities in private
employment for workers registered with it, and so tonight I
(19:49):
urged the workers to co operate with and take full
advantage of this intensification of the work of the Employment Service.
This does not mean that there will be any lessening
of our efforts under our WPA and PWA and other
work relief programs. Until all workers have decent jobs in
(20:09):
private employment at decent wages. We do not surrender our
responsibility to the unemployed. We have had ample proof that
it is the will of the American people that those
who represent them in national, state, and local government should
continue us longness necessary to discharge that responsibility. But it
(20:32):
does mean that the government wants to use every resource
to get private work for those now employed on government work,
and thus occurtailed to a minimum the government expenditures for
direct employment. And tonight I ask employers large and small
(20:54):
throughout the nation to use the help of the State
and Federal Employment Service whenever, in the general pickup of
business they require more workers. Tomorrow is Labor Day. Labor
Day in this country has never been a class holiday.
(21:15):
It has always been a national holiday. It has never
had more significance as a national holiday than it has now.
In other countries, the relationship of employer and employee has
been more or less accepted as a class relationship, not
(21:35):
readily to be broken through. In this country, we insist,
as an essential of the American way of life that
the employer employee relationship should be one between free men
and equals. We refuse to regard those who work with
hand or brain as different from or inferior tool those
(22:00):
who live from their own property. We insist that labor
is entitled to as much respect as property. But our
workers with hand and brain deserve more than respect for
their labor. They deserve practical protection in the opportunity to
(22:21):
use their labor at a return adequate, to support them
at a decent and constantly rising standard of living, and
to accumulate a margin of security against the inevitable vicissitudes
of life. The average man must have that twofold opportunity
(22:42):
if we are to avoid the growth of a crass
conscious society in this country.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
There are those who fail to read both.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
The signs of the times and American history. They would
try to refuse the worker any effective power to bargain
collectively to earn a decent livelihood and to acquire security.
It is those shortsighted ones, not labor, who threaten this
(23:12):
country with that class dissension which in other countries has
led to dictatorship and the establishment of fear and hatred.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
As the dominant emotions in human life.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
All American workers, brain workers, and manual workers alike, and
all the rest of us whose well being depends on theirs,
know that our needs are one in building an orderly
economic democracy in which all can profit and in which
all can be secure from the kind of faulty economic
(23:46):
direction which brought us to the brink of.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Common ruin seven years ago.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
There is no cleavage between white collar workers and manual workers,
between artists and artisans, physicians and mechanics, lawyers and accountants,
architects and minors.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Tomorrow Labor Day belongs to all of us.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Tomorrow Labor Day symbolizes the hope of all Americans. Anyone
who calls it a class holiday challenges the whole concept
of American democracy. The fourth of July commemorates our political freedom,
a freedom which without economic freedom is meaningless.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Indeed, Labor Day.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Symbolizes our determination to achieve an economic freedom for the
average man which will give his political freedom. Reality, Ladies
and gentlemen, you've heard the President of the United States
speaking to you from the White House.
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