We are clearly enhancing the value of our natural resources and second, we are relieving an appreciable amount of actual distress. In creating this civilian conservation corps we are killing two birds with one stone. This is a big task because it means feeding, clothing and caring for nearly twice as many men as we have in the regular army itself. The legislation which has been passed or in the process of enactment can properly be considered as part of a well-grounded plan.įirst, we are giving opportunity of employment to one-quarter of a million of the unemployed, especially the young men who have dependents, to go into the forestry and flood prevention work. This was constitutional and in keeping with the past American tradition. The only thing that has been happening has been to designate the President as the agency to carry out certain of the purposes of the Congress. The function of Congress is to decide what has to be done and to select the appropriate agency to carry out its will. There was no actual surrender of power, Congress still retained its constitutional authority and no one has the slightest desire to change the balance of these powers. The members of Congress realized that the methods of normal times had to be replaced in the emergency by measures which were suited to the serious and pressing requirements of the moment. The Congress, and when I say Congress I mean the members of both political parties, fully understood this and gave me generous and intelligent support. A prompt program applied as quickly as possible seemed to me not only justified but imperative to our national security.
It was clear that mere appeals from Washington for confidence and the mere lending of more money to shaky institutions could not stop this downward course. When you destroy these things you will find it difficult to establish confidence of any sort in the future. It involved not only a further loss of homes, farms, savings and wages but also a loss of spiritual values-the loss of that sense of security for the present and the future so necessary to the peace and contentment of the individual and of his family.
Even before I was inaugurated I came to the conclusion that such a policy was too much to ask the American people to bear. It is easy to see that the result of this course would have not only economic effects of a very serious nature but social results that might bring incalculable harm. This alternative meant a continuation of what is loosely called “deflation”, the net result of which would have been extraordinary hardship on all property owners and, incidentally, extraordinary hardships on all persons working for wages through an increase in unemployment and a further reduction of the wage scale. There were just two alternatives: The first was to allow the foreclosures to continue, credit to be withheld and money to go into hiding, and thus forcing liquidation and bankruptcy of banks, railroads and insurance companies and a recapitalizing of all business and all property on a lower level.
We were faced by a condition and not a theory. That situation in that crisis did not call for any complicated consideration of economic panaceas or fancy plans. Thus there was actually in process of destruction the property of millions of people who had borrowed money on that property in terms of dollars which had had an entirely different value from the level of March, 1933. These institutions, because of their great needs, were foreclosing mortgages, calling loans, refusing credit. It was dying because trade and commerce had declined to dangerously low levels prices for basic commodities were such as to destroy the value of the assets of national institutions such as banks, savings banks, insurance companies, and others. Two months ago we were facing serious problems.
Tonight, eight weeks later, I come for the second time to give you my report-in the same spirit and by the same means to tell you about what we have been doing and what we are planning to do. I think that in that way I made clear to the country various facts that might otherwise have been misunderstood and in general provided a means of understanding which did much to restore confidence. On a Sunday night a week after my Inauguration I used the radio to tell you about the banking crisis and the measures we were taking to meet it.
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