How are we constructing the edifice of recovery-the temple which, when completed, will no longer be a temple of money changers or of beggars, but rather a temple dedicated to and maintained for a greater social justice, a greater welfare for America-the habitation of a sound economic life? We are building, stone by stone, the columns which will support that habitation. We have a long way to go, but we are on the way. That does not mean, my friends, that I am satisfied, or that you are satisfied that our work is ended. Of these, in the short space of a few months, I am convinced that at least four millions have been given employment-or, saying it another way, 40 percent of those seeking work have found it. It seems, therefore, fair to say that there were about ten millions of our citizens who earnestly, and in many cases hungrily, were seeking work and could not get it. Among those there were, of course, several millions who could be classed as normally unemployed- people who worked occasionally when they felt like it, and others who preferred not to work at all. Fair estimates showed twelve or thirteen millions unemployed last March. In the early spring of this year there were actually and proportionately more people out of work in this country than in any other Nation in the world. The whole picture, however-the average of the whole territory from coast to coast-the average of the whole population of 120,000,000 people-shows to any person willing to look, facts and action of which you and I can be proud. In the same way no reasonable person can expect that in this short space of time, during which new machinery had to be not only put to work, but first set up, that every locality in every one of the forty-eight States of the country, could share equally and simultaneously in the trend to better times. It is three months since I have talked with the people of this country about our national problems, but during this period many things have happened, and I am glad to say that the major part of them have greatly helped the well-being of the average citizen.īecause, in every step which your Government is taking we are thinking in terms of the average of you-in the old words "the greatest good to the greatest number"-we, as reasonable people, cannot expect to bring definite benefits to every person or to every occupation or business, or industry or agriculture.
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