[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

situation which is definitely disturbing to all of us, the Congress has authorized
important additions to the national armed defense of our shores and our people.
On another important subject the net result of a struggle in the Congress has been an
important victory for the people of the United States what might well be called a lost
battle which won a war.
You will remember that on February 5, 1937, I sent a message to the Congress dealing
with the real need of federal court reforms of several kinds. In one way or another,
during the sessions of this Congress, the ends the real objectives sought in that
message, have been substantially attained.
The attitude of the Supreme Court towards constitutional questions is entirely changed.
Its recent decisions are eloquent testimony of a willingness to collaborate with the two
other branches of government to make democracy work. The government has been
granted the right to protect its interests in litigation between private parties involving the
constitutionality of federal, and to appeal directly to the Supreme Court in all cases
involving the constitutionality of federal statutes; and no single judge is any longer
empowered to suspend a federal statute on his sole judgment as to its constitutionality.
Justices of the Supreme Court may now retire at the age of seventy after ten years of
service; a substantial number of additional judgeships have been created in order to
expedite the trial of cases; and finally greater flexibility has been added to the federal
judicial system by allowing judges to be assigned to congested districts.
Another indirect accomplishment of this Congress has been its response to the devotion
of the American people to a course of sane and consistent liberalism. The Congress has
understood that under modern conditions government has a continuing responsibility to
meet continuing problems, and that government cannot take a holiday of a year, or a
month, or even a day just because a few people are tired or frightened by the inescapable
pace, fast pace, of this modern world in which we live.
Some of my opponents and some of my associates have considered that I have a
mistakenly sentimental judgment as to the tenacity of purpose and the general level of
intelligence of the American people.
I am still convinced that the American people, since 1932, continue to insist on two
requisites of private enterprise, and the relationship of government to it. The first is a
complete honesty at the top in looking after the use of other people's money, and in
apportioning and paying individual and corporate taxes according to ability to pay. The
second is sincere respect for the need of all people who are at the bottom, all people at
the bottom who need to get work and through work to get a really fair share of the
good things of life, and a chance to save and rise.
After the election of 1936 I was told, and the Congress was told, by an increasing
number of politically and worldly wise people that I should coast along, enjoy an
easy Presidency for four years, and not take the Democratic platform too seriously. They
told me that people were getting weary of reform through political effort and would no
longer oppose that small minority which, in spite of its own disastrous leadership in
1929, is always eager to resume its control over the government of the United States.
Never in our lifetime has such a concerted campaign of defeatism been thrown at the
heads of the President and the Senators and Congressmen as in the case of this Seventy-
Fifth Congress. Never before have we had so many Copperheads and you will
remember that it was the Copperheads who, in the days of the War between the States,
tried their best to make President Lincoln and his Congress give up the fight, let the
nation remain split in two and return to peace peace at any price.
This Congress has ended on the side of the people. My faith in the American people
and their faith in themselves have been justified. I congratulate the Congress and the
leadership thereof and I congratulate the American people on their own staying power.
One word about our economic situation. It makes no difference to me whether you call it
a recession or a depression. In 1932 the total national income of all the people in the
country had reached the low point of thirty-eight billion dollars in that year. With each
succeeding year it rose. Last year, 1937, it had risen to seventy billion dollars despite
definitely worse business and agricultural prices in the last four months of last year. This
year, 1938, while it is too early to do more than give an estimate, we hope that the
national income will not fall below sixty billion dollars. We remember also that banking
and business and farming are not falling apart like the one-hoss shay, as they did in the
terrible winter of 1932-1933.
Last year mistakes were made by the leaders of private enterprise, by the leaders of labor
and by the leaders of government all three.
Last year the leaders of private enterprise pleaded for a sudden curtailment of public
spending, and said they would take up the slack. But they made the mistake of
increasing their inventories too fast and setting many of their prices too high for their
goods to sell.
Some labor leaders goaded by decades of oppression of labor made the mistake of going [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]