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President[ Franklin D. Roosevelt

         Date[ January 4, 1935

Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, Members of the Senate and of the House of

Representatives:

The Constitution wisely provides that the Chief Executive shall report to

the Congress on the state of the Union, for through you, the chosen

legislative representatives, our citizens everywhere may fairly judge the

progress of our governing. I am confident that today, in the light of the

events of the past two years, you do not consider it merely a trite phrase

when I tell you that I am truly glad to greet you and that I look forward

to common counsel, to useful cooperation, and to genuine friendships

between us.

We have undertaken a new order of things; yet we progress to it under the

framework and in the spirit and intent of the American Constitution. We

have proceeded throughout the Nation a measurable distance on the road

toward this new order. Materially, I can report to you substantial benefits

to our agricultural population, increased industrial activity, and profits

to our merchants. Of equal moment, there is evident a restoration of that

spirit of confidence and faith which marks the American character. Let him,

who, for speculative profit or partisan purpose, without just warrant would

seek to disturb or dispel this assurance, take heed before he assumes

responsibility for any act which slows our onward steps.

Throughout the world, change is the order of the day. In every Nation

economic problems, long in the making, have brought crises of many kinds

for which the masters of old practice and theory were unprepared. In most

Nations social justice, no longer a distant ideal, has become a definite

goal, and ancient Governments are beginning to heed the call.

Thus, the American people do not stand alone in the world in their desire

for change. We seek it through tested liberal traditions, through processes

which retain all of the deep essentials of that republican form of

representative government first given to a troubled world by the United

States.

As the various parts in the program begun in the Extraordinary Session of

the 73rd Congress shape themselves in practical administration, the unity

of our program reveals itself to the Nation. The outlines of the new

economic order, rising from the disintegration of the old, are apparent. We

test what we have done as our measures take root in the living texture of

life. We see where we have built wisely and where we can do still better.

The attempt to make a distinction between recovery and reform is a narrowly

conceived effort to substitute the appearance of reality for reality

itself. When a man is convalescing from illness, wisdom dictates not only

cure of the symptoms, but also removal of their cause.

It is important to recognize that while we seek to outlaw specific abuses,

the American objective of today has an infinitely deeper, finer and more

lasting purpose than mere repression. Thinking people in almost every

country of the world have come to realize certain fundamental difficulties

with which civilization must reckon. Rapid changes--the machine age, the

advent of universal and rapid communication and many other new factors--have

brought new problems. Succeeding generations have attempted to keep pace by

reforming in piecemeal fashion this or that attendant abuse. As a result,

evils overlap and reform becomes confused and frustrated. We lose sight,

from time to time, of our ultimate human objectives.

Let us, for a moment, strip from our simple purpose the confusion that

results from a multiplicity of detail and from millions of written and

spoken words.

We find our population suffering from old inequalities, little changed by

vast sporadic remedies. In spite of our efforts and in spite of our talk,

we have not weeded out the over privileged and we have not effectively

lifted up the underprivileged. Both of these manifestations of injustice

have retarded happiness. No wise man has any intention of destroying what

is known as the profit motive; because by the profit motive we mean the

right by work to earn a decent livelihood for ourselves and for our

families.

We have, however, a clear mandate from the people, that Americans must

forswear that conception of the acquisition of wealth which, through

excessive profits, creates undue private power over private affairs and, to

our misfortune, over public affairs as well. In building toward this end we

do not destroy ambition, nor do we seek to divide our wealth into equal

shares on stated occasions. We continue to recognize the greater ability of

some to earn more than others. But we do assert that the ambition of the

individual to obtain for him and his a proper security, a reasonable

leisure, and a decent living throughout life, is an ambition to be

preferred to the appetite for great wealth and great power.

I recall to your attention my message to the Congress last June in which I

said: "among our objectives I place the security of the men, women and

children of the Nation first." That remains our first and continuing task;

and in a very real sense every major legislative enactment of this Congress

should be a component part of it.

In defining immediate factors which enter into our quest, I have spoken to

the Congress and the people of three great divisions:

1. The security of a livelihood through the better use of the national

resources of the land in which we live.

2. The security against the major hazards and vicissitudes of life.

3. The security of decent homes.

I am now ready to submit to the Congress a broad program designed

ultimately to establish all three of these factors of security--a program

which because of many lost years will take many future years to fulfill.

A study of our national resources, more comprehensive than any previously

made, shows the vast amount of necessary and practicable work which needs

to be done for the development and preservation of our natural wealth for

the enjoyment and advantage of our people in generations to come. The sound

use of land and water is far more comprehensive than the mere planting of

trees, building of dams, distributing of electricity or retirement of

sub-marginal land. It recognizes that stranded populations, either in the

country or the city, cannot have security under the conditions that now

surround them.

To this end we are ready to begin to meet this problem--the intelligent care

of population throughout our Nation, in accordance with an intelligent

distribution of the means of livelihood for that population. A definite

program for putting people to work, of which I shall speak in a moment, is

a component part of this greater program of security of livelihood through

the better use of our national resources.

Closely related to the broad problem of livelihood is that of security

against the major hazards of life. Here also, a comprehensive survey of

what has been attempted or accomplished in many Nations and in many States

proves to me that the time has come for action by the national Government.

I shall send to you, in a few days, definite recommendations based on these

studies. These recommendations will cover the broad subjects of

unemployment insurance and old age insurance, of benefits for children,

form others, for the handicapped, for maternity care and for other aspects

of dependency and illness where a beginning can now be made.

The third factor--better homes for our people--has also been the subject of

experimentation and study. Here, too, the first practical steps can be made

through the proposals which I shall suggest in relation to giving work to

the unemployed.

Whatever we plan and whatever we do should be in the light of these three

clear objectives of security. We cannot afford to lose valuable time in

haphazard public policies which cannot find a place in the broad outlines

of these major purposes. In that spirit I come to an immediate issue made

for us by hard and inescapable circumstance--the task of putting people to

work. In the spring of 1933 the issue of destitution seemed to stand apart;

today, in the light of our experience and our new national policy, we find

we can put people to work in ways which conform to, initiate and carry

forward the broad principles of that policy.

The first objectives of emergency legislation of 1933 were to relieve

destitution, to make it possible for industry to operate in a more rational

and orderly fashion, and to put behind industrial recovery the impulse of

large expenditures in Government undertakings. The purpose of the National

Industrial Recovery Act to provide work for more people succeeded in a

substantial manner within the first few months of its life, and the Act has

continued to maintain employment gains and greatly improved working

conditions in industry.

The program of public works provided for in the Recovery Act launched the

Federal Government into a task for which there was little time to make

preparation and little American experience to follow. Great employment has

been given and is being given by these works.

More than two billions of dollars have also been expended in direct relief

to the destitute. Local agencies of necessity determined the recipients of

this form of relief. With inevitable exceptions the funds were spent by

them with reasonable efficiency and as a result actual want of food and

clothing in the great majority of cases has been overcome.

But the stark fact before us is that great numbers still remain

unemployed.

A large proportion of these unemployed and their dependents have been

forced on the relief rolls. The burden on the Federal Government has grown

with great rapidity. We have here a human as well as an economic problem.

When humane considerations are concerned, Americans give them precedence.

The lessons of history, confirmed by the evidence immediately before me,

show conclusively that continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual

and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fibre.

To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle

destroyer of the human spirit. It is inimical to the dictates of sound

policy. It is in violation of the traditions of America. Work must be found

for able-bodied but destitute workers.

The Federal Government must and shall quit this business of relief.

I am not willing that the vitality of our people be further sapped by the

giving of cash, of market baskets, of a few hours of weekly work cutting

grass, raking leaves or picking up .papers in the public parks. We must

preserve not only the bodies of the unemployed from destitution but also

their self-respect, their self-reliance and courage and determination. This

decision brings me to the problem of what the Government should do with

approximately five million unemployed now on the relief rolls.

About one million and a half of these belong to the group which in the past

was dependent upon local welfare efforts. Most of them are unable for one

reason or another to maintain themselves independently--for the most part,

through no fault of their own. Such people, in the days before the great

depression, were cared for by local efforts--by States, by counties, by

towns, by cities, by churches and by private welfare agencies. It is my

thought that in the future they must be cared for as they were before. I

stand ready through my own personal efforts, and through the public

influence of the office that I hold, to help these local agencies to get

the means necessary to assume this burden.

The security legislation which I shall propose to the Congress will, I am

confident, be of assistance to local effort in the care of this type of

cases. Local responsibility can and will be resumed, for, after all, common

sense tells us that the wealth necessary for this task existed and still

exists in the local community, and the dictates of sound administration

require that this responsibility be in the first instance a local one.

There are, however, an additional three and one half million employable

people who are on relief. With them the problem is different and the

responsibility is different. This group was the victim of a nation-wide

depression caused by conditions which were not local but national. The

Federal Government is the only governmental agency with sufficient power

and credit to meet this situation. We have assumed this task and we shall

not shrink from it in the future. It is a duty dictated by every

intelligent consideration of national policy to ask you to make it possible

for the United States to give employment to all of these three and one half

million employable people now on relief, pending their absorption in a

rising tide of private employment.

It is my thought that with the exception of certain of the normal public

building operations of the Government, all emergency public works shall be

united in a single new and greatly enlarged plan.

With the establishment of this new system we can supersede the Federal

Emergency Relief Administration with a coordinated authority which will be

charged with the orderly liquidation of our present relief activities and

the substitution of a national chart for the giving of work.

This new program of emergency public employment should be governed by a

number of practical principles.

(1) All work undertaken should be useful--not just for a day, or a year,

but useful in the sense that it affords permanent improvement in living

conditions or that it creates future new wealth for the Nation.

(2) Compensation on emergency public projects should be in the form of

security payments which should be larger than the amount now received as a

relief dole, but at the same time not so large as to encourage the

rejection of opportunities for private employment or the leaving of private

employment to engage in Government work.

(3) Projects should be undertaken on which a large percentage of direct

labor can be used.

(4) Preference should be given to those projects which will be

self-liquidating in the sense that there is a reasonable expectation that

the Government will get its money back at some future time.

(5) The projects undertaken should be selected and planned so as to compete

as little as possible with private enterprises. This suggests that if it

were not for the necessity of giving useful work to the unemployed now on

relief, these projects in most instances would not now be undertaken.

(6) The planning of projects would seek to assure work during the coming

fiscal year to the individuals now on relief, or until such time as private

employment is available. In order to make adjustment to increasing private

employment, work should be planned with a view to tapering it off in

proportion to the speed with which the emergency workers are offered

positions with private employers.

(7) Effort should be made to locate projects where they will serve the

greatest unemployment needs as shown by present relief rolls, and the broad

program of the National Resources Board should be freely used for guidance

in selection. Our ultimate objective being the enrichment of human lives,

the Government has the primary duty to use its emergency expenditures as

much as possible to serve those who cannot secure the advantages of private

capital.

Ever since the adjournment of the 73d Congress, the Administration has been

studying from every angle the possibility and the practicability of new

forms of employment. As a result of these studies I have arrived at certain

very definite convictions as to the amount of money that will be necessary

for the sort of public projects that I have described. I shall submit these

figures in my budget message. I assure you now they will be within the

sound credit of the Government.

The work itself will cover a wide field including clearance of slums, which

for adequate reasons cannot be undertaken by private capital; in rural

housing of several kinds, where, again, private capital is unable to

function; in rural electrification; in the reforestation of the great

watersheds of the Nation; in an intensified program to prevent soil erosion

and to reclaim blighted areas; in improving existing road systems and in

constructing national highways designed to handle modern traffic; in the

elimination of grade crossings; in the extension and enlargement of the

successful work of the Civilian Conservation Corps; in non-Federal works,

mostly self-liquidating and highly useful to local divisions of Government;

and on many other projects which the Nation needs and cannot afford to

neglect.

This is the method which I propose to you in order that we may better meet

this present-day problem of unemployment. Its greatest advantage is that it

fits logically and usefully into the long-range permanent policy of

providing the three types of security which constitute as a whole an

American plan for the betterment of the future of the American people.

I shall consult with you from time to time concerning other measures of

national importance. Among the subjects that lie immediately before us are

the consolidation of Federal regulatory administration over all forms of

transportation, the renewal and clarification of the general purposes of

the National Industrial Recovery Act, the strengthening of our facilities

for the prevention, detection and treatment of crime and criminals, the

restoration of sound conditions in the public utilities field through

abolition of the evil features of holding companies, the gradual tapering

off of the emergency credit activities of Government, and improvement in

our taxation forms and methods.

We have already begun to feel the bracing effect upon our economic system

of a restored agriculture. The hundreds of millions of additional income

that farmers are receiving are finding their way into the channels of

trade. The farmers' share of the national income is slowly rising. The

economic facts justify the widespread opinion of those engaged in

agriculture that our provisions for maintaining a balanced production give

at this time the most adequate remedy for an old and vexing problem. For

the present, and especially in view of abnormal world conditions,

agricultural adjustment with certain necessary improvements in methods

should continue.

It seems appropriate to call attention at this time to the fine spirit

shown during the past year by our public servants. I cannot praise too

highly the cheerful work of the Civil Service employees, and of those

temporarily working for the Government. As for those thousands in our

various public agencies spread throughout the country who, without

compensation, agreed to take over heavy responsibilities in connection with

our various loan agencies and particularly in direct relief work, I cannot

say too much. I do not think any country could show a higher average of

cheerful and even enthusiastic team-work than has been shown by these men

and women.

I cannot with candor tell you that general international relationships

outside the borders of the United States are improved. On the surface of

things many old jealousies are resurrected, old passions aroused; new

strivings for armament and power, in more than one land, rear their ugly

heads. I hope that calm counsel and constructive leadership will provide

the steadying influence and the time necessary for the coming of new and

more practical forms of representative government throughout the world

wherein privilege and power will occupy a lesser place and world welfare a

greater.

I believe, however, that our own peaceful and neighborly attitude toward

other Nations is coming to be understood and appreciated. The maintenance

of international peace is a matter in which we are deeply and unselfishly

concerned. Evidence of our persistent and undeniable desire to prevent

armed conflict has recently been more than once afforded.

There is no ground for apprehension that our relations with any Nation will

be otherwise than peaceful. Nor is there ground for doubt that the people

of most Nations seek relief from the threat and burden attaching to the

false theory that extravagant armament cannot be reduced and limited by

international accord.

The ledger of the past year shows many more gains than losses. Let us not

forget that, in addition to saving millions from utter destitution, child

labor has been for the moment outlawed, thousands of homes saved to their

owners and most important of all, the morale of the Nation has been

restored. Viewing the year 1934 as a whole, you and I can agree that we

have a generous measure of reasons for giving thanks.

It is not empty optimism that moves me to a strong hope in the coming year.

We can, if we will, make 1935 a genuine period of good feeling, sustained

by a sense of purposeful progress. Beyond the material recovery, I sense a

spiritual recovery as well. The people of America are turning as never

before to those permanent values that are not limited to the physical

objectives of life. There are growing signs of this on every hand. In the

face of these spiritual impulses we are sensible of the Divine Providence

to which Nations turn now, as always, for guidance and fostering care.

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